1 BV 639 .B7 H9 1914 Hughes, Edwin Holt, 1866- A boy's religion BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR THANKSGIVIMG SERMONS. izmo. Net, $i.oo LETTERS ON EVANGELISM. i6mo. Net, 1$ cents ; paper, i$ cents A BOY'S RELIGION BY MAY H 1915 yy EDWIN HOLT HUGHES ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1914, by EDWIN HOLT HUGHES TO MY FRIEND IN YOUTH AND MANHOOD, THE REVEREND MILLARD PELL, AN EXEMPLAR OF A BOY'S RELIGION, A MAN'S RELIGION, A PASTOR'S RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN BOYS. CONTENTS PART ONE— THE BOY PAGE I. The Real Boy 15 II. A Boy's Seeking 20 III. A Boy's Working 25 IV. A Boy's Experience 31 V. A Boy's Carelessness 37 VI. A Boy's Consistency 41 PART TWO— THE PARENT VII. Evangelistic Parents 49 VIII. Evangelistic Atmosphere 54 IX. Evangelistic Unity 59 X. Evangelistic Good News 64 XI. Evangelistic Warnings 69 XII. Evangelistic Intercession 75 PART THREE— THE PASTOR XIII. Pastoral Foresight 83 XIV. Pastoral Interest 88 XV. Pastoral Sacrifice 93 PART FOUR— THE TEACHER XVI. The Teacher's Character loi XVII. The Teacher's Knowledge 107 XVIII. The Teacher's Purpose 113 FOREWORD The simple chapters that com- pose this booklet were written orig- inally for the Classmate on the invitation of the late and much lamented John T. McFariand. The Publishers and Book Editor have requested that the articles be placed in one voltmie. Although the au- thor did not write them with the intent that they should form a small book, he yields cheerfully to the request. The reader will please bear in mind that the writer has not sought to produce a scholarly and scientific treatise. That side of the general subject has stimulated much recent writing; and just now there is small need that additions be made either to its amoimt or to its excellence. 9 10 FOREWORD The only claim for this contribu- tion is that it is human and prac- tical — and that the method admits of a certain warmth and intimacy of discussion. The claim might like- wise be made that the writer has walked all the paths that the book- let suggests — ^having been a Boy, a Man, a Parent, a Pastor, and . a Teacher. He would not deny that the chapters have grown out of experience and that they contain not a little hidden autobiography. Nor would he deny that he has largely avoided the technical theo- logical vocabiilary. He entertains the profound conviction that the future theology will keep the essentials of the past theology, but that it will be cast less in the forms of the Roman Courtroom and more in the forms of the Home and Family. FOREWORD II The author's sufficient reward will be gained if any boys are led by this modest little book into loving and serving relations with Him "Whose years, with changeless virtue crowned, Were all alike divine." Edwin Holt Hughes. Episcopal Residence, San Francisco, July 27, 1914. PART ONE THE BOY I. THE REAL BOY There are two kinds of boys. One kind you meet on the streets and in the homes; the other kind you meet in the books or in the speeches of some kindly people. Of course the boys you meet on streets and in homes are not all alike; and those you meet in books and speeches are not all alike. But the real boy must be found in real life, if he is ever found at all. Little Lord Faun- tleroy is fine, I guess; and we rather enjoy reading about him. Yet it would not be well for us to suppose that boys usually act and speak as does this beautiful little fellow in the novel. On the other hand, it may be that the boy in the book is rougher than the boy on the road. Huckle- berry Finn is as interesting in his way as Little Lord Fauntleroy is in 15 i6 A BOY'S RELIGION his. I think, however, that those of us who v^ere boys once or who are boys now would say that the usual boy is unlike Fauntleroy and unlike Finn. He is not as fond of handling dead cats as "Huck*' was, nor is he apt to call his mother "dearie" all the time, as Fauntleroy did. He is not an angel and he is not an imp. So what a man says about a "Boy and His Religion" will all depend on where the man finds the boy. He may find the boy in his mind. Sometimes boys "make up" stories about men ; and I suspect that some- times men make up stories about boys. It may be that they want to believe that boys are so and so because they have made up a story about boys that they would like to prove true. When Charles Dickens was alive, he used to say that he knew men who did that. You will remember that one man in Dickens' THE BOY 17 book said that Oliver Twist was "an article direct from the maniifactory of the devil himself." That was a pretty mean thing to say about a boy. The man who said it did not study Oliver Twist first; he studied a doctrine about all boys first. Then he wanted to believe that Oliver Twist was one more proof that what he thought about boys was true. This was not fair to Oliver; nor was it fair to all the other boys. Then again, an author or a speaker may think that he finds the boy almost in heaven. James Whitcomb Riley makes 'The Hired Man" say, "I believe all children's good Ef they're only understood." There is a truth in this pretty and kindly couplet, but it needs to be handled 'Vith care." This is espe- cially so when boys become older and more responsible. Once I heard a man talk about boys as if they 1 8 A BOY'S RELIGION were all saints. He claimed really that boys were bad only when older people made them bad. The boys who heard the man say all these nice things about them seemed pleased, but I really think that they knew better. If you could have gotten them to tell all they knew about themselves and all they knew about other boys, they would have said that the man who was talking meant well, only he did not know. If we think honestly about our past, we shall say that, while at the very earliest period the poet could make us say, "And trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home," directly we began to carry about with us some other clouds that were not so glorious after all. This means that the only way to know the truth about boys is to know boys. The man who studies THE BOY 19 science is always telling us that you must not get your belief first and then try to find a lot of facts to prove that your belief is true, but that you must get your facts first and then get your belief out of your facts. This rule is as good for find- ing out about a boy's religion as it is for finding out about a boy's body. You can find out about a boy's religion only by going where the actual boy lives. I knew a boy once who would not play baseball. If I should know only that one boy, I should make a big mistake about boys. So if I wanted to know about boys, I would not hear what the mother of Little Lord Fauntleroy thought, and then say, "That settles it"; nor would I want to know what the foster-mother of Huckleberry Finn thought, and then say, "That settles it." I would prefer to hear what fifteen or twenty fathers and 20 A BOY'S RELIGION mothers thought, and even then I would want to know the boys my- self and to be very sure that every one of them was just a plain, every- day, natural, and normal boy. It is this sort of a boy that we are going to study in these chapters about "The Boy and His Religion." We shall find him in a good many places and we shall ask him to tell us about himself and how he feels and what he does about God. II. A BOY'S SEEKING The boy of whom I am now writing was a real boy in the sense that he existed, but an unreal boy so far as the way he acted was concerned. I hold this to be sure: that God wants us to be genuine. Whenever, therefore, we act a part in religion, we really cease to be religious at all. The point of this article, and of the one to follow it. THE BOY 21 will be that, if we seek religion, that is, if we seek to be converted, or if we seek to do religious duties, that is, to live the Christian life, God wants us to be our real selves. This boy did not do this. When he came to seek religion, he acted. So I fear that he did not find what he thought he was seeking. As I remember him, he was not a par- ticularly bad boy. His first name was William, but we never called him that. I must admit that he did not have a very good chance at home. There were some reports in the town about his father that made me think that he was not as good a man as he shoiild have been. I remember hearing that sometimes this father came home drunk, and I do know that he used bad language. The boy*s father probably did not give the boy a fair chance to do the right thing. I do not recall the boy's mother. 22 A BOY'S RELIGION I guess that she was a good woman, but I think that if she had been a reHgious woman I would have re- membered that fact. The boy's people were not rich. They lived in a small house. The boys did not go to school very long. When they were quite yoiuig they dropped out and went to work. This, I think, is another proof that this boy did not have a very good chance. In one respect the boy did have a good chance. He went to Sunday school and church, and there he heard about good things. I do not know why he went. Perhaps it was because his parents wanted him to do so. It may be that he went because he wanted to be with "the other boys." Now directly there came a revival meeting at the church. Every eve- ning special services were held. Our Sunday school teachers wanted us all to attend. The preacher would THE BOY 23 preach and tell us what God wanted us to do, then he would ask us to come forward and kneel at the altar and seek to have our sins forgiven. We were told that God would give us new hearts and that he would help us to do right. One evening this boy's big'brother went to the altar. This big brother had many bad habits. He was somewhat like his father. He would get dnmk, tell foul stories, and use profane language. He surely did need to be converted. I suppose that when he went to the altar he was sincere and wanted to lead a better life; and I judge that when the little fellow saw his big brother go forward, it touched his heart and he went forward too. I was sitting just where I could see both. I was glad that they had gone to the altar, even though I had not gone myself. Soon the older brother began to 24 A BOY'S RELIGION groan and pray aloud. Doubtless he felt quite wicked. I think that he ought to have felt that way. He would roll his head from one side to the other, just as if he were suffering greatly. The small brother saw what the big brother was do- ing and he did the same. I can recall now that I did not like that in the least. I felt that the big brother ought to act in his natural way in getting religion, and that the little fellow ought to act in his natural way. I cannot now remember whether both the brothers claimed to be con- verted. I do know that the little brother did not turn out very well. A few years ago I visited the town where he had lived as a boy. The older brother was dead. He had killed