LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by The Widow o^ Gre©ng*TW<*n , '% BX 9178 .G75 06 Gregg, David, 1846-1919. Our best moods a (Ha^cl ^^-ff OUR BEST MOODS SOLILOQUIES AND OTHER DISCOURSES BY DAVID ^GREGG, D.D. PASTOR LAFAYETTE AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BROOKLYN, N. Y. k NEW YORK E. B. TREAT & COMPANY 241-243 West 23D Street OFFICE OF THE TREASURY MAGAZINE PUBLISHER'S NOTE. THE discourses published herein were delivered in the ordinary course of the Author's pulpit ministrations ; their publication has been urgently called for by a large number of those who heard them. In this permanent form it is hoped they may prove a blessing to many others. CONTENTS PAGE I. Our Best Moods: their Origin and Use i II. Soliloquy in Human Life : its Place and Power 29 III. The Face of Jesus Christ 53 IV. Straightforward Speech and Genuine Life . . 81 V. Joseph's Wagons ; or, Faith's Symbols 107 VI. "The Indignation of a Fine Soul" 133 VII. Help and Cheer from the Glorified Dead... 157 VIII. Crucifying Christ while Appropriating His Robes 181 IX. The Things of Childhood to be Carried into Mature Life 209 X. Results of Communion with God 237 XL The New Testament Christ the Old Testa- ment Shekinah 261 5 6 CONTENTS. PAGE XII. The Possibilities of Young Men in our Great Cities 285 XIII. Insects with Wings, or Beautified Sins 311 XIV. Prayer for Instruction in Arithmetic 337 I. OUR BEST MOODS: THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. I. OUR BEST MOODS: THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn -within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ? " — Luke 24 : 32. The story of the text is a story which shows the play of moods in human life. This is the rea- son we come to it now. We covet for ourselves the best mental frames, the best states of heart, that by means of these we may reach a perfect versus a partial self. We believe that we are made by our moods ; so we take up the story of the text that we may analyze the moods which were the hidden forces in the substructure of the nature of these two men, Cleopas and his friend. Who were Cleopas and his friend? No one knows. No one ever heard of them before. They were inconspicuous and unhistoric. Outside of this story they have no existence. Christ had only forty days to spend between His resurrection and His ascension, and yet He gave a full half day of 9 IO OUR BEST MOODS. this valuable time to the purifying and the chang- ing and the reconstruction of the moods of these humble and unknown men. This certainly reveals Christ's estimate of man's moods. He seeks to make these right in order that He make the man right. He found Cleopas and his friend in one of the lower moods, and when He left them He left them in one of the higher moods. He found them facing the wrong way, He left them facing the right way. The story of Cleopas and his friend is an ex- ceedingly interesting story. It is climacteric both in substance and in form. It is more like an acted drama than a story. We are interested in the two sad-faced men as they quit Jerusalem, and we enter with them into their heart-sorrow ; but when the unknown stranger joins them, and throws his life into their life, our interest rises to a white-heat. The center of their thoughts and of their conversa- tion and of their deep feeling is Jesus. Jesus and their moods are locked and interlocked. Accord- ing as they see Christ, so they feel ; and according as they feel, so they act. Thus it has been for three years. The disciples of the Master have been bounding and rebounding from mood to mood. They have been full of hope, then full of discouragement. They have been enthusiastic, then spiritless. They have had a grand perspect- ive, then they have been hemmed in on every side as with iron clamps. At one time they could see THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. I I everything, and then at another time they could see absolutely nothing. At one time they thought that every grand thing which they saw in Him was about to be realized, and they rose up to pro- claim Him king ; but in a few days afterward these very same things scarcely had a tentative shape. Much had seemed about to happen ; but nothing did happen, and it looked as though nothing could happen. The sadness of these two friends, as they walked, slow of foot and heavy of heart, typified the mood of all the disciples of Jesus. They had a dream of a regenerated country ; of an established king- dom with its capital at Jerusalem ; of a general transfiguration; and of honors and emoluments which would soon be theirs. They had enlarged views of Christ. They loved the Master fervently. They were fascinated by His teachings. They were awed by His miracles. They were ravished by His tender affections. They had given up their all, and had devoted themselves for all they were worth to Him and to the future which they thought they saw opening upon the world through Him. Now, instead of realizing these fond anticipations which made new men of them, what had come? What? Inglorious collapse! A cause smitten to the dust by the strong arm of the