letter* on tfje Orville Dewey is but fol- lowing out Christ's own teaching when he says : " Every relation to mankind, of hate or scorn or neglect, is full of vexation and torment. There is nothing to do with men but to love them ; to contemplate their virtues with admiration, their faults with pity and forbearance, and their injuries with forgiveness. Task all the ingenuity of your mind to devise some other thing, but you can .never find it. To hate your adver- [74] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sary will not help you ; to kill him will not help you ; there is nothing within the compass of the universe can help you, but to love him." And that men are our brothers means, also, that whether we will or not, they are really 'very like us. We may strive to put them in quite another class, and yet, if we will be honest, we are constrained to admit that they are, nevertheless, in the great essentials, just like us, made with the same faculties, the same fundamental doubleness of nature, the same variableness, the same great possibilities, and the same great uni- versal interests ; and these respects which are common to us all are, after all, greater than those which divide class from class. This vision of men as children of God even in their disobedience, and [75] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY as brothers one of another in their necessary recognition of their like- ness and of the indissoluble way in which their lives are knit to- gether, Christ never loses. Because he knows that the only true life is the life of the heavenly Father, which is the life of love, he must believe that the Father has made all men capable of this life, and desires that into it they all should be brought. Even in their sin and need, therefore, Christ sees men still as children away from the Father's house and from his life of love, and therefore in darkness, in loneliness, in emptiness and misery and want, and in sin against the Father's love. For them there can be no way back into light and friendship and large- ness and richness of life, and right- eousness, but the way back to the [76] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Father's house, into the sharing of his own life of love. And Christ knows so fully the inexorableness of this demand for love as the one source of life, that he knows that the whole spiritual life is a unity, that no part of the life of men can go up or down alone, that it is all of a piece, that good or evil cherished anywhere tends to per- meate the whole. From Christ's point of view, therefore, whatever the wrong another has done me, still suspicion and contempt and hate are the very working of death in me. And for my own life's sake, I must throw them off. On the other hand, every bit of true love counts. It is, then, just because Christ sees so clearly that love is life and hate is death, that he must insist so strenu- ously upon the most radical carrying [77] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY through of the loving spirit. He knows, therefore, that the com- mands of the loving Father are laid on us in love, and that we come into life and blessing, not in the propor- tion in which we evade these com- mands of the Father, but rather in just the proportion in which we may radically carry them through to the completest fulfilment. It is, therefore, not because Christ desires to lay upon us a harder law, that he gives such deep, inner interpretation of the law of righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount, but only be- cause of his consuming passion to bring us into the fullest life. The sin of men, thus, from Christ's point of view, can only be seen in its true depth and ugliness and deadliness when we set it over \gainst the love of God and the [78] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH longing of the heavenly Father for every son of man. Both the great- ness and the sin of men, therefore, are to be seen only in the light of the supreme revelation of God in Christ himself. And when we thus see men as they are in Christ's ideal, and as they are in their estrange- ment from God, we see, at the same time, the true and the false life. And so we have, as I understand it, Christ's doctrine of man, of sin, and of righteousness. It all grows directly out of the thought of God as Father. The great essentials of Christ's thought here you can make plain even to a child ; but its signifi- cance deepens with every year of growth. [79] LETTER VI THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A FRIENDSHIP Letter Six THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS A FRIENDSHIP WHEN Christ makes the sum of his gospel the revelation of God as Father, when he sums up all life in the one great command- ment of love to God and to men, when he makes the supreme test of the judgment to lie in a ministering love, in all these statements alike he seems to be declaring that the life of the disciple of Christ is simply a life of friendship. It seems to me sometimes that it is because of the very simplicity of Christ's message that it escapes us. We admit it all as though it were [83] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY a matter of course, and still fail to draw the first inferences from it. And yet, in very truth the Chris- tian life is a friendship with God, with men. The problem of life is the problem of friendship. This is to be deliberately, even philosoph- ically, said. For persons are the most certain of facts, the most im- portant of facts, and the most per- manent of facts. Persons are the most certain of facts. In all our life no fact is so certain as the existence of persons. Many philosophies have questioned the reality of the external world of matter, but no philosophy has ever seriously questioned the existence of persons. Persons, too, are for us the most important facts, because in our rela- tions to them we find the greatest [84] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sources both of happiness and of character. We live in these per- sonal relations. It is our friends who reveal us to ourselves ; our friends who, in Emerson's phrase, " make us do what we can/' And persons are not less certainly the most abiding facts. Only a friendship can be eternal. " Love never faileth." " The world pass- eth away, . . . but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Rightly to fulfil these personal rela- tions, human and divine, in the midst of which we are placed, that is, simply to be a good friend, is the sum of all. For love is the central virtue, all-embracing. As Paul argues, " Love worketh no ill to his neighbor : love therefore is the fulfilment of the law." The conception, consequently, of that [85] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY denomination whom others call Quakers, but who call themselves " Friends," is close to the very center of the gospel. Christ calls his disciples to live the life of obedi- ent children of God, and of brothers one of another, to have and to show increasingly the simply friendly spirit. And the New Testament every- where conceives the relation in which the disciple stands to God as an individual, intimate, constant, and unobtrusive personal relation of the Spirit of God to the man's spirit. Other figures of speech are used in setting forth this relation ; but the dominant conception throughout the New Testament is personal. We have a clear right, therefore, to affirm that from the point of view of Christ's own teaching, and of [86] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH the New Testament generally, the Christian life is to be conceived as a personal relation of friendship with God on the one hand, and with our fellow men on the other. When, then, you are trying to bring others into the Christian life, you are seeking to introduce them into a life even so simple as this. You are only trying to persuade them to be good friends, obedient children of the heavenly Father, true brothers one of another. " Beloved, let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God." Let me ask you to think with me, then, for a moment of the signifi- cance of this simple conception of the Christian life, and to note the light which it throws on the knowl- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY edge of God, on the unity of life, and on our relations to others. I. And, first, how am I to find God ? " This is life eternal/' John makes Jesus say, " that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." This conception, that my relation to God is primarily that of a personal friendship, makes impossible a merely creedal, or tech- nically religious conception of that relation. We need, no doubt, to know many things about God ; but knowledge about God is not the same thing as that acquaintance with God which Jesus evidently has in mind. It is quite possible, in this sense, to be Christian in head and pagan in heart ; to have learned much of theology, and yet to be sadly clear that one stands in no close relation [88] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH to God himself. It is not primarily by the searching of the intellect that we find our way to God. Nor is it primarily even by religious exercises that we draw near to God. I should wish to be very far from underes- timating the value of either prayer or Bible study ; on the contrary, I believe them of vital importance. But Christ gave few directions for either. And he made it very clear that no man was prepared to pray, who was not willing to have the forgiving and the loving spirit. Not primarily, then, by the searching of the intellect, and not primarily by way of religious exercises, but by catching, in the presence of Christ, his own spirit of love, are we prepared to find in him the su- preme revelation of God. Only love can believe in love other [89] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY than sentimentally. And it was those who had ministered in the loving spirit, who, Christ showed, had done it even unto him. No argument or demonstration, no ec- static visions of Christ, no religious experiences, no prophesying in his name, can take the place of the lov- ing spirit. The cup of cold water given in the name of the disciple is itself a direct road, Christ assures us, to the vision of the manifestation of God in him. Just so we find him. But we are often not really willing to take this lowly, simple way to God. We want to make great de- monstrations and learned arguments, and feel the thrill of marvelous religious experiences with magical changes. And