* . • 
 
 Patriotism 
 
 and the 
 
 Christian Life 
 
 By 
 
 Wilfrid A. Rowell 
 
PATRIOTISM 
 
 AND THE 
 
 JAN 9 1919 
 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILFRID A. ROWELL 
 
 1^1 
 
 THE WOMANS PRESS 
 
 600 Lexington Avenue 
 
 1918 
 
Copyright, August, igi8, by 
 National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations 
 OF THE United States of America 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword 5 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. The Place of Patriotism in Religion . 9 
 
 II. Growing by Conflict 23 
 
 III. The Church in the World Crisis . . 37 
 
 IV. The Peril of the Slacker 53 
 
 V. Living in Faith 69 
 
 VI. That These Dead Shall Not Have Died 
 
 IN Vain 83 
 
 VII. Christian Indignation 97 
 
 VIII. The Word and the Sword iii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In a day of war and the break-up of old systems 
 and conventions, the Christian view of hfe is subjected 
 to new tests of strength and vahdity. Every sincere 
 person wishes to know the truth and to abide by it. 
 Every one must, as far as possible, think through for 
 himself the great problems of life and faith. Our 
 young men in the army at home and abroad are finding 
 a new stimulus to life, a new personal development 
 through their devotion and consecration to the service 
 of their country and through that service, to the world. 
 There is a source of new personal growth for the 
 young men and women at home in seeking to think out 
 the insistent spiritual problems of this new day. 
 
 It is the purpose of these pages to suggest lines of 
 approach to some of the more important spiritual prob- 
 lems as related to the war, to patriotism, and to Chris- 
 tian duty. The hope is that the thoughts suggested 
 here may lead to further study and to an effort on the 
 part of each reader to analyze and express his own 
 convictions. 
 
 These subjects may be used as a basis for study and 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 conference in discussion groups. For that purpose a 
 few topics and questions have been placed at the close 
 of each chapter. 
 
 June I, 1918. 
 
 Beloit, Wisconsin. 
 
PATRIOTISM 
 
PATRIOTISM AND THE 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 THE PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN 
 RELIGION 
 
 The great national movements rising out of the 
 
 world conflict have compelled fresh thought on the 
 
 subject of patriotism. In every coun- 
 
 Problem of try the main appeal by the men in au- 
 
 Patriotism ^j^Qj-j^y ^^ ^j^^ people for support in the 
 
 war has been a patriotic appeal. What is patriot- 
 ism? It is not enough tO' say that it is love of 
 country. There must be some deeper analysis in 
 order to understand both the place and the power 
 of patriotism. Patriotism is almost too complex a 
 problem to be fully analyzed. It involves expert 
 and scientific knowledge of history, biology, psy- 
 chology, geography, ethnology and politics! 
 
 The ultimate basis of patriotism is a subject for 
 much controversy. The intense interest in the sub- 
 
 9 
 
10 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 ject and the fresh discussion of it assist in clearing 
 our minds. Some declare that the chief element in 
 patriotism is geographical. Men have an instinc- 
 tive love for the particular land in which they were 
 born and reared. Any normal person will love 
 any place, high or low, cold or hot, island or^main- 
 land, where he may happen to be born. Others 
 declare that the element at the heart of patriotism 
 is racial. It is not the place that is important but 
 the blood, the inheritance, the social bond. Man's 
 love for a place is not so much for the place itself 
 but for his social life as centered there. He would 
 ultimately love any place where his social tradi- 
 tions and habits had their roots and daily expres- 
 sion. 
 
 Still others say that patriotism is mainly an in- 
 tellectual misconception, that it is a narrow and 
 foolish idea, handed down from generation to gen- 
 eration from the childhood of the race. A modem, 
 civilized, educated person, they declare, should be 
 above a conception of life so limited as to hold any 
 particular feeling for any particular place; a truly 
 broad-minded person does not belong to any par- 
 ticular country, but is a ''citizen of the world." 
 Such men repudiate every tie of patriotism as men 
 commonly understand it and declare themselves to 
 be ''internationalists." 
 
 Jesus has very little to say directly on the sub- 
 
PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN RELIGION ii 
 
 ject of patriotism. But we cannot look at Jesus 
 
 Jesus and ^P^^^ ^^°^ ^^^ geographical and racial 
 Patriotism backgrounds of his life. We do know- 
 that the Jews were intensely patriotic. They had 
 been trained through many generations to exalt the 
 idea of nationalism. They passionately loved the 
 land of their history and their birth. The greatest 
 burden of the Jews in Jesus' day was the fact that 
 they were a subject people. Their greatest hope 
 was for the expulsion of the Romans from their 
 beloved country and the establishment of a new 
 Jewish kingdom. Their Messianic faith lay in this 
 longing. 
 
 Can we believe that Jesus had no share with his 
 people in these affections, ideals and hopes? It is 
 clear that He shared in the essential feeling of his 
 people, while his ideas of the methods for the reali- 
 zations of those hopes were radically different. 
 Jesus never opposed or criticized the Roman gov- 
 ernment. His enemies attempted often to involve 
 Him in trouble with the government. But He skil- 
 fully avoided every effort to entangle Him in polit- 
 ical questions. At the same time He clearly rec- 
 ognized the place and necessity of civil government. 
 He said: Render unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. He 
 believed in paying his taxes for the support of the 
 state. Some think that Jesus was too broad-mind- 
 
12 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 ed to be patriotic, others that He was too much in- 
 terested in man's timeless and universal relation- 
 ships to give attention to problems of geography, 
 race or government. Others think that He looked 
 for the speedy overthrow of all political groups in 
 the imminent ending of the world. ( 
 
 Jesus shared in the patriotic passion of his peo- 
 ple but He went far beyond them in his patriotic 
 idealism. One of the historic patriotic ideals of 
 the Jews was that Jehovah, through their race, 
 would bring spiritual blessing to the whole world. 
 The promise to Abraham, the recognized father of 
 the race, was: In thee shall all the famiHes of the 
 earth be blessed (Gen. 12:2,). Jesus, by his life and 
 actions, if not by specific teaching, gave expression 
 to the finest qualities in Jewish patriotism. Fur- 
 thermore He implied reason for the highest patriot- 
 ism. Jesus clearly had a conviction that God had 
 raised up and guided the Hebrew people for a great 
 purpose. God had nourished and trained them in 
 a particular place for a particular purpose. There- 
 fore every Jew should love his country and his race 
 because of their unique contribution to the world. 
 
 The Jews of Jesus' day conceived of the realiza- 
 tion of that patriotic ideal in far different ways than 
 did Jesus. He took their old conception and in- 
 fused it with a higher spiritual meaning. They ex- 
 pected to bless the world by ruling it ; He expected 
 
PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN RELIGION 13 
 
 to bless the world by serving it, dying for it, re- 
 deeming it. Their methods failed. His succeeded. 
 His work was a patriotic expression of the finest 
 spiritual ideals of the Jewish people. The ministry 
 of Jesus was a Jewish ministry, back of which lay 
 not only the purpose of a loving God but also the 
 racial characteristics of a Hebrew ancestry and the 
 moulding influence of a love for "the rocks and 
 rills, the woods and templed hills" of Palestine. 
 
 All too little is known of the causes and origin of 
 different races, peoples and nations. But it is clear 
 
 that because of different racial history 
 Greek, , . 1 .• 1 
 
 Roman and temperament, each nation and peo- 
 
 and Jew pj^ ^^^ some distinctive contribution to 
 
 make to the development and perfection of life. It 
 
 is the Christian belief that God has a work for every 
 
 person to do. Shall we not believe that God has a 
 
 work for each race and nation as well? Men are 
 
 coming to believe in the duty, destiny and moral 
 
 responsibility of nations. Jesus Himself implied 
 
 this when He said : The kingdom of God shall be 
 
 given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof 
 
 (Matt. 21 :43). Why should the final command to 
 
 his disciples be, Go ye and teach all nations, if his 
 
 sole interest was in the individual ? 
 
 The student of history is familiar enough with 
 
 the contributions of certain peoples to the welfare 
 
 of the race: the Romans with their gift of law, 
 
14 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 the Greeks, culture; the Jews, religion. At the same 
 time few people realize to how large an extent the 
 religious contribution of the Jews was modified by 
 the religious ideas of both the Greeks and the Ro- 
 mans. There are some elements in our modern 
 Christianity that are more Greek and Roman than 
 Jewish in character. Both Greeks and Romans 
 have made contributions to religion through the 
 Christian faith. National and racial characteristics 
 to-day are fairly clear. The modern nations like- 
 wise are making a contribution to the spiritual life 
 of the world. No one knows yet what the contribu- 
 tion of the Chinese and Japanese people is to be 
 to civilization or to religion, but missionaries who 
 have spent their lives among these people assure us 
 that the rising Christian Church in these lands will 
 some day give a new impetus and power to the 
 Christian faith. St. John, in his vision of the new 
 Jerusalem, describes a place, not in which all men 
 become alike and act alike, but a place to which 
 each nation brings its own peculiar honor and glory, 
 — that is, its peculiar national contribution to the 
 spiritual welfare of mankind (Rev. 21:26). 
 
 The great question now before us is: Has the 
 United States of America a distinctive contribution 
 The United ^^ make to the welfare of the world? 
 States Has this nation a spiritual mission? If 
 
 so, what is it and how may it be performed? Cer- 
 
PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN RELIGION 15 
 
 tain clear indications are revealed in our history. 
 It surely means something that the seeds of the 
 Protestant Reformation took root and came to 
 full flower in America. If Germany had conserved 
 the results of the Reformation, so boldly conceived 
 and courageously stated, there would have been no 
 such conflict as that of to-day coming out of Ger- 
 many. The first fruits of the Reformation in Eng- 
 land were transplanted to New England, there to 
 start a new state in which political and religious free- 
 dom should be a reality. In America both civil and 
 religious life received direction for all time to come 
 from the Pilgrim Fathers. It surely is of signifi- 
 cance that the struggle for equal rights for the 
 black man was fought out on our soil. Emerson 
 wrote at the time of the Civil War, "America is 
 another name for opportunity. Our whole history 
 appears like a last effort of Divine Providence in 
 behalf of the human race." A study of our char- 
 acteristic Americans and their writings — of men 
 like Washington, Franklin, Penn, Emerson, Lowell 
 and Lincoln — reveal something that may be called 
 the American characteristic. It is a sense of obliga- 
 tion to put moral and spiritual ideals into action. 
 Professor John Dewey said in an address on Wash- 
 ington's Birthday of this year, *'We need to recover 
 something of the militant faith of our forefathers, 
 that America is a great idea, and add to it an ar- 
 
i6 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 dent faith in our capacity to lead the world to see 
 what this idea means as a model for its own future 
 well-being." 
 
 Patriotism in an American is a love of his coun- 
 try because of many un-analyzable elements of his- 
 tory, family feeling and home surroundings. Fool- 
 ish, indeed, is the man who thinks the affections of 
 men can be analyzed! But there is a great sane 
 rational basis underneath it all. A man's patriot- 
 ism also consists in a great conviction that America 
 has been called by God to lead this world into a 
 new understanding of liberty and to help the world 
 to establish it as a reality among all men. 
 
 There are all sorts of patriotism to-day, as there 
 are all kinds of men and nations. The patriotism 
 of some is like the patriotism of most Jews of 
 Jesus' day. This is the patriotism that loves and 
 serves its country because of the ambitions for 
 world rulership. This is a patriotism that sees na- 
 tional glory in terms of domination and sees other 
 people only as subject races. We believe that the 
 essence of American patriotism is the same as the 
 patriotism of Jesus — a patriotism that sees the glory 
 of America in her service to the world, that sees 
 other peoples raised through her example and sacri- 
 fice to the equality and privilege of freemen. 
 
 This high conception of patriotism does not 
 mean that every American has it or that as a na- 
 
PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN RELIGION 17 
 
 tion these ideals are fully realized. No one who 
 is familiar with American life can be blind to the 
 weakness and the sins of our people as individuals 
 and as a nation. The vices of luxurious living 
 weaken some, racial prejudices divide others; mis- 
 understandings between capital and labor menace 
 our industrial system, politicians deceive, and prof- 
 iteers cheat. Even yet too many citizens are unre- 
 sponsive to their public responsibilities. The love 
 of comfort and pleasure blinds some men and 
 women to the serious consideration of life. 
 
 Nevertheless, we believe that the impelling spirit 
 at the heart of the nation is sound and clear. We 
 are making great experiments and learning as we 
 go along. A dominant motive to make the best we 
 know triumphant is in the nation and the world. 
 There is an active effort in some quarters to-day to 
 make much of the weakness and sins of America. 
 There are those who feel that as the nation par- 
 ticipates in a great world crusade she must be kept 
 humble by thinking of her sins. This alone is bad 
 patriotism and bad psychology. No man or na- 
 tion was ever aroused to action merely by meditat- 
 ing on his own weakness. To see a great wrong 
 that needs to be righted, to behold the suffering of 
 others calling for redress, should be visions sum- 
 moning the nation to the greatest efforts. These 
 efforts will aid in removing the evil in life more 
 
i8 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 than discussions about the evil itself. These are not 
 the days in which to discuss our national sins; but 
 rather with a prayer for strength upon our lips 
 to go forth to do our duty. Only by so doing, 
 shall we purify our own lives or realize the na- 
 tional destiny which God has placed before us. 
 
 . The determining and dominating ele- 
 
 and ment of American patriotism has been 
 
 Patriotism i^^pij-ed by the religious spirit. The 
 loyal American sings, ''Our Fathers' God, to Thee, 
 author of liberty, to Thee, we sing." 
 
 Among our most influential men there has been 
 a sense of loyalty to God which has inspired a loy- 
 alty to their fellow-men and a passion to infuse a 
 spiritual ideal into social and political organiza- 
 tion. The great leaders of American civil life and 
 movement have been profoundly religious men. 
 The people of the nation will not accept the leader- 
 ship of men otherwise minded. President Lincoln 
 declared that his chief concern was not to know if 
 God were on his side, but rather if he were on God's 
 side. There are, doubtless, many men, not relig- 
 ious, who are deeply patriotic, but they are not the 
 men who lead the nation. 
 
