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THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
THE WORLD'S 
 CHILDHOOD 
 
 A SERIES OF SUNDAY EVENING 
 SERMONS FROM THEMES 
 DRAWN FROM THE FIRST 
 THREE CHAPTERS OF GENESIS 
 
 By 
 
 REV. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS, D.D. 
 
 Pastor of Independence Avenue M. E, Church 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Author of "Sermons Which Have Won Souls," "Christ and 
 
 His Friends," "Paul and His Friends," " David and His 
 
 Friends," etc., etc. 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 New York and London 
 1910 
 
^tn 
 
 COPYEIGHT, 1910 
 BY 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 Published, September, 1910 
 
7# 
 
 THE MEMBERS 
 
 OF 
 
 INDEPENDENCE AVENUE 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 This Volume 
 
 Is Lovingly Dedicated 
 
 By 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. — The Background of Human Life 
 II. — A World of Chaos .... 
 III. — The Creation of Light 
 IV. — Goodness and Light 
 V. — Darkness and Light 
 VI. — Man's Glorious Day 
 VII. — The Treasures of the Night . 
 VIII. — Light and Shadow .... 
 IX. — The Atmosphere of Life . 
 X. — The Appeal of the Sky 
 XL — The Birth of Individuality 
 XII. — The Sea and Its Sailors 
 XIII. — The Romance of the Fields 
 XIV. — The Clock of Time 
 XV. — The Lamps of the Sky 
 XVI. — Beauty and the Beast . 
 XVII. — Man Created in God's Image 
 XVIII.— The Garden of Eden 
 XIX. — Marriage and the Family . 
 XX. — Parleying with Temptation 
 
 XXL— The First Lie 
 
 XXII. — The Lost Paradise 
 XXIII. — The Sinner Becomes the Tempter 
 XXIV.— The Dawn of Guilt . 
 XXV. — Useless Covering for Sin . 
 XXVI. — The Cowardice of a Guilty Conscience 
 XXVIL— The Call of God . . . . 
 XXVIII. — Personal Responsibility 
 XXIX. — The Conflict of the Centuries 
 XXX. — The Promised Savior . 
 
 VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 36 
 
 47 
 59 
 70 
 82 
 
 93 
 104 
 114 
 125 
 137 
 149 
 160 
 
 174 
 
 186 
 198 
 212 
 225 
 240 
 
 251 
 263 
 
 275 
 288 
 300 
 312 
 325 
 337 
 350 
 
THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 THE BACKGROUND OF HUMAN LIFE 
 
 ^ * In the beginning God. ' ' — Gen. 1 : 1. 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED Scotchman once wrote 
 with his finger, in the corner of his gar- 
 den, in the soft mold, the letters of his son's 
 name. He sowed garden-cress in the furrows, 
 covered up the seed, and smoothed the 
 ground. Ten days after this the boy came 
 running to his father, and with astonishment 
 in his countenance shouted to him that his 
 name was growing in the garden. The father 
 laughed at the report, and seemed to disre- 
 gard it, but the boy insisted on his going to 
 see what had happened. 
 
 *^Yes,'' said the father, with assumed in- 
 difference, * ^ I see it is so ; but what is there 
 in this worth notice ? Is it not mere chance ? ' ' 
 
 **It can not be so,'' said the boy. *' Some- 
 body must have contrived matters so as to 
 produce it. ' ' 
 
 1 
 
2 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 ^^Look at yourself/' replied the father, 
 •'and consider your hands and fingers, your 
 legs and your feet. Came you hither by 
 chance?'' 
 
 ^ ' No, ' ' he answered. * ' Something must have 
 made me." 
 
 *'And who is that something?" asked the 
 father. 
 
 He said, **I don't know." 
 
 Then the father drew away the veil from 
 this great background of human life and told 
 him that * ' In the beginning God created. ' ' 
 
 I 
 
 This sentence which we have chosen for 
 our text is one of the most stupendous utter- 
 ances ever recorded in human language. The 
 first time any man gives thoughtful utterance 
 to it the mind staggers and reels under the 
 weight of its tremendous meaning. As we 
 steady ourselves for thought and contempla- 
 tion, it is as tho we stood up against a great 
 chain of lofty mountains — mountains so high 
 and splendid that they form the background 
 of wide-reaching valleys and far-stretching 
 plains which draw all their fertility and 
 beauty from the mountains at our back. 
 
THE BACKGROUND OF HUMAN LIFE 3 
 
 These mountains form the background to 
 the valley. The valley owes its life to the 
 mountains. The mountain summits lift their 
 heads so high that they tap the clouds pass- 
 ing by on the wings of the wind with mois- 
 ture gathered in far-off seas and compel 
 them to disgorge their precious treasures 
 that they may in turn enrich the valleys and 
 the plains. These captured treasures issue 
 forth in springs, and in brooks, and rivers, 
 moving forth from the deep canons of the 
 rock-bound hills, and they give life and fer- 
 tility and support to flocks and herds, and to 
 \dllages and cities in the plains beyond. So 
 you may follow up the valleys of human life 
 across the plains of history and civilization 
 until you have followed mankind back as far 
 as you can, and you will come straight up 
 against this great mountain range and look 
 into the mystery of the Great White Throne, 
 and hear this splendid but awful utterance, 
 **In the beginning God." 
 
 II 
 
 The Bible does not argue concerning the 
 existence of God, but in its first utterance it 
 presents the fact of God as the key to the uni- 
 
4 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 verse and as the key to human history. 
 Joseph Parker once said: *M have a great 
 and cunningly contrived lock called the uni- 
 verse, and the question is how to open it. I 
 can not tell. It is a grand lock, and I should 
 like to open it. The Bible says, ^I can give 
 you the key of that lock.' Then I say, 'You 
 are a bold book, and boldness is an attribute 
 of truth.' Do I stop there and say I believe 
 there is a key because I have read a book 
 which says there is one? No. I say to the 
 book, whatever its name may be, 'Where is 
 the key?' When the Bible says, 'The key is 
 God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, 
 righteous, merciful, holy, just, brighter than 
 the light, more patient than motherhood, 
 more pitiful than fatherhood, full of compas- 
 sion, and most long suffering,' I take the 
 key, I press it into the lock, wholly and 
 easily — what do I do? I kiss the Book, I 
 love it, I call it God's Book, I meditate there- 
 in day and night. Have you a better reason ? 
 Let me have it: I will try it exactly in the 
 same way — only it must cover all the ground, 
 it must be available night and day, it must 
 not be subject to climatic changes, it must 
 not succumb to atmospheric effects, it must 
 
TEE BACKGROUND OF HUMAN LIFE 5 
 
 keep time on the Alps, and keep time in the 
 valleys. ' ' 
 
 in 
 
 Now the greatest conception and the most 
 important which the mind of man can enter- 
 tain is the kind of God which the Bible 
 brings as a key to open the lock of the uni- 
 verse in which we live. All our religious life, 
 all our religious experience, indeed, all our 
 civilization must be dictated by our concep- 
 tion of God. Men have often made gods of 
 their own imaginings. Eobert Browning, in 
 his unique poem, ^'Caliban upon Setebos,** 
 turns preacher and gives a remarkable ser- 
 mon, and fearing lest some careless reader 
 might not be sure of his meaning, he printed 
 the words of the psalmist as a text above it, 
 **Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such 
 an one as thyself." The poet-preacher takes 
 Caliban, Shakespeare's grotesque monster, 
 and pictures him rolling and wallowing in 
 the slime of a cave on an island, thinking 
 and talking to himself about God. In the 
 heat of the noon, Caliban wallows in the 
 mud, while Prospero and Miranda sleep. He, 
 not drudging at their task, as he glee- 
 
6 TRE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 fully thinks, talks to himself about '^that 
 other/' of whom his dam Sycorax had told 
 him, the god Setebos — a god of the Patago- 
 nians. Caliban thinks Setebos dwells in the 
 cold of the moon; hates the cold of the 
 moon, but can not live away from it ; and out 
 of very weariness, envy, listlessness, or 
 sport, made all things — made Caliban him- 
 self. Caliban considers what he would do if 
 he had the power and thinks of Setebos as 
 doing the same. Suppose Caliban could 
 make a live bird out of clay, a bird that 
 could fly; he would break its leg oif if he 
 wanted to, or give it more legs. And Setebos 
 does absolutely as he likes, too, knows no 
 law but his own caprice and is entirely gov- 
 erned by caprice in his actions toward the 
 things he has made, neither loving nor ha- 
 ting. Just as Caliban does with the crabs. 
 He watches them going down to the sea, lets 
 twenty pass him, and stones the twenty-first ; 
 throws a worm to one, two worms to another. 
 **As it likes me each time, I do; so does he.'' 
 But Caliban thinks also what he would do if 
 the creature he had made grew proud of its 
 doings, for he thinks Setebos is able to make 
 things with powers he (Setebos) himself does 
 
THE BACKGBOUND OF HUMAN LIFE 7 
 
 not possess. Caliban has made a rude musical 
 instrument. Suppose it were to grow proud 
 of the poor music it made, and thought to 
 claim credit for it. ^^I make the cry my 
 maker can not make with his great round 
 mouth. He must blow through mine!'' He 
 imagines the reed saying, ^ ' Well, then, would 
 not Caliban smash it with his footT' And 
 of course Setebos does just the same — de- 
 stroys his own work out of resentment and 
 envy. 
 
 But Setebos, he thinks, has a particular 
 spite against poor Caliban, just as, on the 
 other hand, he favors Prospero. No reason ; 
 just caprice of the god. Caliban has built 
 a trap for the turtles, and a wave comes and 
 sweeps it away — the work of six months gone 
 in a moment. And Setebos has sent down 
 a ball of fire to kill him ; it struck where half 
 an hour before he had been sleeping in the 
 shade. Still in his monstrous mind he justi- 
 fies the god. Above all things, he himself 
 must be free to do as he likes. He knows 
 and can imagine no rule to guide conduct 
 excepting caprice. And Setebos must do 
 as he likes also. Caliban can understand 
 that the thing which would seem most hate- 
 
8 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 ful to Setebos would be the supposition that 
 he is bound to act uniformly or consistently. 
 
 And further than this, Caliban must not 
 seem happy. Setebos would be jealous. 
 Whenever he feels happy and content he 
 must do his best to seem wretched. He hates 
 the god, but he dares not let his hatred ap- 
 pear; no, he must fawn upon him, praise 
 him, grovel before him. 
 
 The finish of the poem is fine. A raven 
 flies across Caliban's line of vision and he 
 immediately falls into great fear. To his 
 morbid imagination the raven has been lis- 
 tening, a winged policeman of the god Sete- 
 bos, ajid he cries aloud in terror : 
 
 There scuds his raven that has told him all ! 
 
 It was foors play, this prattling! Ha! the wind 
 
 Shoulders the pillared dust, death's house o' the move, 
 
 And fast invading fires begin! white blaze — 
 
 A tree's head snaps — and there, there, there, there, there, 
 
 His thunder follows! Fool to gibe at him! 
 
 Lo! 'lieth flat and loveth Setebos! 
 
 'Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip. 
 
 Will let those quails fly, will not eat this month 
 
 One little mess of whelks, so he may 'scape! 
 
 And so through promises of self -punishment 
 
THE BACKGROUND OF HUMAN LIFE 9 
 
 and self-denial Caliban hopes to deceive 
 Setebos, the god whom he imagines to be 
 altogether such a creature as himself. 
 
 Now this picture of the poet is very true 
 to life. Through generation after genera- 
 tion, multitudes of men have looked into the 
 clouded mirror of their own consciousness 
 and taken for God a sort of monstrous dis- 
 torted image of themselves. But the God 
 whom the Bible brings to us as the key to 
 the universe is a moral God, who lays a 
 moral claim upon me — a claim not only on 
 my mind and admiration, but upon my heart 
 and my affections. A God not only great 
 and wise, but who sends Jesus Christ to me, 
 wearing my flesh, sharing my grief, tempted 
 in all points like as I am, to teach me to say 
 ^^Our Father, which art in heaven.*' As one 
 of the greatest of English preachers once 
 said : ' * If Christ taught one thing more clear- 
 ly than another, it was that man should be 
 brought face to face with God, and that noth- 
 ing was grand in character except what grew 
 out of the love and fear of God.'' God! — 
 God! — that is the great theme of Jesus 
 Christ. The splendor of God is on every 
 page, in every parable, in every promise; 
 
10 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and no righteousness that is merely etiquette, 
 social propriety, good-breeding, will stand 
 the test of the final judgment held in the 
 presence of God who created us, who has 
 loved us with infinite love, and given us 
 Christ to reveal God to us, and to save us. 
 from all our sins. 
 
 Do not misunderstand me. It is a grand 
 thing for a man to be moral, whatever may 
 be the cause or basis of that morality, but 
 the only morality which can be relied upon 
 must be based upon deep and lasting faith in 
 God as the moral Ruler and Father of man- 
 kind. 
 
 In South Africa they sometimes come 
 across yellow diamonds. Mind you, they are 
 diamonds, and not pebbles. They are really 
 diamonds, but no king would ever put one of 
 them into his crown. And there is many a 
 man and many a woman to-day who is a 
 yellow diamond. Their morality is on the 
 surface. The morality of society, the moral- 
 ity of etiquette, but they have not been trans- 
 formed in the mind and spirit, and they do 
 not walk in the love and fear of God, and, 
 therefore, God will never know them in the 
 day when He makes up His jewels. 
 
THE BACKGBOUND OF HUMAN LIFE 11 
 
 I long above everything else to arouse you 
 to a keen sense of your own responsibility 
 to God. I would that you could see, with 
 eyes made clear by the Holy Spirit, the real 
 wickedness of your sin against God. It might 
 fill you with terror, it might fill your eyes 
 with tears, but it would be the beginning of 
 joy greater than you have ever known. On 
 that dark night when Peter had denied his 
 Lord, when the cock crew and Peter saw his 
 sin, he went out and wept bitterly, but it was 
 the beginning of nobler and happier things 
 for Peter. Oh, that I might rouse you to 
 that true and real repentance of sin that 
 would cause you, like Peter, to choose for life 
 and death, for time and eternity, to stand for 
 righteousness and for God! that I might 
 awaken you to sing with the poet: 
 
 If life is always a warfare 
 
 Between the right and the wrong, 
 
 And good is fighting with evil 
 For ages and eons long — 
 
 Fighting with eager cohorts, 
 With banners pierced and torn, 
 
 Shining with sudden splendor, 
 Wet with the dew of morn, — 
 
12 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 If all the forces of heaven, 
 And all the forces of sin, 
 
 Are met in the infinite struggle 
 The souls of the world to win, — 
 
 If God 's is the awful battle 
 
 Where the darkling legions ride — 
 
 Hasten to sword and to saddle! 
 Lord, let me fight on Thy sidel 
 
A WORLD OF CHAOS 
 
 "And the earth was without form, and void; and 
 darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the 
 Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." — 
 Gen. 1:2. 
 
 IT is almost impossible to picture the world 
 at this stage in its history. Imagination 
 has little to play upon. It is a world before 
 day. Darkness covers the earth, and there is 
 no luminary to light up its desolation. The 
 mountains with their picturesque forms, and 
 the valleys with their fertile possibilities, had 
 not yet risen into being. The great clock of 
 time, with its dial plate of day and night, 
 marked by sun and moon and stars, had not 
 yet been set up in the hall of the universe. 
 It was a moving world, yet dead. It 
 had life, yet nothing lived. It was 
 a chaotic mass full of infinite possi- 
 bilities, but hopeless save that it was in the 
 hands of the God who created it. If there 
 had been a man at that time with eyes to 
 peer through the darkness on that heaving 
 
 13 
 
14 THE WOULD' S CHILDHOOD 
 
 mass of matter, he could not have dreamed 
 of the world, which was to be developed out 
 of such a begimiing. Only God, all-powerful, 
 all-wise, and infinitely good, could have 
 wrought that divine transformation. 
 
 Now this chaos of the world before dawn 
 is not unlike the conditions of the sinning 
 soul which has lost the control over the will 
 and become the prey of warring passions 
 and evil habits. Many a man conscious of 
 this chaotic condition in his own heart and 
 life has been ready to cry out in the spirit 
 of Paul's agonizing appeal: ^^0 wretched 
 man that I am! Who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death!'' Many a man try- 
 ing to do right, yet powerless in his own 
 strength, weakened as he is by yielding to 
 sin, has been ready to exclaim: **Why this 
 strange persistent failure? Why this tre- 
 mor at the heart! Why is the hand still 
 put out to pluck that which we know to be 
 forbidden? Why do the feet turn again 
 down the paths which lead to death? Again 
 it is the old cause — the thing that T ought to 
 
A WOULD OF CHAOS 15 
 
 do, I do not ; the thing that I would not, that 
 I do. Why can not I do what I want? I, 
 who mean well, yet fail in every determina- 
 tion for righteousness! I am somehow 
 guilty, I am the secret of the whole trouble ; 
 I, in my nerveless will, with my perilous im- 
 agination, with my clouded conscience, with 
 my hasty thoughts, I somehow explain the 
 continued failure. Back to myself I turn in 
 an agony of self-detection. My soul is a 
 chaos of conflicting passions and desires. 
 Oh, miserable man that I am ! Oh, my God, 
 it is I that have sinned against Thee and 
 done this evil in Thy sight.'* 
 
 n 
 
 There is no hope for this chaos of soul 
 unless there comes order out of chaos through 
 the mercy of God. I have been reading re- 
 cently a very interesting letter from a Japa- 
 nese soldier, who says that about ten years 
 ago, while out walking, hearing the sound of 
 singing, he entered a Christian church in 
 which a number of men and women were 
 singing hymns. He remained and listened to 
 a sermon on God, but he would not believe 
 
16 THE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 in a foreign god. He went again and again 
 for several years. The sermons had no effect 
 on him, and the missionary was unable to 
 make him understand anything. So he passed 
 those days as a man with no religion, and 
 for two years preceding the war between 
 Japan and Eussia he even ceased going to 
 church. Early in the war he was ordered to 
 the front. He had then about his body twenty 
 charms, receievd from as many shrines, for 
 his protection. He was ordered to join the 
 Port Arthur besieging army, and partici- 
 pated in many battles. In every battle he 
 saw many of his comrades fall, fully proving 
 the worthlessness of the charms they had car- 
 ried. Uneasiness came into his heart. He 
 began to be aware of the foolishness of wor- 
 shiping idols. Many questions arose in his 
 mind. *^If I die, where will my soul goT' 
 '^Will it have to wander about, finding no- 
 where to settle? Or is there some fixt place 
 to which it is destined to go?'' In this way 
 he passed three months in a distrest con- 
 dition of mind. One day he was sent near to 
 the enemy as a sentry. The sun set and a 
 dark night came on. Silence prevailed all 
 around him, only broken by the occasional 
 
A WOBLD OF CHAOS 17 
 
 reports of guns. Loneliness increased the 
 anxiety of his heart, and he thought of home. 
 Then suddenly, as suddenly as the vision 
 came to Paul on the way to Damascus, at 
 midnight instead of midday, the Holy Spirit 
 brought to this lonely soldier's mind and 
 heart a full interpretation and revelation of 
 all that Christian missionary had preached 
 to him, and he realized that there was a liv- 
 ing and a true God, the Creator of the world, 
 who protects us and is rich in love, and will 
 give us what we need if we ask Him with 
 faith. 
 
 For the first time in his life, the soldier 
 turned his face upward to heaven and prayed 
 to God. The answer was immediate. He at 
 once regained courage, for he could feel that 
 God was protecting him at all times and 
 wherever he might be. And so order came 
 out of chaos in his heart, and perfect peace 
 reigned. Since then he has been growing 
 wonderfully in a knowledge of Christ and in 
 the graces of the Christian life. The soldier 
 closes his most remarkable letter with this 
 striking paragraph : * ^ I do not covet worldly 
 treasures any more, but those given by Him, 
 which shall neither rust nor be lost. Jesus 
 
18 TBE WOULB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 promised us that He would be with us till 
 the end of the world, and so I will not shrink 
 from any duty. I am protected by His hands, 
 and am working for the sake of the Gospel. 
 Jesus is calling to sinners all the time, and it 
 is our duty to make the people know this 
 call. Tho the path is rugged, I shall pass 
 over it with ease when the Lord is with me. 
 I thank God day and night, and have no 
 anxiety nor fear.'' 
 
 Ill 
 
 The hope of the chaotic world, and the 
 hope of the sinning soul, is all in the brood- 
 ing Spirit of God seeking to bring order out 
 of chaos, to bring life out of death, light out 
 of darkness, and beauty out of barrenness 
 and ruin. It was God's Spirit brooding over 
 the formless world that put the sun in the 
 heavens, that filled the world with warmth 
 and light, that made the earth green with 
 herbage, that caused forests to grow upon 
 the hillsides, with birds to sing in them, and 
 planted flowers to exhale their perfume 
 
A WOULD OF CHAOS 19 
 
 in the valleys.^ So God's Spirit broods 
 over the heart of man that has fallen 
 into darkness and chaos through sin. As a 
 mother broods over her child, so the Spirit of 
 God broods over the soul that has sinned, 
 seeking to dispel the darkness and to bring 
 back again life and light and beauty. When 
 the Spirit of God brooded over the world of 
 chaos, no human eye, had there been one to 
 look upon it, could have seen anything beau- 
 tiful or lovable in it. But God saw the pos- 
 sibilities that were there, when once there 
 had been lavished upon it His infinite skill 
 and loving care. So in the poor sinning 
 soul, which seems all ugly and repulsive to 
 the human eye, God sees that which His love 
 and skill can bring forth, and continues to 
 brood over the wrecked and broken man, 
 oftentimes when all others have lost hope. 
 Dr. W. J. Dawson said in one of his recent 
 sermons that there is a buried magnificence 
 in many a man of whom you think ill, and 
 have reason to think ill, just as yonder, out 
 in the vast desert of the East, but a little 
 way down beneath the dust, the blown sand, 
 the drift of centuries, there often lies a city 
 with all its temples, its palaces, its marbles. 
 
20 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and its paintings, perfect and complete. For 
 centuries many men rode to and fro across 
 the desert, and the great caravans passed 
 from East to West, and no one saw anything 
 more than the desert and the drifted sand 
 there. Yet all the time there is the hidden 
 city; and some day there comes one who 
 knows, and he begins to dig, and there comes 
 to light a poem that was hidden, a picture 
 that was covered up. So in many a man 
 there is a hidden poem, there is a hidden 
 picture, there is buried splendor. Indeed, 
 we ought not to say in many a man — it is in 
 every man — and the brooding Spirit of God 
 is seeking to uncover it and bring it forth to 
 life and power. 
 
