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 MENRY ORUMMONO 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 HCNPY 
 DRUMMOND 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 HENRY ALTEHUS 
 
Copyrighted, 1891, by 
 HENRY A L T E M U S . 
 
 ALTEMUS BOOKBINDEKY, 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 

 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PRO- 
 FESSOR DRUMMOND. 
 
 The author of these remarkable addresses 
 was born in Scotland in 185 1, and studied for 
 the University of Edinborough in private schools, 
 in his native city of Stirling. After gradua- 
 tion here he continued his studies in Tubin- 
 gen, Germany. He early gave signs of special 
 promise, and it was decided that he should 
 enter on the career of the ministry ; and after 
 his ordination he was appointed to a mis- 
 sion station at Malta. It was in the leisure 
 of this rather solitary work that he was ena- 
 bled to find time to turn his thoughts more 
 entirely to the subject he has since treated 
 in lecture and book, although it v^^as not until 
 long afterward that these efforts were made 
 public. 
 
 • iii 
 
 [ 262 
 
IV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 On his return to Scotland he was appointed 
 a lecturer in science at the Glasgow Free Church 
 College ; and it was at this period that his first 
 book, " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," 
 made its tremendous sensation, running through 
 endless editions at home and abroad and in every 
 language. The first edition of this book bears 
 the imprint of 1883, and led to his promotion 
 to a professorship in the same college. 
 
 The success of the opening address in the 
 present volume, when reprinted, was as instan- 
 taneous, and even wider, than that of his first 
 book. 
 
 Professor Drummond never seemed to have 
 been troubled with any absorbing ambition to 
 publish his work, and the list of volumes which 
 bear his name is small ; at least one of them 
 being the result of finding a stenographer's in- 
 complete notes printed and for sale in a book- 
 store. 
 
 Doubtless part of the secret of his success 
 is his simplicity and clearness of style, and 
 the fortunate choice of subjects which, at the 
 moment of publication, were absorbing the 
 
OF PROFESSOR DRUMMOND. V 
 
 thinking world. He has something to say, 
 and knows how to say it, and does so without 
 any reference to the number of pages it will 
 make, should it ever be put in type. In this 
 way he can take up even a commonplace sub- 
 ject and discuss it with an original style and 
 infuse freshness into it. 
 
 There is no better example of this than the 
 first two addresses in this book, the text of 
 which is the oft-quoted eulogy of St. PauPs 
 for the love that never faileth and the 
 promise of Christ of rest for the heavy-laden. 
 Many a preacher would hesitate to select these 
 well-known sentences for his sermon, but Pro- 
 fessor Drummond has found the happy art of 
 making them seem like new truths ; and origi- 
 nality, after all, is only the art of saying better 
 what has been said before. 
 
 Professor Drummond is an ordained minis- 
 ter in the Free Church of Scotland, and is 
 engaged Sundays, during the University ses- 
 sions at Edinborough, in religious work among 
 the students, where his meetings have been 
 attended often by as many as five or six hun- 
 
VI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 dred; and while at home or abroad, his work 
 has done much to help the cause of Christian 
 living among young men, the University Set- 
 tlement School being the outgrowth of his 
 words and example. During the week he is 
 teaching science from his professor's chair at 
 Glasgow, which is a peculiar attachment for a 
 divinity school, and one not found in America ; 
 but scientific study is earnestly pursued in such 
 schools in Scotland. 
 
 In the former work he has had as great suc- 
 cess as in the latter, and has been the right- 
 hand man of the evangelist, Mr. Moody, in 
 many of his mass meetings, which shows the 
 deep interest he takes in spreading evangelical 
 truth. 
 
 Professor Drummond's appearance and man- 
 ner are well known in this country ; and, indeed, 
 it was at Northfield that the first address in the 
 present volume was delivered. A great scholar 
 and divine has given the following analysis of 
 the elements of his success : — 
 
 "He has a certain magnetic quality, both as 
 a writer and a speaker, but it can be analyzed. 
 
OF PROFESSOR DRUMMOND. Vll 
 
 He has a style, — not a style to move * the lonely 
 rapture of lonely minds,' but one which arrests 
 the busy crowd, — clear, pleasant, flowing with 
 faint hues of poetry. He is never allusive, supe- 
 rior, strained ; he does not condescend ; he is 
 always himself, — a courteous, unaffected gentle- 
 man, with a sincere respect for his audience. He 
 is an adept in the art of translating scientific 
 ideas into common English, and can impart the 
 touch that redeems the familiar from platitude. 
 Then he has a message, a secret. No one can 
 hope long to touch men by mere cleverness or 
 rhetorical skill. Can he guide me? comes to be 
 the question at last. Those who find the right 
 road from the blows they receive on the right 
 hand and the left when deviating into wrong 
 roads are grateful for a wisdom which comes 
 more easily ; and Mr. Drummond is nothing, if 
 not practical. He has a system as well as a 
 message. The man of one idea is not so pow- 
 erful as he used to be. The age dreads nothing 
 so much as the Bore, but it does not always dis- 
 criminate. But a man with a system, provided 
 he is not continually rattling the skeleton, is the 
 
Vlll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 man of influence. A brilliant preacher of the 
 day humorously compares his sermons to little 
 heaps of earth flung up by a mole : they made 
 a track. In the same way, Mr. Drummond's 
 ideas have a continuity. That one-half of his 
 scheme of thought is studiously kept out of 
 sight does not lessen the interest taken in it; 
 and, like all men whose ideas are coherent, 
 he gives the impression of being at peace in 
 thought." 
 
"Though I speak with the tongues of men 
 and of angels, and have not Love, I am become 
 as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And 
 though I have the gift of prophecy, and under- 
 stand all mysteries, and all knowledge ; and 
 though I have all faith, so that I could remove 
 mountains, and have not Love, I am nothing. 
 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the 
 poor, and though I give my body to be burned, 
 and have not Love, it profiteth me nothing. 
 
 5 
 
Love suffereth long, and is kind ; 
 
 Love envieth not ; 
 
 Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
 
 Doth not behave itself unseemly, 
 
 Seeketh not her own, 
 
 Is not easily provoked, 
 
 Thinketh no evil ; 
 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, 
 but rejoiceth in the truth ; 
 Beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. 
 
Love never faileth ; but whether there be 
 prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be 
 tongues, they shall cease; whether there be 
 knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know 
 in part, and we prophesy in part. But when 
 that which is perfect is come, then that which 
 is in part shall be done away. When I was a 
 child, I spake as a child, I understood as a 
 child, I thought as a child : but when I became 
 a man, I put away childish things. For now we 
 see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to 
 face : now I know in part ; but then shall I 
 know even as also I am known. And now 
 abideth faith, hope, Love, these three ; but the 
 greatest of these is Love." — i Cor. xiii. 
 
THE GREATEST THING 
 IN THE WORLD. 
 
 pVERY one has asked himself the 
 great question of antiquity as of 
 the modern world : What is the sum- 
 mum bommi — the supreme good ? You 
 have life before you. Once only you 
 can live it. What is the noblest object 
 of desire, the supreme gift to covet } 
 
 We have been accustomed to be told 
 that the greatest thing in the religious 
 world is Faith. That great word has 
 been the key-note for centuries of the 
 
12 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 popular religion; and we have easily 
 learned to look upon it as the greatest 
 thing in the world. Well, we are 
 wrong. If we have been told that, we 
 may miss the mark. I have taken you, 
 in the chapter which I have just read, 
 to Christianity at his source; and there 
 we have seen, "The greatest of these 
 is love." It is not an oversight. Paul 
 was speaking of faith just a moment 
 before. He says, ** If I have all faith, 
 so that I can remove mountains, and 
 have not love, I am nothing." So far 
 from forgetting he deliberately con- 
 trasts them, " Now abideth. Faith, 
 Hope, Love," and without a moment's 
 hesitation the decision falls, " The 
 greatest of these is Love." 
 
IN THE WORLD. 1 3 
 
 And it is not prejudice. A man is 
 apt to recommend to others his own 
 strong point. Love was not Paul's 
 strong point. The observing student 
 can detect a beautiful tenderness grow- 
 ing and ripening all through his char- 
 acter as Paul gets old; but the hand 
 that wrote, " The greatest of these is 
 love," when we meet it first, is stained 
 with blood. 
 
 Nor is this letter to the Corinthians 
 peculiar in singling out love as the 
 summunt boniim. The masterpieces 
 of Christianity are agreed about it. 
 Peter says, " Above all things have 
 fervent love among yourselves." Above 
 all thijigs. And John goes farther, 
 **God is love." And you remember 
 
14 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 the profound remark which Paul makes 
 elsewhere, ** Love is the fulfilling of 
 the law." Did you ever think what 
 he meant by that ? In those days men 
 were working the passage to Heaven 
 by keeping the Ten Commandments, 
 and the hundred and ten other com- 
 mandments which they had manufac- 
 tured out of them. Christ said, I will 
 show you a more simple way. If you 
 do one thing, you will do these hun- 
 dred and ten things, without ever 
 thinking about them. If you love, you 
 will unconsciously fulfill the whole 
 law. And you can readily see for 
 yourselves how that must be so. Take 
 any of the commandments. **Thou 
 shalt have no other gods before Me." 
 
IN THE WORLD. IS 
 
 If a man love God, you will not re- 
 quire to tell him that. Love is the 
 fulfilling of that law. "Take not His 
 name in vain.*' Would he ever dream 
 of taking His name in vain if he loved 
 him ? " Remember the Sabbath day 
 to keep it holy." Would he not be too 
 glad to have one day in seven to dedi- 
 cate more exclusively to the object of 
 his affection ? Love would fulfill all 
 these laws regarding God. And so, 
 if he loved Man, you would never 
 think of telling him to honor his father 
 and mother. He could not do any- 
 thing else. It would be preposterous 
 ^ J tell him not to kill. You could only 
 insult him if you suggested that he 
 should not steal — how could he steal 
 
1 6 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 from those he loved ? It would be 
 superfluous to beg him not to bear false 
 witness against his neighbor. If he 
 loved him it would be the last thing he 
 would do. And you would never 
 dream of urging him not to covet what 
 his neighbors had. He would rather 
 they possessed it than himself. In 
 this way " Love is the fulfilling of the 
 law." It is the rule for fulfilling all 
 rules, the new commandment for keep- 
 ing all the old commandments, Christ's 
 one secret of the Christian life. 
 
 Now Paul has learned that; and in 
 this noble eulogy he has given us the 
 most wonderful and original account 
 extant of the summutn bonuin. We 
 may divide it into three parts. In the 
 
IN THE WORLD. 1 7 
 
 beginning of the short chapter, we 
 have Love contrasted ; in the heart of 
 it, we have Love analyzed ; toward the 
 end, we have Love defended as the 
 supreme gift. 
 
1 8 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 JPAUL begins by contrasting Love 
 with other things that men in 
 those days thought much of. I shall 
 not attempt to go over these things in 
 detail. Their inferiority is already 
 obvious. 
 
 He contrasts it with eloquence. And 
 what a noble gift it is, the power of 
 playing upon the souls and wills of 
 men, and rousing them to lofty pur- 
 poses and holy deeds. Paul says, '* If 
 I speak with the tongues of men and 
 -of angels, and have not love, I am 
 
IN THE WORLD. 1 9 
 
 become as sounding brass, or a tink- 
 ling cymbal." And we all know 
 why. We have all felt the brazenness 
 of words without emotion, the hollow- 
 ness, the unaccountable unpersuasive- 
 ness, of eloquence behind which lies 
 no Love. 
 
 He contrasts it with prophecy. He 
 contrasts it with mysteries. He con- 
 trasts it with faith. He contrasts it 
 with charity. Why is Love greater 
 than faith ? Because the end is greater 
 than the means. And why is it greater 
 than charity ? Because the whole is 
 greater than the part. Love is greater 
 than faith, because the end is greater 
 than the means. What is the use of 
 having faith ? It is to connect the soul 
 
20 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 with God. And what is the object 
 of connecting man with God ? That 
 he may become like God. But God 
 is Love. Hence Faith, the means, is 
 in order to Love, the end. Love, 
 therefore, obviously is greater than 
 faith. It is greater than charity, 
 again, because the whole is greater 
 than a part. Charity is only a little 
 bit of Love, one of the innumerable 
 avenues of Love, and there may even 
 be, and there is, a great deal of 
 charity without Love. It is a very 
 easy thing to toss a copper to a beggar 
 on the street ; it is generally an easier 
 thing than not to do it. Yet Love is 
 just as often in the withholding. We 
 purchase relief from the sympathetic 
 
IN THE WORLD. 21 
 
 feelings roused by the spectacle of 
 misery, at the copper's cost. It is too 
 cheap — too cheap for us, and often too 
 dear for the beggar. If we really 
 loved him we would either do more 
 for him, or less. 
 
 Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice 
 and martyrdom. And I beg the little 
 band of would-be missionaries — and I 
 have the honor to call some of you by 
 this name for the first time — to remem- 
 ber that though you give your bodies 
 to be burned, and have not Love, it 
 profits nothing — nothing! You can 
 take nothing greater to the heathen 
 world than the impress and reflection 
 of the Love of God upon your own 
 character. That is the universal Ian- 
 
22 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 guage. It will take you years to 
 speak in Chinese., or in the dialects of 
 India. From the day you land, that 
 language of Love, understood by all, 
 will be pouring forth its unconscious 
 eloquence. It is the man who is the 
 missionary, it is not his words. His 
 character is his message. In the 
 heart of Africa, among the great 
 Lakes, I have come across black men 
 and women who remembered the only 
 white man they ever saw before — 
 David Livingstone; and as you cross 
 his footsteps in that dark continent, 
 men's faces light up as they speak of 
 the kind doctor who passed there 
 years ago. They could not under- 
 stand him; but they felt the love that 
 
IN THE WORLD. 23 
 
 beat in his heart. Take into your 
 new sphere of labor, where you also 
 mean to lay down your life, that sim- 
 ple charm, and your lifework must 
 succeed. You can take nothing 
 greater, you need take nothing less. 
 It is not worth while going if you take 
 anything less. You may take every 
 accomplishment ; you may be braced 
 for every sacrifice ; but if you give 
 your body to be burned, and have not 
 Love, it will profit you and the cause 
 of Christ nothing. 
 
24 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 THE ANALYSIS. 
 
 A FTER contrasting Love with these 
 things, Paul, in three verses, 
 very short, gives us an amazing an- 
 alysis of what this supreme thing is. 
 I ask you to look at it. It is a com- 
 pound thing, he tells us. It is like 
 light. As you have seen a man of 
 science take a beam of light and pass 
 it through a crystal prism, as you have 
 seen it come out on .the other side of 
 the prism broken up into its component 
 colors — red, and blue, and yellow, 
 and violet, and orange, and all the 
 
IN THE WORLD. 2$ 
 
 colors of the rainbow — so Paul passes 
 this thing, Love, through the magnifi- 
 cent prism of his inspired intellect, and 
 it comes out on the other side broken 
 up into its elements. And in these 
 few words we have what one might 
 call the Spectrum of Love, the analysis 
 of Love. Will you observe what its 
 elements are ? Will you notice that 
 they have common names; that they 
 are virtues which we hear about every 
 day; that they are things which can 
 be -practiced by every man in every 
 place in life ; and how, by a multitude 
 of small things and ordinary virtues, 
 the supreme thing, the siimmum bonum^ 
 is made up ? 
 
26 
 
 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 The Spectrum of Love has nine in- 
 gredients : 
 
 Patience . . 
 
 Kindness . 
 Generosity 
 Humility . , 
 
 Courtesy . . 
 
 Unselfishness 
 Good Temper 
 Guilelessness . 
 Sincerity . . 
 
 . "Love suffereth long." 
 
 . "And is kind." 
 
 . " Love envieth not." 
 
 . " Love vaunteth not itself, 
 
 is not puffed up." 
 . " Doth not behave itself 
 
 unseemly." 
 . " Seeketh not her own." 
 . " Is not easily provoked." 
 . "Thinketh no evil." 
 . " Rejoiceth not in iniquity, 
 
 but rejoiceth in the 
 
 truth." 
 
 Patience ; kindness ; generosity ; 
 humility ; courtesy ; unselfishness ; 
 good temper; guilelessness; sincerity 
 — these make up the supreme gift, the 
 
IN THE WORLD. 2/ 
 
 Stature of the perfect man. You will 
 observe that all are in relation to men, 
 in relation to life, in relation to the 
 known to-day and the near to-morrow, 
 and not to the unknown eternity. We 
 hear much of love to God; Christ 
 spoke much of love to man. We 
 make a great deal of peace with 
 heaven ; Christ made much of peace 
 on earth. Religion is not a strange or 
 added thing, but the inspiration of the 
 secular life, the breathing of an eternal 
 spirit through this temporal world. 
 The supreme thing, in short, is not a 
 thing at all, but the giving of a further 
 finish to the multitudinous words and 
 acts which make up the sum of every 
 common day. 
 
28 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 There is [ no time to do more than 
 niake a passing note upon each of 
 these ingredients. Love is Patience. 
 This is the normal attitude of Love ; 
 Love passive, Love waiting to begin; 
 not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its 
 work when the summons comes, but 
 meantime wearing the ornament of a 
 meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers 
 long; beareth all things; believeth all 
 things; hopeth all things. For Love 
 understands, and therefore waits. 
 
 Kindness, Love active. Have you 
 ever noticed how much of Christ's life 
 was spent in doing kind things — in 
 merely doing kind things } Run over it 
 with that in view, and you will find that 
 He spent a great proportion of His 
 
IN THE WORLD. 29 
 
 time simply in making people happy, 
 in doing good turns to people. There 
 is only one thing greater than happi- 
 ness in the world, and that is holiness ; 
 and it is not in our keeping ; but what 
 God Jias put in our power is the hap- 
 piness of those about us, and that is 
 largely to be secured by our being 
 kind to them. 
 
 **The greatest thing," says some 
 one, ''a man can do for his Heavenly 
 Father is to be kind to some of His 
 other children." I wonder why it is 
 that we are not all kinder than we are } 
 How much the world needs it. How 
 easily it is done. How instantaneously 
 it acts. How infallibly it is remem- 
 bered. How superabundantly it pays 
 
30 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 itself back — for there is no debtor in 
 the world so honorable, so superbly 
 honorable, as Love. " Love never 
 faileth." Love is success. Love is 
 happiness, Love is life. ** Love I 
 say," with Browning, **is energy of 
 Life." 
 
 " For life, with all it yields of joy or woe 
 And hope and fear, 
 Is just our chance o' the prize of learning 
 
 love, — 
 How love might be, hath been indeed, 
 
 and is." 
 
 Where Love is, God is. He that 
 dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. 
 God is Love. Therefore love. Without 
 distinction, without calculation, without 
 procrastination, love. Lavish it upon 
 the poor, where it is very easy ; espe- 
 
IN THE WORLD. 3I 
 
 daily upon the rich, who often need it 
 most; most of all upon our equals, 
 where it is very difficult, and for whom 
 perhaps we each do least of all. 
 There is a difference between trying 
 to please and giving pleasure. Give 
 pleasure. Lose no chance of giving 
 pleasure. For that is the ceaseless 
 and anonymous triumph of a truly 
 loving spirit. " I shall pass through 
 this world but once. Any good thing 
 therefore that I can do, or any kind- 
 ness that I can show to any human 
 being, let me do it now. Let me not 
 defer it or neglect it, for I shall not 
 pass this way again." 
 
 Generosity, " Love envieth not." 
 This is love in competition with others. 
 
32 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 Whenever you attempt a good work 
 you will find other men doing the same 
 kind of work, and probably doing it 
 better. Envy them not. Envy is a 
 feeling of ill-will to those who are in 
 the same line as ourselves, a spirit of 
 covetousness and detraction. How lit- 
 tle Christian work even is a protection 
 against un-Christian feeling. That 
 most despicable of all the unworthy 
 moods which cloud a Christian's soul 
 assuredly waits for us on the threshold 
 of every work, unless we are fortified 
 with this grace of magnanimity. Only 
 one thing truly need the Christian 
 envy, the large, rich, generous soul 
 which " envieth not." 
 
 And then, after having learned all 
 
IN THE WORLD. * 33 
 
 that, you have to learn this further 
 thing, Humility — to put a seal upon 
 your lips and forget what you have 
 done. After you have been kind, after 
 Love has stolen forth into the world 
 and done its beautiful work, go back 
 into the shade again and say nothing 
 about it. Love hides even from itself. 
 Love waives even self-satisfaction. 
 " Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 
 up." 
 
 The fifth ingredient is a somewhat 
 strange one to find in this summum 
 bomim : Courtesy. This is Love in 
 society, Love in relation to etiquette. 
 ** Love does not behave itself unseem- 
 ly.'* Politeness has been defined as 
 love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be 
 
34 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 love in little things. And the one 
 secret of politeness is to love. Love 
 can7tot behave itself unseemly. You 
 can put the most untutored persons 
 into the highest society, and if they 
 have a reservoir of Love in their heart 
 they will not behave themselves un- 
 seemly. They simply cannot do it. 
 Carlisle said of Robert Burns that 
 there was no truer gentleman in Europe 
 than the ploughman-poet. It was 
 because he loved everything — the 
 mouse, and the daisy, and all the 
 things, great and small, that God had 
 made. So with this simple passport 
 he could mingle with any society, and 
 enter courts and palaces from his little 
 cottage on the banks of the Ayr. You 
 
IN THE WORLD. 35 
 
 know the meaning of the word "gen- 
 tleman." It means a gentle man — a 
 man who does things gently with love. 
 And that is the whole art and mystery 
 of it. The gentle man cannot in the 
 nature of things do an ungentle, an 
 ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle 
 soul, the inconsiderate, unsympathetic 
 nature, cannot do anything else. 
 " Love doth not behave itself un- 
 seemly." 
 
 Uftselfishness. "Love seeketh not 
 her own." Observe : Seeketh not 
 even that which is her own. In Brit- 
 ain the Englishman is devoted, and 
 rightly, to his rights. But there come 
 times when a man may exercise even 
 the higher right of giving up his rights. 
 
36 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 Yet Paul does not summon us to give 
 up our rights. Love strikes much 
 deeper. It would have us not seek 
 them at all, ignore them, eliminate the 
 personal element altogether from our 
 calculations. It is not hard to give up 
 our rights. They are often eternal. 
 The difficult thing is to give up our- 
 selves. The more difficult thing still 
 is not to seek things for ourselves at 
 all. After we have sought them, 
 bought them, won them, deserved 
 them, we have taken the cream off 
 them for ourselves already. Little 
 cross then to give them up. But not 
 to seek them, to look every man not 
 on his own things, but on the things of 
 others — id opus est, " Seekest thou 
 
IN THE WORLD. 37 
 
 great things for thyself," said the 
 prophet ; ** seek them not.'' Why ? 
 Because there is no greatness in things. 
 Things cannot be great. The only 
 greatness is unselfish love. Even self- 
 denial in itself is nothing, is almost a 
 mistake. Only a great purpose or a 
 mightier love can justify the waste. 
 It is more difficult, I have said, not to 
 seek our own at all, than, having 
 sought it, to give it up. I must take 
 that back. It is only true of a partly 
 selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship 
 to Love, and nothing is hard. I be- 
 lieve that Christ's " yoke " is easy. 
 Christ's yoke is just his way of taking 
 life. And I believe it is an easier 
 way than any other. I believe it is a 
 
38 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 happier way than any other. The 
 most obvious lesson in Christ's teach- 
 ing is that there is no happiness in 
 having and getting anything, but only 
 in giving. I repeat, there is no happi- 
 ness in having or in getting, but only in 
 giving. And half the world is on the 
 wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. 
 They think it consists in having and 
 getting, and in being served by others. 
 It consists in giving, and in serving 
 others. He that would be great among 
 you, said Christ, let him serve. He 
 that would be happy, let him remem- 
 ber that there is but one way — it is 
 more blessed, it is more happy, to gWQ 
 than to receive. 
 
 The next ingredient is a very re- 
 
IN THE WORLD. 39 
 
 markablc one : Good tc7nper. " Love 
 is not easily provoked." Nothing could 
 be more striking than to find this 
 here. We are inclined to look upon 
 bad temper as a very harmless weak- 
 ness. We speak of it as a mere in- 
 firmity of nature, a family failing, a 
 matter of temperament, not a thing to 
 take into very serious account in esti- 
 mating a man's character. And yet 
 here, right in the heart of this analysis 
 of love, it finds a place ; and the Bible 
 again and again returns to condemn it 
 as one of the most destructive elements 
 in human nature. 
 
 The peculiarity of ill temper is that 
 it is the vice of the virtuous. It 
 is often the one blot on an otherwise 
 
40 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 noble character. You know men who 
 are all but perfect, and women who 
 would be entirely perfect, but for 
 an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or 
 ** touchy" disposition. This compati- 
 bility of ill temper with high moral 
 character is one of the strangest and 
 saddest problems of ethics. The truth 
 is there are two great classes of shis — 
 sins of the Body, and sins of the Dis- 
 position. The Prodigal Son may be 
 taken as a type of the first, the Elder 
 Brother of the second. Now, society 
 has no doubt whatever as to which of 
 these is the worse. Its brand falls, 
 without a challenge, upon the Prodigal. 
 But are we right .'^ We have no bal- 
 ance to weigh one another's sins, and 
 
IN THE WORLD. 41 
 
 coarser and finer are but human words ; 
 but faults in the higher nature may be 
 less venial than those in the lower, 
 and to the eye of Him who is Love, a 
 sin against Love may seem a hundred 
 times more base. No form of vice, 
 not worldliness, not greed of gold, not 
 drunkenness itself, does more to un- 
 Christianize society than evil temper. 
 For embittering life, for breaking up 
 communities, for destroying the most 
 sacred relationships, for devastating 
 homes, for withering up men and 
 women, for taking the bloom of child- 
 hood, in short, for sheer gratuitous 
 misery-producing power, this influence 
 stands alone. Look at the Elder 
 Brother, moral, hard-working, patient, 
 
42 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 dutiful — let him get all credit for his 
 virtues — look at this man, this baby, 
 sulking outside his own father's door. 
 " He was angry," we read, " and 
 would not go in." Look at the effect 
 upon the father, upon the servants, 
 upon the happiness of the guests. 
 Judge of the effect upon the Prodigal 
 — and how many prodigals are kept 
 out of the Kingdom of God by the un- 
 lovely character of those who profess 
 to be inside.? Analyze, as a study in 
 Temper, the thunder-cloud itself as it 
 gathers upon the Elder Brother's brow. 
 What is it made of ? Jealousy, anger, 
 pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-right- 
 eousness, touchiness, doggedness, sul- 
 lenness — these are the ingredients of 
 
IN THE WORLD. 43 
 
 this dark and loveless soul. In vary- 
 ing proportions, also, these are the in- 
 gredients of all ill temper. Judge if 
 such sins of the disposition are not 
 worse to live in, and for others to live 
 with, than sins of the body. Did 
 Christ indeed not answer the question 
 Himself when He said, " I say unto 
 you, that the publicans and the harlots 
 go into the Kingdom of Heaven before 
 you." There is really no place in 
 Heaven for a disposition like this. A 
 man with such a mood could only 
 make Heaven miserable for all the 
 people in it. Except, therefore, such 
 a man be born again, he cannot, he 
 simply cannoty enter the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. For it is perfectly certain — 
 
44 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 and you will not misunderstand me — 
 that to enter Heaven a man must take 
 it with him. 
 
 You will see then why Temper is 
 significant. It is not in what it is 
 alone, but in what it reveals. This 
 is why I take the liberty now of speak- 
 ing of it with such unusual plainness. 
 It is^a test for love, a symptom, a reve- 
 lation of an unloving nature at bottom. 
 It is the intermittent fever which be- 
 speaks unintermittent disease within ; 
 the occasional bubble escaping to the 
 surface which betrays some rottenness 
 underneath ; a sample of the most hid- 
 den products of the soul dropped in- 
 voluntarily when off one's guard ; in a 
 word, the lightning form of a hundred 
 
IN THE WORLD. 45 
 
 hideous and lan-Christian sins. For a 
 want of patience, a want of kindness, 
 a want of generosity, a want of cour- 
 tesy, a want of unselfishness, are all 
 instantaneously symbolized in one flash 
 of Temper. 
 
 Hence it is not enough to deal with 
 the Temper. We must go to the 
 source, and change the inmost nature, 
 and the angry humors will die away 
 of themselves. Souls are made sweet 
 not by taking the acid fluids out, but 
 by putting something in — a great 
 Love, a new Spirit, the Spirit of 
 Christ. Christ, the Spirit of Christ, 
 interpenetrating ours, sweetens, puri- 
 fies, transforms all. This only can 
 eradicate what is wrong, work a chem- 
 
46 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 ical change, renovate and regenerate, 
 and rehabilitate the inner man. Will- 
 power does not change men. Time 
 does not change men. Christ does. 
 Therefore " Let that mind be in you 
 which was also in Christ Jesus." 
 Some of us have not much time to 
 lose. Remember, once more, that 
 this is a matter of life or death. I 
 cannot help speaking urgently, for 
 myself, for yourselves. "Whoso shall 
 offend one of these little ones, which 
 believe in me, it were better for him 
 that a millstone were hanged about his 
 neck, and that h» were drowned in the 
 depth of the sea." That is to say, it 
 is the deliberate verdict of the Lord 
 Jesus that it is better not to live than 
 
Drummond's Addresses x 
 
IN THE WORLD. 47 
 
 not to love. // is better not to live than 
 not to love, 
 
 Guilelessness and Sincerity may be 
 dismissed almost without a word. 
 Guilelessness is the grace for suspi- 
 cious people. And the possession of 
 it is the great secret of personal influ- 
 ence. You will find, if you think for a 
 moment, that the people who influence 
 you are people who believe in you. 
 In an atmosphere of suspicion men 
 shrivel up ; but in that atmosphere 
 they expand, and find encouragement 
 and educative fellowship. It is a won- 
 derful thing that here and there in this 
 hard, uncharitable world there should 
 still be left a few rare souls who think 
 no evil. This is the great unworldli- 
 
48 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 ness. Love "thinketh no evil/' im- 
 putes no motive, sees the bright side, 
 puts the best construction on every 
 action. What a delightful state of 
 mind to live in ! What a stimulus and 
 benediction even to meet with it for 
 a day ! To be trusted is to be saved. 
 And if we try to influence or elevate 
 others, we shall soon see that success 
 is in proportion to their belief of our 
 belief in them. For the respect of 
 another is the first restoration of the 
 self-respect a man has lost; our ideal 
 of what he is becomes to him the hope 
 and pattern of what he may become. 
 *^ Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
 rejoiceth in the truth." I have called 
 this Sincerity from the words rendered 
 
IN THE WORLD. 49 
 
 in the Authorized Version by " re- 
 joiceth in the truth." And, certainly, 
 were this the real translation, nothing 
 could be more just. For he who 
 loves will love Truth not less than 
 men. He will rejoice in the Truth — 
 rejoice not in what he has been taught 
 to believe; not in this Church's doc- 
 trine or in that ; not in this ism or in 
 that ism; but "in the Tnitky He 
 will accept only what is real ; he will 
 strive to get at facts; he will search 
 for Truth with a humble and unbiassed 
 mind, and cherish whatever he finds 
 at any sacrifice. But the more literal 
 translation of the Revised Version 
 calls for just such a sacrifice for 
 truth's sake here. For what Paul 
 
50 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 really meant is, as we there read, 
 *' Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but 
 rejoiceth with the truth," a quality 
 which probably no one English word 
 — and certainly not Sincerity — ade- 
 quately defines. It includes, perhaps 
 more strictly, the self-restraint which 
 refuses to make capital out of others* 
 faults; the charity which delights not 
 in exposing the weakness of others, 
 but '' covereth all things ; " the sin- 
 cerity of purpose which endeavors to 
 see things as they are, and rejoices to 
 find them better than suspicion feared 
 or calumny denounced. 
 