 The desire to serve and a willingness to sacri- 
 fice are the outstanding characteristics of American 
 patriotism to-day. The country entered the world 
 war wuth no selfish aims. There has never been 
 
PLACE OF PATRIOTISM IN RELIGION 19 
 
 an expression of patriotism like it in the history of 
 the world. The desire of the Christian men and 
 women who love their country is to make our na- 
 tion contribute her best to the world in this con- 
 flict against selfish aggression and lust for con- 
 quest. They wish America, through devotion to 
 her great task, to bring her honor and glory into 
 the great world brotherhood,— the city of the new 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Emerson expressed our patriotic idealism when 
 he wrote, "The end of all political struggle is to 
 establish morality as the basis of all legislation. It 
 is not free institutions, it is not a republic, it is 
 not a democracy that is the end — no, but only the 
 means. Morality is the object of government. We 
 want a state of things in which crime shall not pay. 
 This is the consolation on which we rest in the 
 darkness of the future and the afflictions of to-day, 
 — that the government of the world is moral and 
 does forever destroy what is not." 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 What are the chief elements in patriotism? What 
 is the strength or weakness of men who deny hav- 
 ing a feeling of loyalty for any one country and 
 declare themselves to be internationalists or citizens 
 of the world? How did Jesus' conception of the 
 
20 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 brotherhood of man differ from this kind of in- 
 ternationalism? How far does the patriotism of 
 the average person express his religious conviction? 
 How, and to what extent, can political machinery 
 be made the means of accomplishing a religious pur- 
 pose ? What part ought the individual citizen to 
 take in helping America to contribute her best to 
 the world? What bearing have the missionary 
 movements of the Church upon this question? 
 
CONFLICT 
 
II 
 
 GROWING BY CONFLICT 
 
 Men live on this earth in a reahii of mystery. 
 
 Just when or how the earth came to be what it is, 
 
 nobody knows. A careful study of the 
 Growing "^ -^ 
 
 Force of problem reveals the fact that the earth 
 ^ ® has been passing through many stages 
 
 of heating and cooling, from a state of gas to solid 
 matter. The one ever constant note in its history 
 has been that of change. These processes are still 
 going on to-day. The forces of heat and gravita- 
 tion, wind and water, all act so as to make the 
 earth different to-day from what it was yesterday. 
 
 How life came upon the earth is likewise a mys- 
 tery. The scientist loves to puzzle over this fas- 
 cinating problem, and the philosopher to meditate 
 upon it. But the wonderful thing about Hfe is its 
 power of growth. A study of life, covering history 
 as far as man has any knowledge, reveals the fact 
 that life develops from lower to higher forms. The 
 highest form of life is that of the human being. 
 
 Of the growth and development of the physical 
 23 
 
24 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 universe the writers of the Bible have little to say. 
 This is largely because they v^^ere more interested in 
 the life of man. Many v^riters of the Bible look 
 upon the v^orld as an expression of the life of God. 
 "The heavens declare the glory of God and the 
 firmament showeth his handiwork" (Ps. 19:1). The 
 Apostle Paul seemed to sense the action of the 
 mighty forces which Helped to mould the universe 
 into shape. ''The whole creation groaneth and tra- 
 vaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22). 
 In this last analysis the religious teachers bring us 
 to the right solution of the problems of life. They 
 believe that the origin of man's life Hes in God and 
 that his growth and final destiny likewise are guid- 
 ed by the same almighty, foreseeing power. 
 
 One of the most striking elements in the teach- 
 ings of Jesus is his emphasis on life. He mani- 
 fested little interest in inert matter. He 
 Jesus' , , . . ... 
 
 Interest in had a great mterest m anytnmg that 
 
 Growth grew. He revealed a love for little 
 
 children, trees, flowers. He spoke often of seeds, 
 which have the power of a growing life within 
 them. He used them as a figure of a silently yet 
 powerfully growing, developing force. 
 
 Jesus used in his teaching stories that had to do 
 more with the fact and the meaning of growing life 
 than with any other one element of human experi- 
 ence. The Kingdom of God was like the sower who 
 
GROWING BY CONFLICT 25 
 
 went forth to sow (Mark 4 :i-2o) ; like the mustard 
 seed (Matt. 13:31); the mystery of the Kingdom 
 of God was hke a man who sows his seed and al- 
 lows the silent forces of nature to bring it to 
 fruition, while the sower goes his way unconcerned 
 about processes, but assured of the results (Mark 
 4:26-29). The presence of good and evil in this 
 world and their relation to each other was like the 
 wheat and the tares growing together (Matt. 13: 
 14-30). The symbol of his own crucified and risen 
 life was seen in the seed which in its transformation 
 dies to nourish the new spark of life (John 12 :24). 
 Faith was in essence a growing force. It was like 
 a grain of mustard seed (Matt. 17:20). The re- 
 sults of a man's life were like the fruit of a tree 
 (Matt. 7:17, 18; 12:33). The most intimate spir- 
 itual relationship between Jesus and his disciples 
 was like that of the vine and the branches (John 
 
 15:1-6). 
 
 Jesus used these living things to illustrate some- 
 thing that was more important than growth in the 
 physical world. It was the reality of growth and 
 development in the realm of man's moral and spir- 
 itual nature. By these figures and illustrations 
 Jesus tried to teach each man how to grow a soul 
 and how to help the soul in the process of growth. 
 He sought to help men to understand that human 
 society was something that had life and that had 
 
26 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 possibilities of growing into the Kingdom of God. 
 Jesus came to show men how to nourish and cul- 
 tivate the normal, natural development of their 
 inner spiritual lives. He pictured the glorious con- 
 dition into which a man might grow. It is inter- 
 esting to note that the word translated as "perfect" 
 in the passage, Ye therefore shall be perfect as your 
 heavenly Father is perfect, means literally ''full 
 grown," not perfect in our usual sense of flawless- 
 ness or absolute perfection. 
 
 Among the elements in moral and spiritual 
 growth there are four which we may well consider 
 
 at this point. The first is hereditv. The 
 Moral and , • , , . i • , 
 
 Spiritual physical background, with accompany- 
 
 Growth -j-^g mental traits, has a marked influ- 
 
 ence in the development of the moral nature, just 
 how physical and mental traits are passed on from 
 parent to child is still a mystery to the scientist; 
 but the fact of such transmission is undeniable and 
 this fact is of supreme significance in dealing with 
 a growing child. The mysterious problem as to 
 how far the personal achievements of a parent may 
 be handed on to a child is still much discussed 
 among scientists to-day. There seems to be no 
 doubt that a long family history characterized by 
 pure blood, keen mental ability, steady nerves and 
 righteous purpose is a powerful dynamic for the 
 dominance of those characteristics in the individ- 
 
GROWING BY CONFLICT 27 
 
 ual. Because of the recognized influence of this 
 principle in life to-day, there are some who use it 
 as an excuse for their own personal failures. It 
 is easy to blame one's father or grandfather or 
 great grandfather for undesirable personal traits. 
 The same moral responsibility, however, rests on 
 each person to become ''perfect" no matter what 
 his ancestry may have been. If the family history 
 has not been of a helpful nature there is inevitably 
 a harder struggle for the individual to overcome the 
 inherited tendencies. The resultant victory is all 
 the more glorious. All persons ought to see to it 
 that as far as they are able they will hand down 
 to their children only the finest inheritances. 
 
 The second factor in moral and spiritual growth 
 is environment, or the atmosphere and circum- 
 stances in which a life grows. There has been end- 
 less discussion as to the relative importance of 
 heredity and environment in the development of 
 life. To-day many of our leading psychologists 
 lean toward environment as of greater influence. 
 It is clear that the influence of clean and wholesome 
 home life, the personal influence of cultivated, re- 
 fined and spiritually-minded parents, are of incal- 
 culable value in guiding a child into the most nor- 
 mal development. No one can deny the power for 
 good or bad influences in companions, teachers and 
 friends. A recent study in England into the causes 
 
28 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 of the alarming increase in juvenile delinquency 
 since the beginning of the war revealed as among 
 the chief sources the absence of fathers and older 
 brothers in the war, and of mothers working in 
 munition factories, together with shorter school 
 hours, resulting in more time for boys and girls to 
 be on the street. These are all sources of a weak- 
 ening in the environmental influences. The reali- 
 zation of the place of environment in growth is 
 both a warning and a challenge.- It is a warning 
 to avoid all influence which hinders the richest 
 growth of the whole personality. It is a challenge 
 to seek to give to all, and especially to the children 
 and youth of our country, an opportunity to grow 
 in the most stimulating and helpful atmosphere. 
 The social service and social settlement and public 
 welfare movements of the present day are most 
 helpful efforts to this end. 
 
 The third element in growth is education. This 
 is in essence a factor in environment, but it is of 
 such importance as to demand consideration by it- 
 self. Education is needed to train the mind to know 
 and understand the world in which life is growing 
 and to train the hand to act with the highest skill. 
 The most important product of education is not, 
 however, the knowledge of facts or technical skill, 
 but the attainment of good judgment, the ability to 
 make the right choices in life. This is what is sig- 
 
GROWING BY CONFLICT 29 
 
 nified by the definition of Wisdom in Proverbs 
 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 Wisdom. The time finally comes when both he- 
 redity and environment play diminishing parts in 
 the growth of the personality. The continued 
 growth depends more and more upon the choices of 
 the individual and his ability to put his choice into 
 action. The right sort of education, which develops 
 and trains all the faculties of life, will produce 
 that power of independent judgment and of action 
 which will keep the mind and spirit growing nor- 
 mally to the end of life. The emphasis in all edu- 
 cation to-day in high schools, colleges and univer- 
 sities is too exclusively on the acquisition of facts 
 and the attainment of technical skill. There is 
 need of a new interest in training in judgment and 
 skill in making right moral choices. 
 
 Another element in growth is struggle, — pressing 
 on toward a desired goal and resisting all that hin- 
 ders advance. Good heredity, good environment, 
 and good education all together are not sufficient to 
 produce the finest results in character. Some of 
 the qualities of the highest personal worth come 
 only as a result of struggle. We all have opportu- 
 nities to try our wills on the problems of hardship 
 and of human suffering. The very resistance of 
 evil in the world gives vigor to the soul. Neither 
 should one fail to see that in order to attain a 
 
30 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 certain goal, he must press on, struggle, pay the 
 price, "the last full measure of devotion." Out of 
 the present war with all its terrible evils, good 
 things can come and will come because of the re- 
 sistance against evil and the struggle for justice, 
 brotherhood and permanent peace. 
 
 There had arisen a feeling in recent years that 
 with modern civilization the world had nearly if 
 The World ^^^ quite reached its capacity of growth, 
 in the The marvellous scientific discoveries, 
 
 I^dkin&f 
 
 the knowledge and use of steam and 
 electricity, rapid travel and luxurious living brought 
 men into a feeling of satisfaction with themselves 
 and with the world. The outbreak of the world war 
 has revealed the truth that all the wonders of 
 science, the comforts of life and the widest oppor- 
 tunities of education and culture do not necessarily 
 contribute to the moral and spiritual growth of 
 human nature. Scientific discoveries and marvel- 
 lous mechanical inventions may be used for evil 
 purposes as well as for good ones. Men of to-day 
 have been shocked to see to how large a degree 
 human passions, instincts and desires have remained 
 unchanged through thousands of years. The heart 
 of man is still in a crude state; the soul of man has 
 not yet developed into the flower of perfection. In- 
 stead of being on the last stage of the journey to 
 the goal of the Kingdom of God, mankind is rather 
 
GROWING BY CONFLICT 31 
 
 just beginning to realize the marvellous heights and 
 distances which reach far ahead. Out of the awful 
 struggle going on to-day between the forces of 
 righteousness and organized selfishness, lust and 
 hate, there will come new moral and spiritual 
 growth. May the progress achieved be worthy the 
 cost ! 
 
 The writers of the New Testament fully recog- 
 nized the slowly developing moral and spiritual 
 Sources of mature of man. Paul especially made 
 Victory much of this fact. He wrote: Now we 
 
 see in a mirror darkly. Now we know in part, but 
 then shall we know fully (I Cor. 13). Speaking the 
 truth in love (ye) may grow up in all things unto 
 Him who is the head, even Christ (Eph. 4:15). 
 Peter writes : That ye may grow unto salvation 
 (I Peter 2:2). Grow in grace and knowledge (H 
 Peter 3:18). These teachers recognized the weak- 
 ness of human nature, hut they also sensed its glori- 
 ous possibilities. It is to these facts that they seek 
 to bring the help of an ever present and loving God. 
 Sin and evil are awful realities which are not fully 
 explained. They are conditions with which man 
 must contend. These spiritual leaders declare how 
 man may overcome sin and evil and so insure the 
 growth of his soul. No man can win the victory 
 alone. He needs the help of One who knows men 
 better than they know themselves and at the same 
 
32 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 time understands God's plans for a perfected and 
 redeemed humanity. 
 
 There is no need of anxiety over the presence of 
 evil in the world when we know that Jesus Christ 
 helps us to overcome it. The significance of each 
 victory lies not only in the victory itself but also in 
 the added vigor of life gained from the conflict. 
 One victory only leads to another conflict. On the 
 battlefield of life we may win some battles and lose 
 others, but in the end we shall win the campaign 
 if we follow the Great Commander. In all our 
 contests we shall discover that we have been grow- 
 ing into the fulness of the stature of Christ. 
 
 The realization of a changing earth, of a grow- 
 ing humanity, of a developing society, of onward- 
 struggling souls, is a challenge to seize upon the 
 divine sources of power available to make mankind 
 what it ought to be. The world and all that is 
 therein is still in the process of making and God is 
 still the maker of it. He is working through 
 agencies called natural and through mankind to 
 make in the end a redeemed humanity, the King- 
 dom of God. 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 What, in the main, differentiates the living or- 
 ganism from inert matter; the higher forms of life 
 
GROWING BY CONFLICT 33 
 
 from the lower? What moral and spiritual value is 
 there in the fact that Jesus grew? Why was He 
 SO' interested in growing things? 
 
 What is the relation of physical to spiritual life? 
 What results when growth ceases in a person's 
 moral and spiritual life? How can this be pre- 
 vented? If heredity, environment, education and 
 struggle each play their part does the obligation still 
 rest upon each of us to be full-grown? Why? 
 
 Do you think Shakespeare's words are true: 
 'There is some soul of goodness in things evil"? 
 What relation has the struggle against evil to this 
 soul of goodness? Outline some specific elements 
 of moral and spiritual growth coming to the world 
 from the present conflict. Are they coming from 
 the war or from men's struggle against the evil 
 which caused the war? Illustrate. 
 
 What do you consider were the chief factors in 
 the spiritual greatness of Isaiah, Paul, St. Francis, 
 Martin Luther? Why is it that these men were 
 more conscious of and sensitive to sin than their 
 contemporaries? What made Jesus most sensi- 
 tive to the existence of sin in the world? What is 
 the unique place of Christianity in relation to the 
 problem of sin? What is the significance for the 
 coming of the Kingdom of God of this hope of vic- 
 tory in your struggle against evil? 
 