hated Roman Empire ; shattered hopes ; a complete disappoint- ment ; a cruel deception ; and, above all, the catas- trophe of the Cross. These were sad things to 12 OUR BEST MOODS. talk about, but these were the only things they had to talk about. The only thing not sad before them was a certain rumor which some hysterical women had set afloat, that His tomb was empty and He had been seen alive. But even that was sad also, because it was such an utter impossi- bility. Talking only made matters worse, so that when the unknown stranger joined them they were completely swayed by sadness. Their sad faces framed Christ's salutation : " What maimer of com- munications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? " The happenings amid which they had lived were so much a part of their lives, that they wondered that any man in all Jerusalem could be ignorant of them, and they expressed their wonder. "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass tliere in these days ? " They did not know that this sympa- thetic friend was Jesus. "Their eyes were Jwlden." They were holden by what? Holden by unpre- paredness for His coming ; by wrong views ; by non-expectation; by man-manufactured theories; by ignorance of the Scriptures. No one knew better what had taken place in the community than Jesus. Who could know more of the crucifixion than He ? or more of the tomb, full or empty, than He? or more of His reputed resurrection from the dead than He? But mark the answer which THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 13 He returned to the question of Cleopas. His answer was this : " What things ? " This set both of the men talking, and they recounted everything ; and more than this, they put their interpretation upon the sad events. They gathered up the frag- ments of their broken hopes, and put these together again, that He might see just what they had been cherishing in their heart. What a drama this is ! We are let into the secret. As we read and listen, how impatient we grow, and how anxious we be- come that Cleopas and his friend may know all. We anticipate the thrill of their coming discovery. I call this magnificent story-writing. Their reply to the question, "What things? " — the question of the Master — is really part of the exposition which Jesus gives of His Messiahship. He lets them say that they had trusted that Jesus was He who should have redeemed Israel, and then intimate that instead of redeeming Israel He had abandoned the cause of Israel at the critical moment. He lets them say that things are worse now than they ever have been. He lets them say all this that He may show them that Jesus was never truer to the cause of Israel than when He died, and was never so near His triumph as when his enemies nailed Him to the cross. It was just then that He nonplussed the powers of darkness. He lets them tell of the shipwreck of their faith, and enunciate the things that disappoint them most ; for He meant to make evidences out of their 14 OUR BEST MOODS. objections, and to show them from the Scriptures that the very things which perplexed them and broke them up were the precise things which the Scriptures predicated of the true Messiah. "Be- ginning at Moses and all the prophets, He ex- pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." It was the Scriptures, the Holy Bible, which Jesus used, in order to lift these men from the lower mood into the higher mood. It was by un- folding the Scriptures, and by filling their whole being with the truths of the Bible, that He changed their views, repleted them with rapturous joy, and made new men out of them. Mark this : Jesus Christ the perfect man honored the Bible. He recognized it as the repository of truth. He in- dorsed it as a divine power. He exalted it as the touchstone by which ideas and doctrines and senti- ments and duties are to be tested. He used it as evidence. What is evidence ? It is that which satisfies a man from top to bottom — his intellect, his conscience, his affections, his tastes, his emo- tions, every part of him. In the case of Cleopas and his friend, the Bible, as used by the Master, did all this. The Scriptures opened produced faith ; and faith quickened resulted in hearts that burned ; and hearts that burned with every faculty on fire, scintillating and corruscating, saw the true Christ. A heart on fire is the symbol of intense life. Now, intensity of life is what we should THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 15 possess when we deal with Jesus. It enlarges fel- lowship, makes us more receptive, and gives us keen perceptions. With what did the hearts of these two burn? They burned with joy. They burned with a new admiration of Jesus. They burned with a new sense of His mastery over affairs. They burned with a sense of shame, too, that they should have done Him the injustice of supposing that He had deserted them and the cause which He introduced into the world. They burned with the glow of rekindled hopes. They burned with a fresh confi- dence in the Christ. They burned with bright anticipations of a glorious future. No wonder their hearts