 So much for the analysis of Love. 
 Now the business of our lives is to 
 have these thinofs fitted into our char- 
 
IN THE WORLD. 5 1 
 
 acters. That is the supreme work to 
 which we need to address ourselves in 
 this world, to learn Love. Is life not 
 full of opportunities for learning Love ? 
 Every man and woman every day has 
 a thousand of them. The world is 
 not a playground ; it is a schoolroom. 
 Life is not a holiday, but an educa- 
 tion. And the one eternal lesson for 
 us all is /ioz(j better we can love. What 
 makes a man a good cricketer } Prac- 
 tice. What makes a man a good 
 artist, a good sculptor, a good musi- 
 cian } Practice. What makes a man 
 a good linguist, a good stenographer.'* 
 Practice. What makes a man a good 
 man } Practice. Nothing else. There 
 is nothing capricious about religion. 
 
52 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 We do not get the soul in different 
 ways, under different laws, from those 
 in which we get the body and the 
 mind. If a man does not exercise his 
 arm he develops no biceps muscle; 
 and if a man does not exercise his 
 soul, he requires no muscle in his soul, 
 no strength of character, no vigor of 
 moral fibre, nor beauty of spiritual 
 growth. Love is not a thing of enthu- 
 siastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, 
 manly, vigorous expression of the 
 whole round Christian character — the 
 Christlike nature in its fullest develop- 
 ment. And the constituents of this 
 great character are only to be built up 
 by ceaseless practice. 
 
 What was Christ doing in the car- 
 
IN THE WORLD. 53 
 
 penter's shop ? Practicing. Though 
 perfect, we read that He learned obe- 
 dience, and grew in wisdom and in 
 favor with God. Do not quarrel there- 
 fore with your lot in life. Do not com- 
 plain of its neverceasing cares, its 
 petty environment, the vexations you 
 have to stand, the small and sordid 
 souls you have to live and work with. 
 Above all, do not resent temptation ; 
 do not be perplexed because it seems 
 to thicken round you more and more, 
 and ceases neither for effort nor for 
 agony nor prayer. That is your prac- 
 tice. That is the practice which God 
 appoints you ; and it is having its work 
 in making you patient, and humble, 
 and generous, and unselfish, and kind, 
 
54 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 and courteous. Do not grudge the 
 hand that is moulding the still too 
 shapeless image within you. It is 
 growing more beautiful, though you 
 see it not, and every touch of tempta- 
 tion may add to its perfection. There- 
 fore keep in the midst of life. Do not 
 isolate yourself. Be among men, and 
 among things, and among troubles, 
 and difficulties, and obstacles. You 
 remember Goethe's words : Es bildet 
 ein Talent sick in der Stille^ Dock ein 
 Charakter m dern Strom der Welt. 
 " Talent develops itself in solitude ; 
 character in the stream of life." Tal- 
 ent develops itself in solitude — the 
 talent of prayer, of faith, of meditation, 
 of seeing the unseen ; character grows 
 
IN THE WORLD. 55 
 
 in the stream of the world's life. THat 
 chiefly is where men are to learn love. 
 How ? Now, how ? To make it 
 easier, I have named a few of the ele- 
 ments of love. But these are only 
 elements. Love itself can never be 
 defined. Light is a something more 
 than the sum of its ingredients — a 
 glowing, dazzling, tremulous ether. 
 And love is something more than all 
 its elements — a palpitating, quivering, 
 sensitive, living thing. By synthesis 
 of all the colors, men can make white- 
 ness, they cannot make light. By 
 synthesis of all the virtues, men can 
 make virtue, they cannot make love. 
 How then are we to have this tran- 
 scendent living whole conveyed into 
 
56 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 our souls ? We brace our wills to 
 secure it. We try to copy those who 
 have it. We lay down rules about it. 
 We watch. We pray. But these 
 things alone will not bring love into 
 our nature. Love is an effect. And 
 only as we fulfill the right condition 
 can we have the effect produced. 
 Shall I tell you what the cause is .? 
 
 If you turn to the Revised Version 
 of the First Epistle of John you will 
 find these words : " We love because 
 He first loved us." *'We love," not 
 "We love Him'' That is the way 
 the old version has it, and it is quite 
 wrong. " We love — because He first 
 loved us." Look at that word "be- 
 cause." It is the catise of which I have 
 
IN THE WORLD. 57 
 
 spoken. " Becaiise He first loved us/* 
 the effect follows that we love, we love 
 Him, we love all men. We cannot 
 help it. Because He loved us, we 
 love, we love everybody. Our heart 
 is slowly changed. Contemplate the 
 love of Christ, and you will love. 
 Stand before that mirror, reflect 
 Christ's character, and you will be 
 changed into the same image from 
 tenderness to tenderness. There is no 
 other way. You cannot love to order. 
 You can only look at the lovely object, 
 and fall in love with it, and grow into 
 likeness to it. And so look at this 
 Perfect Character, this Perfect Life. 
 Look at the great Sacrifice as He laid 
 down Himself, all through life, and 
 
58 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 upon the Cross of Calvary ; and you 
 must love Him. And loving Him, 
 you must become like Him. Love 
 begets love. It is a process of induc- 
 tion. Put a piece of iron in the 
 presence of an electrified body, and 
 that piece of iron for a time becomes 
 electrified. It is changed into a tem- 
 porary magnet in the mere presence 
 of a permanent magnet, and as long 
 as you leave the two side by side, they 
 are both magnets alike. Remain side 
 by side with Him who loved us, and 
 gave Himself for us, and you too will 
 become a permanent magnet, a per- 
 manently attractive force ; and like 
 Him you will draw all men unto you, 
 like Him you will be drawn unto all 
 
IN THE WORLD. 59 
 
 men. That is the inevitable effect of 
 Love. Any man who fulfills that 
 cause must have that effect produced 
 in him. Try to give up the idea that 
 religion comes to us by chance, or by 
 mystery, or by caprice. It comes to 
 us by natural law, or by supernatural 
 law, for all law is Divine. Edward 
 Irving went to see a dying boy once, 
 and when he entered the room he just 
 put his hand on the sufferer's head, and 
 said, " My boy, God loves you," and 
 went away. And the boy started from 
 his bed, and called out to the people 
 in the house, " God loves me ! God 
 loves me ! " It changed that boy. The 
 sense that God loved him overpowered 
 him, melted him down, and began the 
 
60 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 creating of a new heart in him. And 
 that is how the love of God melts down 
 the unlovely heart in man, and begets 
 in him the new creature, who is patient 
 and humble and gentle and unselfish. 
 And there is no other way to get it. 
 There is no mystery about it. We 
 love others, we love everybody, we 
 love our enemies, because He first 
 loved us. 
 
IN THE WORLD. 6l 
 
 THE DEFENCt. 
 
 KTOW I have a closing sentence or 
 '*• ^ two to add about Paul's reason 
 for singling out love as the supreme 
 possession. It is a very remarkable 
 reason. In a single word it is this : it 
 lasts, " Love," urges Paul, " never 
 faileth." Then he begins again one 
 of his marvelous lists of the great 
 things of the day, and exposes them 
 one by one. He runs over the things 
 that men thought were going to last, 
 and shows that they are all fleeting, 
 temporary, passing away. 
 
62 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 " Whether there be prophecies, they 
 shall fail." It was the mother's am- 
 bition for her boy in those days that 
 he should become a prophet. For hun- 
 dreds of years God had never spoken 
 by means of any prophet, and at that 
 time the prophet was greater than 
 the King. Men waited wistfully for 
 another messenger to come, and hung 
 upon his lips when he appeared as 
 upon the very voice of God. Paul 
 says, " Whether there be prophecies, 
 they shall fail." This book is full of 
 prophecies. One by one they have 
 '* failed ; " that is, having been fulfilled 
 theii work is finished; they have 
 nothing more to do now in the world 
 except to feed a devout man's faith. 
 
IN THE WORLD. 6j 
 
 Then Paul talks about tongues^ 
 That v/as another thing that was grcatlj 
 coveted. "Whether there be tongues^ 
 they shall cease." As wc all know, 
 many, many centuries have passed 
 since tongues have been known in this 
 world. They have ceased. Take it 
 in any sense you like. Take it, for 
 illustration merely, as languages in 
 general — a sense which was not in 
 Paul's mind at all, and which though 
 it cannot give us the specific lesson 
 will point the general truth. Consider 
 the words in which these chapters were 
 written — Greek. It has gone. Take 
 the Latin — the other great tongue 
 of those days. It ceased long agoi 
 Look at the Indian language. It is 
 
64 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 ceasing. The language of Wales, of 
 Ireland, of the Scottish Highlands is 
 dying before our eyes. The most 
 popular book in the English tongue at 
 the present time, except the Bible, is 
 one of Dickens's works, his Pickwick 
 Papers, It is largely written in the 
 language of London street-life ; and 
 experts assure us that in fifty years it 
 will be unintelligible to the average 
 English reader. 
 
 Then Paul goes farther, and with 
 even greater boldness adds, "Whether 
 there be knowledge, it shall vanish 
 away." The wisdom of the ancients, 
 where is it } It is wholly gone. A 
 schoolboy to-day knows more than Sir 
 Isaac Newton knew. His knowledo^e 
 
IN THE WORLD. 6$ 
 
 has vanished away. You put yester- 
 day's newspaper in the fire. Its 
 knowledge has vanished away. You 
 buy the old editions of the great ency- 
 clopaedias for a few pence. Their 
 knowledge has vanished away. Look 
 how the coach has been superseded by 
 the use of steam. Look how elec- 
 tricity has superseded that, and swept 
 a hundred almost new inventions into 
 oblivion. One of the greatest living 
 authorities, Sir William Thompson, 
 said the other day, ''The steam-engine 
 is passing away." "Whether there 
 be knowledge, it shall vanish away." 
 At every workshop you will see, in 
 the back yard, a heap of old iron, a 
 few wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, 
 
66 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 broken and eaten with rust. Twenty 
 years ago that was the pride of the 
 city. Men flocked in from the country 
 to see the great invention; now it is 
 superseded, its day is done. And all 
 the boasted science and philosophy of 
 this day will soon be old. But yester- 
 day, in the University of Edinburgh, 
 the greatest figure in the faculty was 
 Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of 
 chloroform. The other day his suc- 
 cessor and nephew, Professor Simp- 
 son, was asked by the librarian of the 
 University to go to the library and 
 pick out the books on his subject that 
 were no longer needed. And his re- 
 ply to the librarian was this : *' Take- 
 every text-book that is more than ten 
 
IN THE WORLD. 67 
 
 years old, and put it down in the cel- 
 lar." Sir James Simpson was a great 
 authority only a few years ago : men 
 came from all parts of the earth to 
 consult him ; and almost the whole 
 teaching of that time is consigned by 
 the science of to-day to oblivion. And 
 in every branch of science it is the 
 same. " Now we know in part. We 
 see through a glass darkly." 
 
 Can you tell me anything that is 
 going to last ? Many things Paul did 
 not condescend to name. He did not 
 mention money, fortune, fame ; but he 
 picked out the great things of his time, 
 the things the best men thought had 
 something in them, and brushed them 
 peremptorily aside. Paul had no 
 
68 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 charge against these things in them- 
 selves. All he said about them was 
 that they would not last. They were 
 great things, but not supreme things. 
 There were things beyond them. 
 What we are stretches past what we 
 do, beyond what we possess. Many 
 things that men denounce as sins are 
 not sins ; but they are temporary. 
 And that is a favorite argument of 
 the New Testament. John says of the 
 world, not that it is wrong, but simply 
 that it " passeth away." There is a 
 great deal in the world that is delight- 
 ful and beautiful ; there is a great deal 
 in it that is great and engrossing; but 
 it will not last. All that is in the 
 world, the lust of the eye, the lust of 
 
IN THE WORLD. 69 
 
 the flesh, and the pride of life, are but 
 for a little while. Love not the world 
 therefore. Nothing that it contains 
 is worth the life and consecration of 
 an immortal soul. The immortal soul 
 must give itself to something that is 
 immortal. And the only immortal 
 things are these : *' Now abideth faith, 
 hope, love, but the greatest of these is 
 love." 
 
 Some think the time may come when 
 two of these three things will also pass 
 away — faith into sight, hope into fru- 
 ition. Paul does not say so. We 
 know but little now about the condi- 
 tions of the life that is to come. But 
 what is certain is that Love must last. 
 God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet 
 
70 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 therefore that everlasting gift, that one 
 thing which it is certain is going to 
 stand, that one coinage which w411 be 
 current in the Universe when all the 
 other coinages of all the nations of the 
 world shall be useless and unhonored. 
 You will give yourselves to many 
 things, give yourself first to Love. 
 Hold things in their proportion. Hold 
 ihings in tJieir proportion. Let at least 
 the first great object of our lives be 
 to achieve the character defended in 
 these words, the character — and it is 
 the character of Christ — which is built 
 round Love. 
 
 I have said this thing is eternal. 
 Did you ever notice how continually 
 John associates love and faith with 
 
IN THE WORLD. /I 
 
 eternal life ? I was not told when I 
 was a boy that '' God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only-begotten 
 . Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should have everlasting life." What 
 I was told, I remember, was, that God 
 so loved the world that, if I trusted in 
 Him, I was to have a thing called 
 peace, or I was to have rest, or I was 
 to have joy, or I was to have safety. 
 But I had to find out for myself that 
 whosoever trusteth in Him — that is, 
 v/hosoever loveth Him, for trust is only 
 the avenue to Love — hath everlasting 
 life. The Gospel offers a man life. 
 Never offer men a thimbleful of Gos- 
 pel. Do not offer them merely joy, 
 or merely peace, or merely rest, or 
 
T2 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 merely safety; tell them how Christ 
 came to give men a more abundant 
 life than they have, a life abundant in 
 love, and therefore abundant in salva- 
 tion for themselves, and large in enter- 
 prise for the alleviation and redemption 
 of the world. Then only can the 
 Gospel take hold of the whole of a 
 man, body, soul, and spirit, and give 
 to each part of his nature its exercise 
 and reward. Many of the current 
 Gospels are addressed only to a part 
 of man's nature. They offer peace, 
 not life ; faith, not Love ; justification, 
 not regeneration. And men slip back 
 again from such religion because it 
 has never really held them. Their 
 nature was not all in it, It offered no 
 
IN THE WORLD. 73 
 
 deeper and gladder life-current than 
 the life that was lived before. Surely 
 it stands to reason that only a fuller 
 love can compete with the love of the 
 world. 
 
 To love abundantly is to live abun- 
 dantly, and to love forever is to live 
 forever. Hence, eternal life is inex- 
 tricably bound up with love. We 
 want to live forever for the same rea- 
 son that we want to live to-morrow. 
 Why do you want to live to-morrow ? 
 It is because there is some one who 
 loves you, and whom you want to see 
 to-morrow, and be with, and love 
 back. There is no other reason why 
 we should live on than that we love 
 and are beloved. It is when a man 
 
74 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 has no one to love him that he com- 
 mits suicide. So long as he has 
 friends, those who love him and whom 
 he loves, he will live, because to live 
 is to love. Be it but the love of a dog, 
 it will keep him in life; but let that 
 go and he has no contact with life, no 
 reason to live. He dies by his own 
 hand. Eternal life also is to know 
 God, and God is love. This is Christ's 
 own definition. Ponder it. **This is 
 life eternal, that they might know Thee 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou has sent." Love must be 
 eternal. It is what God is. On the 
 last analysis, then, love is life. Love 
 never faileth, and life never faileth, so 
 long as there is love. That is the 
 
IN THE WORLD. 75 
 
 philosophy of what Paul is showing us ; 
 the reason why in the nature of things 
 Love should be the supreme thing — 
 because it is going to last ; because in 
 the nature of things it is an Eternal 
 Life. It is a thing that we are liv- 
 ing now, not that we get when we die ; 
 that we shall have a poor chance of 
 getting when we die unless we are 
 living now. No worse fate can befall 
 a man in this world than to live and 
 grow old alone, unloving, and unloved. 
 To be lost is to live in an unregenerate 
 condition, loveless and unloved ; and 
 to be saved is to love; and he that 
 dwelleth in love dwelleth already in 
 God. For God is Love. 
 
 Now I have all but finished. How 
 
^6 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 many of you will join me in reading 
 this chapter once a week for the next 
 three months? A man did that once 
 and it changed his whole life. Will 
 you do it ? It is for the greatest thing 
 in the world. You might begin by 
 reading it every day, especially the 
 verses which describe the perfect char- 
 acter. ** Love suffereth long, and is 
 kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth 
 not itself.'* Get these ingredients into 
 your life. Then everything that you 
 do is eternal. It is worth doing. It 
 is worth giving time to. No man can 
 become a saint in his sleep ; and to 
 fulfill the condition required demands 
 a certain amount of prayer and medi- 
 tation and time, just as improvement 
 
IN THE WORLD. ^J 
 
 in any direction, bodily or mental, re- 
 quires preparation and care. Address 
 yourselves to that one thing; at any 
 cost have this transcendent character 
 exchanged for yours. You will find 
 as you look back upon your life that 
 the moments that stand out, the mo- 
 ments when you have really lived, are 
 the moments when you have done 
 things in a spirit of love. As memory 
 scans the past, above and beyond all 
 the transitory pleasures of life, there 
 leap forward those supreme hours 
 when you have been enabled to do 
 unnoticed kindnesses to those round 
 about you, things too trifling to speak 
 about, but which you feel have entered 
 into your eternal life. I have seen 
 
y8 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 almost all the beautiful things God has 
 made; I have enjoyed almost every 
 pleasure that he has planned for man ; 
 and yet as I look back I see standing 
 out above all the life that has gone 
 four or five short experiences when the 
 love of God reflected itself in some 
 poor imitation, some small act of love 
 of mine, and these seem to be the 
 things which alone of all one's life 
 abide. Everything else in all our 
 lives is transitory. Every other good 
 is visionary. But the acts of love 
 which no man knows about, or can 
 ever know about — they never fail. 
 
 In the Book of Matthew, where the 
 Judgment Day is depicted for us in 
 the imagery of One seated upon a 
 
IN THE WORLD. 79 
 
 throne and dividing the sheep from 
 the goats, the test of a man then is not^ 
 ** How have I beUeved ? " but ''How 
 have I loved?" The test of religion, 
 the final test of religion, is not relig- 
 iousness, but Love. I say the final 
 test of religion at that great Day is 
 not religiousness, but Love ; not what I 
 have done, not what I have believed,, 
 not what I have achieved, but how I 
 have discharged the common charities 
 of life. Sins of commission in that 
 awful indictment are not even referred 
 to. By what we have not done, by 
 sins of omission^ we are judged. It 
 could not be otherwise. For the with- 
 holding of love is the negation of the 
 spirit of Christ, the proof that we 
 
80 THE GREATEST THING 
 
 never knew Him, that for us He lived 
 in vain. It means that He suggested 
 nothing in all our thoughts, that He 
 inspired nothing in all our lives, that 
 we were not once near enough to Him 
 to be seized with the spell of His com- 
 passion for the world. It means that — 
 
 " I lived for myself, I thought for myself, 
 For myself, and none beside — 
 Just as if Jesus had never lived, 
 As if He had never died." 
 
 It is the Son of 3fan before whom 
 the nations of the world shall be 
 gathered. It is in the presence of 
 Hiifnanity that we shall be charged. 
 And the spectacle itself, the mere 
 sight of it, will silently judge each 
 one. Those will be there whom we 
 
IN THE WORLD. 8 1 
 
 have met and helped ; or there, the 
 unpitied multitude whom we neglected 
 or despised. No other witness need 
 be summoned. No other charge than 
 lovelessness shall be preferred. Be 
 not deceived. The words which all of 
 us shall one Day hear sound not of 
 theology but of life, not of churches 
 and saints but of the hungry and the 
 poor, not of creeds and doctrines but 
 of shelter and clothing, not of Bibles 
 and prayer-books but of cups of cold 
 water in the name of Christ. Thank 
 God the Christianity of to-day is com- 
 ing nearer the world's need. Live to 
 help that on. Thank God men know 
 better, by a hairsbreadth, what religion 
 is, what God is, who Christ is, where 
 
82 GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. 
 
 Christ is. Who is Christ? He who 
 fed the hungry, clothed the naked, 
 visited the sick. And where is Christ ? 
 Where? — whoso shall receive a little 
 child in My name receiveth Me. And 
 who are Christ*s? Every one that 
 loveth is born of God. 
 
PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
 my yoke upon you, and learn of me : for I am 
 meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find 
 rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
 and my burden is light " 
 
 8s 
 
PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 I HEARD the other morning a ser- 
 * mon by a distinguished preacher 
 upon " Rest." It was full of beauti- 
 ful thoughts ; but when I came to ask 
 myself, " How does he say I can get 
 Rest ? '* there was no answer. The 
 sermon was sincerely meant to be 
 practical, yet it contained no experi- 
 ence that seemed to me to be tangi- 
 ble, nor any advice which could help 
 me to find the thing itself as I went 
 about the world that afternoon. Yet 
 this omission of the only important 
 
 87 
 
88 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 problem v/as not the fault of the 
 preacher. The whole popular religion 
 is in the twilight here. And when 
 pressed for really working specifics for 
 the experiences with which it deals, 
 it falters, and seems to lose itself in 
 mist. 
 
 The want of connection betw^een the 
 great words of religion and every-day 
 life has bewildered and discouraged 
 all of us. Christianity possesses the 
 noblest words in the language ; its 
 literature overflows with terms expres- 
 sive of the greatest and happiest 
 moods which can fill the soul of man. 
 Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light 
 — these words occur with such per- 
 sistency in hymns and prayers that an 
 
PEACE BE WITH YOU. 89 
 
 observer might think they formed the 
 staple of Christian experience. But 
 on coming to close quarters with the 
 actual life of most of us, how surely 
 would he be disenchanted ! I do not 
 think we ourselves are aware how 
 much our religious life is made up of 
 phrases; how much of what we call 
 Christian experience is only a dialect 
 of the Churches, a mere religious 
 phraseology with almost nothing be- 
 hind it in what we really feel and 
 know. 
 
 To some of us, indeed, the Chris- 
 tian experiences seem further away 
 than when we took the first steps in 
 the Christian life. That life has not 
 opened out as we had hoped ; we do 
 
90 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 not regret our religion, but we are dis- 
 appointed with it. There are times, 
 perhaps, when wandering notes from 
 a diviner music stray into our spirits ; 
 but these experiences come at few and 
 fitful moments. We have no sense of 
 possession in them. When they visit 
 us, it is a surprise. When they leave 
 us, it is without explanation. When 
 we wish their return, we do not know 
 how to secure it. 
 
 All which points to a religion with- 
 out solid base, and a poor and flicker- 
 ing life. It means a great bankruptcy 
 in those experiences which give Chris- 
 tianity its personal solace and make it 
 attractive to the world, and a great 
 uncertainty as to any remedy. It is 
 
PEACE BE WITH YOU. 9 1 
 
 as if we knew everything about health 
 — except the way to get it. 
 
 I am quite sure that the difficulty 
 does not lie in the fact that men are 
 not in earnest. This is simply not the 
 fact. All around us Christians are 
 wearing themselves out in trying to be 
 better. The amount of spiritual long- 
 ing in the world — in the hearts of 
 unnumbered thousands of men and 
 women in whom we should never sus- 
 pect it; among the wise and thought- 
 ful ; among the young and gay, who 
 seldom assuage and never betray their 
 thirst — this is one of the most wonder- 
 ful and touching facts of life. It is 
 not more heat that is needed, but more 
 light; not more force, but a wiser di- 
 
92 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 rection to be given to very real energies 
 already there. 
 
 The Address which follows is offered 
 as an humble contribution to this prob- 
 lem, and in the hope that it may help 
 some who are ** seeking Rest and find- 
 ing none " to a firmer footing on one 
 great, solid, simple principle which 
 underlies not the Christian experiences 
 alone, but all experiences, and all life. 
 
 What Christian experience wants is 
 thread, a vertebral column, method. It 
 is impossible to believe that there is 
 no remedy for its unevenness and di- 
 shevelment, or that the remedy is a 
 secret. The idea, also, that some few 
 men, by happy chance or happier 
 temperament, have been given the 
 
PFACK BE WITH YOU. 93 
 
 secret — as if there were some sort of 
 knack or trick of it — is wholly incredi- 
 ble. Religion must ripen its fruit for 
 every temperament ; and the way even 
 into its highest heights must be by a 
 gateway through which the peoples of 
 the world may pass. 
 
 I shall try to lead up to this gateway 
 by a very familiar path. But as that 
 path is strangely unfrequented, and 
 even unknown, where it passes into 
 the religious sphere, I must dwell for 
 a moment on the coramonest of com- 
 monplaces. 
 
94 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 
 
 NTOTHING that happens in the 
 world happens by chance. God 
 is a God of order. Everything is 
 arranged upon definite principles, and 
 never at random. The world, even 
 the religious world, is governed by 
 law. Character is governed by law. 
 Happiness is governed by law. The 
 Christian experiences are governed by 
 law. Men, forgetting this, expect 
 Rest, Jo}^ Peace, Faith to drop into 
 their souls from the air like snow or 
 rain. But in point of fact they do not 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. CJ 
 
 do SO ; and if they did they would no 
 less have their origin in previous ac- 
 tivities and be controlled by natural 
 laws. Rain and snow do drop from 
 the air, but not without a long pre- 
 vious history. They are the mature 
 effects of former causes. Equally so 
 are Rest, and Peace, and Joy. They^ 
 too, have each a previous history. 
 Storms and winds and calms are not 
 accidents, but are brought about by 
 antecedent circumstances. Rest and 
 Peace are but calms in man's inward 
 nature, and arise through causes as 
 definite and as inevitable. 
 
 Realize it thoroughly : it is a me- 
 thodical not an accidental world. If a 
 housewife turns out a good cake, it is 
 
96 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 the result of a sound receipt, carefully 
 applied. She cannot mix the assigned 
 ingredients and fire them for the ap- 
 propriate time without producing the 
 result. It is not she who has made the 
 cake ; it is nature. She brings related 
 things together; sets causes at work; 
 these causes bring about the result. 
 She is not a creator, but an interme- 
 diary. She does not expect random 
 causes to produce specific effects — 
 random ingredients would only pro- 
 duce random cakes. So it is in 
 the making of Christian experiences. 
 Certain lines are followed; certain 
 effects are the result. These effects 
 cannot but be the result. But the 
 result can never take place without 
 
EFFECTS REQUFRE CAUSES. 9/ 
 
 the previous cause. To expect results 
 without antecedents is to expect cakes 
 without ingredients. That impossi- 
 bility is precisely the almost universal 
 expectation. 
 
 Now what I mainly wish to do is to 
 help you firmly to grasp this simple 
 principle of Cause and Effect in the 
 spiritual world. And instead of ap- 
 plying the principle generally to each 
 of the Christian experiences in turn, I 
 shall examine its application to one in 
 some little detail. The one I shall 
 select is Rest. And I think any one 
 who follows the application in this 
 single instance will be able to apply it 
 for himself to all the others. 
 
 Take such a sentence as this: Afri- 
 
98 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 can explorers are subject to fevers 
 which cause restlessness and delirium. 
 Note the expression, ** cause restless- 
 ness." Restlessfiess has a cause. Clearly 
 then, any one who wished to get rid 
 of restlessness would proceed at once 
 to deal with the cause. If that were 
 not removed, a doctor might pre- 
 scribe a hundred things, and all might 
 be taken in turn, without producing 
 the least effect. Things are so ar- 
 ranged in the original planning of the 
 world that certain effects must follow 
 certain causes, and certain causes 
 must be abolished before certain effects 
 can be removed. Certain parts of 
 Africa are inseparably linked with the 
 physical experience called fever; this 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 99 
 
 fever is in turn infallibly linked with a 
 mental experience called restlessness 
 and delirium. To abolish the mental 
 experience the radical method would 
 be to abolish the physical experience, 
 and the way of abolishing the physical 
 experience would be to abolish Africa, 
 or to cease to go there. Now this 
 holds good for all other forms of Rest- 
 lessness. Every other form and kind 
 of Restlessness in the world has a 
 definite cause, and the particular kind 
 of Restlessness can only be removed 
 by removing the allotted cause. 
 
 All this is also true of Rest. Rest- 
 lessness has a cause : must not Rest 
 have a cause ? Necessarily. If it 
 were a chance world we would not 
 
lOO PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 expect this; but, being a methodical 
 world, it cannot be otherwise. Rest, 
 physical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, 
 every kind of rest, has a cause as cer- 
 tainly as restlessness. Now causes 
 are discriminating. There is one kind 
 of cause for every particular effect, 
 and no other; and if one particular 
 effect is desired, the corresponding 
 cause must be set in motion. It is no 
 use proposing finely devised schemes, 
 or going through general pious exer- 
 cises in the hope that somehow Rest 
 will come. The Christian life is not 
 casual, but causal. All nature is a 
 standing protest against the absurdity 
 of expecting to secure spiritual effects, 
 or any effects, without the employment 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. TOT 
 
 of appropriate causes. The Great 
 Teacher dealt what ought to have been 
 the final blow to this infinite irrelevancy 
 by a single question, **Do men gather 
 grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ? " 
 
 Why, then, did the Great Teacher 
 not educate His followers fully ? Why 
 did He not tell us, for example, how 
 such a thing as Rest might be obtained ? 
 The answer is, that He did. But 
 plainly, explicitly, in so many words .'^ 
 Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many 
 words. He assigned Rest to its cause, 
 in words with which each of us has 
 been familiar from his earliest child- 
 hood. 
 