THE CETURCH 
 
Ill 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 
 
 Jesus chose a company of disciples to carry on 
 
 his work. He Hved on such intimate terms with 
 
 these men that they became inspired 
 Jesus . , , . . . , . , , . . . f 
 
 and the With his spirit, his hopes, his vision tor 
 
 Church ^j^^ world. Jesus desired relationship 
 
 so intimate that in actual living He and his dis- 
 ciples should be inseparable. He illustrated that 
 relationship by the parable of the vine and the 
 branches. He said : I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the 
 same beareth much fruit; . . . for apart from me 
 ye can do nothing (John 15:1-5). Jesus did not 
 start a new organization. He knew that the world 
 needed not new systems or new machinery, but 
 new life. In gathering together the disciples Jesus 
 did not start a new, carefully organized religious 
 sect. He gathered them "that they might be with 
 Him." By this intimate fellowship He sought to 
 make them a part of Himself. This purpose was 
 
 37 
 
38 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 the soul at the center of the organization of the 
 church. 
 
 The organization grew up simply and naturally 
 around the inspiring leadership and the sense of the 
 personal spiritual presence of the risen Lord. Or- 
 ganization came because there was work to be done. 
 The work could not be done wisely and effectively 
 without some system. Deacons, bishops, creeds 
 arose because through these agencies the spirit of 
 the Master was more successfully spread abroad 
 through the world. The disciples soon discovered 
 that there was power in living, working and pray- 
 ing together. The power, however, was not in the 
 wheels that made up the organization, but in the 
 spirit at the center of it. The power lay in the con- 
 viction that the disciples were co-workers with 
 their risen Lord. In other words, to the men of 
 the early Apostolic Church, their fellowship and 
 communion was not an organization but an organ- 
 ism. It was not a system of officers and commit- 
 tees driven by an outside force ; it was a living thing 
 of which the animating principle was Jesus the 
 Christ. Mark closed his gospel with the dynamic 
 of the church when he wrote: They (the disciples) 
 went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord 
 working with them, and confirming the word by 
 the signs that followed (Mark 16:20). 
 
 The Church was not very old before it came 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 39 
 
 to be known as "the body of Christ," and by this 
 name it has been called ever since. It is the truest 
 definition for the Christian Church for any age. 
 Paul wrote (I Cor. 14:27) : Ye are the body of 
 Christ. Donald Hankey begins the opening chap- 
 ter of his volume on 'The Church and the War'' 
 with the sentence, "The object of these papers is to 
 try to help find out how we can make the Church a 
 better, more efficient, a more vital, a more healthy 
 body for our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 There have been times in the history of the 
 church when it became, to the outward view of 
 men almost, if not completely, an organization. The 
 machinery was more apparent than the spirit which 
 was supposed to animate it. Nevertheless the soul 
 of the church has always been active in spite of 
 appearances to the contrary. The church has grown 
 in power and influence through nineteen centuries. 
 It has been assailed by hostile forces of evil with- 
 out, by heretics and unsympathetic friends within. 
 There are many people to-day who are especially 
 interested in pointing out the weaknesses of the 
 Christian Church. That the church has many de- 
 fects no one will deny. As long as the church is 
 made up of short-sighted, sinful, stumbling men and 
 women, it will reveal many short-comings. On the 
 other hand, as long as the church is "the body of 
 Christ" it will have the spiritual insight and moral 
 
40 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 power to triumph over its faults and mistakes. In 
 all the history of the world, there has been no 
 force so successful as the Christian Church for 
 keeping alive and growing the spirit of vital re- 
 ligion in the souls of men. 
 
 The world war has brought upon the church as 
 upon all other social organizations the realization 
 rr,j^ of new responsibilities. It has corn- 
 
 Church pelled a new self-examination by the 
 
 World church. The soldiers in the training 
 
 Crisis camps and in the trenches are discuss- 
 
 ing the church problem anew. Historic beliefs are 
 under a new fire of investigation. Time-honored 
 methods of work are subjected to severe criticism. 
 Some chaplains in the British Army are asking for 
 the elimination of the Prayer Book from the serv- 
 ices of the Church of England ; others are demand- 
 ing its revision. There is also a request for a rec- 
 ognition of what Donald Hankey in *'A Student in 
 Arms" called "the religion of the inarticulate." 
 
 The basis for faith in immortality is receiving a 
 fresh analysis. The final sacrifice for righteous- 
 ness has been made by many a brave young soldier 
 who never made a formal public confession of re- 
 ligious faith. ''Greater love hath no man than 
 this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." 
 These are a few of the new problems that the 
 conditions of our day are bringing before the church 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 41 
 
 for a solution. The parents and friends of these 
 young men are asking, ''Have not these men by 
 their sacrifice earned a place in the heavenly King- 
 dom? 
 
 There are pressing practical tasks before the 
 Christian Church to-day. One is the task of bring- 
 Unitv ^^S the scattered and divided forces of 
 
 Again the church into some unity of effort 
 
 against evil and for the aggressive promotion of 
 righteousness. For fifteen hundred years there was 
 one Christian Church. The Protestant Reformation 
 introduced many new movements. It inspired a new 
 spirit of religion ; it gave new freedom to the mind ; 
 it gave a new sense of the true nature and purpose 
 of the church. But with the spirit of religious free- 
 dom there came also weakening and destructive 
 divisions. The divisive impulse has ever since been 
 strong, the unifying force has been weak. The re- 
 sult is the division of the church into one hundred 
 and eighty-six different forms of organizations ! In 
 many cities and towns the division in the church 
 hinders all statesmanlike handling of the religious 
 problems. The forces of evil are often victorious 
 because the forces of righteousness will not work 
 together. 
 
 The Protestant Church, as a whole, needs some 
 of the statesmanlike vision and plan of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. A cardinal when asked about the 
 
42 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 work of the college of cardinals in Rome, said, *'We 
 are gathered here about the pope as a board of di- 
 rectors meets with the president of a great business 
 organization, and we plan for the extension of the 
 Catholic Church over the whole world for all time 
 to come." That is church statesmanship! In these 
 days when the forces of evil are making their at- 
 tacks against righteousness and justice with an un- 
 precedented unity of effort, there comes to the 
 churches a new call to forget all minor differences 
 in creed, organization and systems of worship, and 
 to begin to work together for the one great end of 
 bringing the Kingdom of God upon the earth. 
 
 It is not to be expected that all people will agree 
 on minor methods of church organization or on de- 
 tails of worship. Denominational differences are, 
 to a certain degree, based on temperamental differ- 
 ences. The person who finds the most helpful aid 
 to worship through the external ministrations and 
 symbols of candles, music, beautiful robes and in- 
 cense, will get little inspiration from the colorless, 
 often speechless worship of the Society of Friends. 
 The man who feels the need of an address or ser- 
 mon as a means of quickening the mind and con- 
 science, will never be satisfied by a liturgy alone. 
 But it is also true that men can worship in the 
 way that best ministers to their particular religious 
 needs, and, at the same time, cooperate fully in the 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 43 
 
 great tasks of the church, namely, opposing evil 
 and promoting righteousness. 
 
 One of the potent effects of the war on the church 
 is that the various denominations v^^ill be forced into 
 a new cooperation. Men of all denominations and 
 of no denomination have been working, struggling, 
 dying together in the trenches and they will not be 
 gently tolerant of any faith or creed that claims ex- 
 clusive ^race or saving power. 
 
 The church in the present crisis has a new call to 
 promote a new spirit of democracy. Democracy is. 
 World ^^st of all, not a problem of govern- 
 
 Democracy ment but of the church. Democracy 
 grew out of. Christianity. Jesus Himself was the 
 first to lay down the principles that have produced 
 the free spirit of to-day, not only in religion but in 
 government. Democracy is the greatest word in the 
 world to-day. The entrance of America into the 
 war was to promote democracy. But the world 
 does not yet adequately understand the meaning of 
 the word. 
 
 The church has the grave responsibility of estab- 
 lishing at home and abroad the true democracy. 
 There must first be a democracy that is safe for 
 the world. Only the spirit of Christ can assure this. 
 Some of the most baneful selfishness the world has 
 ever seen is parading to-day under the name of 
 democracy! Certain groups are now proclaiming 
 
44 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 a democracy which would not be safe for the world 
 because each group seeks its own welfare at the ex- 
 pense of the welfare of other social groups. Only 
 the Christian spirit which assures self-government, 
 dictated by a motive of unselfish service, can ever 
 promote a safe kind of democracy. Any other 
 kind will be a menace to the world. It must be 
 clear, then, that the work of the church precedes 
 and accompanies the labors of statesmen, diplomats, 
 soldiers or sailors. 
 
 The Christian people in the church must hear the 
 call for a new loyalty to Christ and the church. There 
 Intensified ^^ great need for a new realization of the 
 Loyalty sources of true spiritual insight, noble 
 
 personal character and national idealism. These 
 inspirations come ultimately from a personal rela- 
 tion to Christ. The church seeks to cultivate this 
 relationship in men. From these high standards 
 many people are drifting away through a lack, not 
 of essential faith, but of true, individual loyalty. 
 There is an alarming drift away from the sense of 
 duty of going to church to worship God. Church 
 attendance is, with many people, a matter of 
 whether or not they like the minister and his preach- 
 ing. Some go to church .if they ''feel like it" ; oth- 
 erwise they stay at home. The automobile and 
 Sunday newspaper are more attractive to many peo- 
 ple than the church service. People sometimes 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 45 
 
 claim that there is more spiritual power to be 
 found in worshipping God under the trees alone 
 than in a church with other people. The history of 
 religious inspiration points in another direction. 
 The prophet Isaiah received his marvellous vision 
 as he was worshipping in the temple (Isaiah 6:1- 
 13). Jesus used to go apart to pray alone, but He 
 seems tO' have had a regular habit of going to the 
 synagogue to worship on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). 
 Peter and John, veritable dynamos of spiritual 
 power in the early church, habitually went to the 
 temple to worship and to pray (Acts 3:1). Other 
 people allow their loyalty to cool because they feel 
 that to be religiously minded and to do good in 
 one's own way is sufficient. 
 
 But the modern way of doing things is by or- 
 ganized, co-operative effort. A single Christian in 
 the world's conflict with sin is of no more use than 
 is a single American soldier trying to win the Euro- 
 pean war ! There is great danger in being satisfied 
 with a general attitude of good will to mankind in 
 general, at the same neglecting any specific acts of 
 brotherliness. A person ought to be fully loyal to 
 some one church, to worship with its members, 
 work through its organizations, pray for its pros- 
 perity and peace. 
 
 Almost all good things in our civilized life to-day 
 are directly or indirectly the product of the influ- 
 
46 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 ence of the Christian church. The church is the 
 inspiration behind a multitude of helpful agencies. 
 Without the church these other organizations would 
 not last a week. The mighty work of the Young 
 Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations 
 in the various forms of war service is essentially 
 the work of the church. When Gypsy Smith, the 
 noted evangelist, came to this country, after spend- 
 ing four years in working with the British soldiers, 
 he said, 'The Young Men's Christian Association is 
 the communication trench between the church and 
 the army." The Red Cross is a healing streak of 
 red on the arm of the White Cross. 
 
 There is special danger, during the days when 
 people are so busy knitting, making bandages and 
 raising money, that the sources of inspiration will 
 be neglected. We shall fall into the habit of think- 
 ing that system, organization, series of "drives"* 
 will accomplish anything. Because of the extra 
 stress and strain of life, men need more than ever 
 before to take time for prayer, worship, study of 
 God's word, and quiet meditation. It will avail us 
 little as men and women with immortal souls to 
 win a great war for political liberty and find our- 
 selves at the end enslaved by a system of political 
 or social machinery. It was written of One who 
 was the Captain of our salvation and the world's 
 greatest minister of social service that He found 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 47 
 
 it necessary, in the busiest days of his Hfe, to 
 spend whole nights in prayer. Can his followers 
 expect to win great victories by a process any less 
 exacting? 
 
 It is well to remember, while armies are fighting 
 for a world peace and for a world safe for democ- 
 ^, racy, that the Christian church is the 
 
 Permanent greatest peace-making force in the 
 of the world. The peace propaganda of the 
 
 Church church is going steadily on in time of 
 
 war. While our soldiers fight for peace in Bel- 
 gium and Flanders, the soldiers of the Cross are 
 working for peace in the homes of the people of 
 India, China, and the islands of the sea. The great- 
 est forces for peace are not armies or navies or 
 high explosives. The most powerful agency is not 
 any particular form of government. The greatest 
 force for peace is the everlasting self-giving love of 
 God as revealed in Jesus Christ. That is why the 
 angels could sing "Peace on earth, good will to 
 men'* when men were to go on fighting one an- 
 other for twenty long centuries. The time element 
 is not of any great significance in the presence of 
 the eternal and timeless. That is why we still be- 
 lieve absolutely in the ultimate triumph of peace 
 and the universal reign of good will even in the 
 presence of the worst carnage in the history of 
 the world. 
 
48 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 Rocks may be blasted away by dynamite, but the 
 crushing of rocks on the grandest scale is wrought 
 by the quiet forces of water, wind and frost. In 
 like manner some of the evils of the world may 
 have to be dealt with at times by cannon and battle- 
 ships; but these agencies are temporary and only 
 partially effective as compared with the ever active, 
 eternal, quiet, unseen force of the love of God 
 growing in the hearts of men. Some evils must be 
 blown up with dynamite; but most of the evils of 
 the world will be conquered by an active good will 
 in the hearts of man, implanted by the example and 
 ministry of Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is well to remember that the great word in the 
 early church was ''power." It is the same word 
 from which our word "dynamite" comes. To the. 
 men of the early church faith in Christ was a power 
 which revolutionized the inner life, caused cataclys- 
 mic convulsions in the social order and lifted em- 
 pires off their foundations. This same earnest, 
 quiet power of Christ through the church, which is 
 his body, is doing its marvellous work every day 
 over the whole world. The leading, energizing, in- 
 spiring agency for the gaining of victory over evil 
 and the maintenance of lasting peace on earth 
 through good will to men is worthy of the best 
 service and the loyal devotion of every man and 
 woman. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD CRISIS 49 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 How far can religion be effectively organized? 
 How far is religion an individual problem and how 
 far a social one? Why did Jesus seek to perpetu- 
 ate his gospel by a band of disciples rather than by 
 a book? Is the church an organism or merely an 
 organization ? Why ? 
 
 Do you know the historical reasons for the ex- 
 istence of the different denominations, as Presby- 
 terian, Methodist, Episcopal, and others? How 
 can the average layman be most useful in promot- 
 ing church unity? Can we ever expect to have one 
 church? Did Jesus expect it? 
 
 What influence will a world free from autocracy 
 have upon religion and ecclesiastical authority? 
 What place would an autocratic church have in a 
 free world ? What do you consider to be the rela- 
 tion of politics to religion ? Why should a preacher 
 discuss problems of democracy in the pulpit? What 
 is the bearing of the labor movement on Christian 
 democracy? What is the church's responsibility? 
 
 How far are social settlements, welfare work 
 and relief organizations indebted to the church? 
 Why is corporate worship a part of Christian de- 
 mocracy ? What values are endangered by knitting 
 in church during war time? What great tasks of 
 the church challenge all our loyalty? 
 