himself long since by drink- ing rum. The younger brother, they told me, was living in an adjoining town. He was not a good man, and THE BOY 25 it looked as if he would not live much longer himself. When I heard all this I could not help wondering how the younger brother would have turned out if he had sought Christ in his own boy- ish way. Boys are great imitators, they tell us. But I am certain that they should be very careful indeed never to imitate in religion in such a way as to act an untruth. It is my conviction that God comes to all who seek him in spirit and in truth. I fear that he will find it difficult to come to those who do not seek him in that way. The moral is that the boy should seek Christ in a boy's way. III. A BOY'S WORKING Our last chapter told of a boy who tried to be converted as if he were a man. Whenever a boy tries to do that, I fear that he does 26 A BOY'S RELIGION not get converted at all. Now we shall tell of a boy who tried to do Christian work as if he were a man. And when a boy tries to do that, I fear that he really does not do any work at all. He goes through a man's motions, but he does not do even a boy's work. This boy, I judge, was ten or eleven years of age. He would arise in the meetings and tell how much he wanted to do. He would say that his heart was heavy for some of the people of the town. He seemed to feel that God had made him responsible for the conversion of the older people in that place. He was just like a little old man who had been made a dwarf by carrying loads that were too heavy for him. His talk was old; his manner was old; his spirit was old. He did not seem like a boy at all. Somehow I felt then that he was not doing what God wanted him THE BOY 27 to do; for I am sure that God does not want a boy to be a man, and to carry a man's biirdens too soon. I heard many years afterward that this boy's big desire to do God's work in making the people of that town better did not con- tinue after the boy became a man. Somehow I was not surprised. One other boy in that church is now a successful missionary in a foreign country. Another is one of the well- known preachers in this land. Sev- eral others are faithful members and workers in that same church. All these were living as natural boys, while this little fellow was trying to act like a man. The other boys did not Hke him very well; and I know that some of the older people must have felt that the boy was not quite himself. Certainly God would ask nothing more than that a boy should be a boy at his best and that he should do only such 28 A BOY'S RELIGION work as would natiirally belong to a boy. Do you remember that story in the Bible about David's trying to fight in the armor of Saul? David was still young; Saul was older and bigger. David had sense enough to see that the only way for him to fight was with the weapons that he himself could use. In the war time a man's heavy gun would quickly tire a boy to death And have you ever read in a book of history about those little people who, fully seven hundred years ago, thought that they ought to be soldiers and ought to help take the places where Jesus lived and died away from the enemies of Jesus? Suppose you find the right book and read a little bit about "The Children's Crusade." It is really the story of some boys, and of some girls, too, who tried to do what only men could do. Nearly all THE BOY 29 of them died on the plains — of hunger and heat — and their small bones marked all the ways of travel. It was all a very sad story, and I believe that a sad story is always written whenever children try to do the work of men. In America we are now trying to stop what we call ''child labor.'* For a long time little children have been hired to do what only full- grown men and women should do. Nearly two million boys and girls have been working in mills and fac- tories when they should have been going to school or playing in the fields. There are now many thou- sands of good people who say that all this must be stopped because they know that it is wrong to make little people do the work of older people. You will notice how natural are the children in the Bible. Read about the boy that picked up arrows 30 A BOY'S RELIGION one day for Jonathan and so helped to save the life of David; or read about the little girl that told Naa- man how he could be cured of his sickness; or find the story of the way Samuel lived and worked in the temple, helping the old priest, and wearing proudly the coat that his mother brought him once each year; or read again about the little boy that aided Jesus to perform the miracle of the loaves and fishes; or read the tale of Saint Paul's nephew, who saved his uncle's life by using his wit as a yoimg fellow well could. You will search the Bible all through without finding where any boy was told to do a man's religious work. God ■ wants boys to be boys. He did not ask Moses or Paul or any of the other heroes of the Scriptures to do men's work until they were men. Even Jesus did not preach imtil he was thirty years of age. He was simply a boy in Nazareth, THE BOY 31 doing the will of his parents, and, so, the will of God. IV. A BOY'S EXPERIENCE In order to make more real what has been said in the three previous letters, I am asking a boy to tell us what he himself did and how he felt. This boy, let me confess, is now a man, and he is much in- terested in religious things. From what I know of him I can say that he was quite a normal boy, even as he is now a normal man. I told him that he must speak frankly; and this is just about what he said: "My father and mother were very religious people. They took me to church regularly. They made me attend Sunday school. Sometimes they took me to prayer meeting. They had family prayers once each day. They were Puritans in their thought of life. They lived simply. 32 A BOY'S RELIGION and they had nothing to -do with any form of 'worldly amusements,' as they always called them. Yet they were not morose, and our home life was full of cheer and occasionally of fim. My father was a hearty laugher, while my mother had a quick sense of himior. ''All my earliest impressions of the Christian life were good. I said my prayers always before going to bed at night. Sometimes, when I forgot to do this, I would be a little troubled in my conscience, and I would get out of bed and kneel to pray, even when the night was cold. I recall when I first found out that there were some people in our neighborhood who did not confess Christ and did not go to church or have an3rthing to do with its life and work. I felt sorry for these people, and I could not understand why they should be so foolish. I felt especially sorry about one man THE BOY 33 who seemed so pleasant and, in gen- eral, so good and kindly, that he quite puzzled me. I used to pray that he might become a Christian. So far as I knew, he never became one. That puzzled me too. "But, although I felt this way about the Christian life, I somehow got the idea that I was not myself a Christian. As I review it all now, this was because I heard the preach- ers say so much about the new birth. I was not aware that I had been bom again. In the section where I lived men and women were often converted after much loud praying, and then sometimes they shouted joyfully. I wanted to be converted like that. So while I was still young I went to the altar and tried hard to be converted in a special way. I did everything that I thought a boy could do, but I felt no such experience as I heard the older people describe. After long 34 A BOY'S RELIGION seeking I became discouraged and ceased going to the altar. But I did join the church. I think that helped me very much. It kept me from doing many things that I fear I would have done otherwise. I have always been glad that I had this restraint upon me; and because of my own experience I rejoice when I see young boys joining the church. Several years later I was converted, though not without having gone off 'into the world' a little distance ere I came back again. This second time I went to the altar again. But I sought simply to get my will into right relations to God and his purposes. I did not gain any great and sweeping emotions. "In the earlier years I did not do any Christian work, as such. I did try sometimes to keep other boys from doing certain evil things; and in one or two revival meetings I sought to get some young people THE BOY 35 to come to Christ. Yet I did not know just how to do any real work, and I always had a fear that I would seem 'pert' if I tried to talk of their religious duty to people who were older than myself. After my will was surrendered I did some personal work, particularly while I was in college. I think that through my four years' course of study I lived a clean life and stood for the Master amid not a few temptations. But my fervor of work came as a growth, and almost, as the scriptural phrase is, without observation. Now for a good many years I have been considered a fairly active Christian." When I questioned him a little further, as our train was speeding over a Western desert, this man said to me: "Well, I am glad that I managed to keep real in my atti- tude toward religious matters. I was religious as a boy and I think that I kept true to myself as I was 36 A BOY'S RELIGION then. Now I am a man, and my own boys are growing up around me. Above all else, I want them to be Christian men. I do not want them to take big religious work too soon. Somehow I feel that their main duty now is just to be clean in their lives; to keep close to the church; to do the small service that appeals to them naturally; and to go on in quite a normal way imtil they are able to make it their primary business to work for Christ." Directly he added, with a touch of sadness in his voice: "One of my boys seems to be getting care- less about religious matters, and I am 'afraid that family prayers and church services bore him a little bit. Sometimes I find myself wishing that he would get into a good revival meeting and get a new start. I want all my children to belong to Christ fully." THE BOY 37 V. A BOY'S CARELESSNESS The friend with whom I had the talk on the train has two sons. One of them is still interested in religious things. It is not necessary to urge him to go to the services of the church. He frequently at- tends prayer meeting. He some- times speaks in the young people's meeting, though this seems just now to make him quite nervous. He plays tennis, and he is a real boy, yet he seems never to have de- parted from sympathy with the Christian life. I judge that his temptation to do so will come within the next two years. So I have written out a letter which I expect to send him. Leaving out the strictly personal items, it is about like this: My Dear E : I had a conversation on the train with your father the other day. I was pleased to have him con- firm what I had thought for