 He begins, you remember — for you 
 at once know the passage I refer to — - 
 
I02 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 almost as if Rest could be had without 
 any cause : '' Come unto Me," He 
 says, '' and I will £-ive you Rest." 
 
 Rest, apparently, was a favor to be 
 bestowed ; men had but to come to 
 Him ; He would give it to every appli- 
 cant. But the next sentence takes 
 that all back. The qualification, in- 
 deed, is added instantaneously. For 
 what the first sentence seemed to give 
 was next thing to an impossibility. 
 For how, in a literal sense, can Rest 
 be give7i? One could no more give 
 away Rest than he could give away 
 Laughter. We speak of *' causing" 
 laughter, which we can do ; but we 
 cannot give it away. When we speak 
 of giving pain, we know perfectly well 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. IO3 
 
 we cannot give pain away. And 
 when we aim at giving pleasure, all 
 that we do is to arrange a set of cir- 
 cumstances in such a way as that 
 these shall cause pleasure. Of course 
 there is a sense, and a very wonderful 
 sense, in which a Great Personality 
 breathes upon all who come within its 
 influence an abiding peace and trust. 
 Men can be to other men as the shadow 
 of a great rock in a thirsty land. 
 Much more Christ ; much more Christ 
 as Perfect Man ; much more still as 
 Savior of the world. But it is not this 
 of which I speak. When Christ said 
 He would give men rest. He meant 
 simply that He would put them in the 
 way of it. By no act of conveyano'^ 
 
104 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 would, or could, He make over His 
 own Rest to them. He could give 
 them His receipt for it. That was alL 
 But He would not make it for them ; 
 for one thing, it was not in His plan to 
 make it for them ; for another thing, 
 men were not so planned that it could 
 be made for them ; and for yet another 
 thing, it was a thousand times better 
 that they should make it for them- 
 selves. 
 
 That this is the meaning becomes 
 obvious from the wording of the second 
 sentence : '^ Learn of Me and ye shall 
 find Rest." Rest, that is to say, is 
 not a thing that can be given, but a 
 thing to be acquired. It comes not by 
 an act, but by a process. It is not to 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 10$ 
 
 be found in a happy hour, as one finds 
 a treasure ; but slowly, as one finds 
 knowledge. It could indeed be no 
 more found in a moment than could 
 knowledge. A soil has to be prepared 
 for it. Like a fine fruit, it will grow 
 in one climate and not in another; at 
 one altitude and not at another. Like 
 all growths it will have an orderly de- 
 velopment and mature by slow degrees. 
 The nature of this slow process 
 Christ clearly defines when He says 
 we are to achieve Rest by learning. 
 *' Learn of Me," He says, " and ye 
 shall find Rest to your souls." Now 
 consider the extraordinary originality 
 of this utterance. How novel the con- 
 nection between these two words. 
 
I06 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 " Learn '' and " Rest " ! How few of 
 us have ever associated them — ever 
 thought that Rest was a thing to be 
 learned; ever laid ourselves out for it 
 as we would to learn a language ; ever 
 practiced it as we would practice the 
 violin ? Does it not show how entirely- 
 new Christ's teaching still is to the 
 world, that so old and threadbare an 
 aphorism should still be so little ap- 
 plied? The last thing most of us 
 would have thought of would have 
 been to associate Rest with Work. 
 
 What must one work at? What is 
 that which if duly learned will find the 
 soul of man in Rest? Christ answers 
 without the least hesitation. He speci- 
 fies two things — Meekness and Low- 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 10/ 
 
 liness. *' Learn of Me," He says, 
 •'for I am meek and lowly in heart." 
 Now, these two things are not chosen 
 at random. To these accompHsh- 
 ments, in a special way, Rest is at- 
 tached. Learn these, in short, and 
 you have already found Rest. These 
 as they stand are direct causes of 
 Rest ; will produce it at once ; cannot 
 but produce it at once. And if you 
 think for a single moment, you will 
 see how this is necessarily so, for 
 causes are never arbitrary, and the 
 connection between antecedent and 
 consequent here and everywhere lies 
 deep in the nature of things. 
 
 What is the connection, then } I 
 answer by a further question. What 
 
I08 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 are the chief causes of Unrest? If 
 you know yourself, you will answer 
 Pride, Selfishness, Ambition. As you 
 look back upon the past years of your 
 life, is it not true that its unhappiness 
 has chiefly come from the succession 
 of personal mortifications, and almost 
 trivial disappointments which the in- 
 tercourse of life has brought you ? 
 Great trials come at lengthened inter- 
 vals, and we rise to breast them ; but 
 it is the petty friction of our every 
 day life with one another, the jar 
 of business or of work, the discord 
 of the domestic circle, the collapse of 
 our ambition, the crossing of our will 
 or the taking down of our conceit, 
 which make inward peace impossible. 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. lOQ 
 
 Wounded vanity, then, disappointed 
 hopes, unsatisfied selfishness — these 
 are the old, vulgar, universal sources 
 of man's unrest. 
 
 Now it is obvious why Christ pointed 
 out as the two chief objects for attain- 
 ment the exact opposites of these. To 
 Meekness and Lowliness these things 
 simply do not exist. They cure unrest 
 by making it impossible. These reme- 
 dies do not trifle with surface symp- 
 toms ; they strike at once at removing 
 causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a 
 self-centered life can be removed at 
 once by learning Meekness and Low- 
 liness of heart. He who learns them 
 is for ever proof against it. He lives 
 henceforth a charmed life. Chris- 
 
no PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 tianity is a fine inoculation, a transfu- 
 sion of healthy blood into an anaemic 
 or poisoned soul. No fever can attack 
 a perfectly sound body ; no fever of 
 unrest can disturb a soul which has 
 breathed the air or learned the ways 
 of Christ. Men sigh for the wings of 
 a dove that they may fly away and be 
 at rest. But flying away will not help 
 us. ''The Kingdom of God is within 
 you.'' We aspire to the top to look 
 I for Rest ; it lies at the bottom. Water 
 rests only when it gets to the lowest 
 place. So do men. Hence, be lowly. 
 The man who has no opinion of him- 
 self at all can never be hurt if others 
 do not acknowledge him. Hence, be 
 meek. He who is without expecta- 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. Ill 
 
 tion cannot fret if nothing comes to 
 him. It is self-evident that these 
 things are so. The lowly man and 
 the meek man are really above all 
 other men, above all other things. 
 They dominate the world because they 
 do not care for it. The miser does 
 not possess gold, gold possesses him. 
 But the meek possess it. "The meek," 
 said Christ, " inherit the earth." They 
 do not buy it ; they do not conquer it ; 
 but they inherit it. 
 
 There are people who go about the 
 world looking out for slights, and they 
 are necessarily miserable, for they find 
 them at every turn — especially the im- 
 aginary ones. One has the same pity 
 for such men as for the very poor. 
 
112 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 They are the morally illiterate. They 
 have had no real education, for they 
 have never learned how to live. Few 
 men know how to live. We grow up 
 at random, carrying into mature life 
 the merely animal methods and mo- 
 tives which we had as little children. 
 And it does not occur to us that all 
 this must be changed ; that much of it 
 must be revised ; that life is the finest 
 of the Fine Arts ; that it has to be 
 learned with lifelong patience, and that 
 the years of our pilgrimage are all too 
 short to master it triumphantly. 
 
 Yet this is what Christianity is for — 
 to teach men the Art of Life. And 
 its whole curriculum lies in one word — 
 '* Learn, of Me." Unlike most educa- 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. II J 
 
 tion, this is almost purely personal ; it 
 is not to be had from books or lectures 
 or creeds or doctrines. It is a study 
 from the life. Christ never said much 
 in mere words about the Christian 
 Graces. He lived them, He was them. 
 Yet we do not merely copy Him. 
 We learn His art by living with Him, 
 like the old apprentices with their 
 masters. 
 
 Now we understand it all? Christ's 
 invitation to the weary and heavy- 
 laden is a call to begin life over again 
 upon a new principle — upon His own 
 principle. ** Watch My way of doing 
 things," He says. '' Follow Me. 
 Take life as I take it. Be meek and 
 lowly and you will find Rest." 
 
114 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 I do not say, remember, that the 
 Christian life to every man, or to any 
 man, can be a bed of roses. No edu- 
 cational process can be this. And 
 perhaps if some men knew how much 
 was involved in the simple "learn" of 
 Christ, they would not enter His school 
 with so irresponsible a heart. For 
 there is not only much to learn, but 
 much to unlearn. Many men never 
 go to this school at all till their dis- 
 position is already half ruined and 
 character has taken on its fatal set. 
 To learn arithmetic is difficult at fifty — 
 much more to learn Christianity. To 
 learn simply what it is to be meek and 
 lowly, in the case of one who has had 
 no lessons in that in childhood, may 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. II5 
 
 cost him half of what he values most 
 on earth. Do we realize, for instance, 
 that the way of teaching humility is 
 generally by Junniliation. There is 
 probably no other school for it. When 
 a man enters himself as a pupil in such 
 a school it means a very great thing. 
 There is such Rest there, but there 
 is also much Work. 
 
 I should be wrong, even though my 
 theme is the brighter side, to ignore: 
 the cross and minimize the cost. Only 
 it gives to the cross a more definite 
 meaning, and a rarer value, to con- 
 nect it thus directly and causally with 
 the growth of the inner life. Our 
 platitudes on the "benefits of afflic- 
 tion " are usually about as vague as- 
 
Il6 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 our theories of Christian Experience. 
 ^'Somehow," we believe affliction does 
 us good. But it is not a question of 
 ^* Somehow." The result is definite, 
 calculable, necessary. It is under the 
 strictest law of cause and effect. The 
 first effect of losing one's fortune, for 
 instance, is humiliation ; and the effect 
 of humiliation, as we have just seen, 
 is to make one humble ; and the effect 
 of being humble is to produce Rest. 
 It is a roundabout way, apparently, of 
 producing Rest; but Nature generally 
 works by circular processes ; and it is 
 not certain that there is any other way 
 of becoming humble, or of finding 
 Rest. If a man could make himself 
 humble to order, it might simplify 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 11/ 
 
 matters, but we do not find that this 
 happens. Hence we must all go 
 through the mill. Hence death, death 
 to the lower self, is the nearest gate 
 and the quickest road to life. 
 
 Yet this is only half the truth. 
 Christ's life outwardly was one of the 
 most troubled lives that was ever lived : 
 Tempest and tumult, tumult and tem- 
 pest, the waves breaking over it all the 
 time till the worn body was laid in the 
 grave. But the inner life was a sea 
 of glass. The great calm was always 
 there. At any moment you might 
 have gone to Him and found Rest. 
 And even when the blood-hounds were 
 dogging Him in the streets of Jeru- 
 salem, He turned to His disciples and 
 
Il8 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 offered them as a last legacy, "My 
 peace." Nothing ever for a moment 
 broke the serenity of Christ's life on 
 earth. Misfortune could not reach 
 Him ; He had no fortune. Food, rai- 
 ment, money — fountain-heads of half 
 the world's weariness — He simply did 
 not care for; they played no part in 
 His life; He "took no thought" for 
 them. It was impossible to affect Him 
 by lowering His reputation. He had 
 already made himself of no reputation. 
 He was dumb before insult. When He 
 was reviled He reviled not again. In 
 fact, there was nothing that the world 
 could do to Him that could ruffle the 
 surface of His spirit. 
 
 Such living, as merely living, is al- 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. I IQ 
 
 together unique. It is only when we 
 see what it was in Him that we can 
 know w^hat the word Rest means. It 
 lies not in emotions, nor in the absence 
 of emotions. It is not a hallowed feel- 
 ing that comes over us in church. It 
 is not something that the preacher has 
 in his voice. It is not in nature, or in 
 poetry, or in music — though in all 
 these there is soothing. It is the mind 
 at leisure from itself. It is the perfect 
 poise of the soul; the absolute adjust- 
 ment of the inward man to the stress 
 of all outward things; the prepared- 
 ness against every emergency ; the 
 stability of assured convictions ; the 
 eternal calm of an invulnerable faith ; 
 the repose of a heart set deep in God. 
 
I20 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 It is the mood of the man who says, 
 with Browning^ " God's in His Heaven^ 
 all's well with the world." 
 
 Two painters each painted a picture 
 to illustrate his conception of rest. 
 The first chose for his scene a still, 
 lone lake among the far-off moun- 
 tains. The second threw on his can- 
 vas a thundering water-fall, with a 
 fragile birch tree bending over the 
 foam ; at the fork of a branch, almost 
 wet with the cataract's spray, a robin 
 sat on its nest. The first was only 
 Stagnation ; the last was Rest. For in 
 Rest there are always two elements — 
 tranquility and energy ; silence and 
 turbulence ; creation and destruction ; 
 fearlessness and fearfulness. This it 
 was in Christ. 
 
EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. 121 
 
 It is quite plain from all this that 
 whatever else He claimed to be or to 
 do, He at least knew how to live. All 
 this is the perfection of living, of liv- 
 ing in the mere sense of passing 
 through the world in the best way. 
 Hence His anxiety to communicate 
 His idea of life to others. He came. 
 He said, to give men life, true life, a 
 more abundant life than they were 
 living; "the life," as the fine phrase 
 in the Revised Version has it, " that is 
 life indeed." This is what He him- 
 self possessed, and it was this which 
 He offers to all mankind. And hence 
 His direct appeal for all to come to 
 Him who had not made much of life, 
 who were weary and heavy laden. 
 
122 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 These He would teach His secret 
 They, also, should know "the life that 
 is life indeed/* 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 1 23 
 
 WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 
 
 nPHERE is still one doubt to clear 
 ^ up. After the statement, '* Learn 
 of Me," Christ throws in the discon- 
 certing qualification, " Take My Yoke 
 upon you and learn of Me.'* Why, if 
 all this be true, does He call it a yoke? 
 Why, while professing to give Rest, 
 does He with the next breath whisper 
 *^ burden'' f Is the Christian life, after 
 all, what its enemies take it for — an 
 additional weight to the already great 
 woe of life, some extra punctiliousness 
 about duty, some painful devotion to ob^ 
 
124 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 servances, some heavy restriction and 
 trammelling of all that is joyous and 
 free in the world ? Is life not hard and 
 sorrowful enough without being fet- 
 tered with yet another yoke ? 
 
 It is astounding how so glaring a 
 misunderstanding of this plain sentence 
 should ever have passed into currency. 
 Did you ever stop to ask what a yoke 
 is really for ? Is it to be a burden to 
 the animal which wears it ? It is just 
 the opposite. It is to make its burden 
 light. Attached to the oxen in any 
 other way than by a yoke, the plough 
 would be intolerable. Worked by 
 means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke 
 is not an instrument of torture; it is 
 an instrument of mercy. It is not a 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 125 
 
 malicious contrivance for making work 
 hard ; it is a gentle device to make 
 hard labor light. It is not meant to 
 give pain, but to save pain. And yet 
 men speak of the yoke of Christ as if 
 it were a slavery, and look upon those 
 who wear it as objects of compassion. 
 For generations we have had homi- 
 lies on "The Yoke of Christ," some 
 delighting in portraying its narrow 
 exactions; some seeking in these exac- 
 tions the marks of its divinity ; others 
 apologizing for it, and toning it down ; 
 still others assuring us that, although 
 it be very bad, it is not to be compared 
 with the positive blessings of Chris- 
 tianity. How many, especially among 
 the young, has this one mistaken 
 
126 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 phrase driven forever away from the 
 kingdom of God ? Instead of making 
 Christ attractive, it makes Him out 
 a taskmaster, narrowing life by petty 
 restrictions, calling for self-denial 
 where none is necessary, making mis- 
 ery a virtue under the plea that it is 
 the yoke of Christ, and happiness 
 criminal because it now and then 
 evades it. According to this concep- 
 tion. Christians are at best the victims 
 of a depressing fate ; their life is a 
 penance ; and their hope for the next 
 world purchased by a slow martyrdom 
 in this. 
 
 The mistake has arisen from taking 
 the word **yoke" here in the same 
 sense, as in the expressions " under 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 12/ 
 
 the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his 
 youth.'* But in Christ's illustration 
 it is not the jugiivi of the Roman 
 soldier, but the simple ** harness " 
 or " ox-collar " of the Eastern peasant. 
 It is the literal wooden yoke which He, 
 with His own hands in the carpenter 
 shop, had probably often made. He 
 knew the difference between a smooth 
 yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a 
 good fit ; the difference also it made to 
 the patient animal which had to wear 
 it. The rough yoke galled, and the 
 burden was heavy ; the smooth yoke 
 caused no pain, and the burden was 
 lightly drawn. The badly-fitted har- 
 ness was a misery; the well-fitted col- 
 lar was *' easy." 
 
128 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 And what was the '' burden " ? It 
 was not some special burden laid upon 
 the Christian, some unique infliction 
 that they alone must bear. It was 
 what all men bear. It was simply 
 life, human life itself, the general bur- 
 den of life which all must carry with 
 them from the cradle to the grave. 
 Christ saw that men took life painfully. 
 To some it was a weariness, to others 
 a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a 
 struggle and a pain. How to carry 
 this burden of life had been the whole 
 world's problem. It is still the whole 
 world's problem. And here is Christ's 
 solution : " Carry it as I do. Take 
 life as I take it. Look at it from My 
 point of view. Interpret it upon My 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 129 
 
 principles. Take My yoke and learn 
 of Me, and you will find it easy. For 
 My yoke is easy, works easily, sits 
 right upon the shoulders, and therefore 
 My burden is light." 
 
 There is no suggestion here that 
 religion will absolve any man from 
 bearing burdens. That would be to 
 absolve him from living, since it is 
 life itself that is the burden. What 
 Christianity does propose is to make it 
 tolerable. Christ's yoke is simply His 
 secret for the alleviation of human life, 
 His prescription for the best and hap- 
 piest method of living. Men harness 
 themselves to the work and stress of 
 the world in clumsy and unnatural 
 ways. The harness they put on is 
 
I30 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted collar 
 at the best, they make its strain and 
 friction past endurin'g, by placing it 
 where the neck is most sensitive ; and 
 by mere continuous irritation this sen- 
 sitiveness increases until the whole 
 nature is quick and sore. 
 
 This is the origin, among other 
 things, of a disease called " touchi- 
 ness " — a disease which, in spite of its 
 innocent name, is one of the gravest 
 sources of restlessness in the world. 
 Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, 
 is a morbid condition of the inward 
 disposition. It is self-love inflamed to 
 the acute point; conceit, with a hair- 
 trigger. The cure is to shift the yoke 
 to some other place ; to let men and 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. I3I 
 
 things touch us through some new and 
 perhaps as yet unused part of our 
 nature ; to become meek and lowly in 
 heart while the old nature is becoming 
 numb from want of use. It is the beau- 
 tiful work of Christianity everywhere to 
 adjust the burden of life to those who 
 bear it, and them to it. It has a per- 
 fectly miraculous gift of healing. With- 
 out doing any violence to human nature 
 it sets it right with life, harmonizing it 
 with all surrounding things, and restor- 
 ing those who are jaded with the fatigue 
 and dust of the world to a new grace 
 of living. In the mere matter of alter- 
 ing the perspective of life and changing 
 the proportion of things, its functions in 
 lightening the care of man is altogether 
 
132 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 its own. The weight of a load depends 
 upon the attraction of the earth. But 
 suppose the attraction of the earth were 
 removed? A ton on some other planet, 
 where the attraction of gravity is less, 
 does not weigh half a ton. Now Chris- 
 tianity removes the attraction of the 
 earth, and this is one way in which 
 it diminishes men's burden. It makes 
 them citizens of another world. What 
 was a ton yesterday is not half a ton 
 to-day. So without changing one's cir- 
 cumstances, merely by offering a wider 
 horizon and a different standard, it alters 
 the whole aspect of the world. 
 
 Christianity as Christ taught is the 
 truest philosophy of life ever spoken. 
 But let us be quite sure when we speak 
 
WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. 1 33 
 
 of Christianity that we mean Christ's 
 Christianity. Other versions are either 
 caricatures, or exaggerations, or mis- 
 understandings, or shortsighted and 
 surface readings. For the most part 
 their attainment is hopeless and the 
 results wretched. But I care not who 
 the person is, or through what vale of 
 tears he has passed, or is about to pass, 
 there is a new life for him along this 
 path. 
 
134 P^X VOBISCUM. 
 
 HOW FRUITS GROW. 
 
 "I 1[ yTERE Rest my subject, there are 
 * ^ other things I should wish to 
 say about it, and other kinds of Rest 
 of which I should like to speak. But 
 that is not my subject. My theme is 
 that the Christian experiences are not 
 the work of magic, but come under 
 the law of Cause and Effect. And I 
 have chosen Rest only as a single 
 illustration of the working of that 
 principle. If there were time I might 
 next run over all the Christian experi- 
 ences in turn, and show how the same 
 
HOW FRUITS GROW. I 35 
 
 wide law applies to each. But I think 
 it may serve the better purpose if 
 I leave this further exercise to your- 
 selves. I know no Bible study that 
 you will find more full of fruit, or 
 which will take you nearer to the ways 
 of God, or make the Christian life 
 itself more solid or more sure. I shall 
 add only a single other illustration of 
 what I mean, before I close. 
 
 Where does Joy come from ? I 
 knew a Sunday scholar whose con- 
 ception of Joy was that it was a thing 
 made in lumps and kept somewhere in 
 Heaven, and that when people prayed 
 for it, pieces were somehow let down 
 and fitted into their souls. I am not 
 sure that views as gross and material 
 
136 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 are not often held by people who ought 
 to be wiser. In reality, Joy is as 
 much a matter of Cause and Effect as 
 pain. No one can get Joy by merely 
 asking for it. It is one of the ripest 
 fruits of the Christian life, and, like 
 all fruits, must be grown. There is a 
 very clever trick in India called the 
 mango-trick. A seed is put in the 
 ground and covered up, and after 
 divers incantations a full-blown mango 
 bush appears within five minutes. I 
 never met any one who knew how 
 the thing was done, but I never met 
 any one who believed it to be any- 
 thing else than a conjuring-trick. The 
 world is pretty unanimous now in its 
 belief in the orderliness of Nature. 
 
HOW FRUITS GROW. 1 3/ 
 
 Men may not know how fruits grow, 
 but they do know that they cannot 
 grow in five minutes. Some lives 
 have not even a stalk on which fruits 
 could hang, even if they did grow in 
 five minutes. Some have never planted 
 one sound seed of Joy in all their lives : 
 and others who may have planted a 
 germ or two have lived so little in 
 sunshine that they never could come 
 to maturity. 
 
 Whence, then, is joy.^ Christ put 
 His teaching upon this subject into one 
 of the most exquisite of His parables. 
 I should in any instance have appealed 
 to His teaching here, as in the case of 
 Rest for I do not wish you to think I 
 am speaking words of my own. But 
 
138 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 it SO happens that He has dealt with it 
 in words of unusual fulness. 
 
 I need not recall the whole illustra- 
 tion. It is the parable of the Vine. 
 Did you ever think why Christ spoke 
 that parable ? He did not merely 
 throw it into space as a fine illustration 
 of general truths. It was not simply a 
 statement of the mystical union, and 
 the doctrine of an indwelling Christ. 
 It was that; but it was more. After 
 He had said it, He did what was not 
 an unusual thing when He was teaching 
 His greatest lessons. He turned to 
 the disciples and said He would tell 
 them why He had spoken it. It was 
 to tell them how to get joy. "These 
 things have I spoken unto you," He 
 
HOW FRUITS GROW. 1 39 
 
 said, "that My joy might remain in 
 you and that your Joy might be full." 
 It was a purposed and deliberate com- 
 munication of His secret of Happiness. 
 Go back over these verses, then, and 
 you will find the Causes of this Effect, 
 the spring, and the only spring, out of 
 which true Happiness comes. I am not 
 going to analyze them in detail. I ask 
 you to enter into the words for your- 
 selves. Remember, in the first place, 
 that the Vine was the Eastern symbol 
 of Joy. It was its fruit that made glad 
 the heart of man. Yet, however inno- 
 cent that gladness — for the expressed 
 juice of the grape was the common 
 drink at every peasant's board — the 
 gladness was only a gross and passing 
 
I40 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 thing. This was not true happiness, 
 and the vine of the Palestine vineyards 
 was not the true vine. Christ was " the 
 true Vine." Here, then, is the ulti- 
 mate source of Joy. Through whatever 
 media it reaches us, all true joy and 
 Gladness find their source in Christ. 
 By this, of course, is not meant that the 
 actual Joy experienced is transferred 
 from Christ's nature, or is something 
 passed on from Him to us. What is 
 passed on is His method of getting 
 it. There is, indeed, a sense in which 
 we can share another's joy or an- 
 other's sorrow. But that is another 
 matter. Christ is the source of Joy 
 to men in the sense in which He is 
 the source of Rest. His people share 
 
HOW FRUITS GROW. I4I 
 
 His life, and therefore share its con- 
 sequences, and one of these is Joy. 
 His method of living is one that in the 
 nature of things produces Joy. When 
 He spoke of His Joy remaining with 
 us, He meant in part that the causes 
 which produced it should continue to 
 act. His followers, that is to say, 
 by repeating His life would experi- 
 ence its accompaniments. His Joy, 
 His kind of Joy, would remain with 
 them. 
 
 The medium through which this Joy 
 comes is next explained : " He that 
 abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth 
 much fruit." Fruit first, Joy next; the 
 one the cause or medium of the other. 
 Fruit-bearing is the necessary antece- 
 
142 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 dent ; Joy both the necessary conse- 
 quent and the necessary accompani- 
 ment. It lay partly in the bearing 
 fruit, partly in the fellowship which 
 made that possible. Partly, that is to 
 say, Joy lay in mere constant living in 
 Christ's presence, with all that that 
 implied of peace, of shelter and of 
 love; partly in the influence of that 
 Life upon mind and character and 
 will ; and partly in the inspiration to 
 live and work for others, with all that 
 that brings of self-riddance and Joy 
 in others' gain. All these, in different 
 ways and at different times, are sources 
 of pure Happiness. Even the sim- 
 plest of them — to do good to other 
 people — is an instant and infalli- 
 
HOW FRUITS GROW. 1 43 
 
 ble specific. There is no mystery 
 about Happiness whatever. Put in the 
 right ingredients and it must come out. 
 He that abideth in Him will bring 
 forth much fruit; and bringing forth 
 much fruit is Happiness. The infalli- 
 ble receipt for Happiness, then, is to 
 do good ; and the infallible receipt for 
 doing good is to abide in Christ. The 
 surest proof that all this is a plain 
 matter of Cause and Effect is that men 
 may try every other conceivable way 
 of finding Happiness, and they will 
 fail. Only the right cause in each 
 case can produce the right effect. 
 
 Then the Christian experiences are 
 our own making ? In the same sense 
 in which grapes are our own making, 
 
144 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 and no more. All fruits grow — 
 whether they grow in the soil or in 
 the soul ; whether they are the fruits 
 of th^ wild grape or of the True Vine. 
 No man can make things grow. He 
 can get them to gr'oiv by arranging all 
 the circumstances and fulfilling all the 
 conditions. But the growing is done 
 by God. Causes and effects are eternal 
 arrangements, set in the constitution of 
 the world ; fixed beyond man's order- 
 ing. What man can do is to place 
 himself in the midst of a chain of 
 sequences. Thus he can get things to 
 grow : thus he himself can grow. But 
 the grower is the Spirit of God. 
 
 What more need I add but this — 
 test the method by experiment. Do 
 
HOW FKUnS liKOW. I45 
 
 not imagine that you have got these 
 things because you know how to get 
 them. As well try to feed upon a 
 cookery book. But I think I can 
 promise that if you try in this simple 
 and natural way, you will not fail. 
 Spend the time you have spent in 
 sighing for fruits in fulfilling the con- 
 ditions of their growth. The fruits 
 will come, must come. We have hith- 
 erto paid immense attention to effects, 
 to the mere experiences themselves ; 
 we have described them, extolled them, 
 advised them, prayed for them — done 
 everything but find out what caused 
 them. Henceforth let us deal with 
 causes. " To be,'' says Lotze, *' is to 
 be in relations." About every other 
 
146 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 method of living the Christian life 
 there is an uncertainty. About every 
 other method of acquiring the Chris- 
 tian experiences there is a " perhaps." 
 But in so far as this method is the 
 way of nature, it cannot fail. Its 
 guarantee is the laws of the universe, 
 and these are " the Hands of the Liv- 
 ing God." 
 
THE TRUE VINE. 1 4/ 
 
 THE TRUE VINE. 
 
 ** I AM the true vine, and my Father 
 is the husbandman. Every branch 
 in me that beareth not fruit he taketh 
 away : and every branch that beareth 
 fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring 
 forth more fruit. Now ye are clean 
 through the word which I have spoken 
 unto you. Abide in me, and I in 
 you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 
 of itself, except it abide in the vine ; 
 no more can ye, except ye abide in 
 me. I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches : he that abideth in me, and 
 I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
 
148 PAX VOBISCUM. 
 
 fruit: for without me ye can do noth- 
 ing. If a man abide not in me, he is 
 cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; 
 and men gather them, and cast them 
 into the fire, and they are burned. If 
 ye abide in me, and my word abide in 
 you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
 shall be done unto you. Herein is 
 my Father glorified, that ye may bear 
 much fruit ; so ye shall be my disciples. 
 As the Father hath loved me, so 
 have I loved you : continue ye in my 
 love. If ye keep my commandments, 
 ye shall abide in my love ; even as I 
 have kept my Father's commandments, 
 and abide in his love. These things 
 have I spoken unto you, that my joy 
 might remain in you, and that your 
 joy might be full." 
 
THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 T AST autumn, in a book-shop in 
 ^^ California, the author found a 
 little book with his name upon the title- 
 page — a book which he did not know 
 existed ; which he never wrote ; nor 
 baptized with the title which it bore. 
 This stray publication — taken from 
 shorthand notes of a spoken Address — 
 he does not grudge. Already, it seens, 
 it has done its small measure of good. 
 But owing to the imperfections which 
 it contains it has been thought right to 
 issue a more complete edition. 
 
