64 S85 THE TIMES , ^ r.i. P: K. f mf OUNG MEN JOSIAH STRONG LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN By JOSIAH STRONG SOCIAL PROGRESS. A YEAR BOOK AND ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIOLOGICAL STATISTICS. zamo, cloth, net, $1.00. Postage, 10 cents. THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING, izmo, cloth, 75 cents. Paper edition, 35 cents. THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN. izmo, cloth, 75 cents. Paper edition, 35 cents. OUR COUNTRY : ITS POSSIBLE FUTURE AND ITS PRESENT CRISIS. With an Introduction by Prof. AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. 173(1 thousand. Revised edition, based on the Census of 1890. Paper, 30 cents. Cloth, 60 cents. THE NEW ERA ; OR, THE COMING KINGDOM. 49th Thousand. Library edition, crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Plain cloth, izrno, 75 cents. Paper, izmo, 35 cents. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CITY, isth thousand. Paper, 35 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. EXPANSION, UNDER NEW WORLD-CONDITIONS. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, $1.00. RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT. i6mo, cloth, 50 cents. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., Publishers 33-37 East Seventeenth Street, New York The Times and Young Men By Josiah Strong -, Author of " Our Country," " The New Era," "The Twentieth- Century City," " Expansion," etc. (EIGHTH THOUSAND) ' Can ye not discern the signs of the times ? " JESUS CHRIST. New York The Baker and Taylor Company 33-37 East Seventeenth Street Union Square, North Copyright, 1901. BY THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, Nrw YORK. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE YOUNG MEN*S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, WHOSE DISCERNMENT OF THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES HAS ENABLED THEM TO DO SO NOBLE A WORK FOR YOUNG MEN. CONTENTS i PAGE A WORD WITH THE READER 13 This book an outgrowth of the writer's personal experience. His Puritan training. Rigid views felt the shock of theological and social changes. Organizing ideas. A new interpretation of life. What the new inter- pretation did for him. Value of something to "tie to." Our great need of anchorage is when we are at our worst. The writer hopes to give to young men a few immovable convictions. II A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN 22 Conflicting tendencies and resulting doubt and confusion. Attitude of old men and young toward changes. A common cause of failure and of success. Carlyle quoted. The undercurrent of civilization. The nineteenth century characterized by change. An illus- tration Two simple but far-reaching causes of change, one in the physical world and one in the world of ideas. CONTENTS III PAGE THE GREAT CHANGE IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD 27 Significance of the way in which a people get their living. Grazing, agriculture, com- merce, manufactures. The industrial revolu- tion. How caused. Nature's reservoir of power. Results of substituting mechanical for muscular power. Great increase of wealth. Problem of pro- duction solved. Possibility of universal abundance. The organization of industry. The age of homespun. Centralization of power by the steam-engine. Division of labor and result- ing interdependence. A social revolution. Family life enlarging to community, national, and world life. The morning paper a world contribution to our daily life. As relations have become many, complex, and far-reaching, so have obliga- tions. The fundamental movement of the times. IV THE GREAT CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS 39 The universe God's organ. Two banks oj keys. Southey quoted. Progress in the world of ideas and its cause. The scientific method. Its gift of knowledge. Much to unlearn. The breaking up of the< ology. Difference between theology and religion. Linnaeus and his work. Fundamental facts of Christianity. Increasing knowledge of the facts. New interpretation of the facts. 8 CONTENTS PACR The undercurrent in the world of ideas. Growth of public opinion. The social con- science. The prefix pan. Recognition of common interest ; labor ; capital. Conscious- ness of solidarity. The two great movements in the physical world and in the world of ideas one and the same. A new conception of Christianity. Christ's point of view. The church's point of view. The kingdom of God. The social ideal of Jesus. The comprehensiveness of the kingdom. V THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE 62 7. The Law of Service Its universality. Illustrated ; dust ; water. Circles of service. Apparent exceptions. In the spiritual world. Noblest illustration in man. Service a Christian law. VI THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE (Continued) 73 77. The Law of Self-giving or Sacrifice The stern benevolence of nature. Evolu- tion. The law below man and above him. Applied to man. Promotion through sacri- fice. The circle of sacrifice. Man's refusal to give himself. Sacrifice a Christian law. Misunderstanding of the law. VII THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE (Continued) 83 III. The Law of Lov>, Love makes service and sacrifice possible to free man. The struggle for life. The 9 CONTENTS PACK struggle for the life of others. Prof. Drum- mond quoted. Illustration from the mud- wasp. Prof. Shaler quoted. Development of the social instinct. Nature's new plan. Vertebrates and articulates compared. De- velopment of the power of thought. Family love broadened into patriotism. Garibaldi. Natural love. Disinterested love. Such love eternal life. Life transforming death. Love the fundamental law of the kingdom of God. VIII THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 98 The air full of interrogation-points. Social problems pertain to our relations. The Social Question denned. Revolutionists. Burke quoted. Social laws vital. Spencer quoted. Service a law of life. Sacrifice a law of life. A diagnosis of social disease. Illustrations. Love makes the laws of service and sacrifice operative. IX THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PER- SONAL PROBLEMS THE USE OF TIME THE BODY EDUCATION . , 115 Love, service, and sacrifice "convertible." The use of time. Time never so valuable as now. Idlers. Busy idlers. Law of ser- vice applied to twenty-four hours in the day. Largest outcome of a lifetime. The body. Misconception of the body. New Testament use of the word "flesh." Good working rule for the body. Athletics. Nervous force versus muscular strength. The wisest physical training. 10 CONTENTS PACK Education. Why gain an education? Means and ends. The supreme end. " Know- ledge for the sake of knowledge." THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PER- SONAL PROBLEMS (Continued) OCCUPA- TIONAMUSEMENTS EXPENDITURE 137 The parasite. Three varieties of social parasites. Isaac Watts quoted. Choice of an occupation to be governed by the law of service. George Peabody. William McKinley. The way to get a larger place. One's occupa- tion and the kingdom of God. " Making a rope for the kingdom." Amusements. The need of play. The philosophy of play. Dr. Lyman Beecher and Prof. Stowe. The law of pleasure. Expenditure. The law of service thrice applicable to money. Voluntary poverty. The law of tithes. Application of the law of service. XI THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PER- SONAL PROBLEMS (Continued) RELIGION... 163 How important is religious belief ? The- ology of the Apostles. Perversions of the religion of Jesus. Loveless and useless sacri- fice, or Asceticism. "Simon the Stylite." Sacrifice should always serve. Asceticism not Christian sacrifice. Love devoid of service and sacrifice, or Mysticism. Such love not Christian. " Service " devoid of love and sacrifice, or Ritualism. The most precious things given away. Lowell quoted. " Services " which are II CONTENTS PACK " held " instead of rendered. Weakness of the church to-day. Why twice as many young women in the church as young men ? The intelligent application of the three laws of Jesus realizes the highest possibilities of life. Jonathan Edwards quoted. Con- secration to God for the service of man. XII THE INSPIRATION OF THE TWENTIETH-CEN- TURY OUTLOOK 192 r. The influence of the industrial revolu- tion. Gaining control of natural forces re- leases vital energy for the development of higher sensibilities and the power of thought. Increases human resources indefinitely. Pro- duction of wealth. Wealth cannot be mon- opolized by selfishness. Increasing endow- ment funds. 2. Influence of the scientific method. Ef- fects of increasing knowledge. The national census. A new philanthropy. Evolution, the method of social progress. 3. Influence of the new social ideal. The perfection of individual types. Aristophanes quoted. A higher organization of society. Increasing intelligence. Growing altruism. 4. Influence of the new Christianity. Old conception illustrated by Bunyan. Lord Shaftesbury quoted. The new civilization and the old. The world's evils doomed. God's final victory. 12 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN A WORD WITH THE READER YOUNG men, let me take you into my confidence by speaking frankly out of my own experience. My Puritan training and let me say I am thankful for it, because it put needed iron into my blood my Puritan training gave me individualistic and rather severe ideas of life and of religion. My rigid views felt the shock of the great changes, theological and social, which have taken 13 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN place during the past generation. Broken loose from their ancient moorings, men seemed to me to be drifting. New views fostered by science were believed to be hostile to religion, paralyzing to faith, and demoralizing to conduct. Impatience of restraint rather than love of truth seemed to inspire the attacks on many beliefs which the fathers held sacred. When would these changes cease ? How much of the old structure of society and of belief would they leave standing ? Were there any great certainties left ? Such were the questions which troubled a serious mind that could not be blind to what was actually taking place. Gradually I got hold of certain or- ganizing ideas which interpreted these changes. Events no longer seemed to me a great jumble. They became full of meaning and of thrilling interest, and A WORD WITH THE READER constituted a mighty movement, pro- gressing in orderly fashion. I had reached what was to me a new interpretation of life, and I cannot begin to tell you how much it did for me. It resolved many perplexities ; it wonder- fully widened my horizon, and increased my interest in my kind, enabling me to say with Terence, " I am a man, and nothing of man is foreign to me " ; it gave to me a lively interest in everything that promotes civilization ; it confirmed my faith in God's government of the world ; it strengthened my confidence that Jesus is the supreme light of all ages ; it humanized religion ; it enabled me to see the divine workings in human activities, and thus revealed the sacredness of the so-called secular ; it showed me how every-day commonplace may help to work out God's great plans for humanity, 15 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN thus glorifying the ordinary activities of life with a great motive ; it gave to me the blessed consciousness of being a co- worker with God, thus affording a con- stant inspiration, together with the glad confidence of ultimate success. If I had to believe that the sin and misery in the world were hopeless, it would take the heart out of me. I could work, but I should work like a galley- slave. Believing as I now do that the sin and degradation and sorrow of the world are all doomed, that the kingdom of God is steadily coming among men, and will one day surely fill the earth, and believing that I can in some small measure hasten its coming, I am inspired with patience to wait and with strength to work. Now what I have tried to do in the following pages is to give you this con- 16 A WORD WITH THE READER ception of life. I am quite aware that I can no more give you all of my thought than I can give you any of my experience. If, however, I succeed in putting you in possession of a few fundamental princi- ples to which you can hold all your life, I shall be content. The value of a hitching-post is in the fact that you can find it precisely where you leave it. A principle is something to "tie to " because it does not change. When you have laid hold of a principle, young men, you will know where to find yourselves, and the world will know where to find you. Tying to impulse or to mere notion, however popular, is being bound Mazeppa-like to a wild horse ; there is no telling where you will be to- morrow. We all have our varying experiences, times when we are at our best, and 17 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN again times when we are at our worst ; and it is the latter when the strain comes on character. We all need principles that will hold then, when we are at our worst. We have our mountain-top moments, when vision is clear and wide, and it is easy to see straight and to appraise things at their true value ; and the great realities, which are intangible and which generally we cannot get hold of, now take hold of us, and all that is best in us becomes alert and strong ; and it seems to us that we can never again be mastered by a mean motive. And then gradually and all unconsciously we sink back to the old level, the vision becomes only a memory, and life is again mere com- monplace ; our horizon has contracted ; the realities of life are again the things which can be weighed and measured, 18 A WORD WITH THE READER bought and sold, and perhaps the cry of appetite or passion drowns the "still small voice," and our lower self has gained the upper hand. It is at such times that we need deep convictions, to which our principles can grapple as to immovable rocks. If at such times we can say to ourselves, ' No matter how things seem, I'm sure this is the right course, and I'll hold to it whether I feel like it or not,' then we are safe ; and gradually right habits are established and it becomes easy to do what once had cost a struggle. It is my hope that this volume may fix in the minds of the young men who read it convictions as to the right course of life so deep and immovable that they may be anchored to in the stress of storm. Last winter I gave an address before 19 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN one of the Young Men's Christian As- sociations in New York on The Times and their Appeal to Young Men. I received many invitations to repeat it be- fore other associations, and so numerous were the requests for printed copies of the address that it was decided to expand and publish it. The following pages are the result. I make no apology for using here some material which has already appeared in other connection in my earlier books. It was impossible to present what I believe to be the true philosophy of life, both so- cial and individual, without repeating ideas which it has been the object of my life for the past eighteen years to pro- mulgate. This presentation of those ideas I believe to be better adapted to young men and more likely to command their attention. It should be added that 20 A WORD WITH THE READER much of the present volume has never appeared in any of its predecessors. If writer and reader now understand each other, we are better prepared to come to an understanding of the times in which we live. 21 II "A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN*' ARCTIC travelers tell us that in those far waters icebergs are sometimes seen plowing steadily on against wind and tide, as if they had the power of self- direction. The explanation is found in the fact that their huge bulk reaches down to the deep undercurrent of the sea, which bears them on resistlessly. In these times there are many ebbing and flowing tides of tendency which cause conflicting surface currents and many veering winds of opinion which blow from all points of the doctrinal com- 22 TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN pass. The result is much doubt and con- fusion. Men who are too old to learn are too old to be troubled by doubts. They do not have to consider the new, for only the old is true and good. When men grow conservative with years, their ideas, their habits, their character have become so fixed that they are not much affected by changes in the great world around them. They may be troubled for others, but not for themselves. Not so with young men. Habit has gained less momentum ; opin- ion has not yet hardened into conviction ; character has all the sensitiveness and flexibility of young growth. Young men, therefore, are easily affected by their environment, are often unsettled by the conflict of opinions, and confused by the babel of voices. It is not strange, then, that they are perplexed by widely differ- 23 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN ent conceptions of life and of duty in this period of transition in which we are now living. When a young man is in doubt as to what life really means, he does not know what to do with his life ; and when he does not know what to do with his life, it is pretty certain he will not make the best use of it. Many fail because they do not discern the signs of the times. Many succeed because, intelligently or otherwise, they push out into that "... tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." Carlyle thought that" co-operation with the real tendency of the world " indicated the " insight of genius "; and this may well be true, for the real tendency of the world is given to it by the hand of its Governor. If, then, we can get hold of 24 TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN truth deep enough to reach down to the undercurrent of civilization, it will reveal to us the direction of true progress, which, we must believe, obeys the divine pur- pose. And if we genuinely and intel- ligently yield ourselves to that purpose, we shall be little troubled by conflicting surface currents and by shifting winds of doctrine. Change was more characteristic of the nineteenth century than anything else. There were profound changes in the world of ideas, and changes hardly less profound in the physical world, changes in the standards of living, in the meth- ods of manufacture, of agriculture, of business, of commerce, and of travel. An illustration in one of these spheres will suffice for all. A lady of my ac- quaintance in New York has a journal, written by her aunt a hundred years ago. 25 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN It records a voyage from New York to Albany and return. The journey up the river consumed nine days, while the re- turn trip was accomplished in seven. Now, sixteen days would suffice for the passage of the Atlantic plus a journey across Europe to Constantinople. These changes, which had they been foretold a hundred years ago would have been incredible, have come chiefly from two simple but far-reaching causes, one in the physical world and one in the world of ideas. Mechanical power, substituted for mus- cular, revolutionized material civilization t and has profoundly influenced the world of thought. The scientific method has revolutionized our thought, and is pro- foundly affecting the physical world. We will consider each in the chapters immediately succeeding. 26 Ill THE GREAT CHANGE IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD TELL me one thing about a people, viz., how they get their living, and I will tell you a hundred things about them. A tribe that lives by the chase is savage. If a people gain their livelihood directly from domestic animals, they must wander to new regions as their flocks and herds require new pastures. That is, they are nomadic, and their food, their dress, their shelter, their government, their customs, and their laws are such as always belong to a nomadic civilization. 27 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN If a people get their living by cultivating the ground, the tent of the nomad gives place to a permanent dwelling, and the food, dress, form of government, laws, and customs of an agricultural civilization differ as widely from those of a nomadic civilization as a house differs from a tent. If a people are commercial, all their habits and mode of life are more or less affected by contact with the strange peoples with whom they trade. Stimulated by the new ideas brought home by their mer- chants and sailors, they are progressive, and develop habits of mind, manners, arts, literatures, virtues, and vices as unlike those of the plowman and shepherd as are their occupations. Among the many influences which mold civilization none is so potent among all peoples and in all ages as the form of industry. It is not strange, therefore, 28 THE GREAT PHYSICAL CHANGE that the industrial revolution of the past century should have produced a new civilization. This industrial revolution was caused by the substitution of mechanical l power for muscular. The earth has always been a vast reservoir, capable of supplying man with exhaustless power in the form of steam, electricity, water, wind, air, gas, and the like. But for thousands of years this reservoir remained untapped. Agricul- ture, all the mechanical arts, navigation, travel, and transportation depended on vital force power derived from the muscles of man or beast. Let us glance rapidly at some of the far-reaching results which followed the substitution of mechanical power for muscular a change which has taken x luse the word "mechanical" in abroad sense to in- clude all forms of power except vital energy. 