burned. They had gotten back their Christ, and He had charmed away their griefs, and had filled them with unspeakable comfort. To me there is a perfect charm in the way the story tells us how Cleopas and his friend got back their Christ. They say to their hearts, " This stranger is a friend of the Master; he understands the Master; he completely trusts the Master; he thoroughly knows what the Master should be, and what the Master is." Because of this they feel it good and uplifting to be in the presence of this stranger. When they reach the white houses and the lemon groves of Emmaus, as the red sun sinks in the western sky over the hills of Ephraim, their hearts cling to the new-made friend. When He would go on alone, they plead with Him, "Abide 1 6 OUR BEST MOODS. ivith ?is." When He accepts of their pressing in- vitation and sits down with them to enjoy the evening meal, He reverently lifts His voice in prayer and asks a blessing, just as Jesus was wont to do in the happy days of old. Then their hearts instinctively say, " How like the Master Himself this new-found friend of Jesus is!" With this state of feeling reached, they are ready for the last, the revealing act of this wonderful but captivating stranger, viz., the breaking of the bread which has just been blessed. It was in the performance of this act that they knew Him. As he lifted the bread and handed it to them they saw the print of the nail in His hand, and at once knew that it was the crucified hand of the Crucified One that min- istered to them. God be praised ! The Scriptures are fulfilled ! The resurrection story of the morn- ing is true! Christ is alive again! They can stand nothing more than that; hence the most merciful thing Jesus can do is to do what he does, vanish for the time out of their sight. He has lifted them into the highest possible mood, and all that is necessary is to allow that mood full play. It will do all the rest. It will take Cleopas and his friend back to Jerusalem, and will make them for- ever witnesses of the resurrection and heralds of the glorious gospel. "And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem; . . . and they told what things were done in the way, and how He teas known of them in breaking of bread." THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. I 7 What did Jesus do in order to lift these disciples to that high mood which changed their whole life ? He did this : by the use of the Bible He put hope into the hearts of Cleopas and his friend. By hope they were saved. When hope is gone, life and impulse are gone. There are no songs in the night. There is no effort. There is no progress. Bunyan shows us this in that marvelous parable of life, " The Pilgrim's Progress." Cleopas and his friend were like Pilgrim in one of his dark experi- ences. Pilgrim on one occasion fell into the hands of Giant Despair, and the giant shut him up in a black dungeon in Doubting Castle. And how did Pilgrim act and talk then? What was his mood? How did he feel ? He said to himself, "All things are at an end. No more sunny roadway. No more pleasant conversation with friends. No more songs in the night. No more the reaching out of a helping hand to some fallen brother. No more gleams and glimpses of the Eternal City. Nothing in the future but darkness, helplessness, and de- spair." Suddenly he remembered a key formerly given him, and which he had put for safe-keeping in his bosom. He began at once searching for that key, for as he fumbled around the door of the dungeon the question came to him : " What if this hidden key of mine should fit this lock, and turn this bolt, and give me freedom ? It may be that this key was given me for such an hour as this." The thought was an intuitive thought, and the 1 8 OUR BEST MOODS. intuition proved as true as the God who sent it. Pilgrim found that the lock and key matched ; and with the key of hope the bolt of despair was turned back with perfect ease. When once this bolt was turned the door of the dungeon sprung wide open of its own accord, and Pilgrim was out again in the sunlight, a free man. Looking up to the heights of the Mount of Glory, he saw there full in view the Celestial City with its streets of gold and its shining walls of precious stones. Methinks, too, that his vision during his first moments of freedom were so keen, so microscopic, and so telescopic, that, looking through the open door of the palace up there, as an angel turned the pages of the Lamb's Book of Life, he actually caught a glimpse of his own name upon one of the crystal oages. Of one thing we are absolutely certain, and that is, from that, moment on Pilgrim went forward on his pilgrimage with a fresh zeal and an unflagging step. Christ fired Cleopas and his friend with hope. With the key of hope He unlocked the dungeon of the lower mood in which they were imprisoned, and opened for them the door into the sunshine of a higher mood. There are three points which I wish to evolve from this story, and these I shall now set in order. I . We are all creatures of moods, and our moods determine our living. For the most part we act as we feel. Emotion is