 151 
 
152 PREFACE. 
 
 The theme, like its predecessors in 
 this series, represents but a single 
 aspect of its great subject — the man- 
 ward side. The light and shade is 
 apportioned with this in view. And 
 the reader's kind attention is asked to 
 this limitation, lest he wonder at points 
 being left in shadow which theology 
 has always, and rightly, taught us to 
 emphasize. 
 
 It was the hearing of a simple talk 
 by a friend to some plain people in a 
 Highland deer-forest which first called 
 the author's attention to the practical- 
 ness of this solution of the cardinal 
 problem of Christian experience. What 
 follows owes a large debt to that Sunday 
 morning. 
 
We all 
 
 With unveiled face 
 
 Reflecting 
 
 As a Mirror 
 
 The Glory of the Lord 
 
 Are transformed 
 
 Into the same image 
 
 From Glory to Glory 
 
 Even as from the Lord 
 
 The Spirit. 
 
 153 
 
THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 " I PROTEST that if some great power would 
 agree to make me always think what is true 
 and do what is right, on condition of being 
 turned into a sort of clock and wound up every 
 morning, I should instantly close with the 
 offer." 
 
 nPHESE are the words of Mr. Hux- 
 ^ ley. The infinite desirability, the 
 infinite difficulty of being good — the 
 theme is as old as humanity. The 
 man does not live from whose deeper 
 being the same confession has not 
 risen, or who would not give his all 
 
 I5S 
 
IS6 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 to-morrow, if he could " close with the 
 offer," of becoming a better man. 
 
 I propose to make that offer now. 
 In all seriousness, without being 
 "turned into a sort of clock," the end 
 can be attained. Under the right con- 
 ditions it is as natural for character to 
 become beautiful as for a flower ; and 
 if on God's earth there is not some 
 machinery for effecting it, the supreme 
 gift to the world has been forgotten. 
 This is simply what man was made 
 for. With Browning : " I say that 
 Man was made to grow, not stop." 
 Or in the deeper words of an older 
 Book : ** Whom He did foreknow, He 
 also did predestinate ... to be con- 
 formed to the Image of His Son." 
 
THE CHANGED LIFE. I $7 
 
 Let me begin by naming, and in 
 part discarding, some processes in 
 vogue already, for producing better 
 lives. These processes are far from 
 wrong ; in their place they may even 
 be essential. One ventures to dispar- 
 age them only because they do not 
 turn out the most perfect possible 
 work. 
 
 The first imperfect method is to rely 
 on Resolution. In will-power, in mere 
 spasms of earnestness there is no sal- 
 vation. Struggle, effort, even agony, 
 have their place in Christianity, as we 
 shall see ; but this is not where they 
 come in. In mid- Atlantic the other 
 day, the Etruria, in which I was sail- 
 ing, suddenly stopped. Something 
 
158 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 had gone wrong with the engines. 
 There were five hundred able-bodied 
 men on board the ship. Do you think 
 that if we had gathered together and 
 pushed against the mast we could have 
 pushed it on ? When one attempts to 
 sanctify himself by effort, he is trying 
 to make his boat go by pushing against 
 the mast. He is like a drowning man 
 trying to lift himself out of the water 
 by pulling at the hair of his own head. 
 Christ held up this method almost to 
 ridicule when he said, " Which of you 
 by taking thought can add a cubit to 
 his stature ? " The one redeeming fea- 
 ture of the self-sufficient method is this 
 — that those who try it find out almost 
 at once that it will not gain the goal. 
 
THE CHANGED LIFE. l$g 
 
 Another experimenter says : *' But 
 that is not my method. I have seen 
 the folly of a mere wild struggle in 
 the dark. I work on a principle. My 
 plan is not to waste power on random 
 effort, but to concentrate on a single 
 sin. By taking one at a time, and 
 crucifying it steadily, I hope in the 
 end to extirpate all." To this, unfor- 
 tunately, there are four objections : 
 For one thing, life is too short ; the 
 name of sin is Legion. For another 
 thing, to deal with individual sins is to 
 leave the rest of the nature for the time 
 untouched. In the third place a single 
 combat with a special sin does not affect 
 the root and spring of the disease. If 
 only one of the channels of sin be ob- 
 
l60 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 structed, experience points to an almost 
 certain overflow through some other 
 part of the nature. Partial conversion 
 is almost always accompanied by such 
 moral leakage, for the pent-up energies 
 accumulate to the bursting point, and 
 the last state of that soul may be worse 
 than the first. In the last place, reli- 
 gion does not consist in negatives, in 
 stopping this sin and stopping that. 
 The perfect character can never be 
 produced with a pruning knife. 
 
 But a third protests : " So be it. I 
 make no attempt to stop sins one by 
 one. My method is just the opposite. 
 I copy the virtues one by one." The 
 difficulty about the copying method is 
 that it is apt to be mechanical. One 
 
THE CHANGED TJFE. l6l 
 
 can always tell an engraving from a 
 picture, an artificial flower from a real 
 flower. To copy virtues one by one 
 has somewhat the same effect as erad- 
 icating the vices one by one ; the 
 temporary result is an overbalanced 
 and incongruous character. Some one 
 defines a p7ng as *' a creature that is 
 over-fed for its size.'' One sometimes 
 finds Christians of this species — over- 
 fed on one side of their nature, but 
 dismally thin and starved-looking on 
 the other. The result for instance, of 
 copying Humility, and adding it on to 
 an otherwise worldly life, is simply gro- 
 tesque. A rabid teniperance advocate, 
 for the same reason, is often the poor- 
 est of creatures, flourishing on a single 
 
1 62 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 virtue, and quite oblivious that his Tem- 
 perance is making a worse man of 
 him and not a better. These are 
 examples of fine virtues spoiled by 
 association with mean companions. 
 Character is a unity, and all the virtues 
 must advance together to make the 
 perfect man. This method of sanctifi- 
 cation, nevertheless, is in the true 
 direction. It is only in the details of 
 execution that it fails. 
 
 A fourth method I need scarcely 
 mention, for it is a variation on those 
 already named. It is the very young 
 man's method ; and the pure earnest- 
 ness of it makes it almost desecration 
 to touch it. It is to keep a private 
 note-book with columns for the days 
 
THE CHANGED LIFE. 163 
 
 of the week, and a list of virtues with 
 spaces against each for marks. This, 
 with many stern rules for preface, is 
 stored away in a secret place, and 
 from time to time, at nightfall, the 
 soul is arraigned before it as before 
 a private judgment bar. This living 
 by code was Franklin's method ; and 
 I suppose thousands more could tell 
 how they had hung up in their bed- 
 rooms, or hid in lock-fast drawers, the 
 rules which one solemn day they drew 
 up to shape their lives. This method 
 is not erroneous, only somehow its 
 success is poor. You bear me wit- 
 ness that it fails. And it fails gener- 
 ally for very matter-of-fact reasons — 
 most likely because one day we forget 
 the rules. 
 
164 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 All these methods that have been 
 named — the self-sufficient method, the 
 self-crucifixion method, the mimetic 
 method, and the diary method — are 
 perfectly human, perfectly natural, per- 
 fectly ignorant, and, as they stand, per- 
 fectly inadequate. It is not argued, I 
 repeat, that they must be abandoned. 
 Their harm is rather that they distract 
 attention from the true working method, 
 and secure a fair result at the expense 
 of the perfect one. What that perfect 
 method is we shall now go on to ask. 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1 65 
 
 THE FORMULA OF SANCTI- 
 FICATION. 
 
 A FORMULA, a receipt, for Sanc- 
 tification — can one seriously 
 speak of this mighty change as if the 
 process were as definite as for the pro- 
 duction of so many volts of electricity ? 
 It is impossible to doubt it. Shall a 
 mechanical experiment succeed infalli- 
 bly, and the one vital experiment of 
 humanity remain a chance ? Is corn 
 to grow by method, and character by 
 caprice ? If we cannot calculate to a 
 certainty that the forces of religion 
 
l66 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 will do their work, then is religion 
 vain. And if we cannot express the 
 law of these forces in simple words, 
 then is Christianity not the world's 
 religion, but the world's conundrum. 
 
 Where, then, shall one look for such 
 a formula ? Where one would look for 
 any formula — among the text-books. 
 And if we turn to the text-books of 
 Christianity we shall find a formula for 
 this problem as clear and precise as 
 any in the mechanical sciences. If 
 this simple rule, moreover, be but fol- 
 lowed fearlessly, it will yield the result 
 of a perfect character as surely as any 
 result that is guaranteed by the laws of 
 nature. The finest expression of this 
 rule in Scripture, or indeed in any lit- 
 
FORMULA OF SANXTIFICATION. 1 67 
 
 erature, is probably one drawn up and 
 condensed into a single verse by Paul. 
 You will find it in a letter — the second 
 to the Corinthians — written by him to 
 some Christian people who, in a city 
 which was a byword for depravity and 
 licentiousness, were seeking the higher 
 life. To see the point of the words we 
 must take them from the immensely 
 improved rendering of the Revised 
 translation, for the older Version in 
 this case greatly obscures the sense. 
 They are these : " We all, with un- 
 veiled face reflecting as a mirror the 
 glory of the Lord, are transformed 
 into the same image from glory to 
 glory, even as from the Lord the 
 Spirit." 
 
l68 ^ THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 Now observe at the outset the (entire 
 contradiction of all our previous efforts, 
 in the simple passive *Sve are trans- 
 formed/' We are changed, as the 
 Old Version has it — we do not change 
 ourselves. No man can change him- 
 self. Throughout the New Testament 
 you will find that wherever these 
 moral and spiritual transformations are 
 described the verbs are in the passive. 
 Presently it will be pointed out that 
 there is a rationale in this; but mean 
 time do not toss these words aside as 
 if this passivity denied all human effort 
 or ignored intelligible law. What is 
 implied for the soul here is no more 
 than is everywhere claimed for the 
 body. In physiology the verbs de- 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1 69 
 
 scribing the processes of growth are 
 in the passive. Growth is not volun- 
 tary ; it takes place, it happens, it is 
 wrought upon matter. So here. "Ye 
 must be born again " — we cannot born 
 ourselves. " Be not conformed to this 
 world, but be ye trans for77icd'' — we are 
 subjects to transforming influence, we 
 do not transform ourselves. Not more 
 certain is it that it is something outside 
 the thermometer that produces a change 
 in the thermometer, than it is some- 
 thing outside the soul of man that 
 produces a moral change upon him. 
 That he must be susceptible to that 
 change, that he must be a party to it, 
 goes without saying; but that neither 
 his aptitude nor his will can produce 
 it, is equally certain. 
 
170 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 Obvious as it ought to seem, this 
 may be to some an almost startling 
 revelation. The change we have been 
 striving after is not to be produced by 
 any more striving after. It is to be 
 wrought upon us by the moulding of 
 hands beyond our own. As the branch 
 ascends, and the bud bursts, and the 
 fruit reddens under the co-operation of 
 influences from the outside air, so man 
 rises to the higher stature under invisi- 
 ble pressures from without. The radi- 
 cal defect of all our former methods 
 of sanctification was the attempt to 
 generate from within that which can 
 only be wrought upon us from without. 
 According to the first Law of Motion : 
 Every body continues in its state of 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. I7I 
 
 rest, or of uniform motion in a straight 
 line, except in so far as it may be com- 
 pelled by impressed forces to change 
 that state. This is also a first law of 
 Christianity. Every man's character 
 remains as it is, or continues in the di- 
 rection in which it is going, until it is 
 compelled by ijnpi'essed forces to change 
 that state. Our failure has been the 
 failure to put ourselves in the way of 
 the impressed forces. There is a clay, 
 and there is a Potter ; we have tried to 
 get the clay to mould the clay. 
 
 Whence, then, these pressures, and 
 where this Potter } The answer of the 
 formula is " By reflecting as a mirror 
 the glory of the Lord we are changed." 
 But this is not very clear. What is 
 
17^2 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 the "glory" of the Lord, and how can 
 mortal man reflect it, and how can that 
 act as an "impressed force" in mould- 
 ing him to a nobler form ? The word 
 "glory" — the word which has to bear 
 the weight of holding those " impressed 
 forces " — is a stranger in current 
 speech, and our first duty is to seek 
 out its equivalent in working English. 
 It suggests at first a radiance of some 
 kind, something dazzling or glittering, 
 some halo such as the old masters 
 loved to paint round the heads of their 
 Ecce Homos. But that is paint, mere 
 matter, the visible symbol of some 
 unseen thing. What is that unseen 
 thing ? It is that of all unseen things 
 the most radiant, the most beautiful. 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1/3 
 
 the most Divine, and that is Character. 
 On earth, in Heaven, there is nothing 
 so great, so glorious as this. The 
 word has many meanings ; in ethics it 
 can have but one. Glory is character, 
 and nothing less, and it can be nothing 
 more. The earth is '^ full of the glory 
 of the Lord," because it is full of His 
 character. The " Beauty of the Lord " 
 is character. "The effulgence of His 
 Glory " is character. " The Glory of 
 the Only Begotten " is character, the 
 character vv^hich is *' fulness of grace 
 and truth." And when God told His 
 people His name He simply gave them 
 His character. His character which 
 was Himself : '' And the Lord pro- 
 claimed the name of the Lord . . . 
 
174 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering and abundant 
 in goodness and truth." Glory then is 
 not something intangible, or ghostly, 
 or transcendental. If it were this 
 how could Paul ask men to reflect it ? 
 Stripped of its physical enswathement 
 it is Beauty, moral and spiritual Beauty, 
 Beauty infinitely real, infinitely exalted, 
 yet infinitely near and infinitely com- 
 municable. 
 
 With this explanation read over the 
 sentence once more in paraphrase : 
 We all reflecting as a mirror the char- 
 acter of Christ are transformed into the 
 same Image from character to charac- 
 ter — from a poor character to a better 
 one, from a belter one to one a little 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1/5 
 
 better still, from that to one still more 
 complete, until by slow degrees the 
 Perfect Image is attained. Here the 
 solution of the problem of sanctification 
 is compressed into a sentence : Reflect 
 the character of Christ, and you will 
 become like Christ. 
 
 All men are mirrors — that is the first 
 law on which this formula is based. 
 One of the aptest descriptions of a 
 human being is that he is a mirron 
 As we sat at table to-night the world 
 in which each of us lived and moved 
 throughout this day was focussed in 
 the room. What we saw as we looked 
 at one another was not one another, 
 but one another's world. We were 
 an arrangement of mirrors. The 
 
176 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 scenes we saw were all reproduced ; 
 the people we met walked to and fro ; 
 they spoke, they bowed, they passed 
 us by, did everything over again as if 
 it had been real. When we talked, 
 we were but looking at our own mir- 
 ror and describing what flitted across 
 it ; our listening was not hearing, but 
 seeing — we but looked on our neigh- 
 bor's mirror. All human intercourse 
 is a seeing of reflections. I meet a 
 stranger in a railway carnage. The 
 cadence of his first word tells me he 
 is English, and comes from Yorkshire. 
 Without knowing it he has reflected 
 his birthplace, his parents, and the 
 long history of their race. Even phys- 
 iologically he is a mirror. His second 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1 7/ 
 
 sentence records that he is a politician, 
 and a faint inflection in the way he 
 pronounces The Times reveals his 
 party. In his next remarks I see re- 
 flected a whole world of experiences. 
 The books he has read, the people 
 he has met, the influences that have 
 played upon him and made him the 
 man he is — these are all registered 
 there by a pen which lets nothing 
 pass, and whose writing can never be 
 blotted out. What I am reading in 
 him meantime he also is reading in 
 me ; and before the journey is over 
 we could half write each other's lives^ 
 Whether we like it or not, we live in 
 glass houses. The mind, the memory, 
 the soul, is simply a vast chamber 
 
lyS THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 panelled with looking-glass. And upon 
 this miraculous arrangement and en- 
 dowment depends the capacity of mor- 
 tal souls to " reflect the character of 
 the Lord." 
 
 But this is not all. If all these 
 varied reflections from our so-called 
 secret life are patent to the world, how 
 close the writing, how complete the 
 record, within the soul itself ! For the 
 influences we meet are not simply held 
 for a moment on the polished surface 
 and thrown off again into space. Each 
 is retained where first it fell, and stored 
 up in the soul forever. 
 
 This law of Assimilation is the sec- 
 ond, and by far the most impressive 
 truth which underlies the formula of 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. 1/9 
 
 sanctification — the truth that men are 
 not only mirrors, but that these mirrors, 
 so far from being mere reflectors of the 
 fleeting things they see, transfer into 
 their own inmost substance, and hold 
 in permanent preservation, the things 
 that they reflect. No one knows how 
 the soul can hold these things. No 
 one knows how the miracle is done. 
 No phenomenon in nature, no process 
 in chemistry, no chapter in necro- 
 mancy can ever help us to begin to 
 understand this amazing operation. 
 For, think of it, the past is not only 
 focussed there, in a man's soul, it is 
 there. How could it be reflected from 
 there if it were not there ? All things 
 that he has ever seen, known, felt, 
 
l80 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 believed of the surrounding world are 
 now within him, have become part of 
 him, in part are him — he has been 
 changed into their image. He may 
 deny it, he may resent it, but they are 
 there. They do not adhere to him, 
 they are transfused through him. He 
 cannot alter or rub them out. They 
 are not in his memory, they are in 
 him. His soul is as they have filled it, 
 made it, left it. These things, these 
 books, these events, these influences 
 are his makers. In their hands are 
 life and death, beauty and deformity. 
 When once the image or likeness of 
 any of these is fairly presented to the 
 soul, no power on earth can hinder 
 two things happening — it must be 
 
FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. l8l 
 
 absorbed into the soul, and forever 
 reflected back again from character. 
 
 Upon these astounding yet perfectly 
 obvious psychological facts, Paul bases 
 his doctrine of sanctification. He 
 sees that character is a thing built 
 up by slow degrees, that it is hourly 
 changing for better or for worse 
 according to the images which flit 
 across it. One step further and the 
 whole length and breadth of the appli- 
 cation of these ideas to the central 
 problem of religion will stand before 
 us. 
 
l82 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 THE ALCHEMY OF INFLU- 
 ENCE. 
 
 IF events change men, much more 
 ^ persons. No man can meet an- 
 other on the street without making 
 some mark upon him. We say we 
 exchange words when we meet; what 
 we exchange is souls. And when inter- 
 course is very close and very frequent, 
 so complete is this exchange that rec- 
 ognizable bits of the one soul begin 
 to show in the other's nature, and the 
 second is conscious of a similar and 
 growing debt to the first. 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 1 83 
 
 This mysterious approximating of 
 two souls who has not witnessed ? 
 Who has not watched some old couple 
 come down life's pilgrimage hand in 
 hand, with such gentle trust and joy in 
 one another that their very faces wore 
 the self -same look ? These were not 
 two souls ; it was a composite soul. 
 It did not matter to which of the 
 two you spoke you would have said 
 the same words to either. It was 
 quite indifferent which replied, each 
 would have said the same. Half a 
 century's rejlectmg had told upon 
 them ; they were changed into the 
 same image. It is the Law of In- 
 fluence that zve become like those whom 
 we habitually admWe : these had be- 
 
1 84 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 come like because they habitually 
 admired. Through all the range of 
 literature, of history, and biography 
 this law presides. Men are all mosaics 
 of other men. There was a savor of 
 David about Jonathan and a savor of 
 Jonathan about David. Jean Valjean, 
 in the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is 
 Bishop Bienvenu risen from the dead. 
 Metempsychosis is a fact. George 
 Eliot's message to the world was that 
 men and women make men and wo- 
 men. The Family, the cradle of 
 mankind, has no meaning apart from 
 this. Society itself is nothing but a 
 rallying point for these omnipotent 
 forces to do their work. On the doc- 
 trine of Influence, in short, the whole 
 vast pyramid of humanity is built. 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 185 
 
 But it was resented for Paul to make 
 the supreme application of the Law of 
 Influence. It was a tremendous infer- 
 ence to make, but he never hesitated. 
 He himself was a changed man ; he 
 knew exactly what had done it ; it was 
 Christ. On the Damascus road they 
 met, and from that hour his life was 
 absorbed in His. The effect could not 
 but follow — on words, on deeds, on 
 career, on creed. The "impressed 
 forces" did their vital work. He be- 
 came like Him Whom he habitually 
 loved. "So we all," he writes, "re- 
 flecting as a mirror the glory of Christ, 
 are changed into the same image." 
 
 Nothing could be more simple, more 
 intelligible, more natural, more super- 
 
1 86 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 natural. It is an analogy from an 
 every-day fact. Since we are what 
 we are by the impacts of those who 
 surround us, those who surround 
 themselves with the highest will be 
 those who change into the highest. 
 There are some men and some women 
 in whose company we are always at 
 our best. While with them we cannot 
 think mean thoughts or speak ungen- 
 erous words. Their mere presence 
 is elevation, purification, sanctity. All 
 the best stops in our nature are drawn 
 out by their intercourse, and we find a 
 music in our souls that was never there 
 before. Suppose even that influence pro- 
 longed through a month, a year, a life- 
 time, and what could not life become ? 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 1 8/ 
 
 Here, even on the common plane of 
 life, talking our language, walking 
 our streets, working side by side, are 
 sanctifiers of souls; here, breathing 
 through common clay, is Heaven ; 
 here, energies charged even through a 
 temporal medium with the virtue of 
 regeneration. H to live with men, 
 diluted to the millionth degree with 
 the virtue of the Highest, can exalt and 
 purify the nature, what bounds can 
 be set to the influence of Christ ? 
 To live with Socrates — with unveiled 
 face — must have made one wise ; with 
 Aristides, just. Francis of Assisi must 
 have made one gentle; Savonarola, 
 strong. But to have lived with Christ 
 must have made one like Christ; that 
 is to say, A Chnstian, 
 
1 88 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 As a matter of fact, to live with 
 Christ did produce this effect. It pro- 
 duced it in the case of Paul. And 
 during Christ's lifetime the experiment 
 was tried in an even more startling 
 form. A few raw, unspiritual, unin- 
 spiring men, were admitted to the inner 
 circle of His friendship. The change 
 began at once. Day by day we can 
 almost see the first disciple grow. 
 First there steals over them the faintest 
 possible adumbration of His character, 
 and occasionally, very occasionally, 
 they do a thing or say a thing that they 
 could not have done or said had they 
 not been living there. Slowly the 
 spell of His Life deepens. Reach 
 after reach of their nature is overtaken, 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 1 89 
 
 thawed, subjugated, sanctified. Their 
 manner softens, their words become 
 more gentle, their conduct more un- 
 selfish. As swallows who have found 
 a summer, as frozen buds the spring, 
 their starved humanity bursts into a 
 fuller life. ' They do not know how it 
 is, but they are different men. One 
 day they find themselves like their 
 Master, going about and doing good. 
 To themselves it is unaccountable, 
 but they cannot do otherwise. They 
 were not told to do it, it came to them 
 to do it. But the people who watch 
 them know well how to account for it 
 — "They have been," they whisper, 
 **with Jesus." Already even, the 
 mark and seal of His character is upon 
 
IQO THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 them — "They have been with Jesus.'* 
 Unparalleled phenomenon, that these 
 poor fishermen should remind other 
 men of Christ! Stupendous victory 
 and mystery of regeneration that mor- 
 tal men should suggest to the world, 
 God! 
 
 There is something almost melting 
 in the way His contemporaries, and 
 John especially, speak of the influence 
 of Christ. John lived himself in 
 daily wonder at Him ; he was over- 
 powered, over-awed, entranced, trans- 
 figured. To his mind it was impossi- 
 ble for any one to come under this 
 influence and ever be the same again. 
 "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth 
 not," he said. It was inconceivable 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. IQI 
 
 that he should sin, as inconceivable as 
 that ice should live in a burning sun, 
 or darkness coexist with noon. If any 
 one did sin, it was to John the sim- 
 ple proof that he could never have met 
 Christ. "Whosoever sinneth," he ex- 
 claims, ** hath not seen Hhn, neither 
 known Him,'' Sin was abashed in 
 this Presence. Its roots withered. 
 Its sway and victory w^ere forever at 
 an end. 
 
 But these were His contemporaries. 
 It was easy for them to be influenced 
 by Him, for they were every day and 
 all the day together. But how can 
 we mirror that which we have never 
 seen } How can all this stupendous 
 result be produced by a Memory, by 
 
192 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 the scantiest of all Biographies, by 
 One who lived and left this earth 
 eighteen hundred years ago ? How 
 can modern men to-day make Christ, 
 the absent Christ, their most constant 
 companion still ? The answer is that 
 Friendship is a spiritual thing. It is 
 independent of Matter, or Space, or 
 Time. That which I love in my 
 friend is not that which I see. What 
 influences me in my friend is not his 
 body but his spirit. It would have 
 been an ineffable experience truly to 
 have lived at that time — 
 
 "I think when I read the sweet story of old 
 How when Jesus was here among men, 
 He took little children like lambs to his fold, 
 I should like to have been with Him then. 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUEN'CE. I93 
 
 "I wish that His hand had been laid on my 
 head, 
 That His arms had been thrown around me, 
 And that I had seen His kind look when he said, 
 * Let the little ones come unto me/" 
 
 And yet, if Christ were to come into 
 the world again few of us probably 
 would ever have a chance of seeing 
 Him. Millions of her subjects, in this 
 little country, have never seen their 
 own Queen. And there would be 
 millions of the subjects of Christ who 
 could never get within speaking dis- 
 tance of Him if He were here. Our 
 companionship with Him, like all true 
 companionship, is a spiritual com- 
 munion. All friendship, all love, 
 human and Divine, is purely spiritual. 
 
194 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 It was after He was risen that He 
 influenced even the disciples most. 
 Hence in reflecting the character of 
 Christ, it is no real obstacle that we 
 may never have been in visible con- 
 tact with Himself. 
 
 There lived once a young girl whose 
 perfect grace of character was the 
 wonder of those who knew her. She 
 wore on her neck a gold locket which 
 no one was ever allowed to open. One 
 day, in a moment of unusual confi- 
 dence, one of her companions was 
 allowed to touch its spring and learn 
 its secret. She saw written these 
 words — " Whom having not seen, I 
 love.'' That was the secret of her 
 beautiful life. She had been changed 
 into the Same Image. 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. I95 
 
 Now this is not imitation, but a 
 much deeper thing. Mark this dis- 
 tinction. For the difference in the 
 process, as well as in the result, may 
 be as great as that between a photo- 
 graph secured by the infallible pencil 
 of the sun, and the rude outline from 
 a school-boy's chalk. Imitation is 
 mechanical, reflection organic. The 
 one is occasional, the other habitual. 
 In the one case, man comes to God 
 and imitates Him ; in the other, God 
 comes to man and imprints Himself 
 upon him. It is quite true that there 
 is an imitation of Christ which amounts 
 to reflection. But Paul's term includes 
 all that the other holds, and is open to 
 no mistake. 
 
196 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 ** Make Christ your most constant 
 companion " — this is what it practically 
 means for us. Be more under His in- 
 fluence than under any other influence. 
 Ten minutes spent in His society every 
 day, ay, two minutes if it be face to 
 face, and heart to heart, will make the 
 whole day different. Every character 
 has an inward spring, let Christ be it. 
 Every action has a key-note, let Christ 
 set it. Yesterday you got a certain 
 letter. You sat down and wrote a re- 
 ply which almost scorched the paper. 
 You picked the cruellest adjectives 
 you knew and sent it forth, without a 
 pang, to do its ruthless work. You 
 did that because your life was set in 
 the wrong key. You began the day 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. IQ/ 
 
 with the mirror placed at the wrong 
 angle. To-morrow, at day-break, turn 
 it towards Him, and even to your 
 enemy the fashion of your counte- 
 nance will be changed. Whatever 
 you then do, one thing you will find 
 you could not do — you could not write 
 that letter. Your first impulse may be 
 the same, your judgment may be un- 
 changed, but if you try it the ink will 
 dry on your pen, and you will rise 
 from your desk an unavenged, but 
 a greater and more Christian, man. 
 Throughout the whole day your ac- 
 tions, down to the last detail, will do 
 homage to that early vision. Yester- 
 day you thought mostly about your- 
 self. To-day the poor will meet you, 
 
198 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 and you will feed them. The help- 
 less, the tempted, the sad, will throng 
 about you, and each you will befriend. 
 Where were all these people yester- 
 day ? Where they are to-day, but you 
 did not see them. It is in reflected 
 light that the poor are seen. But your 
 soul to-day is not at the ordinary angle. 
 '* Things which are not seen " are 
 visible. For a few short hours you 
 live the Eternal Life. The eternal 
 life, the life of faith, is simply the life 
 of the higher vision. Faith is an atti- 
 tude — a mirror set at the right angle. 
 When to-morrow is over, and in the 
 evening you review it, you will won- 
 der how you did it. You will not be 
 conscious that you strove for anything, 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. IQQ 
 
 or imitated anything, or crucified any- 
 thing. You will be conscious of 
 Christ; that he was with you, that 
 without compulsion you were yet com- 
 pelled, that without force, or noise, or 
 proclamation, the revolution was ac- 
 complished. You do not congratulate 
 yourself as one who has done a mighty 
 deed, or achieved a personal success, 
 or stored up a fund of "Christian 
 experience " to ensure the same result 
 again. What you are conscious of is 
 **the glory of the Lord." And what 
 the world is conscious of, if the result 
 be a true one, is also " the glory of the 
 Lord." In looking at a mirror one 
 does not see the mirror, or think of it, 
 but only of what it reflects. For a 
 
200 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 mirror never calls attention to itself — 
 except when there are flaws in it. 
 
 That this is a real experience and 
 not a vision, that this life is possible to 
 men, is being lived by men to-day, 
 is simple biographical fact. From a 
 thousand witnesses I cannot forbear to 
 summon one. The following are the 
 words of one of the highest intellects 
 this age has known, a man who shared 
 the burdens of his country as few have 
 done, and who, not in the shadow^s of 
 old age, but in the high noon of his 
 success, gave this confession — I quote 
 it with only a few abridgments — to the 
 world : 
 
 '* I want to speak to-night only a 
 little, but that little I desire to speak of 
 
THE ALCHEMV OF INFLUENCE. 20I 
 
 the sacred name of Christ, who is my 
 life, my inspiration, my hope, and my 
 surety. I cannot help stopping and 
 looking back upon the past. And I 
 wish, as if I had never done it before, 
 to bear witness, not only that it is by 
 the grace of God, but that it is by the 
 grace of God, as manifested in Christ 
 Jesus, that I am what I am. I recog- 
 nize the sublimity and grandeur of the 
 revelation of God in His eternal father- 
 hood as one that made the heavens, 
 that founded the earth, and that regards 
 all the tribes of the earth, compre- 
 hending them in one universal mercy ; 
 but it is the God that is manifested 
 in Jesus Christ, revealed by His life, 
 made known by the inflections of His 
 
202 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 feelings, by His discourse, and by His 
 deeds — it is that God that I desire to 
 confess to-night, and of whom I desire 
 to say, 'By the love of God in Christ 
 Jesus I am what I am.' 
 