SLACKERS 
 
IV 
 
 THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 
 
 The vigorous enforcement of the Selective Serv- 
 ice Law for providing soldiers for the army has 
 brought the slacker into striking promi- 
 Slackcr nence. After each draft there have ap- 
 
 ^P^"* peared in the newspapers long lists of 
 
 names of young men who have not answered the 
 call. Both tragic and pathetic are the stories told 
 by members of the draft boards and by examining 
 physicians, of the deceptive arguments and the de- 
 ceitful schemes by which some men seek to escape 
 from the duty of serving their country and the 
 world. Some, unable to escape the compulsion of 
 going to the training camp, finish their revolt there 
 by refusing to wear the uniform or to obey orders. 
 While the slacker is for the moment a prominent 
 figure, he is by no means a new one. The demands 
 of the war have only served to bring out into a new 
 light an old and ever present type of man. Young 
 men become slackers in relation to the military sys- 
 
 53 
 
54 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 tern because they have within them the slacker 
 spirit. 
 
 There are few people of any place or age who do 
 not stand in peril of the soul-destructive influence 
 of the slacker spirit. The impulse to avoid hard 
 and dangerous duty lurks in the breast of every 
 one. Even brave and heroic men at times confess 
 to the temptation to yield to fear and to the im- 
 pulse to inaction In the presence of danger. So 
 characteristic is this weakness in human character 
 that the New Testament gives great attention to 
 the method of dealing with it. Jesus handles the 
 problem with characteristic understanding and sym- 
 pathy. There are many incidental occasions when 
 this spirit of the slacker is the subject of his inter- 
 est. There are a few places where He makes the 
 analysis of the slacker character with unusual clear- 
 ness and force. The study of these incidents in the 
 light of the interest of to-day brings timely aid in 
 these days of great fear and suffering. 
 
 One of the perils arising from the slacker spirit 
 is the deadening effect of not sharing with others 
 in the great enterprises of life. Jesus 
 with brought this truth out in the incident of 
 
 Others ^^iq rich young ruler. This young man 
 
 was a slacker. He was drafted by the Captain of 
 man's salvation to share with others in the conflict 
 for a new human brotherhood. The appeal of 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 55 
 
 Jesus struck him at the point of his most vital in- 
 terest, his material wealth. Jesus saw that the 
 young man had riches of personality far greater in 
 value which ought to be shared with a needy world.' 
 That service would make him richer still in the es- 
 sential qualities of life. He could not have gone 
 out to give his money without making new friend- 
 ships, forming new associations, becoming stirred 
 by new sympathies. He would not only have be- 
 come a philanthropist, he would have become inter- 
 ested in the science of philanthropy. He would 
 have found himself associating in a new relation- 
 ship, not only with those who received because of 
 their need, but also with those who give because 
 it is the greatest pleasure. 
 
 The slacker in military service to-day who by any 
 method or for any reason escapes army service, 
 misses one of the most thrilling experiences of life, 
 that of learning, working, suffering with other men. 
 He misses the initiation into the great brotherhood 
 of national service, which is greater than any fra- 
 ternity. Few young men know much about their 
 fellow-men. The very nature of modern social 
 organization separates men into small groups. The 
 average man's knowledge of men is usually limited 
 to an acquaintance with the men and women of his 
 own social class. Army experiences are making op- 
 portunities for wider contacts than young men have 
 
56 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 ever before enjoyed. Young men from all social 
 classes, from many nationalities, and from all walks 
 of life, come and live and study and work to- 
 gether. 
 
 In this new and intimate relationship young men 
 are given an opportunity to know their fellow-men, 
 tO' feel the power of a great common effort for a 
 common ideal, tO' sense for the first time the relation 
 of the individual to the great human whole. The 
 slacker misses all this. ''The proper study of man- 
 kind is man," said Pope. So it is that the experi- 
 ences in army life are to most men the most broad- 
 ening opportunities for education. Even the young 
 men who go out from college give testimony to 
 the splendid training coming out of their service for 
 the nation. 
 
 A young college graduate who entered the army 
 after two years of teaching wrote to a friend, "We 
 feel more strongly than ever our personal respon- 
 sibility for a proper outcome of this great struggle. 
 All of us know that this army life is a splendid edu- 
 cation that will make us more valuable citizens when 
 we get back to civilian Ufe. I am going to be a 
 stronger teacher for this experience. The army 
 is the greatest school in the world, and I never had 
 so strongly impressed upon me before the great les- 
 sons of precision and decision, of discipline, exact- 
 ness (not approximation) and uniformity." 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 57 
 
 It is well to remember that what the call of pa- 
 triotism has offered in the way of new opportuni- 
 ties of common fellowship and for the understand- 
 ing of human nature, Jesus has offered to men for 
 nearly two thousand years. Early in his own min- 
 istry He drafted a small company and trained them 
 to be soldiers of the Cross. "Ye have not chosen 
 me but I have chosen you," he said. The members 
 of that company were recruited from men of a wide 
 range of temperament and occupation. There were 
 fishermen and a tax gatherer. The impulsive man 
 studied in the same school with the man of a deep 
 affectionate nature. Jesus put side by side the 
 most conservative adherent to the Roman authority, 
 Matthew the Publican, and the anarchist of that 
 day, Simon the Zealot, a man who believed that war 
 and revolution were the surest remedies of politi- 
 cal trouble. There is no greater evidence of the 
 power of Jesus than his ability to enable these two 
 men tO' work together for a common ideal which 
 was radically different from the ideas of either of 
 them. Jesus Himself mingled with all classes of 
 people and He trained his disciples to do the same. 
 In spite of all this teaching and example the 
 modern Christian is still too much of a slacker. His 
 own personal affairs, his own social class, his own 
 selfish ambitions, dominate his outlook on the world 
 and humanity. The stimulus of the war has com- 
 
58 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 pelled a new self-analysis in many young men and 
 women. Apart from this compulsion they should 
 study their lives with the purpose to broaden their 
 interests and sympathies. A fresh consideration of 
 the program of Jesus for a young man's life will 
 produce the most satisfactory results. Out of the 
 war there comes to those who stay at home a new 
 summons to forsake all traditional social views that 
 limit in any way the broadest sympathies and the 
 widest service. The way in which the people at 
 home are working together in a united patriotic 
 service does for them what service is doing for the 
 men in the field. Rich and poor, educated and un- 
 educated, all work together for the Red Cross, 
 Liberty Loans and many other patriotic agencies. 
 It is one of the purposes of God to teach men even 
 through the tragedy of war the realization of the 
 joy and power of working together. 
 
 The slacker is sure to miss the personal develop- 
 ment that comes from engaging in a new enterprise. 
 The army levels up as well as down. It 
 veloped helps the soldier to understand human 
 Resources nature, and gives him broader sympa- 
 thies for his fellow-men. It also helps the soldier 
 to understand himself; it draws out undreamed-of 
 sources of power and heroism. In the organization 
 of army life, in the opportunities of hard and peril- 
 ous service, the essential qualities of manhood and 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 59 
 
 character are tried as gold in the fire. In the fur- 
 nace of war many characters are transformed; many 
 of them find the incentive and resources of a new 
 power in life. 
 
 Jesus had clearly in mind this peril that lay in 
 the path of the slacker in life's broad fields of serv- 
 ice. The incident is related of Jesus' draft of two 
 men to enter, under his command, the service of 
 the Kingdom of God. Both were slackers. One 
 pleaded as an excuse the duty of winding up his 
 family estate, the other of fulfilling the traditional 
 formalities of his social set. "And he said unto 
 another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me 
 first to go and bury my father. But he said unto 
 him. Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but 
 go thou and publish abroad the Kingdom of God. 
 And another also said, I will follow thee, Lord; 
 but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are 
 in my house. But Jesus said unto him, No man, 
 having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, 
 is fit for the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:59-62). 
 Jesus' thought is not only of the revelation of the 
 unfitness of these men, but also of how consecration 
 to the Kingdom of God would fit these men to do 
 great things. 
 
 What did not these men miss? Here were men 
 whose names might have ranked in the world's his- 
 tory with those of Peter and John. They remain 
 
6o PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 examples of the nameless slackers! These men 
 missed the greatest source of personal development 
 the world has ever known — association with Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The marvellous thing in Jesus' relation to his dis- 
 ciples was the way in which that association with 
 Him developed them. The fisherman becomes the 
 evangelist, the extreme socialist becomes the mis- 
 sionary. From the day of Jesus' own bodily pres- 
 ence with men to this present time, the response to 
 his call to discipleship has been the source of the 
 most remarkable personal development the world 
 has known. By this method, simple untutored citi- 
 zens have become great preachers and missionaries; 
 bad men have become saints; cowards have been 
 turned into heroes, and multitudes ^'out of weak- 
 ness have been made strong." 
 
 Personality and its development are themes of 
 popular interest to-day. Many are the philosophies 
 and systems advanced by many teachers for the 
 cultivation of personality. The German philoso- 
 pher Nietzsche and his disciples have advocated a 
 system that appeals strongly to many ambitious 
 young men and women. It is the method of the 
 superman. Let every person exert his own individ- 
 ual selfish impulse and will. Let self-restraint of 
 any sort be abandoned. The way to be great is to 
 recognize no authority ^and to ride ruthlessly over 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 6i 
 
 any person or thing that interferes with selfish am- 
 bitions. 
 
 Every thinking person is familiar with the re- 
 sults of such a philosophy in the world to-day. It 
 has plunged the world into carnage and blood. In 
 the presence of such a tragedy we turn again with 
 fresh faith and hope to Jesus' method for the 
 growth and development of human character, the 
 method not of the superman, but of full allegiance 
 to the principle of self-giving. "He that is greatest 
 among you shall be your servant. And whosoever 
 shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoso- 
 ever shall humble himself shall be exalted." (Matt. 
 23:11-12.) 
 
 The most common type of slacker is the one who 
 performs small tasks in a small way. Jesus drew 
 the picture of this sort of a slacker in his parable 
 Small of the talents. This was the man who 
 
 Things ^qqJ^ ^j^^ talent from the hand of his 
 
 in a 
 
 Small Way master and went and hid it in the earth. 
 
 The peril into which this slacker fell may be shown 
 by some striking contrasts in the different ways in 
 which a task may be performed. A great task may 
 be handled in a large way. This is the method in 
 which the colossal problems of the war are being 
 met. Money is raised to finance the war by bil- 
 lions of dollars, by nation-wide organizations reach- 
 ing like a network into every nook and comer of 
 
62 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 the entire country. The construction of ships, aero- 
 planes, and army encampments has been pushed 
 without regard to expense in order to meet the 
 mighty needs of an international crusade. Side 
 by side with this there are revealed some examples 
 of men who are doing great things in a small way — 
 profiteering in the necessities of war supplies, strik- 
 ing workmen who think first of all, not of their 
 country's or of the world's need, but of their own 
 interests ; citizens indulging in race riots, stirred by 
 the passion of hatred, not by the fire of patriotism. 
 The majority of young people not in war service 
 seem to themselves far away from the thrill and 
 enthusiasm that come from an immediate share in 
 war work. They feel as if they were in some eddy 
 while the great rushing river of life sweeps on- 
 ward. They seem to be spectators of some far-off 
 drama which concerns their life vitally, but with 
 which they can have little personal touch. In com- 
 parison with the great world movements and na- 
 tional organizations the daily work of the average 
 person seems to be pitifully small. It is easy in 
 such a situation for a man to belittle himself and 
 his work. Because the work seems small there 
 comes a great temptation to be a slacker, to do the 
 small thing in a small way. That was what the 
 man with one talent did. He took a small thing 
 and did the least possible thing with it. The dis- 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 63 
 
 appointed master felt that the servant should have 
 done better. That was the tragedy of it — there 
 lies the peril for the slacker. It is just as easy to 
 do better! It takes no more effort to put money 
 into the bank than it does to put it into. a hole in 
 the ground. 
 
 The aim of Jesus was to teach men how to do 
 small things in a large way. How did He do it? 
 In a Large ^^ showed in the first place that the 
 Way end and aim of all endeavor was char- 
 
 acter. The value and importance of any work lay 
 not in its size but in what it yielded in character, 
 discipline, training to the worker. Jesus gave man 
 a sense of his eternal destiny and revealed how each 
 act, no matter how small, was related to it. The 
 way of true worth lay in doing the small thing in 
 a large way, because the result was inseparably re- 
 lated to the great thing. 
 
 Jesus' own history is largely the story of one who 
 did small things in a large way. He had an un- 
 shakable conviction that each word and deed, com- 
 monplace in itself, yet was related to the redemp- 
 tion of mankind. He was a peasant, trained as a 
 carpenter. In the eyes of the world his followers 
 were few and unimportant. His work was chiefly 
 with the poor, the weak, the common people. His 
 most important words were spoken to one or two 
 people, or at best to the circle of twelve. Even his 
 
64 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 sufferings and death were unnoticed by the histo- 
 rians of the Roman Empire, and the leading men of 
 his own race regarded Him as an impostor ! Yet ' 
 with what mastery He met each occasion! He 
 never shghted any one or made haste in performing 
 any duty. Each thing was performed with a sense 
 of its relation to eternity. 
 
 It is easy for the soldier to feel the relation of 
 his life and service to the great movement of which 
 he is a part, because of the great organization of 
 the army. He is assigned his particular task; some 
 superior officer is always at hand tO' inspect or to 
 give directions. The soldier may be only a cog in 
 the machinery of the army, but if he is not in his 
 place the machine does not run smoothly. And 
 more than that, the soldier is usually conscious of 
 the great aims and purposes for which he has joined 
 the colors. Nevertheless, a large part of the sol- 
 dier's work is without interest or glory. In order 
 to be a good soldier he too must consciously seek to 
 do the small things in a large way. In a letter of 
 a French soldier to his mother are the words, "I 
 know not whither destiny leads me, but it is not, 
 this I am sure of, towards the haughty and artificial 
 regions of speculation, but rather in the way of all 
 the smaller duties of each day. And into this work 
 I must carry a spirit awake to every sensation." 
 
 To the person tempted to become a slacker in 
 
THE PERIL OF THE SLACKER 65 
 
 the performance of the small apparently unimport- 
 ant work in any sphere of life, there comes with 
 new power the helpful ministry of Jesus. He acts 
 as the commanding general of the life campaign. 
 He reveals the absolute necessity of faithfulness on 
 the part of each individual. He encourages each 
 soldier of the Cross in hours of depression, and in 
 the hour of greatest danger gives him strength to 
 *'carry on." With the .larger visions of life's mean- 
 ing before, and the energizing power of God be- 
 hind, each man and woman may be sure of the 
 eternal reward that comes from doing even the 
 small things in a large way. 
 
 Let not thy hands be slack, 
 
 Haste to the fray! 
 Dream not of turning back; 
 
 Life is not play ! 
 Gird thou thine armor on, 
 Fight till the battle's won, 
 Then shall thy Lord's, "Well done," 
 
 More than repay! 
 