myself — that 38 A BOY'S RELIGION you kept up your interest in the church, and that you were still perfectly frank in saying that you were trying to lead the Christian life. Now all this makes me glad — ^for your sake, and for your parents' sake, and for Christ's sake. But I know, both from my own experience and from what I have seen of other boys, that a time of special temptation will soon come to you. So I am writing you to be faithful. I do not want you ever to look back on any period of yoiu- life with deep regret. Some men spend their later years in trying to fight against what they did in their earlier years. Because I know that this is wholly im- necessary, I take the liberty of writing you this letter. Soon you will begin to feel independent. You will want to do some things that yoiu" parents do not approve; and you will want to do some other things in your own time and way. Directly you may begin to think that being a Christian means being restrained. You will see other boys doing things that you desire to do; and you will not like to have your Christian life get in the way of your pleasure ^ Besides this, you will begin to feel awk- THE BOY 39 ward about the formal things of the Chris- tian life. You will prefer just a little not to sit in the family pew with the rest of the family. It will not be easy for you to go to the Communion. You will be so self-conscious that you will try to avoid speaking or praying in the young people's meetings. Now I warn you beforehand about these two things because, if you really under- stand them, and if you get the right atti- tude toward them, you will pass the period safely. About the first, the matter of doing some things that your parents dis- approve, let me advise that you talk freely with your father and mother. They have lived longer than you have, and it is fair to suppose that they know what is best for you still. And, as for the second mat- ter, do not pay too much attention to your own embarrassment. In due season you will conquer that, more or less. The one thing for you to do is to go straight ahead, counting yourself as belonging to Christ and refusing to treat yourself other- wise. Your father tells me that you have seemed religious all along, and that you have had no marked experience of con- version such as you hear some people tell 40 A BOY'S RELIGION about. Do not let this disturb you. Simply be sure of your purpose to follow Christ now and to be true to him. He will care for all the rest, and you will find your own experience growing better and clearer as the years pass. For, after all, what God wants is the will to serve him. Some of the most faith- ful Christians I have ever known cannot tell how or when they were converted. All their lives they have loved Christ, and they have had no break in their experience. In this respect they have been like Christ himself. If you will simply follow Christ earnestly, he will see that your experience is exactly what it ought to be. But my special purpose in writing this letter to you is to warn you against what is sure to happen. You will feel restrained, and you will wonder whether you are really, hving your own life. Sometimes, it may even happen, you will wonder whether you are genuine and honest. I think that every young fellow meets this temptation. Some of the duties of the Christian life will become irksome to you. But you have discovered that you must go to school when you do not feel like going/ Even as some day you will be thankful THE BOY 41 that you were not allowed to drop out of school, so likewise some day you will thank God that your parents held you to the church and tried to keep you faithful to Christ. I will guarantee that you will feel just thus, if you will follow the advice of this letter. Keep this letter, and in ten years write and tell me exactly how you feel about the Christian life. I am sure that I can proph- esy what sort of a letter you will write. If you ever want any advice, talk with me, or, better yet, talk freely with your father. Meantime we will both commend you to the heavenly Father. God bless you ! Your Friend, E. H. H. VI. A BOY'S CONSISTENCY You will remember that my friend had another son about whom he was anxious. This son had become careless rather than coarsely wicked. When he came to the time of in- dependence and his father felt that he ought not any longer to make the boy do certain things, this son 42 A BOY'S RELIGION drifted out of real sympathy with the church and was not outright in expressing his purpose to follow Christ. I think that he is in a dangerous place. I could scarcely justify myself if I wrote earnestly to his brother and did not write to this son too. My letter to him, which I really expect to send, will be about like this: My dear H : I have known you for a long time, and I am an old friend of your parents. Indeed, I was at the church on the day when your father and mother brought you to the altar for baptism. They promised then to do their best to bring you up in the church and for Christ. I know that they have tried hard to meet their promise. You are surely blessed in one thing: You cannot help believing that your parents are good and sincere people. Charles Wagner once wrote that it was a fearful disaster when a young man ceased to believe in God, and that the disaster was almost as great when he could rio longer believe in his parents! I think that Wagner was right. THE BOY 43 And now you will soon be a man, your "own man," you say sometimes. I fear that with nearly all boys there is a time when the sense of freedom goes faster than the sense of responsibility. That was the trouble with the prodigal son. Perhaps, without knowing it, you are meeting that very trouble yourself. It is a wonderful time in a boy's life. I always tremble a little when I see it coming. You will not be angry with me if I say that I have already done some trembling for you. .This is not because I have felt that you were as yet coarsely unclean. I imagine that few boys go wrong in that way — at first. There is always a lowering of ideals and purposes before there is a lowering of conduct. Will you pardon me if I say that you have taken the first step? Al- ready your will is much stronger for rebel- lion than it is for obedience. If you were as bent on doing right as you are bent on having your own way about a few small matters, you would be a very strong young man. Several times lately you have not been at church. I was not at your home when the question came up, but I think that I can tell you what you said: "I don't feel like going to-day." I know, also, how 44 A BOY'S RELIGION your father and mother felt as they went off to the service without you. Of coiirse, you will say that going to church does not mean everything; and you may even insist that it is better not to go than to go imwillingly. But my point is that we all need all possible help if we are going to do right. If we attend a serv- ice of worship and will ourselves into a right mood about it, there is nothing that more stimulates our desire to be right and to do right. In fact, I do not think that there is any other institution on earth whose one aim is to get men to be right and to do right in all respects. There are other institutions that are engaged in try- ing to make men right in one respect or in several respects. The church, however, tries to keep men in the purpose to do right in all things. We all need something that will deal with us not as fractions, but as whole numbers. So my fear is that your staying away from that service means more than just that one thing. It is simply a step in the wrong direction. It may be followed by many such steps imtil at length you have gone far from that faith of your child- hood which meant so much to you. THE BOY 45 Now, my boy, do not fail to keep close to good things. You will need them all. Temptations, of which you little know as yet, will soon attack you. Perhaps you have yielded to some things ere this about which you would not like your father and mother to know. This is only the more certain evidence that you are moving in the wrong direction. I want you to turn "right about face." Do you want my advice'' I will give it anyhow. Talk frankly with your"parents. Heed some public invitation and indicate that you are determined to do right and to follow Christ. One fine thing about a public confession is that it puts us where we must do right or else go back on our- selves. But, above all else, pray more and more earnestly, and ask God to fix yoiu" purpose beyond recall. Frankly, all this is just about what I did when I was almost exactly your age. I was really converted then, and I became again as a little child. I had no big emotions, but God did fix my purpose to do his will. That, I think, is always the essence of conversion. If you will do all this, you will be in danger no longer. Perhaps your first im- 46 A BOY'S RELIGION pulse when you read this letter will be to tell me to look out for my own affairs. Your later mind will be different. Ten years hence you will be glad that I wrote you thus. Do not destroy this letter. Read it over occasionally. God bless you! Your Friend, E. H. H. PART TWO THE PARENT VII. EVANGELISTIC PARENTS If this subject shall seem pectiliar to anyone, the very fact that it seems peciiliar may reveal a great weakness in the evangelistic work of the day. Evidently ''evangelistic parents" would be those who sought by all wise and earnest ways to keep or win their children for Christ. Yet doubtless our temptation is to lay undue stress upon the mere ''ways." The School of Hearts must precede the School of Methods. The evangelistic heart will not only find ways of working; it will often suc- ceed in spite of its ways. The spirit of evangelism will triumph either through its fashions or over its fashions. Consequently, we shall try to ex- clude from this article all discussion of ways and means, save as these are deep and inner. The point is 49 50 A BOY'S RELIGION that what parents get for their chil- dren is likely to depend on what parents most want for their children. It is not only true that we do not gather grapes from thorns and figs from thistles; it is likewise true that we do not gather grapes from grape- vines or figs from fig trees tmless our spirit sends us to the vines and trees. What we ask is what we get. What we seek is what we find. The door at which we knock is the door that opens to us. So the first question to which the parent must make an honest answer is this: What do I most desire for my children? And this answer is not to be secured from an .abstract query made to one's own heart. Abstractly, there is but one possible answer for any parent who has in any degree the Christian sense of values. There are probably few fathers and mothers connected with any of our churches who would THE PARENT 51 not say theoretically that their first and greatest desire is