yet it is still true that " every one that loveth is be- gotten of God, and knoweth God." [90] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH II. And this conception of the Christian life as friendship brings, also, wonderful unity into life. If the spirit that is required of us in rela- tion both to God and to men is essentially the same spirit, then all our life is wonderfully simplified and unified. The first and the second great commandments are bound up together. God's lessons are close at hand. Every human relationship becomes, thus, a teacher of God. We are helped into a true love of God in the proportion in which we are most faithfully fulfil- ling the common relations of our daily life. To be a good son, a good brother, a good husband, a good father, a good friend, all this directly helps into right rela- tions to God. What it means to call God " Father," and to think of [Qi ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY ourselves as his " children," and to say that he " loves " us, we must largely learn in the very midst of our human relationships. Every genuine love is, thus, both an evi- dence of the divine love and a prep- aration for it. The old ascetic and monkish idea, therefore, that we were peculiarly drawing near to God as we withdrew from human relationships, is found to be neces- sarily out of harmony with Christ's fundamental conception. If the true life is the life of love, we must learn it not apart from men, but among them. We draw near to God as we draw near to men. III. This simple conception of the Christian life as a friendship has also its light to throw upon our relations to others. For it empha- sizes, on the one hand, the duty of [92] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH enlarging the circle of our friends, and, on the other hand, the duty of deepening our friendships. Obvi- ously, if in Christ's thought the world's goal is the civilization of brotherly men, his disciples must more and more and everywhere prove themselves friends. Impor- tant as it is that one should be faithful to what we call our specific religious duties to other men, Christ's own judgment test makes it clear that the great question of the judgment will be, not, With how many have you spoken concerning their souls ? but, With how many have you earned the right to speak of the things that lie deepest and are most sacred to them ? With how many have you shown your- self truly friendly ? How many know that you love them ? " Inas- [93] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY much as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." And if the Christian life is funda- mentally friendship, and implies not only the duty of steadily enlarging the circle of our friends, but also the duty of deepening our friend- ships, one may well confront him- self again and again with the questions, How deep and sacred a thing is friendship to you ? How large and rich a self are you giving to your friends ? Have you any friendship that could easily be con- ceived as a type of the perfect life in God ? How far are you achiev- ing the highest in friendship ? In some measure, surely, that ought to be true of every disciple of Christ which Baron Bunsen said of his wife, as, dying, he looked up into [94] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH her face, " In thy face I have seen the face of the Eternal." And our highest service to our friends in seek- ing to bring them into the eternal life lies in this, that they should catch some glimpses of God through our lives. [95] LETTER VII THE BASIS IN THE DIVINE FRIENDSHIP Letter Seven THE BASIS IN THE DIVINE FRIENDSHIP IN my last letter I asked you to see that, in entire harmony with Christ's own thought and the deepest trend of the New Testament writ- ings, we could best conceive of the Christian life as simply a friendship with God, with men. If this is a true conception, then the very beginning of the life with God, of communion with him, is our en- trance upon this divine friendship, which necessarily involves, at the same time, a life of love toward men. The conditions of a deep- ening spiritual life, the conditions [99] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY of all growth in the Christian life, are simply the conditions of a deepening friendship with God and men. And these conditions are essentially the same for our relation with God as for our relation with men. We may think of our reli- gious life as simply a deepening acquaintance with God, and may ask at once what the conditions are upon which that friendship with God may deepen. Let us ask, then, what the basis is in any true friendship. If God is a person, and we are persons and our relation to him is conse- quently first of all a personal rela- tion, then the basis of our personal relation with him must be that of any true friendship. And it is be- cause I hope that you who read will find this conception helpful not OP THE CHRISTIAN FAITH only in your own lives, but es- pecially helpful in presenting the Christian life to your friends, that I am asking you to note with me that the facts which must lie at the basis of every friendship worthy of the name are exactly those facts that have to be considered in lay- ing the foundation of any genuine Christian life. Now the foundation of all high friendship, whether with God or with men, so far as I can see, must be threefold : mutual self-revelation and answering trust, mutual self- surrender, and some deep commu- nity of interests. I. And, first, at the basis of every friendship, human and divine, must lie mutual self-revelation and answering trust. All deepening of personal relations involves such in- [101] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY creasing revelation on the part of each of the friends, and an answer- ing trust as well on the part of each. The terms " revelation " and " trust/' therefore, that we some- times think of as peculiarly religious, are in truth not peculiar to religion at all, but necessarily involved in every true friendship. If a friend- ship is to grow, one cannot always be " on probation/' " Perfect love casteth out fear." Self-revelation and answering trust assume, of course, association. In our relation to God, it assumes, above all, our staying in the presence of Christ in the Word. And the trust that must underlie our friendship with God, as our friendship with men, must be a trust both in the character and in the love of the other. One does [102] OP THE CHRISTIAN FAITH not need to make terms with a real friend. He can trust his friend out of his sight. Now God has meant to make the greatest possible proof both of his character and of his love in his revelation in Christ. He asks for no trust without evi- dence. He might rather ask, Have I not given you reason to trust my love? What more can or would you ask than I have already made plain in Christ ? Growing revela- tion, too, calls out growing trust, as also growing trust calls out growing revelation. The friendship deepens at every point with the growth of this double basis. It is no mystery, then, that faith is so prominent a word in Christian- ity, because we have in Christ the greatest of all self-revelations of the greatest person, calling out, [ 103] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY therefore, the supreme faith. More- over, there is a special reason why, in our relation to God, we must walk by faith. If there is danger in any friendship that the stronger personality may override the life of his friend, the danger is still greater in our relation with God. His relation to us must not be an obtrusive one. We need the invis- ible God. If we are at all to make choices that are our own, we must walk here by faith, not by sight. And it is not more true that God asks our trust than that he also trusts us. How priceless are the interests that he has committed to us in his kingdom, and how cer- tainly does the freedom from mere rules in the religion of Christ show his willingness to rest all on our loyal love to him ! [104] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH II. But in the basis of any true friendship there must be, also, mu- tual self-surrender. Perhaps the best definition of love that we know is the giving of the self. It is not things, nor any certain kind of treatment that we ask from our friends, but themselves. This giv- ing of the self presupposes, of course, trust. One cannot absolutely sub- mit without absolute trust. And the depth of the friendship depends upon the completeness with which the self is given ; the significance of the friendship, upon the richness of the self given. One can almost range his friendships, upon careful thought, in an ascending scale, de- pending upon the extent to which he gives himself in them. And the duty of growth connects itself at once with the fact that in our [105] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY friendships we can ultimately give nothing but ourselves. If, there- fore, we are to have much here to give, we must take pains to fulfil the conditions of our own growth. One who has once wakened up to the significance of a high friend- ship certainly understands that such a friendship is not, as one has said, "a weakening denial of self, but a strengthening affirmation of self," that every such added friendship is an enlargement of life. When, then, we try to think of this self- giving as applied to our relation to God, we see at once that the de- mand for a surrender of ourselves is no demand peculiar to God, and no de- mand arbitrary in God. In demand- ing such giving of ourselves, God makes the same kind of demand that we make on one another. [106] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH And it is just as certain that the de- mand is not an arbitrary one. God must ask that we shall give ourselves completely to him, if he is to give himself completely to us. It is passing strange that the terms " self- surrender/' " self-giving," " com- plete consecration," have so hard and different a sound in religion than in other relations. We see the facts as they are only when we see that these terms stated in the relation to God, even as in relation to man, are simply the inevitable, glad condition upon which alone the best in friendship may come to us. There seem to me, sometimes, to be two opposite instincts in man, self-devotion and the insatiate thirst for love. And it is the great, unique contribution of religion, that it [107] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY introduces us to that one relation in which both these