 IV 
 
 Now, my friends, it is possible for a 
 man or a woman to thwart the Spirit of God. 
 We are not merely soil. Tho God broods over 
 us ever so tenderly, and Christ comes seek- 
 ing admission into our hearts that He may 
 execute the gracious mission of the Holy 
 
A WORLD OF CHAOS 21 
 
 Spirit, He will not break down the door into 
 our souls. When Sir Noel Paton painted his 
 great picture of Christ wearing the crown of 
 thorns, standing outside the door, knocking, 
 he invited a very dear friend to come to his 
 studio and look at the picture before it was 
 put on exhibition. His friend gazed for a 
 few moments on the beautiful figure of the 
 Christ at the rude door, and then exclaimed 
 in amazement, * * Paton, you have made a ter- 
 rible mistake here.'* **What mistake have I 
 mader* said the artist. '*Why, you have 
 painted a door without a handle. ' ' * * That is 
 not a mistake,'' replied Paton. **That door 
 has no handle on the outside. It is inside." 
 I am sure there are some of you here who 
 need to learn that lesson now. You have 
 been waiting, it may be, for some tidal wave 
 of sentiment or emotion, something you could 
 not resist, to sweep you off your feet and 
 into the kingdom of God. Salvation will 
 never come to you in that way. The door- 
 knob is on the inside of your heart. ** Whoso- 
 ever will" may open the door and give wel- 
 come to the Savior. Christ stands there 
 knocking. How strongly Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe has drawn the picture in her poem : 
 
THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Knocking, knocking, ever knocking! 
 Who is there? 
 
 'Tis a pilgrim, strange and kingly, 
 Never such was seen before. 
 Ah, sweet soul, for such a wonder 
 Undo the door. 
 
 No, that door is hard to open, 
 Hinges rusty, latch is broken; 
 Bid Him go! 
 
 Wherefore, with that knocking dreary. 
 Scare the sleep from one so weary, 
 Say Him, ''No/' 
 
 Knocking, knocking, ever knocking! 
 What, still there? 
 
 Oh, sweet soul, but once behold Him, 
 
 With the glory-crowned hair; 
 
 And those eyes so strange and tender. 
 
 Waiting there. 
 Open, open, once behold Him — 
 Him, so fair. 
 
 Ah, that door! Why wilt Thou vex me. 
 Coming ever to perplex me? 
 For the key is stiffly rusty, 
 And the bolt is clogged and dusty. 
 Many-fingered ivy-vine 
 Seals it fast with twist and twine; 
 Weeds of years and years before 
 Choke the passage of that door. 
 
A WORLD OF CHAOS 23 
 
 Knocking, knocking! What, still knocking! 
 He still there? 
 What's the hour? The night is waning, 
 In my heart a drear complaining, 
 And a chilly, sad unrest. 
 Ah! His knocking! It disturbs me, 
 Scares my sleep with dreams unblest! 
 Give me rest. 
 Rest, ah rest! 
 
 Rest, dear soul, He longs to give thee; 
 Thou hast only dreamed of pleasure, 
 Dreamed of gifts and golden treasure 
 Dreamed of jewels in thy keeping. 
 Waked to weariness and weeping. 
 Open to thy soul's one Lover, 
 And thy night of dreams is over; 
 The true gifts He brings have seeming 
 More than all thy faded dreaming ! 
 
 Did she open? Doth she? Will she? 
 
 So, as wondering we behold, 
 Grows the picture to a sign, 
 Prest upon your soul and mine; 
 For in every heart that liveth 
 Is that strange mysterious door; 
 Tho forsaken and betangled, 
 Ivy-gnarled and weed be-tangled, 
 Dusty, rusty, and forgotten, 
 
24 TEE WORLD* S CHILDHOOD 
 
 There the pierced hand still knocketh, 
 And with ever-patient watching, 
 With the sad eyes true and tender, 
 With the glory-crowned hair, 
 Still a God is waiting there. 
 
THE CEEATION OF LIGHT 
 
 *'And the Lord said, let there be light; and there 
 was light. * ' — Genesis 1:3. ^ 
 
 MILTON, in his immortal poem, ** Paradise 
 Lost,*' represents Adam as asking 
 Eaphael to relate to him why and how the 
 world was created. And Raphael goes on to 
 tell him, in the poem, how God, after the ex- 
 pulsion of Satan and his angels from heaven, 
 because of their pride and rebellion, declared 
 his purpose to create another world, peopled 
 with other creatures, and sent His Son with 
 a great retinue of angels to perform the 
 work of creation. When they visited the 
 world of chaos the divine voice exclaimed: 
 
 * * Silence, ye troubled waves ! and thou deep, peace ! 
 
 Your discord end ! ' * 
 Kor stayed ; but on the wings of cherubim 
 Uplifted, in paternal glory rode 
 Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; 
 For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train * 
 Followed in bright procession, to behold 
 Creation, and the wonders of his might. 
 They stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand 
 25 
 
26 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 He took the golden compasses, prepared 
 In God's eternal store, to circumscribe 
 This universe, and all created things; 
 One foot he centered and the other turn 'd 
 Round through the vast profundity obscure, 
 And said, ^^Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds. 
 This be thy just circumference, world!" 
 Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth. 
 
 ' ' Let there be light, ' ' said God , and forthwith light 
 Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure. 
 Sprung from the deep; and from her native east 
 To journey through the airy gloom began. 
 Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun 
 Was not. 
 
 I 
 
 Scientific research in our own day is bring- 
 ing science into far greater harmony with 
 the Bible account of creation than was true 
 in earlier times. It used to be asked in all 
 seriousness by science, **How could light ex- 
 ist before the sun?'' All such perplexity has 
 disappeared. Modern science has discovered 
 that light is not conditioned by perfected 
 luminous bodies, but that light bodies are 
 conditions of a preceding luminous element; 
 
THE CBEATION OF LIGHT 27 
 
 that is, that light could exist before the sun 
 was created. 
 
 A century ago materialism was both fash- 
 ionable and scientific. Men were boasting, 
 ^^Give me the least bit of bioplasm and I 
 will construct a universe. Everything is 
 spontaneously generated from some other 
 thing. Mind and matter come from the 
 same primordial cell.*' In those days men 
 were making tremendous attempts to get 
 something out of nothing. Science was try- 
 ing to get effects without causes. No repu- 
 table scientist talks that way to-day. Prof. 
 John Fiske, one of the greatest of the mod- 
 ern scientists, tells us that **The impetus of 
 modern scientific thought tends with over- 
 whelming force toward the conception of a 
 single First Cause, or Prime Mover, perpet- 
 ually manifested from moment to moment in 
 the changes that make up the universe. '* 
 God is no longer thought of as far off, but 
 immanent, revealing Himself in all the phe- 
 nomena of the universe which He has 
 created. The presence of God encompasses 
 us about and illuminates all our existence. 
 So it is true that David, writing his Psalm 
 on the skin of some wild animal, perhaps, 
 
28 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and it may be in some mountain cave, nearly 
 three thousand years ago, was in perfect 
 agreement with modem science when he 
 said: ^^Thou compassest my path and my 
 lying down and art acquainted with all my 
 ways. . . . Thou hast beset me behind 
 and before. . . . Whither shall I go from 
 thy Spirit ? Or whither shall I flee from thy 
 presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou 
 art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, 
 thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
 morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts 
 of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead 
 me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I 
 say. Surely the darkness shall cover me; 
 even the night shall be light about me. Yea, 
 the darkness hideth not from thee; but the 
 night shineth as the day. The darkness and 
 the light are both alike to thee." 
 
 II 
 
 No other figure is used so frequently in 
 the Bible to present the goodness and glory 
 of God as the light. David describes God 
 as ** clothed with light as a garment.'' And 
 again he exclaims, **The Lord is my light 
 
THE C BE AT ION OF LIGHT 29 
 
 and my salvation." St. John in his first 
 epistle makes the wonderful declaration that 
 *^God is light, and in him is no darkness at 
 all." The same figure is used to represent 
 to us the glorious personality of Jesus. He 
 Himself makes the bold declaration, *^I am 
 the light of the world. He that followeth 
 me shall not walk in darkness." Malachi, 
 looking down through the centuries, saw the 
 Christ rising on the world as '^The Sun of 
 Eighteousness, with healing in His wings." 
 And about the time of the birth of Jesus it 
 was declared that those who lived in the val- 
 ley of darkness had seen a great light. 
 
 Christ declares that those who follow Him 
 and become His disciples also become the 
 *4ight of the world." Paul describes Chris- 
 tians as *Hhe children of the light and of the 
 day." In his letter to the Philippians he 
 declares that Christians ought, in the midst 
 of a crooked and perverse age, to hold forth 
 the word of life as a bright torch. John said 
 that Christians should **walk in the light as 
 children of the light." And our Savior has 
 given the splendid promise that the day shall 
 come when the righteous shall ** shine forth 
 as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." 
 
30 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 III 
 
 As the natural light illumines the world, 
 so the spiritual light seen in God's Word, in 
 the life of Jesus, and shining in our hearts 
 and consciences, convicts us of sin and re- 
 veals to us the way of salvation. During the 
 life of Jesus one of the most frequent mira- 
 cles He wrought was to open the eyes of the 
 blind and give them sight. And His miracles 
 were not confined to the opening of the 
 physical eye, but extended to the eye of 
 the soul as well. Many whom He met were 
 like Zacchasus, with no outlook beyond his 
 money bags, with no soul above the gather- 
 ing of worldly goods. But after ZacchaBUS 
 had met with Jesus, had looked into His 
 eyes and listened to His conversation, a 
 great light shone about him and within 
 him, and he realized that money was not 
 everything. In his shame and penitence 
 he declared that he would give back four- 
 fold where he had gotten money wrong- 
 fully, and half the balance he would give 
 to the poor. 
 
 Peter was proud of himself and had a 
 great deal of self-righteousness, but one 
 
THE CREATION OF LIGHT 31 
 
 day when he was with Jesus the light shone 
 into his heart and so revealed his real self 
 to him that he fell at the feet of the Master 
 and cried aloud, ** Depart from me, for I 
 am a sinful man, Lord." Then there 
 was that poor lost woman who had been 
 going her way of sin, indifferent and hard- 
 ened, until she met Jesus. But when she 
 looked into His face, and the light of His 
 eyes showed her the sin of her own heart, 
 she melted under that gaze, and you remem- 
 ber how she came to the rich man^s house, 
 when He was at dinner, with her ala- 
 baster box of costly perfume, and poured it 
 upon His head, and how in her sense of 
 gratitude and unworthiness she washed His 
 feet with her tears, and wiped them with the 
 hairs of her head, and heard the words of 
 Jesus, which were like sunshine after rain 
 to her soul, telling her that all her sins 
 were forgiven. 
 
 She sat and wept beside His feet, the weight 
 Of sin opprest her heart, for all the blame 
 And the poor malice of the worldly shame 
 To her was past, extinct, and out of date, 
 Only the sin remained, the leprous state; 
 
32 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 She would be melted by the heart of love, 
 By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove 
 And purge the silver ore adulterate. 
 
 She sat and wept, and with her untressed hair 
 She wiped the feet she was so blest to touch, 
 
 And He wiped off the soiling of despair 
 
 From ber sweet soul because she loved so much. 
 
 I am a sinner full of doubts and fears. 
 
 Make me a humble thinj? of love and tears. 
 
 IV 
 
 As the natural light illumines the outer 
 world of sight and sound, so the spiritual 
 light illumines our relation to our fellow 
 men. Jesus Christ has shown us in the 
 light of His words and life that there is 
 as much hope for one class of men as for 
 another, and that there are the possibilities 
 for the worst and the possibilities for the 
 best in every human being. As we come 
 to know Jesus and live in the light of His 
 countenance we know that we are not 
 '* Egyptian snakes in a basket," as Thomas 
 Carlyle said, each trying to get his head 
 above another, but that we are brothers. 
 When the people said of Jesus, ''This man 
 
THE CBEATION OF LIGHT 33 
 
 receiveth sinners, and eateth with them,'' 
 tho they did not understand it, they had 
 discovered the key-note of His life and 
 gospel. The most degraded and neglected 
 man was, and is now, dear to Jesus. 
 
 A fellow minister tells us how he was walk- 
 ing down the street one day when he saw 
 a woman, good and pure, refined and cul- 
 tured, walking with a man whose face was 
 red with drink, whose form and look and 
 manners bore the marks of deepest dissi- 
 pation. He stept to her side and said, 
 *^ Madam, why are you with this manT' 
 She little heeded him at first as she sup- 
 ported her disreputable companion's un- 
 steady steps. ** Madam," the minister said, 
 *^why do you not hand him over to the 
 police!" She drew herself up and with 
 a righteously indignant anger mingled with 
 pathos, said: *^SirI I am his mother. 
 I am his mother." So Jesus Christ says 
 of each lost man, **I am his brother!" 
 And of every poor sinning woman, **I am 
 her brother!" We must learn this lesson 
 from Jesus. The light of heaven which 
 has shined in our hearts is not for our- 
 selves alone, but for our brothers and sisters 
 
U THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 about us. Shakespeare, in '* Measure for 
 Measure,'' says: 
 
 Heaven doth with us as we with torches do. 
 
 Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues 
 
 Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
 
 As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched 
 
 But to fine issues. 
 
 The Apostle Paul was of the same mind 
 when he said, '^I am debtor both to the 
 Greeks and the barbarians.'' He felt that, 
 having received the grace of God in the 
 forgiveness of his sins, he owed the Gospel 
 to every other man in the world who did not 
 have it. I would that God would put the 
 same feeling heavily upon every one of 
 our hearts. The sinners in this wicked city 
 would soon be won to Christ if all Christians 
 felt as they ought their obligation to share 
 with others their faith in Jesus. The more 
 we have received, the richer our own ex- 
 perience of the love of God, the more in- 
 tense should be our sense of obligation to 
 carry its helpfulness to those who need it 
 most. Jesus said that even 'Hhe Son of 
 Man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister," and Whittier, his heart 
 
THE CBEATION OF LTCrHT . 35 
 
 warmed with the same thought, beautifully 
 says : 
 
 Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, 
 
 What may Thy service be? 
 Not name, nor form, nor ritual word, 
 
 But only following Thee. 
 We bring no ghastly holocaust, 
 
 We pile no graven stone, 
 He serves the best who loves the most, 
 
 His brothers and Thy own. 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 
 
 "God saw the light, that it was good/^ — Gen. 1: 4. 
 
 THIS is a declaration that in the sight 
 of God light is good in itself. There 
 was as yet nothing beautiful for it to shine 
 upon. The mountains had not yet lifted 
 themselves from above the waste of waters. 
 There were no forests, no valleys, no wide- 
 reaching plains, no birds, no beauty of 
 any kind except the beauty which is inherent 
 in light itself. But God declares that the 
 light is good, whatever it may shine upon. 
 Light is God's chariot, which conveys heat 
 and purifies and cleanses all upon which it 
 shines. All that was to be good and beauti- 
 ful in the world was to be helped into being 
 by the light. And so it is that all goodness 
 in the hearts and lives of men has this inti- 
 mate and dependent relation upon light. 
 
 36 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 37 
 
 Goodness loves the light, having nothing to 
 fear; while evil seeks the darkness, wishing 
 to hide. Christ brings this out very clearly 
 in His talk with Nicodemus, when He says: 
 **And this is the condemnation, that light 
 is come into the world, and men loved dark- 
 ness rather than light, because their deeds 
 were evil. For every one that doeth evil 
 hateth the light, neither cometh to the 
 light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 
 But he that doeth truth cometh to the 
 light, that his deeds may be made manifest, 
 that they are wrought in God.'' The man 
 that is doing right is full of courage. He 
 has nothing to fear. God is his Heavenly 
 Father, and with a feeling of childlike bold- 
 ness, conscious of that fatherly love, he finds 
 his refuge in God who is light and in whom 
 there is no darkness at all. The man who 
 has no secrets from God, who is conscious 
 of his sincerity and genuineness, feels sure 
 of his reception in God's presence. The 
 poet has given us a beautful description of 
 
38 TEE WOMLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the human father, feeling the joy of his 
 child in his arms: 
 
 Beat upon mine, little heart, 
 
 Beat, beat, beat. 
 Beat, upon mine, you are all my own 
 From 3'our dear deep eyes to your feet. 
 You are mine, all mine, my sweet, 
 
 My own little sweet. 
 Sleep in my arms, my child, my bliss, 
 And I give you this, and I give you this. 
 And I close your eyes with a kiss upon kiss. 
 
 My son, my own. 
 Father, indeed, will watch you grow, 
 And gather you roses wherever you go, 
 And find you white heather wherever it blow, 
 
 My own, my son. 
 So, beat, beat upon mine, little heart. 
 Beat, beat, beat, upon mine. 
 You are all my own, from your deep blue eyes to 
 
 your feet, 
 You are mine, all mine, my sweet, 
 
 My own little sweet. 
 
 So the man or the woman who feels that 
 the heart is true and sincere in God's sight, 
 delights to rest on the bosom of God, assured 
 that he or she is armored and sheltered in 
 the light of God. 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 
 
 II 
 
 If we live in the light, we shall reflect 
 the light of heaven in our lives. You may- 
 have witnessed some of the wonders of that 
 rare and marvelous metal known as radium. 
 A little particle, hardly bigger than a pin^s 
 head, if placed behind a screen of florescent 
 metal, may be seen to be sending out a 
 stream of sparks. These sparks give light 
 and heat, yet the marvel is that the radium 
 itself loses no whit of its energy. It is like 
 the miracle of the burning bush. It emits 
 light and heat at no apparent cost to itself. 
 It is imconsumed, tho it is forever pouring 
 out chemical and electrical energies. When 
 placed in the coldness of an atmosphere of 
 liquid air, even when placed in the intense 
 frigidity of liquid hydrogen, it still pours 
 out more light and heat. Now the spiritual 
 light which pours forth from a genuinely 
 good man or a pure and holy woman is like 
 that. If we have Christ in us, the hope of 
 glory; if God dwells in our hearts by faith, 
 then it makes no difference what adversities 
 and trials may chill the circumstances in 
 
40 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 which we live, we shall pour forth this 
 spiritual light and warmth. 
 
 The scientist will take a common bit of 
 glass and put it near to a bit of radium, and 
 after being there a little while it will re- 
 ceive from the radium what the scientist 
 calls '^emanation,** and for a while after- 
 ward this glass will give out the same sort 
 of light, heat, and energy that radium does. 
 Of course, it does not last. It passes off, 
 but not for some time. It never comes 
 back unless the glass is placed again where 
 the radium can influence it. The scientist 
 can keep the glass radio-active if he puts 
 it near the radium every now and then. 
 Otherwise it backslides into just a common 
 bit of glass, with no powers of radiance at 
 all. How suggestive this is in the spiritual 
 world. There are many radio-active Chris- 
 tians whose radio-activity wears off very 
 quickly in the midst of the worldliness sur- 
 rounding them, and sometimes it is never 
 renewed. We are the ^ Might of the world" 
 only as we keep near to Christ and receive 
 the divine light, the holy emanation. It is 
 a terrible thing for us to go with darkened 
 lives in a world which needs light so much, 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 41 
 
 when we may shine with the very light of 
 God by living in close touch with Him 
 
 III 
 
 Our theme should teach us that the 
 greatest danger that can come to any man 
 or woman is to have in the heart and life 
 secret sins. The Word says, ** Whoso 
 covereth his sins shall not prosper/* and 
 the whole history of mankind shows us that 
 there is nothing so sure to work disaster 
 as a hidden sin. 
 
 A hunter not long ago saw an eagle 
 rise from the brow of a hill, winging its 
 way with bold, strong flight, circle on 
 circle, into the depths of the sky. He 
 watched it until it had become but a mere 
 speck in the far-off upper air, when sud- 
 denly, to his great amazement, the great 
 bird grew larger and dropt down, down, 
 down, until it crashed on the rocks at his 
 side. He ran to it, and on examining the 
 bruised and battered body, he found that 
 under the wing of the eagle a little poisonous 
 
42 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 viper had fastened itself. Eesting at noon- 
 day, this small but terrible enemy had 
 taken refuge under its wing, and had hissed 
 death through its veins. It was only a 
 little viper, but it put an end to that bold 
 flight and was the cause of that terrible 
 fall. Friends, beware of little sins! Be- 
 ware of secret sins that fasten to your life! 
 You may think you can trifle and dally with 
 them, but in their bite there is poison 
 and in their fang there is death. We need 
 to pray with the psalmist, ^^ Cleanse thou 
 me from secret faults ; keep back thy servant 
 also from presumptuous sins; let them not 
 have dominion over me.'' 
 
 But perhaps some one says, out of a 
 troubled heart, ^^Such advice would have 
 been good once, but I have already been 
 bitten by the viper. Sin has already poisoned 
 my blood. The clutches of an evil habit 
 are already upon me. How shall I escape 
 from sin and be able to stand again in 
 the presence of God in innocence and 
 courage r' I would to God that every one 
 who is conscious of sin would awaken to 
 ask that question in all genuineness and 
 sincerity. For unless there be such an 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 43 
 
 awakening there is a terrible reckoning 
 coming. Let me presmne, as God's mes- 
 senger, to speak plainly to your inner soul 
 concerning that secret sin which is gnawing 
 at your vitals. You would not have your 
 acquaintances know about it for the world. 
 **If God's right hand were to fling wide 
 the door that guards that., secret chamber, 
 you would be despised by those who speak 
 your name with honor and regard. Oh! 
 the destruction wrought by secret sins, which 
 no physician sees, nor surgeon probes, nor 
 medicine cures ; they eat on and on until we 
 die, and then we find that, tho we may 
 have hidden them from men, God saw them. ' ' 
 Are you carrying the burden of a secret 
 sin? Does fear sit on your pillow when you 
 lie down at night, and whisper of detection 
 in your sleeping ear, so that you dream in 
 agony, and wake with shuddering cries upon 
 your lips? My friend, God sees it all, and 
 that sin so carefully hidden must face the 
 judgment day and the light of the great 
 white throne. But, thank God, there is one 
 way you can deal with it, and that is yourself 
 to bring your sin to judgment at Jesus' 
 feet, and have it cleansed from your soul. 
 
44 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Only the atoning blood of Jesus Christ can 
 cleanse the heart of its hidden sins. 
 
 At the Parliament of Eeligions, at the 
 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, some 
 years ago, where were gathered the repre- 
 sentatives of every religion on the earth. Dr. 
 Joseph Cook, speaking of the certainties 
 of religion, said, '^Lady Macbeth hath blood- 
 stains on her hands,'' and he asked the 
 representatives of each religion what they 
 could do to remove those stains. He waited 
 for an answer, but all were silent. After 
 waiting until the hush was like the house 
 of death he solemnly exclaimed, ** Nothing 
 but the blood of Jesus!'' Solemn as the 
 occasion was, the audience broke out in 
 applause, agreeing that there is nothing that 
 can remove the stain of a guilty conscience 
 except the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ 
 conquered on that open platform. Mozoom- 
 dar, the leader of the new dispensation in 
 India, bowed his head and said over and 
 over again, **The gentle Jesus." Every 
 religious teacher there bowed before Him, and 
 the choir of a thousand trained voices sang 
 the Hallelujah Chorus, and the eyes of the 
 great audience of reverent men and women 
 
GOODNESS AND LIGHT 45 
 
 were turned toward heaven, as tho they 
 could see the hallelujahs going up to His 
 throne, and watched to see them caught up 
 by the angels on high. All glory to Christ, 
 who has the power to cleanse the sin from 
 the darkened soul of man and fill it with 
 the glorious light of goodness! 
 