that their children might be followers of the Lord. In fact, often we find parents who are not themselves professing Christians, but who still show no little anxiety over their children's spiritual welfare and no little pride in their children's consistency of Christian life. Still it is evident that the evil powers that try to seize our children are not to be defeated by any good theory that we may hold, nor yet by any spasms of effort to win our beloved for the good. An evan- gelistic mood is not quite an evan- gelistic heart. An evangelistic effort is not an evangelistic habit. We must not only want our children to be Christians, but we must want that most, and we must want it all the time. Surely it needs no argument to show that the best and most natural 52 A BOY'S RELIGION evangelist is the Christian parent. Isaac gets the cue of the mono- theistic life from Abraham. Lydia's children come to baptism and faith through Lydia. Other evangelists come seldom and stay briefly. Even the Simday school teacher is a sort of weekly visitor. The most faith- ful pastor is not equal to the task of furnishing the religious atmosphere for the children of all his homes. The professional evangelist does not continue long in one stay. The parent is the most constant earthly presence for the child. The old Eastern proverb says: "God could not be ever3rwhere, and so he made mothers." The proverb is neither accurate nor impartial, but it does state the important truth that par- enthood has the best chance for con- stant evangelism. Perhaps this brief chapter could do nothing better than to insist upon an answer to this piercing question THE PARENT 53 addressed to all parents who read these words: What do you really most desire for your children? What reply do you win for this question, not f.rom your occasional wishes, but from your total and constant bear- ing toward your children? Have you really an evangelistic heart, or is your wish for each child primarily social, or primarily commercial, or primarily intellectual? W^here do you put the emphasis in your own life as it relates itself to your children? Are you God's chief evangelist in your own home? It is not meant, of course, that the minor interests are not to have their part. But do you keep them minor, or do they become major? If yoiu: children judge by the spirit of your life what you most desire for them, what judgment will they be compelled to reach? Those who most eagerly desire the coming of the Lord's kingdom and who see its 54 A BOY'S RELIGION deepest and most far-reaching lines of influence will not halt at saying that there is small hope for the salvation of the world unless we shall raise up a host of evangelistic parents. The Jewish church began in the tent-home of Abraham. He who runs may read. VIII. EVANGELISTIC ATMOSPHERE In the last chapter we used the phrase ' 'evangelistic atmosphere . ' * The words guide us in a good direction, and we shall follow them a little further. There is surely a difference be- tween an evangelistic effort and an evangelistic atmosphere. The two are not contradictory, and they may act and react upon each other. An evangelistic effort may create an evangelistic atmosphere; and an evangelistic atmosphere is sure to issue into evangelistic efforts. Still THE PARENT 55 we have all known homes which yielded occasionally to an evangel- istic mood and engaged in an evan- gelistic effort and which, for all that, did not maintain an evangelistic at- mosphere. For there is such a thing as a religious climate. There are arctic regions in the spiritual realm, re- gions so frigid that only the hardiest plants have any chance whatsoever. And there are tropic regions in the spiritual realms, regions so soft and soothing in their influence that they grow naught but flabby woods and dainty flowers. This figure of speech will help us to classify certain homes. Some homes wotdd destroy any but the most vigorous spiritual life ; other homes would become mere spiritual hot-houses and would nourish such delicate spiritual life as would wither at once even upon transfer to a temperate zone, religiously speaking. All this is a matter of climate. 56 A BOY'S RELIGION The figiire of speech is a scriptiiral one. The psalmist says of one that feared the Lord, ^'Thy children shall be like olive plants round about thy table." He again expresses the hope that "our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth." Our ritual says in one place that only those that are ''planted in the house of the Lord shall floiuish in the courts of our God." But can plants grow in any atmosphere? What hap- pens to rose bushes and dahHas when they are set out in the Nevada deserts? What becomes even of sturdy oaks transplanted to arid re- gions where they reach down their eager roots all in vain for the waters of life? The efforts of cellar plants that grow weakly toward the light and air of the one small window often suggest pathos. We see them sometimes, lying wan and bleached in the semi-darkness, and yet grow- ing toward the light! If only they THE PARENT 57 had the right atmosphere, with sun and dew and rain, they would be green and fruitful boughs! Now all this does not overstate what may happen in very many homes. The character of parents must furnish an evangelistic atmos- phere. This climate cannot be se- cured artificially. It may even be brought to its best more or less imconsciously, so far as the parents are concerned. Moses is not apt to be aware of the shining of his own face when he deals with the children of Israel. And when the children of Israel move toward their spiritual best, they are not so apt to be aware of it either. They simply feel at home with its radiance. Yet the face and character of Moses will help to make the spiritual atmos- phere in which they dwell. There are fathers and mothers who are so unaffectedly religious, so beautifully and almost unconsciously devoted to 58 A BOY'S RELIGION Christ, that they create a winning religious atmosphere. This makes it less needftil that they should engage in any direct evangelism for their children. Those olive plants are in the right soil, and the sunlight and dew of heaven get a fair chance at them. The parents do not need to use their own clumsy fingers to open petals and to shape sepals. God makes them the agents of his own climate. Long before the child can analyze a situation he can feel the gentle pressure of that atmosphere, and he can yield to its call for life and growth. The gardeners of the Lord's nursery will still have to stir the soil, *and lay the rows, and prevent imdue shade and excessive heat. But the climate is doing gracious work all the time. It is evident that such a home as this cannot be secured by any direct effort. It can come only as THE PARENT 59 the kingdom of God always comes, without haste and without observa- tion. It comes only from the living of the life of Christ. This is the type of home described by Robert Bums in his " Cotter *s Saturday Night.'* Such a home represents that house of the Lord and that court of God wherein sons and daughters shall be as plants growing into grace, blooming into beauty, and fruiting into service for the Lord of the Garden. IX. EVANGELISTIC UNITY In the modern athletic period a phrase has passed from the field of games out into all the realms of work- ing. That phrase is ''team work." It signifies imity of effort in order to secure victory. It likewise sig- nifies a willingness to put aside per- sonal display for the sake of the team, as when one makes what is 60 A BOY'S RELIGION called a "sacrifice hit." We shall give the phrase as holy a meaning as we can well assign it if we say- that in the home there shoiild be team work and that the father and mother should keep an evangelistic unity. The Scriptures assert the need of this, and the command is, "Be not unequally yoked together with im- believers." The Roman Catholic Church sees the point and insists that, even though a member of that church shall marry a Protestant, the children shall be brought up imder a tinity of training. Broad as John Wesley was, he put some things into the Discipline that stressed the ne- ces^ty of wife and husband working together in the religious life. It is wise that the tmity shall find an outward expression. Less and less, as the years advance, do we find husband and wife belonging to different churches. The feeling is THE PARENT 6i that the children ought not to be confused in their reHgious ideas. If on Sunday the father goes in one direction to church while the mother goes in another direction, the little people can scarcely fail to be mixed. The usual explanations will not suf- fice. Only conscience should divide a home in this way; and the child will naturally feel that, if his parents are separated on a matter of re- ligious conscience, that matter must be very large and real. To take sides against either parent is not easy. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that usually the home must be united religiously ere there can be an evangelistic unity brought to bear upon the lives of the children. But, important as this matter is, it is not the deepest thing in the problem. Without doubt parents may remain separated in formal church membership, while still being thoroughly imited in their desire 62 A BOY'S RELIGION that their children shall belong to the Lord. God has ordained that both halves of parenthood shall be joined in order that there may be a social unit. Where either parent fails of the evangelistic spirit, one half of the power is lost. It is even worse than this: the one half of the power that seeks to work works irnder obstruction. Thus it comes to pass that a home that is divided religiously is worse than di- vided; it is cleaved and split into more than two parts. The jangle is there, even though it be not noted by parents and children. Now every pastor knows the mean- ing of this description. He has seen instances where the hand of a fool- ish 'father or the hand of an equally foolish mother kept a child away from a profession of Christ and from membership in his church. It is thus to him a day of gladness when he sees a home brought into religious THE PARENT 63 unity. He knows then that he has not simply added one more recmit to the army of the Lord; he knows that he has estabhshed one more training place for the King's soldiers. He has unified the most important forces that make for the religious life of the children. The so-called solitaire that has two religious set- tings in the family is not a solitaire at all. The doubtful gems quarrel with each other. Let it be said that too often it is the father who fails to give him- self to the making of religious and evangelistic unity in the home. The mother of Zebedee's children still comes to the Lord with her children while Zebedee himself is absent, be- ing interested in other affairs. In some measure this is due to causes