instincts can be absolutely unchecked and com- pletely satisfied. In every human relation, even the closest and dearest, there are many limitations. In much we must all live alone. There is only one relation in which we can give ourselves unstintedly, only one which is wholly satisfying. III. The two fundamental ele- ments in every friendship, and so in our friendship with God, already noted mutual self-revelation and answering trust, and mutual self- surrender both point forward to the need of some deep community of interests in the highest friendship. It is not necessary that one's closest friends should agree with him in his whims and fancies and hobbies or even in his occupations. But it is [108] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH / necessary that there should be agree- ment as to the great abiding aims \and ideals and purposes. No friend- ship can be all it ought to be in which there is not sympathy in the highest moments. If one is con- scious that when he is really at his best he is obliged to leave his friends outside, as not able to understand or enter into this best, then he knows the pain of finding that his highest self awakens no response in his closest friends. In the greatest friendships one must be able to say to his friend, The interests which are supreme to you shall be supreme to me. Not less than this, cer- tainly, must we be able to say to God, if we are to lay the basis of an abiding friendship. It is the characteristic petition, therefore, of the disciple of Christ that he should [ 109] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done." Can we who wish to be witnesses for Christ not make it plain that coming into the Christian life is even so simple and yet so deep a matter as coming into the best friendships anywhere ? We are children of the heavenly Father, who has so revealed himself to us as to call out our com- pletest trust, who gives himself to us as he asks that we should give our- selves to him, and who seeks from us that we should identify our interests and lives with his. In laying this plain basis of friendship with God, we are proceeding precisely as in all the other deepest relations of life, and the steps are not more obscure in the one case than in the other. [no] LETTER VIII THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD Letter Eight THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD WE are trying together, let us not forget, to find our way into the deepest truths of the Chris- tian faith and life. We are trying to see them so deeply and yet so simply that we may be able not only fully to grasp them for ourselves, but also to be able to make them clear and effective to others. I have not known how to do this with you without using lines of thought which I have followed elsewhere in my writing. But this you will pardon. I have had very little to say about the technical GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY terms of theology, and yet, if you will review the ground now covered, you will see that we have been dealing with some of the most fun- damental conceptions of the Chris- tian faith. I have not felt that it was possible for me to bring you into the very heart of these greatest of all truths without constant reference to Christ and to his all-inclusive teaching of the Father. We have really simply been asking for the inevitable impli- cations of his thought of God as Father and men as children, when we have conceived the Christian life as in its very essence a friendship, and thus have been asking what the foundation to be laid in such a friendship must be. I am to ask you to go with me still a little further along this same line, get- [ OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ting all the light that it is possible for our best human friendships to throw upon this personal relation to God. That is, how are we to go forward to build upon the basis already noted mutual self-revela- tion and answering trust, mutual self-surrender, and some deep com- munity of interests ? This is to ask how it is that God is redeeming us to himself. i . An Unconscious Growth. First, let us make it clear to ourselves that any high friendship is much more an unconscious growth than it is a work of conscious arrangement. It would not be wise for two friends to say to each other, Go to, now, let us have a great friendship. Great friendships are not so brought about. Our main concern, therefore, in our relation to God should be a careful GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY fulfilment of the conditions upon which a friendship may naturally deepen ; then we may count with certainty upon the result. Neither in the human nor in the divine rela- tions is it usually possible for a great friendship to result from mere con- scious effort. The most important part, usually, in a friendship is the result of unconscious growth. And it would mean much for the nor- mality and the joy of our Christian lives, if we could keep this simple thought in mind. 2. No Continuous Emotion. In any friendship, also, we may well remember that while we do well to assure ourselves of the meaning of the friendship, we are not to expect continuous emotion. There are, no doubt, great differences here with different dispositions. Those who [116] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH find themselves naturally emotional in other things may expect a larger degree of emotion in the religious life than belongs to others. But in no case is warm emotion to be ex- pected as a continuous experience. This is indicated, too, by the char- acter of the very natures involved in such unbroken high emotions. Neither our physical nor mental con- stitutions permit the constant strain. To attempt this in any personal rela- tion is simply to invite failure. The deliberate seeking of great experi- ences for their own sake is always unwise. The best cannot so come. No acquaintance, moreover, human or divine, will stand constant intro- spection, and we cannot, therefore, wisely subject our religious life to such persistent self-examination as is certain to follow if emotional expe- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY rience is made the main aim and test. Under such examination we do not see our own states of mind in their normal condition. They inevitably change under inspection. The one course of wisdom for us is simply to go steadily forward in faithful fulfil- ment of the natural conditions of a deepening friendship, and so to be sure of the results. We can be cer- tain that God desires to receive us as his children, and in trust in his love we need only press faithfully on in fulfilling our part in the deepening of this filial relation. 3 . Association. The main factor in a deepening acquaintance is associa- tion. All directions for the deep- ening of our friendship with God may be almost summed up in this single suggestion. An acquaintance is not the product of certain rules, [118] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH but the unconscious result of much association. One wakes up with a kind of surprise to find how much a friendship means to him. And in our relation to God this is still the main factor. It is only through constant association with God that we grow into his life. And so Christ assures us that the Spirit has been given to " be with you for ever " ; that we are to "abide " in him and he in us ; that we are to seek such unity with Christ as he himself has with the Father. The greatest of all the conditions, there- fore, of a deepening acquaintance with God, is much association with him ; giving Christ opportunity with us by attention, by thought, by living much in the atmosphere of his life, by finding it second nature to think his thoughts, to [119] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY feel his feelings, and to will his purposes. 4. Time. Time is necessary for growth into anything of really great value. We need not be surprised, therefore, to find that a main condi- tion of growing into a deepening friendship with God must be the giving of some time. No acquaint- ance can become deep without time given. Any love will grow cold to which no time is given. This is the practical way in which we do give ourselves to our friends. One has only to look over his own experience to see that he has allowed certain friendships quite to drift out of his life simply because a little time was not expended to keep them alive. It is just here that there lies the prime significance of the taking of daily time for Bible study and for [ 120] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH prayer. These are no magical con- ditions. In recognizing their neces- sity, we are simply fulfilling the same conditions which hold for any true friendship. Just as it is a matter of serious importance in the family that the members of the household should be often together, so we need to put ourselves in the presence of God in the use of his Word and of prayer, that he may have opportunity to share with us his own life, and to bring us into some real unity with him. And besides these special daily times of association with God, we may well remember, also, the signifi- cance of occasional longer times. One knows how certain friendships have deepened for him immensely because the two friends have been shut up to each other for a considerable [121] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY time, perhaps in travel, so that they have been almost obliged to get down beneath the mere surface of their lives, and through the longer association, to come to share some- thing of the inmost and best that has been given them. So in our relation to God, an occasional tak- ing of a much longer time than is usual for the daily Bible study and prayer, may yield large results. For myself, I am sure that nothing has been worth so much to me in my own life as the times when I have been able to stay face to face with God in the Word for three or four hours at a stretch, taking oppor- tunity really to get down into the great truths and to get some glimpse of the great revelations of God. 5. The importance for a growing Christian life of the regular use of the [ 122] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Bible is so great that it deserves special emphasis. We are to remem- ber that decision for the Christian life means the opening of the life to God, and that its continuance, consequently, depends on keeping the life so open to this new, great- est, transforming, personal relation. And keeping the life so open de- pends, in its