 IV 
 
 It is here that we find the hope of the 
 world. We look about us and are often 
 tempted to discouragement. There is so 
 much darkness, so much misery and sin in 
 the world. And then we come back to God's 
 Book and we find hope. Our hope is in the 
 blest promise of God that the true light is 
 to shine on until the whole world is il- 
 luminated. The noblest privilege any man 
 or woman can have is to share in the battle 
 going on among men for a bright and pure 
 world. When I ask you to become a 
 Christian I am calling upon you to become 
 a soldier in that glorious struggle. We 
 are not discouraged by the outlook of to- 
 day or to-morrow, but in the strength and 
 
46 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 light of God we see the day of triumph 
 coming. 
 
 The fog that is on the world to-day, 
 It will be on the world to-morrow; 
 
 Not all the strength of the sun can drive 
 His bright spear's furrow. 
 
 Yesterday and to-day 
 
 Have been heavy with care and sorrow, 
 I should faint if I did not see 
 
 The day that is after to-morrow. 
 
 Hope in to-day there is none, 
 
 Nor from yesterday can I borrow. 
 
 But I think that I feel the wind 
 
 Of the dawn that is after to-morrow. 
 
 The cause of the people I serve to-day 
 
 In impatience and sorrow, 
 Once again is defeated, but yet 'twill be won 
 
 In the day that is after to-morrow. 
 
 And for me with spirit elate, 
 
 The fire and the fog I press through. 
 
 For heaven shines under the cloud 
 Of the day that is after to-morrow. 
 
DAEKNESS AND LIGHT 
 
 '*And God divided the light from the darkness." — 
 Gen. 1 :-4. 
 
 AND that is what God is trying to do 
 all the while in this world. He is 
 seeking to bring the whole world into the 
 light, and crowd back ignorance and sin 
 and sorrow into *Hhe outer darkness.'' That 
 is the mission of Christianity upon the 
 earth, and nothing that has ever existed on 
 the earth has been such a tremendous suc- 
 cess. We have always lived with so much 
 of the light of Christ about us that many 
 are misled and fail to appreciate how dark 
 the world would be without Christ. Dr. 
 Young J. Allen, a missionary to China for 
 the last forty years, in a recent address at 
 Birmingham, Alabama, said that he had 
 never understood the Gospel until he went 
 to China, and he proceeded to say that in 
 seeking for some way whereby he might il- 
 lustrate and measure the Gospel to our 
 
 47 
 
48 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 American comprehension he selected this 
 illustration: He had often passed in sight 
 of Pike's Peak. Pike's Peak is something 
 more than fourteen thousand feet high, but 
 it is not fourteen thousand feet high as we 
 see it. It appears to be about six thousand 
 or seven thousand feet high. Why? Be- 
 cause it is on a great plateau or tableland 
 which is itself from six to eight thousand 
 feet high. Well, how are you going to 
 measure, how are you going to see this 
 Pike's Peak fourteen thousand feet high? 
 You can not do it. It makes no such im- 
 pression on you. You go by and say, ' ' That 
 is Pike's Peak, and they say it is fourteen 
 thousand feet high; and the imagination 
 looks up, but the mind does not and will not 
 go up fourteen thousand feet. You can not 
 reach up there. It is not there. What is 
 the matter? It is because of this great 
 plateau that swallows it up. Now, Dr. Allen 
 says if we go from Pike's Peak to San 
 Francisco, and on to Japan, we see another 
 mountain, one of the most impressive in the 
 world, called Fujiyama. There it stands. 
 There is no plateau. It begins down at sea- 
 level, the waves of the sea lap its very 
 
DARKNESS AND LIGHT 49 
 
 foundation; but it towers and towers and 
 towers until its top literally kisses the sky, 
 and is seen one hundred and fifty miles at 
 sea. Sea-captains say that sometimes they 
 see it gilded by the sun, and then it seems 
 like a giant chrysanthemum, away up there 
 in the sky. There it stands, grand and 
 glorious in its form and coloring. The 
 Japanese worship it; and travelers where- 
 ever they go can not take their eyes from it, 
 and are always searching for it if they lose 
 it. Now there is a mountain that repre- 
 sents the thing from the bottom to the top, 
 and you see it all. The missionary took 
 these two mountains to represent Chris- 
 tianity — the one as we see it over here, the 
 other as they see it over there in the midst 
 of the darkness of heathenism. We who 
 were born in a Christian country have 
 always lived on this high table-land. We 
 have always lived on this high general 
 level of Christian civilization, and we have 
 no conception of how high it is. We have 
 no idea of the pit out of which our race has 
 been dug. If we would know, we must go 
 back into history. If you want to see Pike's 
 Peak, you must dig it out, and dig out its 
 
50 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 roots and find the sea-level, and then stand 
 and look at it; it would be a glorious object, 
 and it would stand for all that is claimed 
 for it. If you want to get at Christianity 
 and know its towering height, on whose base 
 and on whose bosom you rest, you must go 
 back into history and dig it out. 
 
 When you take that backward trail, hunt- 
 ing the backward track of your own race, our 
 own ancestors, you will go back and back and 
 back until you come to a slave-market in 
 Rome. And one day St. Augustine came 
 around to look at the slaves in the market, 
 and he had enough of the light of Christ in 
 his heart to cause him to see in these north- 
 ern slaves, these painted savages, men and 
 women for whom Christ died, and he longed 
 to have a part in their salvation. As he 
 looked upon them he declared that he could 
 see ^^the angel in them,'' and so the 
 Christians in Rome sent missionaries up 
 into that Saxon land, and our ancestors 
 were converted to Christ. It is out of a 
 darkness like that that we were lifted up 
 into the light and glory of our modern 
 civilization. 
 
DABKNESS AND LIGHT 51 
 
 II 
 
 Now, what God is seeking to do for the 
 world, He is seeking to do for every man 
 and woman among us as individuals. No 
 man need walk a dark path in this world. 
 Jesus says: **I am the light of the world; 
 he that followeth me shall not walk in dark- 
 ness, but shall have the light of life.'' 
 
 In his poem, *^ Merlin and the Gleam,'' 
 Tennyson is supposed to have written out of 
 his heart a comment on his own life. It 
 recalls his youth, his manhood, his early 
 poems, the great work which employed his 
 thoughts in maturer years, and then turns 
 toward the future and finds that the ideal 
 which has lighted him from the start is 
 still lighting him to the finish. From youth 
 to old age he has followed the Gleam, and 
 he is now following it home to heaven. 
 
 There is in the poem something more than 
 an autobiography of Tennyson. There is 
 in it light upon all life and upon every 
 struggle for the highest and best things. 
 There are young men who hear me, and 
 young women, too, whose hearts have been 
 
52 THE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 stirred with noble longings and holy dreams 
 to hold themselves to the highest living and 
 the truest ambitions, who might well sing 
 with the poet: 
 
 Mighty the Wizard 
 Who found me at sunrise 
 Sleeping, and woke me 
 And learned me Magic ! 
 Great the Master, 
 And sweet the Magic, 
 When over the valley. 
 In early summers, 
 Over the mountain, 
 On human faces, 
 And all around me. 
 Moving to melody, 
 Floated the Gleam. 
 
 So you remember when your Master, the 
 divine Christ, awoke in you a longing for 
 holy living, for beautiful thoughts and 
 achievements, for generous self-sacrifice and 
 fellowship, and with a new joy and a thrill 
 of holy ambition unknown before you fol- 
 lowed the gleam of this blest Light out to 
 the struggle of life. 
 
 But there came days of shadow and of 
 trial, and out of your own experience you 
 
DABKNESS AND LIOET 53 
 
 might still join with the poet when he 
 sings: 
 
 Once at the croak of a Raven who crost it, 
 A barbarous people, 
 Blind to the magic 
 And deaf to the melody. 
 Snarl 'd at and curst me, 
 A demon vext me, 
 The light retreated, 
 The landskip darken 'd. 
 The melody deaden 'd 
 The Master whispered, 
 '^Follow the Gleam.'' 
 
 And if yon harkened to that whisper of 
 the Master, you followed the gleam of the 
 heavenly light through temptations and 
 trials, and are all the stronger for them to- 
 day. But if you closed your ears to the 
 whisper of the Master, and lost sight of 
 the divine Gleam, then your heart is heavy 
 and sad. If you are in such a place now, 
 I beg you harken to the whisper of the 
 Christ, and no matter how many demons 
 snarl or tempt, follow the Gleam, and you 
 shall walk safely. One of the worst lies the 
 devil ever tells us when we are in the 
 midst of some dark place of temptation, is 
 
64 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 that the Christian life is all like that, that 
 it is always gloomy and heavy* and sad. 
 Nothing can be more false. In spite of 
 the struggles against evil and sin, in or- 
 der to maintain the Christian character, 
 the Christian life is the sweetest and hap- 
 piest life in the world. See how the poet 
 portrays it in his own experience: 
 
 Then to the melody, 
 
 Over a wilderness 
 
 Gliding, and glancing at 
 
 Elf of the woodland, 
 
 Gnome of the cavern. 
 
 Griffin and Giant, 
 
 And dancing of Fairies 
 
 In desolate hollows, 
 
 And wraiths of the mountain. 
 
 And rolling of dragons 
 
 By warble of water, 
 
 Or cataract music. 
 
 Of falling torrents, 
 
 Flitted the Gleam. 
 
 « 
 
 Down from the mountain 
 
 And over the level, 
 
 And streaming and shining on 
 
 Silent river. 
 
 Silvery willow, 
 
 Pasture and plowland, 
 
DARKNESS AND LIGHT 55 
 
 Innocent maidens, 
 Garrulous children, 
 Homestead and harvest, 
 Reaper and gleaner. 
 And rough-ruddy faces 
 Of lowly labor, 
 Slided the Gleam. 
 
 And so it may be with you. For every 
 experience with awakening ravens and 
 demons of temptation and trial, there shall 
 be multiplied experiences when the path 
 shall be by the shining river, through the 
 fragrant orchards and gardens, and in 
 joyous fellowship with the good and true. 
 
 And he who follows the heavenly light 
 finds that even the dark valley and the 
 shadow of death are illuminated and glorified 
 by it. How splendidly Tennyson says; 
 
 And broader and brighter 
 The Gleam flying onward. 
 Wed to the melody. 
 Sang thro^ the world; 
 And slower and fainter, 
 Old and weary, 
 But eager to follow, 
 I saw, whenever 
 In passing it glanced upon 
 
56 TEE WORLD'S CUILVHOOD 
 
 Hamlet or city, 
 That under the Crosses 
 The dead man's garden, 
 The mortal hillock, 
 Would break into blossom; 
 
 And so to the land's 
 
 Last limit I came. 
 
 I can no longer, 
 
 But die rejoicing, 
 
 For thro ' the Magic 
 
 Of Him the Mighty, 
 
 Who taught me in childhood, 
 
 There on the border 
 
 Of boundless Ocean, 
 
 And all but in Heaven 
 
 Hovers the Gleam. 
 
 I went one day to see a white-haired old 
 man who had followed the Gleam for many 
 years, and was only waiting for his transfer 
 to the world beyond, and I found in him the 
 same precious hope and faith. There was 
 no shadow on his brow; there was no fear 
 in his heart. He felt that he was walking in. 
 the valley of death, but the heavenly Gleam 
 lighted it up, and he did not walk in dark- 
 ness. 
 
 But I must not fail in my message to you 
 
DARKNESS AND LIGHT 57 
 
 who have not get given yourself over to 
 the divine Guide. Christ, who is **the 
 Light of the world,'' will be, if you will 
 open your heart and life to Him, the 
 inspiration, the comfort, and the guide to 
 your personal life. No earthly wisdom is 
 sufficient to guide the immortal soul. Only 
 the heavenly light, only the heart of our 
 divine Lord, is tender enough and wise 
 enough to give us the inspiration and the 
 direction that each of us needs. Listen 
 again to the poet as he concludes his song 
 with this inspiring word of exhortation. If 
 it had been written personally for your ear 
 and your eye, it could not have been more 
 truly fitted to the needs of your soul : 
 
 Not of the sunlight, 
 Not of the moonlight, 
 Not of the starlight ! 
 O young Mariner, 
 Down to the haven. 
 Call your companions, 
 Launch your vessel 
 And crowd your canvas, 
 And, ere it vanishes 
 Over the margin, 
 After it, follow it. 
 Follow the Gleam. 
 
68 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 The Christ gleam falls across your path 
 now, and there is light enough if you will fol- 
 low it to lead you to forgiveness and peace. 
 Nothing else can save you from the darkness 
 which comes to all who have sinned. Not 
 long ago, in New York, a man died the 
 death of a suicide, who had in his possession 
 up to the time of his death many millions 
 of dollars. He made his money in a shame- 
 ful way, and he could not bear the public 
 censure. He had traded his soul for his 
 wealth, and after he got it had no peace 
 with it, because in getting it he had lost 
 his soul. If that man could have ex- 
 changed all his millions for a light, cheerful 
 heart, that looked into the future with 
 gladness, what a wonderful bargain it would 
 have been. But he had sinned against his 
 own soul. He had turned his face away 
 from the light and there could only be one 
 ending, and that was the impenetrable gloom 
 of the ^^ outer darkness.'^ God save any 
 one of you from such a tragedy ! I give you 
 the blest invitation of Christ to come to 
 the light, and in the sweet light that shines 
 upon the mercy seat find the forgiveness of 
 your sins and the hope of eternal life. 
 
MAN'S GLORIOUS DAY 
 
 "And God called the light day."— Gen. 1:5. 
 
 THERE is nothing more glorious in the 
 universe than the day. No other 
 miracle is so marvelous as this. God uses 
 it as a challenge against unbelief in spiritual 
 things. Through the mouth of Jeremiah 
 He says, **Thus saith the Lord: If ye can 
 break my covenant of the day . . . . 
 Then may also my covenant be broken with 
 David my servant.'' Did you ever stop 
 to think what a miracle it is to make the 
 day, and cause its return at the appropriate 
 time through the centuries ! George Lansing 
 Taylor once made a study of the mechanical 
 enginery that would be necessary to make 
 the day, and he discovered that to run this 
 massive sphere, eight thousand miles in 
 diameter, by the ratio of size of shaft to 
 size of paddle-wheel on a large steamboat, 
 the earth must be slung on a steel shaft two 
 hundred and fifty miles in diameter and ten 
 thousand miles long. It must be driven by 
 an engine whose cylinder should measure 
 twelve hundred miles bore and two thousand 
 
 59 
 
60 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 miles stroke, having a piston-rod one hun- 
 dred miles thick, and two thousand five 
 hundred miles long, working by a con- 
 necting-rod three thousand miles long on 
 a crank of one thousand miles arm, with 
 a wrist two hundred miles long and fifty- 
 miles thick. The piston of this engine will 
 make but one revolution daily; but to do 
 that it will travel four thousand miles, at 
 an average velocity of nearly three miles a 
 minute. The working capacity of this engine 
 will be about fourteen thousand million horse- 
 power. It must be controlled by an auto- 
 matic governor of infallible accuracy, and 
 supplied with inexhaustible fuel and oil; 
 and so run on day and night, never starting a 
 bolt, nor heating a journal, nor wearing out 
 a box, century after century. The iron 
 bed-frame for this machine must be ten 
 thousand miles square and four thousand 
 miles high, and not tremble a hair under 
 the stroke that drives the equatorial rim 
 of this flying-wheel globe up to a steady 
 velocity of seventeen and one-half miles a 
 minute, twenty times the velocity of a 
 flying express-train! Who will take the 
 contract to build and run this engine? 
 
MAN'S GLORIOUS DAY 61 
 
 Who'll furnish a place where it may stand? 
 Who'll build the masonry underpinning for 
 that vast bed-frame? But it can have no 
 underpinning. The vast mass must fly 
 through space in the earth's orbit around the 
 sun, with a velocity of more than eleven 
 hundred miles a minute. The Armstrong 
 one-hundred-ton steel rifle sends its two- 
 thousand-pound steel projectile at the rate 
 of sixteen hundred feet per second clean 
 through a solid wrought-iron plate twenty- 
 two inches thick. But God fires this globe, 
 eight thousand miles in diameter, through 
 space with sixty and one-half times the 
 velocity of the monster projectile, and two 
 thousand times the velocity of an express- 
 train. And our engine that gives it its day- 
 and-night rotation must fly with it at that 
 speed, and never lose a stroke! 
 
 Now, it was our God who built this flying- 
 machine, and set it at work revolving out our 
 day and night, and flashing the rosy miracle 
 of sunrise and sunset around the world! 
 And it was that same God who also framed 
 the plan of our redemption through Jesus 
 Christ, and set up His kingdom on the 
 earth; and He says to the caviler to-day: 
 
62 TEE WOULD 'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 ^^When you can stop the one, you can stop 
 the other! Just try your hand on my day- 
 and-night engine first, and then see about 
 Christianity. ' ' 
 
 Our life in this world has been very 
 commonly compared to the natural day. 
 There is an old common-law proverb which 
 says that, ^^ Every man has his day in 
 court.'' So each of us is granted his day 
 of human life, and where our lives run the 
 normal, natural course the figure of the 
 day is very striking. Our birth is like the 
 sunrise. Childhood is our morning, and in 
 youth the sun climbs high in the heavens. 
 High-noon is middle age. As we grow 
 older the sun descends toward the West, 
 and death is the sunset of man's brief but 
 splendid day. This illustration ought to be 
 full of teaching for every one of us. 
 
 The thought of life as a day should be to 
 us an inspiration to activity. It is swiftly 
 passing. On John Euskin's desk he kept 
 a paper-weight made of a beautiful block 
 of chalcedony. Carved upon it was the word 
 
MAN'S GLOEIOUS DAY 63 
 
 '^ To-day.'^ In Euskin^s thought every day 
 was a king and should be obeyed to the ut- 
 most limit while it lasted. So Christ's com- 
 mand comes to us, ^^Son, go work to-day in 
 my vineyard.'' There is nothing said about 
 to-morrow. To-day is the all-important hour 
 of duty for every one of us. The question 
 that should come to us every evening is not 
 what we are dreaming about doing in some 
 future time, but what have we accomplished 
 to-day. There are many people who excuse 
 themselves for present failures because of 
 vague and hazy dreams of what they ex- 
 pect to do in some indefinite future. Nothing 
 is more insidious than such a habit as that. 
 Some of you are picturing to yourselves how 
 when you are old you are going to be a noble, 
 benevolent, gentle-hearted Christian man, or 
 you are going to be a sweet-spirited, pure- 
 souled Christian woman. You think of the 
 noblest man or woman you know, one that 
 fascinates you and charms you by the 
 chastened beauty and Christlikeness of 
 personality, and you dream that you are 
 going to be like that. But to-day you are 
 not a Christian. To-day you are living 
 without God, and with but little care of 
 
64 THE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 your spirit or for the culture of your soul. 
 Do not be deceived. If' the future is to be 
 beautiful and splendid, to-day must be pre- 
 paring for it. Some one sings of just such 
 a danger as yours : 
 
 We shall do much in the years to come, 
 
 But what have we done to-day? 
 We shall give our gold in a princely sum, 
 
 But what did we give to-day? 
 We shall lift the heart and dry the tear, 
 We shall plant a hope in the place of fear, 
 We shall speak the words of love and cheer, 
 But what did we speak to-day? 
 
 We shall be so kind in the after while, 
 
 But what have we been to-day? 
 We shall bring to each lonely life a smile, 
 
 But what have we brought to-day? 
 We shall give to truth a grander birth, 
 And to steadfast faith a deeper worth, 
 We shall feed the hungering souls of earth ; 
 But wjiom have we fed to-day? 
 
 We shall reap such joys in the by and by, 
 But what have we sown to-day? 
 
 We shall build us mansions in the sky, 
 But what have we built to-day? 
 
 'Tis sweet in idle dreams to bask, 
 
 But here and now, do we our task? 
 
 Yes, this is the thing our souls must ask. 
 What have we done to-day? 
 
MAN'S GLORIOUS DAY 65 
 
 II 
 
 The thought of life as a day ought to be 
 a constant warning against carelessness of 
 life. We can not go back over the course. 
 You never can go back from eleven o^clock 
 in the morning to nine o'clock and accept 
 any privilege or perform any duty that be- 
 longs exclusively to that earlier hour. We 
 never can go back and come again over the 
 course of childhood or youth or middle age 
 after once we have passed it. The doors are 
 forever swinging shut behind us as we pro- 
 ceed. If we could keep in our hearts and 
 minds a clear perception of this great fact, 
 it would often give us pause. The careless 
 word that wounded the heart of a friend ; the 
 unkind criticism that made the burden 
 heavier to some weary shoulder; the blunt 
 speech that was like a blow in the face to 
 a man or a woman already discouraged; the 
 harsh refusal that disheartened the budding 
 hope of a child, how differently we would 
 have spoken if we could have remembered 
 clearly that we never could take it back, 
 never could go back and change it, but 
 
66 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 must always let it stand there, impossible 
 to redeem. Friend, you can only go this 
 way but once. Let us be careful what we do. 
 How well I remember a man, whom many 
 other people envied, saying to me one day, 
 with the scalding tears running down his 
 cheeks: ^'I would give half the years that 
 are still left to me, even tho it were God's 
 will I should live to be a hundred, if I 
 could go back and change just one year of 
 my life and make the record different !'' 
 But he could not go back. The day of life 
 went steadily on toward the sunset. 
 
 I ''There is a nest of thrushes in the glen; 
 V, When we come back we '11 see the glad young things, ' ' 
 He said. We came not by that way again; 
 And time and thrushes fare on eager wings ! 
 
 ''Yon rose,^^ she smiled. "But no; when we return, 
 I '11 pluck it then. ' ' 'Twas on a summer day. 
 
 The ashes of the rose in autumn's urn 
 Lie hidden well. We came not back that way. 
 
 We do not pass the selfsame way again, 
 Or, passing by that way, no thing we find 
 
 As it before had been; but dearth or stain 
 Hath come upon it, or the wasteful wind. 
 
MAN'S GLORIOUS DAT 87 
 
 The very earth is envious, and her arms 
 Reach for the beauty that detained our eyes; 
 
 Yea, it is lost beyond the aid of charms 
 If, once within our grasp, we leave the prize. 
 