 " If you ask me precisely what I 
 mean by that, I say, frankly, that 
 more than any recognized influence of 
 my father or my mother upon me ; 
 more than the social influence of all 
 the members of my father's household, 
 more, so far as I can trace it, or so far 
 as I am made aware of it, than all the 
 social influences of every kind, Christ 
 has had the formation of my mind and 
 my disposition. My hidden ideals of 
 what is beautiful I have drawn from 
 Christ. My thoughts of what is 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 203 
 
 manly, and noble, and pure, have 
 almost all of them arisen from the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Many men have 
 educated themselves by reading Plu- 
 tarch's Lives of the Ancient Worthies, 
 and setting before themselves one and 
 another of these that in different ages 
 have achieved celebrity ; and they 
 have recognized the great power of 
 these men on themselves. Now I do 
 not perceive that poet, or philosopher, 
 or reformer, or general, or any other 
 great man, ever has dwelt in my imagi- 
 nation and in my thought as the simple 
 Jesus has. For more than twenty-five 
 years I instinctively have gone to Christ 
 to draw a measure and a rule for every- 
 thing. Whenever there has been a 
 
204 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 necessity for it, I have sought — and at 
 last almost spontaneously — to throw 
 myself into the companionship of 
 Christ; and early, by my imagination, 
 I could see Him standing and looking 
 quietly and lovingly upon me. There 
 seemed almost to drop from His face 
 an influence upon me that suggested 
 what was the right thing in the con- 
 trolling of passion, in the subduing of 
 pride, in the overcoming of selfishness ; 
 and it is from Christ, manifested to my 
 inward eye, that I have consciously 
 derived more ideals, more models, 
 more influences, than any other human 
 character whatever. 
 
 **That is not all. I feel conscious 
 that I have derived from the Lord 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 205 
 
 Jesus Christ every thought that 
 makes heaven a reality to me, and 
 every thought that paves the road that 
 lies between me and heaven. All my 
 conceptions of the progress of grace 
 in the soul ; all the steps by which 
 divine life is evolved ; all the ideals 
 that overhang the blessed sphere which 
 awaits us beyond this world — these 
 are derived from the Saviour. The life 
 that I now live in the flesh I live by 
 the faith of the Son of God. 
 
 ** That is not all. Much as my 
 future includes all these elements 
 which go to make the blessed fabric 
 of earthly life, yet, after all, what the 
 summer is compared with all its 
 earthly products — flowers, and leaves, 
 
206 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 and grass — that is Christ compared 
 with all the products of Christ in 
 my mind and in my soul. All 
 the flowers and leaves of sympa- 
 thy ; all the twining joys that come 
 from my heart as a Christian — 
 these I take and hold in the future, 
 but they are to me what the flowers 
 and leaves of summer are compared 
 with the sun that makes the summer. 
 Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the 
 beginning and the end of my better 
 life. 
 
 '' When T read the Bible, I gather a 
 great deal from the Old Testament, 
 and from the Pauline portions of the 
 New Testament; but after all, I am 
 conscious that the fruit of the Bible 
 
THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. 20/ 
 
 is Christ. That is what I read it for, 
 and that is what I find that is worth 
 reading. I have had a hunger to be 
 loved of Christ. You all know, in 
 some relations, what it is to be hungry 
 for love. Your heart seems unsatisfied 
 till you can draw something more 
 toward you from those that are dearest 
 to you. There have been times when 
 I have had an unspeakable heart- 
 hunger for Christ's love. My sense 
 of sin is never strong when I think of 
 the law ; my sense of sin is strong 
 when I think of love — if there is any 
 difference between law and love. It 
 is when drawing near the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and longing to be loved, that I 
 have the most vivid sense of unsym- 
 
208 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 metry, of imperfection, of absolute 
 unworthiness, and of my sinfulness. 
 Character and conduct are never so 
 vividly set before me as when in 
 silence I bend in the presence of 
 Christ, revealed not in wrath, but in 
 love to me. I never so much long to 
 be lovely, that I may be loved, as 
 when I have this revelation of Christ 
 before my mind. 
 
 " In looking back upon my experi- 
 ence, that part of my life which stands 
 out, and which I remember most 
 vividly, is just that part that has had 
 some conscious association with Christ. 
 All the rest is pale, and thin, and lies 
 like clouds on the horizon. Doctrines, 
 systems, measures, methods — what 
 
THl<: ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCK. 209 
 
 may bo called the necessary mechani- 
 cal and external part of worship ; the 
 part which the senses would recog- 
 nize — this seems to have withered and 
 fallen off like leaves of last summer; 
 but that part which has taken hold of 
 Christ abides." 
 
 Can any one hear this life-music, 
 with its throbbing refrain of Christ, 
 and remain unmoved by envy or 
 desire? Yet, till we have lived like 
 this we have never lived at all. 
 
2IO THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 
 
 nPHEN you reduce religion to a 
 common Friendship ? A com- 
 mon Friendship — who talks of a com- 
 mon Friendship ? There is no such 
 thing in the world. On earth no word 
 is more sublime. Friendship is the 
 nearest thing we know to what religion 
 is. God is love. And to make reli- 
 gion akin to Friendship is simply to 
 give it the highest expression con- 
 ceivable by man. But if by demur- 
 ring to " a common friendship *' is 
 meant a protest against the greatest 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 211 
 
 and the holiest in religion being spoken 
 of in intelligible terms, then I am 
 afraid the objection is all too real. 
 Men always look for a mystery when 
 one talks of sanctification ; some mys- 
 tery apart from that which must ever 
 be mysterious wherever Spirit works. 
 It is thought some peculiar secret 
 lies behind it, some occult experience 
 which only the initiated know. Thou- 
 sands of persons go to church every 
 Sunday hoping to solve this mystery. 
 At meetings, at conferences, many a 
 time they have reached what they 
 thought w^as the very brink of it, but 
 somehow no further revelation came. 
 Poring over religious books, how often 
 were they not within a paragraph of 
 
212 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 it; the next page, the next sentence, 
 would discover all, and they would be 
 borne on a flowing tide forever. But 
 nothing happened. The next sentence 
 and the next page were read, and 
 still it eluded them ; and though the 
 promise of its coming kept faithfully 
 up to the end, the last chapter found 
 them still pursuing. Why did nothing 
 happen ? Because there was nothing 
 to happen — nothing of the kind they 
 were looking for. Why did it elude 
 them .'^ Because there was no ^*it.'* 
 When shall we learn that the pursuit 
 of holiness is simply the pursuit of 
 Christ ? When shall we substitute for 
 the *' it " of a fictitious aspiration, the 
 approach to a Living Friend ? Sane- 
 
THK FIRST EXPERIMENT. 213 
 
 tity is in character and not in moods ; 
 Divinity in our own plain calm human- 
 ity, and in no mystic rapture of the 
 soul. 
 
 And yet there are others who, for 
 exactly a contrary reason, will find 
 scant satisfaction here. Their com- 
 plaint is not that a religion expressed 
 in terms of Friendship is too homely, 
 but that it is still too mystical. To 
 "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ 
 our most constant companion," is to 
 them the purest mysticism. They 
 want something absolutely tangible 
 and absolutely direct. * These are not 
 the poetical souls w^ho seek a sign, a 
 mysticism in excess ; but the prosaic 
 natures whose want is mathematical 
 
214 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 definition in details. Yet it is perhaps 
 not possible to reduce this problem 
 to much more rigid elements. The 
 beauty of Friendship is its infinity. 
 One can never evacuate life of mysti- 
 cism. Home is full of it, love is full 
 of it, religion is full of it. Why 
 stumble at that in the relation of man 
 to Christ which is natural in the rela- 
 tion of man to man ? 
 
 If any one cannot conceive or real- 
 ize a mystical relation with Christ, per- 
 haps all that can be done is to help 
 him to step on to it by still plainer 
 analogies from tommon life. How do 
 I know Shakespeare or Dante.? By 
 communing with their words and 
 thoughts. Many men know Dante 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 21$ 
 
 better than their own fathers. He 
 influences them more. As a spiritual 
 presence he is more near to them, as 
 a spiritual force more real. Is there 
 any reason why a greater than Shake- 
 speare or Dante, who also walked this 
 earth, who left great words behind 
 Him, who has greater works every- 
 where in the world now, should not 
 also instruct, inspire, and mould the 
 characters of men ? I do not limit 
 Christ's influence to this. It is this, 
 and it is more. But Christ, so far 
 from resenting or discouraging this 
 relation of Friendship, Himself pro- 
 posed it. " Abide in me " was almost 
 His last w^ord to the world. And He 
 partly met the difficulty of those who 
 
2l6 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 feel its intangibleness by adding the 
 practical clause, " If ye abide in Me 
 and My words abide in you ^ 
 
 Begin with His words. Words can 
 scarcely ever be long impersonal. 
 Christ Himself was a Word, a word 
 made Flesh. Make His words flesh ; 
 do them, live them, and you must live 
 Christ. ''He that keepeth My com- 
 mandments, he it is that loveth Me.'* 
 Obey Him and you must love Him. 
 Abide in Him and you must obey Him. 
 Cultivate His Friendship. Live after 
 Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Pres- 
 ence, and it is difficult to think what 
 more you can do. Take this at least 
 as a first lesson, as introduction. If 
 you cannot at once and always feel 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 21/ 
 
 the play of His life upon yours, watch 
 for it also indirectly. "The whole 
 earth is full of the character of the 
 Lord." Christ is the Light of the 
 world, and much of His Light is 
 reflected from things in the world — 
 even from clouds. Sunlight is stored 
 in every leaf, from leaf through coal, 
 and it comforts us thence when days 
 are dark and we cannot see the sun. 
 Christ shines through men, through 
 books, through history, through nature, 
 music, art. Look for Him there. 
 " Every day one should either look at 
 a beautiful picture, or hear beautiful 
 music, or read a beautiful poem." 
 The real danger of mysticism is not 
 making it broad enough. 
 
2lS THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 Do not think that nothing is happen- 
 ing because you do not see yourself 
 grow, or hear the whir of the ma- 
 chinery. All great things grow noise- ^ 
 
 I 
 lessly. You can see a mushroom 
 
 grow, but never a child. Mr. Darwin 
 tells us that Evolution proceeds by 
 "numerous, successive, and slight 
 modifications." Paul knew that, and 
 put it, only in more beautiful words, 
 into the heart of his formula. He 
 said for the comforting of all slowly 
 perfecting souls that they grew '*from 
 character to character." "The in- 
 ward man," he says elsewhere, "is 
 renewed from day to day." All 
 thorough work is slow; all true devel- 
 opment by minute, slight, and insen- 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 219 
 
 sible metamorphoses. The higher the 
 structure, moreover, the slower the 
 progress. As the biologist runs his 
 eye over the long Ascent of Life he 
 sees the lowest forms of animals de- 
 velop in an hour ; the next above these 
 reach maturity in a day ; those higher 
 still take weeks or months to perfect; 
 but the few at the top demand the long 
 experiment of years. If a child and 
 an ape are born on the same day, the 
 last will be m full possession of its fac- 
 ulties and doing the active work of 
 life before the child has left its cradle. 
 Life is the cradle of eternity. As the 
 man is to the animal in the slowness of 
 his evolution, so is the spiritual man to 
 the natural man. Foundations which 
 
220 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 have to bear the weight of an eternal 
 life must be surely laid. Character is 
 to wear forever; who will wonder or 
 grudge that it cannot be developed in 
 a day ? 
 
 To await the growing of a soul, 
 nevertheless, is an almost Divine act 
 of faith. How pardonable, surely, the 
 impatience of deformity with itself, 
 of a consciously despicable character 
 standing before Christ, wondering, 
 yearning, hungering to be like that! 
 Yet must one trust the process fear- 
 lessly, and without misgiving. "The 
 Lord the Spirit " will do His part. 
 The tempting expedient is, in haste 
 for abrupt or visible progress, to try 
 some method less spiritual, or to defeat 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 221 
 
 the end by watching for effects instead 
 of keeping the eye on the Cause. A 
 photograph prints from the negative 
 only while exposed to the sun. While 
 the artist is looking to see how it is 
 getting on he simply stops the getting 
 on. Whatever of wise supervision the 
 soul may need, it is certain it can 
 never be over-exposed, or that, being 
 exposed, anything else in the world 
 can improve the result or quicken it. 
 The creation of a new heart, the 
 renewing of a right spirit, is an om- 
 nipotent work of God. Leave it to the 
 Creator. " He which hath begun a 
 good work in you will perfect it unto 
 that day." 
 
 No man, nevertheless, who feels the 
 
222 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 worth and solemnity of what is at 
 stake will be careless as to his prog- 
 ress. To become like Christ is the 
 only thing in the world worth caring 
 for, the thing before which every am- 
 bition of man is folly, and all lower 
 achievement vain. Those only who 
 make this quest the supreme desire and 
 passion of their lives can ever begin to 
 hope to reach it. If, therefore, it has 
 seemed up to this point as if all de- 
 pended on passivity, let me now assert, 
 with conviction more intense, that all 
 depends on activity. A religion of 
 effortless adoration may be a religion 
 for an angel, but never for a man. 
 Not in the contemplative, but in the 
 active, lies true hope ; not in rapture, 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 223 
 
 but in reality, lies true life ; not in the 
 realm of ideals, but among tangible 
 things, is man's sanctification wrought. 
 Resolution, effort, pain, self-crucifixion, 
 agony — all the things already dis- 
 missed as futile in themselves must 
 now be restored to office, and a tenfold 
 responsibility laid upon them. For 
 what is their office ? Nothing less than 
 to move the vast inertia of the soul^ 
 and place it, and keep it where the 
 spiritual forces will act upon it. It is 
 to rally the forces of the will, and 
 keep the surface of the mirror bright 
 and ever in position. It is to uncover 
 the face which is to look at Christ, and 
 draw down the veil when unhallowed 
 sights are near. You have, perhaps. 
 
224 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 gone with an astronomer to watch him 
 photograph the spectrum of a star. 
 As you entered the dark vault of the 
 observatory you saw him begin by 
 lighting a candle. To see the star 
 with ? No ; but to see to adjust the 
 instrument to see the star with. It was 
 the star that was going to take the pho- 
 tograph ; it was, also, the astronomer. 
 For a long time he w^orked in the 
 dimness, screwing tubes and polishing 
 lenses and adjusting reflectors, and 
 only after much labor the finely 
 focussed instrument was brought to 
 bear. Then he blew out the light, 
 and left the star to do its work upon 
 the plate alone. The day's task for 
 the Christian is to brino^ his instrument 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 22$ 
 
 to bear. Having done that he may 
 blow out his candle. All the evidences 
 of Christianity which have brought 
 him there, all aids to Faith, all acts 
 of worship, all the leverages of the 
 Church, all Prayer and Meditation, all 
 girding of the Will — these lesser proc- 
 esses, these candle-light activities for 
 that supreme hour, may be set aside. 
 But, remember, it is but for an hour. 
 The wise man will be he who quickest 
 lights his candle ; the wisest he who 
 never lets it out. To-morrow, the 
 next moment, he, a poor, darkened, 
 blurred soul, may need it again to 
 focus the Image better, to take a 
 mote off the lens, to clear the mirror 
 from a breath with which the world 
 has dulled it. 
 
226 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 No readjustment is ever required on 
 behalf of the Star. That is one great 
 fixed point in this shifting universe. 
 But the world moves. And each day, 
 each hour, demands a further motion 
 and readjustment for the soul. A tel- 
 escope in an observatory follows a 
 star by clockwork, but the clockwork 
 of the soul is called the WilL Hence, 
 while the soul in passivity reflects the 
 Image of the Lord, the Will in intense 
 activity holds the mirror in position 
 lest the drifting motion of the world 
 bear it beyond the line of vision. To 
 ''follow Christ" is largely to keep the 
 soul in such position as will allow for 
 the motion of the earth. And this 
 calculated counteracting of the move- 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 22/ 
 
 ments of the world, this holding of the 
 mirror exactly opposite to the Mirrored, 
 this steadying of the faculties unerr- 
 ingly through cloud and earthquake, 
 fire and sword, is the stupendous co- 
 operating labor of the Will. It is all 
 man's work. It is all Christ's work. 
 In practice it is both ; in theory it is 
 both. But the wise man will say in 
 practice, " It depends upon myself." 
 
 In the Galerie des Beaux Arts in 
 Paris there stands a famous statue. It 
 was the last work of a great genius, 
 who, like many a genius, was very 
 poor and lived in a garret, which 
 served as a studio and sleeping-room 
 alike. When the statue was all but 
 finished, one midnight a sudden frost 
 
228 THE CHANGED LIFE. 
 
 fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay- 
 awake in the fireless room and thought 
 of the still moist clay, thought how the 
 water would freeze in the pores and 
 destroy in an hour the dream of his 
 life. So the old man rose from his 
 couch and heaped the bed-clothes 
 reverently round his work. In the 
 morning when the neighbors entered 
 the room the sculptor was dead. But 
 the statue lived. 
 
 The Image of Christ that is forming 
 within us — that is life's one charge. 
 Let every project stand aside for that. 
 "'Till Christ be formed," no man's 
 work is finished, no religion crowned, 
 no life has fulfilled its end. Is the in- 
 finite task begun ? When, how, are 
 
THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. 229 
 
 "we to be different ? Time cannot 
 change men. Death cannot change 
 men. Christ can. Wherefore put on 
 Christ. 
 
"FIRST!" 
 A TALK WITH BOYS. 
 
c. FIRSTI'^ 
 
 T HAVE three heads to give you. 
 The first is " Geography," the sec- 
 ond is ** Arithmetic," and the third is 
 '* Grammar." 
 
 Geography. 
 
 First. Geography tells us where to 
 find places. Where is the kingdom 
 of God ? It is said that when a Prus> 
 sian officer was killed in the Franco- 
 Prussian war, a map of France was 
 very often found in his pocket. When 
 
 233 
 
234 "first ! 
 
 we wish to occupy a country, we ought 
 to know its geography. Now, where 
 is the kingdom of God ? A boy over 
 there says, ** It is in heaven." No, it 
 is not in heaven. Another bqy says, 
 "It is in the Bible." No; it is not in 
 the Bible. Another boy says, "It 
 must be in the Church." No; it is 
 not in the Church. Heaven is only 
 the capital of the kingdom of God ; the 
 Bible is the Guide-book to it ; the 
 Church is the weekly Parade of those 
 who belong to it. If you would turn 
 to the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke 
 you will find out where the kingdom of 
 God really is. " The kingdom of God 
 is within you " — within j^^//. The king- 
 dom of God is inside people. 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 235 
 
 I remember once taking a walk by 
 the river near where the Falls of 
 Niagara are, and I noticed a remark- 
 able figure walking along the river 
 bank. I • had been some time in 
 America. I had seen black men, and 
 red men, and yellow men, and white 
 men; black men, the Negroes; red 
 men, the Indians;, yellow men, the 
 Chinese; white men, the Americans. 
 But this man looked different in his 
 dress from anything I had ever seen. 
 When he came a little closer, I saw 
 he was wearing a kilt ; when he came 
 a little nearer still, I saw that he was 
 dressed exactly like a Highland sol- 
 dier. When he came quite near, I 
 said to him, "What are you doing 
 
236 " FIRST r' 
 
 here ? " " Why should I not be here ? " 
 he said. '* Don't you know this is 
 British soil ? When you cross the 
 river you come into Canada." This 
 soldier was thousands of , miles from 
 England, and yet he was in the king- 
 dom of England. Wherever there is 
 an English heart beating loyal to the 
 Queen of Britain, there is England. 
 Wherever there is a boy whose heart 
 is loyal to the King of the kingdom of 
 God, the kingdom of God is within 
 him. 
 
 What is the kingdom of God ? 
 Every kingdom has its exports, its 
 products. Go down to the river here, 
 and you will find ships coming in with 
 cotton; you know they come from 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 2n 
 
 America. You will find ships with 
 tea; you know they are from China. 
 Ships with wool ; you know they come 
 from Australia. Ships with sugar; 
 you know they come from Java. 
 What comes from the kingdom of God } 
 Again we must refer to our Guide- 
 book. Turn to Romans, and we shall 
 find what the kingdom of God is. I 
 will read it : " The kingdom of God is 
 righteousness, peace, joy " — three 
 things. '' The kingdom of God is 
 righteousness, peace, joy." Right- 
 eousness, of course, is just doing what 
 is right. Any boy who does what is 
 right has the kingdom of God within 
 him. Any boy who, instead of being 
 quarrelsome, lives at peace with other 
 
238 *' FIRST ! " 
 
 boys, has the kingdom of God within 
 him. Any boy whose heart is filled 
 with joy because he does what is right, 
 has the kingdom of God within him. 
 The kingdom of God is not going to 
 religious meetings, and hearing strange 
 religious experiences: the kingdom of 
 God is doing what is right — living at 
 peace with all men, being filled with 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Boys, if you are going to be Chris- 
 tians, be Christians as boys, and not 
 as your grandmothers. A grand- 
 mother has to be a Christian as a 
 grandmother, and that is the right and 
 the beautiful thing for her ; but if you 
 cannot read your Bible by the hour 
 as your grandmother can, or delight 
 

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GEOGRAPHY. 239 
 
 in meetings as she can, don't think 
 you are necessarily a bad boy. When 
 you are your grandmother's age you 
 will have your grandmother's kind of 
 religion. Meantime, be a Christian 
 as a boy. Live a boy's life. Do the 
 straight thing ; seek the kingdom of 
 righteousness and honor and truth. 
 Keep the peace with the boys about 
 you, and be filled with the joy of being 
 a loyal, and simple, and natural, and 
 boy-like servant of Christ. 
 
 You can very easily tell l house, or 
 workshop, or an office where the king- 
 dom of God is 7iot, The first thing 
 you see in that place is that the 
 *' straight thing " is not always done. 
 Customers do not get fair play. You 
 
240 '' FIRST ! " 
 
 are in danger of learning to cheat and 
 to lie. Better, a thousand times, to 
 starve than to stay in a place where 
 you cannot do what is right. 
 
 Or, when you go into your workshop, 
 you find everybody sulky, touchy, and 
 ill-tempered ; everybody at dagger's 
 drawn with everybody else ; some of 
 the men not on speaking terms with 
 some of the others, and the whole fee/ 
 of the place miserable and unhappy. 
 The kingdom of God is not there, for 
 it is peace. It is the kingdom of the 
 Devil that is anger and wrath and 
 malice. 
 
 If you want to get the kingdom of 
 God into your workshop, or into your 
 home, let the quarrelling be stopped. 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 24 1 
 
 Live in peace and harmony and broth- 
 erliness with every one. For the 
 kingdom of God is the kingdom of 
 brothers. It is a great society, founded 
 by Jesus Christ, of all the people who 
 try to be like Him, and live to make 
 the world better and sweeter and hap- 
 pier. Wherever a boy is trying to 
 do that, in the house or in the street, 
 in the workshop or on the baseball 
 field, there is the kingdom of God. 
 And every boy, however small or ob- 
 scure or poor, who is seeking that, is a 
 member of it. You see now, I hope, 
 what the kingdom is. 
 
 Arithmetic. 
 I pass, therefore, to the second 
 head : What was it ? ** Arithmetic." 
 
242 " FIRST ! " 
 
 Are there any arithmetic words in this 
 text? "Added," says one boy. Quite 
 right, added. What other arithmetic 
 word ? " First." Yes, first — " first," 
 '* added." Now, don't you think you 
 could not have anything better to seek 
 " first " than the things I have named — 
 to do what is right, to live at peace, 
 and be always making those about 
 you happy } You see at once why 
 Christ tells us to seek these things 
 first — because they are the best worth 
 seeking. Do you know anything 
 better than these three things, any- 
 thing happier, purer, nobler } If you 
 do, seek them first. But if you do 
 not, seek first the kingdom of God. 
 I am not here this afternoon to tell 
 
ARITHMETIC. 243 
 
 you to be religious. You know 
 that. I am not here to tell you 
 to seek the kingdom of God. I have 
 come to tell you to seek the kingdom 
 of God first. First. Not many peo- 
 ple do that. They put a little religion 
 into their life — once a week, perhaps. 
 They might just as well let it alone. 
 It is not worth seeking the kingdom of 
 God unless we seek it first. Suppose 
 you take the helm out of a ship and 
 hang it over the bow, and send that 
 ship to sea, will it ever reach the other 
 side } Certainly not. It will drift 
 about anyhow. Keep religion in its 
 place, and it will take you straight 
 through life, and straight to your 
 Father in heaven when life is over. 
 
244 '* first!" 
 
 But if you do not put it in its place, 
 you may just as well have nothing to 
 do with it. Religion out of its place 
 in a human life is the most miserable 
 thing in the world. There is nothing 
 that requires so much to be kept in its 
 place as religion, and its place is what ? 
 second.^ third .^ '* First." Boys, carry 
 that home with you to-day — first the 
 kingdom of God. Make it so that it 
 will be natural to you to think about 
 that the very first thing. 
 
 There was a boy in Glasgow ap- 
 prenticed to a gentleman who made 
 telegraphs. The gentleman told me 
 this himself. One day this boy was 
 up on the top of a four-story house 
 with a number of men fixing up a 
 
ARITHMETIC. 245 
 
 telegraph wire. The work was all 
 but done. It was getting late, and the 
 men said they were going away home, 
 and the boy was to nip off the ends of 
 the wire himself. Before going down 
 they told him to be sure to go back to 
 the workshop, when he was finished, 
 with his master's tools. '' Do not 
 leave any of them lying about, what- 
 ever you do," said the foreman. The 
 boy climbed up the pole and began to 
 nip off the ends of the wire. It was a 
 very cold winter night, and the dusk 
 was gathering. He lost his hold and 
 fell upon the slates, slid down, and then 
 over and over to the ground below. 
 A clothes-rope, stretched across the 
 ** green " on to which he was just about 
 
246 " FIRST ! " 
 
 to fall, caught him on the chest and 
 broke his fall ; but the shock was ter- 
 rible, and he lay unconscious among 
 some clothes upon the green. An old 
 woman came out; seeing her rope 
 broken and the clothes all soiled, 
 thought the boy was drunk, shook him, 
 scolded him, and went for the police- 
 man. And the boy with the shaking 
 came back to consciousness, rubbed 
 his eyes, and got upon his feet. What 
 do you think he did.** He staggered, 
 half blind, away up the stairs. He 
 climbed the ladder. He got on to the 
 roof of the house. He -gathered up 
 his tools, put them into his basket, 
 took them down, and when he got to 
 the ground again, fainted dead away. 
 
ARITHMETIC. 24/ 
 
 Just then the policeman came, saw 
 there was something seriously wrong, 
 and carried him away to the hospital, 
 where he lay for some time. I am glad 
 to say he got better. What was his 
 first thought at that terrible moment.^ 
 His duty. He was not thinking of 
 himself; he was thinking about his 
 master. First, the kingdom of God. 
 But there is another arithmetic word. 
 What is it.? ''Added." There is not 
 one boy here who does not know the 
 difference between addition and sub- 
 traction. Now, that is a very impor- 
 tant difference in religion, because — 
 and it is a very strange thing — very 
 few people know the difference when 
 they begin to talk about religion. 
 
248 " FIRST ! " 
 
 They often tell boys that if they seek 
 the kingdom of God, everything else 
 is going to be subtracted from them. 
 They tell them that they are going 
 to become gloomy, miserable, and will 
 lose everything that makes a boy's 
 life worth living — that they will have 
 to stop baseball and story-books, and 
 become little old men, and spend all 
 their time in going to meetings and in 
 singing hymns. Now, that is not true, 
 Christ never said anything like that. 
 Christ says we are to " seek first the 
 kingdom of God," and everything else 
 worth having is to be added imto 
 us. If there is anything I would like 
 you to take away with you this after- 
 noon, it is these two arithmetic words — 
 
ARITHMETIC. 249 
 
 "first" and "added." I do not mean 
 by added that if you become religious 
 you are all going to become rich. 
 Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out 
 the shop to-morrow morning, finds 
 sixpence lying among the orange- 
 boxes. Well, nobody has missed it. 
 He puts it in his pocket, and it begins 
 to burn a hole there. By breakfast- 
 time he wishes that sixpence were in 
 his master's pocket And by and by 
 he goes to his master. He says (to 
 himself, and not to his master,) " I 
 was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, 
 and I was to seekyfr^-/ that which was 
 right." Then he says to his master, 
 " Please, sir, here is sixpence that I 
 found upon the floor." The master 
 
250 " FIRST ! 
 
 puts it in the "till." What has the 
 boy got in his pocket? Nothing; but 
 he has got the kingdom of God in his 
 heart. He has laid up treasure in 
 heaven, which is of infinitely more 
 worth than sixpence. Now, that boy 
 does not find a shilling on his way 
 home. I have known that happen, 
 but that is not what is meant by '* add- 
 ing." It does not mean that God is 
 going to pay him in his own coin, for 
 He pays in better coin. 
 