turn, above all, on regular Bible study. He who keeps such study steadily going is practi- cally certain to maintain his Chris- tian life and to grow intelligently in it. He who does not is pretty certain finally to fail. The reasons for this central im- portance of the Scripture can be seen from different points of view. For if we start from the idea of environment, we must remember that that part of our environment [ "33 GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY makes us to which we attend. And probably the greatest way in which we can be sure to put ourselves within reach of a strong spiritual environment is through regular Bible study. Moreover, the mind readily recurs to its habitual objects of thought. And it is these habitual objects which are certain to domi- nate the life. If we are habitually turning, thus, to the great moral and spiritual resources of the Scrip- ture, we have the right to count on a deepening spiritual life. Or, if we look at the matter from the point of view of personal associ- ation, the universal law to be recog- nized is that we become like those with whom we constantly are, to whom we voluntarily surrender our- selves, and who give themselves unreservedly to us. Now the Scrip- [124] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ture offers us, in preeminent degree, just such association. It allows us to come into close personal contact with God-touched men, those to whom and through whom God has most effectively spoken. We have here the opportunity of sharing their visions, and so of being introduced, through these greatest seers, into some of the deeps of the spiritual world. Here, too, in the Scripture is the record of the preeminent meetings of God with men, into which it is possible for us to enter. And the Scripture gives us, as does nothing else, the possibility of laying that foundation of a true per- sonal relation with God of which we have spoken. For it is a record of his dealings with men, and so of such a revelation of him as makes possible our answering trust. It GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY calls out again and again our self- surrender in particulars. And it brings us in its atmosphere into some community of interest with God in Christ. As we thus give time to our Bible study, we are entering into the transforming asso- ciation with God, which must be the main factor in deepening our acquaintance with him ; and to come really to know God is life eternal. In my next letter I want to call your attention to some other impor- tant conditions of deepening still further this friendship with God. [126] LETTER IX THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (^Continued) Letter Nine THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (JSontinuecT) IN this letter I wish to call your attention to a single great funda- mental means, if our acquaintance with God is to deepen as it ought. The principle and to it I wish to devote the entire letter is simply this : that if our relation to God is to grow in significance, it needs expression. It is one of the central propositions of modern psychology, that in body and mind we are made for action, for the expression in some active way of every bodily and men- tal state. No idea or feeling or 9 [ 129 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY purpose can come to its full signifi- cance for any of us without expres- sion. The general psychological law here is, that that which is not expressed dies. Let us apply just this law, now, with some real care to our religious life. For if the law is a true one, we cannot expect full reality in our religious life if we fail to give careful heed to this principle of expression. If, therefore, one wishes his religious life to mean all possible to him, he must express it in significant action. Otherwise, it is likely to become either the senti- mentality of mere passive emotion, or only the dogmatic holding of cer- tain opinions. The need of expression is a perpetual one everywhere. So in any friendship, if you would have your love mean much, you must in various ways give it expression. [ OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH I. Expression by Word. Many of us are naturally reserved, and are chary and half ashamed to express the best in us ; and repression in any personal relation is likely to grow on one apace. Any friendship needs, at times at least, expression in word. It is not only well for others that they should know occasionally the pleasure we find in their companion- ship, it is important for ourselves. And our relation to Christ certainly will not be to us what it ought unless we take some pains to say, in dif- ferent, simple, and perhaps largely private ways, what Christ means to us. We are not to underestimate here the value of simple witness. Christ's program for the conquest of the world was through a campaign of simple testimony from heart to heart of what Christ meant. Many GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY of our closest personal relations suffer from lack of this simple expression in word. And we need not think it strange that the same principle should hold in the religious life. Does any one know how much Christ really means to you, not simply from some half formal ex- pression in prayer-meeting, but from the speaking out of your heart in close and intimate fellowship with another ? Are you taking pains that others shall know ? Do you really mean to be able, here, to speak with authority from first-hand knowledge out of your own experience ? You can only bear witness, but you are to bear witness of what Christ really, honestly is to you. How else shall others find him much to them ? It is so preeminently that the king- dom of God must grow. And it is OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH so, also, that your own sense of per- sonal relation to God will grow. 2. Seeking to Please in Little Things. And friendship needs as well not only the witness of the word, but that expression that is found in seeking to please one's friend in little things. Perhaps the best test of a true love is to be found just here. For few of us are likely to fail in the great demands that our personal relations make upon us. But we are much more likely to fail in the thousand and one little ways in which the real spirit of our rela- tion to another is tested. The chief mark of obedience is not shown at the great crises, but is found rather in that sensitiveness of conscience that makes us careful to do what is well pleasing to God, even in the slighter things. The cup of cold GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY water given in the name of a disciple, Christ assures us, is taken as given directly to him. And if one finds, in a personal relation, that he is al- ways having his own way, however smoothly and graciously that may seem to be occurring, he may well suspect that he is guilty of real self- ishness. And this same spirit is likely to pursue him in that most fundamental relation the relation in which he stands to God in Jesus Christ. This expression of one's love in little things requires time, attention, and thoughtfulness. If we are really to minister in Christ's name, and to minister unto others as unto Christ, we shall hardly suc- ceed without the sympathy that is free from preoccupation and able to put itself in the other's place. A reverent love for another shows itself OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH in trifles of manner. And our love to Christ will best show itself in similar care in the trifles of our daily life. We make no sacrifice so great as that which manifests itself in what we count the small things of daily living. " More careful not to serve Thee much, But please Thee perfectly." 3. By Gratitude. And true love needs especially that expression which finds its outlet in gratitude. Grati- tude has rare power to bring men together. It is hardly possible for any one to say honestly to another how much what the other has said or done or been, means to him, without a distinct strengthening of the ties between the two lives. The honest expression of gratitude brings men together as few things do. On GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY the other hand, thoughtless ingrati- tude chills greatly any friendship. Even where there is no desire to cherish resentment, the person to whom the gratitude is due cannot 'avoid a feeling of real hurt. There are few things harder to bear, per- haps, in our daily life with others than to feel that the sacrifices that have cost us most have been all un- appreciated and taken practically as mere matters of course. Do we always appreciate the loneliness of those who stand nearest us ? And are we not too chary of the word of appreciation and of praise that might mean much more than we think ? It is not well in any personal relation that too much should be perpetually taken for granted. And so in our relation to God, we shall find few things so kindling our hearts and so [136] OP THE CHRISTIAN FAITH helping to make real the relation in which we stand to God, as to go carefully over the manifold occasions for thanksgiving, and to take pains to express our gratitude to the heav- enly Father for the mercies of the daily life. There are very few hearts that will not respond to a careful review of the occasions for thanksgiving. "In everything give thanks," the Apostle writes to the Thessalonians, "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward." And this single injunction strikes much closer to the very heart of our religious life than we often think. 