 Thou traveler to the unknown ocean^s brink. 
 Through life's fair fields, say not, ^* Another day 
 
 This joy I'll prove"; for never, as I think. 
 Never shall we come this selfsame way. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Our theme should teach us that there is 
 no room for despair in the sorrows and 
 trials of life provided we trust God, and are 
 seeking to do His will, since the day is 
 constantly passing and with it all the hard 
 experiences which trouble us and try us. 
 Some of you are carrying heavy loads. 
 Your hearts are tender with grief. You 
 can not see the way out, but the clouds will 
 pass with the fleeting hour. They are not 
 for always. Some of you are having a con- 
 stant struggle in your wilderness of tempta- 
 tion, trying to be good. Do not lose heart. 
 Trust God! It is not forever. It is all 
 in the day's work. It will pass, and as the 
 
68 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 angels came and comforted Jesus after His 
 temptation, so they will comfort you. I re- 
 member an old story told in song which 
 interested me in my boyhood, crystallizing 
 around the sentence **Even this shall pass 
 away/' The story- telling poet says; 
 
 Once in Persia reigned a king 
 Who upon his signet-ring 
 Graved a maxim true and wise, 
 Which, if held before his eyes, 
 Gave him counsel at a glance 
 Fit for every change and chance, 
 Solemn words, and these are they: 
 **Even this shall pass away.*' 
 
 Trains of camels through the sand 
 Brought him gems from Samarcand ; 
 Fleets of galleys through the seas 
 Brought him pearls to match with these. 
 But he counted not his gain 
 Treasures of the mine or main; 
 ''What is wealth?'* the king would say; 
 ' ' Even this shall pass away. ' ' 
 
 In the revels of his court, 
 At the zenith of the sport. 
 When the palms of all his guests 
 Burned with clapping at his jests. 
 
MAN'S GLORIOUS DAY 
 
 He, amid his figs and wine, 
 Cried, **0h, loving friends of mine! 
 Pleasures come, but not to stay; 
 *Even this shall pass away.' " 
 
 Fighting on a furious field. 
 Once a javelin pierced his shield, 
 Soldiers, with a loud lament, 
 Bore him bleeding to his tent. 
 Groaning from his tortured side, 
 ^*Pain is hard to bear,'* he cried, 
 *^But with patience, day by day, 
 *Even this shall pass away.' " 
 
 Towering in the public square. 
 Twenty cubits in the air. 
 Rose his statue carved in stone. 
 Then the king, disguised, unknown. 
 Stood before his sculptured name. 
 Musing meekly, ^'What is fame? 
 Fame is but a slow decay — 
 *Even this shall pass away.' " 
 
 Struck with palsy, sere and old. 
 Waiting at the Gates of Gold, 
 Said he with his dying breath, 
 **Life is done, but what is death?" 
 Then, in answer to the king. 
 Fell a sunbeam on his ring, 
 Showing, by a heavenly ray, 
 '*Even this shall pass away." 
 
THE TEEASURES OF NIGHT 
 
 '*And the darkness He called Night." — Gen. 1: 5. 
 
 IN all languages night is the symbol for 
 gloom and suffering. An allegory in the 
 old Jewish Talmud teaches that the demons 
 are all children of four daughters of Night 
 — Lilith, Naama, Agrath, and Mahalath. 
 Their assembling-place was on Mount Nish- 
 pah, the Mount of Twilight toward the 
 north. King Solomon ruled them all and 
 made them do his pleasure. These four 
 daughters of the night, the mothers of the 
 demons, and sources of all the vices that 
 degrade and devastate the nature of man, 
 were described as follows: Lilith is ig- 
 norance, the mortal foe of childhood and of 
 all instruction. Naama is false pleasure, the 
 mortal foe of all self-discipline, the demon- 
 mother of the wide-spread shame and horri- 
 ble misery caused by every form of drink 
 and impurity. Agrath is she who fills the 
 world with foul fiction and every form of 
 corrupting literature. Mahalath is the 
 
 70 
 
THE TREASURES OF NIGHT 71 
 
 mortal foe of pure religion and undefiled, 
 the demon-mother of superstition and phar- 
 isaism, and of every form of false religion. 
 The offspring of these demon-mothers meet 
 on the dark and dreary mountains and go 
 to the far north — that is, to the region of 
 death and ruin. But Solomon can subdue 
 them and make them serve his will. Canon 
 Farrar says that Christianity with the 
 help of God's grace can overcome these 
 daughters of the night; can expel the curse 
 of Lilith, or Ignorance, by a large and 
 loving Christian education; it can make 
 Naama, or Pleasure, the handmaid not of 
 pollution, but of innocence and noble self- 
 control ; it can make Agrath, Literature and 
 Art, the minister to purity and holiness; it 
 can purge Mahalath, or False Religion, from 
 formalism and hollowness and help her to 
 bring forth the fruits of the Spirit which 
 grow on the tree of life in the Paradise of 
 God. It can destroy the offspring of night 
 and fill the world with the ** children of the 
 day." 
 
 But there is another view in regard to 
 night, and upon that path I wish to lead our 
 thoughts at this time. The purpose of the 
 
72 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 night is as benevolent and loving on the part 
 of God as that of the day. I think it will do 
 us good to study the treasures of the night. 
 David found that * * Night unto night showeth 
 knowledge.'* And I think we shall find 
 that to be true. 
 
 Night recalls us to a keen sense of the 
 individuality of our own souls, and their 
 responsibility to God, In these days more 
 than ever we live in a crowd. In the rush 
 and stress of life, when the street is full of 
 noise, and the telephone-bell rings in your 
 ear, or messengers call you here and there, 
 it is easy to forget the solemn responsibility 
 which is on you for your own personality. 
 We come to feel that somehow we are a part 
 of the town, a part of a class, a part of 
 civilization, and we count ourselves in with 
 the great crowd; but night singles us out 
 from the crowd, and in that is a great bless- 
 ing. Cecil Wright well says that a place 
 in life must be kept for intervals of quiet, 
 stolen from the noise of life, otherwise 
 
THE TBEASUUES OF NIGHT 73 
 
 spirituality can not thrive. For spiritual 
 things to be real a man must live in the 
 midst of them. We grow skeptical of the 
 existence of that which does not touch us. 
 It is a well-known fact that by excessive 
 devotion to one subject we lose the power 
 to appreciate another. Charles Darwin once 
 wrote: ^*Up to the age of thirty all poetry 
 gave me pleasure; Shakespeare was my de- 
 light; painting also, and music. Now for 
 some years past I can not endure reading 
 a line of poetry ; Shakespeare bores and dis- 
 gusts me; I have lost my taste for painting 
 and for music.'' The explanation was that 
 the great naturalist had concentrated himself 
 completely on the earth-worm and the 
 monkey. With lifelong persistency he gave 
 his heart and brain to certain studies. His 
 every faculty was absorbed and his every 
 power riveted on those studies. And all 
 the while the poetic faculties of the man 
 were becoming more and more atrophied, 
 benumbed, blunted. He had no quarrel with 
 Shakespeare, or Beethoven, but all un- 
 wittingly he had closed the door against 
 them. It is so still. Men are so absorbed 
 in the narrow and noisy present that they 
 
74 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 blink when you talk to them of the other 
 world. None of us appreciate how much the 
 night with its power to recall us to our in- 
 dividuality and our personal responsibility 
 to God saves us from being still more terri- 
 bly influenced by the secular and material 
 influences which so absorb the busy hours 
 of the day. The sad side of it is that 
 such multitudes turn the night into day for 
 sensual and giddy pleasure even more dis- 
 tracting than the hours of business. But 
 he or she is wise who permits the voice of 
 the night to speak of the deeper things of the 
 soul. 
 
 II 
 
 The night is rich in teaching the lesson 
 of our dependence upon God. If man could 
 work on forever, or a limited forever, with- 
 out recuperation, he would become utterly 
 indifferent to the fact that he gets all his 
 strength from God. In prosperity men often 
 become proud and self-sufficient, and are 
 only brought to wisdom and humility and 
 proper thoughts of God by disasters which 
 reveal to them their own weakness and re- 
 
TEE TBEASUBES OF NIOHT 75 
 
 call them to a sense of dependence upon 
 God for all the blessings of life. Horace 
 Bushnell, in his book on the *^ Moral Uses of 
 Dark Things/' brings out very strikingly 
 this lesson in regard to night and sleep. He 
 shows that if a man were always fresh and 
 strong, incapable of exhaustion as the spring 
 of a watch, moral ideas would seldom get 
 near enough to be felt. But after twelve or 
 sixteen hours the man who rose in the 
 morning full of might, as if a young 
 eternity were in him, begins to flag; his 
 nervous energy is spent; his limbs are 
 heavy; his motions want spirit and pre- 
 cision. If he tries, for some particular 
 reason, to hold on over whole days, his 
 hands grow weaker, his eyelids more heavy, 
 till, at length, he is obliged to resign himself 
 to his fate, and drops, a merely unconscious 
 lump, on the couch of the sleeper. Every 
 day this lesson of frailty is given him. The 
 grass which is cut down by the mower's 
 scythe does not sooner wither and dry up 
 than the strength of the mower himself. We 
 take our very capacity thus in little loans 
 of only a few hours, and when the time 
 has gone, night calls us back into God's 
 
76 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 bosom again to be recruited* It is strange 
 that the miracle of every night does not 
 reclaim men from sin altogether, but were it 
 not for this wise and morally beautiful ar- 
 rangement men would become like devils. 
 
 The philosopher reasons that having only 
 this short run of power, we are humbled to 
 a softer key. We do not feel or act as we 
 should if we could rush on our way and 
 have our sin as a law of ceaseless momentum 
 for the whole period of our life. We are 
 like an engine that is started off on the 
 track by itself; the fuel and water will soon 
 be exhausted, and then it must stop. But 
 if it could go on without fuel and water, it 
 would whirl itself across a continent and 
 pitch itself into the sea. So, if, being loose 
 in evil, we could rush interminably on, 
 never to be spent or recruited by night or 
 sleep, our bad momentum would itself drive 
 us to eternal ruin. In our self-will we 
 should be hard beyond conception; our very 
 ambitions and purposes would fly, bullet- 
 wise, at their mark; consideration, concilia- 
 tion, candor, patience, would all be driven 4 
 out of the world by the remorseless per- 
 sistency of our habit. We have great rea- 
 
TEE TBEASUBES OF NIGHT 77 
 
 son to thank God that it is not so. Night 
 intervenes every few honrs and brings us 
 to nothingness, saving us from becoming 
 demons, and keeping us men and women that 
 have to go to sleep as children do. In this 
 way we are softened and gentled in feeling. 
 Night makes it impossible that we shall not 
 sometimes be tender. Eeason will some- 
 times get a chance to speak. God's Spirit 
 will have His opportunity of whispering to 
 the soul. The tremendous passion for gain, 
 bad as it is, would be infinitely worse if it 
 were not that the spell it works is broken 
 every few hours by the counter-spell of 
 night and sleep. God has set the sun and 
 the moon and the stars running as a mill 
 against that dangerous worldliness which 
 drowns men in perdition. He buries the 
 world in darkness that we may not see it. 
 He takes the soul off into a world of un- 
 consciousness to break up its bad enchant- 
 ment. He palsies the hand to make it let 
 go, palsies even the brain to stifle its in- 
 fatuation. 
 
 In the same way God seeks to stifle 
 jealousy and envy and hatred, and to destroy 
 every wicked passion. If it were not for 
 
78 TEE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 this, our malignities would burn us up. But 
 night comes on like the truce of God. No 
 hatred burns in the sleeping man who is 
 given over to the spell of night. ^^No re- 
 venge or jealousy lowers on his face in that 
 soft hour of oblivion. If he went to bed 
 heated by an ugly conversation, if he was 
 severe and bitter in his judgments, if all 
 charities were scorched away by his fierce de- 
 nunciations, he will rise in the morning cool 
 and sweet, and the gentle cheer of his voice 
 will show that he is clear of his bad mood 
 and likes to have it known. A man must 
 be next to a devil who wakes angry. So 
 it is that God is seeking by the blest 
 ministries of the night to soften our hearts, 
 to curb our evil passions, to give us a chance 
 to think concerning the deeper things of 
 life, to show us Himself, and awaken within 
 us sorrow for sin, desire for goodness, and 
 prayer for divine help. So the night comes 
 to be a minister who preaches you a sermon 
 every twenty-four hours — a sermon more 
 solemn and majestic and splendid than any 
 that I can preach to you. God forbid that 
 these daily sermons should all pass un- 
 heeded and fail in their holy purpose ! 
 
THE TREASURES OF NIGHT 79 
 
 III 
 
 The night is typical of deaths which closes 
 our earthly life, ^* Night is the shepherd, 
 which brings all things home/' Scattered 
 through the day — the father at his work in 
 the shop, or the office, or the mill; the 
 children at school, or in various places of 
 toil — ^night is the shepherd which brings 
 them all home. So that other night which 
 men call Death is^ the shepherd that shall 
 bring all of us home. As night falls, and 
 the day's work must be left with its record 
 made up, which it is too late to change, so 
 with the nightfall of death our life-record 
 must go before the Judge of all the earth. 
 There is no magic power in the night that 
 will change the record of our day's work, 
 and there is no magic power in death to 
 change the record of our lives. Eobert 
 Buchanan wrote a poem which he called the 
 * ' Ballad of Judas Iscariot. " I do not agree, 
 of course, with the implication of after- 
 death repentance which might be found in 
 the poem, but the thought of the poet is this : 
 Judas, the poor broken victim of his own 
 sin, by which he sought to profit through 
 
80 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the betrayal of his Master, wanders in the 
 darkness through the desert waste of 
 eternity, till, seeing but one light, he draws 
 toward that. 
 
 The Bridegroom shaded his eyes and looked, 
 
 And his face was bright to see ; 
 ''What dost thou here at the Lord's Supper, 
 
 With thy body's sins?" said He. 
 
 'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot 
 
 Stood black and sad and bare; 
 '*I have wandered many nights and days; 
 
 There is no light elsewhere" 
 
 'Twas the Bridegroom stood at the open door, 
 
 And beckoned, smiling sweet; 
 'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot 
 
 Stole in, and fell at His feet. 
 The supper wine is poured at last, 
 
 The lights burn bright and fair, 
 Iscariot washes the Bridegroom's feet, 
 
 And dries them with his hair. 
 
 My dear friends, we shall never escape 
 from God by leaping into the arms of death. 
 There is no power in death to cleanse our 
 sins or to change an impure heart. There is 
 no light anywhere but in Jesus Christ that 
 welcomes a sinful soul. And so, while the 
 
J}EE TREASURES OF NIGHT 81 
 
 day lasts, ere the night of death cometh, I 
 call you to Christ, the Savior of sinners, 
 who will welcome you with tenderness and 
 forgiveness. You need not delay to try in 
 some way to make yourself better; the 
 power and the mercy and the love are all in 
 Jesus. You can only come, saying humbly: 
 
 Savior, I have naught to plead 
 On earth beneath or heaven above 
 
 But just my own exceeding need, 
 And Thine exceeding love. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 
 
 **And the evening and the morning were the first 
 day.''— Gen. 1:5. 
 
 YOU will notice that in our text, describ- 
 ing the evolution of the day, evening 
 comes before morning. The day begins with 
 the night. This is just the opposite of our 
 usual method of recording history. When 
 we tell the story of any historical event, 
 we are likely to begin with the morning 
 and end with the evening. Dr. L. W. Bacon 
 says that history, as told in literature, is a 
 tragedy, and ends with a death. So human 
 history is ever looking backward; and the 
 morning and the evening make the day. 
 But it is not so that God writes history. 
 The annals of mankind in the Bible begin 
 in the darkness of apostasy, but the dark- 
 ness is shot through with gleams of hope, the 
 first rays of the dawn. The sentence of 
 death is illuminated with the promise of a 
 Savior. There is night again when the 
 flood comes down, and the civilization and 
 
 82 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 83 
 
 the wickedness of the primeval world are 
 whelmed beneath it. But the flood clears off 
 with a rainbow, and it is proved to have 
 been the clearing of the earth for a better 
 progress, for the rearing of a godly race, 
 of whom by and by the Christ shall come 
 according to the flesh. In all our thinking 
 we should follow God's order. We do so 
 in our thoughts about the physical day. 
 
 We recognize that a restful night pre- 
 pares for vigorous work in the day to fol- 
 low. This ought to suggest to us that the 
 night of sickness or sorrow, or adversity of 
 any kind, is often a preparation for a better 
 and a nobler epoch of success. There could 
 be no greater blunder than for us to imagine 
 that the dark times in human life are an in- 
 dication that God has forgotten us, or that 
 He is angry with us, or are in any sense a 
 punishment for what is past. Instead, we 
 may be sure that to them that love God 
 times of darkness are always meant as a 
 discipline and preparation for what is com- 
 ing in the future. They are the evening 
 before the day. There are many such ex- 
 periences in every life — times when all that 
 we can do is to sit still and wait; trying 
 
84 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 experiences, when a man^s business is heavy 
 and stagnant, or meets strong currents of 
 opposition; times of sickness, and depres- 
 sion; times of grief and doubt and sorrow. 
 These are the even-times of life; and at 
 such times we are not to look back and try 
 to remember how much brighter it was in 
 some other epoch of the past, but to look 
 forward toward the dawn of the morning. 
 It is folly in such an experience to say, 
 *^What have I done, that this sorrow or trial 
 should come upon mef What we ought to 
 say is, '^What is God preparing for me, and 
 for what is He preparing me, that He should 
 thus lovingly chasten and instruct me in 
 this night of trial f It is not the night after 
 the day that you are in ; it is the night before 
 the day; and if with faithful heart you 
 seek to learn God's purpose, and humbly 
 submit yourself to His hand, the bright day 
 shall dawn upon you in a glory of grander 
 joy and happiness than you have ever 
 known. 
 
 We may find a beautiful illustration of 
 this great truth in the crucifixion of Jesus. 
 When Christ died upon the cross, men said, 
 **It is the end.'' His disciples forsook Him 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 85 
 
 and fled. But it was not the end. It was 
 not the evening after Christ's day, it was 
 the evening before. Easter morning was 
 soon to come, and fill the world with the 
 glory of immortal hope. 
 
 Any of you who are in sorrow should get 
 the comfort of our theme. You should learn 
 that it takes both light and shadow, both 
 evening and morning, to make the day of our 
 human life. The shadows are as necessary 
 as the light. Clouds are as important as 
 sunshine. A land of perpetual sunshine, 
 where the clouds never softened its glare, 
 and the skies never wept in sympathetic 
 tears upon the thirsty fields, would be an 
 unfruitful desert. Great fertility can only 
 come with clouds and storms as well as 
 sunshine and heat. So, great fruitfulness 
 and sweetness of character, which make a 
 man or a woman like an orchard tree 
 hanging full of juicy blessings for all who 
 come in contact with it, are only possible 
 where the shadows have fallen as well as the 
 light. If I speak to any over whom the 
 clouds hang darkly, who is passing through 
 an epoch which is dark with shadow, let me 
 comfort your soul with the great truth that 
 
89 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the clouds are as much God^s messengers as 
 the sunshine, that the evening as well as the 
 morning is a part of God's benevolent and 
 loving purpose. In the Gospel record we are 
 told that on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
 when Christ was transfigured before His dis- 
 ciples, after they had seen the glory of their 
 Lord, a cloud overshadowed them, and it is 
 written: **They feared as they entered the 
 cloud." Matthew tells us that it was a '^bright , 
 cloud,*' and this was true in more senses 
 than one. Its brightness was not only ex- 
 ternal, but spiritual also, for **out of the 
 cloud there came a voice," which brought to 
 them a wealth of blessing and inner light. 
 We read that when they first saw the glory 
 Peter said: **Let us make three taberna- 
 cles," but it is added, ^^not knowing what he 
 said." In the ecstasy of the vision the 
 human voice was heard, a voice of folly; in 
 the shadow of the cloud, it was the voice of 
 God; and it would seem from the after-rec- 
 ords of Peter and James and John that 
 nothing made a greater impression on them 
 amid all the glories of the scene than the 
 voice which spoke to them in the midst of 
 the cloud that they had feared to enter. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 87 
 
 It is often so with us ; many of us, to hear 
 the voice of God, have to enter into the 
 cloud and the darkness of the evening. When 
 all is bright and sunny we are apt to be 
 filled with the joy of our own emotion, and 
 to speak out of the enthusiasm and exuber- 
 ance of our own spirits ; but when the even- 
 ing of trial and sorrow and misfortune 
 comes upon us, and we feel our own helpless- 
 ness and need, we become conscious of our 
 dependence upon God, and we bow our hearts 
 and open our ears to catch the words that 
 come to us from heaven. Many men have 
 heard messages in the midnight to which 
 they were deaf at high noon. Despair not be- 
 cause it is evening, for the morning cometh! 
 
 There is room here for an earnest word of 
 warning. Some of you are enjoying the sun- 
 shine of a great and beautiful prosperity. 
 Your health is strong, your business is profit- 
 able, your friends are kind, and heaven seems 
 to smile upon you. I would not say one word 
 to darken or lessen your joy, but I would 
 utter a word of wisdom given me from God's 
 truth and speaking out of our theme at this 
 time, and that is, that for you as well as 
 others the sunshine will not always be for 
 
88 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the best. You should not permit the pros- 
 perity and the happiness which you now en- 
 joy to make you proud, or indifferent to 
 spiritual things, or stubborn in seeking to 
 have your own way. You should remember 
 that all these things come to you from God, 
 and that humility and gratitude are your 
 proper attitude in the sunshine of your life. 
 For you, too, clouds will come. You, too, 
 will know the darkness of tears, the agony 
 of heartache, and the strain of burden-bear- 
 ing. Your life would be barren if this were 
 not so. Do not enjoy your day the less be- 
 cause of this, but seek through humility and 
 gratitude and sympathy and fruitfulness of 
 life to make day a preparation for night and 
 darkness. Both for the light and the shadows 
 of life trustfulness in the divine love is our 
 one source of peace. Some unknown poet 
 brings this out in a song which, characteriz- 
 ing many epochs of Christian experience, 
 finds that trust in Jesus fits one as well as 
 another. He sings : 
 
 Trust in Jesus, trembling Christian, 
 Strength you need beyond your own; 
 
 Trust not in your feeble efforts, 
 He can help, and He alone. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 89 
 
 Trust in Jesus, doubting Christian, 
 
 Has He ever failed you yet? 
 Is there not for you a promise, 
 
 *<Yet will I not thee forget''? 
 
 Trust in Jesus, weary Christian, 
 Work He asks not now of you; 
 
 'Neath His shadow sweetly resting 
 You shall taste His love anew. 
 
 Trust in Jesus, suffering Christian, 
 Well He knows your every pain; 
 
 He who bled on Calvary's mountain 
 Suffers in His child again! 
 
 Trust in Jesus, needy Christian, 
 
 Tell Him all your wants iu prayer; 
 
 ** Cruse" and '* barrel" shall not fail you, 
 Since He makes them both His care. 
 
 Trust in Jesus, working Christian, 
 Sow not with a sparing hand; 
 
 Crops, when comes the day of reaping. 
 Will spring forth at His command I 
 
 Trust in Jesus, wealthy Christian, 
 Use for Him His gift of gold; 
 
 Know that what you lend to Jesus, 
 He'll repay in gain untold! 
 