too large to be discussed now. But it must be due in some measure to the fact that we do not often enough remind the father of his evangelistic 64 A BOY'S RELIGION duty. The cradle of every new-bom child is a call to each parent to put life on a holy basis. It is a great thing when an immortal soul is sent into our keeping. If we can put deserved emphasis upon that won- derful fact, every cradle will become an altar at which two parents shall join themselves in a holy imity of purpose and work to the end that in God's season all the children shall be led into the Father's house. X. EVANGELISTIC GOOD NEWS Does this title seem strange to any one? If so, let us explain that the meaning relates to the manner of telling the gospel rather than to the story of the gospel. The gospel without doubt is a good announce- ment, a happy message, a real evan- gel. We would suppose that its tell- ing would quickly fit itself to the nature of the truth, and that evan- THE PARENT 65 gelists everywhere would be found aglow with a large and serious joy. The man who brings good news should bear a face and wear a manner that comports with his mes- sage. The glad gospel shoiild have a glad teller. Let no one suppose now that we are going to omit the cross. The gospel has its serious side. But Jesus, who died on the cross, had much to say about joy. Even when he was within a few hours of Cal- vary he spoke of the joy that he would give as a legacy to his fol- lowers. That joy, he said, was to be ''full." In agreement with this word, our religion has been a glad religion. Some say that it is really the only singing religion. Its gen- uine followers in all the centuries have been people who knew praises and hallelujahs. Inasmuch as parents are divinely appointed evangelists, they must be 66 A BOY'S RELIGION careful not to lose the sense that the gospel is good news. Children are just at the age when they are seeking for happiness. Life to them is very good and very rosy. More than this, they feel that they are en- titled to happiness. Their elders feel the same way about the little people. A gloomy child is not of God's ap- pointing. Whenever we see one such we feel that there has somewhere been mismanagement, or maladjust- ment. Even when the Bible speaks of little children in heaven, it de- scribes them as playing in the streets thereof. * 'Playing,*' mind you! In the better coimtry the nature of youth is taken into account. God provides play in the New Jerusalem. Nor is it trifling with sacredness to say that parents must show the glad side of the gospel if it is to appeal to the eager and bounding heart of youth. This side cannot be put to the front by artifice. No THE PARENT 67 father or mother can say, 'T will now be glad in order that I may show my children how good our re- ligion is!" The gladness must be inward, working into outward ex- pression. Parents must really ''enjoy religion." Sometimes it almost seems as if they had it, but did not really enjoy it. It is a restraint, a guide, and even a comfort, but it is not a joy. The father speaks of it without a smile. The mother nearly always weeps when she tries to give testi- mony — and her tears do not seem to be the tears of gladness. Doubt- less the expression is not a true indication of the inner feeling, but the expression ought to be just that. We have no right so to set forth our good as to allow it to "be evil spoken of." A glad religion ought to make a glad coimtenance. Our children must have the gospel of the shining face. None other 68 A BOY'S RELIGION will appeal to them and claim them. Later the emphasis will move toward the serious side, and some time it will take on the solemnity of eter- nity itself. But in the earlier years the call that persuades childhood is the call of the Christ who promises joy. If that old tradition which told that Christ was never known to smile were true, our gospel would be put at a disadvantage in its ap- proach to young life. A smileless Christ would not be the ideal for youth, nor would a smileless messen- ger be the most persuasive repre- sentative of our Lord.^ That all this has its relation to parental evangelism cannot be doulDted. The constant impression of the gospel comes to the child from the parents. In some ways they are the child's gospel, or at any rate the Bible in which he reads his gospel. A father or mother with a jaundiced or mournful re- THE PARENT 69 ligion is not God's best teller of his best news. The psalmist saw this clearly. In a passage of much insight he offers the prayer, "Restore tinto me the joy of thy salvation," and soon he adds, ''Then shall I teach trans- gressors thy way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." We may be well assured that if this be true of all tellers of the gospel, it is especially true of those parents whose joyful behavior as being themselves children of the heavenly Father becomes a real evan- gelism to the children of their own homes. XI. EVANGELISTIC WARNINGS It may be that some one, reading the last chapter, said, at the close: "It is true that there is an evan- gelism of good news; but there is also an evangelism of bad news. 70 A BOY'S RELIGION Or, if it is not acctirate to state it in that way, there is, at any rate, a very stem side to evangelism, and this side shoiild not be neglected." The suggestion is just, and we now proceed to urge that in any con- sistent and biblical evangelism warn- ings must have their due stress. Jesus did not hesitate to lift up the final warning in the vision of hell. Without any question what- soever, the Bible is not scant in its teaching of retribution. Perhaps we have used too exclusively the figiire of speech based on "fire," because that figure is so vivid. The New Tes- tament uses "darkness," and "filth,** and "worms," and "banishment," and^ "prison," and various other em- blems. Reduced to their very lowest terms, these figures of speech must have some supremely serious mean- ings. While the Scripture gives us no right to be dogmatic about the details of future punishment, it does THE PARENT 71 compel us to present the assurance that this Hfe bears on the next life in a real and vital way. Perhaps in dealing with the young we are instinctively drawn to use this teaching carefully. Our Saviour's ac- tual dealing with any little child would not give us warrant for making this appeal primary. Still, we should not permit the child to entertain any foolish delusions. He ought to be impressed by the sure fact that the consequences of sin are lasting, as well as with the other fact, that all our knowledge of this present life would lead us to believe that in the long run condition will answer to character. One cannot, philosoph- ically or scripturally or experimen- tally, avoid the conclusion that there must at the last be a huge difference between the dwelling of the bad and the dwelling of the good. That main point may be urged even on childhood. Notwithstanding the cry 72 A BOY'S RELIGION raised by some persons in our own day about the stern teaching of generations gone, most thoughtfiil and just adtilts will testify that a doctrine of punishment for sin held them away from many wrongs and was an effective factor in their moral education. But there are some concrete mean- ings of this subject for the present life. In recent years we have been using some of them in scientific instruction. It may not be a pleas- ant thing to show the child pictures of the human stomach and bowels burned and blistered by the effect of alcohol; but our laws in most of the States and in all the Terri- tories compel just that sort of teach- ing". At the present time many good people are in doubt as to the proper limits of so-called sex education; but there is all but unan- imous agreement on one point, namely, that the new generation THE PARENT 73 must somehow be taught that dread- ful penalties follow after impurity. The truth is that in all depart- ments of our teaching the warning element has a large part. The teacher tells of a day of judgment, not only represented by the arrival of examinations, but represented as well, and more deeply, by the arrival of life's severer tests. All worthy instructors repeat at times the sub- stance of our Lord's parable about the wise and foolish virgins — about the danger of being caught impre- pared for the emergency, and about the necessity of having the reserves ready to bring out to meet the crisis. The point is that intellectual pen- alties are visited on intellectual sins. Now, that element of warning must be kept in our evangelism. We must tell the youth not only that there are large gains to be sought, but likewise that there are terrible losses to be shunned. Per- 74 A BOY'S RELIGION sonally, I do not think that it is wise to give our sons and daughters the idea that forgiveness carries with it the remission of penalty. That threadbare story about the nails that were driven into the post to repre- sent the boy's misdoings, and that were pulled out to represent each conquest over the particular sin, is true to life. The scars remain in the post even after the nails have been pulled. The popular song has the truth of it. The bird with a broken pinion Never soars so high again. The gospel saves men from dan- gers that are the most real. Our children should be earnestly taught that the final goal of sin is ruin. The soft prophet is not the genuine evangelist. Our doctrine of God reveals One who will not trifle with sin. THE PARENT 75 XII. EVANGELISTIC INTER- CESSION The need of intercessory prayer in connection with revivals has often been tirged. Pentecost was simply the beginning of the great awaken- ings that have been preceded by earnest and long-continued praying. Formal logic, as well as religious logic, would indicate that if prayer were necessary in order to bring a revival in a commtmity, prayer would likewise be necessary in order to bring a revival Into an individual heart. Hence there is such a thing as evangelistic intercession. It is probably just as well for us to confess both to ourselves and sometimes to the subjects of our prayers the mystery involved in praying for others. We believe in the freedom of the will; and we be- lieve, also, in the power of inter- cessory prayer. But just the rela- 76 A BOY'S RELIGION tion that our prayer may take to the free will of another person it is diffictilt to say. We cotild scarcely claim that our praying may put compulsion upon him and do away with his free choice of salvation. Indeed, if we felt that we could turn a man into a machine by our prayers, it is doubtfiil whether we would be willing to take that fearful responsibility. If God will not force a man to himself, we may be sure that he will not assign to prayer a power which he himself declines to use. Prayer is given us to be used within the realm of God's will, and God's will is not that any man should be compelled into his king- dom. Whatever else intercessory prayer may accomplish, there still remains one personal center, one last citadel which it cannot capture from an \inwilling soul Still, there is left to intercessory prayer a wide field. The prophet THE PARENT 77 said to the children of Israel, "God forbid that I shotild sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you/* When the Israelites knew that the form of the old friend and leader was often bowed in prayer for them, it would be easier for them to do the will of God, harder for them to fly in the face of God's servant and of God himself. Who can doubt that a mighty wave of intercessory prayer would aid in making the at- mosphere in which men would more readily yield to the Lord? Who, indeed, has not felt something of this sort when hundreds of heads were bent in silent prayer? It is much as if we passed into the climate of God. Our prayer is doubtless a part of the pressure that the Spirit puts upon himian hearts. There may be a sense in which our prayer is borne by the ministering Spirit of God to the very person for whom it is offered. 