 Yet I remember once hearing of a 
 boy who was paid in both ways. He 
 was very, very poor. He lived in a 
 foreign country, and his mother said to 
 him one day that he must go into the 
 great city and start in business, and she 
 
ARITHMETIC. 2$! 
 
 took his coat and cut it open and 
 sewed between the lining and the coat 
 forty golden dinars, which she had 
 saved up for many years to start him 
 in life. She told him to take care of 
 robbers as he went across the desert; 
 and as he was going out of the door 
 she said : " My boy, I have only two 
 words for you — * Fear God, and never 
 tell a lie.' " The boy started off, and 
 toward evening he saw glittering in 
 the distance the minarets of the great 
 city, but between the city and himself 
 he saw a cloud of dust, it came nearer ; 
 presently he saw that it was a band of 
 robbers. One of the robbers left the 
 rest and rode toward him, and said: 
 " Boy, what have you got ? *' And the 
 
252 ''first!" 
 
 boy looked him in the face and said : 
 " I have forty golden dinars sewed up 
 in my coat." And the robber laughed 
 and wheeled round his horse and rode 
 away back. He would not believe the 
 boy. Presently another robber came, 
 and he said : " Boy, what have you 
 got ?'' '' Forty golden dinars sewed up 
 in my coat." The robber said: *' The 
 boy is a fool," and wheeled his horse 
 and rode away back. By and by the 
 robber captain came, and he said : 
 ** Boy, what have you got.*^" *' I have 
 forty golden dinars sewed up in my 
 coat." And the robber dismounted 
 and put his hand over the boy's breast, 
 felt something round, counted one, 
 two, three, four, five, till he counted 
 
ARITHMETIC. 253 
 
 out the forty golden coin. He looked 
 the boy in the face, and said : " Why 
 did you tell me that ? " The boy said : 
 *' Because of God and my mother." 
 And the robber leaned on his spear 
 and thought, and said : " Wait a 
 moment." He mounted his horse, 
 rode back to the rest of the robbers, 
 and came back in about five minutes 
 with his dress changed. This time 
 he looked not like a robber, but like a 
 merchant. He took the boy up on his 
 horse and said : ** My boy, I have 
 long wanted to do something for my 
 God and for my mother, and I have 
 this moment renounced my robber's 
 life. I am also a merchant. I have 
 a large business house in the city. 
 
254 "first!" 
 
 I want you to come and live with 
 me, to teach me about your God ; and 
 you will be rich, and your mother 
 some day will come and live with us.'' 
 And it all happened. By seeking first 
 the kingdom of God, all these things 
 were added unto him. 
 
 Boys, banish for ever from your 
 minds the idea that religion is siibtrac- 
 tio7i. It does not tell us to give things 
 up, but rather gives us something so 
 much better that they give themselves 
 up. When you see a boy on the 
 street whipping a top, you know, per- 
 haps, that you could not make that 
 boy happier than by giving him a top, 
 a whip, and half an hour to whip it. 
 But next birthday, when he looks back, 
 
ARITHMETIC. 255 
 
 he says, "What a goose I was last 
 year to be delighted with a top ; what 
 I want now is a baseball bat." Then 
 when he becomes an old man he does 
 not care in the least for a baseball bat ; 
 he wants rest, and a snug fireside, and 
 a newspaper every day. He wonders 
 how he could ever have taken up his 
 thoughts with baseball bats and whip- 
 ping tops. Now, when a boy becomes 
 a Christian, he grows out of the evil 
 things one by one — that is to say, if 
 they are really evil — which he used to 
 set his heart upon (of course I do not 
 mean baseball bats, for they are not 
 evils); and so instead of telling people 
 to give up things, we are safer to tell 
 them to ''seek first the kingdom of 
 
256 " FIRST ! " 
 
 God," and then they will get new. 
 things and better things, and the old 
 things will drop off of themselves. 
 This is what is meant by the "new 
 heart." It means that God puts into 
 us new thoughts and new wishes, and 
 we become quite different boys. 
 
 Grammar. 
 
 Lastly, and very shortly. What 
 was the third head.'* "Grammar." 
 Right : Grammar. Now, I require a 
 clever boy to answer the next question. 
 What is the verb.? "Seek." Very 
 g^ood: "Seek." What mood is it in.? 
 "Imperative mood." What does that 
 mean.? "Command." You boys of 
 the Boys' Brigade know what com- 
 
GRAMMAR. 2$/ 
 
 mands are. What is the soldier's first 
 lesson ? '' Obedience.'* Have you 
 obeyed this command ? Remember 
 the imperative mood of these words, 
 " See^ first the kingdom of God." 
 This is the command of your King. 
 It must be done. I have been trying 
 to show you what a splendid thing it 
 is ; what a reasonable thing it is ; what 
 a happy thing it is; but beyond 
 all these reasons it is a thing that 
 m?ist be done, because we are com- 
 manded to do it by our Captain. It is 
 one of the finest things about the Boys* 
 Brigade that it always appeals to 
 Christ as its highest officer, and takes 
 its commands from Him. Now, there 
 is His command to seek first the king- 
 
258 "first : 
 
 dom of God. Have you done it ? 
 "Well," I know some boys will say, 
 " we are going to have a good time, 
 enjoy life, and then we are going to 
 seek — last — the kingdom of God." 
 Now that is mean ; it is nothing else 
 than mean for a boy to take all the 
 good gifts that God has given him, 
 and then give Him nothing back in 
 return but his wasted life. 
 
 God wants boys' lives^ not only their 
 souls. It is for active service soldiers 
 are drilled and trained and fed and 
 armed. That is why you and I are 
 in the world at all — not to prepare to 
 go out of it some day ; but to serve 
 God actively in it 7tow, It is mon* 
 strous and shameful and cowardly to 
 
GRAMMAR. 259 
 
 talk of seeking the kingdom last. It 
 is shirking duty, abandoning one's 
 rightful post, playing into the enemy's 
 hand by doing nothing to turn his 
 flank. Every hour a kingdom is com- 
 ing in your heart, in your home, in the 
 world near you, be it a kingdom of 
 darkness or a kingdom of light. You 
 are placed where you are, in a partic- 
 ular business, in a particular street, to 
 help on there the kingdom of God. 
 You cannot do that when you are old 
 and ready to die. By that time your 
 companions will have fought their 
 fight, and lost or won. If they lose, 
 will you not be sorry that you did not 
 help them t Will you not regret that 
 only at the last you helped the king- 
 
260 " FIRST ! " 
 
 dom of God ? Perhaps you will not 
 be able to do it then. And then your 
 life has been lost indeed. 
 
 Very few people have the opportu- 
 nity to seek the kingdom of God at 
 the end. Christ, knowing all that, 
 knowing that religion was a thing for 
 our life, not merely for our death-bed, 
 has laid this command upon us now: 
 "S&ek Jirst the kingdom of God." I 
 am going to leave you with this text 
 itself. Every Brigade boy in the 
 world should obey it. 
 
 Boys, before you go to work to- 
 morrow, before you go to sleep to-night, 
 before you go to the Sunday-school 
 this afternoon, before you go out of the 
 door of the City Hall, resolve that, 
 
GRAMMAR. 261 
 
 God helping you, you are going to 
 seek first the kingdom of God. Per- 
 haps some boys here are deserters; 
 they began once before to serve Christ, 
 and they deserted. Come back again, 
 come back again to-day. Others have 
 never enlisted at all. Will you not do 
 it now t You are old enough to de- 
 cide. And the grandest moment of a 
 boy's life is that moment when he 
 decides to 
 
 Seefe first tl)e feinsliom of ffioli^ 
 
HOW TO LEARN HOW. 
 
 I. DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 11. PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 'T'HERE is a subject which I think 
 ^ we as workers amongst young 
 men cannot afford to keep out of 
 sight — I mean the subject of " Doubt." 
 We are forced to face that subject. 
 We have no choice. I would rather 
 let it alone; but every day of my life 
 I meet men who doubt, and I am 
 quite sure that most of you have 
 innumerable interviews every year with 
 men who raise skeptical difficulties 
 about religion. Now, it becomes a 
 matter of great practical importance 
 
 265 
 
266 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 that we should know how to deal 
 wisely with these men. Upon the 
 whole, I think these are the best men 
 in the country. I speak of my own 
 country. I speak of the universities 
 with which I am familiar, and I say 
 that the men who are perplexed — the 
 men who come to you with serious 
 and honest difficulties — are the best 
 men. They are men of intellectual 
 honesty, and cannot allow themselves 
 to be put to rest by words, or phrases, 
 or traditions, or theologies, but who 
 must get to the bottom of things for 
 themselves. And if I am not mis- 
 taken, Christ was very fond of these 
 men. The outsiders always interested 
 Him, and touched Him. The ortho- 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 26/ 
 
 dox people — the Pharisees — He was 
 much less interested in. He went with 
 publicans and sinners — with people 
 who were in revolt against the respect- 
 ability, intellectual and religious, of 
 the day. And following Him, we are 
 entitled to give sympathetic considera- 
 tion to those whom He loved and took 
 trouble with. 
 
 First, let me speak for a moment or 
 two about the origin of doubt. In the 
 first place, we are born questioners. 
 Look at the wonderment of a little 
 child in its eyes before it can speak. 
 The child's great word when it begins 
 to speak is, " Why } '' Every child is 
 full of every kind of questions, about 
 every kind of thing that moves, and 
 
268 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 shines, and changes, in the little world 
 in which it lives. That is the in- 
 cipient doubt in the nature of man. 
 Respect doubt for its origin. It is an 
 inevitable thing. It is not a thing to 
 be crushed. It is a part of man as 
 God made him. Heresy is truth in 
 the making, and doubt is the prelude 
 of knowledge. 
 
 Secondly : The world is a Sphinx. 
 It is a vast riddle — an unfathomable 
 mystery ; and on every side there is 
 temptation to questioning. In every 
 leaf, in every cell of every leaf, there 
 are a hundred problems. There are 
 ten good years of a man's life in 
 investigating what is in the leaf, and 
 there are five good years more in 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 269 
 
 investigating the things that are in the 
 things that are in the leaf. God has 
 planned the world to incite men to 
 intellectual activity. 
 
 Thirdly : The instrument with which 
 we attempt to investigate truth is im- 
 paired. Some say it fell, and the 
 glass is broken. Some say prejudice, 
 heredity or sin, have spoiled its sight, 
 and have blinded our eyes and dead- 
 ened our ears. In any case the In- 
 struments with which we work upon 
 truth, even in the strongest men, are 
 feeble and inadequate to their tremen- 
 dous task. 
 
 And in the fourth place, all reli- 
 gious truths are doubtable. There is 
 no absolute proof for any one of them. 
 
270 DEALING WITH DOUBT, 
 
 Even that fundamental truth — the 
 existence of a God — no man can prove 
 by reason. The ordinary proof for 
 the existence of God involves either 
 an assumption, argument in a circle, 
 or a contradiction. The impression 
 of God is kept up by experience ; not 
 by logic. And hence, when the ex- 
 perimental religion of a man, of a 
 community, or of a nation, wanes, 
 religion wanes — their idea of God 
 grows indistinct, and that man, com- 
 munity or nation becomes infidel. 
 Bear in mind, then, that all religious 
 truths are doubtable — even those 
 which we hold most strongly. 
 
 What does this brief account of the 
 origin of doubt teach us ? It teaches us 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 2/1 
 
 great intellectual humility. It teaches 
 us sympathy and toleration with all men 
 who venture upon the ocean of truth 
 to find out a path through it for them- 
 selves. Do you sometimes feel your- 
 self thinking unkind things about your 
 fellow-students who have intellectual 
 difficulty ? I know how hard it is 
 always to feel sympathy and toleration 
 for them ; but we must address our- 
 selves to that most carefully and most 
 religiously. If my brother is short- 
 sighted, I must not abuse him or speak 
 against him ; I must pity him, and if 
 possible try to improve his sight or to 
 make things that he is to look at so 
 bright that he cannot help seeing. 
 Btt never let us think evil of men who 
 
2/2 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 do not see as we do. From the bot- 
 tom of our hearts let us pity them, and 
 let us take them by the hand and spend 
 time and thought over them, and try 
 to lead them to the true light. 
 
 What has been the Church's treat- 
 ment of doubt in the past? It has 
 been very simple. " There is a heretic. 
 Burn him ! " That is all. " There is 
 a man who has gone off the road. 
 Bring him back and torture him ! " 
 We have got past that physically; 
 have we got past it morally ? What 
 does the modern Church say to a man 
 who is skeptical ? Not " Burn him ! '' 
 but " Brand him ! " '' Brand him ! — 
 call him a bad name." And in many 
 xtountries at the present time a man 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 2/3 
 
 who is branded as a heretic is despised, 
 tabooed, and put out of religious so- 
 ciety, much more than if he had gone 
 wrong in morals. I think I am speak- 
 ing within the facts when I say that a 
 man who is unsound is looked upon in 
 many communities with more suspicion 
 and with more pious horror than a man 
 who now and then gets drunk. " Burn 
 him!" "Brand him!'* " Excommu- 
 nicate him ! " That has been the 
 Church's treatment of doubt, and that 
 is perhaps to some extent the treatment 
 which we ourselves are inclined to give 
 to the men who cannot see the truths 
 of Christianity as we see them. Con- 
 trast Christ's treatment of doubt. I 
 have spoken already of His strange 
 
2/4 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 partiality for the outsiders — for the 
 scattered heretics up and down the 
 country ; of the care with which He , 
 loved to deal with them, and of the 
 respect in which He held their intellec- 
 tual difficulties. Christ never failed to 
 distinguish between doubt and unbe- 
 lief. Doubt is ca7i't believe ; unbelief 
 is won't believe. Doubt is honesty ; 
 unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is look- 
 ing for light; unbelief is content with 
 darkness. Loving darkness rather 
 than light — that is what Christ at- 
 tacked, and attacked unsparingly. 
 But for the intellectual questioning of 
 Thomas, and Philip, and Nicodemus, 
 and the many others who came to Him 
 to have their great problems solved. 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 275 
 
 He was respectful and generous and 
 tolerant. 
 
 And how did He meet their doubts ? 
 The Church, as I have said, says, 
 "Brand him!" Christ said, ** Teach 
 him/' He destroyed by fulfilling. 
 When Thomas came to Him and de- 
 nied His very resurrection, and stood 
 before Him waiting for the scathing 
 words and lashing for his unbelief, they 
 never came. They never came. Christ 
 gave him facts — facts. No man can 
 go around facts. Christ said, " Behold 
 My hands and My feet." The great 
 god of science at the present time is a 
 fact. It works with facts. Its cry is, 
 " Give me facts." Found anything 
 you like upon facts and we will believe 
 
2y6 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 it. The spirit of Christ was the scien- 
 tific spirit. He founded His religion 
 upon facts ; and He asked all men to 
 found their religion upon facts. Now, 
 gentlemen, get up the facts of Chris- 
 tianity, and take men to the facts. 
 Theologies — and I am not speaking 
 disrespectfully of theology; theology 
 is as scientific a thing as any other 
 science of facts — but theologies are 
 human versions of Divine truths, and 
 hence the varieties of the versions, 
 and the inconsistencies of them. I 
 would allow a man to select whichever 
 version of this truth he liked after- 
 wards ; but I would ask him to begin 
 with no version, but go back to the 
 facts and base his Christian life upon 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 2// 
 
 that. That is the great lesson of the 
 New Testament way of looking at 
 doubt — of Christ's treatment of doubt. 
 It is not " Brand him ! " — but lovingly, 
 wisely, and tenderly to teach him. 
 Faith is never opposed to reason in the 
 New Testament ; it is opposed to sight. 
 You will find that a principle worth 
 thinking over. Faith is never opposed 
 to reason in the New Testamenty but to 
 sight. 
 
 Well, now ; with these principles in 
 mind as to the origin of doubt, and as 
 to Christ's treatment of it, how are we 
 ourselves to deal with our fellow- 
 students who are in intellectual diffi- 
 culty } In the first place, I think 
 we must make all the concessions to 
 
2/8 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 them that we conscientiously can. 
 When a doubter first encounters you 
 he pours out a deluge of abuse of 
 churches, and ministers, and creeds, 
 and Christians. Nine-tenths of what 
 he says is probably true. Make con- 
 cessions. Agree with him. It does 
 him good to unburden himself of these 
 things. He has been cherishing them 
 for years — laying them up against 
 Christians, against the Church, and 
 against Christianity ; and now he is 
 startled to find the first Christian with 
 whom he has talked over the thing 
 almost entirely agrees with him. We 
 are, of course, not responsible for 
 everything that is said in the name of 
 Christianity ; but a man does not give 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 2/9 
 
 up medicine because there are quack 
 doctors, and no man has a right to 
 give up his Christianity because there 
 are spurious or inconsistent Christians. 
 Then, as I have already said, creeds 
 are human versions of Divine truths ; 
 and we do not ask a man to accept all 
 the creeds, any more than we ask him 
 to accept all the Christians. We ask 
 him to accept Christ, and the facts 
 about Christ, and the words of Christ. 
 But you will find the battle is half 
 won when you have endorsed the man's 
 objections, and possibly added a great 
 many more to the charges which he 
 has against ourselves. These men are 
 in revolt against the kind of religion 
 which we exhibit to the world — 
 
280 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 against the cant that is taught in the 
 name of Christianity. And if the men 
 that have never seen the real thing 
 — if you could show them that, they 
 would receive it as eagerly as you do. 
 They are merely in revolt against the 
 imperfections and inconsistencies of 
 those who represent Christ to the 
 world. 
 
 Second : Beg them to set aside, by 
 an act of will, all unsolved problems : 
 such as the problem of the origin of 
 evil, the problem of the Trinity, the 
 problem of the relation of human will 
 and predestination, and so on — prob- 
 lems which have been investigated for 
 thousands of years without result — ask 
 them to set those problems aside as 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 28 1 
 
 insoluble in the meantime, just as a 
 man who is studying mathematics may- 
 be asked to set aside the problem of 
 squaring the circle. Let him go on 
 with what can be done, and what has 
 been done, and leave out of sight the 
 impossible. You will find that will 
 relieve the skeptic's mind of a great 
 deal' of unnecessary cargo that has been 
 in his way. 
 
 Thirdly : Talking about difficulties, 
 as a rule, only aggravates them. En- 
 tire satisfaction to the intellect is un- 
 attainable about any of the greater 
 problems, and if you try to get to the 
 bottom of them by argument, there is 
 no bottom there ; and, therefore, you 
 make the matter worse. But I would 
 
282 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 say what is known, and what can be 
 honestly and philosophically and scien- 
 tifically said about one or two of the 
 difficulties that the doubter raises, just 
 to show him that you can do it — to 
 show him that you are not a fool — that 
 you are not merely groping in the dark 
 yourself, but you have found whatever 
 basis is possible. But I would not go 
 around all the doctrines. I would 
 simply do that with one or two ; be- 
 cause the moment you cut off one, a 
 hundred other heads will grow in its 
 place. It would be a pity if all these 
 problems could be solved. The joy of 
 the intellectual life would be largely 
 gone. I would not rob a man of his 
 problems, nor would I have another 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 283 
 
 man rob me of my problems. They 
 are the delight of life, and the whole 
 intellectual world would be stale and 
 unprofitable if we knew everything. 
 
 Fourthly — and this is the great point : 
 Turn away from the reason, and go 
 into the man's moral life. I don't 
 mean, go into his moral life and see 
 if the man is living in conscious sin, 
 which is the great blinder of the eyes 
 — I am speaking now of honest doubt ; 
 but open a new door into the practical 
 side of man's nature. Entreat him 
 not to postpone life and his life's Use- 
 fulness until he has settled the prob- 
 lems of the universe. Tell him those 
 problems will never all be settled ; that 
 his life will be done before he has 
 
284 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 begun to settle them ; and ask him 
 what he is doing with his Hfe mean- 
 time. Charge him with wasting his 
 Hfe and his usefulness ; and invite him 
 to deal with the moral and practical 
 difficulties of the world, and leave the 
 intellectual difficulties as he goes along. 
 To spend time upon these is proving 
 the less important before the more 
 important ; and, as the French say, 
 ** The good is the enemy of the best." 
 It is a good thing to think ; it is a bet- 
 ter thing to work — it is a better thing 
 to do good. And you have him there, 
 you see. He can't get beyond that. 
 You have to tell him, in fact, that there 
 are two organs of knowledge : the 
 one reason, the other obedience. And 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 285 
 
 now tell him, as he has tried the first 
 and found the little in it, just for a 
 moment or two to join you in trying 
 the second. And when he asks whom 
 he is to obey, you tell him there is but 
 One, and lead him to the great histori- 
 cal figure, who calls all men to Him : 
 the one perfect life — the one Saviour 
 of mankind — the one Light of the 
 world. Ask him to begin to obey 
 Christ ; and, doing His will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine whether it be of 
 God. 
 
 That, I think, is about the only 
 thing you can do with a man : to get 
 him into practical contact with the 
 needs of the world, and to let him lose 
 his intellectual difficulties meantime. 
 
286 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 Don't ask him to give them up alto- 
 gether. Tell him to solve them after- 
 ward one by one if he can, but mean- 
 time to give his life to Christ and his 
 time to the kingdom of God. And, you 
 see, you fetch him completely around 
 when you do that. You have taken 
 him away from the false side of his 
 nature, and to the practical and moral 
 side of his nature ; and for the first 
 time in his life, perhaps, he puts things 
 in their true place. He puts his nature 
 in the relations in which it ought to be, 
 and he then only begins to live. And 
 by obedience — by obedience — he will 
 soon become a learner and pupil for 
 himself, and Christ will teach him 
 things, and he will find whatever 
 
MATTHEW ARNOLD 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 28/ 
 
 problems are solvable gradually solved 
 as he goes along the path of prac- 
 tical duty. 
 
 Now, let me, in closing, give a cou- 
 ple of instances of how to deal with 
 specific points. The commonest thing 
 that we hear said nowadays by young 
 men is, *' What about evolution.^ How 
 am I to reconcile my religion, or any 
 religion, with the doctrine of evolu- 
 tion.?" That upsets more men than 
 perhaps anything else at the present 
 hour. How would you deal with it i^ 
 I would say to a man that Christianity 
 is the further evolution. I don't know 
 any better definition than that. It is the 
 further evolution — the higher evolution. 
 I don't start with him to attack evolu- 
 
288 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 tion. I don't start with him to defend 
 it. I destroy by fulfilling it. I take 
 him at his own terms. He says evolu- 
 tion is that which pushes the man on 
 from the simple to the complex, from 
 the lower to the higher. Very well ; 
 that is what Christianity does. It 
 pushes the man farther on. It takes 
 him where nature has left him, and 
 carries him on to heights which on the 
 plain of nature he could never reach. 
 That is evolution. "Lead me to the 
 Rock that is higher than I." That is 
 evolution. It is the development of 
 the whole man in the higher direc- 
 tions — the drawing out of his spiritual 
 being. Show an evolutionist that, and 
 you take the wind out of his sails. " I 
 
DEALING WITH DOUBT. 289 
 
 came not to destroy." Don't destroy 
 his doctrine — perhaps you can't — but 
 fulfil it. Put a larger meaning into it. 
 
 The other instance — the next com- 
 monest perhaps — is the question of 
 miracles. It is impossible, of course, 
 to discuss that now — miracles ; but 
 that question is thrown at my head 
 every second day: **What do you say 
 to a man when he says to you, 'Why 
 do you believe in miracles.^'" I say, 
 " Because I have seen them.'' He 
 says, ''When.?" I say, ''Yesterday." 
 He says, "Where.?" "Down such- 
 and-such a street I saw a man who 
 was a drunkard redeemed by the 
 power of an unseen Christ and saved 
 from sin. That is a miracle." The 
 
290 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 best apologetic for Christianity is a 
 Christian. That is a fact which the 
 man cannot get over. There are fifty- 
 other arguments for miracles, but none 
 so good as that you have seen them. 
 Perhaps you are one yourself. But 
 take you a man and show him a mira- 
 cle with his own eyes. Then he will 
 believe. 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 29I 
 
 PREPARATION FOR LEARN- 
 ING. 
 
 T3EFORE an artist can do anything 
 ^-^ the instrument must be tuned. 
 Our astronomers at this moment are 
 preparing for an event which happens 
 only once or twice in a Ufetime : the 
 total eclipse of the sun in the month 
 of August. They have begun already. 
 They are making preparations. At 
 chosen stations in different parts of the 
 world they are spending all the skill 
 that science can suggest upon the con- 
 struction of their instruments ; and up 
 
292 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 to the last moment they will be busy 
 adjusting them ; and the last day will 
 be the busiest of all, because then 
 they must have the glasses and the 
 mirrors polished to the last degree. 
 They have to have the lenses in place 
 and focussed upon this spot before the 
 event itself takes place. 
 
 Every thing will depend upon the 
 instruments which you bring to this 
 experiment. Every thing will depend 
 upon it ; and, therefore, fifteen min- 
 utes will not be lost if we each put our 
 instrument into the best working order 
 we can. I have spoken of lenses, 
 and that reminds me that the instru- 
 ment which we bring to bear upon 
 truth is a compound thing. It con- 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 293 
 
 sists of many parts. Truth is not a 
 product of the intellect alone ; it is a 
 product of the whole nature. The 
 body is engaged in it, and the mind, 
 and the soul. 
 
 The body is engaged in it. Of course, 
 a man who has his body run down, or 
 who is dyspeptic, or melancholy, sees 
 everything black, and disordered, and 
 untrue. But I am not going to dwell 
 upon that. Most of you seem in pretty 
 fair working order so far as your 
 bodies are concerned ; only it is well 
 to remember that we are to give our 
 bodies a living sacrifice — not a half- 
 dead sacrifice, as some people seem to 
 imagine. There is no virtue in emacia- 
 tion. I don't know if you have any 
 
294 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 tendency in that direction in America, 
 but certainly we are in danger of 
 dropping into it now and then in Eng- 
 land, and it is just as well to bear in 
 mind our part of the lens — a very com- 
 pound and delicate lens — with which 
 we have to take in truth. 
 
 Then comes a very important part : 
 the intellect — which is one of the most 
 useful servants of truth ; and I need 
 not tell you as students, that the intel- 
 lect will have a great deal to do with 
 your reception of truth. I was told 
 that it was said at these conferences 
 last year, that a man must crucify his 
 intellect. I venture to contradict the 
 gentleman who made that statement. 
 I am quite sure no such statement 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 295 
 
 oiild ever have been made in your 
 hearing — that we were to crucify our 
 intellects. We can make no progress 
 without the full use of all the intellec- 
 tual powers that God has endowed us 
 with. 
 
 But more important than either of 
 these is the moral nature — the moral 
 and spiritual nature. Some of you 
 remember a sermon of Robertson of 
 Brighton, entitled " Obedience the 
 Organ of Spiritual Knowledge." A 
 very startling title! — ''Obedience the 
 Organ of Spiritual Knowledge." The 
 Pharisees asked about Christ : '' How 
 knoweth this man letters, never having 
 learned } " How knoweth this man, 
 never having learned? The organ of 
 
296 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 knowledge is not nearly so much mind, 
 as the organ that Christ used, namely, 
 obedience ; and that was the organ 
 which He Himself insisted upon when 
 He said: ^' He that willeth to do His 
 will shall know of the doctrine whether 
 it be of God." You have all noticed, 
 of course, that the words in the origi- 
 nal are : '' If any man will do His 
 will, he shall know of the doctrine.'* 
 It doesn't read, " If any do His will," 
 which no man can do perfectly ; but 
 if any man be simply willing to do 
 His will — if he has an absolutely un- 
 divided mind about it — that man will 
 know what truth is and know what 
 falsehood is ; a stranger will he not 
 follow. And that is by far the best 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 29/ 
 
 source of spiritual knowledge on every 
 account — obedience to God — absolute 
 sincerity and loyalty in following 
 Christ. " If any man do His will he 
 shall know'* — a very remarkable asso- 
 ciation of knowledge, a thing which 
 is usually considered quite intellectual, 
 with obedience, which is moral and 
 spiritual. 
 
 But even although we use all these 
 three different parts of the instrument, 
 we have not at all got at the complete 
 method of learning. There is a little 
 preliminary that the astronomer has to 
 do before he can make his observation. 
 He has to take the cap off his telescope. 
 Many a man thinks he is looking at 
 truth when he is only looking at the 
 
298 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 cap. Many a time I have looked 
 down my microscope, and thought I 
 was looking at the diatom for which 
 I had long been searching, and found 
 I had simply been looking at a speck 
 of dust upon the lens itself. Many a 
 man thinks he is looking at truth when 
 he is only looking at the spectacles he 
 has put on to see it with. He is look- 
 ing at his own spectacles. Now, the 
 common spectacles that a man puts 
 on — I suppose the creed in which he 
 has been brought up — if a man looks 
 at that, let him remember that he is 
 not looking at truth : he is looking at 
 his own spectacles. There is no more 
 important lesson that we have to carry 
 with us than that truth is not to be 
 
PREPAFATTON FOR LEARNING. 299 
 
 found in what I have been taught. 
 That is not truth. Truth is not what 
 I have been taught. If it were so, 
 that would apply to the Mormon, 
 it would apply to the Brahman, it 
 would apply to the Buddhist. Truth 
 would be to everybody just what he 
 had been taught. Therefore let us 
 dismiss from our minds the predisposi- 
 tion to regard that which we have been 
 brought up in as being necessarily the 
 truth. I must say it is very hard to 
 shake one's self free altogether from 
 that. I suppose it is impossible. 
 
 But you see the reasonableness of 
 giving up that as your view of truth 
 when you come to apply it all around. 
 If that were the definition of truth, 
 
300 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 truth would be just what one's parents 
 were — it would be a thing of heredi- 
 tary transmission, and not a thing 
 absolute in itself. Now, let me ven- 
 ture to ask you to take that cap off. 
 Take that cap off now, and make up 
 your minds you are going to look at 
 truth naked — in its reality as it is, not 
 as it is reflected through other minds, 
 or through any theology, however 
 venerable. 
 