4. By Sharing Burdens. How close are the companionships which grow up in the mutual sharing of trial and struggle and danger ! This, I suppose, is what makes so significant the companionship of GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY soldiers who have been long together in successive campaigns. The bur- dens that we share inevitably tend to draw our souls together. And it is just at this point that people sometimes make serious mistakes parents in trying to spare their chil- dren, the husband the wife, the friend his friend. For, to refuse to let your close friend into your inner struggle and burden means often simply keeping him out of the deep- est part of your life, treating him like a child. This is not to spare him so much as to defraud him. And it is one of the highest honors conferred upon us by Christ that he does not deal with us in this way. Rather, he calls us into the sharing of his own suffering ; and he says to his immediate disciples, " Ye are they that have continued with me in my [138] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH temptations." From this point of view, too, therefore, we may well say with Peter, " Insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice/' That two souls should commit themselves with all the power of completest self-devotion in sacrifice to the same great cause, is to insure essential closeness of fellowship. And it is this fellow- ship that Christ offers us with him- self. And just as it is often only in the times of peculiar burden and trial that the best and greatest and deepest in our friends reveals itself, so, too, it must often be that only at such times shall we taste the full meaning of the heavenly Father's love and care. And in that mutual- ness which belongs to every great friendship, Christ not only shares his great purposes and sacrifices with us, [ 139] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY but he asks us, in like manner, to bring to him all our burdens, to find them lightened for us in the thought of his sympathy and uplift. 5. By Sacrifice. And this leads us to see distinctly that no love can mean most to us for which we have not genuinely sacrificed. A love that has cost us nothing is not likely to mean much in the beginning, nor to grow to much in the end. It is true that where the love is great and strong, the sacrifice will be a joy, rather than a sorrow. But some deep and significant giving of one- self there must be in any personal relation that is to greatly count. Sacrifices increase love. Our hearts are where our treasure is. Where we have invested little, we shall care little. And one need not be sur- prised to find that his Christian life [ OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH means little to him, if he has not been willing to render to Christ the sacrifice of time, of thought, of attention, of giving, of sacrifice that should really mean something in helping to bring to its goal that great kingdom of God that is to satisfy the longing heart of our Lord. In our selfishness it is sometimes diffi- cult for us to understand it ; but the whole religion of Christ is based on the fundamental principle that our highest joy can be found only in this positive giving of ourselves unto men and unto God in redemptive service, so entering into the very heart of Christ's own life and joy and peace. Such expression of our personal friendship with God, by the witness- ing word, by seeking to please in little things, by gratitude, by sharing burdens, by sacrifice, will as certainly GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY deepen our friendship with God as these same things deepen our friend- ship with men, and both results are as certain as the existence of law in the world at all. May I hope that this thought will help to bring more unity and simplicity into both your thinking and living ? [142] LETTER X THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (Continued*) Letter Ten THE CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD (Continued) I SHALL not quite have brought out for you what seems to me to be the full force of this thought of the Christian life as a friendship with God, without calling your attention, in this letter, to three or four further considerations which affect any growing friendship. i. The Slight Causes of Diffi- culty. And, first, there are few cautions, probably, that the man who would be a true friend needs more to take to heart than the cau- tion to be on his guard against slight 10 ; 145 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY occasions of estrangement. In no personal relation that concerns us deeply can we safely harbor or dwell on the small points of controversy. Our only safety lies in clearing them up at once. Great estrangements grow from them. Both in our hu- man and our divine relations we are more in danger of getting away in the little than in the great things. The deeper the friendship one has with another the more sensitive one is to these little differences. One soon learns to interpret the slightest indica- tions of face or gesture or movement. And so in our relation to God, our progress is measured in part by our sensitiveness as to the little things. We need, for our high- est safety as well as for our joy, unclouded communion with the Father. Sensitive obedience in the [146] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH littles is both the proof of our love and God's way of guidance, and the direct road to more intimate acquaintance with God. On the other hand, disobedience in the little things constantly mars the relation. In all our close friendships it is also worth emphasis that we are not to look to and constantly dwell on little differences and faults in our friends. This faultfinding and complaining spirit is quite sufficient to spoil any love, even the deepest. This spirit kept up in relation to a child may easily end in " rooted antipathy ): on his part ; the bonds of sympathy are ruptured, and a spirit of entire discouragement results. By fixing your attention on defects, you can ruin a friendship that, on the other hand, is quite capable of becoming your chief joy. And a similar cau- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY tion is needed not less in our relation to God. It is quite possible to pick out of the allotment that has provi- dentially come to us the encouraging or the discouraging things, and so thankfully to rejoice, on the one hand, or bitterly to complain, on the other. The complaining spirit is often felt not to be a serious matter, but one has only to think how fatal are its results in other personal rela- tions to see how certainly it must disturb any deep sense of trust and love and gratitude in our relation to God. This complaining spirit cuts the very root of a possible deepen- ing friendship with God, and is to be recognized, therefore, in all its seriousness as one of the deadliest enemies of a true and joyful and peaceful Christian life. It is not a small sin nor a small danger. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2. Sacred Respect for the Person- ality of Tour Friend. Perhaps the subtlest of all the conditions for deepening any true and worthy friendship is to be found in sacred respect for the personality of your friend. Where that is fundamen- tally lacking no great and worthy friendship can possibly result. And many a friendship has been greatly damaged by such a lack. There are limitations to all intimacies with others, and even in the closest friend- ships we are not to presume, we are not to pry, we are not to scold. We are not to take away the possi- bility of decision or choice, not even in the case of a child. We are not to insist on the explanation of every mood. Every soul must in much be alone, and ought to be. One only degrades his friendships, I have GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY felt compelled often to say, when he measures them by the number of privacies that he rides over roughshod. And in our relation to God we are not to forget, upon his part, how marvelously he respects our freedom, and how, though he is Lord of all, he stands only without the door of our hearts to knock for admittance. God does not arbitra- rily obtrude or interfere. So truly does he respect our personality that he does not step in, even occasion- ally, to " set things right/' He has put us in no play world, but in a world in which our choice and our personality are fully re- spected. And, upon our own part, this spirit of reverence which is so neces- sary in our relation to our friends OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH cannot be less necessary in our rela- tion to God. No friend can be to us what he might be without rever- ence both on his part and on ours. Still less can God give us his com- plete gift, if our reverence does not answer to his reverential treatment of us. Reverence is, indeed, not a formal matter of any kind of con- duct or of respect for places and things ; and a deep, inner rever- ence may quite conceivably exist where the outward conduct might seem to the careless observer irrev- erent. But if it is in any degree true, as it has been frequently charged of late, that the present generation is growing in irrever- ence, let us make it quite clear to ourselves that we are, in just that degree, striking at the very root of all true personal relations to God or [ GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY men. The attitude of presumption, of prying, of scolding, of dictation must be far removed from our rela- tion to God. There is a false bold- ness, as Luther remarked, which talks to God as a man might talk to a " cobbler's lad." It is not for us to demand the time or the manner of God's revelation. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." And if even our smallest human spirit has its holy of holies that may not be inconsiderately violated, how much more must deep reverence characterize all our thought of God ! We are to " work out our own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God who work- eth in us both to will and to work, for his good pleasure." It was not by accident that the great prayer that was to characterize the disciples of [ 152] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Christ in all ages began with the word, " Hallowed." 