life. Stag-nation is death. What is water in a THEIR ORIGIN AXD USE. 19 stagnant pool worth? It has nothing of the music of the brook in it. It turns no mill. It gladdens no meadow. It is water in motion that is life, and that is valuable. Water in motion : sailing through the heavens in clouds; pattering in the April shower ; leaping in the cataract ; throbbing in the mighty tides of the ocean — that is the life of nature. So it is in the human world. It is not the men who stagnate, but the men who circulate, who pulsate, that are life and power. It is the emotive men, the men who have large capacity for feeling. " Modern science has brought out this truth most wonderfully in its great discovery that all forces are only ' modes of motion.' So it is ' motion ' with the letter ' e ' prefixed — ' emotion ' — that lies at the heart of all the transformations and all the progress of human life." As men are under the influence of the emotions — love, hate ; trust, fear ; hope, despair ; admiration, repulsion — so will they act. These emotions create moods, and moods create life. We all know how our moods govern us, and how quickly we pass from mood to mood. One morning I heard a mother ask her little child, who had wakened in good spirits, " Whom does baby love?" The little thing answered gleefully, "Baby loves everybody." Five minutes after the child became dispirited ; the same voice asked the same question, "Whom docs baby love?" and the answer this time was, "Baby loves zionebody." 20 OUR BEST MOODS. What was the cause of this change of conduct? A change of mood. That was all. But that was everything. It meant a change in the spirit and conduct and life of the child. We have an illus- tration of the same kind in the experience of the Hebrews on the border of the Promised Land. Look into the faces of the Hebrews when Joshua and Caleb return as spies from Canaan and tell of the wonders of the land. The multitude go into raptures over the land when they hear of the milk and the honey which are there, and when they see samples of the grain and of the luscious clusters. The leaders can scarce restrain the army from tak- ing up the march at once. But mark you how in a moment everything changes ! The spies utter one sentence which drives hope out of their lives. It is this: "There are giants in the land." This changes their mood, and they talk differently : " We do not care much for Canaan — never did. We do not drink milk — never did. We do not like honey — never did ; it is so sweet that it sickens us. The Promised Land, after all, is only hills. Egypt is good enough for us. Let us go back to Egypt." Life is full of moods. That is our point. There are in it moods of unfaith, moods of scorn, moods of indifference, and Sadducean moods. There are in it low moods, which may come from ill-health and physical feebleness, or from fatigue of mind, or from oppressive rivalries, or from disappointment. THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 2 1 We need rest ; we need sleep. In these moods our moral discrimination is blunted, our reason is warped. We have the testimony only of our weariness ; we are full of apprehension, fear, fore- boding. Life is full of moods. That is our point. There are in it moods of hope, moods of love, moods of consecration, moods of faith, moods of expectancy, moods of joy, and sacramental moods. These are the better moods, and are full of inspiration and light. They are full of heart-life with its intensi- ties and raptures. In them all the faculties of man are awake and in exercise. Man is clear-thoughted and large-hearted. Reason and conscience and the faculty of vision are all clarified. These are the moods which we should choose and seek ; for out of them may be constructed a beautiful and Christlike life. Just here comes in my second point, and it comes in here for our encouragement. It is this : 2. There is a zvay of read ling the high moods. Cleopas and his friend reached an apocalyptic mood. The Bible introduces us to a troop of men linng in the best mood. Jesus had His moods. It was not all a Gethsemane mood with Him; He had His transfiguration night and His hosanna day. The shepherds had their uplift ; it was the holy night. The world was never the same after that night. Something had happened. The old had passed away and the new had come. God had 22 OUR BEST MOODS. wrought by His quiet power a great revolution. Run down the names that tower in history, and notice the high place which the best moods have : Bethel was a high mood in Jacob's life ; Pisgah in Moses' life ; Horeb in Elijah's life ; the house-top vision at Joppa in Peter's life ; Patmos in John's life ; and the third-heaven translation in Paul's life. I urge upon those young in years who are just entering the Christian life to seek the best moods, and to store their natures brimful with hope, that element which is the largest constituent of a best mood. I preach hope for everybody, even for those who are in the midst of reverses. There is nothing better that we can have. No one should distrust hope. It is not a cheat foisted upon human life. It is not a mirage making