 Let not thy hands be slack. 
 
 Fear not ! Be strong ! 
 Cease not to make attack 
 
 On every wrong. 
 Press on for truth and right — 
 Hold high the Gospel light. 
 Expel the dirge of night 
 
 With Heaven's song. 
 
 — S. E. Burrow. 
 
66 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 What is the fundamental difference in charac- 
 ter between the slacker and the man eager to serve ? 
 Is being afraid in itself cowardly? What makes 
 the difference? The army slacker is punished by 
 imprisonment; is the moral and spiritual slacker 
 punished also? How ? Why is there not more com- 
 pulsion on God's part in his dealings with men? 
 
 What is the relative value of property and life? 
 If the government drafts life for war service why 
 not property also? How is taxation a draft on 
 wealth? Would it be reasonable for the govern- 
 ment to take all a man's property as it demands the 
 life service of young men by the Selective Senace 
 Law? How far are the modern doctrines of so- 
 cialism adequate for the solution of the problems 
 of capitalism and poverty? Is the Christian pro- 
 gram better? Why? What is the difference be- 
 tween Jesus' development of man and the doctrine 
 of the superman? Why is inaction as serious a sin 
 as bad action? What danger is there of being a 
 slacker at home? What are the consequences of 
 taking a quantitative view of life's achievements? 
 What are the best means of getting the right per- 
 spective on seemingly unimportant work? Illus- 
 trate from the life of Jesus the place of faith in 
 the mastery of life. 
 
IN FAITH 
 
V 
 
 LIVING IN FAITH 
 
 There is much in the world and in our own lives 
 that we do not understand. The future is abso- 
 lutely unknown. No man knows how 
 Every- 
 man's the affairs of the world or of his own 
 
 Faith |j£^ ^j.g going to be to-morrow. Some 
 
 men, it is true, have more sensibility and insight 
 than others regarding the inevitable logic of char- 
 acter and action. This is sometimes called fore- 
 sight. In spite of the fact that men do not know 
 what their life is to be to-morrow they go ahead 
 in full confidence that, on the whole, life will con- 
 tinue as it was yesterday. From past experience 
 men make certain assumptions about life to-mor- 
 row and then go ahead living and acting on the 
 truth of those assumptions. There is no positive 
 proof or assurance that the accepted and habitual 
 assumptions are right. 
 
 This impulse and habit of men in living and act- 
 ing on the assumption that their plans are valid, 
 that their hopes and fears are true, is called faith. 
 
 69 
 
70 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 It is not primarily a religious faculty. Paul said : 
 The righteous shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17). We 
 walk by faith, not by sight (II Cor. 5 :7). So must 
 every one talk and live by faith, whether he be 
 righteous or unrighteous. Faith is a faculty that 
 must be exercised by all. 
 
 Every business man builds his entire business on 
 faith. As a rule business is started with large sums 
 of borrowed capital. The man starts with faith in 
 himself, faith that he has the ability to make the 
 business a success and manage well his capital. 
 Then he must have faith in the need of his city 
 or section for the goods he is preparmg to handle; 
 he must have faith in the word of travelling sales- 
 men that the goods he buys are as represented; he 
 must employ clerks for whose honesty and ability 
 he trusts the testimonials of other men and his 
 ability to read character; he must have faith in the 
 honesty of his customers, that they will pay their 
 bills when due. The entire enterprise is a venture 
 of faith. The man launching a new work is not 
 sure of a single step ahead. It is all a matter of 
 faith. 
 
 Every student goes to college as a venture of 
 faith. He must have faith in his own intellectual 
 vigor, in his ability to get along with associates 
 and teachers, in the skill and wisdom of his teach- 
 
LIVING IN FAITH 71 
 
 ers, in the ability of his father to support him or 
 in his own power to support himself. 
 
 All the failures in business, and the number every 
 year is legion, never hinder a man of faith from 
 attempting to carry out his ideas and plans. All 
 the students who fail to succeed in college do not 
 hinder thousands of students of each new gen- 
 eration of high school graduates from trying to get 
 a college education. In the most practical, matter 
 of fact, worldly way of speaking, all men are com- 
 pelled by their own nature and the nature of the 
 world to ''live by faith." 
 
 Dr. W. E. Orchard wrote: "That life is worth 
 while, and that the universe is to be trusted, is the 
 minimum of faith on which life can be supported 
 or any inquiry undertaken. This is a faith that 
 we are forced to come to, because without it life 
 cannot be undertaken. It is one of the rules of the 
 game. If you do not accept it you cannot play. 
 This will appear to some a very vague faith. But 
 it is the only way back for thousands. There is 
 enough in it to enable us to make the most of life, 
 to believe in its inherent justice when the whole 
 scheme cannot be grasped. Believe that even in 
 what seems so wrong there lies something right, be- 
 hind man's imagining there is some reality, beyond 
 all human hopes something that shall more than 
 satisfy. Why should you believe that? Simply 
 
^2 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 because it is one of the conditions for living this 
 Ufe that cannot be dispensed with." 
 
 Jesus based his teaching about religious faith 
 on this instinctive and universal practice of men. 
 Tesus and ^^ taught that since man is in the habit 
 Faith of using faith in dealing v^ith the daily 
 
 practical problems of concrete living, he should use 
 faith likewise in seeking to understand those ele- 
 ments of life that were unknown (Matt. 18:12-14; 
 7:11, 15-21). He applied the principle of faith to 
 the business of living, which was of far greater 
 concern than that of making a living. By his life 
 He taught that men should go into this business 
 of living with the assumption that there is a God 
 who made the world; that this God is man's lov- 
 ing Father; that the universe is established on prin- 
 ciples of righteousness; that the meaning of life 
 is to be found in self-sacrificing love. He gave a 
 daily exhibition of the way in which a person lived 
 religious faith. With Jesus, faith is the most im- 
 portant word in the Gospels. Paul said : Now abid- 
 eth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest of 
 these is love. Jesus laid down the great principles 
 of love to God and love to man, but He did not talk 
 much about it. He did talk constantly about faith. 
 The Gospels picture Him as being surprised only 
 on two occasions, once at the great lack of faith of 
 the people of his own country. "And He mar- 
 
LIVING IN FAITH 73 
 
 veiled because of their unbelief" (Mark 8:6). The 
 other occasion was at the exhibition of great faith 
 on the part of a Roman centurion. ''And when 
 Jesus heard it He marvelled and said, I have not 
 found so great faith, no not in Israel" (Matt. 8 :io). 
 Faith was not merely an idea, it was a power, a 
 great energy, which could master the ills and temp- 
 tations of life, and give a grip on the tmseen reali- 
 ties of the soul. 
 
 The followers of Jesus from that day to this, 
 seeking to bear witness to his philosophy of life, 
 declare that his way is the most satisfactory method 
 of living and explaining life to-day. Men must 
 have some convictions about the eternal problems. 
 Jesus' assumptions seem the best and the most 
 true. It is difficult to maintain and live a Christian 
 faith among so many inexplicable questions and 
 problems, but to try to live without that faith is 
 much more difficult. Men and women who follow 
 Jesus in thought and action and hope live the full- 
 est, happiest, most satisfactory lives. 
 
 It is always wise to reckon with the full strength' 
 of one's enemies. Jesus and his followers have 
 Opposi- always had many bitter, skilful and 
 
 uons and aggressive opponents. The enemies of 
 mises the Christian faith are very active to- 
 
 day. There has arisen a new opposition among 
 other religions. The followers of Buddha in In- 
 
74 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 dia, of Confucius in China, of Mohammed in Tur- 
 key and Africa, are vigorously opposing the Chris- 
 tian advance. They are going so far as to adopt 
 methods and organizations used by the Christian 
 Church in order to make their ovv^n work more ef- 
 fective. 
 
 The most active enemies of the Cross to-day 
 are the men who place supreme faith in force and 
 materialism and deny the truth or power of faith 
 in love and brotherhood. These men declare that 
 God is a God of force, not of love; that the larg- 
 est development of life is to be found in self-will 
 and natural self-expression, not in love and self- 
 sacrifice; that the highest good is to be found in 
 domination over others, not in service for others. 
 At this point are to be found the clear, intellectual 
 and spiritual principles which are at the base of 
 all our thinking about the world war. The war is 
 fundamentally a conflict between two radically op- 
 posite conceptions of faith. Our enemies place 
 their faith in force and the ideal of selfish power. 
 A professor in a German theological seminary, one 
 who has written standard works of religion, has 
 confessed that his main work was not teaching the- 
 ology but instructing a group of young men from 
 Finland how to foment a revolution in the inter- 
 ests of the German Empire. The pitiful thing about 
 
LIVING IN FAITH 75 
 
 all this is that it was but a reflection of a concep- 
 tion of faith in the forces of wrong. 
 
 Another serious hindrance to the spread of Chris- 
 tian faith is the compromise of so called Christians 
 with a materialistic faith. Such people profess 
 to follow Jesus but actually live as non-Christians 
 live. They say they have faith in love, hu- 
 mility, sacrifice, but they act a faith in selfishness, 
 arrogance, greed. They seek financial gain, social 
 success, or selfish ease. Such people are practical 
 atheists. 
 
 There is not enough difference between the Chris- 
 tian and the man who is not a Christian. It is 
 reasonable to expect every follower of Jesus' way 
 of living to make his loyalty so evident that others 
 may tell by his boldness and power that he ''has 
 been with Jesus." In the ordinary social, business 
 and student relationships of life a Christian should 
 be a marked person. His standard and tone of 
 conversation, social ideal and habitual practice 
 ought to be a daily demonstration to all men of a 
 life lived according to Jesus' principles. 
 
 The Christian Church from the time of its very 
 early history has felt the need of putting into writ- 
 Writing ten form the chief elements of its con- 
 Uvin ception of Jesus' way of life. This ex- 
 
 Faith pression is known as a creed. A creed 
 
 is an expression of faith, in words. This form of 
 
7(i PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 expression is valuable and helpful as a bond for 
 holding believers together, as a method of defini- 
 tion, and as a means of instruction. Jesus presum- 
 ably never wrote out any statement of the essentials 
 of his way of living. ^ Many people have wondered 
 at this apparent oversight on his part. They de- 
 clare that if Jesus had written a creed, then all the 
 controversies and warfare over creeds would have 
 been avoided; and men would know for all time 
 just exactly what they ought to believe. But here, 
 as at all other points, Jesus is wiser than his critics. 
 He knew that the verbal expression of faith would 
 inevitably change from age to age^ but that the 
 vital expression of faith could never change. The 
 essential Christian virtues are ever the same, but 
 theological and philosophical explanations and 
 elaborations change with each upgrowing genera- 
 tion of thoughtful men. 
 
 In dealing with the essential principles of life 
 men do not first write, they act. Go back for a 
 moment to the previous illustration of the man 
 embarking on a new business venture. It could 
 easily be imagined that this man might sit down be- 
 fore he did anything else and write out his business 
 creed. He might make a statement something like 
 this: 'T, John Doe, about to go into a mercantile 
 business, hereby declare my business faith. I be- 
 lieve in my own ability to make a success of this 
 
LIVING IN FAITH yy 
 
 new undertaking; I believe this city needs a new 
 store; I believe in the integrity of manufacturers, 
 the truthfulness of salesmen and the honesty of 
 customers." But no one ever heard of a man do- 
 ing such a thing. What does he do? He rents a 
 building, purchases supplies, employs clerks and sells 
 goods, trusting in the honor of all the people in- 
 volved. He lives his business faith. He acts it 
 out before all men. All men know from his ac- 
 tions what his faith is. Likewise in the realm of 
 our religious faith it is valuable to formulate it into 
 words. It is absolutely necessary that it be ex- 
 pressed in deeds. Jesus never said, "By their 
 creeds ye shall know them," but He did say, *'By 
 their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 The disciples of Jesus and the members of the 
 early church lived their faith. They believed first 
 of all, in the spiritual presence of their Master in 
 their lives. In that faith they went forth to re- 
 generate the world. The freshness, enthusiasm and 
 power of the Apostolic Church have been the envy 
 and admiration of Christians ever since. The early 
 Christians possessed those qualities, so rare to- 
 day, because they had a conviction of the supreme 
 importance of living as Jesus had taught them to 
 live. They had a realization of the power Jesus 
 gave them to help them live their faith. That same 
 
yS PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 conviction and that same power men may have to- 
 da}^ if they wish it. 
 
 One of the searching questions Jesus asked was: 
 When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith 
 on the earth? (Luke i8:8.) Jesus wondered, as 
 he looked at the small response to his ministry, 
 what the future of his gospel was to be. He had 
 confidence in its ultimate supremacy because He 
 knew that Peter and James and John and others 
 would go out into the world, empowered by his 
 love, to live the life filled with his grace, the love of 
 God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. As 
 God looks at the present age, wasted by war, He 
 asks the same question, "Shall I find faith on the 
 earth?" Every faithful believer by his living faith 
 is an answer to that question. 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 Why is faith an indispensable quality of life? 
 What is the difference between faith as a common 
 quality in every day affairs and faith as a religious 
 thing? How far is religious faith instinctive and 
 how far acquired? Why did Jesus express faith 
 in terms of living rather than in written statement? 
 Which is easier? 
 
 Is it reasonable to expect people to practice the 
 principles of the Sermon on the Mount? Why 
 
LIVING IN FAITH 79 
 
 should a Christian maintain a higher grade of con- 
 versation, a higher social ideal and practice than one 
 who is not a Christian? Can you distinguish the 
 average person who is a Christian from one who is 
 not? What ought to- be the marks of distinction? 
 Does the social life of your community help or 
 hinder the finest kind of Christian living? 
 
 Write out in a few sentences the principles you 
 consider most important in the Christian life. 
 What are the greatest opposing forces to-day to 
 such a faith ? Why do you think Jesus never wrote 
 a statement of faith? What evidence can you give 
 that, in spite of war, the Christian faith is stronger 
 and more powerful than ever before? What move- 
 ments in business or political life indicate a deep- 
 ening faith in Jesus' ways of living? 
 
SACRIFICE 
 
VI 
 
 THAT THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE 
 DIED IN VAIN 
 
 Human life is declared to be the most valuable 
 and at the same time the cheapest thing in the 
 Valuations world. From the standpoint of human 
 on Life feeling life is most valuable. An indi- 
 
 vidual values his life above all other things and 
 self-preservation is one of the few primary instincts 
 of life. ''What shall a man give in exchange for 
 his life?" asks Jesus (Matt. 16:26). The implied 
 answer was that a man will give anything to pre- 
 serve his life. The lives of the members of a man's 
 family are beyond all estimated valuation. Money 
 cannot measure affection. Gold is no measure of 
 friendship. Love often is more valuable than life. 
 ''Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
 lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). 
 David mourned over the tragic and untimely death 
 of his wayward son: O my son Absolom, — would 
 God that I had died for thee (H Sam. 18 :33). The 
 law likewise places the highest values on life and 
 
 83 
 
84 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 the most severe penalties are imposed on crimes 
 against life. 
 