90 TEE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Trust in Jesus all who know Him; 
 
 None can teach and guide as He; 
 Prove Him, and you'll find how precious 
 
 Such a Friend will always be! 
 
 But there are some of you to whom these 
 trustful words of divine faith do not bring 
 comfort, for there is upon your conscience a 
 weight of guilt and sin. You have refused 
 the divine love. God has spoken to you by 
 His Spirit in the quiet hours of the night; 
 He has spoken to you through the preaching 
 of His word ; He has spoken to you through 
 the tender love of Christian friends ; but you 
 have refused to respond, and in sinning 
 against light and knowledge you have 
 brought darkness to your own heart. The 
 way is dark before you at this moment. Sin 
 always brings darkness. Sin is darkness. 
 The sinning soul can never be permanently 
 happy. The sinning soul is never happy ex- 
 cept in forgetfulness. And the darkness 
 which comes from sin grows darker and 
 darker until the blackness of eternal night 
 settles down upon the soul. But I thank 
 God that, tho the darkness of sin hangs over 
 your heart, I have for you a message of light 
 
LIGHT AND SHADOW 91 
 
 and mercy that may pierce the darkness 
 which envelops you and give the promise of 
 the dawn of a glorious day. Jesns Christ 
 has risen above the world as the Sun of 
 Eighteousness, with healing in His beams. 
 In Christ is the light of hope. In Him is the 
 light of forgiveness. In Him is the light of 
 freedom from sin, and deliverance from the 
 bondage of dark and sinful habits. It is 
 dark everywhere else, but at the cross, where 
 Christ died for our sins, heaven's light of 
 mercy always falls. Come to Calvary and 
 you shall find light for your heart and light 
 for your path. 
 
 My brother, thou hast traveled far, 
 
 'Twixt purple East and golden Westf 
 The Southern Cross and Polar Star 
 Have brightened o'er thy transient rest; 
 Thy way has led o'er land and sea, 
 But hast thou been to Calvary? 
 «# 
 
 Perchance thy daring feet have trod 
 
 Some Alpine, Himalayan peak; 
 Or Sinai, whence the living God 
 Of old His fiery law did speak; 
 
 Such scenes have cast their spell on thee, 
 But hast thou been to Calvary? 
 
92 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 It may be thou hast traced the course 
 
 Of rolling rivers deep and wide. 
 Or viewed the cascade's thundering force 
 Far plashing down the mountain side; 
 But hast thou turned aside to see 
 The streams that flow from Calvary? 
 
 Thine eyes have scanned the starry night 
 
 Where days their equal courses run, 
 Or lingered with a strange delight 
 O'er visions of the midnight sun; 
 
 But hast thou seen hell's darkness flee, 
 And heaven beam forth on Calvary? 
 
THE ATMOSPHERE OF LIFE 
 
 **And God made the firmament, and divided the 
 waters which were under the firmament from the 
 waters which were above the firmament/' — Gen. 1:7. 
 
 BETWEEN the waters above and the waters 
 below we have the atmosphere which 
 surrounds the earth and makes human life 
 possible. The word ** atmosphere" is a com- 
 pound of two Greek words, one meaning 
 *Wapor'' and the other ** sphere''; when 
 taken together, they signify a sphere of va- 
 por in which the world is wrapt. The wisest 
 among the ancients looked upon the air much 
 as little children do now. They thought it 
 was nothing. A child seeing a vessel filled 
 only with air would be likely to say that it 
 had nothing in it. The old expression, **as 
 light as air,*' which we so frequently use, 
 is a very erroneous phrase used to describe 
 nothingness. Scientists tell us that the mere 
 breathing of the air yields us three-quarters 
 of all our nourishment, while the other quar- 
 ter only is supplied by the solid and liquid 
 food which we partake. It has well been 
 
 93 
 
94 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 said that we can truly say of the atmosphere 
 what the Apostle Paul, and the old Greek 
 poet before him, whom he quoted, said of 
 God, *^In it we live and move and have our 
 being." The weight of the atmosphere is so 
 great that its pressure upon a man of ordi- 
 nary size has been computed to be from four- 
 teen to fifteen tons. A man of unusually 
 large body would have to carry one or two 
 tons additional. But as the pressure of the 
 atmosphere comes against us equally upon 
 all sides and parts of the body, it not only 
 does not crush or injure the frailest child, 
 but feeds and nourishes it. 
 
 Few of us give the matter sufficient thought 
 to arouse the gratitude we owe to God for 
 the blessings of the atmosphere. One scholar, 
 writing upon this point, says that the atmos- 
 phere is the great agent by which Nature 
 receives the wonderful colors which are her 
 most beautiful adorning. It is owing to the 
 reflection of the sun's rays that the sky and 
 the distant horizon assume that beautiful 
 azure hue which is subject to endless varia- 
 tions. It is owing to the refraction of these 
 rays as they pass obliquely through the 
 aerial strata that we have the splendors of 
 
THE ATMOSPHEBE OF LIFE 95 
 
 the morning and evening twilight, and that 
 we see the sun some minutes before it actu- 
 ally rises above the eastern horizon, and 
 again several minutes after it actually dis- 
 appears below the western horizon. If it 
 were not for the atmosphere, the light would 
 instantaneously disappear as the sun sank 
 below the horizon, and leave the world in 
 utter darkness, while at its rising in the 
 morning the world would pass in an instant 
 from complete darkness into a flood of daz- 
 zling and blinding light. Such daily and 
 sudden shocks to vision would be painful, 
 and probably destructive to sight. Without 
 the atmosphere there would have been no 
 place in the universe for the dwelling-place 
 of man, because without it the waters would 
 have prevailed. But as by the atmosphere 
 the waters below were divided from those 
 above, a place was provided suitable for 
 the abode of man. Without the air, which 
 gathers the moisture into clouds and sends 
 it down again upon the earth, there could 
 be no such thing as rain or snow. Without 
 the atmosphere there could be no purifying 
 winds, which are but air in motion, no 
 medium to transmit and diffuse the light 
 
96 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and heat of the sun, no agent to modify 
 and make surpassingly beautiful the light of 
 the sun, and no possibility of respiration 
 for plants or animals, without which it would 
 be impossible to maintain any form of or- 
 ganic life. 
 
 The atmosphere, too, is indispensable for 
 all the practical purposes of life. If by some 
 miraculous intervention it should be made 
 possible for human life to exist without 
 the air, it would be useless and vain. The 
 air is necessary for the transmission of 
 sound. Without it, the bell might be tolled, 
 the cannon might be fired, a great chorus 
 of sweet* voices might unite to render the 
 music of the noblest hymn, but not the 
 faintest sound would be audible either to 
 the performers or to the listeners. You 
 might breathe or even loudly speak your 
 words of love into the very ear of some 
 dear one, and yet not one of your words 
 would be heard without the presence of air 
 in the ear to empower its wondrous mechan- 
 ism for hearing. As light is necessary for 
 seeing, so in exactly the same way is the 
 air necessary for hearing, and without it the 
 ear would be perfectly useless, instead of 
 
THE ATMOSPHERE OF LIFE 97 
 
 being, as now, a wonderful organ to minister 
 to our joy and delight. And since without 
 the atmosphere we could not hear each other 
 speak, it follows that all commercial, edu- 
 cational, and social intercourse would be 
 at an end, and the earth would become one 
 vast grave. 
 
 The physical atmosphere should be rich 
 in spiritual suggestions concerning the at- 
 mosphere of the soul. 
 
 The kind of atmosphere in any country 
 dictates the quality of physical life which 
 may be produced there. Many flowers and 
 plants will grow in one atmosphere but not 
 in another. Many men and women who live 
 comfortably and happily in a rare atmos- 
 phere in some lofty tableland or mountain 
 region could not perpetuate their lives in 
 a low heavy atmosphere near the sea. Thus, 
 the atmosphere becomes the best of medi- 
 cine and abounds in healing balm. The same 
 is true in spiritual things. There is such 
 a thing as a spiritual atmosphere in which 
 
98 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the mind and heart and soul of man thrives 
 and grows powerful. That is one of the 
 characteristics of the Bible. It is not only 
 the wonderful message which the Bible 
 brings to us that makes it the most powerful 
 book in the world, but it is a certain spiritual 
 atmosphere which pervades it from begin- 
 ning to end. No man can read the Bible 
 without having his thoughts continually 
 running out after God. God is in the world. 
 He is in the history of the world. He has 
 spoken to men. He does speak to men. 
 He loves mankind. He seeks their good. 
 The heart of the universe is kind. Provi- 
 dence is loving. No man can read the 
 Bible without feeling these things. It is an 
 atmosphere which he breathes. And that 
 fact makes sincere and habitual reading of 
 the Bible one of the greatest sources of high 
 and noble living. 
 
 Public worship, with its reading of the 
 Bible, its singing of worshipful hymns 
 voicing the souPs loftiest adoration and love 
 for God, with the preaching of the message 
 of heaven's love and power and willing- 
 ness to forgive sins, creates an atmosphere 
 which tremendously affects the thoughts and 
 
TEE ATMOSPHERE OF LIFE 99 
 
 ideals and ambitions and conduct of the 
 people who regularly attend the church of 
 God. A habit of regular church-going is 
 one of the most important for any man or 
 woman who desires to live a noble life, 
 because of the atmosphere of faith and hope 
 and love which is breathed there. 
 
 A famous Japanese general, asked how 
 he accounted for the wonderful vitality, 
 bravery, and enthusiasm of the Japanese 
 soldiers as contrasted with the Eussian 
 soldiers, said he believed it was mainly due 
 to their mental and spiritual attitude. He 
 said the Russian soldier, as a rule, was in 
 a discouraged and pessimistic state of mind. 
 He had no hope either here or hereafter. 
 Should he live to return to his home, nothing 
 but humdrum and trial awaited him. He 
 had no love for his life or for his country, 
 and he had little hope for a future life. 
 His earthly prospect, as well as his religious 
 faith, was of a dull and hopeless character. 
 On the other hand, the Japanese soldier 
 loves his country and home life. He is 
 sustained through the fatigue of the march 
 and the dangers of the battlefield by fond 
 anticipation of his return home. In case he 
 
100 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 is killed fighting for his country, according 
 to his religion, nothing but the brightest 
 prospects are before him. He simply be- 
 comes a part of the ministering host of other 
 spirits, helping to cheer on* his remaining 
 comrades to victory. 
 
 Hope is the religion of life and health. 
 The man or the woman who is inspired by 
 hope will grudge no labor, no care, no 
 severity of strain or hardship. They will 
 survive when others fail, will wax strong 
 when others languish. So it is that the 
 public and private worship of God, in which 
 we take hold of the divine aid and feel 
 that God is with us and for us, creates an 
 atmosphere of hope that will overcome all 
 opposition. 
 
 II 
 
 These reflections should impress upon our 
 minds and hearts the necessity of being 
 very careful about the atmosphere into 
 which we thrust our spiritual natures. The 
 soul may be poisoned as well as the body. 
 
 In Nathaniel Hawthorne's remarkable 
 story, ^^Eappaccini's Daughter,'' he describes 
 
THE ATMOSPHERE OF LIFE 101 
 
 a chemist who, in the study of poisons, had 
 a garden full of lovely but poisonous flowers, 
 to whose breath, in a fiendish experiment, he 
 exposed for years his beautiful daughter. 
 The girl became so impregnated with the 
 poison that her own breath was deadly to 
 any living thing. That is a true picture of 
 those who breathe a selfish and impure 
 atmosphere. They are not only poisoned by 
 it, but they become themselves poisonous in 
 their turn. 
 
 Beware of evil associations which create 
 an atmosphere that intoxicates and drugs 
 the soul with fumes that come from the 
 pit. The aroused feeling in our own city 
 at this moment because of the relation of a 
 public-school building to certain streets 
 along which little children and youth would 
 have to go daily, is in point. Thoughtful 
 people, knowing that the moral atmosphere 
 of these streets is impure and unclean, and 
 likely to poison the minds and hearts of 
 youth now innocent, seek to save them from 
 the dangerous contamination. That is wise 
 and right. But our message should come 
 to those who are masters of themselves 
 and may choose their own atmosphere for 
 
102 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 their souls. There is nothing so important 
 to young men or young women in coming 
 into a city as to place themselves by their 
 acquaintance and social surroundings where 
 the atmosphere they breathe from the 
 friendly conversations of their daily lives 
 shall be pure and wholesome. A young man 
 may live in this city and breathe con- 
 stantly an atmosphere that is rare and 
 true. He may grow strong on its fragrance 
 of hope and love and faith. At the same 
 time another young man coming to the city 
 from the same country town or farming com- 
 munity may place himself in such surround- 
 ings and with such friends that he will 
 breathe the very atmosphere of hell, until 
 his whole soul and life is poisoned by it. 
 
 It is the glory of Christianity that where- 
 ever it prevails it creates a purer atmos- 
 phere for the growth of human hearts and 
 lives. And what is true of the civilization 
 which it develops in a multitude, is true of 
 every individual man or woman who gives 
 himself or herself up to follow Christ. Even 
 tho' you have followed sin until an atmos- 
 phere of hopelessness and despair surrounds 
 your soul, yet if you will come to Christ 
 
THE ATMOSPHERE OF LIFE 103 
 
 humbly and reverently, He will take you 
 out of that atmosphere of darkness and 
 gloom and lift you into an atmosphere full 
 of sunshine and hope. Perhaps that trans- 
 formation was never more splendidly de- 
 scribed than by David when he says: **I 
 waited patiently for the Lord; and he 
 inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He 
 brought me up also out of an horrible pit, 
 out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon 
 a rock, and established my goings. And he 
 hath put a new song in my mouth, even 
 praises unto our God.*' 
 
APPEAL OF THE SKY 
 
 *^God called the firmament heaven.'* — Gen. 1:8. 
 
 THE sky is treated with most beautiful 
 poetic imagery in the Bible. In the 
 Book of Proverbs, where wisdom speaks 
 as tho incarnated, we hear her saying: 
 *'When he prepared the heavens, I was 
 there: When he set a compass upon the 
 face of the depth: When he established 
 the clouds above.'' Isaiah, speaking of 
 the sky as part of God's creation which 
 He made and can again destroy, says: 
 *^And all the host of heaven shall be dis- 
 solved, and the heavens shall be rolled to- 
 gether as a scroll: and all their host shall 
 fall down, as the leaf falleth off from tho 
 vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree." 
 And again, in his description of the might 
 and glory of God, Isaiah says: **It is he 
 that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, 
 and the inhabitants thereof are as grass- 
 hoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens 
 as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a 
 tent to dwell in." In the Book of Job, 
 
 104 
 
APPEAL OF THE SKY 105 
 
 also: *'Is not God in the heights of heaven? 
 And behold the height of the stars how 
 high they are! And thou sayest, how 
 doth God know! Can he judge through the 
 dark cloud! Thick clouds are a covering 
 to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh 
 in the circuit of heaven." Again, the 
 writer of the same book, contrasting man's 
 littleness with God's greatness, inquires: 
 '^Hast thou with him spread out the sky, 
 which is strong, and as a molten looking- 
 glass!" And the Psalmist, calling on all 
 things to praise God, exclaims: ** Praise ye 
 him, sun and moon: Praise him, all ye 
 stars of light. Praise him, ye heaven of 
 heavens, and ye waters that be above the 
 heavens. ' ' 
 
 This poetical language has sometimes been 
 criticized as not being scientifically correct, 
 but that is a very cheap criticism. It is not 
 scientifically correct to say there is a ** sun- 
 rise," or that we have seen a ** sunset," 
 but every scientific man in the world uses 
 these phrases. There are many things in 
 the world in description of which poetry is 
 more correct than science. 
 
 The moral and spiritual teaching of the 
 
106 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 sky should be very helpful. It is so aburdant 
 that one can only glance at some of the 
 supreme messages it is always bringing to 
 us. 
 
 The sky suggests the souPs true direction 
 — it is upward. Every man who is true to 
 himself, and who seeks the proper develop- 
 ment of his body and mind and heart, aspires 
 constantly to higher things. The very 
 phrase *^ higher things, '^ which I used quite 
 unconsciously, suggests the great fact that 
 we are always using the idea of altitude to 
 denote the difference between good and 
 evil. All the figures, all the adjectives which 
 describe that which is pure and righteous 
 and noble and heroic, are those that indicate 
 altitude. How constantly we are saying, 
 *^ exalted worth,*' or ^^high resolve,*' or 
 *4ofty ambitions,*' or ^* elevated purposes," 
 or ** eminent purity," or ^* sublime charac- 
 ter." It is impossible to think of things 
 which are beautiful and noble and glorious 
 without this idea of exaltation; something 
 lifted upward toward the sky. On the other 
 
AFFEAL OF THE SKX lOV 
 
 hand, we never speak of evil in that way. 
 If a thing is mean and ugly and wicked, we 
 think of it as beneath. We speak of a very 
 mean, depraved person as ^* beneath con- 
 tempt," and we are constantly using expres- 
 sions of that sort, such as *4ow instincts,'' 
 or ** degraded character," or /* groveling 
 habits." And how frequently in speaking 
 of some man who has been guilty of con- 
 duct quite unworthy of his reputation and 
 ordinary life, we say of it, **Such an act 
 was beneath him ; he should not have stooped 
 so low as to do it." 
 
 From these illustrations it is evident that 
 the sky is a perpetual appeal to us, calling 
 man upward, showing that he was not made 
 to grovel in the dirt, but to soar aloft in his 
 thoughts and ambitions toward heaven. 
 
 n 
 
 The sky lifts our thoughts to God. Every- 
 thing that comes from the sky is pure and 
 wholesome. The floods of sunshine that 
 come with their illuminating beams, the 
 white snow that comes as a mantle of right- 
 eousness, the rain that has been filtered and 
 
108 TEE WORLD* S CHILDHOOD 
 
 purified in the lofty cloud centers, all are 
 pure. Beneath us there may be swamps 
 full of malaria. There may be pestilential 
 breaths from a thousand diseased centers 
 of man's filth, and ignorance, and sin; but 
 from the sky nothing impure falls upon us. 
 So our thoughts are lifted up to the sky 
 as the fountain of purity and goodness. A 
 man looks into the sky, whether it holds 
 clouds full of pure rain-drops, or white snow- 
 flakes, or is a blue vault full of infinite 
 mystery at noontide, or sparkling with 
 jeweled stars at midnight, and it shames his 
 sin and his meanness and calls him to ac- 
 count in the court of his own conscience. 
 The vaulted sky is a perpetual appeal to us 
 for a true life, for a holy character, and a 
 perpetual rebuke to sin and meanness. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The sky vaulted over our heads, and com- 
 ing down to our view at the horizon, sug- 
 gests to us that heaven is forever stooping 
 down to lift men upward. Man left to 
 himself falls into evil ways and grovels 
 like a vine upon the earth. A man born into 
 
APPEAL OF THE SK¥ 109 
 
 the world innocent and pure, as is every 
 little child, may lose all that innocence and 
 purity if his face be turned from the sky 
 and he refuses to yield to its magnetic ap- 
 peal. 
 
 Many of you have heard of the young 
 artist who painted on one occasion a picture 
 of innocence. It was the picture of a little 
 child, so fair, so sweet, so sunny, that it 
 seemed to the artist, with the bright and 
 ardent visions of youth, as if it had come 
 straight from the hand of God. He was suc- 
 cessful in his work, and he hung the picture 
 on the wall of his studio and would not part 
 with it; he grew so fond of it himself, this 
 fair picture of innocence. Long years passed, 
 and it still hung in his studio. When he 
 grew older he wanted to paint a companion 
 picture for it, a picture which he could call 
 **Vice.'' But he never could see anything 
 which fitted in with his idea of the horror 
 and repulsiveness of guilt in all its odious- 
 ness, until at last one day, in a gloomy cell 
 in a city prison, he came across a wretched 
 criminal on whose coarse features were 
 written every mark which sin and vice could 
 write, claiming this wretch for their own. 
 
110 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 He asked and obtained permission to trans- 
 fer these coarsened features to his canvas, to 
 make a companion picture to his picture of 
 innocence; and what was his amazement 
 when in course of conversation with his 
 subject he discovered that this was the man 
 who, as a child, had sat as his study of inno- 
 cence. Years of groveling in sin had 
 wrought their inevitable change, and had 
 brought about this awful ruin. Sin will 
 always work this evil transformation. But, 
 thank God! heaven's sky bends over us 
 ''like as a father pitieth his children,'' ''as 
 a mother comforteth her child," and Jesus 
 Christ comes down from heaven to earth, 
 God's messenger to lead us upward. 
 
 George Frederick Watts, a great Christian 
 artist, has in the Tate Gallery in London a 
 beautiful picture entitled "Love and Life." 
 Life is represented as a frail, timid, diffident 
 maiden climbing up a steep and almost 
 inaccessible mountain. Love comes to her 
 rescue and help in the guise of a young 
 angel, strong in limb and wing, and un- 
 speakably tender in hand and face. Behind 
 the maiden is a deep abyss, and one wonders 
 how she climbed out of it. Before her is 
 
APPEAL OF THE SKY 111 
 
 a lofty mountam with steep ascent, and 
 one wonders how, in her own unaided 
 strength, she can ever scale it. Her face ap- 
 peals in wistful trustfulness to her athletic 
 supporter, his face reassures her of help- 
 fulness, but he does not attempt to carry 
 her or put his arm around her, or even take 
 hers in his. He only permits her to place 
 her hand in his open palm. He will see 
 her up the steep ascent, but he is not going 
 to deprive her of the joy and exaltation 
 of effort and exertion. Watts intended to 
 preach a sermon in this picture.' The frail, 
 impotent woman is meant to represent sinful 
 humanity, while the painter himself has told 
 us that his was the Pauline conception of 
 Love, who spoke of the love of God con- 
 straining him. There is no finer gospel 
 sermon than this picture. Life a steep, 
 rugged mountain, man weak and sinful and 
 helpless, divine Love coming down the 
 mountain to meet him, responding to his 
 appealing look with strong tenderness. The 
 poor sinner in trustful faith placing his 
 hand in the open palm of God, and God 
 leading him up the rough, narrow path till 
 he reaches the summit in triumph and glad- 
 
112 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 ness. The mountain is so steep that it is 
 evident Life can do nothing without Love, 
 but the angel is so strong that it is evident 
 Life can do everything with Love. The two 
 faces are a rich study, the shrinking timidity 
 and yet appealing trustfulness in the face 
 of Life, while there is such a strong tender- 
 ness in the face of Love that it seems as tho 
 we were looking into the eyes of Him who 
 was nailed to the cross for us. 
 