beautiful pictures on the air of something that does not exist. It is not a will-o'-the-wisp flitting before us and leading us into a bog. It is a vital force putting power into the roots of our being. Let me illustrate. Let me take an ultra case. You are a business man, and a man disappointed in business. The most hated thing in the world is your ledger. You hate it because it tells the tale of the wreck of your hopes. Is there any harm in your resting your head on your hand over that ledger, in which the balance comes out on the wrong side, and dreaming that you will have something better by and by ? No. Not a bit of THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 23 harm. It will refresh you. It will give a new spring and vigor to your future attacks on the problems of your life. Do our young friends ask me, Hozv can we reach the best moods in life ? I answer their question by asking, Hozv did Cleopas and Iris friend reach their best mood ? They are our guides. (a) They readied their best mood by living with the open Bible. Do likewise, and you, too, shall reach your best mood. Here is where you get hope. Here is where the bells of promise ring. Is there any grander hope in the universe than the hope of the resurrection, or the hope of likeness to God, or the hope of perfection? These are all in the Book. We want something to implant in our natures the hopes and feelings and sympathies and loves and joys that center in the nature of Christ. The Bible does that. Moods are results. Emotions are always the subjects of conditions. They do not come and go at call. Feelings follow causa- tions. Ideas produce feelings. Elemental truths produce feelings. What mood do you want ? The faith mood? The ideas and elemental truths to produce faith are in the Book. So are the ideas and elemental truths requisite to produce the joy mood, the love mood, the hope mood, the sacra- mental mood. The way into the best mood is through the diligent and prayerful use of God's Word, the Bible. 24 OUR BEST MOODS. (b) They reached their best mood through as- sociation with Jesus Christ. Usually our best moods come to us from our best associations. Christ raised their minds into contact with His, and this was the secret of their leap from the lower mood to the higher mood. Between them and the Master there was the ming- ling of soul with soul, heart with heart, spirit with spirit, and life with life. The Christ mood is the highest mood. The result was they reached that. They thought as Christ thought, and they felt as Christ felt. But I must hasten to my last point. It is the practical application of the sermon. It is this : 3. There is a profitable way of using our best moods. We should convert them into inspiring memories. We should gather them as men gather and store electricity. We should turn them into perpetual fountains of joy. They can ever remain in our experience as reminders of our possibilities. They can create renewed expectations of a second bene- fit. Cleopas and his friend drew fresh joy out of their best mood after Jesus had vanished out of their sight. "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ? " They relived the scenes of their best mood. They treasured their mood as an ideal. They set it up in their life as a standard. THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 25 We sliould make our best moods the court of decision in life. Too many things are settled in the lower court of our nature, where pride and vanity and avarice are on the bench, and where carnal policy pleads at the bar. Too many things are settled in our lower moods when single faculties of our souls only are active and brought into play. In our higher moods, all the faculties of our souls are awake and are at work. Then the mind perceives things intuitively, and the conscience is exceedingly sen- sitive to right and wrong. Reason is calm, the moral feelings are aroused, and everything fine in our nature is in the ascendency. The feelings are heroic, and the vision is luminous. The soul sweeps along the lines of its purest ideals. The man feels that he is a son of God. The chief- justice in the spirit of man is above and beyond a bribe. This is the court in which to adjudicate the claims of God and of mankind, and in which to decide as to what is right and wrong, and what is duty. This is the court into which to bring our doubts and cases of casuistry. This is the court whose decisions upon all matters of principle and sentiment and conduct may be counted upon as almost infallible. We should translate our best moods into actual life. That is what Cleopas and his friend did ; their best mood became a journey to Jerusalem and a 26 OUR BEST MOODS. testimony to the risen Christ. We should give our moods a practical turn. This is what Jesus did with His highest earthly mood, His transfigu- ration wood. He compelled it to get Him ready for Calvary. He occupied its precious and uplift- ing moments in talking with Moses and Elijah about the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Our best moods, in which the pulse is quickened, and the love fired, and the brain made