 On the other hand, life is apparently held very 
 cheaply in some relationships. In the industrial 
 world a definite monetary standard is set upon 
 the value of a man's life. It is said that in the 
 world of agriculture men take better care of their 
 stock than they do of their children. It is declared 
 to be a fact that in the United States to-day there 
 are more laws for the protection of cattle than 
 for the protection of children. It is encouraging 
 to know that our government has recently estab-- 
 lished a Bureau of Child Welfare in Washington to 
 make a study of methods of protecting the child 
 life of the nation. The long and bitter fights for 
 legislation against child labor in many of our state 
 legislatures is a revelation of the small value placed 
 on child life as compared with the accumulation of 
 wealth. Some men estimate the value of life ac- 
 cording to its length, others according to financial 
 and property acquisitions. It is common to hear 
 it said that Mr. A. is worth a million dollars while 
 Mr. B. is worth nothing. A recent theory is that 
 a man's life is worth a sum equal to the amount of 
 capital required to produce in interest what a man 
 receives in wages or salary. For example, a man 
 earning two thousand dollars a year would be 
 worth forty thousand dollars. All these problems 
 
NOT IN VAIN • 85 
 
 remind us of the question of Jesus to the Pharisees 
 
 — men who placed property above life : How much 
 
 then is a man of more value than a sheep! (Matt. 
 
 12 :i2.) 
 
 One of the most powerful influences growing up 
 
 out of the life and teachings of Jesus was a new 
 
 ^, valuation mven to human life. He 
 The ^ 
 
 Christian taught that each human life is of in- 
 
 Valuation ^^-^^ ^^j^^ .^^ ^j^^ ^j^j^^ ^f ^^^ ^-^^ -^ 
 
 valuable because in some very real though mysteri- 
 ous manner it shares in the Divine nature. Men are 
 "sons of God." God is the Father of all men — 
 of Gentiles, Greeks, Barbarians, Negroes, Indians. 
 The fatherhood of God implies the brotherhood of 
 man. From the day of Jesus to our own, life has 
 steadily increased in value in human thought. 
 Jesus taught the value of the life of a child, the life 
 of a woman, the Hfe of a slave. Wherever the 
 Gospel is preached childhood is viewed with a new 
 love, womanhood with a new honor, all men with 
 a new sense of respect. In their most glorious days 
 of political and artistic supremacy the Greeks ex- 
 posed infants to die upon the mountains and caused 
 aged people to be killed. But Jesus revealed to 
 mankind that little children belonged to the King- 
 dom of Heaven and that a man's love for his par- 
 ents of any age could be surpassed only l)y a de- 
 votion to Jesus Himself as Master of life. 
 
86 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 The Christian valuation of life is made in terms 
 of a Christ-like character. The most valuable life 
 is the one that is most Christ-like. The Christian 
 idea is that the highest goodness is expressed in 
 love — love to God and love to man. Jesus summed 
 it all up in his reference to the two great com- 
 mandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind — thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy 
 self (Matt. 22:37-38). 
 
 There is in many circles to-day a valuation of 
 life in terms not of character but of genius. Life 
 is worth what it can produce in artistic results. 
 The great thing in life is art, not character. The 
 great man is the one who can produce a remark- 
 able book, picture, statue or musical creation. 
 Moral character is placed in subordination tO' ar- 
 tistic genius. The evil practices of a man who 
 can produce some unusual work of art are excused 
 and condoned. 
 
 Men of our generation need to be called afresh 
 to a consideration of the Christian standards of 
 life's valuation and to the Christian methods of in- 
 creasing life's values. 
 
 A person's first duty is to be "good." The lack 
 of the essential qualities of a Christ-like character 
 makes the contributions of genius worthless in the 
 eternal computations of life. Though a man be 
 
NOT IN VAIN 87 
 
 able to write remarkable prose or poetry, though 
 he be able to paint masterpieces of art or write 
 marvellous music, and have not love, it profits him 
 nothing. Though he be a great scholar and ''know 
 all mysteries and all knowledge" and have not the 
 love that makes a pure soul it- profits him nothing. 
 Out of nearly two thousand years of human ex- 
 perience men have chosen as their ideal of life not 
 a great poet, or painter or musician, or king or 
 emperor, but one who exemplified as no other hu- 
 man being the ''goodness of God." 
 
 To sacrifice life means to offer it to God as an 
 expression of thanksgiving and gratitude. That 
 Love and ^^^^ ^^ worth the most which in the 
 Sacrifice fullest sense makes a constant effort to 
 give itself to God and tO' godly purposes. Life is 
 offered to God by seeking to make the life of man- 
 kind God-like. This is accomplished by trying to 
 lift men up to God. A life devoted to the service 
 of God and man subordinates and seeks to over- 
 come all base, selfish and commonplace elements. 
 Too often the elimination of the elements of lesser 
 valuation is considered to be the great element in 
 sacrifice. Sacrifice is regarded as giving up, as 
 self-repression, as denying oneself what one natu- 
 rally likes best. Sacrifice is not self -repression; it 
 is, on the contrary, the highest self-expression. In 
 the true sense of the word there is no idea of limi- 
 
88 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 tation or giving up in the idea of sacrifice. It is 
 rather the highest investment of life for the most 
 valuable returns. 
 
 The life of Jesus is the greatest example and 
 highest ideal of the most complete sacrificial life. 
 His daily life was a sacrifice, an offering tO' God 
 as an expression of love and devotion. His death 
 on the Cross was the natural climax of a life of 
 sacrifice, a part of his life plan. Yet in it all no 
 one can find the least suggestion in Jesus' words 
 that He considered his life a giving up; it was 
 rather a giving ''into" He always spoke of the 
 sacrifice of his life as an investment. He was al- 
 ways more conscious of the returns than of the 
 manner of the investment. He never intimated 
 that He was throwing his life away. He always 
 emphasized what He was living for and what He 
 was dying for. "The bread which I will give is my 
 flesh for the life of the world." ''I am come tlmt 
 they may have life." "For God so loved the world 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
 ever believeth on him should not perish but have 
 eternal life." 
 
 Sacrifice often means pain and persecution and 
 other forms of suffering. Many people look upon 
 these elements as central in sacrifice. They assert 
 that the value of a man's sacrifice is in proportion 
 to his suffering. This is not essential in sacrifice. 
 
NOT IN VAIN 89 
 
 Pain and suffering are incidental to sacrifice. In 
 order to accomplish the great investments of life a 
 man is ready to suffer anything it may cost. If 
 pain accompanies sacrifice it is patiently endured 
 as an incidental part of love's highest self-expres- 
 sion. The measure of sacrifice is not the pain but 
 the purpose. 
 
 The knovv^ledge of the millions of lives lost as a 
 result of the present v^orld conflict compels a 
 War and revaluation of the old estimates of the 
 Sacrifice worth of human life and the place of 
 sacrifice. The slaughter of men in warfare; the 
 brutal murder of innocent civilians, women and 
 children; wholesale massacres in some of the 
 smaller nations, make it harder than ever before to 
 believe that each life is of infinite worth in the sight 
 of God. Yet no human hatred, ruthless cruelty or 
 immeasurable suffering can shake the conviction of 
 this truth from the mind of the Christian. It re- 
 mains for us to try, under the guidance of the spirit 
 of Jesus, to see anew the value of a life invested in 
 the cause of righteousness and lasting peace. We 
 still believe that God values each one of us above 
 "many sparrows" and that ''the very hairs of our 
 head are all numbered." 
 
 The Christian idea of the sacredness and infinite 
 value of life suffers violence in the presence of the 
 awful loss of life and devastation of war. But the 
 
90 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 Christian should never fail to estimate correctly 
 the moral and spiritual accomplishments coming 
 from lives laid down in war. In the teaching of 
 Jesus it is not the loss of life that is impor- 
 tant, but how and why it was ''lost." If a life was 
 devoted to the ends of righteousness, it was not 
 lost but found. Life is of value not by reason of 
 its length in years but by reason of what it seeks to 
 contribute to the eternal welfare of mankind. A 
 life that goes out at the age of twenty-one, fight- 
 ing for righteousness, is worth infinitely more than 
 one that exists in selfish ease for three-score years 
 and ten. A young American soldier in France 
 wrote these lines : — - 
 
 "Better in one ecstatic epic day 
 To strike a blow for glory and for truth, 
 With ardent singing heart to toss away 
 In freedom's holy cause my eager youth, 
 Than bear, as weary years pass one by one. 
 The knowledge of a sacred task undone." 
 
 A poet wrote long ago — 
 
 *'We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
 We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 
 Life's but a means unto an end; that end 
 Beginning, mean, and end to all things: — God." 
 
NOT IN VAIN 91 
 
 The common habit of thought is to dwell upon 
 death as a thing in itself. The effort of Jesus was 
 to teach men to regard death only as a part of a 
 life purpose. A life spent in trying to make the 
 world into the Kingdom of God is a rich invest- 
 ment. The time or the manner of the close of the 
 effort is unimportant. Those at home share in- 
 timately in the life service of the young men — the 
 sons, brothers, friends who have gone to fight, to 
 suffer and to die in war. Every unselfish effort 
 for their welfare by those at home is an expression 
 of a sacred consecration to the ideals to which the 
 American soldiers are devoting themselves. The 
 spirit in which fathers, mothers and friends send 
 their soldiers away, their attitude during the shift- 
 ing fortunes of war, and their fortitude and faith 
 in the hours of suffering and death, are even 
 greater evidences of the sacrificial spirit. There is 
 often more sacrifice on the part of those who stay 
 at home than of those who go away to war. 
 
 There seems to be no lack of men who, with no 
 thought of personal comfort or safety, are willing 
 Forgetting ^^ SQTve the cause of righteousness 
 Oneself through warfare. The normal young 
 
 soldier speaks of his work with keen enthusiasm. 
 The drafted men, as a rule, glory in their new op- 
 portunities of sacrifice. All are beginning to get 
 the great vision of social responsibility and the 
 
92 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 realization of the cost of a just and lasting peace. 
 Many are learning the rich rewards of discipline 
 and hardships. The modern peaceful civilized life 
 has made men too comfortable, selfish and easy 
 going. The war is bringing out their heroic quali- 
 ties. 
 
 William James wrote of the need of a moral 
 equivalent for war. Jesus gave such an equivalent 
 to men, but few have been able to see it. He called 
 men to consecrate themselves wholly and to train 
 themselves for the service of bringing into human 
 life the Kingdom of God. The secret of true sac- 
 rifice is self-forgetfulness. "Love seeketh not its 
 own," said Paul. Here, likewise, is the modern in- 
 terpretation of the words of Jesus: He that find- 
 eth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life 
 for my sake shall find it. Would not Jesus say to 
 men to-day: He that thinks about himself shall 
 miss the meaning of his life and he that forgets 
 himself for my sake shall discover the meaning of 
 his life? 
 
 , One of the marvellous ministries of war is that 
 it teaches men how to forget themselves. A chap- 
 lain in the British Army told of a young soldier, 
 who, before going into the army, had thought only 
 of himself, his silk socks, the style of his clothes, 
 his money and his revels. Now he is a platoon 
 commander thinking of everybody but himself, 
 
NOT IN VAIN 93 
 
 ready at any moment to fling his life away if neces- 
 sary, to perform any service for his men. This is 
 but one of unnumbered stories of this kind. There 
 are surely enough great opportunities for war serv- 
 ice and for relieving the suffering of mankind to 
 lift the most self-centered person out of his selfish- 
 ness. Should we allow the attacks of an enemy 
 to spur us to greater endeavor than does the call of 
 Jesus to serve a world ever in need of the healing 
 ministry of love? 
 
 The greatest incentive to self -forgetful service 
 has been the sacrificing love of Jesus Christ. Paul 
 said: "The love of Christ constraineth us," and 
 again he declares his inspiration to have come from 
 ''the Son of God who loved me and gave himself 
 for me." In this day, with its call to great sacrifices, 
 who can measure the value of his life without the 
 measuring rod of the eternal purposes of God for 
 the world? Happy is the man or woman who can 
 invest his or her life in the Kingdom of God. 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 How did Jesus' valuation of life differ from that 
 of the ancient world? How far is our valuation of 
 life to-day, Christian? Contrast our care of the 
 sick and old with our child labor and poor laws. 
 What responsibility has the individual citizen for 
 
94 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 all life ? What significance in a democracy has char- 
 acter as the test of the value of a life? 
 
 How far are Jesus' teaching and example re- 
 garding sacrifice applicable to present day condi- 
 tions ? Do suffering and pain always go with sac- 
 rifice? Is there any religious or spiritual value in 
 pain as an end in itself ? Was the Puritan attitude 
 toward pain and pleasure the right one? Why? 
 How should Christian heroism differ from the 
 stoicism of the Greeks? 
 
 What are the best means for bringing out in 
 every day life the heroic qualities latent in every 
 man and woman? A speaker made an appeal to 
 a company of young people for volunteers for mis- 
 sionary service by picturing the interesting, attrac- 
 tive features of missionary life. Was this the best 
 method? If giving one's life for a righteous and 
 lasting peace is a spiritual service, why should there 
 l>e ''conscientious objectors"? Is a Christian ever 
 justified in speaking of the things he "gives up" in 
 connection with some so-called self-sacrificing serv- 
 ice? What is our responsibility for not wasting 
 the results of others' sacrifice? What will it mean 
 to us ''that these dead shall not have died in vain" ? 
 
INDIGNATION 
 
VII 
 CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION 
 
 One of the most frequent characteristics of God 
 mentioned by the writers of the Old Testament is 
 ^, that of anger. On almost every occa- 
 
 Anger sion the sin of the Hebrew people and 
 
 the wrong-doing of the individual 
 arouses anger in God. Adam sensed it as he hid 
 himself among the trees of the garden. Abraham 
 felt it as he pleaded for the salvation of Sodom. 
 Moses felt it constantly as he tried to lead a rebel- 
 lious people. The prophet and the psalmist again 
 and again give expression to this feeling in God to- 
 ward the iniquity of man. 
 