 Our theme, and this illustration of it, 
 should appeal to all our hearts, and should 
 come with special emphasis to you who 
 have hitherto disregarded the infinite tender- 
 ness of God in Jesus Christ in bowing the 
 heavens and coming down in seeking your 
 salvation. In Jesus Christ the sky stoops 
 down to lift men out of their sins into fellow- 
 ship with Heaven. Jesus is the hand of 
 divine Love offered to man in his hour of 
 need and sin, and if we place our hand in 
 His open palm. He will not fail or forsake 
 us until the mountain-top is reached. How 
 tender are the words and the figures used 
 in the Bible to convey to us the infinite love 
 and sympathy and patience of Jesus Christ. 
 *'A bruised reed he will not break, and the 
 
APPEAL OF THE SKY 113 
 
 smoking flax he will not quench.*' Oh, 
 brother, sister, has life gone hard with you? 
 Is your heart heavy and sore with trouble? 
 Does it seem to you in your discouragement 
 that you are like a broken reed? Christ 
 will take you in His arms as tenderly as 
 ever mother brooded over her helpless babe. 
 Again it is said of Jesus, ** Having loved his 
 own which were in the world, he loved them 
 to the end.'' No man shall ever sorrow 
 because Jesus was unfaithful or deserted 
 the heart that trusted Him in the hour of 
 need. Everything else may change, but 
 Christ is the same ** yesterday, to-day, and 
 forever.'' Paul, who had more trials than 
 most men, who had been shipwrecked, and 
 beaten with rods, stoned until he was left 
 for dead, and imprisoned through weary 
 years, after it all was able to say with 
 joyous confidence: **I am persuaded, that 
 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things pres- 
 ent, nor things to come, nor height nor 
 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
 to separate us from the love of God, which 
 is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
THE BIETH OF INDIVIDUALITY 
 
 ^'And God said, Let the waters under the heaven 
 be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land 
 appear : And it was so." — Gen. 1 : 9. 
 
 OUR text brings us to the birth of 
 individuality in the story of creation. 
 Up to this point in this condensed biography 
 of the universe we have been dealing with the 
 world in a mass — a great seething, heaving 
 mass. It is all alike. It is vast and awe- 
 inspiring, but it is monotonous. Now God's 
 purpose begins to express itself in indi- 
 vidual shapes and forms. Diversity is in- 
 troduced. Things begin to differ from each 
 other, and have characteristics of their own. 
 The waters begin to recede, and the gaunt, 
 huge mountains peer forth into the atmos- 
 phere and thrust their summits upward into 
 the newly formed sky. Individualism now 
 takes its place. Each mountain and canon 
 and valley and tableland has topography 
 and story of its very own. The world now 
 begins to take on added interest. 
 
 114 
 
THE SISTH OF INDIVIDUALITY 115 
 
 We should learn from this the importance 
 of individuality in our human lives. It is a 
 sin to try to make people all on the same 
 cut-and-dried plan. Much of the interest 
 of humanity lies in the diversity of gift and 
 power. There is much in our modern civili- 
 zation which tends to force men and women 
 into the same mold, and make everybody 
 simply an ape of somebody else. 
 
 There is a picture which has attracted a 
 great deal of attention recently on the conti- 
 nent of Europe, which has given a very pain- 
 ful impression to many people who have 
 studied it. The picture represents a youth 
 in the very flower of his age grasped by a 
 monster whose arms seem like walls of iron 
 all around him. The youth is helpless in 
 the grasp of the giant, and is bowing his 
 head in a sort of resigned despair. It is 
 useless to struggle ! Men have felt the truth 
 of that picture. There is a truth in it. 
 There is much in our modern civilization 
 that presses on life. There are influences 
 laid upon us all, the effect of which is to 
 obstruct the free development of our indi- 
 
lie TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 viduality and to squeeze out of us that 
 divine gift of personality which makes one 
 person different from another. We should 
 seek in dealing with children and youth com- 
 ing under our guidance, and in the develop- 
 ment of our own natures, to give freedom to 
 the original bent and talent with which God 
 has endowed the human soul. 
 
 II 
 
 We should see the interest which belongs 
 to youth that has as yet untried possibilities 
 in it. The new lands are interesting not 
 because of what they are, but because of 
 their promise. Dawson, the scientist, re- 
 ferring to the statement in connection with 
 this text that '^God saw that it was good,'* 
 comments that to our view that primeval 
 dry land would scarcely have seemed good. 
 It was a world of bare, rocky peaks and 
 verdureless valleys — ^here active volcanoes, 
 with their heaps of scoria and scarcely 
 cooled lava currents, there vast mud flats, 
 recently upheaved from the bottom of the 
 waters, nowhere even a blade of grass, or a 
 
TEE BIBTR OF INDIVIDUALITY 117 
 
 clinging lichen. Yet it was good in the 
 view of its Maker, who could see it in re- 
 lation to the uses for which He had made it, 
 and as a fit preparatory step to the new 
 wonders He was soon to introduce. The 
 opportunity to live and work out God's pur- 
 pose in us in the world is a priceless privi- 
 lege. Every youth should realize that he 
 is a separate individual study and creation 
 of Almighty God, intended to fulfil a mis- 
 sion among men, to do work which in some 
 high and noble sense, which we can not fully 
 understand, no one else will ever be able 
 to do — work which if he fails to do must re- 
 main undone forever. The violet is a very 
 delicate little blossom, but how distinctly 
 poorer the world would be in flowers if it 
 refused to bloom. The song thrush is a 
 little bird, but if it ceased to sing the 
 woods would be perceptibly impoverished of 
 song. So God has given to each one of us 
 some power to wake music thati is needed 
 in the great orchestra of human life, and 
 every one of us who fails to do our work 
 at the very best in some way mars the 
 divine harmony. To every human heart 
 there is given the spiritual soil out of which 
 
118 TEE WOELD'JS CEILDHOOI) 
 
 there may come a blossom of spiritual 
 beauty having a fragrance all its own, and 
 if our hearts are so closed to the wooing of 
 the heavenly sunshine that they do not bloom 
 or yield their fragrance, we are robbing 
 God and mankind. We talk about the fear 
 of death. Life is much more a thing to 
 stand in awe of. Let us stand before each 
 day of life with that enthusiasm and ro- 
 mantic feeling which belong to new discovery 
 and opportunities to do great things that 
 shall be of blessing to the world. The worst 
 thing that can happen to us is to have these 
 ever budding opportunities with the dawn 
 of every day, and yet fail to accomplish 
 what with God^s help we could accomplish. 
 A wasted life is the most terrible outlook 
 of which any man can dream. The poet 
 truly says ; 
 
 Men think it is an awful sight 
 
 To see a soul just set adrift 
 On that drear voyage from whose night 
 
 The ominous shadows never lift; 
 But 'tis more awful to behold 
 
 A helpless infant newly born, 
 Whose little hands unconscious hold 
 
 The keys of darkness and of morn. 
 
TEE BIBTH OF INDIVIDUALITY 119 
 
 Mine held them once : I flung away 
 
 Those keys that might have open set 
 The golden sluices of the day, 
 
 But clutch the keys of darkness yet ; 
 I hear the reapers singing go 
 
 Into God's harvest: I, that might 
 With them have chosen, here below 
 
 Grope shuddering at the gates of night. 
 
 O glorious youth, that once was mine! 
 
 high ideal! all in vain 
 Ye enter at this ruined shrine 
 
 Whence worship ne 'er shall rise again ; 
 The bat and owl inhabit here, 
 
 The snake nests in the altar-atone, 
 The sacred vessels molder near, 
 
 The image of the God is gone. 
 
 in 
 
 We should learn that everything is possi- 
 ble in beauty and usefulness where there is 
 God and a fresh soil. There is here on this 
 bleak new land neither grass nor trees, but 
 given a soil, and God to brood over it, and 
 there are grassy hillsides, and daisies and 
 buttercups, and fragrant lilies, with violets 
 nestling in the shadows, and wild straw- 
 berries blushing in the sun. Here are only 
 
120 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 bleak mountain sides, and dark, desolate 
 canons, but with God to brood over them there 
 are soon evergreen forests of pine and fir 
 and cedar and hemlock and spruce, and 
 foothills covered with oak, and dark damp 
 places adorned with cottonwood and ash and 
 willow. At the heart of the canons there 
 are streams of water which ever and anon 
 flash into waterfalls. These gather them- 
 selves together as they near the valleys, and 
 a river pours forth through the plains. Let 
 us learn the great lesson of all this. Poverty 
 — that is, lack of money, lack of friends, 
 lack of knowledge of the world, lack of ac- 
 cumulation — is nothing if there is the fresh, 
 open mind, the open sincere heart over 
 which God may brood and find complete 
 surrender to follow His guidance and do 
 His bidding. A young man or woman may 
 stand at the gate of life as poor as Abraham 
 Lincoln in the backwoods of Illinois. There 
 may not seem to be much opportunity for 
 influence or power to bless the world, but 
 if, as in Lincoln's case, there is an open 
 mind and a heart sensitive to God's call 
 to duty, then all things are possible. God 
 is always able to make any man or woman a 
 
THE BIBTH OF INDIVIDUALITY 121 
 
 towering blessing to the world if he or she 
 is completely obedient to Him. He can 
 take a man with as little brains as Uncle 
 John Vassar and make him of greater 
 blessing to the world than a hundred intel- 
 lectual giants living at the same time, if 
 he be completely surrendered to Him. It 
 is God and the mountain, it is God and the 
 valley, that produce forest and field and 
 meadow. 
 
 Dr. Watkinson, in one of his recent 
 sermons, declares that all that is great in 
 our spiritual life, as in our intellectual life, 
 is of God's free grace to a soul open to 
 receive it, and he comments on the fact that 
 people do not like a gift. It is the last 
 thing anybody will acknowledge. You do 
 not like a gift. If you can get up a testi- 
 monial for a man, you fancy you are giving 
 him something, but a man has a great deal 
 of sophistry inside him on occasions, that 
 explains that a gift is not a gift. He says, 
 *^I am glad that they have found my merit 
 out at last; they have been a long time 
 about it, but I take it as a recognition of 
 my merit." So you do not like a gift, and 
 the natural man does not like the free grace 
 
122 TRE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 of God. ^*No,'' you say, ^Hhere is not 
 anything exactly like that in nature.*' But 
 there is. Did Milton work himself up to 
 that music of his! Did Shakespeare, by the 
 slavery of his study of dramatic units, be- 
 come a great dramatist? Did Gainsborough 
 become a great painter by drudgery? I 
 am not saying they did not work and toil, 
 but I am saying that over and above all their 
 work there was the free grace of God in 
 genius, and what we call genius in the 
 intellectual world is what we call free grace 
 in the spiritual world. Shakespeare, Milton, 
 Turner, Lincoln, and a hundred others the 
 world will never forget, were given great 
 powers of God. They dared to write, and 
 to paint, and to lift on humanity's burdens 
 out of the strength God gave them, and so 
 they wrought for all time. My friends, the 
 secret of great spiritual blessing and power 
 is right here. Dare to trust God. Surrender 
 your heart and life completely to Him, and 
 God will wonderfully glorify and beautify 
 your nature. Flowers shall bloom in your 
 soul, and all about you shall call you blest. 
 It is pitiful when we think how little we are 
 compared to what we ought to be when we 
 
THE BIBTH OF INDIVIDUALITY 123 
 
 take into consideration our opportunities and 
 traditions. We who were born of parents 
 whose ancestors have been Christians for 
 generations ! We with the blood of mission- 
 aries and Christian heroes in our veins! 
 How pitiful that we with all this Christian 
 heritage, and who have been so well taught 
 in Sunday-school and church, with our 
 minds illuminated with so much of the 
 gospel truth, should have so little spiritual 
 vitality, so little spiritual fire wherewith to 
 warm the world. All that is necessary is 
 that we should here and now hold ourselves 
 completely surrendered to the free grace of 
 God, that the heavenly fire may ignite and 
 cause to break forth into blaze the gospel 
 truth with which we are already charged. 
 I was living in New York City at the time 
 of the burning of a great hotel. The clerk 
 in the office said he looked to the end of the 
 corridor, seventy-five feet away, and fire 
 was breaking out there. He turned to put 
 his books in the safe, and noticed that in 
 the rear of the building, fifty feet distant, 
 fire appeared also. And there was evidence 
 that on the floor above, at another end of the 
 hotel, flames were bursting out at the same 
 
124 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 time. The only plausible explanation was 
 that the installation of the electric wires 
 had given out all over the building; short 
 circuits at many separate points had re- 
 sulted; an unusual charge of electricity 
 from the power-house had kindled a dozen 
 fires at once. My friends, our whole being 
 in mind and heart is wired for the heavenly 
 electricity. The prayers we learned to say 
 at mother's knee, the Christian hymns we 
 learned to sing before we could talk plainly, 
 the promises of God's Word stored up in 
 our minds in our very babyhood, all the 
 teachings and influence of Sunday-school 
 and church, of sermons and prayers all 
 our lives, have been wiring our whole per- 
 sonality for the conduct of divine influence, 
 AH that is wanting is that that inner power 
 of our individuality, our power of response 
 and choice, shall look up to God and cry: 
 
 Oh, that in me the sacred fire 
 Might now begin to glow, 
 
 Oh, that it now from heaven might fall, 
 And all my sins consume! 
 Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call; 
 Spirit of burning, come ! 
 
THE SEA AND ITS SAILORS 
 
 '*The gathering together of the waters called he 
 seas." — Gen. 1 : 10. 
 
 SHE who wrote the popular song, ** Rocked 
 in the Cradle of the Deep," wrote with 
 perhaps greater wisdom than she knew, for 
 the sea is God's cradle for humanity. The 
 whole world is rocked in safety and abun- 
 dance and comfort on the lap of the sea. The 
 sea is the storehouse of the world — a store- 
 house which is inexhaustible and which no 
 famine or drought can ever strike. Few 
 people appreciate what a vast concourse of 
 life is going on in the sea. It is said that 
 the life in the sea far exceeds all that is 
 outside of it. There are nearly thirty 
 thousand species of living beings in the sea 
 which are known to man. A very large part 
 of the food of the world is taken out of the 
 sea direct. In Norway four hundred million 
 of a single species have been taken in one 
 season; in Sweden, seven hundred millions, 
 and so all around the globe all people go 
 
 125 
 
126 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 to the sea for a very large proportion of 
 their food. 
 
 The sea is the power-house of the world — 
 for it is not the rivers which keep the sea 
 going; it is the sea which keeps the rivers 
 going. All the water in our mountain 
 streams, as well as in our great rivers, 
 comes from the sea. They are entirely sup- 
 plied by the vapor always rising from the 
 ocean, which is carried by the winds over 
 the tops of the mountains, where in God's 
 great condensers it is distilled and falls in 
 snow or rain upon the summits of the high 
 hills. So it is not the rivers that fill the 
 sea, but the sea that fills the rivers. Some 
 inland farmer, two thousand miles from 
 the ocean, relying on his irrigation ditch 
 filled at the mountain stream, may' think 
 that he is independent of the sea; but he is 
 not, for every drop of the precious, life- 
 giving fluid which gives verdure to his 
 pastures, richness to his meadows, and 
 apples to his orchards, is the gift of the 
 sea, and would be impossible without it. 
 So it is the sea that turns all the mill-wheels, 
 and drives all the looms and locomotives 
 throughout the land. 
 
TEE SEA AND ITS SAILORS 127 
 
 It is the sea that controls the temperature 
 of the world. It does it just like a modern 
 hot- water plant in one of our great homes or 
 business buildings. It sends the hot water 
 up into the skies, lets it condense and come 
 back again down through the streams, so 
 moderating the temperature of the earth. 
 The sea is the basement of the world, the 
 proper place for a hot-water plant, and its 
 currents in still other ways determine 
 climate. A warm current sweeping through 
 the ocean can change what would otherwise 
 be a frigid zone into temperate or tropical 
 fertility. If it were not for this modifying 
 influence of the sea, human life could never 
 have been maintained on the earth. 
 
 The health of the world depends upon 
 the sea. The decay and death which is 
 going on in all parts of the world would 
 make it a pest-house in a very brief time, 
 full of pestilence that would destroy all 
 animal life, if it were not that the sea is 
 ceaselessly at work purifying the atmosphere 
 and sending wholesome breezes across the 
 land. Without the sea there could be no 
 drainage. The ocean receives the sewage 
 of the globe, and extracts its poison, and 
 
128 TBE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 purifies it so that the winds which would 
 otherwise be the messengers of death become 
 the ministers of mercy and the very breath 
 of life. 
 
 The sea is the highway of the world. It 
 is covered by innumerable roads. Take a 
 great marine map and you will be astonished 
 to note the ship-trails that are marked on 
 it. We talk about the trackless sea, but it 
 has plainly marked routes over which ships 
 come and go with their rich cargoes and 
 their richer freightage of human life almost 
 with the regularity of a city ferry. Instead 
 of being a barrier between the nations, the 
 sea is a great highway which brings them 
 closer together. And in our day the com- 
 merce of the world is having a very large 
 share in the civilization of mankind. The 
 common needs of men are coming to be 
 recognized rapidly through the agency of the 
 sea, which breaks down all barriers between 
 the nations. 
 
 So it is that there is not a spot on the 
 globe, high or low, that does not receive 
 some blessing from the sea. What a wonder- 
 ful illustration of the sleepless providence 
 of God, who created the earth and the sea. 
 
TEE SEA AND ITS SAILOES 129 
 
 and has made this world the home of man- 
 kind, and is forever looking after His child 
 and causing all things to work together for 
 his good. Some poet sings of God as the 
 Great Weaver, with the world for His loom. 
 He says: 
 
 See the mystic Weaver sitting 
 High in heaven, His loom below. 
 Up and down the treadles go; 
 Takes, for webs, the world's dark ages, 
 Takes the nobles and their pages, 
 Takes all stations and all stages. 
 
 Thrones are bobbins in His shuttle, 
 Armies make them scud and scutth 
 Web into the woof must flow 
 Up and down the nations go! 
 At the Weaver's will they go! 
 
 Calmly see the mystic Weaver 
 Throw His shuttle to and fro ; 
 'Mid the noise and wild confusion, 
 Well the Weaver seems to know 
 What each motion and commotion, 
 What each fusion, and confusion, 
 In the grand result will show : 
 
130 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Glorious wonder! What a weaving! 
 To the dull beyond believing. 
 Such no fabled ages know, 
 Only faith can see the mystery, 
 How, along the isles of history. 
 Where the feet of sages go. 
 Loveliest to the fairest eyes. 
 Grand the mystic tapet lies: 
 Soft and smooth and every spreading, 
 As if made for angel 's treading — 
 Tufted circles touching ever; 
 Every figure has its plaidings, 
 Brighter forms and softer shadings, 
 Each illumined — what a riddle — 
 From 6- cross that gems the middle. 
 
 *Tis a saying — some reject it — 
 That its light is all reflected ; 
 That the tapet lines are given 
 By a sun that shines in heaven: 
 'Tis believed — by all believing — 
 That great God Himself is weaving. 
 Bringing out the world's dark mystery. 
 In the light of faith and history ; 
 And, as web and wool diminish. 
 Comes the grand and glorious finish, 
 When begin the golden ages, 
 Long foretold by seers and sages. 
 
THE SEA AND ITS SAILORS 131 
 
 We can not study the sea without having 
 suggested to us that stirring figure which 
 we use so often, in which human life is 
 compared to a voyage, and our destiny be- 
 comes the port toward which we are sail- 
 ing. Job, in his day of trial, speaking of 
 the rapid passing of human life, declared 
 that his days up to that time had ** passed 
 away as the swift ships.'' The writer of 
 the Book of Proverbs, in his graphic and 
 wonderful picture of a wise woman and 
 her resources for blessing others, says, **She 
 is like the merchants' ships." We are all 
 voyagers, sailing toward the future. We 
 carry different cargoes, and sail under dif- 
 ferent flags, and the port we have in view 
 and our hopes concerning it differ widely 
 indeed. We often look at men and women 
 who are strangers to us and wonder whither 
 they are sailing, what spiritual cargo they 
 carry, and to what haven their souls aspire. 
 Wordsworth has painted a very striking 
 picture of thoughts that rose in his mind on 
 seeing a ship start forth on its voyage: 
 
132 THE WOBLD*S CHILDHOOD 
 
 With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh 
 
 Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed; 
 
 Some lying fast at anchor in the road, 
 
 Some veering up and down, one knew not why, 
 
 A goodly Vessel did I then espy 
 
 Come like a giant from a haven broad; 
 
 And lustily along the bay she strode. 
 
 Her tackling rich, and of apparel high. 
 
 This Ship was naught to me, nor I to her, 
 
 Yet I pursued her with a Lover's look; 
 
 This Ship to all the rest I did prefer: 
 
 When will she turn, and whither? She will brook 
 
 No tarrying: where she comes the wind must stir; 
 
 On went she, and due north her journey took. 
 
 Where lies the land to which yon Ship must go? 
 Fresh as a lark mounting at break of day 
 Festively she puts forth in trim array; 
 Is she for tropic suns; or polar snow? 
 What boots the inquiry? — Neither friend nor foe 
 She cares for; let her travel where she may 
 She finds familiar friends, a beaten way 
 Ever before her, and a wind to blow. 
 Yet still I ask, what haven is her mark? 
 And, almost as it was when ships were rare 
 (From time to time, like Pilgrims, here and there 
 Crossing the waters), doubt, and something dark, 
 Of the old Sea some reverential fear 
 Is with me at thy farewell, joyous Bark! 
 
THE SEA AND ITS SAILOBS 133 
 
 Our discussion will be of little avail unless 
 it awakens in our hearts earnest questionings 
 in regard to our own voyage of life. Whither 
 are we sailing? Who stands as the captain 
 at the wheel of our life-ship ? To what haven 
 do we carry papers and cargo? It is our 
 most precious privilege to have Christ in 
 the ship with us. In such a case we may 
 be sure that no storm can overcome us. 
 Once when Christ was on earth He was in 
 the ship with His friends, and when the 
 storm arose and they were greatly fright- 
 ened and besought His interest, He spoke 
 peace to the waves, and they marveled that 
 the very winds and the sea obeyed Him. Is 
 Christ with you in the ship? If He is not. 
 He is not far away and, if you will call 
 for Him, He will answer. On one occasion, 
 when the friends of Christ were on the sea 
 at night, and a great storm came up that 
 threatened them with shipwreck, Jesus was 
 watching from the land, and when He saw 
 their danger He came walking across the 
 waves, and when He drew near they were 
 frightened, and thought they saw His ghost, 
 and they cried out that it was a spirit, 
 but Jesus said to them : * ^ Lo ! it is I ; be not 
 
134 THE WOULD 'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 afraid. ^^ And He came into the vessel, and 
 at His word the storm was calmed, and they 
 soon came to the land in peace. I doubt not 
 I speak to some of you now who are in the 
 midst of the storm. With you, as with 
 those early disciples, the winds are con- 
 trary. The night is dark, the waves of 
 trouble run high about your ship. It seems 
 to you as tho shipwreck of your fondest 
 hopes and plans were certain. Oh, my friend, 
 across the sea of your troubles, of your 
 sorrows, yes, even of your sins, Christ 
 comes walking to-night, and He is saying 
 to you through the message of His Word, 
 **Lo! it is I; be not afraid. '^ 
 
 Let us ask again whither are we sailing 
 and what haven beyond the grave do we hope 
 to enter? Henry Van Dyke, in his beautiful 
 little book, ^* Ships and Havens,'' declares 
 that the passion of immortality is the thing 
 that immortalizes our being. To be in love 
 with heaven is the surest way to be fitted for 
 it. Desire is the magnetic force of charac- 
 ter. Character is the compass of life. Let 
 us put this question very simply to the 
 depth of the soul as tho it was put to each 
 man and woman among us. 
 