2 9 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN place mostly within the memory of living men. 1 This change gave to the world A NEW AND GLORIOUS POSSIBILITY Up to this time nature had yielded her bounty to man only in exchange for vital energy so much bread, so much sweat. In order to double the producing power of the world, the number of muscles must be doubled, and that meant doubling the number of mouths. Thus as supply in- creased, the demand upon it increased in like measure ; and as one set of muscles could do little more than provide for the wants of their owner and of those de- pendent on him, it was impossible for the world ever to be rich. 1 For a farther discussion of this subject see the author's 44 Expansion " and " The Twentieth-Century City." 30 THE GREAT PHYSICAL CHANGE There was wealth, but it was usually held by hands that did not create it. As late as 1820 the entire property of the American people amounted to only about $200 to each person. Evidently, under such conditions, wealth here implied poverty there ; the luxury of a few meant the penury of the many. But mechanical power may be indef- initely increased without increasing the number of mouths by one. We could double our productive power in a few months, if need were. More food and clothing can now be produced than all the world can consume ; and this is true of all the great staples. Men go hungry and ragged, to be sure, but because they have nothing with which to buy. Tapping the earth's great reservoir oi power solved the problem of production and made possible universal abundance 3' THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN The great problem remaining is that of distribution. The substitution of mechanical for muscular power not only enabled pro- duction to outrun consumption, and so insured the creation of great wealth, it also resulted in THE ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY When power was muscular it was nec- essarily distributed. Every man had his own and could, therefore, do his work by himself. It was the age of home- spun. The husband and wife could together provide about all of the nec- essaries of life. The good housewife could take the wool as it came from the back of the sheep and dye it, card it, spin it, weave it, and make it into a suit of clothes ; while her husband could not only 32 THE GREAT PHYSICAL CHANGE till the soil but build the house and make the furniture. The man and woman who can do all that to-day are very old peo- ple, who belong to a past generation and a past civilization. With the advent of the steam-engine power became centralized. Manufacture forsook the home for the factory. The machine took the place of the hand. In- dustry became organized, which resulted in the division of labor. Whereas one man used to make fifty things, it now takes fifty men to make one thing ; and each of the fifty is dependent on the other forty-nine for the finished product. And not only are the men in the same factory dependent on each other, but all the great industries have become interdependent, so that to stop one cripples all. Thus the industrial revolution has produced 33 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN A SOCIAL REVOLUTION The organization of industry has re- sulted in a much closer and more ex- tended organization of society. When the family was industrially suf- ficient unto itself, the community was little more than a collection of so many families. But when the industry of the community became organized and families became dependent on each other, there was de- veloped a community life of which each individual was a part. As the organization of industry ex- tended, communities became dependent on each other, then different sections of the country became interdependent, until at length the whole nation lived one in- dustrial and one social life, as its political life was one. And now nations are be- coming dependent on each other, and 34 THE GREAT PHYSICAL CHANGE there is being developed a world life, which will grow with the organization of a world industry. Thus it has come about that while your ) grandfather and grandmother were well- 7 nigh independent of all the world, you ) A are well-nigh dependent on all the world. *" Take a single item in your daily life for instance, the morning newspaper. Did you ever ask yourself on how many per- sons you are dependent for it? How many reporters gathered the news all over the civilized world ; how many telegraph operators transmitted it ; how many editors sifted and commented on it ; how many compositors set the type ; how many men did it take to transform the wood, growing perhaps a thousand miles away, into pulp and paper ; how many men were required to transport it by steamboat or railway to the newspaper 35 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN office ; how many workmen tended the press ; how many handled the paper from the press to you ? But these thousands could not have produced the morning paper without the co-operation of a great multitude back of them. Telegraph lines had to be built, and ocean cables had to be laid, and the wires had to be drawn, and the press and the types had to be cast, and the metal had to pass through the foundry, the rolling- mill, and the furnace ; and the ores had to come from the mine ; and the ships and the railways and the cars and the en- gines had to be built. Furthermore, this great multitude had to be fed and clothed while they toiled, so that back of them was another great army of workers on whom they were dependent. So that many thousands worked for you directly, and many, many millions indirectly, that 36 THE GREAT PHYSICAL CHANGE you might read the morning paper. And this is only one item out of hundreds in your daily life. A century ago the farmer's table, the year round, represented in area little more than a few acres, and in numbers few more than the family group. Now your table in the course of a year repre- sents millions of square miles and many millions of workers. In the agricultural civilization which prevailed in the age of homespun men's relations, and therefore their obligations, were few and simple. But in the new in- dustrial civilization relations have become many and complex, and obligations have been correspondingly multiplied. A man can no longer do what he pleases with his own life. What he does or does not do affects thousands of other lives. The individual is beginning to 37 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN discover that his life is not complete in itself, but is part of a greater life that of society, from which he receives and to which he gives. Thus the fundamental movement of the times is from an individualistic to a social or collective type of civilization. 38 IV THE two hands of the organist play different parts on different banks of keys, but each part adds beauty to the other, and together they make one glorious harmony. The universe is God's organ, and he has, so to speak, two hands. The great movements in the physical world and in the world of ideas are in tune with each other and so perfectly timed that together they make a harmony all divine. By what Southey called " the timing of Providence," the wonderful development 39 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN in the material world during the past cen- tury has been accompanied by a progress no less wonderful in the world of ideas. This has been due chiefly to THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD Formerly philosophers wove their theories out of their own brains, very much as spiders weave their webs out of their own bodies. If facts did not agree with the theory, so much the worse for the facts. Now the scientist gathers his facts with great patience and care, rigidly verifies them, and from them deduces his theory. If new facts appear which are inconsistent with the theory, so much the worse for the theory. As a new method in the physical world has opened to us exhaustless mines of material wealth, so the new scientific 40 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS method has proved to be the "Open Sesame " to the treasure-house of truth. If riches had enormously increased with- out a corresponding increase of knowl- edge, the balance between realities which are seen and those which are not seen might have been hopelessly lost, and our civilization might have become grossly materialistic beyond all redemption. But if we may say that there was a greater accumulation of riches during the nineteenth century than during all preced- ing ages, we may also say that there was a greater acquisition of knowledge during the past one hundred years than during all preceding time. We have not only learned much, we have had much to unlearn. The new scientific method has compelled the re- writing of all history and the re-reason- ing of all science. This new method, like THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN an iconoclast with hammer in hand, has been going through the temple of our knowledge, breaking many images which we had devoutly worshiped. It has not spared our religious beliefs ; and as the result of its application theology has been badly broken up. Many good people feel as if the founda- tions were being shaken, and say : " If the foundations be removed, what shall the righteous do ? " But He who created the universe has not lost control of it, and never will ; and He who loved mankind enough to give his Son for our redemption has not ceased to love us, and never can. We may rest assured that these multiplied changes in the material world and in the world of ideas are not beyond God's knowledge or the scope of his plan or the wide reach of his power. There have been turnings and over- 42 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS turnings in other ages which disturbed good men of other generations, and yet we are now enabled to see that those changes were but the revolutions of God's great chariot-wheels, bearing the world onward toward the goal of his beneficent purposes. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOLOGY AND RELIGION Many are disturbed at the changes which are taking place in the creeds because they fail to distinguish between theology and religion. The Christian religion is based on facts which cannot change ; theology is the interpretation of the facts, which interpretation must change with increasing knowledge. Linnaeus did a great work for botany in his day. He aroused a wonderful en- thusiasm for the study of vegetable life, 43 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN and revolutionized the science of botany. But scientists tell us now that the Linnaean method was artificial, and it has been supplanted by what is known as the nat- ural method. That is, there has taken place another revolution in the science of botany ; but hepaticas and daisies and buttercups remain the same that they were in the days of Linnaeus. The facts on which the science is based are un- changed, but men have reached a new interpretation of the facts. Now there is the same difference be- tween theology and religion that there is between botany and flowers. The most fundamental facts of Christianity are, first, the fact of human sin and need ; second, the fact of the life and death of Jesus Christ ; and, third, the fact that those who really accept him as Lord and Savior do somehow find peace, do find the deepest 44 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS needs of their nature met, do somehow gain strength to win the great battle of life. These facts have never changed and never can ; and they are as well established as are any facts of history or science the life and death of Julius Caesar or the fact of gravitation. But Christian theology is something quite different, viz., the interpretation of these and of the less fundamental facts of the Christian religion. There may be different interpretations of the same facts, hence different theologies, all claiming to be Christian ; and there may be new light thrown on the facts, which compels a new interpretation of them. Indeed, this is precisely what has taken place. During the past fifty years there has been a vast amount of study expended on the life, the character, and 45 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN the teachings of Jesus, the language he spoke, the people he taught, the times and the land in which he lived. I heard Principal Fairbairn of Oxford say : " This generation knows Jesus Christ better than any generation since his own " ; and that is true. Much of the best thinking in the world, during the past half-century, has been concentrated on Christ, with the result that we know a good deal more about him and his teachings than the fathers did who wrote the creeds some hundreds of years ago. We know better than they the language in which the Gospels were written. We know better than they what was in the minds of the people whom Christ taught, how they understood him, and how he intended to be understood. We know better than they the laws of the human mind, of which there was very little 46 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS scientific knowledge when the creeds were written. Now all this increase of knowledge has rendered the old interpretation of the facts inadequate. Many, failing to make the distinction pointed out above, have thought that to surrender the old state- ment of doctrine was to surrender the Christian religion. As well might we refuse to part with Linnaeus for fear of losing the flowers. The period of readjustment in which we now are is of course one of conflict- ing opinions, of more or less doubt and confusion, and of not a little distress. The scientific method has thrown a flood of new light on man, on nature, and on the Holy Scriptures. It has given to the world a new conception of God's method in creation and in revelation. From the new facts which science has revealed, 47 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN wrong inferences as well as right have been drawn, and men are not all agreed as yet what theory or doctrine best harmonizes and interprets all the facts. There has been during recent years some real progress in the science of theology as in other sciences, but it does not come within the scope of this discussion to attempt even an outline of the recon- struction which is in progress. If, how- ever, we can find in the world of ideas, as we have already found in the changes of the physical world, a deep and resistless undercurrent ; and if, moreover, we find these two great currents moving in precisely the same direction, we may safely conclude that their movement is that of true progress, because their direc- tion is given to them by the will of Him who governs the universe ; and, neglect- ing the conflicting tides and eddies of 48 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS surface opinions, we may safely commit ourselves to the mighty current that fol- lows the hand of God. THE UNDERCURRENT IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS Who has not noticed in the world of ideas the growing force of public opin- ion ? If men did not think at all, or if they all disagreed, there could be no public opinion. The fact that public opinion is rapidly formed and becomes pronounced shows that men are learning to think together, that in large numbers they move in the same direction and arrive at the same conclusion. And not only is this true in free countries like America and England, but it is becoming true in Europe. Even in Russia public opinion is formed and finds expression under the iron scepter of the Czar. 49 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN We hear also of the " social con- science," which in the sphere of morals corresponds to public opinion in the sphere of thought. It means that large numbers arrive at the same convictions of right. There are beginning to appear a world opinion, a world conscience, and a world life. 1 It is significant that the prefix pan (all) is coming into such common use Pan- American, Pan- Slavic, Pan-Ger- manic, Pan-Anglican, Pan-Presbyterian, Pan-Methodist, and the like. It indicates in each instance a tendency for all of a certain kind or class or race to come together, or at least a movement of thought in that direction ; and it is the world of thought of which I am speaking. It is the recognition of common blood, 1 For a discussion of these topics, see the author's "Expansion," pp. 214-246, 264-275. 50 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS or common beliefs, or common interests which inspires all these movements ; and this recognition is taking place in the in- dustrial world as well as in the political and religious. Men are seeing more and more clearly that their interests are not individual and isolated, but common. First, men who were engaged in the same industry dis- cover that their interests are really one, and they organize their unions ; then men in different but interrelated in- dustries see that they have much in common, and different unions combine ; then men see the common interests of all labor, and there is a movement toward national federation ; then they discover the necessity of international organiza- tion and action. Capital has been moving in the same direction. First, there was the partner- Si THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN ship, then the corporation, then the com- bination of corporations in increasing numbers and magnitude, until there is developed at last a trust as broad as a continent. Capital and labor have not yet dis- covered that their interests are really one, that they must co-operate like the two wings of a bird ; but that discovery will come in time, and then they will combine. Thus we find an unmistakable current in the world of thought toward what might be called the consciousness of solidarity something so new in kind or degree that it has compelled the use of a new word to express it, and we hear of the " solidarity of labor," the " soli- darity of society," the " solidarity of the i, race. It appears that the great movements in the physical world and the world of 52 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS action in industry, in invention, in com- merce, in politics, in philanthropy, and equally in the world of thought in education, in science, in religion, and in philosophy, are all in the same general direction. The tendency is to perceive the wider relations of life, to recognize common interests, to subordinate differ- ences and to emphasize resemblances, to sink the small in the great, to merge the many in the one, to bring a multitude of different facts or phenomena under one great law. Thus the great change in the world of ideas, like the great change in the physical world, may be summed up as a movement from an individualistic to a collective type of civilization. The two great undercurrents are really one and the same. S3 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN A NEW CONCEPTION OF CHRISTIANITY It is not at all strange that in such times an individualistic conception of salvation should cease to appeal strongly to men ; not strange that an individ- ualistic type of religion should lose its power. Thinking minds want a religious con- ception large enough to make room for the enlarged ideas, comprehensive enough to embrace every new fact of universal knowledge, secure enough to welcome every new ray of light from whatever source a religion adapted not only to the individual, but also to the vast life of society ; not a religion of rules, but one of principles, applicable to all the possible complexities of human relation- ships and capable of solving social as well as personal problems. 54 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS There is another illustration of the " timing of Providence " furnished by the fact that the change in the character and hence in the needs of civilization has been accompanied by a corresponding change in the conception of Christianity. This change is coming as the result of the movement back to Christ, which has given to us his point of view, which is of course the true point of view. Cer- tainly no one will question that Christ's conception of his own religion was the correct one. Let us see how strongly his conception contrasts with that which has been practically the universal, and is still the general, conception of the churches. The point of view of the Protestant churches has been that of the individual. Indeed, the great issue of Protestantism with the Church of Rome has been the 55 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN right of private judgment. It has been the common conception that true religion consists in right personal relations of the individual soul with God. The Standard Dictionary defines religion as " a belief binding the spiritual nature of man to a supernatural being on whom he is con- scious that he is dependent." Salvation has meant simply the salvation of the in- dividual ; and it has been believed that the work of the churches consisted in saving as many individual souls as pos- sible. That is, the individual has been the great aim of the churches. Moreover, attention has been fixed on the soul, not on the man as a whole, but on a fraction of him that part of him which could be gotten safely to heaven. The body has been neglected, and in many ages of the Christian era much de- spised and abused as the natural enemy of 56 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS the soul. Thus religion has been narrowed down to a small fraction of human life. Surely it is no wonder that our social sys- tem is unchristian no wonder that it has so little to do with a religion that has so little to do with it. Their mutual indif- ference would seem to be mutually satis- factory. Christ, on the other hand, had his eye fixed on the kingdom of God, and made it the great subject of his teachings. His very first word was, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In the very first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, which is called his great inaugural, he refers to the kingdom. When he sent out his disciples he said that it was " to preach the gospel of the kingdom," and that he himself was sent for the same purpose. In the prayer which he taught us, after the words, " Hallowed be 57 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN thy name," the first petition was, " Thy kingdom come." He enjoins it upon his disciples to make the kingdom the su- preme object of endeavor : " Seek ye first the kingdom of God." In a single chap- ter (Matt, xiii.) he gives us a half- dozen parables, the object of each of which is to explain the nature of the kingdom or the laws of its growth. Forty-five times does he refer to the kingdom in this one gospel more than one hundred times in the first three gospels. And we are told in the first chapter of the Acts that during the interval between his resurrection and ascension he dis- coursed with his disciples " concerning the things of the kingdom." Thus the beginning and end of his preaching, and the great subject to which he constantly recurs, is the kingdom of God. A study of the connection in which 58 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS this expression occurs shows unmistak- ably that Christ did not mean by it the home of the blessed dead, but the king- dom of God here in the earth. Now a kingdom implies an organized society, the citizens of which are the subjects of the king, and the laws of which are his laws. " The kingdom of God " there- fore was Jesus' social ideal, which will be fully realized in the world when God's will is " done in earth as it is heaven "; that is, when all the king's laws are per- fectly obeyed among men. The kingdom of God (or the king- dom of heaven, which is the same thing) means much more to us than it could possibly mean to the early disciples, because science has revealed to us a great multitude of natural laws of which they knew nothing ; and all these so-called laws of nature are as truly God's laws as 59 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN are the Ten Commandments. The laws of the body and of the mind are no less God's laws than are those of the spiritual nature ; and all alike are laws of the kingdom ; so that the full coming of the kingdom of God in the earth will mean perfect obedience to all the laws of the body and therefore perfect health, perfect obedience to all the laws of the mind and therefore freedom from all superstition and prejudice, perfect obe- dience to all the laws of the spirit and therefore perfect righteousness and joy in God. It will mean obedience to the laws of nature and therefore the con- quest of nature and the full enjoyment of her bounty ; it will also mean obedi- ence to the laws of society and therefore peace on earth, good will to men. Thus it is seen that the kingdom of God which Jesus came to establish in 60 CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IDEAS the earth is comprehensive enough to make room for all the new facts which science has revealed or ever can reveal, and broad enough to include and utilize all the physical resources which have been or ever can be developed. It rec- ognizes the individual not a fraction of him, but the whole man both in his relations to God and to his fellow men. It recognizes society, and it will be found that its three fundamental laws, which will be discussed in the next chapters, are social laws, obedience to which will bring healing to all our social diseases. Thus when we get back to that " simplicity which is in Christ," we find a Christianity precisely adapted to the needs of the times. 1 1 For a fuller discussion of the kingdom of God, see the author's ' ' The Next Great Awakening. " 61 V THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE I. The Law of Service THERE are certain laws which, so far as we can see, are universal in their scope and eternal in their application. One of these is THE LAW OF SERVICE. In all the world we find nothing which exists wholly unto itself. There would seem to be no form of existence so low, no atom so small, that it has not its ap- pointed task in the economy of nature. Even the dust, which we despise and with which the housekeeper wages a life- long war, has within a few years been 62 THE LAW OF SERVICE found to render varied and wonderful service. It gives to us the blue of the sky and of the sea. It is the canvas on which the sun paints the gorgeous col- ors of the morning and of the evening. Without the dust there would be no diffused daylight ; we should have to choose between the glare of the sun's direct rays and total darkness. Every cloud that hid the sun would bring mid- night. Says Mr. Alfred Russel Wal- lace 1 : 1< It has been recently discovered that dust has another part to play in nature ; a part so important that it is doubtful whether we could even live without it. To the presence of dust in the higher atmosphere we owe the for- mation of mists, clouds, and gentle bene- ficial rains, instead of water-spouts and destructive torrents." 1 " The Wonderful Century," p. 77. 