 In the New Testament the fatherly love of God 
 is the guiding principle, but the rejection of that 
 love involves a punishment and retribution sent by 
 a God who has no tender feelings toward sin. The 
 writer of the Apocalypse, exalting the power and 
 majesty of Jesus, calls attention to the "wrath of 
 the Lamb." Time was when anger on the part of 
 God was viewed as similar to anger in man. It 
 
 97 
 
98 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 was a characteristic that expressed itself in taking 
 vengeance on evil doers. A deeper insight into this 
 subject has led thoughtful and sympathetic students 
 to believe rather that God's anger is but a mani- 
 festation of this love, an effort to make men see the 
 awful condemnation He has placed upon sin, and 
 his desire to save men both from sin and its con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Love that is truly complete is characterized by 
 severity as well as gentleness. An indulgent par- 
 ent is a serious handicap to any child. The love 
 that only condones, shields and excuses wrong-doing 
 in a child is a false love. It displays a serious 
 weakness in the character of the parent. Paul gave 
 expression to a more adequate understanding of 
 the nature of God when he wrote: Behold the 
 goodness and the severity of God; toward them 
 that fall, severity; but toward thee God's good- 
 ness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise 
 thou also shalt be cut off (Rom. 11:22). It seems 
 reasonably clear, therefore, that there is in God a 
 quality of intense indignation against evil, which 
 is one of the expressions of his love for man, how- 
 ever contradictory these qualities may appear to 
 be. There is a limit to the forbearance of God. 
 "Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, 
 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 
 7:21). Man must not forget that persistent and 
 
CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION 99 
 
 unrepentant sin receives the most severe condemna- 
 tion from a just and loving God. 
 
 The general conception of the character of Jesus 
 has been very inadequate. The qualities of gentle- 
 ness and submissiveness have been 
 The In- over-emphasized. A careful study of 
 of Jesus the Gospels clearly reveals the other 
 side in his nature. He had an intense 
 feeling against sin in all its forms. He had a fear- 
 less courage in expressing his feelings. At times 
 He gives expression to the spirit of deepest in- 
 dignation. 
 
 a. He displayed his indignation v^ith the men 
 who were without sympathy for the unfortunate: 
 ''And he entered again into the synagogue. And 
 there was a man there which had his hand with- 
 ered. And they (the Pharisees) watched him, 
 whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, 
 that they might accuse him. And he saith unto 
 the man that had his hand withered. Stand forth. 
 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath 
 day to do good or to do harm? To save life or to 
 kill ? But they held their peace. And when he had 
 looked round about on them with anger, being 
 grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he saith 
 unto the man. Stretch forth thy hand. And he 
 stretched it forth, and his hand was restored" (Mark 
 3: 1-5). 
 
100 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 b. He was indignant against men who used re- 
 ligion as a cloak for sin : ''Beware of the scribes 
 which desire tO' walk in long robes, and love saluta- 
 tions in the market places, and chief seats in the 
 synagogues, and chief seats at feasts, which de- 
 vour widows' houses and for a pretense make long 
 prayers : these shall receive greater condemnation" 
 (Luke 20:45-47). 
 
 c. He was indignant toward the rich who were 
 unmindful of the poor. He followed the striking 
 story of Dives and Lazarus with the intense appli- 
 cation : "It is impossible but that occasions for 
 stumbling should come ; but woe unto him through 
 whom they come. It were well for him if a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck and he were 
 thrown into the sea" (Luke 17:1-3). 
 
 d. He was indignant with men who were graft- 
 ers. That indignation he expressed by quick and 
 vigorous action : ''And he made a scourge of cords, 
 and cast all out of the temple, both sheep and oxen, 
 and he poured out the changers' money, and over- 
 threw their tables, and to them that sold doves he 
 said. Take these things hence; make not my Fath- 
 er's house a house of merchandise" (John 2:13- 
 
 16). 
 
 These illustrations of his capacity for indigna- 
 tion only add to the greatness of his character. 
 There is underneath it all the deep desire to lift 
 
CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION loi 
 
 men out of their sinful condition. He realized that 
 this could never be done without giving expression 
 to his abhorrence of sin and without a picture of 
 its terrible results. At the same time there is no in- 
 dication of any spirit of hate or revenge. Intense 
 as his feeling is, he keeps it always on the high 
 plane of God's love and fatherly interest in men. 
 George H. Morrison wrote: "We have heard much 
 of the geniality of Jesus, and of the depth and 
 range of his compassions ; nor can we ever exagger- 
 ate, in warmest language, the genial and generous 
 aspect of his character. But it is well that the lis- 
 tening ear should be attuned to catch the sterner 
 music of that life, lest, missing it, we miss the fine 
 severity which goes to the perfecting of moral 
 beauty." 
 
 True indignation arises from a clear distinction 
 between right and wrong. This is at the basis of 
 
 , the Old Testament idea of the anger of 
 Sources of . , twt ^ 
 
 a True In- God and the New Testament concep- 
 dignation ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ indignation of Jesus. If 
 sin and evil can be seen in the right light and under- 
 stood in their true relations, they will always arouse 
 a righteous antagonism in the hearts of good men. 
 There is evident among many people to-day a seri- 
 ous inability to make these clear distinctions. There 
 are those who consider it a virtue to take an easy- 
 going attitude toward sin and to be apologetic to- 
 
102 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 ward evil. They declare, 'There is so much bad in 
 the best of us and so much good in the worst of us, 
 that it does not behoove any of us to criticize the 
 rest of us." There is a crying need to-day of a 
 new sensitiveness to evil that will arouse men's 
 vigorous antagonism against it. Dr. W. E. Or- 
 chard wrote: ''It is said that the moral fiber of 
 an age can be tested by its readiness to take fire at 
 injustice, cruelty, or evil. Observers of our own 
 times sometimes doubt whether this characteristic 
 is just so strong among us as a healthy condition 
 would demand. Awful as this manifestation some- 
 times is, there is hope for the future only if there 
 is a capacity in man for righteous indignation that 
 no tyrant or cynic shall dare to awake. Without 
 that we should be sold into slavery in a decade. 
 Indeed, men draw hope from the fact that all over 
 the world nations and classes long subservient under 
 misrule and injustice are beginning to demand that 
 these things shall end." 
 
 It may be a part of the discipline of these hor- 
 rors of war that men are helped to see right and 
 wrong more clearly and to have their feelings cor- 
 respondingly aroused. A mother whose son was 
 drafted into the army was bitterly rebellious against 
 the war, the army and the government. At length 
 there came to her attention the terrible stories of 
 the enemy atrocities. Then she said, "I am glad 
 
CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION 103 
 
 to give my son for the purpose of making such 
 horrors impossible in the future.'' Once her in- 
 dignation was aroused her whole mental attitude 
 was changed. 
 
 Many of our great men who have done some of 
 the most significant things for the uplift of man- 
 kind have, at some one time, been stirred into feel- 
 ings of great indignation by the harsh and evil 
 conditions around them. Indignation was one of 
 the springs of their action. Moses was aroused by 
 the sight of the cruel oppression of his race by the 
 Eg}^ptians. When Martin Luther went to Rome 
 he was shocked by the worldliness and corruption 
 of the church. That impression was one of the 
 influences that impelled him in his struggle for a 
 free church. The young Abraham Lincoln, seeing 
 the cruelty of slavery and burning with indigna- 
 tion, said, *Tf ever I get a chance to hit that thing, 
 I will hit it hard." That feeling never left him, 
 and enabled him when the time came to hit it hard. 
 John Bright was aroused from his own deep sor- 
 row following the death of his young wife, by the 
 sight of women and children of England starving 
 because of the iniquitous corn laws. John Howard 
 began the revolution in the prison systems of the 
 civilized world when aroused by the sight and 
 knowledge of the shocking prison conditions of his 
 day. Phillips Brooks said, ''The streana of simple 
 
104 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 indignation against evil and of love for righteous- 
 ness, when it is absolutely fresh and pure, is the 
 most strong and persistent power in the world." 
 Truly before action goes indignation. 
 
 In many respects we are treading on dangerous 
 ground in the discussions of this problem. There 
 Danger ^^^ certain points of special danger at 
 
 Points which a warning is necessary. Care 
 
 must be taken to be certain that indignation is not 
 personal. Most people are aroused to feelings of 
 indignation only by personal attacks, slights or 
 fancied injuries. Many people mistake temper for 
 indignation. ''Hot temper," writes Dr. Jowett, *'is 
 a firing of loose powder upon a shovel, it is just a 
 flare, an annoyance, and a danger. But hot in- 
 dignation is powder concentrated in the muzzle of 
 a gun and intelligently directed to the overthrow of 
 some stronghold of iniquity. Hot temper is the 
 fire of the devil. Hot indignation is the fire of 
 God." 
 
 Personal anger and indignation find expression 
 in a spirit of hatred and revenge. True indigna- 
 tion at evil may be felt and applied without any 
 feelings of revengeful hatred. That is the reason 
 why Lincoln after the Civil War refused to con- 
 sider any of the plans for revenge and retribution 
 on the South urged by many men in the North who 
 hated the. South. He said, ''Let down the bars. 
 
CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION 105 
 
 scare them off." That is the reason why the United 
 States can go into this war without singing any 
 Hymn of Hate. That is the reason why Edith 
 Cavell could face the German firing squad and 
 calmly say, 'T realize that patriotism is not enough. 
 I must have no hatred or bitterness toward any 
 one." 
 
 In spite of the fact that we are at war with Ger- 
 many, President Wilson could say as an expression 
 not only of his own convictions, but also of the 
 feelings of the American people, 'Tt will be all the 
 easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents 
 in a high spirit of right and fairness because we 
 act without animus, not in enmity toward a people 
 or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvan- 
 tage upon them." 
 
 Another danger against which we need to be on 
 guard is lest our indignation be used only at long 
 range. It is easy to be indignant at evils of a world 
 war, at the sins of our enemies, and to be utterly 
 indifferent to the wrongs of our own country, city or 
 social circles. It is very easy to be indignant at the 
 sins of other people and unconscious of our own. 
 Nathan the Prophet brought this solemn truth home 
 to David in the parable of the one ewe lamb. David 
 was very indignant at the story of the rich man, 
 who robbed a poor man of his one lamb but had no 
 feelings of self-condemnation for stealing another 
 
io6 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 man's wife (II Samuel 12 : 1-7). Jesus also warned 
 against this danger in the parable of the unmerciful 
 servant in which the servant forgiven by the man 
 higher up is brutally indignant at the man lower 
 down (Matt. 18:23-30). Jesus again gave a warn- 
 ing in the passage: ''And why beholdest thou the 
 mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not 
 the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt 
 thou say to thy brother, Let me cast the mote out 
 of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?" 
 (Matt. 7:3-4). 
 
 There is need also of guarding lest our indigna- 
 tion become weakened and destroyed by opposition, 
 hardship or apparent defeat. Life, viewed as a 
 whole, is a battle between the forces of good and 
 evil. Whosoever fights for righteousness is sure to 
 be brought into painful opposition to people who 
 are interested in unrighteousness. Friendship may 
 have to be sacrificed. Defeat may sometimes be the 
 result of the most noble and faithful efforts. Jesus' 
 indignation against evil which separated men from 
 God, his Father, brought Him to the cross. He 
 did not promise any of his followers an easy time. 
 He declared, "A servant is not greater than his 
 lord. If they persecuted me, they will also perse- 
 cute you." Christian indignation necessitates a 
 Christian endurance. It is at this point that the in- 
 dignation of many fails to be effective. There are 
 
CHRISTIAN INDIGNATION 107 
 
 too few who are willing to suffer any hardship re- 
 sulting from an open conflict with evil or opposi- 
 tion to popular but unworthy ideas. The effort 
 of the average person is to be diplomatic, tactful; 
 to get along quietly and peaceably rather than to 
 say or do anything that would cause trouble or 
 arouse opposition. True indignation never makes 
 moral compromises for the sake of comfort or 
 popularity. The intensity of our indignation is one 
 of the measures of our Christian love. 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 How does the quality of indignation in the char- 
 acter of Jesus harmonize with his gentleness, love, 
 and forgiving spirit? What things was He in- 
 dignant at? Does this matter? Why? Can this 
 spirit be reconciled with his precept to "love your 
 enemies and pray for them that persecute you"? 
 Why does the personal element in indignation 
 weaken it? 
 
 Can you see the distinction between a righteous 
 war and an unrighteous peace? Think of examples 
 of men and women to-day who, moved by a great 
 indignation, are changing evil conditions in political 
 and social life in America. How true is it that large 
 natures always have large capacities for indigna- 
 tion ? 
 
io8 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 Paul said, Be ye angry and sin not. How is this 
 to be practically carried out in every-day life? Try 
 to analyze your own attitude to sin and evil. Is it 
 easy-going, sentimental, excusing, or is it a clear- 
 cut, vigorous spirit of opposition? How far is 
 your relation to vital moral problems determined 
 by a desire to be popular, to avoid trouble, and to 
 get along as best you can? What is our responsi- 
 bility to make our righteous indignation effective 
 against unrighteousness in the world to-day? At 
 what point should gentleness, tact and diplomacy 
 be abandoned for sterner measures? When should 
 moral compromise end ? 
 
THE WORD 
 
VIII 
 THE WORD AND THE SWORD 
 
 The writer of The Epistle to the Hebrews, in one 
 of his most impressive passages declared : 'The 
 Power of Word of God is living and active, and 
 the Word sharper than any two-edged sword, 
 piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of 
 both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). 
 The force and significance of those words are bet- 
 ter understood when the circumstances of the first 
 readers are known. The author was probably writ-, 
 ing to a small band of Christians in the imperial 
 city of Rome, the center of an empire won and gov- 
 erned by the sword. The sword was the all power- 
 ful, ever present force in society. The soldier was 
 the most important and most desirable citizen. The 
 power of the sword had made the empire, destroyed 
 the enemies of the state, reduced powerful peoples 
 to slavery, and assured the everlasting security of 
 the government. 
 
 In the presence of this mighty force, the small 
 III 
 
112 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 band of Christian disciples seemed powerless. They 
 had seen the keen edge of the sword laid upon the 
 necks of their faithful fellow believers and the 
 point driven into their breasts. The Christians had 
 been persecuted and martyred by an unfriendly, 
 mihtary imperialism. In the face of such peril and 
 persecution and death there were some members 
 of the early church in Rome who had lost their 
 faith and had gone back to paganism. Many others 
 were struggling against the mighty temptation to 
 surrender in the contest that was so unequal and 
 that promised them nothing but defeat. To these 
 wavering, discouraged and tempted men and women 
 in the imperial city, the writer of this letter holds 
 forth a helping hand. 
 
 He makes some startling assertions. He declares 
 that things are not what they seem to be. The most 
 powerful weapon was not the sword of the soldier 
 but the word of God. What did he mean by the 
 ''Word of God"? Primarily, he meant the truth 
 as it had been revealed to thoughtful and reverent 
 men. Much of that "Word" was contained in the 
 scripture. The Old Testament was regarded by 
 the members of the early church as an authoritative 
 source for divine will. To the followers of Jesus, 
 his own words had come to have a new and indis- 
 putable authority. These words had not superseded 
 the authority of the law and the prophets. They 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD I13 
 
 were supplementary to that source of wisdom/ 
 Jesus came "not to destroy but to fulfil." Jesus had 
 declared that He was the Truth; that his words 
 were truth. 
 