large-thoughted, are only the initial condi- tion of a life more permanent and better. These must result in purposes, and in volitions, and in intellectual states, and in character, and in conduct. There must be, as an outcome from them, a jour- ney to Jerusalem, and a testimony for Christ. Our best moods should be productive ; they should give the world something grand and permanent. David's best mood gave the world the twenty-third Psalm ; Paul's, the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ; John's, the Apocalypse. These magnificent writings are all embodied moods. When we go into the midst of the affairs of the world we should take our visions with us, and we should aim to materialize them in actualities. The moods of an interesting and uplifting Sabbath in the tem- ple of God should fruit in a truer life in the home, and in the social circle, and in the realm of busi- ness. Our best moods should lay hold on the commonplace things of life and turn them into sac- ramental things for the service of God, as Moses THEIR ORIGIN AND USE. 2 J laid hold of and turned the cedar wood and the canvas and the fine-twined linen and the gold anil silver into a Holy Tabernacle. Every grand thing that has come from the hand of man is simply a higher mood, with its holy feelings and uplifting visions, translated by the patience and toil of man into some serviceable and permanent form. Look at the " Sistine Madonna " ! You are lost in won- der at its ideal beauty. But what is it ? And what is it made of? It is a common piece of can- vas ; common pigments ; earths ; extracts ; things which would soil the hands if you should touch them. The maker was an intense soul, and an infinite patience ; the whole work is just the best mood of the artist, captured and wrought out, and materialized and made serviceable, and immortal- ized. Every high mood which God gives us should produce the equivalent of a " Sistine Madonna," or should give the world an Apoca- lypse, or shouid fruit in a journey to Jerusalem, and in a public testimony to the risen Christ. Lord grant us the beatific vision to-day. We need it to ennoble this life. We need it as a solace. So set before us the self we should reach that it cannot be rubbed out in forgetfulness. Help us to realize our high calling in Christ Jesus. Let our whole life be a life of ascending. Make our souls as sensitive to the touch of Jesus as the harp is to the touch of the skillful harper. Walk with us as we journey to the Emmaus of the skies, and 28 OUR BEST MOODS. by Thy sweet and tender fellowship lift our souls into the divinest of moods. And then give us grace that we may translate our best moods into the best of lives, into an eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, into the expressed confi- dence of a shepherd Psalm, and into a public and fearless and consistent testimony for Thee in the midst of Jerusalem. Amen. II. THE PLACE AND POWER OF SOLILOQUY IN HUMAN LIFE. II. THE PLACE AND POWER OF SOLILO- QUY IN HUMAN LIFE. "Commune with your own heart." — Psalm 4:4. The greatness of man and the possibilities which are wrapped up in his nature should be the con- stant topic of man. Man, when he becomes what it is possible for him to become, stands next to God. It is the duty of every man to reach this high place. Man next to God ! This is no fancy. This is a fact. Everywhere our minds perceive it. We perceive it as we stand amid the wonderful inventions of the nineteenth century. The master- ful way in which inventors have seized and tamed the elements of nature, combining a first power with a second power and thereby making a third power, a new force ; harnessing the vapor, and handling the electric bolt, and linking continent to continent — all of these things remind us of the Creator Himself. Using the forces of nature as man uses them is next to creating the forces of nature and giving them a being. 31 j2 OUR BEST MOODS. A traveler of note once stood upon the rock by the side of Niagara Falls. But he noticed not the splashing cataract with its white foam and flashing rainbows ; his eye and mind were fastened upon the suspension bridge, which the daring skill of man had thrown as if by magic over the river. This was the reason which he gave for his conduct : "All things considered, the bridge is the greater wonder. It is nothing for the infinite God to pour out from His unmeasured hand this stream of water over these rocks ; but it is a marvelous something for limited man to bridge this tumultuous chasm." Considering the different factors at work, the tour- ist was right. Man next to God! This is no fancy. This is a fact. Everywhere our minds perceive it. We perceive it in the world of human sacrifice. The nineteenth century gives us striking specimens of absolute surrender of self for the blessing of man- kind. Missionaries of the cross go into the Lazar- house, that at the cost of their earthly all they may bring eternal salvation to the lost. Within one hour of our city, the other day, an engineer of a locomotive which drew a train heavily freighted with human life saw on the track before him a dead engine. That