78 A BOY'S RELIGION For the Scripture seems to indi- cate that prayer is one form of service which we can use for each other. It may fail because it is so often used alone instead of with its companion forms of service. The farmer would scarcely expect much from his acres if he planted and did not till or reap, or if he put his furrows in the sunshine and then decHned to provide irrigation. Each thing is necessary, but each thing will not do the work alone. It must be even so with prayer. God has certainly decreed that there should be a close relation be- tween prayer and work. Some one long ago said that "prayer was the^ work of the soul, and that work was the prayer of the hands." Unquestionably sincere prayer drives to work for the object prayed for. Evangelistic intercession in the closet, if it be genuine, will lead to evangelistic effort in the open. THE PARENT 79 Thus there are really two forms of evangelism, prayer and work. It is no hazard to say that God can give small heed to a prayer when the one who offers it is too much afraid of man to do the other human part of evangelism. The path of true prayer will lead in due season to the very face of the man whom we would lead to Christ. Now while all this is general, it still has its special application to parents. It may be that our very nearness to the children and our privilege of association with them will lead us to neglect prayer in their behalf. Many parents would confess that their most earnest prayers for the children began after the children went away from the home. This must mean that up to that time we had allowed our direct contact with them to do away with prayer for them. While it is easy to offer 8o A BOY'S RELIGION some justification for this course, and even to plead its naturalness, it may yet reveal a danger. We shoiild pray for our children while they are still with us. We shall be stronger and more persuasive in dealing with them, if our sincerity be strengthened by frequent appeals to God in their behalf. At the family altar they should be straightly brought before the throne of grace. There are those who say that the weak point in modem evangelism has been its lack of vigorous and constant intercessory prayer; and it may be that this is the weakness of family evangel- ism. If God can do so in righteous- ness, he will not deny the cry or annul the effort of those fathers and mothers who intercede and work for the salvation of their children. PART THREE THE PASTOR XIII. PASTORAL FORESIGHT In the previous treatment of the boy and his rehgion we have dealt somewhat with general principles, somewhat with the boy himself, and somewhat with his parents. But there is another party to the duty of evangelism as related to the boy. That party is the pastor. The first equipment of the pastor for this particular work is the ability to see the long issue and to work for it. For several years the boy may be a burden rather than a carrier of burdens. He cannot be a heavy contributor to the finances of the church; nor has he had sufficient experience to count much as an ad- viser. A pastor can bring many children to Christ without bringing many dollars into the church treas- ury or many statesmen into his own official board. Some of the lower 83 84 A BOY'S RELIGION motives are wholly lacking in work for children. The conversion of one rich adult may mean more for im- mediate finances than the conver- sion of scores of children may mean. If a pastor should be a ''hireling,'* to use Jesus' s dreadful and piercing word, the call of the children is not very persuasive. But if a pastor be thinking of Christ's cause, as that cause will be in his to\vTi ten or fifteen years hence, the call of the children be- comes imperative. Those roUicking boys will be men then, fathers of families themselves. They will be holding their places as merchants, judges, bankers, doctors, plumbers, builders. The middle-aged pastor, wKen he returns to his old charge after many years, gets this lesson very impressively. He sees in the church sense the meaning of that word out of the Bible, "Instead of the fathers shall be the children." Those laugh- THE PASTOR 85 • ing girls of the old days are matrons now, leading their own children into the services of the church. It is so easy to see all this when it comes as a tribute to achievement rather than as an incentive to toil. Now unless a man be a seer so that he can get that vision clearly, he is not likely to be an earnest evangelist for children. Immediate interests will engross him. Quicker harvests will entice him. The Scrip- ture speaks of one who "is blind and cannot see afar off." The words might well be used of one who neglects to win children for Christ. The short-sighted pastor who does not eagerly gather the lambs into the fold has the most evil form of near-sightedness. It is pointed out occasionally that the accounts of re- vivals reveal this lack of foresight. The papers say ''sixty conversions, mostly adults." In reality this state- ment is doubtless meant often to in- 86 A BOY'S RELIGION dicate that the meetings were power- fill enough to reach and convert the older people. If the phrase should be taken to mean that the conver- sion of adults was more important than the conversion of children, we would quarrel with its meaning. For God has given us too many examples to leave us in any doubt as to the effectiveness of his work among the children. Preachers are fond of telling that David Living- stone was the only person converted in a special meeting, and that the elders deemed the revival a failure! If only they had been blessed with foresight! They would have seen that in claiming that small boy for Christ their pastor was getting ready to -answer the outstretched hands of all Ethiopia. Without doubt it was the biggest day's work that pastor ever did for his Lord. We are aware that all this repre- sents a truism. But we are aware, THE PASTOR 87 also, that trmsms are truisms simply because they are so very important in their meanings. That talk about the "future generation" is really very great talk. Sometimes we must all regard it as the greatest talk. The children are our bonds toward the coming time. They are the only agents through whom we can send our life on into the earthly life. They are the only hopes we may have for all the faith we hold most dear, for all the causes that appeal to the eternal best in our own hearts. God saved the future to him- self by means of the Child of Beth- lehem and Nazareth. It is no won- der that his own Son calls us so insistently and tenderly to the care of the children. Jesus needs to-day, and always, far-sighted pastors who will claim the future men and women by claiming the present boys and girls. Samuel soon becomes a prophet. John soon becomes the 88 A BOY'S RELIGION forerunner of Christ. Timotheus soon stands by the side of Paul in the plan for the conquest of the world. Beloved pastors, those chil- dren are your earthly futures! XIV. PASTORAL INTEREST It is not often that our relations with people begin upon a distinctly religious basis. We may begin our acquaintance in an inquiry room or at an altar. Usually, however, our early approaches to a life are social. We are "introduced." Or we make our own way forward without any formalities. Before Jesus talked to Zacchaeus of the deeper things of the Kingdom he dined with him, this being merely the prelude to that appeal which was to win the publican to the right life. Indeed, it is scarcely natural that two peo- ple, unknown to each other hitherto, should begin their relations by dis- THE PASTOR 89 cussing the deepest things. When a man's first word to us relates to our duty to God we often feel that there is something forced in the situation. More than that, we may even feel that the man is putting God at a disadvantage. If all this seems to protect religious speech un- dvily, it has at any rate one virtue: it makes all the other lines of life mere preliminaries. They are the approaches. Religion is the goal, the very temple of life. We may well be glad that it has so many vestibules. However important this social ap- proach may be in dealing with adults, it becomes especially important in dealing with boys. Their social na- ture is strong. They are susceptible to attention. We can often detect them ''hanging around," waiting to be recognized. Their slightly older playmates will sometimes accuse them of ''tagging on," that is, of 90 A BOY'S RELIGION trying to get into company where they are not wanted. This is itself merely an evidence of that social in- stinct that craves satisfaction. Occa- sionally the outreach of that social instinct is so eager as to be pathetic. That eager outreach of the boy's social life is the preacher's best chance for evangelism. It is more than a chance: it is an invitation, extended both by the boy himself and by the God who made the boy. It is almost as if the boy said: **Here I am w^aiting to be captured. I am just bound to be related to folks. That is the reason why the poolroom draws. It is this mood that gives the saloon its opportimity. Cannot the preacher see that I am waiting for him to get ahead of the bad things?" Therefore, the first great pastoral need in dealing with the boys is a warm human interest. This interest cannot be assumed. The average THE PASTOR 91 boy is an unconscious detective. Whether he can quite define the situation or not, he will know the difference between the man who seeks him for his own sake and for Christ's sake, and the man who regards him as a candidate for church membership and so as a trophy of his ministerial cunning. So the interest in the boy must be real and deep. It must be force- ful enough to lead the preacher to write him a letter when it is known that the boy has done well in school or has graduated with credit from the grades. It