 In addition to these sources of the "Word" there 
 was the continued influence of Jesus through the 
 Holy Spirit which "should lead them into all truth." 
 The early Christians also had a conviction that the 
 divine word of truth was still further revealed 
 through the individual experience of the holy men 
 of the age. The man whose Hfe was an example 
 of Christ-like living was a revelation of the power 
 of the "Word." Paul declared to his friends in 
 Corinth : Ye are our epistle known and read of 
 all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle 
 of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink^ 
 but with the spirit of the living God (II Cor. 3 :2-3). 
 In general then the "Word" was the recognized 
 plan and purpose of love and redemption for the 
 world, a plan revealed through many agencies, a 
 plan to be carried out under God's direction through 
 the willing cooperation of men and women on the 
 earth. 
 
 The word of God was a truth, conviction, hope, 
 an individual experience of the presence and helping 
 power of the eternal God in human life. 
 
 This mighty conviction of the significance o£ life 
 became a powerful weapon in the hands of the 
 
114 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 members of the early church and it has been such 
 in the hands of the followers of Christ ever since. 
 The Word of God is a weapon for per- 
 Weaponof sonal defense against sin. Like the 
 Defense sword it is a weapon for hand-to-hand 
 fighting. The hardest fighting is at close range. In 
 modern warfare the long range artillery fire is a 
 very important feature, but it does not win battles. 
 The decisive movements are made by infantry going 
 over the top. The hard fighting is with the bayonet, 
 hand-to-hand. For members of the Christian 
 church at Rome the most dangerous enemies of the 
 faith were not militarism or paganism but the foes 
 of the spirit. In any age the seductive power of 
 indulgence, the intrigues of envy, the suffocating 
 gases of fear are more perilous than the onslaughts 
 of the sword. The sword attacks the body ; sin at- 
 tacks the soul. The Word of God is the keen- 
 edged weapon with which to vanquish these wily 
 and powerful enemies. Jesus in his hour of tempta- 
 tion grasped and wielded with masterful skill the 
 Word of God. Each assault of temptation was 
 met with a truth, an individual experience of the 
 Living God. 'Tt is written — man shall not live by 
 bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out 
 of the mouth of God." "Thou shalt worship the 
 Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." 
 On man^ other occasions Jesus revealed a most 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD 115 
 
 familiar knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures, 
 wherein were related the experiences of men who 
 knew God. That knowledge was to him a constant 
 weapon of defense. John Bunyan in "Pilgrim's 
 Progress" gives the picture of Christian overcom- 
 ing his terrifying enemy Apollyon with the sword of 
 the Word of God. *ln atl these things we are more 
 than conquerors through him that loved us." When 
 Martin Luther was climbing on his knees the holy 
 stairs in Rome, struggling with enemies of the 
 spirit within and without, there came to his aid the 
 words of scripture. "The just shall live by faith." 
 With that conviction as a weapon he went home to 
 cut the Bible from the chains attaching it to the pil- 
 lars in the monasteries and placed its words on the 
 tongue and in the heart of every common man. 
 Abraham Lincoln knew how to use the Word of 
 God. Roosevelt said of Lincoln, "He was a man 
 of one book — the Bible." The climax of the Sec- 
 ond Inaugural ends with a thrust of the sword of 
 the Word: "Yet, if God wills that the war con- 
 tinue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's 
 two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
 be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
 the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the 
 sword, as was said three thousand years ago, still 
 it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are 
 true and righteous altogether.' " 
 
Ii6 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 There is a surgery of conscience in which the 
 Word is the cutting instrument, piercing even 
 ,p. to the dividing of soul and spirit, and 
 
 Surgery quick to discern the thousrhts and in- 
 
 of Truth 
 
 tents of the heart. No man knows the 
 power of truth if it does not cause him pain. If the 
 Word of God does not reveal to a man his own sins, 
 mistakes and follies in such a way as to make the 
 heart ache and the spirit groan with confession and 
 repentance there is something wrong with the moral 
 nervous system. 
 
 A young medical missionary in Africa suddenly 
 struck his foot against the sharp end of a chair. 
 The blow that should have hurt severely was not 
 felt and he knew instantly that something was 
 wrong. Sitting down on the floor he probed the 
 spot with a surgical needle and found that a con- 
 siderable surface of his flesh was without sensi- 
 bility. The course of a deadly African paralysis 
 had begun in his body! In a similar fashion in- 
 sensibility tO' the Word of God is the evidence of 
 moral and spiritual paralysis. A vigorous opposi- 
 tion often arises against any truth which cuts into 
 the moral nature and reveals therein the malignant 
 evils. 
 
 Some people resent the application of tnith 
 through the preaching of the pulpit, when it hits 
 personal sins. A sermon is considered by too many 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD 117 
 
 people to be a source of pleasant stimulating instruc- 
 tion, a means of helping the hearer to "feel better." 
 On the contrary sermons ought more often to par- 
 take of the nature of a surgical operation. People 
 ought to go away from church occasionally with a 
 new and painful consciousness of their moral and 
 spiritual sickness and a feeling that a severe yet 
 healing service has been rendered to them. 
 
 Life's desperate soul maladies can be cured only 
 by the surgery of truth. Happy is the man who is 
 willing to suffer pain, yea, more, who' chooses it 
 because it means the ultimate restoration of life tO' 
 normal power. The Word carries, with all its pain- 
 giving qualities, a certain cure for the maladies of 
 the soul. After the evil has been cut out the Word 
 restores again what the Psalmist called "the joy of 
 thy free spirit." Through its ministry, "saving 
 health" is given. 
 
 The Word was the most powerful weapon of of- 
 fense against a hostile world. Jesus did not in- 
 The struct his disciples simply with the tac- 
 
 Weaponof ties of a defensive warfare with evil. 
 He taught them how to conduct the of- 
 fensive. He went Himself travelling about the re- 
 gions of Palestine carrying the word of truth. He 
 sent out the seventy disciples to do the same. His 
 final commission to his own disciples and to those 
 of all ages was, "Go ye into all the world and 
 
ii8 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 preach the gospel to every creature." What the 
 world needed was a change of mind. Jesus ex- 
 pected his disciples to do this through the wit- 
 ness of their lives and preaching. A world gone 
 wrong through false and imperfect knowledge of 
 truth could be made right only by a presentation of 
 the truth that could be understood and practiced. 
 Most people talk so habitually and so easily that 
 they fail to realize the power of speech. Few real- 
 ize how impressionable and how easily influenced 
 by speech the average person is. Jesus realized 
 these facts in human nature and he sent his disciples 
 out to talk their way around the world ! The most 
 powerful weapon of offense in his warfare against 
 evil was the Word of God. Peter went talking 
 about Jerusalem, Paul went talking to Athens, Cor- 
 inth, Ephesus and Rome. Christian missionaries 
 in every age have gone first into the adjacent coun- 
 tries, and finally to every corner of the globe, armed 
 only with the weapon of the Word. In Jesus' 
 thought the Word was not only the weapon of the 
 truth, it was the only abiding fact of life. ^'Heaven 
 and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not 
 pass away" (Matt. 24:35). 
 
 There is a striking similarity between the Chris- 
 tians in Rome in the first century and the Christians 
 in America to-day. In a time and place where the 
 sword seemed to be all powerful, men were asked to 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD 119 
 
 The Word believe that the most powerful weapon 
 Sword ^ was the Word of God. In our day there 
 
 To-day is painfully evident a new revival of 
 
 the power of the sword. The sway of the sword 
 in this generation causes the militant imperialism 
 of Rome to seem insignificant. Where would the 
 Roman legions of the Emperor Domitian stand in 
 comparison with the forty millions under arms in 
 the world to-day? There are people who in view 
 of the present revival of militarism declare that for 
 once the sword is more powerful than the Word. 
 They ask, has not the Word failed to stop the havoc 
 wrought by the sword? Have not the peace mis- 
 sions failed? Let us see. 
 
 The sword to-day has multiplied itself into a 
 multitude of destructive agencies of awful power. 
 There is the colossal machinery of war organiza- 
 tion; there are machine guns, submarines, aero- 
 planes; there are great industrial enterprises en- 
 tirely commanded by the power of the sword ; there 
 are guns of magic size and carrying power which 
 make the marvellous fables of old seem stories of 
 simple reality ! 
 
 In the face of all these indisputable facts, the 
 Christian still has the faith to believe that even 
 now the Word is more powerful than the sword! 
 He believes that the truth is mightier than armies, 
 empires, battlefields, liquid fire, poison gas and 
 
120; PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 long range cannon. Earth may pass away with its 
 empires, its ambitions, its chemical discoveries, but 
 Christ's word shall never pass away ! 
 
 There are many movements that make this con- 
 viction more than a faith. In Russia to-day the 
 
 word is mightier than the sword. There 
 In Russia , ,. , • i • 
 
 and IS nO' escapmg the tact that socialistic 
 
 Germany propaganda in Russia robbed the sword 
 of its power. What are intelligent people to-day 
 watching and studying with greatest care? It is 
 the minds of the peoples of the warring nations. 
 The greatest study to-day is not military tactics but 
 human psychology! Even in Germany the word 
 of truth is more feared than the onslaughts of the 
 sword. Two British airmen flew over a certain sec- 
 tion of Germany and dropped literature about the 
 true principles underlying the war and some of the 
 facts of the military situation. These airmen 
 dropped not bombs of explosives, but bombs of 
 truth. ■ In the fortunes of war these two British 
 aviators were captured. Under the ordinary mili- 
 tary procedure they would have been interned in a 
 prison camp. But these men were tried by court 
 martial arid sentenced to ten years of solitary con- 
 finement in prison. Why this severe punishment? 
 Were their bombs especially dangerous to the Ger- 
 man soldier or civilian? Not at all. But the truths 
 which their bombs released were dangerous to the 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD 121 
 
 reigning dynasty, dangerous to imperialism and 
 autocracy! Truth in the mind is more effective 
 than a bullet in the brain. 
 
 The Word is more powerful than the sword be- 
 cause in every case the sword is the tool of the idea. 
 The Agent ^^ ^^^^^y ^^ ^^e weapon of a wrong or an 
 of an Idea evil idea ; of lust, of greed, selfishness, 
 autocratic power, ambition for world dominion. 
 The sword must become, sometimes, the weapon in 
 the hands of men driven by right ideas, by love of 
 humanity, human freedom, world brotherhood. The 
 sword does not settle the problems that drive men 
 to war, but it does prepare the way so that in the 
 end the power of truth may have a reasonable op- 
 portunity to grow into a place of supremacy. The 
 Revolutionary War did not settle the problem of 
 freedom ; but it did give the idea of freedom a new 
 opportunity to vindicate itself. The Civil War did 
 not establish human brotherhood, but it has given 
 to the black man and the white a free field for work- 
 ing out the ideals of brotherhood. There are few 
 who believe that as a result of the war any world 
 wide democracy will be immediately established, 
 but men do believe that the way will be prepared 
 by the sword so that the Word of truth regarding 
 right principles of human government may be real- 
 ized more and more on the earth. 
 
 The Word is more powerful than the sword be- 
 
122 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 cause it is by truth and by ideals that the world will 
 be and must be governed after the war. War is 
 After ^^^^ ^^^ normal state of life among men. 
 
 the War Unless the rule of truth and ideals can 
 be established there is nothing to look forward 
 to but perpetual warfare and the ultimate extinc- 
 tion of the human race. It is in the realization of 
 this fact that we turn with new faith to the Word 
 of truth as revealed to us by Jesus Christ. Men 
 have discovered nothing in all human history that 
 so surely and completely offers a solution for the 
 problems of world wide, international relationships 
 as Jesus' principle of good will. Heaven and earth 
 may pass away but this truth will not pass away. 
 
 Mr. J. S. MacDonald, editor of the Toronto 
 Globe, said recently to a college audience : ''My 
 most earnest pleading is for the preparedness of 
 all our peoples in the things of the mind. The 
 army? Yes. The navy? Yes. Fill up the ranks of 
 the khaki and the blue. But when our bullets and 
 our bayonets have done their fullest part, there will 
 still be a call for leadership in schools and churches 
 and parliaments of the world. The desolated war 
 nations will call, as never before, for policies and 
 programs that make for truth in our diplomacy and 
 for integrity in our politics. From you and from 
 class rooms like yours must go out that leadership 
 of social good will and that law of international 
 
THE WORD AND THE SWORD 123 
 
 service, in which alone is the hope of Europe's 
 redemption, and through which alone can come en- 
 during peace for the world." 
 
 We believe in the ultimate supremacy of the 
 Word because behind it is the wisdom and eternal 
 The purpose of God. Behind the sword is 
 
 oMhe"'^''^ only the frail mind and fleshy arm of 
 Word man. The sword alone does not insure 
 
 final triumph for the Word, but the Word does 
 promise final victory over the sword. The sword 
 does not make truth strong so much as truth makes 
 the sword strong. Our faith to-day must in the 
 last analysis be not in our limitless material re- 
 sources nor in our potential skill in warfare, but in 
 a power "living and active," mightier than all these 
 elements : 
 
 "The arm of flesh will fail you, 
 Ye dare not trust your own." 
 
 Our faith is in God who works in and through 
 the ambitions of empires and the tides of battle and 
 in the end "causes the wrath of man to praise him." 
 
 A small band of Christians in the days of Rome's 
 mighty imperialism had faith that the Word was 
 mightier than the sword. That fact, handed down 
 from age to age, has witnessed the rvisting of the 
 Roman's sword and the complete decay of that im- 
 perial glory, but the Word has gone on conquering 
 
124 PATRIOTISM AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 and is to conquer. Little by little it is building the 
 Kingdom of God in the lives of men. It remains 
 for the millions of Christians in the world to-day to 
 view the new onslaughts of the sword in the same 
 triumphant faith and to make every effort to speed 
 the Word on its healing and saving mission in the 
 world. 
 
 For Study and Discussion 
 
 What is truth? Why the wide differences in 
 man's understanding of the truth? Why should the 
 scriptures have been called through long years ''The 
 Word of God"? Why did John call Jesus ''the 
 Word" ? Compare the two expressions of man's 
 experience of the living God. Recall instances dur- 
 ing the war when men have proved that they were 
 more afraid of ideas than of guns. Why should 
 ideas be more dangerous than a sword? 
 
 Why is the average Christian not more effective 
 as a propagandist of "the Word"? What is the 
 place of Christian propaganda in establishing a new 
 social order? How shall the church bring its in- 
 fluence to bear on the problems of international 
 diplomacy and the terms of peace? What is the 
 bearing of the program of missionary agencies on 
 this question? Are we going forward to-day with 
 as triumphant a conviction of the power of the 
 Word as did the early Christians? 
 
p„„,e,on Theolog.cal Sern,nary-Sp«r Ubjary 
 
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