63 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Substances usually render not one service but many. Water, for instance, is the element in which not only fishes but a thousand other forms of life dis- port themselves; it floats our commerce; it tosses the light keels of pleasure; it is an essential constituent in all animal and vegetable life ; it slakes our thirst ; it makes our steam and drives our spin- dles and draws our trains ; it furnishes our ice ; it forms the dew ; it cleanses and purifies; it refreshes all nature; it makes the lake the eye of the landscape ; it gives to us the majesty of the sea, the beauty and power of the cataract, and the glory of the overarching bow. With- out its service the earth would become one vast cemetery a lifeless cinder like the moon. Nature is full of vast circles of ser- vice The clouds carry the bounty of the 64 THE LAW OF SERVICE sea back to the thirsty land ; " the rain also filleth the pools," and replenishes the hidden springs which feed the rills and brim the river-banks. The streams bear back to the ocean what it had given to the clouds by evaporation. " Unto the place from whence the rivers came, thither they return again." The ocean serves as the world's great filter where the rivers deposit their impurities, and the waters distilled by the sun start again on their round of blessing as pure as the dew. Without this great circle of service every man and beast and bird, every leaf and blade of grass would perish. " The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north ; it whirleth about continually, and returneth again according to his circuits." In its circle of service the wind facilitates 65 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN evaporation, carries the rain-clouds far inland, aids in precipitating vapor, puri- fies the air, fills the sail, turns the mill, scatters seeds and bears the fertilizing pollen from flower to flower. Matter makes a great circuit of change that it may render more service. It passes from the mineral kingdom up to the vegetable, and from the vegetable kingdom on to the animal ; and when the animal dies nature decomposes it into its elements, that it may again begin the round of service in some other form. At every step in this circuit matter affords numberless new utilities. The mineral kingdom furnishes countless substances for man's service ; and even deserts and barren mountain ranges have their uses. A multitude of new values appear in the vegetable world. Besides sustaining animal life and affording a thousand 66 THE LAW OF SERVICE materials for a multiplicity of uses, every tree and plant which springs from the soil serves as a pump to lift the water from the ground and return it to the sky, thus profoundly influencing climate. Again, animal life renders a thousand obvious services quite impos- sible to the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Furthermore, there is an infinite num- ber of illustrations of this law quite apart from any service directly rendered to man. In every organism throughout the animal and vegetable worlds the law of service obtains. Every organism has its several organs, each of which serves all, while all serve each. Again, two wholly different forms of life often render necessary service to each other. Thus the flower feeds the bee and butterfly, while they aid the wind in 67 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN bearing from blossom to blossom the fertilizing pollen. These three kingdoms the mineral, vegetable, and animal are united into a whole by the law of service, without which the universe could hardly be a -uni-verse, i.e. turned into one. It is true there are things in nature for which there is no apparent use. It does not follow, however, that no use exists. Science is constantly discovering new uses. And it would seem more probable that these apparently useless things have uses as yet undiscovered than that they afford exceptions to a law which appears to be so universal in its application. Moreover, many seeming exceptions are found to conform to the law, if we include educational and moral uses. Thus the parasite does not earn its own 68 THE LAW OF SERVICE living ; it is a burden on some other life, and would appear to be just so much worse than useless. But the parasite is a teacher ; it reveals the law of service by manifesting in its own degeneracy nature's penalty for violating the law. We are assured that this law reaches into the spiritual world. " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " He in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily said that he came " not to be ministered unto but to minister." God is the greatest servant in the universe, for he ministers not only to all his children, but to beast and bird and creeping thing; for all he provides their meat in due season. Thus the great law of service spans the universe from the dust up to God i Heb. i. 14. 69 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN himself. It is binding alike on the spir- itual and the physical. Can we imagine that man, in whom the spiritual and physical unite, is exempt ? Nay, rather, in him the law finds its noblest fulfill- ment. In unconscious nature, service is of course unconscious. In the inorganic and vegetable worlds, and generally in the animal world below man, service is without choice or intelligence. It is a part of the harmony of the universe, it manifests the beauty of perfect order like the movements of the heavenly bodies, and in the ongoing of nature it contributes to the final consummation of human blessedness, but it is of course devoid of all moral beauty. Only when we rise to conscious man may we find conscious service, freely chosen and in- telligently and gladly rendered. In such 70 THE LAW OF SERVICE service there is the same beauty that glorifies the ministration of an angel. And Christianity requires of us such service, because it always holds us to that which is best and noblest. Christ taught the law of Christian service by reiter- ated precept and by life-long example. Though he " thought it not robbery to be equal with God," he "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant." He said to his dis- ciples, " I am among you as he that serveth." And if he required a life of service of himself, he could require no less of his disciples, for " the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple to be as his master, and the ser- vant as his lord." "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." He came to minister ; he therefore sent forth his dis- THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN ciples to minister. Moreover, he taught that the final principle of judgment to be applied to all nations was that of min- istration. This law of service, then, is fundamental both to Christianity and to creation. 72 VI THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE ( Continued) II. Self -giving or Sacrifice THERE has been a great deal of sacri- fice in the world which was not giving but taking the sacrifice of the weak to the strong. If sacrifice is one of the stern laws of nature, science reveals that it is sternly benevolent. In the strug- gle for life the unfit are sacrificed to the fit; not simply the many to the few, but also to the future, for the survival of the fittest means progress. So far as we can see, there could have been no evo- lution without sacrifice. Nature could 73 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN improve the type only at the cost of countless individuals. " So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life." Thus the law of sacrifice, regnant throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, may be traced back from man to the far distant beginnings of life in its lowest forms. And below the organic, we find the atom giving itself to the molecule and the molecule giving itself to the crystal. Again, above man we find that the law of sacrifice, like that of service, in- cludes God himself, for God is love, and love is self-giving. He is ever giving himself to his creatures according to their capacity to receive ; his gift of him- self in Christ being the supreme sacri- fice, the unspeakable gift. Would it not be strange and unac- 74 SELF-GIVING OR SACRIFICE countable if this law of sacrifice, which includes the spiritual above man and the physical below him, omitted man him- self, who in his own nature, as already said, unites both the spiritual and the physical ? It is evident in the plan of nature that the lower was intended as a means to the higher as an end. The mold gives itself to the grass, the grass gives itself to the herd, the herd gives itself to man ; and every step of this far journey from mold to man is indeed a giving up a promotion and each promotion is through sacrifice. Are we to suppose that this law of sacrifice and of promotion by sacrifice applies to all the lower ranks of nature where self-giving is blind and uncon- scious, or sacrifice is unwilling, and fails at man, precisely the point where moral 75 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN beauty and the glory of heroism become possible ? Nay, rather, sacrifice in the lower ranges of nature is only a prophecy of something infinitely higher when a free will freely offers itself for another. Next to the cross of Christ, the law of sacrifice finds its most perfect illustration in man's giving himself to God for the service of humanity ; and in that self-giving there is another and nobler illustration of promotion by sacrifice, for in that dying unto self man lives unto God, and is born into the kingdom of God. When man thus gives himself to God, it completes the great circle of sacrifice which, like that of service, includes heaven and earth. But when a man re- fuses to yield himself to this law, what then ? Lower orders of existence have given themselves to him, and through 76 SELF-GIVING OR SACRIFICE him should have contributed according to their measure to the ". . . one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves." A thousand lives, vegetable and an- imal, have emptied into his as rills and brooks empty into a river. If his life had emptied into the ocean of the Divine Infinitude, then the great circle of ser- vice would have been completed and these lower orders of vegetable and an- imal life which have ministered to him would have fulfilled their highest pos- sibilities. But instead of helping to hasten the coming of God's kingdom in the world, they have been diverted to feed and fatten one who has never entered that kingdom and who cares not for its promotion. Thus the selfish man, by receiving other lives and refusing to 77 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN give his own, breaks the great circle of sacrifice and perverts to his own uses that which was intended by divine be- nevolence for the general well-being. Surely a law thus fundamental to the universe could not be wanting in the kingdom of God. Indeed, Jesus makes it altogether essential. He says : " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." " Any man "; that means the man of the twentieth century as well as the first. It means the rich as well as the poor. It means that the law of sacrifice is as binding on him who has the means of self-gratification as on him who lacks them. It means the young man as well as his father or mother or sister. It means every man. " Deny himself" The emphasis belongs on the latter word. Self-denial is not distinc- 78 SELF-GIVING OR SACRIFICE lively Christian. Any one who pro- poses to accomplish anything in the world must deny himself many things. In order to become a successful business man, or lawyer, or scholar, or public speaker, or soldier, or athlete, you must deny many impulses and desires. A prize-fighter and a miser deny them- selves. They deny one part of them- selves that they may gratify another part. But that is not what Christ meant. A fraction of a man is not " himself." " Let him deny himself" the whole man. That self-abnegation is what Jesus here requires is made quite clear by the remainder of the passage. "Take up his cross." What does that mean? Infinitely more than is commonly supposed. That word " cross " is one of the great words of the New Testament, but it has been be- 79 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN littled in common usage. We talk about our " crosses," meaning thereby anything that crosses our inclination saying a word for Christ when it were easier to keep silence, or holding our tongue when we would rather make a biting retort. But the word "cross" never means anything so meager as that in the Bible. It never occurs there in the plural. It always means one thing, as the word " gallows " means one thing, and that is death. When under Roman rule a man was sentenced to crucifixion he was compelled to bear his cross to the place of execution. Let him " take up his cross and follow me." Follow him where ? To Golgotha, whither he bore his cross, there to be crucified with him. Paul understood it. He said : " I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 80 SELF-GIVING OR SACRIFICE me. " ' "//"ANY man will come after me, let him deny HIMSELF and take up his CROSS daily and follow me"* That is a death-sentence. Christ is speaking of life and death, for he immediately adds : " For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it ; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." The new life begins only with the death of the old. Christ insists on the same law of sacrifice which we have seen illustrated over and over in nature, a higher life attained through the death of the lower life, promotion through sacrifice. Misunderstanding of the law of sac- rifice has given rise to a great deal of fanaticism and cost a great deal of wasted suffering, to which we shall have 1 Gal. ii. 20. '' Luke ix. 23. ftl THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN occasion to refer in a later chapter, when an application of this law to personal problems is made. 82 VII THREE GREAT LAWS WHICH NEVER CHANGE ( Continued} III. The Law of Love WE have seen that the laws of service and sacrifice are binding in the lower ranks of existence, and there find an obedience as mechanical as it is com- plete. When we reach man in the ris- ing scale of being there is found either an unspeakably nobler obedience or dis- obedience ; for he is intelligent, and free either to choose service and sacrifice or to refuse. He discovers early in life that he en- joys being served and does not enjoy 83 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN suffering in the least. Why should he serve others if he can make others serve him, and why should he suffer that others may profit ? Here is the great problem : how shall a will, which is free to choose, choose intelligently and freely to sacri- fice self? The problem was foreseen and its solution begun at the very begin- ning of life, countless ages before the first man. Self-interest is well assured by the long struggle for life from the lowest forms up to the highest, but how shall altruism be made possible? By the equally ancient struggle for the life of others. Let us learn from Prof. Drum- mond, who has done so much to place this great truth in its true perspective. Take a single cell, the simplest form of life of which we have any knowledge the amoeba, for instance and study it 84 THE LAW OF LOVE with a microscope. "Immerse it in a suitable medium, and presently it will perform two great acts the two which sum up life, which constitute the eternal distinction between the living and the dead nutrition and reproduction. At one moment, in pursuance of the strug- gle for life, it will call in matter from without, and assimilate it to itself; at another moment, in pursuance of the struggle for the life of others, it will set a portion of that matter apart, add to it, and finally give it away to form an- other life. Even at its dawn life is re- ceiver and giver ; even in protoplasm is self-ism and other-ism. These two tendencies are not fortuitous. They have been lived into existence. They are not grafts on the tree of life, they are its nature, its essential life. They are not painted on the canvas, but 85 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN woven through it. The two main ac- tivities, then, of all living things are nu- trition and reproduction. The discharge of these functions in plants, and largely in animals, sums up the work of life. The object of nutrition is to secure the life of the individual ; the object of re- production is to secure the life of the species." 1 The latter is always secured at cost to the former oftentimes at the cost of life itself. If we continue our study up through higher ranks of life, we shall find in- creasing care and provision for offspring until it becomes wonderfully intelligent. Take an illustration from the nesting habits of the common mud-wasp, fa- miliar to every country boy. " The ar- 1 " The Ascent of Man," p. 220. It would be well to read the entire chapter on ' ' The Struggle for the Life of Others, " also the two beautiful chapters which follow. 86 THE LAW OF LOVE rangements which the mud-wasp makes for the care of its offspring are as fol- lows : At the time for nesting the fe- male proceeds to search out a suitable place for constructing her egg-cases. In this choice of a situation she shows a singularly effective insight into the acci- dents of the weather. She selects places, such as those in the lintels and jambs of a window, where the nests will be toler- ably sheltered from the washing action of the rain, yet she appears to discern that they should not be perfectly shel- tered from it. When she has found a fit site she searches for clayey mud, such as will become firm when dried. The material is gathered with rare skill, the quality varying but little wherever we find it used. With this clay she pro- ceeds to construct a small cylindrical case a few millimeters wide and about 87 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN three centimeters (a little over an inch) long ; rough on the outside, but smooth within. When this task is accomplished she goes forth to seek spiders of small size, limiting the choice to a few species oftenest only one kind is taken; these she stings with care so that they may not be killed but only benumbed, in which state they may lie for weeks. These spiders she packs into the cham- ber until it is well filled. Then on these spiders she lays an egg, and finally seals up the mouth of the chamber with a thin covering of clay. This process is usually repeated until several, rarely more than half a dozen, of these cases are formed, one beside the other. There being a certain saving thus effected in the mud, which is precious because of the diffi- culty of transporting it, she then, as if unwilling to venture all her eggs in one 88 THE LAW OF LOVE basket, seeks another site for other like constructions. " Shortly after the egg is laid beside the numbed spiders, the young grub comes forth and proceeds to feed on them. When, in the course of a few weeks, it has eaten the last of the store, it has grown to the limits of the lodging- place. It then enters on the chrysalis state, undergoes in time its metamor- phosis to the perfect insect. If it be a female, it then proceeds to repeat those marvels which it has never seen done, and which it cannot possibly be taught to do by its predecessors, for they are all dead." 1 This care, which is so minute and adequate, is purely instinctive. It has nothing to do with deliberate choice, in- 1 Prof. Shaler's " The Individual," pp. 35-37. 8 9 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN spired by affection, for the mother insect has no love for the offspring she will never see. Other articulates, like bees and ants, have developed a remarkable social in- stinct, which cares not simply for off- spring but for the other members of the community. But this is quite automatic ; under the same conditions we find the same actions or movements with little or no variation, as in machinery. Per- fection here is pure and simple instinct ; development on this line can never reach personal choice and love. At this point nature makes a new de- parture ; begins on another plan, capable of infinitely higher possibilities ; she pro- duces the vertebrates. In the case of the articulates the skeleton is external, while with the vertebrates it is internal. "The result is that the limbs of the ar- 90 THE LAW OF LOVE ticulates are covered by a hard coating which can be modified to make jaws, paddles, legs, stings, feelers, or whatever else is required in the way of tools to serve the needs of the will." The insect finds itself at the outset provided with a large variety of very perfect instruments, which do its bidding without study, or adaptation, or acquired skill. It does not learn by experience, because it does not have to. It is not compelled to think ; its processes are instinctive instead of rational. The reasoning power, therefore, is not developed. The vertebrates, on the other hand, have few limbs, and the bony part being internal instead of external, these limbs are not developed into such perfect tools as in the case of the articulates. While, therefore, the structure of the verte- brates permits of a much more perfect THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN nervous system, it admits of much less perfect members ; that is, less perfectly adapted to the work to be done. Prof. Shaler estimates that the general effi- ciency of the several members is more than ten times as great in the case of an articulate as in that of a vertebrate. This limitation on the part of the vertebrate results in a higher mental activity. The animal is compelled to think, and so in time develops the power of thought. Thus in the higher vertebrates, and pre-eminently in man action becomes rational instead of in- stinctive ; and the struggle for the life of others, which has continued from the amoeba up to man, may in him be the result of intelligent and deliberate choice. Yes, "may be," for man is free to choose the good of another rather than 92 THE LAW OF LOVE his own, but what motive can actually induce such a choice ? Only love. Hence nature has provided conditions favorable to the development of family affection. 1 In time family love was naturally ex- panded to include the tribe, and later, when sufficiently broadened to embrace the nation, it became patriotism, which has inspired countless men to give them- selves, and countless women to give their husbands, sons, brothers, or lovers, for the sake of country. We are told that Garibaldi recruited his soldiers by offering them hunger, cold, battle and death. And men rushed to his standard, not because they were indifferent to hardship and death, but The reader is referred to Prof. Drummond's "Evolu- tion of a Mother" and "Evolution of a Father" for an account of this development. 93 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN because patriots believed that by such sacrifice their beloved Italy might be made united and free. Without love the law of service makes one a slave ; without love the law of sacrifice makes one a victim. But love makes service free and sacrifice a privi- lege. Love transforms the slave into a freeman and the victim into a hero. When, therefore, love became mighty enough to conquer selfishness, the laws of service and of sacrifice were vitalized and glorified. ' ' Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might ; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight." Natural love is the most beautiful, the most exquisite, the noblest, most exalted production of nature ; but more or less remotely and secretly, more or less 94 THE LAW OF LOVE blindly or intelligently, it seeks itself. The long struggle for the life of others has not developed a love which is abso- lutely pure, that is, actually disinterested. Such love is spiritual life, and cannot be developed or evolved, for life comes from above, not below. Jesus said : " Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Life is a mystery, but it is a fact as in- disputable as it is inexplicable. On one side of the line which separates the vege- table kingdom from the mineral there is life, and on the other side there is death. And we know that dead matter crosses that line and becomes alive, enters a higher kingdom, becomes subject to higher laws, has new and higher capabili- ties and possibilities. And we know that dead matter is thus transformed only when life reaches down from above 95 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN and lays hold of it. We know further that living matter thus lays hold of dead matter and transforms and assimilates it only when the latter has been properly prepared. Now spiritual life is a fact as indis- putable and as inexplicable as animal or vegetable life ; and it is as much above intellectual life and natural love as vege- table life is above inorganic matter. It belongs to the kingdom of God, and when it finds human nature that has been properly prepared it lays hold of it and lifts it up into a higher kingdom, where it becomes subject to higher laws, lives a new life, has new and higher capa- bilities, a new and higher blessedness. As was said above, this spiritual life is disinterested love. That is the love that God is. The moment love becomes truly unselfish it becomes truly divine. 96 THE LAW OF LOVE That is the divine spark which, entering the human heart, is the beginning of eternal life ; that is the birth " from above" of which Jesus spoke and which he required. Thus love is the fundamental law of the kingdom of God. It is only by obeying that law that man can enter that kingdom. Hence the requirement, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself." l And when we really love, it is as natural for us to serve and to sacrifice as it is for flowers to bloom or for light to shine, because service and sacrifice are the natural expression of that spiritual life which we call love. 1 Luke x. 27. 