must follow the boy knowingly through the varied stages of his advancement, whether in scholarship or athletics or in any other natural interest of youth. One such preacher I knew years ago. Long after he had left the pastorate in a certain town I would keep find- ing full-grown men who would tell of the way in which his interest 92 A BOY'S RELIGION followed them. The boys never for- got him. When they reached the seriousness of middle age, the very- mention of this preacher's name would at once make them kindle with loving remembrance. And many of them were in the Kingdom and were vitally connected with the church of Christ because this pastor*s hinnan interest would not suffer them to escape. It all comes back, of course, to the one thing that Saint Paul glorifies in his great psalm. All else fails but love. The mere word 'love" will not conquer the boy. In fact, it is likely that its use may make him self-conscious. But the fact of love for him will do wonders with hin\. What scholarship will not do, and' what even sacrificial toil will not do, and what martyrdom will not accomplish, that love will do with that socially eager youth. There is a marginal reading somewhere in the Old Testament that says, "Thou THE PASTOR 93 hast loved me out of the pit." The reference is to the way in which the love of God lifts men out of their moral dangers. The servant of God can in his sphere love men out of the pit. His love is a lifter. The pit waits for the feet of the boy. Sometimes the pit seems to conquer. But God and the man of God can conquer the pit. The boy can be lifted from its darkness and filth by that loving human in- terest which is the preacher's surest way to the heart of youth. XV. PASTORAL SACRIFICE Very often we make the mistake of assimiing that work with children is easy. Some of our figures of speech encourage this mistake. Chil- dren are "plastic"; older people are "hardened." The figures of speech have their meaning, but we should be careful not to make them into 94 A BOY'S RELIGION errors rather than into truths. Or we may virtually imply that, inas- much as the bending of the twig makes the inclining of the tree, after once you have given the twig the right direction, the whole problem of the tree is solved. Of course this is far from correct. Any or- chardist will teach us more wisely than that. Nor should we suppose that de- light and ease are the same thing. We sing the hymn, "Delightful work, young souls to win !" and we may readily pass to the conclusion that the work is de- lightful because it is easy. We might as well say that, because Stradivarius enjoyed making violins, his work was not difficult! Instead, we find that he often poured the glad sacrifice of months into the making of a single instnmient. The work was delightful, not because it THE PASTOR 95 was easy, but because the workman loved the result. That result was the "joy that was set before him." There is a general consideration against the assimiption that work with children is easy, namely, that no great work is ever a smooth and jaunty task. The gourd that grows over night will wither over day. The ease of its development is the measure of its ease of decay. The big things, whether they be Magna Charta, Reformation, Revolution, or an oak tree, are not hurriedly grown. And a human life is the largest thing provided for in the creation of God. It would be strange if its best and finest development were a product easy to gain. Sometiraes, also, we have this im- pression of easy spiritual results with children because some one else does the difficult work and we take the result as a mere matter of course. We are surely prone to do this 96 A BOY'S RELIGION with the intellectual education of our children. We turn the little people over to the public schools, and we do not always appreciate the fact that they are educated only be- cause teachers feel the tug and strain many hours of thousands of days. But the sacrifice is there whether we recognize it or not. Is the in- tellectual education of our children easier than their spiritual education? Nor is it any overstatement when we say that to win and hold the boy requires peculiar sacrifice. The boy must meet a large range of coarser temptation from which the girl is freed. She seldom hears profanity; she knows little of the lure of cigar- ettes; the saloon is not for her; she does not carry a latch-key with a view to late hours! But all these and other forms of allurement coax the boy. It may not be hard to get him to start in the Christian life, if indeed he has left his first love; THE PASTOR 97 yet to keep him in the way of Christ is the work of years. It cannot be done by any easy wave of the hand. It is not accomplished in any one brief service. The work that truly evangelizes the boy is a service many years in length. Any other thought is superficial and dangerous. It is simply a big blimder to think that because boys are easily reached, they are easily kept. The true evangelism of youth is the most difficult thing because it is the most important thing. The niles of the church plainly reveal where the difficulty will come. It is the long continuance of the work that costs the price. One meeting may win the boy to an allegiance. It will require many meetings to train and confirm him in the way of the Lord. It is just this fact that leads so often to an answer which, as every conscientious pastor feels, is a poor compromise 98 A BOY^S RELIGION of himself. How seldom have we been able to answer fully and un- equivocally the question, "Have the rules respecting the instruction of children been observed?" The full answer to that question is the meas- vue of ftill pastoral duty. That an- swer can be won^only out of sacrifice. The lesson would not be complete without saying that sacrifice in the Christian sense does not necessarily mean strain and pain and sorrow. It may rather mean joy and glad- ness. Jesus saw joy beyond the cross. If Simon the Cyrenian saw what life really was, he felt joy be- neath the cross. The load of life must be pulled anyhow. The yoke of Christ can be cushioned by a love of the task and, more still, by the love of Him who calls us to the task. When a burden is actually his burden, he himself waits to fur- nish the spirit that makes the easy yoke and the light load. PART FOUR THE TEACHER XVL THE TEACHER'S CHARACTER There is a suggestive verse in one of the Gospels which declares that great crowds came to Bethany "not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead.** But they were thus brought into contact with the Saviour. Doubtless, if we could discover the personal histories of that olden time, we would find out that many of those who came to see Lazarus saw some one far greater, and even that they expe- rienced that spiritual resurrection which is the achievement of the Christian faith. It needs only a quick review of our early experience to convince us how true this illustration is. We had an interest in some person, and lOI 102 A BOY'S RELIGION this interest was directly transferred to Christ. It led us to some part of Bethany, and Jesus was there. Very often this human mediator was a Sunday school teacher. We found ere long that this teacher had been raised from the death of trespasses and sins. We believed in him. His character appealed to us as being high. He rang true. He had the first essential of a religious teacher in that he was himself religious. What he taught was not contradicted by what he did. His word and his deed did not quarrel with each other. We knew that he was really good. Now character has an industry that is all its own. It is pervasive also. Like the shadow of the tree, it often goes where the man cannot go. It works even when its owner is absent. It can be summoned to the witness stand in the twinkling of an eye. It is influential in all realms, but it is particularly in- THE TEACHER 103 fluential in that realm where the first object is to produce character. Like produces Hke, we say. How can darkness make light? Or how can the unclean fountain send forth clean waters? Somehow we keep the conviction that a man's work in the spiritual region cannot possi- bly be any better than the man. He talks when he is silent. He works when he is idle. He appears when he is absent. When he and his word clash and fight, he is likely to be victor as against his word. If he be a good man, he himself is salt; he himself is light; he him- self is truth; he himself is life. God still follows his own highest example and uses an incarnation in order to make Himself known. Often a Simday school teacher is that incarnation. Now boys have keen eyes and quick intuitions. They may be easily deceived at first, but in due season 104 A BOY'S RELIGION they will know the teacher for what he is. In this respect they all have the advantages or disadvantages of the group spirit. What one does not find out another will discover. Nor are they good keepers of se- crets. The seal of silence is not yet fastened tightly on their lips. The teacher's inconsistent act, seen by one, will soon be known by all; and after that the teacher must get new and strong credentials ere he will be trusted again All this is good for the teacher him- self. We have all known men and women who were saved by the ne- cessity of their own influence. While they were trying to bring the boys to ^Christ, the boys brought them to the same Master. The teacher- evangelist evangelized himself. He found that action and reaction were equal and in opposite directions — in Sunday school work as well as in physics. The prayer of his life THE TEACHER 105 became a prayer for utter consist- ency. He longed to be a good man because he knew that character was the most efficient evangelist. Boys are not only very curious, they have likewise a large himian interest. They can be brought where Jesus is if they feel that they can there see a Lazarus whom Jesus has raised from the dead. Does not Jesus himself give us this lesson in its fiillness? He is not merely the gospel of God; he is the evangelist of that gospel. It was necessary that he should tell us that God was holy; but it was just as necessary that he should show us the divine holiness in his own life. If the world should lose faith in the character of Jesus, it would quickly lose faith in the gospel of Jesus. A sinful Messiah could not be a complete Saviour. Jesus teaches the way, the truth, and the life, because he is the way, the truth, io6 A BOY'S RELIGION and the life. He is his own religion. There is a certain sense in which every teacher must be the same. There is, moreover, a deep hu- man conviction on this point. Peo- ple are insistent that the teachers of youth shall not be corrupt. They demand this of public school teach- ers. It is a well-known fact that an evil reputation makes a disqual- ification for secular teaching. How much more shall we make this high demand for spiritual