 Then there is one thing I think we 
 must be careful about, and that is 
 besides having the cap off, and having 
 all the lenses clean and in position — 
 to have the instrument rightly focussed. 
 Everything may be right, and yet when 
 you go and look at the object, you see 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 3OI 
 
 things altogether falsely. You see 
 things not only blurred, but you see 
 things out of proportion. And there 
 is nothing more important we have to 
 bear in mind in running our eye over 
 successive theological truths, or reli- 
 gious truths, than that there is a pro- 
 portion in those truths, and that we 
 must see them in their proportion, or 
 we see them falsely. A man may 
 take a dollar or a half-dollar and hold 
 it to his eye so closely that he will hide 
 the sun from him. Or he may so 
 focus his telescope that a fly or a 
 boulder may be as large as a moun- 
 tain. A man may hold a certain doc- 
 trine, very intensely — a doctrine which 
 has been looming upon his horizon for 
 
302 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 the last six months, let us say, and 
 which has thrown everything else out 
 of proportion, it has become so big 
 itself. Now let us beware of distor- 
 tion in the arrangement of the reli- 
 gious truths which we hold. It is 
 almost impossible to get things in 
 their true proportion and symmetry, 
 but this is the thing we must be con- 
 stantly aiming at. We are told in the 
 Bible to ''add to your faith virtue, and 
 to virtue, knowledge, and to knowl- 
 edge balance," as the word literally 
 means — balance. It is a word taken 
 from the orchestra, where all the parts 
 
 — the sopranos, the basses, the altos, 
 and the tenors, and all the rest of them 
 
 — must be regulated. If you have too 
 
PRKPARATTON FOR LEARNING. 3OJ 
 
 much of the bass, or too much of the 
 soprano, there is want of harmony. 
 That is what I mean by the want of 
 proper focus — by the want of proper 
 balance — in the truths which we all 
 hold. It will never do to exaggerate 
 one truth at the expense of another,, 
 and a truth may be turned into a false- 
 hood very, very easily, by simply being' 
 either too much enlarged or too much, 
 diminished. I once heard of some 
 blind men who were taken to see 
 a menagerie. They had gone around 
 the animals, and four of them were 
 allowed to touch an elephant as they 
 went past. They were discussing 
 afterwards what kind of a creature the 
 elephant was. One man, \yho had; 
 
304 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 touched its tail, said the elephant was 
 like a rope. Another of the blind 
 men, who had touched his hind limb, 
 said, *' No such thing ! the elephant is 
 like the trunk of a tree." Another, 
 who had felt its sides, said, ''That is 
 all rubbish. An elephant is a thing 
 like a wall." And the fourth, who had 
 felt its ear, said that an elephant was 
 like none of those things ; it was like 
 a leather bag. Now, men look at 
 truth at different bits of it, and they 
 see different things, of course, and 
 they are very apt to imagine that the 
 thing which they have seen is the 
 whole affair — the whole thing. In 
 reality, we can only see a very little 
 bit at a time ; and we must, I think, 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 305 
 
 learn to believe that other men can see 
 bits of truth as well as ourselves. 
 Your views are just what you see with 
 your own eyes ; and my views are just 
 what I see ; and what I see depends on 
 just where I stand, and what you see 
 depends on just where you stand ; and 
 truth is very much bigger than an 
 elephant, and we are very much 
 blinder than any of those blind men 
 as we come to look at it. 
 
 Christ has made us aware that it 
 is quite possible for a man to have 
 ears and hear nothing, and to have 
 eyes and see not. One of the disci- 
 ples saw a great deal of Christ, 
 and he never knew Him. " Have 
 I been so long time with you, 
 
306 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 Philip, and yet hast thou not known 
 Me?'' ''He that hath seen Me hath 
 seen the Father also." Philip had 
 never seen Him. He had been look- 
 ing at his own spectacles, perhaps, or 
 at something else, and had never seen 
 Him. If the instrument had been in 
 order, he would have seen Christ. 
 And I would just add this one thing 
 more : the test of value of the differ- 
 ent verities of truth depends upon one 
 thing : whether they have or have not 
 a sanctifying power. That is another 
 remarkable association in the mind of 
 Christ — of sanctification with truth — 
 thinking and holiness — not to be found 
 in any of the sciences or in any of the 
 philosophies. It is peculiar to the 
 
PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 30/ 
 
 Bible. Christ said '* Sanctify them 
 through Thy truth. Thy word is 
 truth." Now, the value of any ques- 
 tion — the value of any theological 
 question — depends upon whether it has 
 a sanctifying influence. If it has not, 
 don't bother about it. Don't let it dis- 
 turb your minds until you have ex- 
 hausted all truths that have sanctifica- 
 tion within them. If a truth makes a 
 man a better man, then let him focus 
 his instrument upon it and get all the 
 acquaintance with it he can. If it 
 is the profane babbling of science,, 
 falsely so called, or anything that has 
 injurious effect upon the moral and 
 spiritual nature of man, it is better let 
 alone. And above all, let us remem- 
 
308 PREPARATION FOR LEARNING. 
 
 ber to hold the truth in love. That is 
 the most sanctifying influence of all. 
 And if we can carry away the mere 
 lessons of toleration, and leave behind 
 us our censoriousness, and criticalness, 
 and harsh judgments upon one another, 
 and excommunicating of everybody 
 except those who think exactly as we 
 do, the time we shall spend here will 
 not be the least useful parts of our 
 lives. 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 \/OUNG men are learning to respect 
 * more, perhaps, than ever young 
 men have done, the word *' Christian." 
 I have seen the time when it was sy- 
 nonymous with cant and unreality and 
 strained feeling and sanctimoniousness. 
 But although that day is not quite 
 passed yet, it is passing. I heard this 
 definition the other day of a Christian 
 man by a cynic — *'A Christian man 
 is a man whose great aim in life is a 
 selfish desire to save his own soul, who, 
 in order to do that, goes regularly to 
 
 311 
 
312 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 church, and whose supreme hope is to 
 get to Heaven when he dies." This 
 reminds one of Professor Huxley's ex- 
 amination paper in which the question 
 was put — "What is a lobster?'* One 
 student replied that a lobster was a red 
 fish, which moves backwards. The ex- 
 aminer noted that this was a very good 
 answer, but for three things. In the 
 first place a lobster was not a fish ; sec- 
 ond it was not red ; and third it did not 
 move backwards. If there is anything 
 that a Christian is not, it is one who 
 has a selfish desire to save his own 
 soul. The one thing which Christianity 
 tries to extirpate from a man's nature 
 is selfishness, even though it be the 
 losing of his own soul. 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 313 
 
 Christianity, as we understand it 
 from Christ, appeals to the generous 
 side of a young man's nature, and not 
 to the selfish side. In the new version 
 of the New Testament the word "soul" 
 is always translated in this connection 
 by the word *'life/' That marks a revo- 
 lution in the popular theology, and it 
 will make a revolution in every Young 
 Man's Christian Association in the 
 country where it comes to be seen that 
 a man's Christianity does not consist 
 in merely saving his own soul, but in 
 sanctifying and purifying the lives of 
 his fellow-men. We are told in the 
 New Testament that Christianity is 
 leaven, and "leaven" comes from the 
 same root-word as lever, meaning that 
 
314 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 which raises up, which elevates; and 
 a Christian young man is a man who 
 raises up or elevates the lives of those 
 round about him. We are also told 
 that Christianity is salt, and salt is that 
 which saves from corruption. What 
 is it that saves the life of the world 
 from being utterly rotten, but the 
 Christian elements that are in it? 
 Matthew Arnold has said, " Show me 
 ten square miles in any part of the 
 world outside Christianity where the 
 life of man and the purity of woman 
 are safe, and I will give Christianity 
 up." In no part cf the world is there 
 any such ten square miles outside 
 Christianity. Christian men are the 
 salt of the earth in the most literal 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 315 
 
 sense. They, and they alone, keep 
 the world from utter destruction. 
 
 I want to say a word here about the 
 Young Men's Christian Associations. 
 Many have criticised them. They have 
 been the target for a great deal of 
 abuse. Many of the best young men 
 have sneered at them, and turned up 
 their noses at them, and denounced 
 them. I am speaking with absolute 
 sympathy and respect, and even enthu- 
 siasm, for Young Men's Christian 
 Associations. But I will turn for one 
 instant upon those men who turn 
 against them, and tell them that it is 
 not breadth that leads them to do that, 
 but what one might call the narrow- 
 ness of breadth — that breadth which 
 
3l6 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN/ 
 
 denounces intolerance, and which is 
 itself too intolerant to tolerate intoler- 
 ance. And, as some one says, it is 
 easier to criticise the best thing su- 
 perbly than to do the smallest thing 
 indifferently. 
 
 It is very easy to criticise the meth- 
 ods and aims and men of the Young 
 Men's Christian Associations. If, in- 
 stead of looking on and criticising those 
 who know a thing or two, those who 
 think they are wiser, and that they have 
 the whole truth, would throw themselves 
 in among others and back them and try 
 to work alongside of them, they would 
 get perhaps their breadth tempered by 
 earnestness and by zeal, because the 
 narrow man has much to contribute to 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? ^JJ 
 
 the Christian cause, perhaps more than 
 the broad man. But it needs all kinds 
 of people to make a world ; it needs all 
 kinds of people to make a church, and 
 every type of young men a Christian 
 Association; and the greatest mistake 
 of all i^ to have every man stamped in 
 the same stamp, so that if you met him 
 in a railway train one hundred miles 
 off, you would know him as a Y. M. 
 C. A. man. I would like to find many 
 who would not wear the badge so pro- 
 nouncedly, that every one should know 
 them at a glance. 
 
 There is only one great character in 
 the world that can really draw out all 
 that is best in man. He is so far above 
 all others in influencing men for good 
 
3l8 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 that He stands alone. That man was 
 the founder of Christianity. To be a 
 Christian man is to have that character 
 for our ideal in life, to live under its 
 influence, to do what He would wish 
 us to do, to live the kind of life He 
 would have lived in our house, and had 
 He our day's routine to go through. 
 It would not, perhaps, alter the forms 
 of our life, but it would alter the spirit 
 and aims and motives of our life, and 
 the Christian man is he who in that 
 sense lives under the influence of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Now, there is nothing that a young^ 
 man wants for his ideal that is not 
 ■found in Christ. You would be sur- 
 prised when you come to know who 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 319 
 
 Christ is, if you have not thought much 
 about it, to find how He will fit in with 
 all human needs, and call out all that 
 is best in man. The highest and man- 
 liest character that ever lived was 
 Christ. One incident I often think of 
 and wonder. You remember, when 
 He hung upon the cross, there was 
 handed up to Him a vessel containing 
 a stupefying drug, supplied by a kind 
 society of ladies in Jerusalem, who 
 always sent it to criminals when being 
 executed. And that stupefying drug 
 was handed up to Christ's lips. And 
 we read, '*When he tasted thereof 
 He would not drink." I have always 
 thought that one of the most heroic 
 actions I have ever read of. But that 
 
320 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 was only one very small side of Christ's 
 nature. He can be everything that a 
 man wants. Paul tells us that if we 
 live in Christ we are changed into His 
 image. All that a man has to do, 
 then, to be like Christ, is simply to 
 live in friendship with Christ, and the 
 character follows. 
 
 But it is only one of the aims of 
 Christianity to make the best men. 
 The next thing Christ wants to do is 
 to make the best world. And He 
 tries to make the best world by setting 
 the best men loose upon the world to 
 influence it and reflect Him upon it. 
 In 1874 a religious movement began 
 in Edinburgh University among the 
 students themselves, that has since 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 32 1 
 
 spread to some of the best academic 
 institutions in America. The students 
 have a hall, and there they meet on 
 Sundays, or occasionally on week-days, 
 to hear addresses from their profes- 
 sors, or from outside eminent men, on 
 Christian topics. There is no com- 
 mittee ; there are no rules ; there are 
 no reports. Every meeting is held 
 strictly in private, and any attempt to 
 pose before the world is sternly dis- 
 couraged. No paragraphs are put into 
 the journals ; no addresses are reported. 
 The meetings are private, quiet, ear- 
 nest, and whatsoever student likes may 
 attend them. That is all. It is not 
 an organization in the ordinary sense, 
 it is a "leaven." In all the schools 
 
'322 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 it is the best men who take most 
 part in the movement, and among the 
 schools it is the medical side which 
 furnishes the greatest number of stu- 
 dents to the meetings. Some of the 
 most zealous have taken high honors 
 in their examinations, and some have 
 been in the first class of university 
 athletes.. It is not a movement that 
 has laid hold of weak or worthless 
 students whom nobody respects, but 
 one that is maintained by the best men 
 in every department. The first benefit 
 is to the students themselves. Take 
 Edinburgh, with about 4000 students 
 drawn from all parts of the world, and 
 living in rooms with no one caring for 
 them. Taken away from the moral 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 323 
 
 support of their previous surroundings, 
 they went to the bad in hundreds. It is 
 now found that through this movement 
 they work better, and that a greater 
 percentage pass laonorably through the 
 university portals into life. The reli- 
 gious meetings, it is to be observed, 
 are never allowed to interfere with the 
 work of the students. The second 
 result is to be seen in what are called 
 university settlements. A few men 
 will band themselves together and rent 
 a house in the lower parts of the city 
 and live there. They do no preaching, 
 no formal evangelization work ; but 
 they help the sick and they arrange 
 smoking concerts, and contribute to the 
 amusement of their neighbors. They 
 
324 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 simply live with the people, and trust 
 that their example will produce a good 
 effect. Three years ago they printed 
 and distributed among themselves the 
 following ** Programme of Christian- 
 ity : " — '* To bind up the broken- 
 hearted, to give liberty to the captives, 
 to comfort all that mourn, to give 
 beauty for ashes, the garment of praise 
 for the spirit of heaviness.'* I suppose 
 there are few of us with broken hearts, 
 but there are other people in the world 
 besides ourselves, and underneath all 
 the gayety of the city there is not a 
 street in which there are not men and 
 women with broken hearts. Who is 
 to help these people.^ No one can lift 
 them up in any way except those who 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 325 
 
 are living the life of Christ, and it is 
 their privilege and business to bind up 
 the broken-hearted. 
 
 I want to urge the claims of the 
 Christian ministry on the strength and 
 talent of our youth. I find a singular 
 want of men in the Christian ministry, 
 and I think it would be at least worth 
 while for some of you to look around, 
 to look at the men who are not filling 
 the churches, to look at the needs of 
 the crowds who throng the streets, and 
 see if you could do better with your 
 life than throw yourself into that work. 
 The advantage of the ministry is that 
 a man's whole life can be thrown into 
 the carrying out of that programme 
 without any deduction. Another ad- 
 
326 WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 
 
 vantage of the ministry is that it is so 
 poorly paid that a man is not tempted 
 to cut a dash and shine in the world, 
 but can be meek and lowly in heart, 
 like his Master. It is enough for a 
 servant to be like his master, and there 
 is a great attraction in seeking obscu- 
 rity, even isolation, if one can be 
 following the highest ideal. 
 
 With regard to the question, how 
 you shall begin the Christian life, let 
 me remind you that theology is the 
 most abstruse thing in the world, but 
 that practical religion is the simplest 
 thing. If any of you want to know 
 how to begin to be a Christian, all I 
 can say is that you should begin to do 
 the next thing you find to be done as 
 
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? 327 
 
 Christ would have done it. If you 
 follow Christ the "old man" will die 
 of atrophy, and the "new man" will 
 grow day by day under His abiding 
 friendship. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE 
 BIBLE. 
 
 I WILL give a note or two, pretty 
 much by way of refreshing the 
 memory about the Bible and how to 
 look at it. 
 
 First : The Bible came out of religion, 
 not religion ont of the Bible. The Bible 
 is a product of religion, not a cause 
 of it. The war literature of America, 
 which culminated, I suppose, in the 
 publication of President Grant's life, 
 came out of the war ; the war did not 
 
 33« 
 
332 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 come out of the literature. And so in 
 the distant past, there flowed among 
 the nations of heathendom a small 
 warm stream, like the Gulf Stream in 
 the cold Atlantic — a small stream of 
 religion; and now and then at inter- 
 vals, men, carried along by this stream, 
 uttered themselves in words. The his- 
 torical books came out of facts ; the 
 devotional books came out of experi- 
 ences; the letters came out of circum- 
 stances ; and the Gospels came out of 
 all three. That is where the Bible 
 came from. It came out of religion ; 
 religion did not come out of the Bible. 
 You see the difference. The religion 
 is not, then, in the writing alone ; but 
 in those facts, experiences, circum- 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 333 
 
 Stances, in the history and develop- 
 ment of a people led and taught by 
 God. And it is not the words that 
 are inspired so much as the men. 
 
 Secondly : These men were authors ; 
 they were not pefis. Their individuality 
 comes out on every page they wrote. 
 They were different in mental and 
 literary style ; in insight ; and even the 
 same writer differs at different times. 
 II. Thessalonians, for example, is con- 
 siderably beneath the level of Romans, 
 and III. John is beneath the level of 
 I. John. A man is not always at his 
 best. These writers did not know they 
 were writing a Bible. 
 
 Third : The Bible is not a book ; it 
 is a library. It consists of sixty-six 
 
334 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 books. It is a great convenience, but 
 in some respects a great misfortune, 
 that these books have always been 
 bound up together and given out as 
 one book to the world, when they are 
 not ; because that has led to endless 
 mistakes in theology and in practical 
 life. 
 
 Fourth : These books, which make 
 up this library, written at intervals of 
 hundreds of years, were collected after 
 the last of the writers was dead — long 
 after — by human hands. Where were 
 the books ? Take the New Testament. 
 There were four lives of Christ. One 
 was in Rome; one was in Southern 
 Italy ; one was in Palestine ; one in 
 Asia Minor. There were twenty-one 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 335 
 
 letters. Five were in Greece and 
 Macedonia ; five in Asia ; one in 
 Rome. The rest were in the pockets 
 of private individuals. Theophilus had 
 acts. They were collected undesign- 
 edly. For example, the letter to the 
 Galatians was written to the Church 
 in Galatia. Somebody would make a 
 copy or two, and put it into the hands 
 of the members of the different 
 churches, and they would find their 
 way not only to the churches in Gala- 
 tia, but after an interval to nearly 
 all the churches. In those days the 
 Christians scattered up and down 
 through the world, exchanged copies 
 of those letters, very much as geolo- 
 gists up and down the world exchange 
 
^;^6 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 specimens of minerals at the present 
 time, or entomologists exchange speci- 
 mens of butterflies. And after a long 
 time a number of the books began to 
 be pretty well known. In the third 
 century the New Testament consisted 
 of the following books: the four Gos- 
 pels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, 
 I. John, I. Peter ; and in addition, the 
 Epistles of Barnabas and Hermas. 
 This was not called the New Testa- 
 ment, but the Christian Library. Then 
 these last books were discarded. They 
 ceased to be regarded as upon the 
 same level as the others. In the 
 fourth century the canon was closed — 
 that is to say, a list was made up of 
 the books which were to be regarded 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLL. 337 
 
 as canonical. And then long after 
 that they were stitched together and 
 made up into one book — hundreds of 
 years after that. Who made up the 
 complete list ? It was never formally 
 made up. The bishops of the differ- 
 ent churches would draw up a list 
 each of the books that they thought 
 ought to be put into this Testament. 
 The churches also would give their 
 opinion. Sometimes councils would 
 meet and talk it over — discuss it. 
 Scholars like Jerome would investi- 
 gate the authenticity of the different 
 documents, and there came to be a 
 general consensus of the churches on 
 the matter. But no formal closing of 
 the canon was ever attempted. 
 
338 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 And lastly : All religions have their 
 sacred books, just as the Christians 
 have theirs. Why is it necessary to 
 remind ourselves of that ? If you ask 
 a man why he believes such and such 
 a thing, he will tell you, Because it is 
 in the Bible. If you ask him, ** How 
 do you know the Bible is true ? '* he 
 will probably reply, " Because it says 
 so.'* Now, let that man remember 
 that the sacred books of all the other 
 religions make the same claim ; and 
 while it is quite enough among our- 
 selves to talk about a thing being true 
 because it is in the Bible, we come in 
 contact with outsiders, and we have to 
 meet the skepticism of the day. We 
 must go far deeper than that. The 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 339 
 
 religious books of the other religions 
 claim to be far more divine in their 
 origin than do ours. For example, the 
 Mohammedans claim for the Koran — 
 a large section of them, at least — that 
 it was uncreated, and that it lay before 
 the throne of God from the beginning 
 of time. They claim it was put in 
 the hands of the angel Gabriel, who 
 brought it down to Mahomet, and dic- 
 tated it to him, and allowed him at 
 long intervals to have a look at the 
 original book itself — bound with silk 
 and studded with precious stones. That 
 is a claim of much higher Divinity than 
 we claim for our book ; and if we sim- 
 ply have to rely upon the Bible's tes- 
 timony to its own verity, it is for the 
 
340 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 same reason the Mohammedan would 
 have you believe his book, and the 
 Hindu would have you put your trust 
 in the Vedas. That is why thorough 
 Bible study is of such importance. We 
 can get to the bottom of truth in itself, 
 and be able to give a reason for the 
 faith that is in us. 
 
 Now may I give you, before I stop, 
 just a couple of examples of how the 
 Bible came out of religion, and not 
 religion out of the Bible ? Take one 
 of the letters. Just see how it came 
 out of the circumstances of the time. 
 The first of the letters that was written 
 will do very well as an example. It is 
 the 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 In the year 52 Paul went to Europe, 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 34I 
 
 He spent three Sundays in Thessa- 
 lonica, created a great disturbance by 
 his preaching, and a riot sprang up, 
 and his Hfe was in danger. He was 
 smuggled out of the city at night — 
 not, however, before having founded 
 a small church. He wcis unable to 
 go back to Thessalonica, although he 
 tried it two or three times ; but he 
 wrote a letter. That is the first letter 
 to the Thessalonians. You see how it 
 sprang out of the circumstances of the 
 time. Take a second example. Let 
 us take one of the lives of Christ. 
 Suppose you take the life recorded by 
 Mark. Now, from internal evidences 
 you can make out quite clearly how it 
 was written, by whom it was written, 
 
342 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 and to whom it was written. You 
 understand at once it was written to a 
 Roman public. If I were writing a 
 letter to a red Indian I would make it 
 very different from a letter I would 
 write to a European. Now, Mark puts 
 in a number of points which he would 
 not if he had been writing to Greeks. 
 For example, Mark almost never quotes 
 prophecy. The Romans did not know 
 anything about prophecy. Then, he 
 gives little explanation of Jewish cus- 
 toms. When I was writing home I 
 had to give some little explanations 
 of American customs — for example, 
 Commencement Day. When Mark 
 writes to Rome about things hap- 
 pening farther East, he gives elab- 
 
THE STUDV OF THE BIBLE. 343 
 
 orate explanations. Again, Mark is 
 fond of Latin words — writing to the 
 Latins, who could understand them. 
 He talks about ** centurion," " pra^to- 
 rium," and others. Then, he always 
 turns Jewish money into Roman money, 
 just as I should say a book, if I were 
 writing to Europe about it, cost two 
 shillings, instead of fifty cents. Mark, 
 for example, says, " two mites, which 
 make a codrantes." He refers to the 
 coins which the Romans knew. In 
 these ways we find out that the Bible 
 came out of the circumstances and the 
 places and the times in which it was 
 written. Then if we will we can 
 learn where Mark got his information, 
 to a large extent. It is an extremely 
 
344 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 interesting study. I should like to 
 refer to Gocet's '' New Testament 
 Studies,'* where you will get this 
 worked out. Let me just indicate to 
 you how these sources of information 
 are arrived at — the principal sources 
 of information. There are a number 
 of graphic touches in the book which 
 indicate an eye-witness. Mark him- 
 self could not have been the eye- 
 witness ; and yet there are a number 
 of graphic touches which show that he 
 got his account from an eye-witness. 
 You will find them, for example, in 
 Mark iv. 38; x. 50; vi. 31; vii. 34. 
 You will find also graphic touches 
 indicating an ear-witness — as if the 
 voice lingered in the mind of the 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 345 
 
 writer. For example, the retention of 
 Aramaic in v. 41 ; and in vii. 34 — 
 *' Talitha cumi ; Damsel, I say unto 
 thee, arise." He retained the Aramaic 
 words Christ said, as I would say in 
 Scotland, *'My wee lassie, rise up." 
 The very words lingered in his ear, 
 and he put them in the original. Then 
 there are occasional phrases indicating 
 the moral impression produced — v. 15 ; 
 X. 24; X. 32. Now, Mark himself 
 was not either the eye-witness or ear- 
 witness. There is internal evidence 
 that he got his information from Peter. 
 We know very well that Mark was 
 an intimate friend of Peter's. When 
 Peter came to Mark's house in Jerusa- 
 lem, after he got out of prison, the 
 
346 THE STUDV OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 very servant knew his voice, so that 
 he must have been well known in the 
 house. Therefore he was a friend of 
 Mark's. The coloring and notes seem 
 to be derived from Peter. There is a 
 sense of wonder and admiration which 
 you find all through the book, very 
 like Peter's way of looking at things — 
 i. 27; i. 33; i. 45 ; ii. 12; v. 42; and 
 a great many others. But, still more 
 interesting, Mark quotes the words, 
 **Get thee behind Me, Satan," which 
 were said to Peter's shame, but he 
 omits the preceding words said to his 
 honor — "Thou art Peter. On this 
 rock," and so on. Peter had learned 
 to be humble when he was telling 
 Mark about it. Compare Mark viii. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 347 
 
 27-33, with Matthew's account — xvi. 
 13-33- Mark also omits the fine 
 achievement of Peter — walking on 
 the lake. When Peter was talking to 
 Mark, he never said anything about 
 it. Compare vi. 50 with Matthew's 
 account — xiv. 28. And Mark alone 
 records the two warnings given to 
 Peter by the two cock-crowings, mak- 
 ing his fall the more inexcusable. See 
 Mark xiv. 30 ; also the 68th verse 
 and the 72d. Peter did not write the 
 book ; we know that, because Peter's 
 style is entirely different. None of 
 the four Gospels have the names of 
 the writers attached to them. We 
 have had to find all these things out ; 
 but Mark's Gospel is obviously made 
 
343 THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 up of notes from Peter's evangelistic 
 addresses. 
 
 So we see from these simple exam- 
 ples how human a book the Bible is, 
 and how the Divinity in it has worked 
 through human means. The Bible, in 
 fact, has come out of religion; not 
 religion out of the Bible. 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
No book is worth anything which is not worth 
 much nor is it serviceable until it has been read, 
 and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and 
 marked so that you can refer to the passages you 
 want in it, as a soldier can seize the weapons he 
 needs in any armory, or a housewife bring the 
 piece she needs from her store. 
 
 — John Ruskin. 
 
 Except a living man, there ie nothing more 
 wonderful than a book ! — A message to us from 
 the dead — from human souls whom we never 
 saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away, 
 and yet these, or those little sheets of paper, 
 speak to us, amuse us, comfort us, open their 
 hearts to us as brothers. 
 
 — Chas. Kingsley. 
 
 Good books, like good friends, are few and 
 chosen ; the more select the more enjoyable. 
 
 — A. Bronson Alcott. 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 ly /lY object at this time is to give 
 encouragement and help to the 
 *' duffers," the class of *' hopeful duffers." 
 Brilliant students have every 'help, but 
 second-class students are sometimes neg- 
 lected and disheartened. I have great 
 sympathy "with the duffers," because I 
 was only a second-rate student myself. 
 The subject of my talk with you is 
 
 Books. 
 A gentleman in Scotland who has an 
 excellent library has placed on one side 
 
352 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 of the room his heavy sombre tomes, 
 and over those shelves the form of an 
 owl. On the other side of the room are 
 arranged the lighter books, and over 
 these is the figure of a bird known in 
 Scotland as ''the dipper." This is a 
 most sensible division. The ''owl 
 books" are to be mastered, — the great 
 books, such as Gibbon's "Rome," 
 Butlers "Analogy," Dorner's "Person 
 of Christ," and text-books of philosophy 
 and science. Every student should 
 master one or two, at least, of such 
 "owl books," to exercise his faculties, 
 and give him concentrativeness. I do 
 not intend to linger at this side of the 
 library, but will cross over to the "dip- 
 per books," which are for occasional 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 353 
 
 reading — for stimulus, for guidance, 
 recreation. I will be 
 
 Autobiographical. 
 When I was a student in lodgings I 
 began to form a library, which I ar- 
 ranged along the mantelshelf of my 
 room. It did not contain many books ; 
 but it held as many as some students 
 could afford to purchase, and if wisely 
 chosen, as many as one could well use. 
 My first purchase was a volume of ex- 
 tracts from Ruskin's works, which then 
 in their complete form were very costly. 
 Ruskin taught me to use my eyes. Men 
 are born blind as bats or kittens, and 
 it is long before men's eyes are opened ; 
 some men never learn to see as long as 
 they live. I often wondered, if there was 
 
354 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 a Creator, why He had not made the 
 world more beautiful. Would not crim- 
 son and scarlet colors have been far 
 richer than green and browns ? But 
 Ruskin taught me to see the world as it 
 is, and it soon became a new world to 
 me, full of charm and loveliness. Now 
 I can linger beside a ploughed field and 
 revel in the affluence of color and shade 
 which are to be seen in the newly turned 
 furrows, and I gaze in wonder at the 
 liquid amber of the two feet of air above 
 the brown earth. Now the colors and 
 shades of the woods are a delight, and 
 at every turn my eyes are surprised at 
 fresh charms. The rock which I had 
 supposed to be naked I saw clothed with 
 lichens — patches of color — marvellous 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 355 
 
 organisms, frail as the ash of a cigar, 
 thin as brown paper, yet growing and 
 fructifying in spite of wind and rain, of 
 scorching sun and biting frost. I owe 
 much to Ruskin for teaching me to see. 
 Next on my mantelshelf was Emer- 
 son. I discovered Emerson for myself. 
 When I asked what Emerson was, one 
 authority pronounced him a great man ; 
 another as confidently wrote him down 
 a humbug. So I silently stuck to 
 Emerson. Carlyle I could not read. 
 After wading through a page of Carlyle 
 I felt as if I had been whipped. Carlyle 
 scolded too much for my taste and he 
 seemed to me a great man gone delirious. 
 But in Emerson I found what I would 
 fain have sought in Carlyle ; and, more- 
 
356 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 over, I was soothed and helped. Emer- 
 son taught me to see with the mind. 
 
 Next on my shelf came two or three 
 volumes of George Eliot's works, from 
 which I gained some knowledge and a 
 furthur insight into many philosophical 
 and social questions. But my chief 
 debt to George Eliot at that time was 
 that she introduced me to pleasant char- 
 acters — nice people — and especially to 
 one imaginary young lady whom I was 
 in love with one whole winter, and it 
 diverted my mind in solitude. A good 
 novel is a valuable acquisition, and it 
 supplies companionship of a pleasant 
 kind. 
 
 Amongst my small residue of books I 
 must name Channing's works. Before I 
 
A TALK ON liOOKS. 2>S7 
 
 read Channing I doubted whether there 
 was a God ; at least I would rather have 
 believed that there were no God. After 
 becoming acquainted with Channing I 
 could believe there was a God, and I was 
 glad to believe in Him, for I felt drawn 
 to the good and gracious Sovereign of 
 all things. Still, I needed further what 
 I found in F. W. Robertson, the British 
 officer in the pulpit — bravest, truest of 
 men — who dared to speak what he be- 
 lieved at all hazards. From Robertson 
 I learned that God is human ; that we 
 may have fellowship with Him, because 
 He sympathizes with us. 
 