3. Be Real. Once more, no friendship is safe into which the element of pretense is introduced. We are to be real only and always. There are to be no false assertions, and no forced feeling. We are not to start or continue on a false basis. While, as I have said, we are not to question our love or that of another on slight occasions, we are still to be sure that we are scrupulously hon- est ; that we say what we mean, and only what we mean ; that the wit- ness we bear to Christ, though it be a modest witness, is just so far as it goes a genuinely honest one. In our prayers, too, we must learn how to tell the truth, not to take upon our lips expressions even of the Scriptures, which we cannot truth- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY fully transfer to our own experience. We are not even to repeat, out of our previous lives, expressions not now real. We are to make sure, that is, throughout, that we do not introduce that element of pretense that always means finally a deadly sense of unreality. He who will not be real saps thereby all reality in his relation with God as well as in his relation with men. 4. You May Deepen Tour Ac- quaintance 'with God through Seeing What Others Have Received from Him. If one thinks of a great, many-sided nature like that of Aris- totle, or Leibnitz, or Luther, or Shakespeare, he will realize at once that different sides of the nature will be revealed to different persons. And one comes into the completest understanding of such a nature only [i54] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH through glimpses of table-talk and letters and home life, and from knowing his intimate friends. In exactly the same way we can come to know God, even approximately, in his fulness only as we take account not only of our own per- sonal experience, but supplement it with the largeness of the experience of others as well. We need in all things constantly the correction of others. Our own view is necessa- rily partial, and has its own inevi- table narrow limitations. Much of the best that God has for us must come through others. And even in this deepest matter of our personal relation to God, we are not made independent one of another. God has some special, peculiar message to speak through each soul ; and he may speak as really to us through GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY another's life, as in his own direct communion with us. This recog- nition of the constant need we all have of Christian fellowship empha- sizes, from another point of view, thus, the importance of the Bible, in which it may be said we are able to put ourselves in touch with the most intimate friends of God. We can here see what God has meant to others, and so supplement and broaden and deepen our own view. In this constant and wise use of fellowship with others, and in that objective expression of our religious life in service, of which I earlier spoke, you will be saved from the brooding subjectivity that might otherwise beset your Christian life. The thought of our Christian life as a personal relation with God does not shut us up to ourselves. The OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH relation to God is so absolute and infinite that we need and can bring to it all the help of the supplemen- tary experience of others. In insisting thus at length, as I have in these last four letters, upon the fundamental significance of the conception of the Christian life as the beginning and deepening of a friendship with God, I have simply been trying to place before you, in terms of the personal life and ex- perience you already know, those great, fundamental Christian doc- trines which have been so long discussed under the names " con- version," " regeneration/' " sanctifi- cation," " baptism of the Spirit/' and "faith and works." I have intentionally tried to strip the dis- cussion of all these more or less technical terms, because I fear they GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY have often served to hide rather than to reveal the real truth as it is in Christ. And I have tried, rather, to get back to what seems to me to be the central conception of Christ and of the New Testament, that the Christian life is simply that of a growing child of the heavenly Father, and to ask you to see, in some detail, just what that great central thought of Christ meant. I hope the attempt has not been without value for you, and I hope still more that through you it may bring something more of light and blessing into the lives of others. I am simply trying to hand on to you that one great fundamental thought that has, perhaps, meant more than any other to me. [158] LETTER XI THE FUNDAMENTAL TEMPTA- TIONS Letter Eleven THE FUNDAMENTAL TEMPTA- TIONS WHEN one turns from the conception of the Christian life as a deepening personal relation of a child with the heavenly Father, to ask still more practically just what this conception of Christ means in living, he will find himself confront- ing, just as Christ did, certain great fundamental temptations that under- lie, I think, all the temptations of life. And I have thought I could not serve you better in this letter than by trying to make clear just these always-present temptations. In his tremendous sense of son- ship, of mission, and of power, Christ ii [ 161 ] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY took to his temptations a threefold consciousness. The elements in this threefold consciousness, of power, of mission, and of sonship, were for Christ a divine call, to which he made answer : I must be worthy of the power granted ; I must be a consistent founder of a spiritual kingdom ; I must prove a true son. And one cannot be a consistent founder of a spiritual kingdom, it is to be noted, except upon three conditions : constant spiritual sensi- tiveness, undying faith in men, and refusal to seek relief in change of circumstances rather than in change of self. The temptations which are thus seen to underlie all the temptations of Christ, and the temptations of all men, are : the temptation to abuse of trust, the temptation to fall below [162] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH one's highest spiritual sensitiveness, the temptation to seek relief in change of circumstances rather than in change of self, the temptation to disbelief in men, the temptation to distrust of God. Just these, I judge, are the temptations which confront every man in all that threatens his moral and spiritual life. For the elements of Christ's consciousness are in only less degree the elements of the consciousness of us all. i. The Temptation to Abuse of Trust. The temptation which Christ faced, to use the power, given him for the sake of the kingdom, for personal relief, was fundamen- tally a temptation to abuse of his trust. He was forced to meet the question, Why should he not use his power for his own relief why should he not turn the stones into GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY bread ? Why, again, should he not use his power in a marvelous exhi- bition of trust in God that would remove prejudice, get him a hearing, and win deep and respectful attention from the first ? Why, once more, might he not use his power to establish his rule his own right- eous rule even by force, forth- with ? Christ's answer to each form of the temptation is simply the insistence that his power is given him for the sake of the kingdom, not for his own relief, whether in greater personal comfort, in in- creased popularity, or in impatient use of force. My power, he seems with quiet energy to say, is no per- sonal perquisite of my own ; it must be held sacredly for the great ends for which it was given. And everywhere to-day the same [164] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH temptation presses upon us all the ever-present, fundamental tempta- tion to the abuse of our trusts. In the use of the positions in which we have been placed, of the power involved, of the money we handle, of the opportunities presented in all alike the power of this temptation is felt. It is hardly possible to take up a paper without seeing some illustration of the abuse of trust. Our generation needs a great revival of the simple sense of fidelity to our trusts. No one of us is likely to cultivate too sensitive a conscience concerning any power that has come into his possession. Let him ask himself how his power has come ? for what end it was given ? whether he is using it simply and solely for that end, or is making it, rather, a means for his own personal gain ? [165] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY 2. The Temptation to Fall Below One's Highest Spiritual Sensitiveness. And the very illustrations which the life of the present day affords make it unmistakably clear that a large part of the gigantic abuse of trust is due to the simple lack of a fine sense of honor. It is exactly this lack that has made such abuse of trust possible. To see truly here and to take the perfectly honorable course, requires a delicate sensitiveness of conscience, undoubted singleness of vision. This was the only way of deliverance for Christ himself. He needed the clearest spiritual insight to see the meaning of his trust. The pathway both of the highest individual prog- ress and of the largest social service requires that we should be steadily sensitive to the very best vision that God has given, and to remain per- [166] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH sistently true to it, and so to get the larger and the higher vision. All true life, it seems not too much to say, is included in this. The inmost secret of life is that one should be persistently at his best. On the other hand, the onset of evil most to be feared is not that of open and brazen sin, but the subtle, grad- ual deterioration that, like an insidi- ous disease, saps the very foundation of all possible character. Like " the damnation of Theron Ware," in Harold Frederic's powerful story of that name, it comes on us as a thief in the night, while we still think of ourselves as sleek and prosperous. Plainly, a man has started on a de- scent, the extent of which, in its deep darkness, no eye can foresee, who consents to live in anything below his highest spiritual sensitive- [167] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY ness. The temptation to do so is one of those fundamental temptations which carries with it a whole flood of others. 