THE SEA AND ITS SAILORS 135 
 
 What is your desired haven beyond the 
 grave? It is for you to choose. There are 
 no secret books of fate in which your course 
 is traced and your destiny irrevocably ap- 
 pointed. There is only the Lamb^s book 
 of life, in which new names are being written 
 every day, as new hearts turn from dark- 
 ness to light and from the kingdom of Satan 
 to the kingdom of God. No ship that sails 
 the sea is as free to make for her port 
 as you are to seek the haven that your 
 inmost soul desires. And if your choice is 
 right, if your desire is real, so that you 
 will steer and strive with God's help to 
 reach the goal, you shall never be wrecked 
 or lost, and it shall be said of you as of 
 those of whom the psalmist speaks, ^*So 
 he bringeth them unto their desired haven." 
 Longfellow sings: 
 
 Like unto ships far off at sea, 
 
 Outward or homeward bound, are we. 
 
 Before, behind, and all around, 
 
 Floats and swings the horizon's bound, 
 
 Seems at its distant rim to rise 
 
 And climb the crystal wall of the skies, 
 
 And then again to turn and sink 
 
 As if we could slide from its outer brink. 
 
136 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Ah ! it is not the sea, 
 
 It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, 
 
 But ourselves 
 
 That rock and rise 
 
 With endless and uneasy motion, 
 
 Now touching the very skies. 
 
 Now sinking into the depths of ocean. 
 
 Ah ! if our souls but poise and swing 
 
 Like the compass in its brazen ring. 
 
 Ever level and ever true 
 
 To the toil and the task we have to do. 
 
 We shall sail securely, and safely reach 
 
 The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach 
 
 The sights we see, and the sounds we hear, 
 
 Will be those of joy and not of fear. 
 
THE EOMANCE OF THE FIELDS 
 
 ''And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yield- 
 ing seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, 
 whose seed was in himself, after his kind, and God 
 saw that it was good. ' ' — Gen. 1 : 12. 
 
 WE are at an interesting point in the 
 biography of the world. The days 
 of chaos have long passed. The waters 
 have gathered themselves together in the 
 basement of the globe and formed the great 
 seas. Mountains have been heaved into the 
 sky, and deep canons and long slopes and 
 new-born rivers add picturesqueness and 
 grandeur to the topography of the world. 
 But yet it is a dead world, for there is no 
 life upon which the eye and the heart may 
 fasten. But God^s purposes are now taking 
 shape, and grass is sprouting in the valleys 
 and on the hillsides, and the barren earth 
 is turning green in the sun. Daisies, like 
 summer snowflakes, mingle with buttercups, 
 yellow as the sun from which they draw 
 their gold. Lilies spring up in the low 
 
 137 
 
138 TEE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 lands, and gorgeous poppies fill the valleys 
 with glory. Trees are leaving forth in the 
 ravines, and the whole world from the brink 
 of the sea to the top of the mountain is 
 being beautified and glorified by grass and 
 flowering plants and growing trees and 
 delicate mosses. 
 
 Our theme can not help but suggest to us 
 God^s love for beauty. He has not only 
 clothed the world, but in ten thousand ways 
 He has made it beautiful. It would have 
 been possible to have created fertile soil 
 and fruit-bearing plants without beauty. But 
 God loves beauty, and this love of beauty 
 blushes in the cheek of the strawberry and 
 the apple, whitens in the cotton field, grows 
 crimson in the autumn leaves, and dazzlingly 
 glorious in the sunset. We should learn 
 from this that if God cares so much about 
 beauty, and is so careful in the creation of 
 the most common things to clothe them 
 with beauty, we should not only do the 
 things that are necessary, should not only 
 
THE BOMANCE OF THE FIELDS 139 
 
 hold ourselves responsible to be just and 
 honest, but we should hold ourselves under 
 bonds to be honest and just in a beautiful 
 way. It is not enough that we are good; 
 we must be good beautifully and graciously. 
 If God qares so much about beauty that He 
 makes tfie heart of the maple-tree, hidden 
 away in the depths of the forest, more beauti- 
 ful in its grain than any skilled human work- 
 man can approach; if God cares enough 
 about beauty to cover the ugly rocks in the 
 mountain solitudes with delicate mosses; to 
 fill the skies with cloud-pictures, the despair 
 of the artist; to make the harvest fields of 
 toil green and white and golden in their 
 loveliness ; to make the winter world spotless 
 as an angel's wing; to make the dying world 
 of autumn magnificent beyond description; 
 to make the midnight sky like a vestibule 
 to heaven; to make every morning sunrise 
 and every evening's sunset like a hallelujah 
 chorus of angels; if beauty means as much 
 as this to God, how dare we imagine for a 
 moment that it is not important in His 
 sight that we should be careful that our lives 
 are clothed with beauty? Some one sings 
 this truth most inspiringly : 
 
140 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 The grace of friendship, mind and heart 
 
 Linked with their fellow heart and mind; 
 The gains of science, gifts of art; 
 
 The sense of oneness with our kind ; 
 The thirst to know and understand — 
 
 A large and liberal discontent; 
 These are the goods in life's rich hand, 
 
 The things that are more excellent. 
 
 In faultless rhythm the ocean rolls, 
 
 A rapturous silence thrills the skies; 
 And on this earth are lovely souls, 
 
 That softly look with aidful eyes 
 Tho dark, God, Thy course and track, 
 
 I think Thou must at least have meant 
 That nought which lives should wholly lack 
 
 The things that are more excellent. 
 
 II 
 
 God links beauty with service. The world 
 is so beautiful that sometimes people are 
 led to think most of that, as tho that was 
 the only thing God had in mind; but in all 
 beauty God has a thought of service. The 
 grass that covers the hillsides and the 
 meadows, the grain which springs up in the 
 fields, and the trees growing in the forest are 
 all beautiful, but they are the more beautiful 
 
TEE BOMANCE OF THE FIELDS 141 
 
 since they also serve. No human life can 
 be long beautiful without service, and service 
 rendered with highest motive is sure to 
 become beautiful. I was reading recently 
 the story of Elizabeth Frye. It was when 
 she was a thoughtless girl of seventeen 
 years, used to all the refinement of luxury 
 and a life of ease, that God came to her 
 through the voice of a Quaker preacher. She 
 consecrated her life to God. It became her 
 very meat and drink to do the will of Christ. 
 When she was sixty-five years of age she 
 wrote: ** Since my heart was touched, at 
 the age of seventeen, I believe I have never 
 awakened from sleep, in sickness or in health, 
 by day or by night, without my first waking 
 thought being how best I might serve my 
 Lord. ' ' Such a life could not help but become 
 beautiful. God sent her among the outcast, and 
 her life became a constant benediction. The 
 work she began in Great Britain among 
 female convicts spread all over the continent 
 of Europe. Letters from crowned heads, as 
 well as from philanthropic people in the 
 common walks of life, began to pour in, in- 
 viting her to visit the prisons of other lands ; 
 and subsequently she visited Scotland, 
 
142 THE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 France, Germany, and other countries upon 
 this errand of mercy, everywhere hailed as 
 an angel of peace and good mil to men. 
 She was changed from a thoughtless, 
 frivolous girl into a woman of great use- 
 fulness and power, whose life was given 
 permanent beauty because she gave herself 
 unstintedly to service. Such opportunities 
 as came to Elizabeth Frye may not come to 
 us, but we can live in the same spirit of 
 willingness to serve Christ and our fellow- 
 men, and if we do so, the same beauty of 
 character will come to us. Some one sings : 
 
 I may not reach the heights I seek, 
 My untried strength may fail me; 
 
 Or, half-way up the mountain peak, 
 Fierce tempests may assail me. 
 
 But tho that place I never gain, 
 
 Herein lies comfort for my pain — 
 I will be worthy of it. 
 
 I may not triumph in success. 
 
 Despite my earnest labor, 
 I may not grasp results that bless 
 
 The efforts of my neighbor, 
 But tho that goal I never see, 
 This thought shall always dwell with me — 
 I will be worthy of it. 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE FIELDS 143 
 
 The golden glory of love's light 
 
 May never fall upon my way. 
 My path may lead through shadowed night, 
 
 Like some deserted byway. 
 But tho life's dearest joy I miss, 
 There lies a nameless strength in this — 
 I will be worthy of it. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Here is the birth of the law of heredity. 
 ** Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap," is a doctrine born on these 
 first fields planted by the hand of God. 
 As the man who sows oats does not expect 
 to reap thistles, and the man who sows 
 thorns need not hope to reap wheat; so in 
 mental and spiritual things everything yields 
 after its kind. It is true of our thoughts. 
 Some people imagine their mind is like a 
 wild, untamed steed that can not be bridled 
 or harnessed, and that what we think is of 
 no moment. But there can be no greater 
 folly than that. The Bible assumes that we 
 have the power to control our thinking. Dr. 
 Ossian Davies says that our thoughts are 
 as truly under our control as are our arms 
 
144 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 or feet or hands. Man is able to concentrate 
 his thoughts, and this habit of continuous 
 attention and control of our thinking lies at 
 the root of all mental and moral progress. 
 How does the young apprentice learn his 
 trade? By sowing certain thoughts which 
 grow and multiply along the line of his busi- 
 ness. How does the student become a ripe 
 scholar? By carefully taking care of the 
 thoughts which he allows seeding-place in 
 the soil of his mind. A wholesome man who 
 takes his will seriously is as able to regulate 
 his mind as the engineer is to regulate his 
 machinery. It is reported that Wesley and 
 Wellington and Napoleon could go to sleep 
 at any moment of the day or night, by sheer 
 force of mental resolution. And are we not 
 commanded in the Bible to think on things 
 lovely, and honest, and true, and just, and 
 pure? Nothing could be more important 
 than that. Be careful of the plants you 
 sow in your mind, for it is nowhere truer 
 than there that every seed shall bring forth 
 after his kind. 
 
 The teachings of John Ruskin are per- 
 vaded all the way through by the poetry of 
 the Psalms. How does it come? As soon 
 
THE ROMANCE OF THE FIELDS US 
 
 as he was able to read he studied the Bible 
 by his mother's side as few children were 
 ever taught to study its pages. Among the 
 passages that he learned by heart were the 
 twenty-third, thirty-second, ninetieth, ninety- 
 first, one hundred and third, one hundred 
 and twelfth, one hundred and nineteenth, 
 and one hundred and thirty ninth Psalm. Of 
 the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm Rus- 
 kin once said: ^^It is strange that of all 
 the pieces of the Bible which my mother 
 taught me, that which cost me most to learn, 
 and which was to my childish mind chiefly 
 repulsive. Psalm one hundred and nine- 
 teenth, has now become of all the most 
 precious to me in its overflowing and 
 glorious passion for the love of God.*' So\v^ 
 the Bible in your heart and it will bear fruit 
 after its kind. 
 
 The spiritual world has this same law of 
 heredity. The writer of Proverbs tells us 
 that **A soft answer turneth away wrath,'' 
 and love generates love again in return. 
 
 M^ Moody used to tell how when he 
 built his first tabernacle in Chicago he 
 was so anxious that every one who came 
 to that tabernacle, whatever else he might 
 
146 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 hear or learn, should hear or learn about 
 the love of God, and so fearful was he that 
 some day some man might stand up in the 
 pulpit and forget to tell the people that 
 God is love, that he had the^e letters raised 
 in gas-jets right over the preacher's head, 
 so whoever preached there, and whatever 
 he preached about, the whole audience dur- 
 ing the entire sermon saw that blazing 
 away above his head, *^God is love." One 
 night after the church was lit up, and 
 before the service began, and before any- 
 body had come, a poor wretched man was 
 passing up the street, and came up to the 
 tabernacle. He saw the door standing 
 partly ajar; he said to himself, '* There will 
 be warmth and comfort inside, anyhow. '* 
 He went up the steps and pushed the door 
 a little wider open, and was about to step 
 in, when those gas-jets blazing away above 
 the pulpit caught his attention, ^^God is 
 love.'' He pulled the door to, turned 
 around and went down the steps, and started 
 up the street grumbling and muttering to 
 himself. He said, ^^That is not true, God 
 is not love; if God were love, He would 
 love me, and God certainly does not love 
 
TRE ROMANCE OF TEE FIELDS 147 
 
 such a miserable outcast as I am.'' But the 
 letters of fire which he had seen kept burn- 
 ing into his heart, *^God is love,'' **God 
 is love," '*God is love"; and finally he 
 turned around and retraced his steps and 
 came back to the tabernacle, taking a place 
 in one corner of the audience-room. After 
 a while the congregation came and Mr. Moody 
 began to preach. As Mr. Moody preached, 
 the poor fellow began to weep. Mr. Moody 
 caught sight of the man in tears, and as soon 
 as the sermon was over he walked right 
 out of the pulpit, and went and sat down 
 by the side of the man who was weeping 
 and said to him, *^My friend, what was it in 
 the sermon that affected you so?" **0h," 
 he said, *4t was nothing in the sermon, 
 sir ; I have not heard a word of the sermon ; 
 I do not know what you preached about." 
 **Well," said Mr. Moody, ^^why are you 
 weeping?" *'0h," he replied, *' those words 
 up there in the gas-jets, *God is love.' " 
 Mr. Moody opened his Bible and from 
 it showed the despairing man the won- 
 derful love of God to sinners, and that 
 man forsook his sin, and taking the great 
 truth into his heart, was saved that night. 
 
14S THB WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 My friends, that was only the most natural 
 thing in the world, that God^s love should 
 awaken the love of that poor sinner in 
 return. How unnaturally some of you are 
 living. God has manifested His love to 
 you in a hundred ways, and yet you are 
 giving Him no love and no thanksgiving in 
 your daily lives. The soil must respond to 
 the seed, but a man's heart may refuse. 
 God has made you so like Himself that you 
 can refuse response even to the divine love, 
 but, oh, the folly of it, and the tragedy of 
 it! Open your heart to the love of God, 
 and let it be the good soil that shall give 
 back love for love for your Savior and 
 your Lord. 
 
THE CLOCK OF TIME 
 
 **And God said, Let there be lights in the firma- 
 ment of the heaven to divide the day from the night; 
 and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for 
 days, and years. ' ' — Gen. 1 : 14. 
 
 OUB text is the record of the birth of 
 time. Behind it is eternity, before is 
 eternity; but here time is born. We have 
 recorded the building of the first clock in 
 the universe — the great clock of time. All 
 other clocks have been modeled after it, 
 and all other clocks depend upon it. This 
 is the one perfect clock which God placed in 
 the heavens to tell the hours, the days, the 
 weeks, the months, the seasons, and the 
 years. This is a clock which no one ever 
 winds up, but which has been going on 
 constantly without slipping a single cog or 
 forgetting a stroke since its creation, and 
 has never gone wrong. The dial-plate of 
 this clock is the blue skies over our heads, 
 and what a dial-plate it is! In the daytime 
 it is brilliant with light, and at night it is 
 
 149 
 
150 TEE WOELB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 set with stars like diamonds. Around the 
 edge of this dial-plate is the rim of the 
 horizon, and it has the sun and the moon 
 for its hands. Both are forever shining 
 as they move, and both keep perfect time 
 and are never early or late. 
 
 Bishop Wilberforce well said that there 
 are few words much oftener in our mouths 
 than that short but most important word, 
 time. The thought of it seems to mingle 
 itself with almost everything we do. It is 
 the long measure of our labor, expectation, 
 and pain; it is the scanty measure of our 
 rest and joy. Its shortness or its length 
 are continually given as our reason for 
 doing, or leaving undone, the various works 
 which concern us from time to time. What 
 present time is, it is most difficult to con- 
 ceive, for even as we try to catch it, tho 
 but in thought, it slips by us. Subdivide 
 our measure as we may, we never actually 
 reach it. It was future, it is past; it is the 
 meeting-point of these two, and itself, it 
 seems, is not. And so the question arises 
 whether there really is any future time; 
 whether it can exist, except in our idea, 
 before it is. Or whether there can be any 
 
THE CLOCK OF TIME 151 
 
 past time; what that can be which is no 
 more; whose track of light has vanished 
 from us in the darkness; which is as a 
 shadow that swept by us and is gone. All 
 this is full of wonder, and it may become, 
 in many ways, most useful matter for re- 
 flection to those who can bear to look calmly 
 into the depths of their being. It may lead 
 us to remember how much of what is 
 round us here is, after all, seeming and 
 unreal, and so force us from our too ready 
 commerce with visible shadows into com- 
 munion with invisible realities. 
 
 Let us learn from this wonderful clock of 
 time, First: Man's supreme place in the 
 universe. Man is greater than his clock, 
 tho it may have the power to crush him if 
 he puts himself in the way of its machinery. 
 This wonderful clock of time was made to 
 serve man. There can be no greater evi- 
 dence of the truthfulness of the record 
 concerning the story of creation, in which 
 man is put in possession of the world, the 
 whole teaching of which is that the universe 
 
152 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 was made to serve man, than the adaptation 
 of this great clock of time to minister to 
 man's needs. A story has often been told 
 of Napoleon, that on one occasion when he 
 was at sea, returning home from Egpyt, he 
 overheard his officers, as they paced the 
 deck on a starlit night, arguing as to the 
 existence of God. That great military genius 
 listened for a moment, and then, throwing 
 his hand out toward the sky, said ^^Gentle- 
 men, who made all thatf So this clock 
 of time is not only the evidence of the 
 existence of God, but a perpetual evidence 
 of the truthfulness of this story of creation, 
 which places man in the center of the stage 
 as the child of God. 
 
 II 
 
 The clock of time enables men to reckon 
 their time and mark the flight of their lives. 
 It would be impossible for us to do this with- 
 out it. Professor Gaussen tells the story 
 of the famous Baron de Trenck, that when 
 he came out of his dark dungeon in Magde- 
 burg, where he could not distinguish night 
 from day, and in which the King of Prussia 
 
TEE CLOCK OF TIME 153 
 
 had kept him imprisoned for ten years, he 
 imagined that he had been in it for a 
 much shorter period, because he had had 
 no means of marking how the time had 
 passed, and he had seen no new events and 
 had even had few thoughts. His astonish- 
 ment was extreme when he was told how 
 many years had thus passed away like a 
 painful dream. But this great clock of 
 time makes it impossible for us to forget 
 or be indifferent to the flight of our years. 
 It makes us divide them up and count them 
 off a day at a time. A few minutes before 
 noon every day by the Eastern standard 
 time, every Western Union Telegraph Com- 
 pany's instrument cuts its connection and 
 is put in communication with the instrument 
 in the Naval Observatory in Washington. 
 At five seconds before twelve a warning tick 
 sounds over the wires. When the skilled 
 operator in the observatory sees that the 
 sun is directly over the imaginary line of 
 longitude passing through the city, that 
 moment the fact is flashed over thousands of 
 miles of wire, and every one of the com- 
 pany's clocks made true. Then business is 
 resumed. The work of the day is planned 
 
154 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 with reference to this appointment. The 
 company's rule is to be absolutely accurate; 
 to test this accuracy every day, and to 
 test it by the standard set in the heavens, 
 and all this purely for commercial purposes. 
 And all the great cities and towns and little 
 villages and farmhouses throughout the land 
 get their time indirectly if not directly from 
 the sun, the great shining hand on the 
 clock of time. So it is that man's thought 
 is called constantly to the heavens, and it is 
 daily suggested to us that since our lives 
 are so utterly dependent on God, we 
 ought to cut clean our connection with 
 every outside thing at least once in every 
 twenty-four hours, and put our hearts 
 as well as our watches beating in time and 
 tune with the great heart of the universe. 
 
 Ill 
 
 By aid of this great clock of time God 
 is ever and anon calling us to an accounting, 
 giving us a premonition of the judgment 
 day under circumstances which impress us 
 and are likely to call us to wisdom. Every 
 evening's sunset is a little miniature judg- 
 
TEE CLOCK OF TIME 155 
 
 ment. The day is done. What has been ac- 
 complished by it? It calls men to thought 
 and to consideration. Every morning's sun- 
 rise is an appeal for a better life. No matter 
 how I may have failed yesterday, with the 
 dawn of the morning hope springs in my 
 heart to make a better record to-day. Susan 
 Coolidge very aptly expresses it when she 
 sings : 
 
 Every day is a fresh beginning, 
 Every morn is the world made new; 
 You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 
 Here is a beautiful hope for you — 
 A hope for me and a hope for you. 
 
 Not only the days, but the close of every 
 week again calls us to a halt. One of the 
 great blessings of Sunday is that it is 
 a mirror in which we see ourselves once 
 a week and are called to account. The 
 months, too, are marked by mile-stones and 
 are forever emphasizing to us the flight of 
 our opportunities. New Year's day is an 
 annual day of judgment to every thoughtful 
 man or woman. Our birthdays are solemn 
 monitors, telling us of the flight of time 
 and calling us to remember that whatever 
 we are going to do, we should be up and 
 
150 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 doing ere our measure of time has flown 
 away. 
 
 This constant reckoning which is forced 
 upon us by the clock of time compels us to 
 take account of the relative values of things, 
 and give the more time to the things which 
 are more important. If we had all eternity, 
 if there were no limit, then we could afford 
 to give as much time to a small matter as 
 to a great matter. But when the clock tells 
 us that the time is passing, and that there 
 can be but a short measure left, we are 
 given wisdom to devote ourselves to matters 
 that really count in our destiny. I have 
 read of an artist's pupil who was sketching 
 a landscape bathed in the glow of the setting 
 sun. A large barn stood in the foreground. 
 The artist watched his pupil in silence for 
 a time, and then said to him impressively, 
 **If you spend so much time painting the 
 shingles on that barn, you will never have 
 time to paint that sunset.'' In all our work 
 we must choose between shingles and sunsets. 
 If we would win the things that are great 
 and glorious and splendid, we must give 
 scant attention to the things that are of 
 small account. 
 
TUE CLOCK OF TIMM iSf 
 
 IV 
 
 This great solemn clock of time, which 
 counts our lives so persistently day by day, 
 calls us to serious and wise views of life. 
 President Hadley, of Yale University, in an 
 address to college students, recently said, 
 **We think of life as a goblet to be drained; 
 is it not rather a measure to be filled?" 
 A wise reviewer of that statement declares 
 that the whole difference between a wasted 
 life and a successful one is in that short 
 sentence. The world forever needs, forever 
 values, the men who fill life with value for 
 themselves and others. **What can I get out 
 of itr' is the worst, and, in the end, the 
 most hopeless motto a man can have. Life, 
 if we get ourselves to drain it, is a pitifully 
 shallow cup. It holds a few pleasures, which 
 are often bitter in the after-taste, a little 
 selfish ambition, but no more. All down the 
 line of history pleasure-lovers, who have 
 taken life to be a goblet to be drained, have 
 found the bitter dregs at the bottom of the 
 cup. 
 