 One day as I was looking over my 
 mantelshelf library, it suddenly struck 
 me that all these authors of mine were 
 
3S8 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 heretics — these were dangerous books. 
 Undesignedly I had found stimulus and 
 help from teachers who were not cred- 
 ited by orthodoxy. And I have since 
 found that much of the good to be got 
 from books is to be gained from authors 
 often classed as dangerous, for these 
 provoke inquiry, and exercise one's 
 powers. Towards the end of my shelf 
 I had one or two humorous works ; chief 
 amongst them all being Mark Twain. 
 His humor is peculiar; broad exaggera- 
 tion, a sly simplicity, comical situations, 
 and surprising turns of expressions ; but 
 to me it has been a genuine fund of 
 humor. The humorous side of a stu- 
 dent's nature needs to be considered, 
 and where it is undeveloped, it should 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 359 
 
 be cultivated. I have known many in- 
 stances of good students who seemed to 
 have no sense of humor. 
 
 I will not recommend any of my fav- 
 orite books to another; they have done 
 me good, but they might not suit another 
 man. Every man must discover his own 
 books ; but when he has found what fits 
 in with his tastes, what stimulates him 
 to thought, what supplies a want in his 
 nature, and exalts him in conception and 
 feelings, that is the book for the student, 
 be what it may. This brings me to 
 speak of 
 
 The Friendship of Books. 
 
 To fall in love with a good book is 
 one of the greatest events that can 
 
360 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 befall us. It is to have a new influence 
 pouring itself into our life, a new teach- 
 er to inspire and refine us, a new friend 
 to be by our side always, who, when life 
 grows narrow and weary, will take us 
 into his wider and calmer and higher 
 world. Whether it be biography intro- 
 ducing us to some humble life made 
 great by duty done ; or history, opening 
 vistas into the movements and destinies 
 of nations that have passed away; or 
 poetry making music of all the common 
 things around us, and filling the fields, 
 and the skies, and the work of the city 
 and the cottage with eternal meanings 
 — whether it be these, or story books, or 
 religious books, or science, no one can 
 become the friend even of one good 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 361 
 
 book without being made wiser and 
 better. Do not think I am going to 
 recommend any such book to you. The 
 beauty of a friend is that we discover 
 him. And we must each taste the 
 books that are accessible to us for our- 
 selves. Do not be disheartened at first 
 if you like none of them. That is pos- 
 sibly their fault, not yours. But search 
 and search till you find what you like. In 
 amazingly cheap form — for a few pence 
 indeed — almost all the best books are now 
 to be had ; and I think everyone owes it 
 as a sacred duty to his viind to start a 
 little library of his own. How much do 
 we not do for our bodies.^ How much 
 thought and money do they not cost us.^ 
 And shall we not think a little, and pay 
 
362 A TALK ON BOOKS. 
 
 a little, for the clothing and adorning of 
 the imperishable mind? This private 
 library may begin, perhaps, with a single 
 volume, and grow at the rate of one or 
 two a year; but these well-chosen and 
 well-mastered, will become such a foun- 
 tain of strength and wisdom that each 
 shall be eager to add to his store. A 
 dozen books accumulated in this way 
 may be better than a whole library. Do 
 not be distressed if you do not like 
 time-honored books, or classical works, 
 or recommended books. Choose for 
 yourself; trust yourself; plant yourself 
 on your own instincts ; that which is 
 natural for us, that which nourishes us, 
 and gives us appetite, is that which is 
 right for us. We have all different 
 
A TALK ON BOOKS. 363 
 
 minds, and we are all at different stages 
 of growth. Some other day we may 
 find food in the recommended book, 
 though we should possibly starve on 
 it to-day. The mind develops and 
 changes, and the favorites of this year, 
 also, may one day cease to interest us. 
 Nothing better indeed can happen to us 
 than to lose interest in a book we have 
 often read; for it means that it has done 
 its work upon us, and brought us up to 
 its level, and taught us all it had to 
 teach. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. PA. 
 
 STEPHEN. A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS, by Florence 
 Morse Kingsley, author of " Titus, a Comrade of the 
 Cross." " bince Ben-Hur no story has so vividly por- 
 trayed the times of Christ."— 77tt' BookselUr. Cloth, 
 i2mo., 369 pages. ^1.25. 
 
 PAUL. A HERALD OF THE CROSS, by Florence 
 Morse Kingsley. "A vivid and picturesque narrative of 
 the life and times of the great Apostle.' Cloth, orna- 
 mental, i2mo., 450 pages, ;Ji.5o 
 
 VIC. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FOX TER- 
 RIER, by Marie More Marsh. *'A fitting companion 
 to that other wonderful book, ' Black. Beauty.' " Cloth, 
 i2mo., 50 cents. 
 
 WOMAN'S WORK IN THE HOME, by Archdeacon 
 Farrar. Cloth, small i8mo., 50 cents. 
 
 THE APOCRYPHAL BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTA- 
 MENT, being the gospels and epistles used by the fol- 
 lowers of Christ in the first three centuries after his 
 death, and rejected by the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. 
 Cloth, 8vo., illustrated, ;i^2.oo. 
 
 THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, as John Bunvan ivrote 
 it. A fac-simile reproduction of the first edition, pub- 
 lished in 1678. Antique cloth, i2mo., $1.^5. 
 
 THE FAIREST OF THE FAIR, by Hildegarde Haw- 
 thorne. " The grand-daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 possesses a full share of his wonderful genius." Cloth, 
 i6mo., ^1.25 
 
 A LOVER IN HOMESPUN, by F. Clifford Smith. 
 Interesting tales of adventure and home life in Canada. 
 Cloth. i2mo., 75 cents. 
 
 ANNIE BESANT: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Cloth, 
 i2mo., 368 pages, illustrated. ;^2.oo 
 
 THE GRAMMAR OF PALMISTRY, by Katharine St. 
 Hill. Cloth, i2mo., illustrated, 75 cents. 
 
 AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY MINUTES. 
 
 Contains over 100 photographs of the most famous 
 places and edifices with descriptive text. Cloth, 50 
 cents. 
 
 WHAT WOMEN SHOULD KNOW. A woman's book 
 about women. By Mrs. E. B. Duffy. Cloth, 320 
 pages, 75 cents. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE CARE OF CHILDREN, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 
 " An excellent book of the most vital interest." Cloth, 
 i2mo., ^i.oo. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR MOTHERHOOD, by Elisabeth 
 R. Scovil. Cloth, i2mo., 320 pages, ;^i.oo. 
 
 ALTEMUS' CONVERSATION DICTIONARIES. En?- 
 lish-German, English-French, " Combined dictionaries 
 and phrase books." Pocket size, each ^i.oo. 
 
 TAINE'S ENGLISH LITERATURE, translated from 
 the French by Henry Van Laun, illustrated with 20 
 fine photogravure portraits. Best English library 
 edition, four volumes, cloth, full gilt, octavo, per set, 
 $10.00. Half calf, per set, $12.50. Cheaper edition, 
 with frontispiece illustrations only, cloih, paper titles, 
 per set $7.50. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S COMPLETE WORKS, with a bio- 
 graphical sketch by Mary Cowden Clark, embellished 
 with 64 Boydell,and numerous other illustrations, four 
 volumes, over 2000 pages. Half Morocco, izmo., 
 boxed, per set, $3.00. 
 
 DORE'S MASTERPIECES 
 
 THE DORE BIBLE GALLERY. A complete panorama 
 of Bible History, containing 100 full-page engravings 
 by Gustave Dore. 
 
 MILTON'S PARADISE LOST, with 50 full page engrav- 
 ings by Custave Dore. 
 
 DANTE'S INFERNO, with 75 hill page engravings by Gus- 
 tave Dore. 
 
 DANTE'S PURGATORY AND PARADISE, with 60 
 full page engravings by Gustave Dore. 
 
 Cloth, ornamental, large quarto (9 x 12 inches), each $2.00. 
 
 TENNYSON'S IDYLLS OF THE KING, with 37full page 
 
 engravings by Gustave Dore. Cloth, full gilt, large 
 imperial quarto (11 x 14^ inches), $4.50. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 :i-. 
 
 THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, by Sam- 
 uel Taylor Coleridge, with 46 full paj^e engravings by 
 Gustave Dore, Cloth, full gilt, large imperial quarto 
 (11 X 14 J4 inches), ^^3.00. 
 
 BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, with 100 engrav- 
 
 infes by Frederick IJarn.ird and oth«.rs. Cloth, small 
 quarto (9 x 10 inches j, ^i.oo. 
 
 DICKENS' CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 
 
 with 75 tine engravings by famous artists. Cloth, 
 small quarto, boxed (9 x 10 inches), ;^i.oo. 
 
 BIBLE PICTURES AND STORIES, loc full page engrav- 
 ings. Cloth, small quarto (7x9 inches), ;^i.oo. 
 
 MY ODD LITTLE FOLK, some rhymes and verses 
 about them, by Malcolm Douglass. Numerous original 
 engravings. Cloth, small quarto (7x9), j^i.oo. 
 
 PAUL AND VIRGINIA, by Bemardin St. Pierre, with 125 
 engravings by Maurice Leloir, Cloth, small quarto 
 (gx io),;^i.oo. 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRU- 
 SOE, with 120 original engravings by Wa.ter Paget. 
 Cloth, octavo {7% x.gyi), $1.50. 
 
 ALTEMUS' ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF 
 STANDARD AUTHORS. 
 
 Cloth, Twelve Mo. Size, 5]/^ x ■]% Inches. Each ^1,00. 
 
 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, by Charles and Mary 
 
 Lamb, with 155 illustrations by famows artists. 
 PAUL AND VIRGINIA, by Bemardin de St. Pierre, with 
 
 125 engravings by Alaurice Leloir. 
 ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, AND 
 
 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND 
 
 WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE, by Lewis 
 
 Carroll. Complete in one volume with 92 engravings 
 
 by John Tenniel. 
 LUCILE, by Owen Meredith, with numerous illustrations by 
 
 George J >u Maurier. 
 BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell, with nearly 50 original 
 
 engravings. 
 SCARLET LETTER, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, with numer- 
 ous original fuil-page and le.xt illustrations. 
 THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, by Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne, with numerous original lul.-page and text 
 
 illustrations. 
 BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 by Prescott Holmes, with 7 . illustration.s 
 BATTLES OF THE W^AR FOR THE UNION, by 
 
 Prescott Holmes, with 80 illustrations. 
 
/ 
 
 HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ALTEMUS V'OUNG PEOPLES' LIBRARY 
 
 PRICE FIFTY CENTS EACH. 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE : (Chiefly in words of one syllable). 
 His life and strange, surprising adventures, with 70 
 beautiful illustrations by Walter Paget. 
 
 ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, with 
 42 illustrations by John Tenniel. " The most delightful 
 of children's stories. Elegant and delicious nonsense." 
 — Saturday Review. 
 
 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT 
 ALICE FOUND THERE; a companion to " Alice 
 in Wonderland," with 50 illustrations by John Tenniel. 
 
 BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, with 50 full page 
 and text illustrations. 
 
 A CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE, with 72 full page 
 illustrations, 
 
 A CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST, with 49 illustrations. 
 God has implanted in the infant heart a desire to hear 
 of Jesus, and children are early attracted and sweetly 
 riveted by the wonderful Story of the Master from the 
 Manger to the Throne. 
 
 SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, with 50 illustrations. The 
 father of the family tells the tale of the vicissitudes 
 through which he and his wife and children pass, the 
 wonderful discoveries made and dangers encountered. 
 The book is full of interest and instruction, 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOV- 
 ERY OF AMERICA, with 70 illustrations. Every 
 American boy and girl should be acquainted v/ith the 
 story of the life of the great discoverer, with its strug- 
 gles, adventures, and trials. 
 
 THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 
 IN AFRICA, with 80 illustrations. Records the ex- 
 periences of adventures and discoveries in developing 
 the " Dark Continent," from the early days of Bruce 
 and Mungo Park down to Livingstone and Stanley, 
 and the h'.roes of cur own time-;. No preseni can be 
 more acceptable than such a volume as thi-, where 
 courage, intrepidity, re.source, and devotion ure so 
 admirauiy mingled. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Altemus' Young Peoples' Library— continued. 
 
 THE FABLES OF /ESOP. Compiled from th* best 
 accepted sources. With 62 illustrations. I'he fables of 
 i^j^sop are among the very earliest compositions of this 
 kind, and probably have never been surpassed fur point 
 and brevity. 
 
 GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. Adapted for young readers. 
 With 50 illustrations. 
 
 MOTHER GOOSE'S RHYMES, JINGLES AND 
 FAIRY TALES, with 234 illustrations. 
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED 
 STATES, by Prescott Holmes. With portraits of 
 the Presidents and also of the unsuccessful candidates 
 for the office ; as well as the ablest of the Cabinet offi- 
 cers. It is just the book for intelligent boys, and it 
 will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. 
 
 THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN 
 
 SEAS, with 70 illustrations. By Prescott Holmes. 
 We have here brought together the records of the 
 attempts to reach the North Pole. The book shows 
 how much can be accomplished by steady perseverance 
 and indomitable pluck. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY, by the Rev J. 
 
 G. Wood, with 8j illustrations. This author has done 
 more to popularize the study of natural history than 
 anv other writer. The illustrations are striking and 
 life-like. 
 
 A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, by Charles 
 Dickens, with 50 illustrations. 'I'ired of listening to 
 his children memorize the twaddle of old fashioned 
 English history the author covere 1 the ground in his 
 own peculiar and happy style for his own children's 
 use. When the work was published its success was 
 instantaneous. 
 
 BLACK BEAUTY, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A 
 HORSE, by Anna Sewell, with 50 illustrations. A 
 work sure to educate boys and girls to treat with kind- 
 ness all members of the animal kingdom. Recognized 
 as the greatest story of animal life extant. 
 
 THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS, 
 
 with 130 illustrations. Contains the most favorably 
 known of the stories. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ALTEMUS' DEVOTIONAL SERIES. 
 
 Standard Religious lyiterature Appropriately Bound in 
 
 Handy Volume Size. iEach Volume contains 
 
 Illuminated Title, Portrait of Author 
 
 and Appropriate Illustrations. 
 
 WHITE VELLUM, SILVER AND MONOTINT, 
 BOXED, EACH FIFTY CENTS. 
 
 1 KEPT FOR THE MASTER'S USE, by Frances Ridley 
 Havergal. " Will perpetuate her name." 
 
 2 MY KING AND HIS SERVICE, OR DAILY 
 
 THOUGHTS FOR THE KING'S CHILDREN, 
 
 by F>ances Ridley Havergal. " Simple, tender, gentle, 
 and full of Christian love." 
 
 3 MY POINT OF VIEW. Selections from the works of 
 
 Professor Henry Drummond. 
 
 4 OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, by Thomas 
 
 AKempis. " With the exception of the Bible it is 
 probably the book most read in Christian literature." 
 
 • 5 ADDRESSES, by Professor Henry Drummond. " Intel- 
 ligent sympathy with the Christian's need." 
 
 6 NATURAL LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 
 
 by Professor Henry Drummond. " A most notable 
 book which has earned for the author a world-wide 
 reputation." 
 
 7 ADDRESSES, by the Rev. PhilHps Brooks. "Has 
 
 exerted a marked influence over the rising generation." 
 
 8 ABIDE IN CHRIST. Thoughts on the Blessed Life of 
 
 Fellowship with the Son of God. By the Rev. Andrew 
 Murray. It cannot fail to stimulate and cheer. — 
 
 9 LIKE CHRIST. Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Con- 
 
 formity to the Son of God. By the Rev. Andrew 
 Murray. A sequel to " Abide in Christ." "May be 
 read with comfort and edification by all." 
 
 ID WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER» 
 
 by the Rev Andrew Murray. *' The best work on 
 prayer in the language." 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 XX HOLY IN CHRIST. ThouKhts on the Calling of God's 
 Children to be Holy as He is Holy. I^y the Rev. 
 Andrew Murray. " This sacred theme istieated Scrip- 
 turally and robustly without spurious sentimentalism." 
 
 12 THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST, by Thomas Hughes, 
 author of "Tom Brown's School Days," etc. "Evi- 
 dences of the sublimest courage and manliness in 
 the boyhood, ministry, and in the last acts of Christ's 
 life." 
 
 X3 ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN, by the Rev. Henry 
 Ward Heecher. Seven Addresses on common vices and 
 their results. 
 
 14 THE PATHWAY OF SAFETY, by the Rt. Rev. Ash- 
 
 ton O.xenden, D.D. Sound words of advice and encour- 
 agement on the text ** What must I do to be saved?" 
 
 15 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, by the Rt. Rev. Ashton 
 
 Oxenden, D. D. A beautiful delineation of an ideal life 
 from the conversion to the final reward. 
 
 16 THE THRONE OF GRACE. Before which the bur- 
 
 dened soul may cast itself on the bosom of infinite love 
 and enjoy in prayer" a peace which passeth all under- 
 standing." 
 
 17 THE PATHWAY OF PROMISE, by the author of 
 
 "The Throne of Grace." Thoughts consolatory and 
 encouraging to the Christian pilgrim as he journeys 
 onward to his heavenly home. 
 
 18 THE IMPREGNABLE ROCK OF HOLY SCRIP- 
 
 TURE, by the Rt. Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, 
 M, P. The most masterly defence of the truths of the 
 Bible extant. The author says : The Christian Faith 
 and the Holy Scriptures arm us with the means of neu- 
 tralizing and repelling the assaults of evil in and from 
 ourselves. 
 
 19 STEPS INTO THE BLESSED LIFE, by the Rev. F. 
 
 B. Meyer, B. A. A powerful help towards sanctifica- 
 tion. 
 
 ao THE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by the Rev. Richard W. 
 Church, D. D. Eight excellent sermons on the advent 
 of the Babe of Bethlehem and his influence and effect 
 on the world. 
 
 21 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK, by the Rev. Charles 
 
 H. Spurgeon. 
 
 22 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, by the Rev. 
 
 Charles H. Spurgeon. 
 
 23 THE CHANGED CROSS; AND OTHER RE- 
 
 LIGIOUS POEMS. 
 
ALTEMUS' ETERNAL LIFE SERIES. 
 
 Selections from the writings of well-known religious 
 
 authors, beautifully printed and daintily bound 
 
 with original designs in silver and ink. 
 
 PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME. 
 
 1 ETERNAL LIFE, by Professor Henry Drummond. 
 
 2 LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, by Rev. Andrew Murray. 
 
 3 GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORK, by Martin Luther. 
 
 4 FAITH, by Thomas Arnold. 
 
 5 THE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. 
 
 Gladstone. 
 
 6 THE MESSAGE OF COMFORT, by Rt. Rev. Ashton 
 
 Oxenden. 
 
 7 THE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by Rev R. W. Church. 
 
 8 THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE TEN COM- 
 
 MANDMENTS, by LVan Stanley. 
 
 9 THE MEMOIRS OF JESUS, by Rev. Robert F. Horton. 
 
 10 HYMNS OF PRAISE AND GLADNESS, by Elisabeth 
 
 R. Scovil. 
 
 11 DIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith. 
 
 12 GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward 
 
 Beecher. 
 
 13 HAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Murray. 
 
 14 TWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry 
 
 Ward Beecher. 
 
 15 THE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, 
 
 by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 
 i6 IN MY NAME, > y Rev. Andrew Murray. 
 17 SIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
 i8 THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, 
 
 by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 
 ig POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward 
 
 Beecher. 
 
 20 TRUE LIBERTY, by Rt. Rev Phillips Brooks. 
 
 21 INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward 
 
 Beecher. 
 
 22 THE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. 
 
 Rev. Phillip'; Brooks. 
 
 23 THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. 
 
 T. Pierson, D D. 
 
 24 THOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips. Brooks. 
 
 25 THE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 26 MORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 
 
 27 FOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt. 
 
 28 EVENING COMFORT, by Elisabeth R. Scovil 
 
 29 WORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by 
 
 Rev. F B. Meyer. 
 
 30 HO'W TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. 
 
 Moody 
 
 31 EXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot. 
 
 32 JESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Hesba Stratton. 
 
ALTEMUS' BELLES-LETTRES SERIES. 
 
 A collection of Essays and Addresses by eminent 
 
 English and American Authors, beautifully 
 
 primed and daintily bo\md, with 
 
 original designs in silver. 
 
 PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME. 
 
 1 INDEPENDENCE DAY, by Rev. Edward E. Hale, 
 
 3 THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS, by Hon. Richard Olney. 
 
 3 THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, by Edward W. Bok. 
 
 4 THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH, by Edward 
 
 W. Bok. 
 
 5 THE SPOILS SYSTEM, by Hon. Carl Schurz. 
 
 6 CONVERSATION, by Thomas DeQuincey. 
 
 7 SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, by Matthew Arnold. 
 
 8 WORK, by John Ruskin. 
 
 9 NATURE AND ART, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 10 THE USE AND MISUSE OF BOOKS, by Frederic 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 11 THE MONROE DOCTRINE: ITS ORIGIN, MEAN- 
 
 ING AND APPLICATION, by Prof. John Bach 
 McMaster (University of Pennsylvania). 
 
 12 THE DESTINY OF MAN, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 
 13 LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 14 RIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington Irving. 
 
 15 ART, POETRY AND MUSIC, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 
 16 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 J 7 MANNERS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 18 CHARACTER, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 19 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Wash- 
 
 ington Irving. 
 
 20 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 
 21 SELF RELIANCE, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 22 THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 -.3 SPIRITUAL LAWS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 24 OLD CHRISTMAS, by Washington Irving 
 
 25 HEALTH, WEALTH AND THE BLESSING OF 
 
 FRIENDS, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 25 INTELLECT, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 i7 WHY AMERICANS DISLIKE ENGLAND, by Prof. 
 
 Geo B Adams (Yale). 
 c8 THE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TRAINING FOR 
 
 BUSINESS, by Prof Harry Pratt Judson (University 
 
 of Chicago). 
 
 29 MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. 
 
 30 LADDIE. 
 
 31 J. COLE, by Emma Gellibrand. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ALTEMUS' NEW ILLUSTRATED 
 VADEMECUM SERIES. 
 
 Masterpieces of English and American I^iterature, Handy 
 
 Volume Size, Large Type Editions. Each Volume 
 
 Contains Illuminated Title Pages, and Portrait 
 
 of Author and Numerous Engravings 
 
 Full Cloth, ivory finish, oraamental inlaid sides and back, 
 boxed 40 
 
 Full White Vellum, full silver and monotint, boxed .... 50 
 
 1 CRANFORD, by Mrs. Gaskell. 
 
 2 A WINDOW IN THRUMS, by J. M. Barrie. 
 
 3 RAB AND HIS FRIENDS, MARJORIE FLEM- 
 
 ING, ETC., by John Brown, M. D. 
 
 4 THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, by Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 5 THE IDLE THOUGHTS OF AN IDLE FELLOW, 
 
 by Jerome K. Jerome. " A book for an idle holiday." 
 
 6 TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE, by Charles and Mary 
 
 Lamb, with an introduction by the Rev, Alfred Aineer. 
 M. D. ^ ' 
 
 7 SESAME AND LILIES, by John Ruskin. 
 
 Three Lectures — I. Of the King's Treasures. II. Of 
 Queen's Garden. III. Of the Mystery of Life. 
 
 8 THE ETHICS OF THE DUST,by John Ruskin. Ten 
 
 lectures to little housewives on the elements ot crystali- 
 zation. 
 
 9 THE PLEASURES OF LIFE, by Sir John Lubbock. 
 
 Complete in one volume. 
 
 ID THE SCARLET LETTER, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 11 THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, by 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 12 MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE, by Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. "^ 
 
 Altemus' New Illustrated Vadcmecum Series- 
 continued. 
 
 13 TWICE TOLD TALES, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 14 THE ESSAYS OF P'RANCIS (LORD) BACON 
 
 WITH MEMOIRS AND NOTES. 
 
 15 ESSAYS, First Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 x6 ESSAYS, Second Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 17 REPRESENTATIVE MEN, by R.ilph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 Mental portraits each representing a class. i. The 
 Philosopher. 2. The Mystic.. 3. The Skeptic. 4. The 
 Poet. 5. The Man of the World. 6. The Writer. 
 
 18 THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS 
 
 AURELIUS ANTONINUS, translated by George 
 Long. 
 
 19 THE DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS WITH THE 
 
 ENCHIRIDION, translated by George Long. 
 
 20 OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, by Thomas 
 A^Kempis. Four books complete in one volume. 
 
 ai ADDRESSES, by Professor Henry Drummond. The 
 Greatest Thing in the World ; Pax Vobiscum ; The 
 Changed Life; How to Learn How; Dealing With 
 Doubt ; Preparation for Learning ; What is a Chris- 
 tian ; The Study of the Bible ; A Talk on Books. 
 
 M LETTERS, SENTENCES AND MAXIMS, by Lord 
 
 Chesterfield. Masterpieces of good taste, good writing 
 and good sense. 
 
 23 REVERIES OF A BACHELOR. A book of the 
 
 heart. By Ik Marvel. 
 
 24 DREAM LIFE, by Ik Marvel. A companion to " Reve- 
 
 ries of a Bachelor." 
 
 25 SARTOR RESARTUS, by Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 26 HEROES AND HERO WORSHIP, by Thomas Car- 
 
 lyle. 
 
 27 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
 
 28 ESSAYS OF ELIA, by Charles I^mb. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series- 
 continued. 
 
 39 MY POINT OF VIEW. Representative selections from 
 the works of Professor Henry Drunimond by William 
 Shepard. 
 
 30 THE SKETCH BOOK, by Washington Irving. Com- 
 
 plete. 
 
 31 KEPT FOR THE MASTER'S USE, by Frances 
 
 Ridley Havergal. 
 
 32 LUCILE, by Owen Meredith. 
 
 33 LALLA ROOKH, by Thomas Moore. 
 
 34 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 35 MARMION, by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 36 THE PRINCESS ; AND MAUD, by Alfred (Lord) 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 37 CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE, by Lord 
 
 Byron. 
 
 38 IDYLLS OF THE KING, by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. 
 
 39 EVANGELINE, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 40 VOICES OF THE NIGHT AND OTHER POEMS, 
 
 by Henr>' V/adsworth Longfellow. 
 
 41 THE QUEEN OF THE AIR, by John Ruskin. A 
 
 study of the Greek myths of cloud and storm. 
 
 42 THE BELFRY OF BRUGES AND OTHER 
 
 POEMS, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 43 POEMS, Volume I, by John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 44 POEMS, Volume II, by John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS* PUBLICATIONS. ^ 
 
 Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series- 
 continued. 
 
 45 THE RAVEN; AND OTHER POEMS, by Edgar 
 
 Allan Poe. 
 
 46 THANATOPSIS;AND OTHER POEMS, by William 
 
 Culleu Bryant. 
 
 47 THE LAST LEAF;AND OTHER POEMS, by Oliver 
 
 Wendell Holmes. 
 
 48 THE HERpES OR GREEK FAIRY TALES, by 
 
 Charles Kingsley. 
 
 49 A WONDER BOOK, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 50 UNDINE, by de La Motte Fouque, 
 
 51 ADDRESSES, by the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 
 
 52 BALZAC'S SHORTER STORIES, by Honore de 
 
 Balzac. 
 
 53 TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, by Richard 
 
 H. Dana, Jr. 
 
 54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. An Autobiography. 
 
 55 THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA, by Charles Lamb. 
 
 56 TOM BRO'WN'S SCHOOL DAYS, by Thomas 
 
 Hughes. 
 
 57 WEIRD TALES, by Edgar Allan Poe. 
 
 58 THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, by John Ruskin. 
 
 Three lectures on Work, Traffic and War. 
 
 59 NATURAL LAW^ IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 
 
 by Professor Henry Drummond. 
 
 60 ABBE CONSTANTIN, by Ludovic Halevy. 
 
 61 MANON LESCAUT, by Abbe Prevost. 
 
7 
 
 / HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series — 
 continued. 
 
 62 THE ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG MAN, by 
 
 Octave Feuillet. 
 
 63 BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell. 
 
 64 CAMILLE, by Alexander Dumas, Jr. 
 
 65 THE LIGHT OF ASIA, by Sir Edwin Arnold. 
 
 56 THE LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, by Thomas 
 Babington Macaulay. 
 
 67 THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM- 
 
 EATER, by Thomas De Quincey. 
 
 68 TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert L. Stevenson. 
 
 6g CARMEN, by Prosper Merimee. 
 
 70 A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, by Laurence Sterne. 
 
 71 THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE, by Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 72 BAB BALLADS, AND SAVOY SONGS, by W. H. 
 
 Gilbert. 
 
 73 FANCHON, THE CRICKET, by George Sand. 
 
 74 POEMS, by James Russell Lowell. 
 
 75 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK, by the Rev. Charles 
 
 H. Spurgeon, 
 
 76 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, by the Rev. 
 
 Charles H. Spurgeon. 
 
 77 THE MANLINESS OF CHRIST, by Thomas 
 
 Hughes. 
 
 78 ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN, by the Rev. Henry 
 
 Ward Beecher. 
 
 79 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST 
 
 TABLE, by OUver Wendell Holmes. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS' PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Altemus' New Illustrated Vademecum Series — 
 continued. 
 
 80 MULVANEY STORIES, by Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 81 BALLADS, by Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 8a MORNING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Havergal. 
 
 83 TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM, by T. S. Arthur. 
 
 84 EVENING THOUGHTS, by Frances Ridley Qavergal. 
 
 85 IN MEMORIAM, by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. 
 
 86 COMING TO CHRIST, by Frances Ridley Haverga'!. 
 
 87 HOUSE OF THE WOLF, by Stanley Weyman. 
 
 AMERICAN POLITICS (non-Partisan), by Hon. Thomas 
 V. Cooper, A history- of all the Political Parties with their 
 views and records on all important questions. All political 
 platforms from the beginning to date. Great Speeches or> 
 Great issues. Parliamentary Practice and tabulated history 
 of chronological events. A library without this work is de- 
 ficient. 8vo., 750 pages. Cloth, $3.00. Full Sheep Library 
 style, $4 00. 
 
 NAMES FOR CHILDREN, by Elisabeth Robinson Scovil, 
 author of " The Care of Children," " Preparation for 
 Motherhood." In family life there is no question of greater 
 weight or importance than naming the baby. The author 
 gives much good advice and many suggestions on the sub- 
 ject. Cloth, i2mo., $ .40. 
 
 TRIE AND TRIXY,byJohn Habberton, author of "Helen's 
 Babies." The story is replete with vivid and spirited 
 scenes; and is incomparably the happiest and most de- 
 lightful work Mr. Habberton has yet written. Cloth, 
 i2mo., $ .35. 
 
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