3. The Temptation to Seek Relief in Change of Circumstances. When Christ was tempted to use the power given him for the founding of a spiritual kingdom for his own per- sonal relief, whether in greater comfort, or popularity, or sway, he was, in all three forms of the temptation alike, tempted to seek relief in change of circumstances, rather than in change of self, by proving adequate to the circum- stances. He could not evade the real struggle involved in the setting up of such a kingdom, and his vic- tory must be inner, not outer. God means me to rule, he might well say, yet not to establish my personal [168] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH power, but a spiritual rule. There is no escape, for either Christ or his disciple, except by changing those inner conditions which lie within our own power. The temptation to seek relief in change of circumstances rather than in change of self is perhaps peculiarly strong for Americans. The rapidity with which, in this newer country, great changes of fortune often take place, and the comparative ease with which a change of employment is made, constantly tempt the Ameri- can who does not find himself satis- fied to seek to change his conditions, rather than to adjust himself to his situation and prove himself superior to it. In any hard situation there are always two conceivable ways of deliverance : the one, that of simple [169] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY escape from the circumstances ; the other, that of rising superior to the circumstances. No man who means to be a man can even wish always to take the easy way out. God's best and most gracious answer to our prayer for deliverance, as in Paul's case, may often be not the removal of the "thorn in the flesh," but the " sufficient grace." And if, in any given case, one finds it possible to take the easy way, he has still to remember that, so far as character or any other high attainment is con- cerned, he has all his fight still to make. From that real battle of life he may find no respite ; for the true sources of character, of influence, and of happiness alike, in this world of ours, are inner, not outer, the riches of a cultured mind, the potent calm of a contented, self-controlled, [170] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH and lowly spirit, the wealth of a genuine love. These no change of circumstances can give. And they are ours all the more, if we have won them against the trend of circum- stances. / Like Leonard, in Mrs. Ewing's "The Story of a Short Life/' we must learn to be " happy in our lot " to withstand the temptation to seek relief in change of circumstances rather than in change of self. 4. The Temptation to Disbelief in Men. From the point of view of his work, the wilderness experience of Christ involved a further con- stant and fundamental temptation the temptation to disbelief in men. For all three forms of Christ's temp- tation urge the advisability of begin- ning with men with a lower appeal the appeal to their bodily needs, [ 17* 1 GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY to their love of the marvelous, to their sense of fear. And in repudi- ating wholly the primary claim of any of these lower appeals, Christ affirms his deep faith in men. And the tempter's argument is still often pressed. No real kingdom of God, many of our modern theories seem to affirm, can be built on men. You can trust no heroic appeal, no appeal to love. Contrast, now, Christ's indomi- table faith in men. He knows well that you cannot essentially traduce men without traducing God. The suspicious attitude is one always at war with love. Dis- belief in men, the cynical spirit, is fatal alike to character, to influence, and to happiness, to character, for you cannot greatly love him in whose greatness you have no real [172] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH belief; to influence, for you cannot strongly move those in whom your faith is small ; to happiness, because in this narrowing, belittling judg- ment of men you have necessarily cut yourself off from the joy of worthy association. Suspicion ties your hands. It takes the heart out of your work, and the heart out of your joy. You must believe in men. 5. The Temptation to Distrust of God. When one believes that there is no possibility of using effectively with men purely moral and spiritual forces, he disbelieves not only in men, but he shows an even deeper distrust of their Creator, God. This spirit, carried to its logical extent, means nothing short of atheism and the denial of all ideals. Even a few men with such thorough- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY going distrust of spiritual forces are able to diffuse a deadly atmosphere. The man who means with Christ to be a consistent builder of a spirit- ual kingdom must be willing to use the highest means and trust the results with God. We were not meant to be self-sufficient even as to men ; still less as to God. We need men, we need God ; we are all but fragments else. Life becomes pos- sible, joyful, and triumphant in pro- portion to the depth of our faith in God. And we all have a special right to urge with the young that they stand with Christ from the begin- ning of their lives against these con- stant and fundamental temptations that make a particularly strong ap- peal to the inexperienced. Christ seems to me to have shared with us OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH all this sacred story of his tempta- tions, just because he knew that we all had the same fight to make. We can do nothing better for men than to help them to the spirit that can rise above these fundamental temptations ; and that is exactly the spirit of a true son of the Father. LETTER XII THE SUPREME CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE UPON THOUGHTFUL MEN Letter Twelve THE SUPREME CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE UPON THOUGHTFUL MEN TN this last letter which I am to * write to you concerning the great fundamental Christian truths, let me ask you to see, both for your- selves and for others, in a kind of summary way, and in the light of all our previous discussion, the supreme claims of the Christian life upon thoughtful men. You will not be in doubt as to what I mean by the Christian life. It is the life of the man who intends to be first and foremost a disciple of Jesus Christ, GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY to live the loving life of a true child of the heavenly Father. And I mean by the thoughtful man the man who is in earnest to see things in their true proportions, for whom the great is really great, and for whom the little takes its appropriate smaller place. You can hardly find the inspiration you most need for your work as Christian witnesses, un- less you are thoroughly convinced of the supremacy of the claims of the life you are urging upon others. And the lines of thought already covered ought to make clear to you how great the Christian life is in its pres- ent contribution, and how immeas- urable is its outlook upon the future. Let us try to make clear to ourselves, then, the supreme claims of the Christian life, looking at the matter from different points of view, and [180] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH putting it in different forms, not all mutually exclusive. i. And, first, the Christian life is the supreme prudence, using the word not in any low sense of mere pru- dential selfishness, but in the larger sense of that practical wisdom that takes the long look ahead, that takes in the whole of life, age and death and eternity. In Professor James* words, " In all ages the man whose determinations are swayed by refer- ence to the most distant ends has been held to possess the highest intel- ligence. The tramp who lives from hour to hour ; the Bohemian whose engagements are from day to day ; the bachelor who builds but for a single life ; the father who acts for another generation ; the patriot who thinks of a whole community and many generations ; and, finally, the [181] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY philosopher and saint whose cares are for humanity and for eternity, these range themselves in an un- broken hierarchy." The Christian life says with Browning's Rabbi : " Grow old along with me ! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith, ' A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid !; " The life of a disciple of Christ con- fronts a man, thus, with the constant question : Are you building on such lines as promise perpetual growth into the best things, even on into the eternities ; or, is your idea of life such that you must look back after a very few years with vain regret, saying, with the title of a poor play, " When we were twenty " ? For myself, I [182] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH do not see how it is possible for a man who really means to think, not to wish to take this long look ahead ; to be sure that he is building some- thing better than greater barns ; that the plan of his life is so adjusted to the great on-working forces of the universe, so bent on doing the will of God, that it is certain to " abide forever." And because the Christian life takes clearly into its vision the 'whole of life and destiny, it makes a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man. 2. In the second place, the Chris- tian life is the one complete life that can face all the facts of life without flinch- ing and with genuine hope. It should be particularly characteristic of the thoughtful man that he wishes to see all the facts, to face them fully, and to face them just as they are. There [ '83 1 GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY is the fact of our double nature, with both its heavenly and its earthly ap- peal. There is the fateful gift of wil/, with its power of choice either for God or against God. There is the fact of responsibility, of the con- stant influence that we are exerting one over another whether we will or not. There is the terrible fact of sin, an abiding fact, and if one's face is not in the right direction, a grow- ing fact. And there is the fact of death, the one certain event that awaits every man. I quite sympa- thize with the emphasis of the pres- ent generation upon right living as the best possible preparation for dying; and yet I cannot think it a wholly wise reaction that allows a man to leave out of account this great and certain fact. For myself, I want to be sure that all that God may have [184] OP THE CHRISTIAN FAITH for me in that experience of death I am prepared to take in. " I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore And bade me creep past." And there is the fact of account- ability to God, to which Daniel Webster once solemnly bore testi- mony that it was the most important thought that ever occupied his mind. " So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God." And there is the fact of the future life, in which at least this is certain, that every one of us must live with him- self. Now, all these facts, alike dark and difficult, inspiring and transform- ing, the Christian life seems to me to be able fully to face, as no other. It gives the disciple of Christ such a plan for his life as enables him to be sure that the hold of the godlike in [185] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY his double nature shall strengthen with his years ; that his will shall will in line with the eternal and righteous purposes of God ; that he need not shrink from the thought of responsibility for others, nor even lose hope in the face of sin, nor be in bondage to the fear of death, nor doubt that it will be possible for him to face his final accountability to God in the same filial spirit in which he faces daily the Father's will, nor question that the sharing of God's life of self-sacrificing love here is inevitably of the very quality of the eternal life that is to be. How supreme a claim does that life make upon the thoughtful man, which is able with assurance and hope to face all these facts of life ! 