97 VIII THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM THE air is full of interrogation-points. The traditional small boy, who for so many ages has amused and perplexed his elders with his many questions, is fairly outdone by the average man of to-day who is wide-awake. Here are some of the " burning ques- tions " which keep the social caldron boiling with unrest. Are " all men created free and equal," as the Declaration of Independence de- clares ? If a man has a right to freedom, has his freedom any natural or just limi- 98 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM tations ? If so, what ? In what sense is one man " as good as another " ? That is, in what sense are all men equal ? Has any one a right to property? or is it true, as the French philosopher, Proud- hon, said, that " property is theft " ? If a man has a right to property, is there any limit to the amount he has a right to hold ? Has he any right to a su- perfluity while others, equally deserving, are in want ? If a man has a right to property, has he a right to spend it as he pleases ? Has any one a right to property in land ? or is the land the nat- ural heritage of all the people ? Has every man a right to live ? If so, has he a right to the means of life ? And has he a right to do with his life what he pleases ? Has he a right to self-develop- ment to make the most of himself? If so, how is that right to be secured ? 99 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Is it the duty of every able-bodied per- son to work ? If so, how is that obliga- tion to be enforced ? Has every one a right to work ? If so, whose duty is it to furnish employment ? Is labor the source of all wealth? What are the rights of labor ? and what are the rights of capital ? What are the relations of the two ? If they have rights, have they not also duties? What are the duties of each ? What are the relations of or- ganized and unorganized labor ? Has unorganized labor no rights ? How is the centralization of industrial power to be harmonized with the distribution of political power? That is, how is or- ganized industry to be reconciled with democracy ? What of the marriage relation ? Is it to be limited by the will of the contracting parties ? What are the ICO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM rights and duties of the state touching marriage ? These are some of the many questions called " social," though of course they all concern individuals, because society is composed of individuals. Social problems cannot be solved without reference to the individual, and personal problems cannot be solved with- out reference to society ; still the two classes should be clearly distinguished. The problems of society pertain primarily to our relations with each other ; while the problems of the in- dividual are fundamentally questions of character. We hear a great deal about " The Social Question," which means different things according to what particular social question the writer or speaker deems of supreme importance. Often it 101 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN means the labor question ; and some- times it is used to include human better- ment in general ; but, strictly speaking, the social question is the question of meris relations with each other. It therefore includes a thousand different but related questions, and is infinitely complex. The only hope of not getting lost in such a labyrinth is in follow- ing the thread of some fundamental principle. Evidently social questions have been forced to the front by the great changes which were discussed in Chapters II and III, and which, as we have seen, con- stitute a profound movement from an individualistic to a social or collective type of civilization. The closer men's relations are, the greater is the friction developed, unless they are right relations. The fact that 1 02 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM the forcing of men into multiplied and close relations has produced so much soreness is proof that many of those re- lations are wrong and require readjust- ment ; hence the many social questions and popular discontent. Many tell us that readjustment will not suffice, that there must be revolu- tion which will utterly destroy the exist- ing social system ; and they have a new system all ready at hand to take its place. Such agitators do not seem to know that society is as much a growth as is a tree or a man ; and their proposition to de- stroy its diseases by destroying its life reminds one of Burke's comment on the French revolutionists. "We are taught," he says, " to look with horror on those children of their country who are prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the 103 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN kettle of magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds and wild incan- tations they may regenerate the pater- nal constitution, and renovate their fa- ther's life." The only hope of social health lies in obedience to the laws which belong to the constitution of society ; that is, in bringing society to a normal life. Theology has made marked advance in recent years by discovering that our relations with God are vital rather than legal ; and we shall make great progress in our knowledge of society when we recognize the fact that its fundamental laws are vital, not such as may be en- acted by a legislature or promulgated by a Czar. Herbert Spencer says : " All phenom- ena displayed by a nation are phenom- ena of life, and are dependent on the 104 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM laws of life." This is true of every so- cial organization, whether it includes a nation or only a village. Glance, then, at two of the fundamen- tal laws of all life, which we shall find to be laws of society. In the vegetable world take the rose-tree. The root sup- plies every part of it with sap, and firmly anchors the whole in the ground ; the bark transmits the sap to every part ; the stalk supports every part ; the leaves breathe for every part ; thus each part serves all the others. In the animal world take the human body. The brain does not think for itself simply, but for the whole man. The eyes do not see for themselves, nor do the hands work for themselves, nor the feet walk for themselves, nor does the heart beat for itself ; each member and each organ serves all the others. Thus 105 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN wherever we find life we find the law of service. Again, as we have already seen, from the lowest form of life to the highest, there is a struggle for the life of others, and wherever or whenever this struggle takes place there is self-giving foi another^ Every living thing, whether in thft vegetable or animal world, is composed of living cells. Pascal says that each community is a man ; meaning, I sup^ pose, that each community has an intel- ligent life of its own. We may say with equal truth that every man is a com- munity. His body is constructed of millions of these living cells, each of which is capable of sensation, of nutri- tion, of automatic motion, and of repro- ducing its kind. These individual lives sustain wonderful relations to each 106 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM other. Some of these cells combine to build up bone, others to form cartilage, others muscle, others fat, others nerves, others blood and the like. Together these numberless individual cells form a most complex community called man, and these many lives merge into one life, which is capable of self-conscious- ness. Now these little cells are constantly giving their lives for the good of the whole body. We say that in all life there is a process of knitting and a process of raveling. The " knitting " is the birth of new cells, and the " ravel- ing" is the death of old ones. Vast numbers of these cells die every day that the body may do its daily work. You cannot work nor play, you cannot speak nor think, you cannot suffer nor enjoy, without its costing the lives of 107 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN these little cells. Thus sacrifice is seen to be a fundamental law of life. Turn now to society. A human so- ciety is not composed of individual men, women, and children as a sea-beach is composed of individual grains of sand. A ship-load of people just landed on an uninhabited island, or a train-load of immigrants set down on an empty prairie, would not constitute a society. Not until they begin to enter into rela- tions of service with each other, and there comes to be some sort of organized life, would there be the beginnings of a society. Now individuals may be called social cells, which, entering into certain rela- tions with each other, constitute society. These social cells, like the cells of the body, are capable of sensation, nutrition, locomotion, and reproduction ; but, un- 108 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM like the cells of the body, the social cells are also endowed with self-consciousness and will, which makes them capable of selfishness and of rebellion against the laws of service and sacrifice. If we imagine the cells of the body capable of selfish thought and action, and suppose that they each one adopt the motto, " Every cell for itself," I assure you we should sing that old hymn, " I would not live alway," with new unction, for life would not be worth living. Sometimes foreign cells, which do not obey the laws of the body, are in- troduced into it and there multiply. The result is some zymotic disease like typhoid fever, diphtheria, or smallpox. If this invasion goes far enough to over- come the vital forces of the body, it re- sults in death, which is physical anarchy. 109 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN In like manner the rebellion of social cells against the laws of the body politic is social disease, and if it goes far enough, results in anarchy, which is social death. Some social diseases spring from ignorance of social laws, but most of them, and by far the most dangerous, result from disobeying the law of service. Take two or three illustrations, and see if this is not the correct diagnosis. One of the greatest evils of our new industrial civilization, one of the most dangerous diseases of our new social life, is the misgovernment of our great cities, which have become like huge ulcers on the body politic. Most of this maladministration re- sults from the fact that the men who control municipal affairs have carried over into these new and complex social no THE SOCIAL PROBLEM conditions the old individualistic spirit expressed in the motto, " Every man for himself." They are in politics for what they can get out of it. They seek office, and administer the same, not with a view to serving the public interests, but with a view to making the city serve their private interests. This is the ex- planation of the festering corruption of our large municipalities. Place in office men who desire to obey the law of ser- vice, and who know how to serve, and our municipal government would at once become clean and wholesome. For another illustration glance at the saloon, which is like a cancerous growth. Intemperance is of course a personal problem, but the liquor traffic is a social problem, because it is concerned with re- lations. This traffic is conducted, not under in THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN the law of Need and Service, which is a vital law, but under that of Demand and Supply, which is a purely commercial law, and which always ignores and often violates the law of service. Rum is not manufactured and sold because it is needed, but because it is wanted; and the motive of the traffic is not service, but gain. If for one day the saloon could be brought under the law of need and service, it would be the "dryest" day since man first put the bottle to his neighbor's lips. Turn to one other social disorder the strife between labor and capital. They are pitched over against each other like two hostile armies. Labor is or- ganized, not that it may render more ef- ficient service to society, but with a view to enforcing its demands on capital ; and capital is massed, not with a view to 112 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM more effective service, but with reference to more effective competition. Each seeking to get all it can for itself they imagine that their interests are conflict- ing, and so they often come to blows, and always with mutual injury. As a matter of fact, each is as depen- dent on the other as are the two wings of a bird ; and if each sought to serve, they would soon discover that their in- terests are mutual. If sacrifice were necessary, and each were more ready to make it than to require it, it would be impossible to quarrel. Thus obedience to the laws of service and sacrifice would bring industrial peace. It has been made sufficiently evident that obedience to the laws of service and sacrifice would heal our social diseases. But you will tell me that I have pre- scribed an impossible remedy, because THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN men are selfish and would rather be served than to serve, would rather profit by the sacrifice of another than sacrifice self for another's profit. How, then, can these two laws be vitalized and made operative ? We have already seen ; love destroys selfishness and makes service and sacrifice a joy. Love, therefore, is the third great social law, and the most fundamental of the three. We find, then, that the three great laws of the kingdom of God are the three great social laws, on obedience to which depends the health of society. Thus the realization of Jesus' social ideal the full coming of the kingdom of God will be the perfect solution of the Social Problem. 114 IX THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PERSONAL PROBLEMS THE USE OF TIME THE BODY EDUCATION ROBINSON CRUSOE, before he found his man Friday, might have cultivated patience, temperance, purity, faith, hope, and various other Christian virtues, but he would have lacked adequate oppor- tunity for the practice of service and sacrifice, and for the exercise of love, because these imply our fellow men as objects. The laws of service, sacrifice, and love are social, as we have seen, and for this very reason they are most helpful in THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN solving personal problems, for such problems, as has been already said, can- not be solved without reference to so- ciety. These problems are of course as old as man, but our new social rela- tions throw on them a new light, which makes possible a new and better under- standing of them. Let us, therefore, apply these three great laws to some of the most common personal problems which present themselves to young men for solution. When you take an electric car some winter evening, you find it propelled, lighted, and warmed by electricity. The electric current is converted now into power, now into light, and now into heat. In somewhat the same manner the true social spirit expresses itself in love, sacrifice, and service. These are not identical, but they are, so to speak, con- 116 THE USE OF TIME vertlble. Genuine love seeks to utter itself in sacrifice and service : " True love is humble, thereby it is known, Girded for service, seeking not its own." Genuine sacrifice begets love and, aims to serve ; and genuine service is inspired by love, and therefore does not stop short of sacrifice when needful. It is some- times important to distinguish the three each from the others, but it will simplify the present discussion to include both sacrifice and love under the law of ser- vice, understanding thereby a service whose motive is love and whose measure is sacrifice. Let us first apply this law of service to the problem of The Use of Time The average young man in the United States is well employed during working 117 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN hours, and has considerable leisure time every day. What shall he do with it ? He is not likely to make the best use of it unless he appraises it at its true value. Never in any age of the world has time been worth so much as it is now, because never before has it represented so much. It is valuable according to what you can do with it ; hence with the invention of machinery and of time-sav- ing processes, and with the multiplica- tion of opportunities, it has steadily ap- preciated in value. Men get a higher price for their time now than ever be fore ; and to waste it now is a greater waste than ever before. For like rea- sons time is worth more here in America than anywhere else in the world. If, as Seneca says, ' ' To covet time is a vir- tue," then our business men are charac- 1x8 THE USE OF TIME terized by at least one virtue to an excep- tional degree. For mere money-making time is worth more to the adult than to the youth or child ; but for the acquisition of knowl- edge and discipline, the formation of right habits and character, on which all true success depends, a year is worth five times as much to the youth as to the matured man. And yet no one is so prodigal of time as are the young ; they throw it away by the hour and wish it away by the year. If it is true, as we are told, that " Time is the stuff that life is made of," then wasting time is wasting life, and stealing time is stealing life, and " killing time" is a kind of suicide or murder perhaps both, for an idler very commonly steals another's time with which to kill his own. These time-thieves are nearly all out of 119 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN jail and are to be found in the " best society." I would rather meet a pick- pocket. The aristocracy of Europe has always furnished many professional idlers, a class from which we have been prac- tically free in the United States until recent years. The growth of great cor- porations and trusts is massing vast sums under the management of great captains of industry, with the result that there are now increasing numbers who do not manage their own property, and have nothing to do with it except to draw their interest and cash their coupons. Some of this class devote their time to the general good, but many more find nothing to do except to flit from conti- nent to continent in the vain attempt to amuse themselves. The man who has nothing to do, and who does it, who 120 THE USE OF TIME in all the wide world's activities and needs finds nothing to arouse and attract him, ought to become a Buddhist and at his next incarnation enter life as an oyster or a sponge. The idler has no title to the space he cumbers ; he is in the world's way, and if he had any sense of the eternal fitness of things, he would die. Never think of envying these idlers, young men ; and never hope to join them. They are more to be pitied than the day-laborers who with pick and shovel earn a meager living on the high- way. The latter use of time is not de- moralizing and renders a worthy service to society. There are others who waste time in a busy idleness. They are always doing, but when all is done it amounts to noth- ing. They spend their lives, as Grotius 121 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN unjustly said of himself, " laboriously doing nothing." We read of a shepherd who spent fifteen years in learning per- fectly to balance a pole on his chin. He succeeded, but what of it ? Here is a man who is determined to die rich. He makes the accumulation of money not a means to some worthy end, but only a means to accumulating more money as an end. He wastes no time. Every passing moment falls into his coffers with a chink a piece of gold ; and yet he wastes all his time, for he makes no use of the power he accumu- lates. Well, he "dies rich," but what of it? If you happen to meet him a hundred years hence, ask him, " What of it ?" He spent his life balancing a pole on his chin. Time is wasted so far as it is not put to the best use. This does not mean 122 THE USE OF TIME that all of our waking hours should be devoted to work. If they were, a large proportion of our time would be worse than wasted. There is a time to work and a time to play, a time to sleep, a time to read, a time for worship, and a time for social intercourse a time for many legitimate things. Here, then, is the problem of the use of time to deter- mine what are its legitimate uses, and then properly to apportion time among them. This problem is easily solved by apply- ing to it the law of service. When a young man devotes his whole life to the highest service, he will aim to devote his whole time to the best use. If he is intelligent, he will aim at the largest possible outcome of usefulness, not for a year nor five years, but for his whole life. He will see that the neces- 123 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN sary time spent in preparation for his life-work is better spent than as if he had rushed into it ill prepared. Time spent in sharpening the axe may well be spared from swinging it. If wise, he will learn that time taken for needed rest and recreation is not taken from work, but added to it ; will learn that if he works too much, he will accomplish too little. He will not work in order to play, but play in order to work. He will not spend his time in seeking his own happiness, but find his happiness in seeking to serve. And when he has learned intelligently to apply the law of service, not simply to the hours spent at the desk, or bench, or plow, but to the twenty-four hours of every day, and to the three hundred and sixty-five days of every year, he will have solved the problem of the use of time. 124 THE BODY Evidently, getting the most good out of life, which is getting the most service into it, raises the problem of The Body The longer I live, the more do I re- spect the body its needs, its uses, its importance. There can be little useful' ness, little intelligence, little moral char- acter, little happiness without the right sort of a body. Everything we value in life is more or less conditioned by it. For many ages Christians had a radi- cally wrong conception of the body. They thought it was the enemy of the ipirit, and despised and abused it accord- ingly. A favorite way of cultivating and exhibiting piety was by neglecting, starving, and lacerating the body. This was largely due no doubt to mis- understanding the New Testament word translated "flesh." Often it means the 125 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN body, and often it means the carnal nature. Men used to think that " mor- tifying the deeds of the flesh" meant mortifying or depleting the body. But among the works of the "flesh" Paul specifies idolatry, hatred, variance, emu- lations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, and the like ; showing that by " flesh " in such connection he meant the carnal nature. He wrote to the Romans, " Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit " ; in which connection "flesh" could not possibly mean body. So far from despising the body, Paul reverenced it as the temple of the Holy Ghost. Surely no one would think he could honor God by defacing or under- mining or destroying his temple. We are now getting back to the Paul' ine reverence for the body, and that rev- erence is being enhanced by the disco v- 126 THE BODY cries of science, which are revealing the interdependence of body and soul. We know that the physical life profoundly affects the mental and spiritual life. Hence if we do not, like the old Greeks, admire and value the body for its own sake, we are forced to care for it and to respect it for the sake of the soul, of which it is the instrument. When, therefore, we accept service as the law of life, we are at once provided with a good working rule for the gov- ernment of the body. Give it such care and cultivation as will enable you to get the largest possible amount of service out of it. By this rule you can regulate sleep, food, and exercise. An attempt to make an intelligent application of this rule at once raises the question of athletics. It is a matter for hearty congratula- 127 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN tion that during the past twenty years there has been a great and healthy growth of interest in what used to be called " manly " sports. But the par- ticipation of young women in tennis, golf, basket-ball, in wheeling, boating, swimming, coasting, skating, and the like, forbids all such use of this discrim- inating, masculine adjective, We may thank out-of-door sports for the gratifying and well-established fact that most young women of twenty, to- day, are taller than their mothers. By the same means a similar advance has been made by many young men, though many have stunted their growth by the use of tobacco. Increased interest in athletics is doing much for physical culture, which promises much for coming generations. But in aiming at the highest possible 128 THE BODY physical effectiveness, it is quite possible to carry muscular development too far. Our ideas of bodily perfection come down to us from the old Greeks. Very likely the life or death of the warrior, and the freedom or slavery of his wife and children, depended on his effective- ness in hand-to-hand combat ; hence muscular strength and agility were made the object of long and severe training. But modern civilization is making less and less demand on muscle both in peace and war, and more and more on brain and nerve. Vitality or nervous