meant that in a minute more there would be a wreck. And what did the man do? With a divine heroism he sprang to the rear of the wood-car and uncoupled the engine from the train, sprang back to his place and drew the lever, and POWER OF SOLILOQUY IN HUMAN LIFE. 33 with all the head of steam possible dashed into the dead engine with a force which lifted both engines from the track. The oncoming and detached train had a clear way and passed by in safety. But what became of the brave engineer? Why ask that question ? There was only one thing possible for him. The man made a certain and an absolute sacrifice of himself, and that for the purpose of saving the lives of his fellow-men. He was so crushed that when they took him from the ruins he was not recognizable. I was on the train behind that train. But little did I dream of the heroism that was being enacted, as I chafed under the midnight delay, not knowing the cause. But since then I have often thought of that heroism, and I have often said to myself, " In grand and absolute sacrifice of self, man, when he is at his best, is next to God." This man gave all that he was capable of giving; God can do no more. Man living the new life, sacrificing, exercising patience, delighting in holiness and truth and love, working out great and everlasting principles, revel- ing in the pure and the spiritual, giving himself to those who have need of him and of his help, what or who is beyond him but God? I am not afraid to exalt the greatness of man when he conforms to the divine ideal, and when he is worked up into the highest possible type. To do that is not to derogate the greatness of God. The greatness of God is infinite, therefore eternally 34 OUR BEST MOODS. safe from all derogation. I am not afraid of excit- ing the jealousy of God. God is not jealous of His own. The artist is not jealous of the popular- ity of his picture. The author is not jealous of the wide sale of his book. The musician is not jealous of his song when it thrills to an encore. The father is not jealous of the influence of his son. The teacher is not jealous of the development of his favorite pupil. The developed man is the creation of God, made by the indwelling of His Spirit, and by the molding power of His Son Jesus Christ, and by the teaching of His Word, and by the operation of His providences, and God is proud of him. How shall man reach the heights which God has opened before him ? How shall man make the most of himself? That is the question. To make the most of himself man must deal pointedly and specifically with himself. He may put him- self under the best of teachers, but that is not enough. He may choose the best of companions, but that is not enough. He may live in a moral community and become a member of the Church, but that is not enough. He may have a father planning for him, and a mother praying for him, and a minister preaching at him, but that is not enough. He has a duty which he owes himself, and until he is true to himself there can be no sal- vation, no growth, and no establishment of a true and abiding character. No man ever reaches the POWER OF SOLILOQUY IN HUMAN LIFE. 35 climax of greatness until he becomes acquainted with himself, talks and counsels with himself, respects himself, plans for himself, develops him- self, thinks for himself, acts for himself, goes to school to himself, sacrifices for himself, and crowns himself. He must be alone, and often alone. He must talk with God, he must also talk with the great and good of the people of God ; but beyond all this he must in the midst of the silence and solemnity of solitude frequently commune with his own heart. Soliloquy must have a wide play in his life. Do I exaggerate the necessity for solitude and soliloquy in life in order to trueness and growth and greatness? Let human biography answer. All great men have insisted upon a certain amount of isolation. Inventors have cloistered themselves with nature and have experimented in solitude. Solitary and alone they have canvassed the inher- ent forces in the elements before they have unrolled for public scrutiny their amazing discoveries. It is well known how writers abstract themselves from society, that in retirement they may be free from interruption, and escape the jar of nerves which comes from discordant sounds. Maturin, the dramatist, when he felt he was getting into the full tide of composition, used to stick a wafer on his forehead to signify to the members of his household that he was not to be spoken to. Sir Walter Scott's study at Abbotsford contained one 36 OUR BEST MOODS. chair and no more. The essays of Bacon, the plays of Shakespeare, the poems of Browning and Tennyson and Whittier are not extemporized efforts. Each composition which carries in it im- mortality and feeling and experience and thought is pondered slowly, and when the writer is alone. Now, that which is necessary to good writing is necessary to good living. There must be thought in life, and conscience in life, and the play of imag- ination in life, if life is to be abiding in its quality, and influential. These things are reached in a large