teaching? It is said that a famous infidel once visited the home of a saint. He left sooner than he had intended and gave as his reason that, if he stayed in the home another week, he .would become a Christian in spite of himself! The saint's char- acter was doing evangelistic work. Shall not a good teacher's character invite a class of impressionable boys into fellowship with Christ and into his blessed service? THE TEACHER 107 XVn. THE TEACHER'S KNOWLEDGE What should a teacher of boys know in order that he may lead boys into the religious life? An- swers to this question will vary according to the viewpoints of those who make reply. Some will make the intellectual emphasis too exclu- sive and will urge a rule that would drive nine tenths of our Sunday school teachers from their work. Others will make the spiritual em- phasis too exclusive and will urge a rule that would fill our schools with teachers that have zeal without knowledge. Still others would com- bine the two emphases and would urge a nile such as God has adopted in selecting the great leaders of his church. Paul and Calvin and Luther and Wesley were all providential men, and they were all both in- tellectual and spiritual. They knew io8 A BOY'S RELIGION with their minds, and they felt with their hearts. Sunday school teachers in their minor realm may not be able to be great thinkers or great mystics, but they should strive to love God with all their minds and souls. This double preparation will make them more efficient as evan- gelists of boyhood. They should know the Bible. The Scriptures reveal Jesus as the end of their revelation. He him- self said that the Scriptures should be searched because they testified of him. He was speaking, of course, of the Old Testament. Still, the reason that he gave for searching the Old Scriptures applies far more to -the New. The statement is often made that, while more Bibles are sold than ever before, fewer Bibles are read and studied. Probably there is no accurate way of finding out whether this is so. If it be so, then there is all the more reason THE TEACHER 109 why the Sunday school teacher should join with the pastor and parent in the effort to fix the Bible in the mind and heart of youth. Deeper than this is the fact that the Bible seems to have a peculiar power of conviction. It is quick and powerful. It does pierce. It is a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Bible is the greatest evangelist, and the teacher should know the Book so well as to give that evangelist a full chance to do its work. Teachers should know the boy. We must all feel sometimes a sense of resentment when some academic psychologist looks learned and pro- ceeds to instruct those who have been dealing in practical psychology for many years. There are now in existence statistical tables show- ing certain tendencies in the life of childhood. If we are ever tempted to feel that much of this work is no A BOY'S RELIGION theoretical and mechanical, we may still get its main value. We must know the boy ere we can effectively teach the boy. It will not do to try to win him with figures of speech based on wee femininity. Miniattire doll houses and small sewing kits belong to girls' classes. The teacher must know how to se- lect the boy's Bible from the big Bible. There are portions of the Book that are peculiarly fitted to appeal to boy life. Those portions cannot be foimd and used unless the teacher knows the boy as well as the Book. At the close of an address to boys months ago, a little fellow said, as he plunged from the room, "Gee! that man knows all abbut us, doesn't he?" This meant that the speaker was a practical Christian psychologist. He had at least a part of the equipment for winning boys to Christ. He knew where boys lived, and he knew how THE TEACHER iii to speak to them in the terms of their own Hves. Teachers should know Christ. Strange as it may seem, it is pos- sible for them to know the Bible with technical accuracy without knowing him. In his later years Phillips Brooks wrote to a friend a transcript of his own personal experience with the Master. He said that all of life's experiences more and more took their meaning from Christ. He added that this was no mere figure of speech. *'He knows me, and I know him. It is the realest thing in the world. And one wonders what it will grow to as the years move on." The man who wrote those words knew Christ. He was thus invincibly sure of his gospel. The boy is a very real person. The more the teacher really knows Christ, the more will the boy feel the sense of reality in the teaching. This knowledge of 112 A BOY'S RELIGION Christ comes only from life with him. Peter gave his confession at Caesarea Philippi because he had been living with the Master. Others, seeing Jesus's tears, might say that he was Jeremias. Yet others, seeing his stern rebuke of sin, might say that he was Elias. Still others, hear- ing only his gospel of repentance, might say that he was John the Baptist. But Peter, having lived those months with the Lord, reached the fuller and truer creed and de- clared that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God." His knowledge of Christ came from his life with Christ. Only so can any teacher of youth come to an ac- quaintanceship with the Lord that will make him an efficient evangelist of boys. Without doubt, also, we come to this knowledge of Christ for the inspiration that will send us to the proper study of the Bible and of THE TEACHER 113 the boy. Only the love of Christ has enough constraint to keep one faithfiil for years to the holy and serious task of evangelizing youth. When once we really know him we shall not rush through a few minutes* study of the lesson and on to a hasty and superficial dealing with the boy. We shall, rather, teach as if the Great Teacher watched both our preparation and our approach to the soul of boyhood. Then we shall be more skillful in bringing many a little lad into the presence of Him who can multiply his powers and possessions so that later multi- tudes shall be fed by his truth. XVni. THE TEACHER'S PURPOSE Sometimes we must all think that the story of Philip and the eunuch, as we have it recorded in the Acts, is a kind of biblical description of 114 A BOY'S RELIGION a real Sunday school. Philip seems to have been a good man. He was likewise a knowing man in the Scriptirres. But his character and his knowledge were both turned to a very definite aim. Ere long his pupil was asking, ''What doth hinder me to be baptized?" The door of the church stood open on that desert way. The teacher had met his pur- pose and so had come to victory. All the elements of a class are present in this account. We may allow that the teacher is imusually direct and purposeful, and that the pupil is unusually responsive. In a way we may say that both atti- tudes are well-nigh ideal. But the big- point is that the teacher was after the main thing. The end of the Scripttires was Christ, and the goal of the teacher was Christ. The outer way was desert, but the spir- itual way proved a garden path whereby grew the tree of life. The THE TEACHER 115 chariot moved, but a soul moved even more significantly. Had Philip dalHed with a literary question the opportunity had passed. Had he discussed the abstract nature of prophecy, the interview would have issued into abstraction. As it was, Philip reached Christ in his teach- ing, and the eunuch reached Christ in his faith. The lesson ended in the pledge of baptismal waters. The eternal lesson for passing teachers is all here, even though the itinerant school was rather un- conventional, and even though the pupil was full-grown. The aim of all Simday school teaching is Christ. Until the teacher is dominated and possessed by that one purpose, he is not a genuine teacher. The ideal- ist may find many weak points in Sunday school work. He would doubtless be compelled to admit that the very weakest point was the lack of a definite and con- ii6 A BOY'S RELIGION Sliming purpose on the part of many teachers. That definiteness is the conquer- ing mood elsewhere. The architect, the engineer, the banker, the pohti- cian, the carpenter, the plumber — all these know what they wish to do, and they go toward a clear goal. If they do not do so, their work is marred and they class them- selves with the inefficients. The world's work is judged by the way in which it meets its purpose. The teacher's work must be estimated by the same rule. Now without doubt the teacher's main purpose is to keep or to bring the scholars within a vital and obedient relation to Jesus Christ. If a teacher does that, he succeeds. If a teacher does not do that, he fails. That purpose is his compass, and it alone can keep him from drifting. That purpose is his North Star, and it alone can keep him from wandering. That THE TEACHER 117 purpose is his life, and it alone can prevent the death of the teacher as a teacher. Therefore, before every class comes to its session, the teacher shotild ask himself, ''Why am I to teach to- day?" After the class adjotims, the question should be, ''Why did I teach to-day?" While the class is in session, the question should be, "Why do I teach now?" Nothing short of this sacred definiteness will suffice. Without it teaching becomes general, hazy, secular, entertaining, frivolous — anything save efficiently spiritual. And this purpose will select its own material. Strange as it may seem, it may employ a chariot ride as a vehicle toward the Highest. It may sometimes choose desert rather than city for its field. The purpose elects ways and means, as well as the subject matter of teach- ing. It accommodates speech to ii8 A BOY'S RELIGION the pupil, working its way adroitly to the center of life. It goes not too rapidly lest it leave the pupil so far behind that he cannot hear the saving word. The purpose be- comes a glowing passion. It gives knowledge heat as well as light. It gives character power as well as beauty. It is the teacher's Geth- semane and his transfiguration; his cross and his crown. Nor is all this a bit of vain idealization. We have all known just such teachers — men and women touched into a divine success by the power and definiteness of their evangelistic purpose toward their scholars. Sometimes these teachers have been learned; sometimes they have been far from technical scholar- ship. But they have all been par- takers of the one Spirit. Whether we find them on the lonely road that leads down to Gaza, or in the ecclesiastical palace on the city's THE TEACHER 119 hill, they are the Spirit's partners in that blessed task of bringing young life into the company of the redeeming Lord. The prayer of each teacher shoiild be, ''God, make me such!" The prayer of each church should be, ''God, give us such!" Princeton, Theolo< ical Seminarv,. Libraries 7Toi2 01208 8003 DATE DUE GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA iiiiii.niiiniiihi i