force is the thing that tells in the fierce competition of modern life. Bodily perfection is not an absolute but a relative thing, because the body is to be an instrument for service. The most perfect body to-day, therefore, is not that which fits its possessor for the 129 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN prize-ring, but that which furnishes to him the largest and best-sustained supply of nervous energy. The wisest physical training, then, does not aim at record-breaking, but at the most perfect general health, taking care not to sacrifice nervous force to muscular development. Let us turn now from the subject of physical training to the problem of Education You may be questioning what sort of an education to seek, whether scientific, classical, business, musical, or some other kind. You may be in doubt how far to pursue it ; or you may want to know what to do with a liberal education al- ready gained. If you were asked why you value an education, one would reply, Because I believe it will enable me to make a bet- 130 EDUCATION ter living ; another would say, Because it will give me a better social position ; another, Because I can achieve a greater professional success ; another, Because it would increase my influence ; another, Because education is necessary to " self- realization "; another, Because I love knowledge for its own sake, and the pursuit of it is my delight. Each of these replies would be right in a sense ; that is, an education would be a valuable means to the end proposed in each instance, but no one of these replies points to an end outside of self. Each of these objects is desirable as a subordinate end, but no one of them is worthy to be the supreme end of life. The will, which determines the moral character, seeks an end which is only a means to something else as an end, and that, again, is a means to still another THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN end. Thus when you eat, your food is a means to strength as an end ; your strength is a means to your work as an end ; your work is a means to your salary as an end ; your salary may be a means to pleasure, or an education, or an investment, or something else. That is, the life of the will is made up of links of choice, each link being a means to the one following as an end. But the chain must come to its last link, and the question which determines character and life is, To what is this last link fastened ? On that will hang the whole chain, for that is the "supreme end," the chief object in life. The chain will certainly end either in self, or in God and humanity. If through an education a young man seeks social position or influence or pro- fessional success or self-development for 132 EDUCATION purely personal ends, he is as selfish, as anti-social, as the man who seeks gold for purely personal ends. Men talk about art for art's sake, lit- erature for literature's sake, knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Probably what they really mean is that they are not mercenary, that they are not prosti- tuting their art or learning as a means to money as an end. But their art or learning is necessarily a means to some end. If there were no fellow men to admire it or profit by it, or if they them- selves had no pleasure in it, they would not pursue it. Prof. Huxley insisted that the supreme motive is the desire to know, and that the best fruit is truth. But he did not spend his life finding out how many pins would fill a bushel measure, or how many letters there are in the Bible. He despised the school- 133 men who spent time discussing how many angels could dance on the point of a needle. Such knowledge, if it could be arrived at, afforded him no sat- isfaction, sustained no relations to sci- ence, contributed nothing to human well- being. The fact that he pursued one kind of knowledge rather than another shows that he did not seek knowl- edge for the sake of knowledge simply, but for the sake of certain ends to which some kinds of knowledge contribute and other kinds do not. It is neces- sarily true of the scholar and artist, as of every one else, that his supreme end is either his own satisfaction or the glory of God and the good of humanity. "Culture for the sake of culture" or " knowledge for the sake of knowledge" is really the language of refined selfish- ness. He who enriches his mind with 134 EDUCATION stores of truth simply that they may be his is a miser. To be sure the plane of his life is not so low as that of the lover of gold ; but the supreme object of life is the same, viz. self-satisfaction, and therefore the moral character is essen- tially the same. Like the miser, he makes a miserable failure of life, because he selfishly hoards power which was entrusted to him for service. If you apply the law of service to the problem of education, you will aim by training so to strengthen and discipline your mental muscles as to serve with the greatest effectiveness, and you will acquire knowledge, not because knowl- edge is power by which you may lay others under tribute to you and your success, but because by it you may bet- ter minister to your day and generation. And if you really choose the service 135 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN of others rather than your own success or self-realization or happiness, you will learn at length with glad surprise that, by the deep and wondrous laws of the spiritual life, in sacrificing all you gained all. 136 X THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PERSONAL PROBLEMS OCCUPATION AMUSEMENTS EXPENDITURE "THE world owes me a living," says some young man. Why does it, how did it contract the debt? What have you done to lay the world under obliga- tions? This is the motto of the parasite which sucks its living out of some other life. By a law of nature the parasite, whether human, animal, or vegetable, becomes a degenerate. This is nature's protest against every life which refuses to earn its own living. 137 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN There are social parasites of several varieties. One is the polite parasite, who labors under the strange hallucina- tion that he is an ornament and bene- factor instead of a burden to society. There are able-bodied idlers of this type who never have any more serious busi- ness in life than to make their toilet or select a wardrobe, whose only work is preparation to play. Such people spoil a great deal of good food which might have gone to making honest bone and muscle. Good old Isaac Watts characterizes this class in lines which do not find their way into the hymn-books : " There is a number of us creep Into the world to eat and sleep ; And know no reason why we're born But only to consume the corn, Devour the cattle, flesh, and fish, And leave behind an empty dish. 138 OCCUPATION And if our tombstones, when we ditfj Be n't taught to flatter and to lie, There's nothing better can be said Than that he's eat up all his bread, Drunk up his drink and gone to bed." True, " nothing better can be said," but we may truly say much worse. They not only fail to serve ; they are a bur- den on those that do serve. Men and women who know nothing of the cost of producing are apt to consume with- out counting the cost. Often these idlers consume enough on their worth- less selves to support ten, twenty, a hundred simple lives that render honest service to society. Their unearned luxury represents many hollow-eyed lives of want, many shriveled lives of ignorance. The social parasites that suck the most and richest blood live in palaces, not poorhouses. The social antipode of the above type 139 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN is the pariah, or outcast, parasite, viz. the pauper, the criminal, the gambler, the saloon-keeper, the pander to vice. All these get a living out of society for which they make no return of service. As they, each one, consume what they do not produce, some one else must pro- duce what he does not consume. It is not necessary further to characterize this type ; it is despised of course. There is one other type, the dis- guised parasite, who usually escapes recognition. He may be one of the busiest of men and a hard worker ; and this constitutes his disguise, for he is not a producer; that is, he ren- ders no service. It is his business, by means not illegal, to intercept and appropriate money without render- ing to society any return for it. The stock-gambler is a good illustration of 140 OCCUPATION this class. He may be active as a " bull " or a " bear," but he produces nothing by his activity. He very likely gets a good living, but he does not earn it, for he renders no service. All he consumes is produced by the toilers of society, on whom he is a burden. He may be in good standing in society and in the church, but he is no less a para- site than is the pauper or a three-card- monte man. For an able-bodied person to take more out of the world than he puts into it is a sin, and ought to be a disgrace. Enough such men would bankrupt the world and extinguish the race. Obviously, then, every young man, rich or poor, ought to have a worthy occupation. If he has inherited a for- tune, then, as Miss Grace Dodge has said, he has been paid in advance for 141 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN the service he owes the public. Such a debt, which cannot be collected by law, becomes one of honor, and many a man has not honor enough to pay it. However, we ought to have a great deal of charity for those who are so un- fortunate as to be born rich. Very often the rich young man falls into the pit of ruin and the poor youth escapes it, only because the one possesses, and the other lacks, the means of self-indul- gence. Very often the poor, rich young man develops no force of character and accomplishes nothing in life, because he lacks the spur of necessity, which forces the rich, poor young man to work and, therefore, to grow. No doubt we are agreed that for many reasons every-young man should have a worthy occupation. But how shall he 142 OCCUPATION choose it ? This is a serious question, and sometimes a serious difficulty. Often circumstances choose for us, and we have to take the job we can get. But the contingencies of every life offer more or less opportunity for choice, and that choice should be governed by the law of service. The question is not how you can gain the best or easiest living, or win the greatest honor, but how you can render the largest and noblest ser- vice to your fellow men. In order to answer that question in- telligently you should know the times in which you live and their needs, you should know yourself and your capabili- ties. It is not always the ablest man or the most devoted who renders the greatest service, but he who best meets the greatest need. Men used to think that the youth who 143 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN chose an unselfish life must of course enter the ministry ; and that is true enough, if we remember that every oc- cupation ought to be made a ministry, entered with precisely the same motives and the same spirit of consecration with which one should enter the pulpit. Let us always remember that the spiritual is infinitely more precious than the material, but let us never forget how profoundly they affect each other. If we appreciate to how great an extent physical conditions determine the world's moral progress, we shall not depreciate the calling of those who deal with ma- terial things. George Peabody's natural gifts made him a financier ; and by making money justly and using it wisely he doubtless did more for the moral and spiritual up- lift of humanity than he could have 144 OCCUPATION done by devoting his life to preaching the gospel. The parents of William McKinley hoped that he would enter the ministry, but the gifts given to him enabled him to accomplish vastly more for his country and for the world by becoming a Christian politician and a Christian statesman than he could have done by becoming a Christian minister. It is natural to suppose that God in- tended us to render that service for which by natural endowment he has fitted us ; and if fitted for more than one, then that service which is largest and highest. But if circumstances choose for us a place which seems to us smaller than our gifts (and circumstances have a way of doing that), the surest way to get a larger place is to make our service fill and overflow the place we occupy. 145 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN You are not very likely to find your proper place when you start in life ; but if in the spirit of service you do a little more than your full duty, your proper place will be very likely to find you. It should never be forgotten that a man's vocation, when found, is not simply or chiefly his means of getting a living, but his principal means of doing good in the world. However useful one's side activities may be, his regular occupation ought to be vastly more so ; otherwise service is with him only in- cidental, not habitual. If our occupation is what it ought to be, then in and through our regular work we can do more to build the king- dom of God in the world than in any other way. That kingdom cannot perfectly come until the physical conditions of life are 146 OCCUPATION perfected. Everything, therefore, that contributes to the progress of true civilization serves to hasten the coming of the kingdom " That one far-off divine event," for which we long and labor. We may not see precisely how our work is a means to that end, but if it con- tributes to human well-being, physical, mental, moral or spiritual ; if it is a work of service, and if we put our conscience and heart into it, though it be humble and obscure, God will give it a place in his plan and put it to the best possible use. It takes material vast in amount and endless in variety to build a great city. The Holy City, the "New Jeru- salem," is being built in the world to- day ; and in transforming the Revela- tor's vision of future glory into pres- ent and tangible reality, the Master THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Builder can make use of materials end- less in variety and size and shape. It will be fit if only it is honest ; and there is room for every honest workman, not only for those of cunning skill, but also, thank God, for " day-laborers," who, far down and out of sight, can toil at foundations without having seen the beauty that is to rise above them. I remember hearing a sermon many years ago on the text, " And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped " (2 Cor. xi. 33). Thus Paul eluded his enemies who were lying in wait at the gates of Damascus to kill him. The preacher's thought was something like this : How much hung on that rope ! All of Paul's life- work, which was just beginning ; all of his epistles, not one of which had then been written ; all of his influence in the 148 OCCUPATION world, which is widening and deepening every day. Now let us suppose that rope was made by one of the early Chris- tians, and that he put his conscience into it, and that as he worked he said to him- self : " I'm making this rope for the kingdom. I don't know what use God will make of it, but that's none of my business ; it's my business to make the best piece of rope I know how, and trust God to put it to the best use." That man will have to all eternity a share in Paul's work, and in its boundless re- sults. Thus may every man be a " co- laborer with God unto the kingdom." What a partnership ! There are many to whom all this will not appeal. They will tell you, young men, that it sounds very well, that it is fine sentiment, but that it is not prac- tical, is not business, and will not work 149 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN when you get out among men. They will tell you that they know of no world where there is room for the practical operation of the laws of service, of sac- rifice, and of love. But this only goes to prove the truth of Jesus' word : " Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." But we must turn to another subject which is no less practical than that of work, viz., Amusements This is a vexed subject, concerning which there is an honest difference of opinion and of practice. Moses made no catalogue of " clean " and " unclean " amusements ; and any lists which are based simply on training or prejudice or custom are more than liable to be open to the charge of inconsistency in what they allow and disallow. Here 150 AMUSEMENTS as elsewhere we need a principle to steer us safely between Scylla and Charybdis. We have already seen that recreation is a necessity. The law of self-sacrifice does not require that recreation be emp- tied of all enjoyment ; that would rob it of much of its recreating power. Piety does not look unkindly upon mirth or shake its head at gladness. Austerity is not healthy either for body or soul. Play is not simply an innocent thing ; it is a divinely ordered thing. It is the principal lesson in God's kindergarten ; without it the child could not be normally developed. And it is not to be excluded from the higher grades of the school of life, for without it one can hardly pre- serve the harmony of his mental powers. All our powers of body and mind de- pend on activity for their development THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN and for their continued efficiency. But work never employs all our faculties, and sometimes very few ; while it spurs some it ties up others, and the natural desire to play is simply the impulse to let them loose. Play affords a change of activities ; it permits the faculties or muscles which have been at work to rest, and calls into activity others which have been idle; thus by equalizing and harmonizing our powers it re-creates us. Evidently exercise is not necessarily play and cannot take its place. A wood- cutter needs play as much as an account- ant who foots figures all day. The same activity may be work to one and play to another. What is toil to the woods- man was recreation to Mr. Gladstone. Play demands a new activity, and one which is agreeable. It is close to nature. It is impulsive and spontaneous. It 152 AMUSEMENTS takes off the halter and sets you free to frisk all over the field, anywhere you will, provided only you do not leap the fence of law. The house where Dr. Lyman Beecher lived in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, and which was afterwards occupied by his son-in-law, Professor Stowe, had at the back a double veranda with pillars run- ning from the ground up two stories to the roof. One day when the house had become the home of Professor Stowe, he and Dr. Beecher were standing together in the back yard. " Professor Stowe," said Dr. Beecher, pointing to the veranda, " do you ever climb those pillars ? " " Climb them ? No ; why should I ? " "Oh," replied Dr. Beecher, "just for fun ; I've done it many a time." 153 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Such men can do a tremendous amount of work. They can carry great burdens without breaking, because they have learned, or rather have never for- gotten, how to play. We Americans, with our nervous temperament, our stimulating climate, and the incentives of our undeveloped resources, have set the pace that kills. If we would relax somewhat the inten- sity of our living and obey more often nature's impulse to play, there would be fewer shattered nervous systems, fewer madhouses, fewer deaths from obscure causes. Of all nations we stand most in need of play, and, I suppose, we play the least. Rational amusement, then, may be called a duty, but irrational amusement often degenerates into vice. Our prin- ciple of service will enable us to dis- 154 AMUSEMENTS criminate. All legitimate amusement increases our effectiveness, our power to serve. It recuperates, it re-creates. Evidently any amusement which im- pairs health, physical, mental, or moral, is illegitimate. All amusements which are followed next day by lassitude or distaste for work violate the law of service. It is well to beware of those that fascinate you ; they will take time and thought which belong elsewhere. In such cases it is easier to abstain wholly than to indulge temperately. Rational amusement should afford enjoyment as well as recreation ; and the more enjoyment the better, pro- vided it does not violate the law of ser- vice, which forbids all such enjoyment of subordinate ends as would impair their effectiveness as means to higher ends. This is the law of pleasure. 155 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Amusements, of course, must not be too expensive in time or money, which leads us to the problem of Expenditure Industrial civilization is based on the exchange of services. Justice requires that every service should receive its equivalent in service. But when trade passes beyond the early and simple stage of barter there comes into use a common representative of values which we call money. Money is, therefore, a representative or measure of service. When a man has received his money for his day's toil, he holds in his hand something which he can exchange for any one of a thousand things, and which, therefore, enables him to select the service by which he desires to be compensated for the service of his day's 156 EXPENDITURE toil, which toil employed his skill and consumed his time and strength. If, then, the law of service is applica- ble to the use of time and skill and the various powers of body and mind, as we have seen, it is thrice applicable to money, which is the representative of all these and of the ten thousand things which are their outcome. Moreover, as this law of service is applicable not to a fraction of our time, but to the whole of it, not to a portion of our powers, but to all of them, so it is applicable not to a percentage of our money, but to the whole. The law of service, if binding at all, binds us to make the wisest use of all our time, of all our strength, and of all our money or property. A misunderstanding of this law has led not a few conscientious men and THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN women in other ages to dispose of all their possessions and to take the vow of poverty. But the application of this law of service to our possessions no more implies that we are to get rid of them than the application of this law to life implies that we should get rid of life. Voluntary poverty shirks duty precisely as suicide shirks duty. The law of service makes us all stewards of our substance as we are of our time and of our powers of body and mind, all of which we are bound to administer for the good of humanity, and thus to the glory of God. And the more money, the more strength and time and talent we have the better, provided only we administer all, and all of each, so as to render the largest and best service. Precisely here do we see the kernel of truth in the socialistic contention 158 EXPENDITURE that " property is theft." When a man is a despot over his purse, when he regards his possessions as his property, not to be administered for the good of humanity, but spent for his own gratification, then he robs both God and man. The guilt of this kind of robbery varies with the degree of light against which men sin. Many good men have never dreamed that more than one-tenth of their income was subject to the law of service. They talk about "the Lord's tenth," and think they can do what they please with " their own nine-tenths." Such good people are only one-tenth in- structed. They think they are obeying the ancient law of Tithes ; but, in the first place, they misinterpret the law, because the Mosaic law required tithes in recognition of the fact that all be- longed to God ; and, in the second place, 159 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN they misapply the law, because it was Jewish, not Christian, and is not adapted to the changed conditions of modern times. 1 The law of tithes was a rule of tem- porary and local application. The law of service is a principle, universal and eternal in its application. If those who to-day apply the law of service to only one-tenth of their in- come are uninstructed and narrow, what shall we say of the multitude, even of professing Christians, who do vastly less ? How many professed followers of Jesus Christ have gained an intelli- gent conception of this fundamental law of Him whom they call Master? In the application of the law of ser- vice to expenditure there are two dan- 1 For an extended discussion of this whole subject see " Our Country," pp. 228-267. 