3. The Christian life, further, makes a supreme claim upon the [186] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH thoughtful man because it involves the one great world-organization for ideal aims, for ends of character. The Church of Christ, as the author of Ecce Homo long ago pointed out, is in very truth " the Moral University of the world not merely the great- est, but the only great School of Virtue existing." Have you thought what it really means for the ideal interests of the world that there should be such an organization as the Church of Christ, with its little groups of disciples, with whatever imperfections, still gathered every- where, not for selfish interests, but to bear witness in the community to the highest ideals, and to keep clear before men the vision of God and the spiritual world ? There is no other organization or institution, outside the family, that can be com- GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY pared for a moment with the Church in profound moral significance, and in hope for the world. If the dy- namic problem of life is, as Profes- sor Everett used to say at Harvard, the problem of throwing one's life in with the great world movements, then surely no man who wishes to make his life count for the most can wisely stand outside of some par- ticipation in the Church of Christ. We boast that our generation has come to see more clearly than any preceding, that we are members one of another. It would seem to be the first inference from this social con- sciousness that we should not fail to see its truth for the highest interests of life. We are members one of another, not only for economic and political ends, but even more for the highest spiritual ends. And I do not [188] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH see how any thoughtful man can feel justified in standing as a mere on- looker, when he is face to face with this one great world-organization for ideal aims, the Church of Christ. 4. Again, the Christian life stands for the mightiest of all convictions, and in this, too, makes a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man. A man's real strength for all possible accom- plishment, other things being equal, we are never to forget, depends on his convictions. One of the great dangers of the educated man, just because he has learned to look at things from many points of view, is a kind of over-sophistication, that means that he has lost the sense of emphasis and selection among the facts of life, and therefore lost the great fundamental convictions that must underlie the highest living. If [189] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY this has come to be true of a man, he is pretty certain to be worth positively less to the world after his university training than before. Now, the Christian life, in its very spirit, stands assuredly for the mighti- est of all convictions possible to men : for the love of God, and the life of love. In these great convictions root all others that are of prime importance to men, and these convictions carry with them the highest courage and the most unfaltering faith. No the- ory of life that has ever been pro- posed to men is able here to outbid the Christian life. 5. The Christian life involves, too, the supreme and all-Inclusive surrender, and thereby again makes a supreme claim upon every man who is willing to think. Even our ordinary psy- chology and ethical philosophy are [ 190] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH saying to-day that life is a paradox, that victory comes through self- surrender, that the measure of life is not its income, but its outgo, and that it is as one gives himself in the varied relations of life that he truly finds himself. It belongs, therefore, to the very drift of our times that we should recognize that not exclu- sion but inclusion enlarges life, and that the largest life can come only to the man who gives himself with increasing breadth and depth in family, community, nation, the king- dom of God. Now, the Christian life brings to its inevitable climax this attitude of surrender, for it calls for that supreme and all-inclusive surren- der that carries with it all that is best in all the lower stages ; for it is sur- render to the will of God. It says, therefore, with Christ, " I am come [191] GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." And beyond this the law of surrender cannot go, and in this one vital commitment of the life is included all and more than all that psychology and ethical philosophy contend for in the lower stages of the surrendered life. The Christian life stands here, therefore, for the richness and largeness of the "abun- dant life," over against the " abiding alone " that marks the life that re- fuses to give itself. 6. It is to say the same thing in different words, perhaps, when, catching up the central thought of our preceding studies, I say that the Christian life makes also a supreme claim upon the thoughtful man because it stands for the relation which gives reality and meaning and value to OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH all other personal relations. We have seen in detail how surely, if life is the fulfilment of relations, the rela- tion to God is not simply one relation among others, but that one great, all-commanding relation which, truly fulfilled, carries with it a true fulfil- ment of every other. The anxi- ety which the Christian father, or mother, has that his child may be- come a disciple of Christ, arises from his conviction that in very fact the relation to God is that one essential relation which, itself set right, in- evitably sets all others right. The thoughtful man, therefore, feels just at this point, too, the supreme claim upon him of the Christian life. 7. Or, if we look at the matter from a slightly different point of view, we may say, in the light of the most careful investigation of man's GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY nature, that life has, above all, its great sources in friendship and work, and that the supreme claim, there- fore, of the Christian life upon the thoughtful man, is to be seen pre- cisely in this, that in the acquaintance with God in the Spirit, it offers the one ideal association for both character and happiness, and, at the same time, calls to the highest work, the sharing of God's own redeeming activity, in his giving of himself to men. Just because the Christian life meets here, in the completest degree in which it is possible for us to conceive, the ideal conditions of the richest life, it makes here a supreme claim upon any mind that is willing to think long enough to see what those ideal conditions are. When God calls us to acquaintance with himself and to share in his own great work, he [ J 94] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH makes it possible for us to give our lives to eternal interests and to the highest conceivable interests. Blessed is the man who has found his work and the great Companion ! Heaven itself has nothing greater to offer. We can hardly doubt, therefore, as I have elsewhere said, that " the two great centers of the life beyond must be association and work ; though we may not know the precise forms that these will take, nor how greatly both may deepen beyond our present con- ception. Steadily deepening personal relations, rooted in the one absolutely satisfying relation to God in Christ, there must be; and work, in which one may lose himself with joy, be- cause it is God's work. This, at least, the future will contain." 8. All this means, further, that the Christian life makes a supreme GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY claim upon the thoughtful man be- cause it gives assurance of the highest hopes. It contains within itself the vision of the ideal, the best our hearts can ask or imagine, and exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. At least occasional experi- ences in the personal relations of life may give one a hint of the riches here in store. To know something of the deep undercurrent of even one true friendship, with its contribution of calm and peace and hope and joy, is to get a suggestion of what this deepening life in the acquaintance and work of God may mean. Christ makes us able to believe in the immortal life, and in the endless growth into the life and work of love into the deeper acquaintance with the inexhaustible God. And we build our hopes of all the future [ 196] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH life upon nothing so surely as upon Christ's own spirit and word. What other theory of life is able to give such assurance ? 9. And all these claims of the Christian life upon thinking men are true, because, back of all, the Christian life means simply the full recognition of the one great 'world-fact and person, Jesus Christ. Above all, therefore, it is because the Christian life calls to the discipleship of the supremest personality of history ; because it brings us at once face to face with the vision of the matchless riches of that life; because, there- fore, it gives the completest assur- ance for character and influence and happiness, and so opens up the way to the boundless growth and achieve- ment of the eternal future; it is be- cause of all this that beyond doubt it GREATNESS AND SIMPLICITY is in Christ that the Christian life makes its supreme and all-inclusive claim. With this survey of the supreme claims of the Christian life, and with its outlook into the eternal future, we have come to the end of the conference we have undertaken together. I almost feel as if I must have some personal acquain- tance with you. In any case, I have shared with you my best. May I hope that something of the great- ness of the calling with which you are called may have been brought home to you in our study together of these great themes of the Christian life ? If I have succeeded in accom- plishing at all what I originally set out to do, I shall have brought home to you, I trust, in some measure, the double conviction both of the great- [198] OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ness and of the simplicity of the faith in Christ. I shall have helped you, I hope, to a little deeper sense of the meaning of your life as dis- ciples of Christ, and of the joy of his service. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. [ '99 ] VB 22093 M549803