degree only when a man is alone, and can think, and can hear the voice of conscience, and can allow the imagination undisturbed to paint and beautify duty so that it is metamorphosed into privilege. Summon the great men of history into your presence to-day, and see if what I affirm be not true ! Moses was the great lawgiver of the old economy ; but you remember the solitude of Mount Sinai, where he was wrapped round with the She- kinah cloud. Daniel was great in Babylon, he tow- ered over all the wisdom of that great empire ; but Daniel put solitude into his busy life three times a day. It was amid the stillness of the river Hidekel or on the banks of the Tigris that he reached his wonderful vision of the Messianic kingdom. John the Baptist was a wilderness man. It was while on the lonely Isle of Patmos that John the apostle so lifted his being to spiritual heights that God could put the Apocalypse into his soul. In the POWER OF SOLILOQUY IN HUMAN LIFE. 37 perfect human life of Jesus Christ we see the true essentials to right living. There were both soli- tude and soliloquy in His life. You are familiar with His forty days in the wilderness, and with His midnights in the mountain, and with the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, with its one lone figure prone on the ground. Such was the soli- tude in the life of Christ. There was soliloquy in His life also. He talked to His own soul of the chief mission of His life. The words of soliloquy to which I refer are not many, only a sentence ; but this sentence sets ire miniature before the soul of Jesus the whole of His life. The words to which I refer were these : " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished." These words seem to be thrown into the discourse of Jesus, not so much for others, as for His own soul. He only understood them. If solitude and solilo- quy were a necessity in the human life of Jesus, what human nature can do without them? Let me point out the essentiality of solitude. The silence of solitude is essential in our life in order that we may hear distinctly the voice and words of God. No life is great where the soul does not hear God and admit God into its plans. God in the life, and the life in the hand of God, that is what we need. It is the voice of God that awakens conscience in man, and man requires an awak- 38 OUR BEST MOODS. ened conscience when he communes with himself. Without conscience he cannot search his motives. Now, motives are the springs of life. The noises of the world drown the voice of God. We must withdraw from the noises of the world. While on Broadway, New York, I have heard many times the chimes in the Trinity Church steeple pour out their music at noonday. But I have noticed that very few of the busy crowds on the street followed the music. There are too many sounds disputing with the chimes the possession of the ear. I tried to follow the sacred song that was pealing through the air, but note after note was lost in the roar of the city, and in the noise and the rattle of the wheels of commerce. The song was broken up into unmeaning parts. There are hours, however, when the chimes in Trinity Church steeple are heard in all their power and emphasis without a break. These are the midnight hours of solitude. There is no difficulty in hearing and enjoying the anthems on Christmas night, or on the night when the bells ring out the old year and ring in the new. While busy and active on the Broadway of the world, God's words fall on our ears ; but because of the din of business and pleasure they are heard only in a broken, fragmentary way ; but in the secret closet, when business and pleasure for the time are banished, they fall in such a way that not a single syllable is lost. POWER OF SOLILOQUY IN HUMAN LIFE. 39 One of the chief points which we should keep before us is this : It is by soliloquy or soul-communion that we become acquainted with our nature, and learn its endowments, and the relation of the inner life to the outer life. There is a world within, and this is the greater world. This is the world that controls the outer world. If you want a really lovely world without, you must make the world within bright and lovely. Do not complain of what is outside, the fault is within. All the bitter waters thou tastest well up from depths within. All the gloom that surrounds thee is but the impure exhalation from thine own heart. The discord that grates on thine ear is but the din of thine own disordered soul. Fill thy heart with goodness, and thou shalt see goodness everywhere. Let truth and love glow within thee, and thy outward heaven shall bend over thee with- out a cloud. " Out of the heart are the issues of life." Get the heart right, then all will be right, and life will be simplified. Then there will be no need of check, no need of coercion, no need of cumbersome externals. If the heart be a thistle- plant, all your circumstances and all your external arrangements cannot make it bear a single fig. But if it be a fig-tree — fig in core and fig in sap — without coercion it will bear figs of itself. My fellow- men, we need to get clearer and 4