160 EXPENDITURE gers to be avoided : on the one hand the danger of self-deception, resulting in self-indulgence, and on the other the danger of self-depletion, resulting in impoverishing life and impairing use- fulness. Nearly all of us need to guard against the former ; only the most gen- erous souls are liable to the latter. Such expenditures for food and cloth- ing, for books and education, for rest and recreation, for aids and appliances, as are necessary to our greatest efficiency are in perfect accord with the law of ser- vice and are clearly commendable ; while all expenditure in self-gratification which does not serve to enlarge life and in- crease efficiency is clearly in violation of the law. The application of the principle of service to the problem of expenditure will not relieve us of the necessity of 161 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN exercising either judgment or self- denial, but will rather demand both, if we are to escape both self-indulgence and fanaticism. He who intelligently and conscien- tiously applies this law will one day find that all he has expended on himself he has really spent for others, and all that he has given for others he has made forever his own. 162 XI THE THREE GREAT LAWS APPLIED TO PERSONAL PROBLEMS RELIGION TRUTH like sunshine unites light-rays and heat-rays. The former appeal to the mind, the latter to the heart. It is the former which illuminate ; it is the latter which vitalize. Many a man sees the truth who never feels it. To him it is knowledge, but not power. His mind has been enlarged, but not his heart. He knows the path of duty, but does not follow it. " I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart" 1 That which is most fundamental in 1 Ps. cxix. 32. 163 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN religion is not belief, but experience. Let me not be supposed to depreciate the importance of correct belief. As long as there is an eternal difference be- tween truth and falsehood, it will make a difference whether a man believes the truth or a lie. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." " Sow a thought and you reap an act ; sow an act and you reap a habit ; sow a habit and you reap a character ; sow a character and you reap a destiny." Christ would not have come into the world that he might bear wit- ness unto the truth, if it had not been profoundly important to hold the truth. I could wish every one held a true the- ology, but a correct theology is by no means necessary to beginning the Chris- tian life. How much theology had the apostles when they became Christians, that is, followers of Jesus ? Not one of 164 RELIGION them could have subscribed to a half of the so-called Apostles' Creed the sim- plest and broadest of all the historic con- fessions of faith. Not one of them had theology enough to pass a modern ex- amination for license to preach. They evidently became followers by following, by accepting Jesus as Lord and Master, by becoming imbued with his spirit, which was the spirit of love, of service, and of sacrifice. The rab- bis believed vastly more theology than the apostles, and much of it was true, but that did not make them Chris- tians, because it did not make them followers of Christ. There are many young men who are not Christians, who imagine that their difficulties are theological ; their creed is made up largely of interrogation- points. And yet I think it safe to say 165 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN that the average young man in the United States and England to-day be- lieves more theology than the apostles did when they became Christians. Whatever may be your doubts, and however short your creed, if you believe that Jesus Christ is worthy to be im- plicitly followed, you believe enough to become his follower. Of course it is impossible for you to accept Christ as Lord and Master with- out accepting the three fundamental laws which he laid on all his followers. I do not mean simply accepting them as true, but adopting them as the laws of your life. You will solve the per- sonal problem of religion when you gain an experimental knowledge of these laws. On the surface, where they may be apprehended by the intellect, these laws 166 RELIGION are easily distinguished as three, but down in the heart they are one. There is a strong disposition among men to accept one of these laws with- out the other two, which produces three different types of religion, all of them more or less superficial, no one of them reaching down to the heart, and all of them perversions of the relig- ion of Jesus. Let us glance at all three. Loveless sacrifice, which renders no service and aims at none, has caused a vast amount of gratuitous and wasted suffering in the world. Asceticism has been common both among Christian and heathen peoples. It does not spring from a love to others, which leads to sacrifice in their behalf, but from the be- lief that sacrifice, as such, is pleasing to God. The law of sacrifice is made su- 167 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN preme, and religious devotees practice self-sacrifice simply for the sake of sac- rifice. History furnishes no hetter illustra- tion of such sacrifice than that afforded by the " Pillar Saints," as they are called, who flourished in Syria for some seven hundred years, beginning with " Simon the Stylite " in the fifth century. As a monk he had lived for nine years in a narrow cell without ever leaving it. In order to separate himself more com- pletely from earth and his fellow men, he built a pillar about sixty feet high, on the top of which, only a yard in diam- eter, he lived. Thus engaged in prayer and genuflections, exposed to the weather, loaded with an iron chain, suf- fering from long fasts and a loathsome ulcer, in repulsive filth, he dragged out thirty -seven years; and by these idiotic 168 RELIGION performances in the name of religion he won the title of "saint." Such a life is inspired not by love but by fanaticism, and is worse than useless, because it perverts the popular concep- tion of God and of religion. It assumes that God loves to witness suffering. What a hideous conception of the Heavenly Father ! If you should go to your father with the bleeding stump of your arm, and tell him that you had blown it off in order to please him, he would be horrified. But if for the honor of your country or for the sake of liberating enslaved Cuba you had suffered the loss of your good right arm, he would admire and love you for it. But in that case his satis- faction would spring, not from your suf- fering, which would cost him only pain, 169 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN but from your willingness to suffer for the sake of others. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is suffering for the sake of suffering ; and to imagine that God delights in suffer- ing for its own sake is to make of him a devil. Sacrifice should always serve, and when it springs from love it is always intended to serve. Such sacrifice is al- ways beautiful. But sacrifice separated from love and service caricatures both God and religion. Moreover, such sacrifice is not gen- uine, though the suffering may be very real and very great. Unless sacrifice is made for the love of another it is made for the love of self. Men have sacrificed everything dear in this life in order to win the divine favor and gain the life to come. But that is not ^^"-sacrifice ; it is sacri- 170 RELIGION ficing present good for future good and for the sake of self . This is investment, not sacrifice. It is commercialism, not Christianity. " Other-worldliness " is no more unselfish than this-world- liness, it is only longer-headed. Jesus does not say : He that loseth his life for the sake of finding it, but "He that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." All self-torture for the sake of mov- ing the divine compassion is like the mutilation and blindness inflicted on themselves by Italian and Chinese beg- gars with a view to exciting the pity of the beholder. It is self-sacrifice in a sense, but it is wholly selfish. Self-cru- cifixion which does not obey the law of love and the law of service does not really obey the law of sacrifice, but only caricatures it. Another type of religion, much less THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN gloomy and repulsive than the forego- ing, but no more Christian, makes the law of love everything and ignores the laws of sacrifice and service, especially the latter. Mysticism, like asceticism, has appeared in many different ages and among peoples of different religions. The aim of the mystic is to lose himself in the contemplation and enjoyment of God. By abstracting his mind from earthly things he rises to the vision of the divine and sometimes to ecstasy. Such pious rapture does not imply Christian character or Christian living. Mere feeling, though it rise to ecstasy, if divorced from good willing and good doing, is not Christian love. A love of God which is satisfied and lost in its own enjoyment> and does not long un- speakably and labor unceasingly that others also may know the same blessed- 172 RELIGION ness, is a morbid, selfish love, if it may be called love at all. Such love does nothing to hasten the coming of the kingdom in the world. It is not the kind of love which Christ commanded when he bade us love our neighbor as ourselves. The love which Christ in- culcated and exemplified included good will a will good enough to express itself in service and sacrifice. A love that does not long to serve its object and, if need be, suffer for it, is much like heat which does not warm and light which does not shine. The third type of religion referred to knows little of love and sacrifice and apparently makes much of service. As the life and essence of religion are lost, its forms and ceremonies become more exact and elaborate. Ritualism, like mysticism and asceticism, has not been 173 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN peculiar to any age or people. It char- acterizes all pagan religions, and there is an almost constant tendency to it in the Christian church. That tendency is peculiarly strong at the present time. Men think they can lay God under obligations by service, as they do their fellow men. We forget that all pos- sible assets of service, multiplied a thou- sandfold, could not cancel our obliga- tions to God. Though we serve him to all eternity, we cannot discharge our debts so as to stand on an even footing with him, as we do with our fellows, thus permitting us to expect a wage for our service. Do not imagine, young men, that by service, however long or faithful, you can purchase salvation or the divine favor. A purchase implies a price, a valuation, and the most precious things are beyond 174 RELIGION all price. They are given away, not sold. " Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us ; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in ; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold ; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking : 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking." l If you could purchase salvation, that would be putting a price on the life and death of Christ, and on the infinite love of God. That would be reducing Chris- tianity to mere commercialism. God did not " so love " the world because the world had rendered such perfect service. He loves us, not because of what we have done or because of what we are, but be- cause of what he is. He loves because 1 Lowell's " The Vision of Sir Launfel." 175 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN he is love. Such love asks for love in return, and can be satisfied with nothing else. Love hungers for love. It gives itself and asks the gift of self. Perfect love is a perfect exchange. We can be filled with God only when we have been emptied of self. He demands that we give ourselves to him utterly in order that we may receive him utterly, and so be utterly blest. Hence it is that love can accept no substitute for love ; with- out it service is an empty form, and sac- rifice is an offense. God loves us, young men, whether we serve him or not. And when the knowl- edge of such love reaches not our mind but our heart, we begin to love him, and then our service is prompted not by the hope of reward but by grati- tude ; and such service is glad and free. It is like the love which in- 176 RELIGION spires it, "without money and without price." As the sacrifice of asceticism, when separated from love and service, is not Christian sacrifice, and as the love of mysticism, when separated from service and sacrifice, is not Christian love, so the service of ritualism, when separated from love and sacrifice, is not Christian service. Is not much of the so-called service of the church to-day empty form and ceremony ? Has not the church largely lost the true conception of service ? Her " services " are " held " instead of being rendered ; as if listening to sermons and prayers and music were serving God. That is worship, if done in the right spirit, but it is not service. The Master tells us how to serve him. " If any man serve me, let him follow me." 1 Jesus 1 John xii. 26. 177 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN went about doing good ; we cannot " follow " him unless we do the same. The only way to render a service to Christ, that I know of, is to render it to our fel- low men, for it is only in their persons that Christ is in need. " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 1 There are many men and women to- day whose lives are filled with the ser- vice and sacrifice of Christ because their hearts are filled with his love; but is this true of the average " Christian," the typical church-member ? Now it is the typical church-member from whom the world gets its conception of the church. If, then, in the life of the typical church-member there is little sacrifice and little evidence of love, and if he thinks the service of God consists 1 Matt. xxv. 40. I 7 8 RELIGION in going to church instead of going about doing good, is it strange that the church has little power to-day over the world ? Love, expressing itself in an enthu- siasm of service and sacrifice, is always powerful to convince and to attract. May we not account for the weakness of the church to-day by the absence of such love ? There is not enough of effort, of struggle, in the typical church life of to- day to win young men to the church. A flowery bed of ease does not appeal to a fellow who has any manhood in him. The prevailing type of religion is too utterly comfortable to attract young men who love the heroic. Eliminate heroism from religion and it becomes weak, effeminate. Is there no significance in the fact that two-thirds of the church- 179 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN membership to-day are females, that for every young man in the church there are two young women ? Why is it that the angels of modern art are almost invari- ably feminine, while those of the Scrip, tures are masculine ? Is it because religion has come to suggest more ol beauty than of strength, more of gentle- ness than of heroism ? There is nothing effeminate in the modern missionary spirit. Witness the- Christian heroism which in recent years has braved martyrdom in Turkey and suffered martyrdom in China. Then look at the uprising of the student vol unteers, which is unequaled in all history This splendid exhibition of Christian zeal came in response to a call for service in the dark places of the earth, a call to sacrifice, a call to " endure hardness." When service comes to mean not 1 80 RELIGION worship but human helpfulness helping humanity to be less dirty, less drunken, less ignorant, less animal, less diseased and deformed, less sorrowful, less selfish and sinful then, I believe, there will be more young men to fill empty pews with devout worshipers. When the Sabbath bell ceases to call men to " divine ser- vice," more will answer its summons to divine worship, and more will recognize in every human need a call to service which is indeed divine. It must be confessed that the life of the typical church-member to-day lacks contagious zeal. It kindles no enthu- siasm for humanity, for it manifests none. It makes no appeal to heroism. But it is not the typical church-member whom you are called to follow. Your leader is the supreme hero of the ages, and he calls every follower to heroism, 181 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN for he calls every follower to a life of self-giving for others. I am much more anxious that you become a follower of him than that you become a church- member. You are not fit to become the latter until after you have become the former ; and having become the former, there are many reasons why you should become the latter. If the church is not what it ought to be, which is true enough, then, having become a genuine Christian yourself, enter the church and help to make it more genuinely Chris- tian. The practical question for you is whether you are man enough to become a genuine Christian man enough to give up the meanness of selfishness for the general good. There is as real an opportunity for sacrifice in the United States as in Turkey or China. Right here, in the 182 RELIGION midst of ease and luxury and selfishness ; here, in the midst of municipal corrup- tion, and industrial hate, and social dis- content, there is a call for the " strenuous life," a call for the "living sacrifice " which " dies daily " ; and the living sacrifice may be even more heroic than the dying sacrifice. We have seen that love, service, and sacrifice are, each one, necessary to the pure, simple, and practical religion of Jesus. He, whom you are called to fol- low as Lord and Master, lived a life of perfect love, perfect service, and perfect sacrifice, all perfectly united ; and, in so doing, he lived a perfect life, thus furnishing a complete solution of the problems of life, both personal and social. We have seen how a wrong concep- tion of the religion of Jesus makes the 183 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN life of the ascetic shriveled, solitary, wretched, and wasted ; how it makes the life of the mystic morbid, selfish, separated, and useless ; how it empties the ritualist's life of reality, making it hollow, powerless, and puerile. On the other hand, the faithful and in- telligent application to life of these three laws of Jesus realizes the highest pos- sibilities of that life. It develops body and mind, it masters the appetites of the one and the powers of the other, ded- icating both to the highest usefulness. It inspires the noblest possible object in life, viz., the hastening of the coming of God's kingdom in the earth, which means the greatest possible good to all mankind. Men grow to the measure of their purposes. If their purposes are centered in self, they take a small view of life and their horizon contracts as they 184 RELIGION grow older. But if their object in life is the kingdom and its extension in the world, there is an ever-widening interest in civilization, an ever-growing sym- pathy with all that works for human betterment ; thus life is broadened and enriched, until everything that concerns the welfare of mankind concerns these lovers of their kind. Giving their life to their fellow men, it comes back to them enlarged ; fixing their eyes on the highest good of others, they achieve their own ; forgetting to seek happiness, they discover that it is found of them that sought it not. Their lives are re- deemed from the tedium of common- place, because the humdrum, daily toil has been correlated with the kingdom of God and its coming in the world, and homely duties are glorified by a great motive, while the meanest tasks are 185 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN dignified by the knowledge that they contribute something to the great con- summation for which the noblest of earth have struggled, for which God himself works, and for which Christ lived and died. If we now gather up the threads of our discussion, we see that the three fundamental laws of the kingdom of God, laid down by Jesus, are also funda- mental laws of nature, which, beginning with the atom, may be traced with in- creasing distinctness through the ascend- ing scale of being up to man, in whom is found the possibility of their noblest fulfillment ; we see that when accepted by him they solve the personal problems of life, and that when applied to human relationships they solve the social prob- lem. In a word, obedience to these three laws brings man into harmony 1 86 RELIGION with himself, with his fellow, with his God, and with the universe. Clearly, then, the kingdom of God and its realization in the world, through obedience to these three fundamental laws, furnishes us with the true philos- ophy of life. The great undercurrent of civilization, indications of which were pointed out in the earlier chapters, is a part of the progress of the kingdom of God. By surrendering yourselves to these three fundamental laws of the kingdom you will reach down to this deep and resist- less current of progress, which will bear you on, untroubled by conflicting sur- face currents and by shifting winds of doctrine. Here, then, is the practical question : Will you surrender your life to the laws of love, service, and sacrifice ? 187 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN You ask, How is it possible to crucify self, without which service and sacrifice will be a lifelong crucifixion ? How is it possible to gain this disinterested love which transforms service into a delight, and sacrifice into privilege? You tell me you find it impossible to exercise such love. Yes, it is impossible to the old life ; hence the insistence of Jesus that the old life die, and that you enter on a new life by being born into the kingdom of God. We have seen that inorganic matter rises into the vegetable kingdom and becomes subject to its higher laws. But dead matter thus begins to live only when life reaches down to it from above ; and living roots thus lay hold of dead matter and vitalize it only when it has been so prepared that it can yield itsell to the power of life. 1 88 RELIGION Again, we have seen that vegetable life may rise into the animal kingdom and become subject to its higher laws, but only when life reaches down to it from above ; and preparation for this higher life is the surrender of the lower life. Again, it is possible for man to rise into a higher kingdom, even the king- dom of God, and to become subject to its higher laws, but only when that life reaches down to him from above. " Ex- cept a man be born from above, he can- not see the kingdom of God." Here again there is promotion by self-surren- der: only as man dies to the old life can he be born into the new. This new life is spiritual life, eternal life, the di- vine life, which is divine love, disinter- ested love. This is the love which trans- forms service into a delight and sacri- 189 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN fice into privilege. Thus when a man has been born into the kingdom of God he joyfully and naturally yields himself to its laws, which before he had found it impossible to obey. The divine love is ever reaching down to find human hearts prepared for this new life ; and the only preparation nec- essary, the only preparation possible, is self-surrender. When Jonathan Edwards was a stu- dent in college he wrote the following words in his diary : " I have this day solemnly renewed my covenant and ded- ication. I have been before God and given myself and all that I am and have to God, so that I am not in any respect my own. I can challenge no right to myself, to this understanding, this will, these affections. I have no right to this body, to this tongue, these hands, these 190 RELIGION feet, no right to these senses. I have given every power to God, so that for the future I will challenge no right to myself." Make such a consecration of yourself to God for the service of man, and you will surely enter into the new life. The life of self-abnegation does not at- tract you. A cathedral window, seen from without, is dull and meaningless. But enter, and the light of heaven, stream- ing through it, glorifies it with every beauty of form and color. Consecration to God for service may seem dull enough when seen from without ; but enter into that experience, and the light of the di- vine love, streaming through it, shall glo- rify your life with a beauty and blessed- ness which are heaven's own. 191 XII THE INSPIRATION OF THE TWENTIETH- CENTURY OUTLOOK THE beginning of the twentieth cen- tury would seem to be a fitting time to cast its horoscope. A hundred years ago, great hopes were based on the new experiment of popular government and popular educa- tion, free speech and a free press hopes which the close of the nineteenth century saw realized only in part. In- deed, there has been for some years, especially in Europe, a distinct feeling of disappointment, if not of discourage- ment, that the progress of democracy has not contributed more to the progress of humanity. 192 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Faith that the kingdom of God is surely coming in the world is sufficient to sustain zeal even in times of uncer- tainty and perplexity. But I believe that the forward look of the new con- ditions which have been pointed out is calculated to inflame our zeal until it bursts into a glowing enthusiasm for human betterment. We have seen in the preceding discus- sion that the great changes in the material civilization, during the past century, were produced primarily by the industrial revolution. We have seen also that the profound changes in the world of ideas have sprung chiefly from the development of the scientific method. We have seen further that from these changes in both spheres have come a new social ideal and a new interpreta- tion of Christianity. 193 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Let us now consider briefly what in- fluences may be expected to flow from these great facts and forces during the twentieth century. /. The Influence of the Industrial Revolution. Students of civilization have been in- clined to attribute its progress chiefly or wholly to some one cause. Thus Comte regarded religion as the controlling factor. Guizot accounted for modern civilization by the action and reaction of European institutions. Buckle made the progress of civilization altogether dependent on the progress of the physi- cal sciences ; while Hegel attributed it to the evolution of thought. Spencer, on the other hand, accounts for it by the application of the law of evolution to the 194 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY physical universe. And Carlyle would explain the uplifting of the race by great ideas and truths embodied in great men, whose lives he deemed " a condensed summary of universal history." As a matter of fact all of these causes have been active, varying in their impor- tance in different ages and among dif- ferent peoples. But there is one cause, the importance of which has been largely overlooked, which is always operative and influential in every age and among all peoples, and that is the necessity of something to eat. We have seen that, more than any other one cause, the way in which a peo- ple gain their livelihood determines the character of their civilization. It is not strange, then, that the radical industrial revolution of the nineteenth century should have produced a new civilization 195 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN in Europe and America ; nor is it diffi- cult to believe that it is destined to work further changes the world over. The secret of its power is the fact that the new industry lays hold of nature's forces. The earth had always been a vast reservoir of power in the form of steam, electricity, water, wind, air, gas, and the like. But for thousands of years this reservoir remained untapped. Agriculture, the mechanical arts, travel and transportation, all depended on vital force power derived from the muscles of man or beast. This was practically the only power under human control ; and on the part of a large proportion of mankind the struggle for existence taxed this power to the utmost. Now gaining control of natural forces made it possible to relieve the vital energies of the race of this deadening 106 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY tax, and thus marked a long step in advance. Vital energy may be expended by the muscles, the nerves, or the brain ; that is, in muscular action, in feeling, or in thinking ; and of course strength ex- pended in any one of these three direc- tions is not available for use in either of the other two. When a man is exhausted by physical toil, the finer sensibilities and the power of thought are well-nigh dead within him. Here is the poet's picture of the typical peasant : " The emptiness of ages in his face, And on his back the burden of the world. Who made him dead to rapture and despair, A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?" Muscular toil, prolonged to exhaus- tion, has robbed the peasant's brain and 197 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN nerves of that vital energy which should have given to him man'shigh prerogatives of thought and feeling. For thousands of years the toiling millions have been condemned by the hard conditions of life to an existence chiefly animal. How much it meant, then, for the hope of humanity when man learned to harness nature's forces and was thus released, not from labor, but from the curse of labor that excess of toil which destroys the balance of manhood and robs him of his higher self ! True, excessive toil still stunts human life, even where machinery is employed ; but the tendency is to shorten hours of labor and to substitute machinery for muscle, requiring of the workman a service which exercises his intelligence rather than his strength. The century before us will certainly 198 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY lay more and more of the drudgery of life on the steel muscles of machinery, thus saving vital energy for the development of the higher sensibilities and the power of thought. Again, it has been shown that gaining control of nature's forces increases hu- man resources indefinitely, thus open- ing to mankind boundless possibilities. When muscles were the only source of productive power, the inexorable law of nature measured food and fuel and cloth- ing by human sweat. Except in the tropics, nature yielded the necessaries of life only in exchange for vital energy, the natural limit of which of course limited production. This energy was exhausted day by day. So far as pro- ductive power was concerned, the world went to sleep every night practically bankrupt and beggared, and awoke every 199 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN morning to begin life anew. To-day, the four great manufacturing nations the United States, England, France, and Germany have steam - power alone greater than the muscular strength of all the male workmen of mankind ; and this power can be increased indefinitely, as fast as it can be used. It is estimated that on the average the machine method is about fifty times as effective as the old hand method. That is, man, grasping nature's lever, is about fifty times as capable of supplying his material wants at the beginning of this century as he was one hundred years ago. The indefinite increase of his power has enabled him to solve the great problem of production. It is now possible to pro- duce every great staple in larger supply than the world can consume, and when the problem of distribution also has been 200 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY solved, the long and terrible struggle for the necessaries of life will have ceased forever, and the reasonable labor of all will be rewarded with an abundance for all. The prodigious increase of man's power over nature has naturally resulted in an enormous increase of wealth. If our wealth grew as rapidly from 1890 to 1900 as during the ten years preceding, we created and saved, over and above all expenditures, more every year than the entire wealth of the nation in 1820 ; and our accumulations for the ten years were greater than the estimated assets of the whole world in 1776. This astonishing increase of wealth will undoubtedly continue ; consider how much it means to the general wel- fare. I do not need to be reminded that 20 1 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN this wealth is not equitably distributed, and that the congestion of wealth is dangerous. This danger emphasizes the necessity of applying the social laws of Jesus to the solution of the great prob- lem of distribution. But I wish to point out the fact that under the new industrial system, by which society has come to live one life, the enrichment of one is for the benefit of all, and that the greater part of a rich man's wealth serves the public far more than it serves him. Rich men no longer lock up their gold in a strong box or bury it in the ground, as was very commonly done until modern industry was developed. They invest it, in order that it may be productive ; and the only way to make it pro- ductive is to make it meet some de- mand of the public. It builds railways, steamships, and factories, and opens 202 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY mines, and does a thousand other things for the service of mankind. And it cannot do one of these things without giving employment to labor, which receives much more of the earnings than capital. By reason of this investment of cap- ital, working men to-day can travel with a degree of comfort and speed never dreamed of by any prince a hundred years ago. And they enjoy many lux- uries impossible to the greatest wealth of other ages. All the millions of Croe- sus could not have furnished him with the morning paper, which we buy for a cent ; and we get the news for next to nothing because many times the millions of Croesus have been invested in paper- mills, and printing establishments, and type-foundries, and mines, and wire- mills, and rolling-mills, and telegraph 203 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN lines, and cables, and railways, and a thousand related industries. No matter how selfish a rich man may be, though he has a heart chiseled out of Scotch granite, and is as covet- ous as the grave, he must make his wealth serve the public much in order to make it serve himself a little. It is true the rich man may invest much in unproductive luxury and gen- erally does but one penalty of his selfish- ness is that such investment is unproduc- tive. As a rule, only a small part of a man's wealth is permitted to be dead capital, if he can help it ; and the larger his wealth, the smaller is the proportion consumed on himself, and the greater is the proportion which he keeps actively at work in the service of society. I am not trying to show that the in- equalities of wealth are not unjust or 204 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY mischievous, or that selfish luxury is not blameworthy. I am pointing out the fact that under the modern industrial system it is impossible for human greed to monopolize the benefits of wealth. Before the modern organization of in- dustry there was little opportunity for safe investment or, indeed, for investment of any sort. Wealth was, therefore, hoarded. It generally passed into cir- culation only through consumption, much of which was excessive and demor- alizing. But under modern conditions the great bulk of wealth seeks profitable investment ; the great bulk of it, there- fore, is engaged in the service of society. And whoever holds its titles, wealth can- not increase, under modern conditions, without ministering increasingly to the general public. Moreover, a vast and increasing 205 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN amount is being dedicated solely to the public welfare in endowment funds. The productive funds of the colleges and universities of the United States, in ad- dition to all that is invested in grounds, buildings, andgeneral equipment, amount to $165,800,000. Gifts in 1899 to our educational institutions, public libraries, and charities, including no sums smaller than $5,000, amounted to $79,278,000 ; and the total for the present year prom- ises to be still larger, for one man alone is reported to have given $45,000,000. Mr. Carnegie tosses millions as the Titans tossed mountains. It would seem that he is liable to give $5,000,000 before breakfast almost any morning. What a contrast with the days, less than a century ago, when a well-known college was glad to credit one of its benefactors with " One soup-bone, one shilling " ! 206 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY These vast and increasing endowment funds are to minister to humanity un- ceasingly. It is well to give a cup of cold water ; how much better to open a fountain that shall flow on as long as pilgrims pass this way ! These endow- ments, which, like the widow's cruse of oil, are ever spending but are never spent, will be an increasing benediction. In the future, as in the past, we shall have lean years as well as fat, but in view of the gifts of the last ten years, and of our in- creasing wealth, it is not unreasonable to suppose that during the present century there will be added, on the average, at least $50,000,000 a year to these per- manent endowment funds for the gen- eral good. By the end of the century this would make $5,000,000,000, or more than twice the entire wealth of the na- tion within the memory of living men 207 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN in 1820. What this means for the prog- ress of the race can hardly be measured. There is scarcely an organization for the advancement of learning, for the promo- tion of science, or for the work of phi- lanthropy which is not hampered for the lack of funds ; and many of them by doubling their resources might quadruple their results. We have seen that the industrial revo- lution makes it possible to release man's vital energies for higher uses than con- suming muscular toil, and that it has opened the door of an exhaustless treas- ure-house of wealth. As the social con- sciousness grows clearer and the social conscience more sensitive, wealth will be regarded more and more as a trust, to be administered for the benefit of humanity, and the products of labor, capital, and management will be more equitably 208 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY divided. That is, physical and moral forces are now at work in the world which will one day enable labor to share not only the material comforts and luxuries of life, but also the de- lights of intellectual training and of refined taste, thus giving to the many the blessings long confined to the few. Let us now turn to //. The Influence of the Scientific Method. We have seen how this new method in the world of ideas has multiplied our knowledge, as a new method in the physical world has increased our wealth. Down to about the nineteenth century the later scientist supplanted the earlier, now he supplements ; hence the real and rapid progress of science. This is a per- manent acquisition ; and this vast and splendid accumulation of knowledge, 209 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN like permanent endowment funds, will continually increase. A very large proportion of this knowl- edge bears directly on human well-being. Socrates thought the study of the natural sciences was fruitless of practical results ; and we are told that even Sir Isaac New- ton failed to see the industrial and com* mercial value of scientific investigation. But to-day the world is being revolu- tionized by mechanical, electrical, and chemical science. If discovery were to cease henceforth, our present acquisitions of science would suffice to insure the rapid progress of material civilization ; and of course as* tonishing discoveries await every cen- tury. It is a law, applicable in science as elsewhere, that to him who hath shall be given. Every step of progress makes the next easier and more sure. 210 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A large part of the world's progress in the twentieth century will no doubt be in the art of living. Much of the world's misery has been due to ignorance of the laws of life, individual and social ; for the penalties of ignorance are only less terrible than those of sin. Down to the birth of modern science the race learned but little from past experience. For many thousands of years generations came and went, and, generally speaking, each repeated the blunders of its predecessors. Until the scientific method was developed, the records of the past were of comparatively little value. The father of history is called the father of lies. But during the nineteenth century history has been re- written. From this time on, human experience will be scientifically observed and much more accurately recorded ; 211 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN and the race will grow rich in wisdom as never before. How often have we thought, if the experience of age and the opportunities of youth could be had at the same time, what splendid men and women we should make ! In the world's future the ex- periences of age will be made available to youth in a new way ; not in proverbs which embalm both the wisdom and the unwisdom of the past, nor in quickly forgotten exhortations, but in conclusions which are matters not of opinion but of scientific demonstra- tion. Take a single illustration from the na- tional census. It is a singular and in- teresting fact that our young republic was the first government in the history of the world to take a census at stated intervals. Ships of state kept no log- 212 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY book. Small wonder that so many split on the same rocks. In social and political science, to know precisely where we are is usually less im- portant than to know the direction in which we are moving. The vital thing is often tendency, because it is prophetic ; and to establish a line of tendency we must fix more than one point ; hence the value of a base-line. Now our de- cennial census during the nineteenth century establishes a base-line a hundred years long the first in all history from which we may measure in the twentieth and in all succeeding centuries. Thus for the guidance both of na- tional and of individual life we are now gaining a body of knowledge which will make the lamp of experience burn ever more brightly. Again, the scientific method is giving 213 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN to us a new philanthropy, based not on sentiment but on principle and on actual knowledge a philanthropy which aims, and with reasonable hope of success, not simply to mitigate evils, but to eradicate them. Much of the philanthropic effort of the past has only aggravated the evils which it has sought to alleviate. The English essayist, Gregg, says that " a large part of the mission of the wise is to counteract the efforts of the good." The new philanthropy encourages us to hope that the good may yet become the wise. Again, the scientific method has made all future generations its beneficiaries by establishing evolution as the method of social progress the natural method and, therefore, the divine method. By the law of evolution the future must be the natural outcome of the 214 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY present, precisely as the present is the natural outcome of the past. We may modify the development ; we may help or hinder it ; but we could not break with the past if we would. And if we could, it would be simply breaking the stem of civilization from its root. Civili- zation would have to go back into the ground as a mere cutting and begin over again, thus putting the world back thou- sands of years. I suppose the golden pippin was developed from the crab- apple. I know it was not secured by cutting down the crab-tree. There are agitators not a few who bring a general indictment against civili- zation ; whose creed would seem to be, Whatever is is wrong ; men who tell us that the nation would fare better if courts and churches were sunk in the sea. It is not surprising that those who 215 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN wish to follow inclination without let or hindrance should think ill of civil and religious restraint. " No rogue e'er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law." There are others, who are to be num- bered among the unwise good, who see clearly, and feel keenly, the evils and imperfections of existing institutions ; and who, in order to destroy those evils, desire to abolish the industrial system, the church, the state, the family, the en- tire social fabric ; having in their coat- pocket another social system, completely elaborated and ready for instant substi- tution. All such reformers stand in suffering need of the truth that evolution is the method of social progress. When the scientific method is more generally known, there will be fewer patent sys- 216 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY terns for the salvation of society, fewer fools with the amazing and amusing con- ceit to say, " When the world accepts my system," and there will be fewer fools to run after them. It is reassuring to know that there is a Power in the world which makes for progress. Under its unseen guidance life blindly worked its way upward through many gradations to conscious man. And this Power, which we be- lieve to be personal and divine, is able to overrule human ignorance and folly and greed so as to make them tributary to the progress of the race ; and if God is able thus to make the wrath of men praise him, how much more their glad and intelligent co-operation ? Nature in all her processes is ever law-abiding ; which is only another way of saying that God's methods are always 217 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN scientific. If, therefore, we are to be intelligent laborers together with him, we also must be scientific. The devel- opment of the scientific method, there- fore, by enabling man to co-operate intelligently with God, will give a new impetus to the world's progress. To impulse it will lend guidance, to pur- pose it will afford wisdom, to zeal it will add knowledge, thus forbidding a noble enthusiasm to degenerate into fanaticism. Let us consider, ///. The Influence of the New Social Ideal. Our ideals at the same time point out the direction of progress and furnish the incentive to it. They indicate our actual measure and our possible growth. That in man which responds to the illimitable suggests the boundlessness of 218 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY his own nature and destiny. The herd upon the headland crops the grass in- different to the sea, and chews the con- tented cud all unconscious of the stars ; but there is something in man which responds to the exalted and the im measurable. The depths of the sky and the shoreless ocean invite us. Even if our body is a ball and chain which pre- vents our accepting the invitation, we are at least capable of hearing it. If the infinite and absolute make us con- scious of our own littleness, they also mingle with this painful sense of limita- tion a consciousness of possibilities as yet unrealized ; and of these unrealized possibilities the noblest and most attract- ive constitute our ideal. I suppose an ideal is possible only to self-conscious life ; and a well-defined social ideal becomes possible only when 219 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN society arrives at a clear self-conscious- ness. In an individualistic civilization such a social ideal was hardly possible. But the industrial revolution, by creating a social civilization, is producing a social self-consciousness ; and the scientific method, by conferring on man the reins of power and the key of knowledge, has kindled new hopes for humanity, and we now dare to look forward to a day when poverty will be banished, and igno- rance dispelled, and disease controlled. Thus the golden age, which our fathers saw in the past, has been transferred to the future and has become our social ideal. As the progress of industry depends on specialization and co-ordination, so the progress of civilization depends on the individualizing of the individual and the higher organization of society. Some 220 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY have imagined that the two lines of progress were mutually destructive, but instead they are mutually dependent. An organism implies different organs with different functions. Only so far as men are differentiated does social organ- ization become possible ; and as society becomes more highly organized, the in- dividual lives a larger life, attains a higher development. Thus the race, like the individual, proceeds on two feet an upward step by one prepares for an upward step by the other. It is doubtless true that in the devel- opment of the individual the race has in a sense reached its culmination. That is, a few individual types have been practically perfected, and future gains along the line of individual development will consist in bringing the many to a closer approximation of the few. 221 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Thus the future will probably furnish no finer physical types than many which have already appeared, but there is im- measurable room for the improvement of the general physique of the race. In one of the plays of Aristophanes an Athenian woman thus addressed Lam- pito, a Lacedaemonian wife : " O dearest Spartan, O Lampito, welcome ! How beautiful you look, sweetest one, how fresh your complexion ! You could throttle an ox." " Yes," she replied, " I think I could." We may not hope to surpass the rare combination of strength and beauty which characterized the bodily perfection of the Spartan youth of both sexes, but how much it would mean if all mankind even re- motely approximated it ! It is some- thing to have a healthy admiration for it and to aim at it. There is said to be 222 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY an old English book of etiquette which recommends blood-letting to ladies just before going into society, in order to present " the pallid complexion so much admired by the opposite sex." We have made considerable progress since then. There seems to be no tendency in the uplift of modern civilization to produce intellectual alps, whose altitude surpasses the great peaks of the past. The nine- teenth century gave to the world no Shakspeare nor Dante, no Aristotle nor Plato, no Paul nor Moses ; but there has been a great leveling up, and this pro- cess, we cannot doubt, will continue un- til the low-lying marshes of ignorance and the narrow valleys of prejudice have become table-lands, broad and high, swept by free winds and flooded with the sunlight of truth. 223 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN Doubtless in the century before us the people the " plain people," as Lincoln loved to call them are to move up, up toward the splendid types of manhood and womanhood already developed, which are the supreme glory of mankind. And this higher development of a multitude of in- dividuals will be accompanied by a vastly higher organization of society, a much closer approximation to our social ideal. Of the form of this higher and closer organization of society it would be idle to attempt a forecast. It will not be modeled on the theories of any man or school. It will be a growth. We may be sure that social self-consciousness will gain increasing distinctness, and with it the social conscience which is now feeble will grow strong. When the individual came to full self- consciousness in the Renaissance and the 224 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Reformation, he became aware of his personal worth and of his personal ac- countability. His watchword, therefore, became " Rights." As society gains self- consciousness, individuals perceive that they are a part of one great life ; the general good and the rights of others grow more real and more important. The watchword, therefore, becomes " Duties." As our social consciousness grows, men will better appreciate their interde- pendence, their mutual interests. Rich men will more clearly understand that their wealth could never have been ac- quired but for society, and that having been gained, it would be quite worthless but for society. There will, therefore, be a growing appreciation of the fact that wealth, like office, is a public trust, and that the man who devotes a fortune 225 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN to personal ends is as unsocial, as unpa triotic, and as worthy of popular scorn as a man who uses a public office for private ends. Already men of wealth are beginning to accept this view and to act on it ; and when that which is now the exception shall have become the rule, the devotion of prodigious sums to the general wel- fare will produce far-reaching results in elevating the multitude. For gold, when mixed with wisdom, works a thousand miracles. It may be transmuted not only into all tangible good, but also into all the virtues. Mr. Carnegie's gift of many millions for public libraries affords a striking ex- ample both of the sense of responsi- bility of wealth and of its wise adminis- tration for the benefit of the million. A book is the greatest leveler ; it is utterly 226 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY democratic. AsShakspeare makes Buck- ingham say in scorn of Wolsey, "A beg- gar's book outworths a noble's blood." The book-cover is a door without bolt or bar, which swings open to all alike, admitting the plowboy and the shop- girl to intimacy with the world's " Four Hundred." Knowledge for all, like plenty for all, is essential to the universal well-being which alone can realize the new social ideal. But it is quite possible for men to be well fed, well educated, and at the same time frigidly selfish. Winter is not winter for lack of light. It is the sun's heat- rays which work the miracle of spring and give back life to field and forest. There must be heat as well as light, mo- tive as well as knowledge, love as well as truth. Learning is not life. Many have eaten of the tree of knowledge who 227 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN have never tasted of the tree of life. Adam and Eve increased their knowl- edge, but lost their Paradise notwith- standing. Knowledge is the knowledge of " good and evil? It is well, then, for the world that with increasing intelligence there is a grow- ing altruism. The heart of humanity is becoming less hard. The tension of modern life has wrought a change in our nervous system. Our sensibilities are become more tender. A few genera- tions ago the highest and most Christian court in the world condemned men to be boiled to death in oil. Now, cruelty to a dumb animal is a crime. We are more considerate of dogs than our fathers were of men. This altruism is something new, certainly in degree, and I think in kind. There have been many in the past who for the love of God or 228 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY country have suffered for their fellow men. But there are those to-day who are giving themselves as living sacrifices to relieve human misery and degrada- tion, who seem to be actuated not by motives of religion or patriotism, but by an enthusiasm for humanity. Enthusi- astic devotion to art and science " for their own sake " is common. We have seen Agassiz dangling at the end of a rope hundreds of feet down a fissure in an Alpine glacier. I have heard of a conchologist who is devoting his life not to the study of clam-shells, which is too large a field, but to the fresh-water clam. Now men are discovering that a child is as well worth prolonged study, is quite as worthy to inspire enthusiasm, as a fresh-water clam ! I know men and women who are devoting themselves to humanity, not for God's sake nor for 229 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN country's sake, but for humanity's sake. Many of the present-day evils are due to bringing the old individualistic spirit over into the new social condi- tions. The motto of that spirit was " Every man for himself." Every angel for himself would ruin heaven. The normal spirit of the new social civiliza- tion would express itself in the motto, Each for all and all for each ; and this new altruism is inspired by that spirit of service and sacrifice. Prof. Huxley declared the principle of self-sacrifice, succeeding the struggle for existence, to be the law of progress for civilized man. Competition ulti- mately works out a co-ordination and unification, in which co-operation natu- rally supersedes competition as the law of life and of progress. The men of al- 230 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY truistic spirit to-day are the pioneers of that higher stage of civilization which Prof. Huxley anticipated. A society from which have been elim- inated ignorance and selfishness and, therefore, poverty and sin and wretched- ness, begins to seem to men not simply a far-off abstract possibility to be dreamed of, but an infinite good to be struggled for an ideal capable of being realized, and so glorious that it is in- spiring passionate longing and persist- ent endeavor. It goes without saying that this ideal will not be realized in the twentieth century or for many more ; but the fact that such an ideal seems no longer Uto- pian will make it a mighty influence for good during the century to come. My confidence that this ideal will be ultimately realized on earth is based not 231 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN simply on the bounty which organized industry brings, the priceless treasures of knowledge which the scientific method gives, and the social ideal with which the new altruism glows. These powerful influences are re-enforced by that which is deepest and highest in human nature, viz., religion. Let us consider, then, lastly, and very briefly, IV. The Influence of the New Chris- tianity. We are gaining, not a new Christian, ity , but a new conception of Chris- tianity; and this conception is "new" only because it is so old. We are get- ting back to the Christianity of Christ. Protestantism, as we have seen, is indi. vidualistic, as was also the old civiliza- tion. It was natural, and indeed inevi- table, that from such a point of view 232 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY men should look on Christianity as in- dividualistic. We are now beginning to see that Jesus aimed both at individual and social regeneration, and that the " kingdom of heaven " of which he talked so much was not the home of the blessed dead, but was his social ideal, to be realized here in the earth when his prophetic prayer shall have found its fulfilling answer, and God's will is done in earth even as it is done in heaven. We are beginning to see that Christ's teaching was not a circle struck around the individual as its center, but an ellipse drawn around the individual and society as its two foci. This correction of our understanding cannot fail to have a profound effect on Christian belief, aim and method. It is bringing religion down from heaven to earth, and making it a mat- 233 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN ter of life as well as of death, and of seven days in the week rather than one. It is wiping out the old and false and pernicious distinction between the " sa- cred " and the " secular," and teaching us that "There are no gentile oaks, no pagan pines ; The grass beneath our feet is Christian grass." It is awaking the conscience of the church to the fact that the second great command of Christ is as binding as the first, that it is her duty to incul- cate and exemplify the one as well as the other ; and thus to include in her aim the salvation of society as well as that of the individual. We are beginning to see that Christ's brotherhood of man is the new altru- ism, springing not from common inter- est but from a common Fatherhood ; beginning to see that Christ's kingdom 234 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY of God is the new social ideal, spiritual- ized and glorified ; and that the three fundamental laws of the kingdom which he laid down, viz., those of service, of sacrifice, and of love, are precisely the laws by the application of which society must be saved and the new social ideal realized. The old conception of Christianity was embodied by the genius of Bunyan in his wonderful allegory, in which the Christian life is represented as a flight from a doomed city, the destination of which is a place of personal safety, while the city and its inhabitants are left to their own utter destruction. In what strong and beautiful contrast was the spirit shown by Lord Shaftes- bury when once talking with Frances Power Cobbe in regard to the wrongs of working girls. With tears in his eyes 235 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN and with a trembling voice, he said to her, " When I think that I am growing old and that I have not long to live, I hope it is not wrong, but I cannot bear to die and leave the world with so much wretchedness in it." The wretchedness from which so many would flee was precisely that which bound him to the earth. He would fain stay so long as he could relieve any measure of the world's woe, and bring heaven a little nearer earth. That, to my mind, is a far more Christian conception of life and more heroic than that which is presented in the " Pilgrim's Progress." Let us not be impatient for heaven. It will keep. Besides, heaven, like happiness, is most surely gained when sought indirectly. There are evils enough in the world to test our heroism, and to inspire all the sacrifice of which we are capable ; and 236 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY there is not the slightest danger but that they will last the youngest of us through a long life. If space permitted, they might appropriately have a place in our twentieth-century survey. Their shadows are dark, and many believe that they are growing darker. But if so, it is only because the light is growing brighter. The electric lamp casts a much blacker shadow than the tallow dip. Many of these evils are incident to the present stage of civilization and will pass as it passes. Possibly some of us question, after all, whether the new civilization, taking its good and evil together, is an advance on the old which it superseded. We perhaps complain with Ruskin and Carlyle that the present age is common- place and sordid, and that commercialism has robbed life of its imagination and 237 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN poetry ; and we look back with regretful admiration at the faith and loyalty and personal daring of the Age of Chivalry ^ which was supplanted by the age of or- ganized industry. Do we forget that the distant purple mountains on the horizon of history were not purple when the race toiled over them ? It was very common daylight which shone upon their rugged rocks, over which the common people crawled with blistering and bleeding feet. The beauties of the old civiliza- tion were for the few, the blessings of the new are for the many. Moreover, it is not unreasonable to believe that all which was noblest in the old civilization will yet return. The tides of faith which long had ebbed even now begin again to flow not the super- stitious faith of the dark ages, which fled before the light of modern science, but 238 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY a rational faith, which can abide the lighl because it has learned to believe in 3 God of law and a God of love. Surely no age can be commonplace or sordid or unheroic which is moved by a great and noble passion. A burning enthusiasm for humanity, which gladly suffers in order to serve, shall bring another Age of Chivalry, shall inspire imagination and poetry anew, and lead forth nobler crusades against every wrong. Let us neither sigh for the past nor fear for the future. The new century will bring new perplexities, but they will be the problems of progress, which must ever be solved by more progress. The backward look never sees the way out. Let us face the future with courage and with faith, for of all the ages that have come and gone, not one has had such 239 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN hope for humanity as the twentieth century. "God's in his heaven, All's right with the world." He is not going to be beaten in the great conflict of the ages. The very stars in their courses fight with him against the world's evils, which have their day, but have their doom, uttered alike by reason and revelation, by science and faith. With Him, the sands of whose hour- glass are the circling stars, there is neither haste nor delay. From age to age he is surely working out his purposes of love ; and if, as Paul says, we are workers together with him unto the kingdom, we shall certainly, in the full- ness of time, rejoice with him in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 240 INDEX PAGE Agassiz 229 Age, The Golden 220 Altruism 227-229 How made possible 84-97 Amusements 150-156 Rational 154, 155 Law of service and 155, 156 Angels, Sex of 180 Apostles' Creed 165 Theology of the 164-166 Aristophanes 222 Articulates 90-92 Asceticism 167-171 Beecher, Dr. Lyman 153 Body 125-130 Abuse of 125 Soul and 127 Law of service applied to 127-130 Browning 240 Buckle 194 Bunyan 235, 236 Burke 103, 104 Capital, Combination of 51, 52 and labor, The strife between 1 12, 1 13 241 INDEX PACK arlyle 24, 195, 237 Carnegie, Gifts of 206, 226 Cells, Living 106-110 Social ; 108-1 10 Census, The decennial 212, 213 Change in physical world 27-38 Changes in the nineteenth century 25 Christ, Point of view of 57- Q1 Christianity of. 232-240 Christianity, A new conception of 54-6i, 232-240 Fundamental facts of 44 Church, Joining the 182 Point of view of the 55-5 7 Weakness of the 179 Cities, Misgovernment of. no, in Civilization determined by industry 27, 28 Progress of 220, 221 Comte 194 Croesus 203 Cross, Meaning of. 79, 80 Damascus, Paul's escape from 148, 149 Discontent, Popular 103 Dodge, Grace H 141 Drummond, Prof. Henry 84-86 Dust, Uses of. 62-63 Education 130-136 Different aims in 130, 131 Law of service and 135, 136 Edwards, Jonathan 190 End, The supreme 131-135 Endowments, College 206, 207 Energy, Vital 196, 197 Enthusiasm for humanity 239 242 INDEX PACK Evolution 73. 74 Method of 84-97 Social progress and 214-218 Expenditure 156-162 Law of service and 160, 162 Fairbairn, Principal 46 " Flesh," as used in New Testament 125, 126 French revolutionists 103, 104 Funds, College endowment 206 Garibaldi 93 Golden Age 220 Greeks, Bodily perfection of 129 Gregg 214 Grotius 121, 122 Guizot 194 Hegel 194 Heroism in religion 180-183 Homespun, Age of 32, 33 Humanity, Enthusiasm for 239 Huxley 133, 230 Ideal, New social 218-232 Ideals 218, 219 Ignorance, Penalties of 211 Industrial revolution ; how caused 29 Influence of, in future 194-209 Results of 29-38 Jerusalem, The New 147, 148 Kingdom of God 57~6i, 184, 185 Entrance into the 188-191 Love, a law of the 96, 97 Philosophy of life and the 187 Sacrifice, a law of the 78-81 Service, a law of the 71 243 INDEX PACK Labor and capital, The strife between 112, 113 Benefited by capital 202-205 Organization of 51 Lincoln 224 Linnaeus 43, 44. 47 Living, Art of. 21 1 Love, Disinterested 95 Family, expanded into patriotism 93 God's 175, 176 Law of 83-97 Laws of service and sacrifice vitalized by . . .94, 114 Lowell 175 McKinley, William 145 Method, The scientific. 209-217 Missionaries, Heroism of 180 Money 156, 157 Mud-wasp 86-89 Mysticism.. 171-173 Natural laws, laws of the Kingdom 59-6 1 Newspaper, illustrative of modern civilization 35, 36 Newton, Sir Isaac 210 Occupation 137-150 Choice of 143-145 Law of service and 146-150 Usefulness of 143-145 Ocean, the world's filter 65 Old men and young men contrasted 23 Parasites 68, 69, 137-141 Pan 50 Pascal 106 Paul's escape from Damascus 148, 149 Peabody, George 144 Philanthropy, A new 214 244 INDEX PACK " Pillar saints " 168 Play, Philosophy of 15 1-154 Principle, Stability of 17, 19 Problem, The social 98-1 14 Problems of society defined 101 the individual defined 101 Problem of production solved 31, 200 Protestantism individualistic 232 Proudhon 99 Public opinion 49 Religion and Theology, Difference between 43-48 Resources, Increase of human 199-201 Religion, Effeminate 179, 180 Heroism in 180-183 Laws of love, service and sacrifice applied to 163-191 Three types of superficial 167-183 Ritualism 173-183 Ruskin 237 Sacrifice, A circle of , 76-78 Law of 73-82, 230 Law of life 106-108 Promotion by 75, 76, 81 Separated from love and service 167-171 Wasted 106-108 Saloon in, 112 Scientific method 4-42, 209-217 Seneca 118 Service, Circles of 64-67 Conscious and unconscious 70, 71 Distinguished from worship. . . .177, 178, 180, 181 Law of 62-72 Law of life 105, 106 245 INDEX PACE Service, Seeming exceptions to law of 68, 69 Social law 105 Sex of church- membership 179, 180 Shaftesbury 235, 236 Shakspeare 24, 227 Shaler, Prof. 86-89, 9*> 9 2 Simon the " Stylite " 168 Social conscience 50, 224 Ideal, The new 218-232 Laws 104-114 Problem 98-114 Question, The, defined 101, 102 Questions 98-101 Revolution 34-3^ Socrates 210 Southey 39 Spencer, Herbert 104, 194 Stewardship 158 Stowe, Prof 153 Student volunteers 180 Survival of fittest 73, 74 Tendencies, Importance of 213 Time, Use of "7-12$ Value of 118-123 Law of service applied to 123, 124 Tithes 159, 160 Tennyson 74, 77, 94 Terence 15 Theology and religion, Difference between 43-48 Progress of 104 Toil, Effect of excessive 196-198 Training, The best physical 129, 130 Truth, Importance of holding 164 246 INDEX PAGE Twentieth century, Outlook of. 192-240 Undercurrent of civilization 25, 38, 49-53 Vertebrates 90-92 Vitality versus muscle 129, 130 Volunteers, Student 180 Wallace, Alfred Russel 63 Water, Many uses of 64 Watts, Isaac 138, 139 Wealth of American people in 1820 31 Increase of 201 Serves society 202-205 Wind, Uses of 65, 66 Young men and old men contrasted 23 247 An Encyclopedia and Year Book of Social, Religious and Industrial Advance JOSIAH STRONG, Editor President American Institute of Social Service 8vo, 360 pages Cloth, $1.00 net Postage, 10 Cents " Social Progress " is a book that gives, from authori- tative sources, the latest information on the SOCIAL ADVANCE OF THE WORLD It gives the latest statistics and the latest statements from experts on RELIGIOUS ADVANCE CHILD SAVING DENOMINATIONAL GROWTH SOCIAL PURITY OR LOSS THE HOUSING QUESTION EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS INDUSTRIAL BETTERMENT TEMPERANCE PROBLEMS LABOR LEGISLATION AND WORK TRADE UNIONS INSTITUTIONAL CHURCHES SETTLEMENTS CO-OPERATION SOCIALISM Dr. STRONG has prepared a book that every thought worker needs at his elbow The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq., New York THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. I2mo, cloth, 75 cents Paper edition, 35 cents There were great religious awakenings in the six- teenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In each instance these great awaken- ings came in connection with the preaching of a neglected scriptural truth or truths, which were peculiarly adapted to the needs of the times. The beginning of the twentieth century naturally suggests to the churches a new forward movement. Tht late Pret. JOHN H. BARROWS, of Oberlin College: " ' The Next Great Awakening ' has moved me deeply. It is written in Dr. Strong's best and most vigorous style. The book not only stirs the conscience and gladdens the heart with hope, but it satisfies the mind. It is eminently wise. Its posi- tions are more than defensible ; they are impregnable. The practical acceptance of the teachings of this book by the Christians of America would send the Kingdom of God for- ward more rapidly, perhaps, than it has ever gone in the his- tory of Christianity. Dr. Strong's account of the Kingdom of God is so much more satisfactory than Harnack's in his recent book, ' What Is Christianity ? ' that I have felt in reading both that America does not need to go to Germany for the best enlightenment on some of the most important religious ques- tions." The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 East I7th St., Union Sq. North, New York The Story of the Churches A NEW VOLUME THE CONGREGATIONALISTS LEONARD W. BACON, D.D. Author of "A History of American Christianity' 1 '' i2mo, with frontispiece, net, $1.00 (Postage 8 cents) Dr. Bacon is recognized as one of the most pungent writers of the day on religious topics. His great work, "A History of American Christianity," is known everywhere to students of religious history, and his briefer works are distinguished by strength and straight-from-the-shoulder qualities, which make them very popular. His history of the Con- gregationalists is sure to attract the widest attention, and to excite much criticism. Alex. V. G. Allen, Chester, Nova Scotia, of the Episco- pal Theological Seminary at Cambridge : " Every one must be charmed, I think, with its fairness, its moderation, its genial and Christian tone. The only fault is the book is too small, too short. When the man and the sub- ject met as in this case the result should have been more ample space for discussion. At any rate, it must prove a classic on the subject." New York Sun: "The little volume is admirable. It is written with due sense of proportion, it relates the things that have really told, and tells the story of the most American of all the religious denominations in a manner that is at once en- lightening and suggestive. Moreover, it is put in English that is worth reading for its own sake." The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 East I7th St., Union Sq. North, New York The Story of the Churches THE BAPTISTS HENRY C. VEDDER, D.D. Professor of Church History in Crozer Theological Seminary Small i2mo, with frontispiece, net, $1.00 (Postage g cents) The object of this series is to furnish brief his- tories of the several denominations written by the leading historians of each sect. The books will average only about forty thou- sand words and are calculated to interest the average church member as well as the student of Church history. Dr. Vedder is an authority on American Church History and a specialist in the history of the Baptists. He has a sprightly but vig- orous style, and a manner of expressing his ideas which is pleasing in its clearness and brevity. The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 East I7th St., Union Sq. North, New York LEAVENING THE NATION THE STORY OF AMERICAN HOME MISSIONS BY DR. J. B. CLARK Secretary of the Congregational Home Missionary Society Full i2mo, illustrated, net, $1.25 Student's Edition, red paper, net, BOe. For some time there has been felt among all church workers a need of a careful history of American home-missionary work. For- eign Missions have had many historians, but Home Missions have had none. Dr. J. B. Clark, whose work in the home-mis- sionary field is known throughout the coun- try, was granted by his Board a leave of absence in which to prepare a careful non- sectarian history of the work. His book is carefully written with the assistance of the secretaries of the Boards of other denomi- nations and will make a standard history of home-missionary work. At the same time it is so popular in its style as to entirely fulfill the requirements of the sub-title, "The Story of American Home Missions." The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 33-37 East i/th St., Union Sq. North, New York tc.