158 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 But the men who have taken life to be a 
 measure to be filled with the best thinking 
 and the best doing they could pour into it — 
 they are the pride and the glory of history. 
 The biography of every great man like 
 Gladstone, or Lincoln, or Barnardo, or 
 Moody, or General Booth, teaches us 
 how much the measure of life may 
 be made to hold. Study lives like those 
 and it is not a shallow cup. Life is 
 shallow only when we are seeking to exhausf 
 it; it enlarges as we seek to fill it. And 
 the end of such a life is honor and peace. 
 When that heroic man. Bishop Charles C. 
 McCabe, drew near the end, he wrote a 
 friend, a few weeks before the stroke of 
 paralysis ended his toil on earth, of a bad 
 break he had had in his health. He closed 
 the letter by saying that the recent days of 
 weakness and sleepless nights had brought 
 to his mind a little poem found under the 
 pillow of a dead soldier in Port Eoyal in 
 1862: 
 
 I lay me down to sleep 
 
 And little care 
 Whether my waking find me 
 
 Here or there. 
 
THE CLOCK OF TIME 159 
 
 I am not eager — bold ; 
 
 All that is past. 
 I'm ready not to do 
 
 At last — at last. 
 
 My full day's work is done 
 
 And that is all my part, 
 I give a patient God 
 
 My patient heart — 
 
 And gi-asp His banner still 
 
 Tho all the stars be dim — 
 For stripes no less than stars 
 
 Lead up to Him. 
 
THE LAMPS OF THE SKY 
 
 ^^God made the two great lights; the greater light 
 to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the nights 
 He made the stars also. ' ' — Gen. 1 : 16. 
 
 WHAT great words these are and with 
 what great themes they deal! In- 
 stinctively the mind and heart are lifted up 
 and exalted. David says, **When I con- 
 sider thy heavens, and the moon and the 
 stars which thou hast ordained,*' then he is 
 led off into great thoughts concerning God 
 and man and his eternal destiny. Job says 
 the same thing in his own grand way, 
 '^ Stand still and consider the wondrous 
 works of God.'' And when God answered 
 Job out of the whirlwind He silenced him 
 with the inquiry: ^^ Where is the way to the 
 dwelling-place of light? And as for dark- 
 ness, where is the place thereof, that thou 
 shouldest take it with a bound thereof, and 
 that thou shouldest discern the paths to 
 the house thereof? * * * * Canst thou 
 bind the clusters of the Pleiades or loose 
 
 160 
 
TEE LAMPS OF THE SKY l6l 
 
 the bands of Orion? Canst thou lead forth 
 the signs of the Zodiac in their season? Or 
 canst thou guide the Bear with her train? 
 Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens ? 
 Canst thou establish the dominion thereof 
 in the earth? *' 
 
 And again David says, **The heavens 
 declare the glory of God; and the firmament 
 showeth his handiwork/' But David does 
 not undertake to teach astronomy. The 
 Bible does not profess to be a book of 
 science. It is the Book of God. It is to 
 reveal to men the presence of God in His 
 world, and the Bible calls attention to the 
 heavens, to the sun and the moon and the 
 stars, as the witnesses of God's power and 
 wisdom as well as the revelation of His 
 benevolence and love. 
 
 To the reverent soul the stars in their 
 courses and the moon in all her phases are 
 lessons repeated every night of the thought- 
 ful care of God toward His children. That 
 this heavenly witness of the majesty and 
 love of God is silent, only puts terrible 
 emphasis upon its testimony, for in all the 
 great things silence is the law of the uni- 
 verse. The heavens are also universal 
 
162 TEE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 teachers from pole to pole, overshadowing 
 all nations and all peoples, the heavens bear 
 their testimony and speak their message. 
 ^'Two things, 'v said Kant, **fill the soul with 
 awe and wonder; the starry heaven above 
 and the moral law within.'' As the moon 
 and the stars speak to ns by night and the 
 sun by day, calling us to note and consider 
 our relation with the highest heaven, so 
 there is something in us to which the in- 
 finite God can speak. Pascal said, *^Man 
 is a worm; but then, he is a worm that 
 thinks.'* Men may look to be very low and 
 insignificant to us sometimes, but the scene 
 changes when you reflect concerning the 
 humblest man that he has relations with 
 the infinite God who ordained the heavens 
 and who is able to speak to this man in 
 his inner soul and make him comprehend 
 the meaning of such words as *^ Trust," 
 *^Duty," ^^ Obedience," and ^^Eeligion." 
 
 I am sure that it will be instructive and 
 helpful to us to briefly consider some of 
 the messages which come to us from these 
 lamps in the sky. 
 
THE LAMPS OF TEE SKY 168 
 
 Stanford Holme, after a visit to the 
 Midnight Sun, declared that of all the 
 forms of idolatry none is less unreasonable 
 than the worship of the sun. For if ever 
 man might seem to be excusable in mis- 
 taking the creature for the Creator; if ever 
 the eye of man might be dazzled and blinded 
 by the glory of any created thing, so as not 
 clearly to distinguish it from the glory of 
 the Creator, it is when he looks upon the 
 sun in the heavens. And of all the seekers 
 after God amid the gloom of heathenism, 
 none ever come nearer finding Him without 
 the aid of revelation than one of the old 
 Norsemen, a supreme judge of Iceland in 
 the time of the Republic; a man of un- 
 blemished life and integrity, who vowed 
 that he would worship no other god but 
 Him who had created the sun, and who was 
 more mighty than either Thor or Odin. 
 And, when dying, he desired to be carried 
 out under the open heaven that he might 
 pray the Father of Lights to deliver his 
 soul in the darkness of death. And if indeed 
 *'The invisible things of God may be under- 
 
164 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 stood by the things that are made''; and 
 if ** every one that asketh receiveth and he 
 that seeketh findeth, and to him that 
 knocketh it shall be opened,'' who shall dare 
 say that the prayer of this old Norseman 
 was not heard and answered. 
 
 Many years ago a tactful minister of the 
 Gospel named Livingstone and Louis Bona- 
 parte, ex-King of Holland, happened to be 
 fellow passengers on board a Hudson Eiver 
 steamer. As the minister was walking the 
 deck in the morning, and gazing at the re- 
 fulgence of the rising sun, which appeared 
 to him unusually attractive, he passed near 
 the distinguished stranger, and, stopping for 
 a moment, accosted him thus: ^^How glori- 
 ous, sir, is that object," pointing gracefully 
 with his hand to the sun. The ex-king as- 
 senting, he immediately added, ^^And how 
 much more glorious, sir, must be its Maker, 
 the Sun of Righteousness." A gentleman 
 who overheard this brief conversation, be- 
 ing acquainted with both men, now intro- 
 duced them to each other, and a few more 
 remarks were interchanged. Shortly after, 
 the minister again turned to the king, and, 
 with an air of kindly fellowship, invited 
 
TEE LAMPS OF THE SKY 165 
 
 him first, and then the rest of the company, 
 to attend a morning prayer. After the 
 conversation that had passed, it seemed 
 the most natural thing in the world to accept 
 the invitation. 
 
 There is no more beautiful nor compre- 
 hensive illustration or type of Jesus Christ 
 than when He is compared to the sun. The 
 prophet Malachi, looking into the future, 
 beheld the coming of Jesus and cried: ^^But 
 unto you that fear my name shall the Sun 
 of Eighteousness arise with healing in his 
 wings. ' ' 
 
 Dr. McCosh, a famous college professor 
 and moral philosopher of his day, tells how 
 he once climbed the Gorner Grat, in the 
 Alps, to see the sun rise. It is one of the 
 great sights of the world. Every mountain 
 catches tiie light according to the height 
 which the upheaving forces that God set 
 in motion have given it. First, the point of 
 Monte Rosa is kissed by the morning beams, 
 blushes for a moment, and forthwith stands 
 clear in the light. Then the Bretthorn, and 
 the dome of Mischabel, and the Matterhorn, 
 and twenty other grand mountains, embrac- 
 ing the distant Jung Frau, receive each in 
 
166 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 its turn the gladdening rays, bask each for 
 a brief space, and then remain bathed in 
 sunlight. Meanwhile the valleys between 
 lie down dark and dismal as death. But the 
 light which has risen is the light of the 
 morning; and the shadows constantly lessen, 
 and it is not long before they all vanish. 
 Such is the hopeful view which believers 
 in Jesus Christ may take of the world. 
 Already wide reaches are illuminated by 
 the light from Jesus Christ. Great Britain 
 and her spreading colonies; Prussia extend- 
 ing her influence; the Stars and Stripes of 
 the United States traversing the wide ocean 
 to spread the banner of freedom of conscience 
 over the Philippines and other islands of the 
 sea; the establishing of great Christian 
 churches in Japan; the marvelous increase 
 in conversions in China and in India; the 
 awakening of interest and pouring of light 
 and hope into darkest Africa, strengthen 
 our faith and quicken our hope that the 
 time is rapidly coming when the whole world, 
 with all its peoples and tribes, shall behold 
 the beauty and the glory of God in the 
 face of Jesus Christ. 
 
THE LAMPS OF THE SKY 167 
 
 n 
 
 The moon has often been used as a type of 
 the Christian Church. It is a striking il- 
 lustration because of the fact that while the 
 moon gives the same quality of light, tho of 
 a lesser quantity, it shines by reflected light. 
 It has no light in itself. It must get all its 
 light from the sun. So the Church of Jesus 
 Christ on the earth, under whatever local 
 or denominational name it may be called, 
 must get all its heavenly light from the Sun 
 of Righteousness. No other light can take 
 the place of that. We do not depreciate 
 intellectual light, the beauty of learning and 
 scholarship. We do not underrate the 
 beauty and power of art or music or litera- 
 ture ; but there is not enough light in all of 
 these combined, apart from Jesus Christ, 
 to pilot a single soul out of the darkness of 
 sin to God and forgiveness. Whenever the 
 Church strays from Christ it loses its power 
 to give true enlightenment to sinful men. 
 And there is the true glory of the Church, 
 to be able to light men to God. The supreme 
 mission of the Church is to light the path of 
 the sinner to the cross of Jesus Christ, 
 
168 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 where the light of forgiveness and salvation 
 may be found. When the Church loses that 
 light, she becomes a poor and pitiful thing; 
 she can no longer prove her right to exist. 
 And we are worthy members of the Church 
 of Christ only when as individuals we have 
 so surrendered our hearts to the radiant 
 beams that fall from Christ that we are able 
 to add something to the aggregate light of 
 Christ's Church and illuminate the dark 
 places about us. 
 
 But there are some of you who are not 
 a part of the Christian Church, yet who, 
 nevertheless, owe it a debt which you are 
 very likely to overlook. Dr. Gunsaulus, the 
 Chicago preacher, tells an interesting story 
 of Philip D. Armour and Dr. Henry M. 
 Field. Mr. Armour had long admired The 
 New York Evangelist, and was distrest 
 when he heard that the decline of the 
 journal threatened to leave Dr. Field, its 
 editor and owner, in penury in his old age. 
 The packer asked Dr. Gunsaulus to invite 
 the editor to Chicago, and then he himself in- 
 vited them both to dinner in his home. At 
 the table Mr. Armour turned the conversa- 
 tion almost immediately to the editor's 
 
TEE LAMPS OF THE SKY 169 
 
 brother, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, inventor of 
 the ocean telegraph. Said Mr. Armour: 
 *^I am sorry that in your brother's life- 
 time I did not recognize more clearly my 
 debt to him. Now every day I sit in my 
 office and communicate with my agents all 
 over the world, and my business multiplies 
 wonderfully just because I can keep in 
 touch with markets for my products in 
 every country. And I owe it all to your 
 brother; if it hadn't been for his faith in 
 the ocean cables I never could have built 
 up such a trade. I keep wishing I had 
 done something while he was living to show 
 him that I appreciated his achievement.'' 
 The packing king kept the same strain of 
 conversation through most of the meal. 
 Toward the last a plate set down before the 
 editor contained among the viands of the 
 course a small slip of folded paper. Dr. 
 Field opened it doubtfully and found written 
 within: **Good for ten thousand dollars at 
 the office of the Armour Packing Company 
 to the brother of Cyrus W. Field." The 
 venerable editor was overwhelmed with 
 confusion and was scarcely able to express 
 his feeling. But, of course, as his host had 
 
170 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 calculated, he could not decline a gift given 
 in his brother's memory, and the order 
 was cashed next morning. 
 
 I have recalled the incident because there 
 seems to me to be in this sense of indebted- 
 ness which Mr. Armour felt toward the 
 great inventor of the ocean telegraph a 
 realization of obligation which ought to be 
 more keenly felt by every man and woman 
 here who is living a moral and to a degree 
 an upright life without any acknowledged 
 help to Christianity. You owe to the Church 
 of Christ a debt which you have never 
 recognized. Indeed, you may sometimes say, 
 as have others, that it is only the weak man 
 who is unable to live an upright and true 
 life without the aid of Jesus Christ. Ah ! my 
 friend, with what a poor grace come such 
 words or such thoughts from you, who all 
 your lifetime have lived within range of 
 the light that falls from the windows of 
 the Christian Church ; who from the time you 
 were little children until now have been, 
 whether consciously or not, held back from 
 evil ways and inspired to good deeds through 
 the light that has fallen upon your path and 
 upon your heart from Christian sources. 
 
TEE LAMPS OF THE SKY 171 
 
 Do not, I beg of you, live longer this life of 
 ingratitude. It is unworthy of you. Pay the 
 debt you owe to Jesus Christ. Surrender 
 your whole life and heart to Him and allow 
 Him to illuminate all your soul with His 
 glorious presence. 
 
 in 
 
 The stars are used in the Scriptures as an 
 illustration of the light of individual char- 
 acters and careers. Paul, in his wonderful 
 and oft-quoted discussion of the resurrection 
 of the dead, says: ^* There is one glory of 
 the sun, and another glory of the moon, and 
 another glory of the stars; for one star 
 differeth from another star in glory. ' * There 
 are two thoughts here that we ought to 
 impress upon our minds and upon our hearts 
 as well. First, we have our individuality. 
 All stars are not alike. And each star must 
 get its light from Christ. We should not 
 find fault with one another because we do not 
 shine in exactly the same degree. Not only 
 so, but no one can take our place. In some 
 mysterious and tremendous sense it must be 
 true that if we do not do our work, it never 
 
172 TME WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 can be done. There must be some place un- 
 lighted unless we give ourselves to the best 
 of our ability to shine for Christ. 
 
 The other thought is this, that the possi- 
 bility of being a light-bearer to the world 
 belongs by inheritance to every one of us. 
 That means that it is possible for each of 
 us in a peculiar and sensible degree to make 
 the world a brighter, a happier, a more 
 glorious place in which to live. We have 
 natures with so much of heaven in them 
 that notwithstanding all our meanness and 
 our sin, if we will humbly submit them to 
 God, the light that was in Jesus Christ can 
 seize hold upon that wick of the heavenly 
 nature in us, and light it, and feed it, so that 
 it will shine forth like a star in the com- 
 munity where we live. And how many times 
 I have seen a man whose whole nature seemed 
 dark as midnight because of his drunken- 
 ness or his vulgarity or his dishonesty or 
 his heartless selfishness, come under the 
 power of the gospel of Christ, and be so 
 wrought upon by the Holy Spirit that in 
 humility and repentance he surrendered him- 
 self at the mercy seat before God, and He 
 found somewhere in the dark chambers of 
 
THE LAMPS OF THE SKY 173 
 
 the soul a wick which He could light, and 
 lo! there flamed forth a lamp of heaven full 
 of beauty and love and showing the graces of 
 the spirit of Christ. My friend, it is the 
 glory of this gospel I bring to you that I 
 may assure you that there is not one of you 
 who has not within you the capacity to be 
 lighted from heaven, so that you may shine 
 as a star in the firmament of Christ's king- 
 dom. 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 
 
 ^'God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of 
 living creatures, and let birds fly, ' ' etc. — Gen. 1 : 20-25. 
 
 WHAT a silent world it was at the 
 opening of the fifth creative epoch! 
 It was a completed world, but without in- 
 habitants. The house was finished, even to 
 its decoration, but there were no tenants. 
 It was an empty world, waiting to be 
 peopled. There were seas, bays, lakes, 
 rivers, and brooks; but there were no fish, 
 nor turtles, nor any living thing to cast 
 up even a shell along the seashore. The 
 mountains lifted their sublime forms into 
 the sky and the great canons were growing 
 dark with trees, and the river-bottoms beau- 
 tiful with verdure, and the wide-stretching 
 plains green with their new carpets of 
 grass. Flowering trees and shrubs shed 
 their fragrance over the forests, and multi- 
 tudes of blossoms made beautiful the 
 meadow-lands in the lower vales; but there 
 was no eye or personality save God and the 
 
 174 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 175 
 
 angels to rejoice in it. There was not even 
 a bee to gather honey from the flowers. 
 There were no squirrels to play about the 
 roots of the trees, and no birds to make 
 nests in or sing among their branches. There 
 were no cattle on the plains, no wild beasts 
 in the jungle or the forest. It was a silent, 
 sleeping world. 
 
 And now God would fit it up for man, and 
 so He speaks and calls into being creatures 
 that are to give happiness to these new 
 children for whom He is making such 
 splendid preparation. **And God said. Let 
 the waters swarm with swarms of living 
 creatures, and let birds fly above the earth 
 in the open firmament of heaven. And God 
 created the great sea-monsters, and every 
 living creature that moveth, wherewith the 
 waters swarm, after their kind, and every 
 winged bird after its kind: and God saw 
 that it was good. And God blessed them, 
 saying. Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill 
 the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply 
 on the earth. And there was evening and 
 there was morning, a fifth day. And God 
 said. Let the earth bring forth living 
 creatures after their kind, cattle and creep- 
 
176 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 ing things, and beasts of the earth after 
 their kind: and it was so. And God made 
 the beasts of the earth after their kind, and 
 the cattle after their kind, and everything 
 that creepeth upon the ground after its kind : 
 and God saw that it was good/' 
 
 The mystery of life faces us in this theme. 
 For the first time in our study of the child- 
 hood of the world we are face to face with 
 living creatures. Scripture agrees with 
 science in representing life as having a 
 physical basis. A generation or two ago 
 scientific men, however, were commonly ex- 
 pecting to soon discover the source of life in 
 material things. No great scientist expects 
 it any longer. Huxley said, *'The chasm 
 between the not living and the living the 
 present state of knowledge can not bridge. *' 
 And Haeckel says, *^Most naturalists of our 
 time have given up the attempt to account 
 for the origin of life by natural causes.'' 
 And so modern learning has been driven 
 back to God and His creative fiat. Milton, in 
 his immortal *^ Paradise Lost," pictures with 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 177 
 
 stately but graphic portraiture the wonderful 
 scenes depicted in our text. Speaking of the 
 creation of the living things in the waters 
 
 he says: 
 
 Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, 
 
 With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals 
 
 Of fish that, with their fins, and shining scales, 
 
 Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft 
 
 Bank the mid-sea; part single, or with mate, 
 
 Graze the seaweed, their pasture, and through groves 
 
 Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance. 
 
 Show to the sun their waved coats, dropt with gold, 
 
 Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend 
 
 Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food, 
 
 In jointed armor watch : on smooth the seal 
 
 And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk, 
 
 Wallowuig unwieldy, enormous in their gait, 
 
 Tempest the ocean: there leviathan, 
 
 Hugest of living creatures, on the deep 
 
 Stretch 'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, 
 
 And seems a moving land; and at his gills 
 
 Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. 
 
 And turning his eyes upon the living 
 creatures of the upper air, he beholds — 
 
 There the eagle and the stork 
 
 On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build. 
 
 And as his eye wanders over the primeval 
 
178 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 woods both eye and ear awake to the vital 
 transformation. 
 
 From branch to branch the smaller birds with song 
 
 Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings 
 
 Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale 
 
 Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays; 
 
 Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed 
 
 Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck, 
 
 Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows 
 
 Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit 
 
 The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower 
 
 The mid aerial sky: others on ground 
 
 Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds 
 
 The silent hours; and th' other, whose gay train 
 
 Adorns him, colored with the florid hue 
 
 Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus 
 
 With fish replenished, and the air with fowl. 
 
 Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day. 
 
 And now the poet turns in his splendid 
 vision to the creation of the living creatures 
 whose home is to be upon the earth itself, 
 and in wonder he sees: 
 
 Out of the ground uprose, 
 As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons 
 In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den; 
 Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked; 
 The cattle in the fields and meadows green: 
 Those rare and solitary, these in flocks 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 179 
 
 Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. 
 
 The grassy clods now calved ; now half appear 'd 
 
 The tawny lion, pawing to get free 
 
 His hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds, 
 
 And rampant shakes his brindled mane; the ounce, 
 
 The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole 
 
 Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw 
 
 In hillocks : the swift stag from underground 
 
 Bore up his branching head ; scarce from his mold 
 
 Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved 
 
 His vastness; fleeced the flocks, and bleating rose 
 
 As plants: ambiguous between sea and land, 
 
 The river-horse, and scaly crocodile. 
 
 At once came forth whatever creeps the ground. 
 
 Insect or worm: those waved their limber fans 
 
 For wings, and smallest lineament exact 
 
 In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride. 
 
 With spots of gold and purple, azure and green. 
 
 swarming, next appeared 
 The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 
 Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells 
 With honey stored: the rest are numberless, 
 And thou their natures know 'st, and gavest them names. 
 
 n 
 
 This wonderful world God fitted for man, 
 and surely in all this furnishing of living 
 things on earth, in the waters, and in the 
 air, there are many lessons which speak, not 
 
180 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 only to our curious minds, but which have 
 a message from our Heavenly Father to our 
 souls as well. Professor Gaussen, the 
 Christian Scientist of Geneva, says that as 
 in the beauteous creations of the vegetable 
 world, and the creatures of the deep, so also 
 among the birds of the air, we have con- 
 stant testimony of the immanence of God. 
 Watch the smallest bird and you will find 
 the guiding finger of its Creator. Before 
 they have had any experience you will see 
 the little birds undertake and accomplish all 
 the peculiar duties of their being; and 
 accomplish them, too, with a certainty and 
 perfection which no instruction could teach 
 and no experience improve. The tiny spar- 
 row goes through with the whole process of 
 building, laying, hatching, and rearing as 
 successfully the first time as the last. Who 
 taught this little bird of the air, if it were 
 not God? Who leads the young female bird 
 to prepare a nest, untaught and undirected, 
 long before she has need of it? Who in- 
 structs each particular species in its own 
 peculiar style of architecture? And when 
 the first egg is brought forth, who teaches 
 her what she must do with it? Or that it 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 181 
 
 is a thing to be taken care of, that it 
 must be laid and preserved in the nest; and 
 the germ of future life being wrapt in the 
 egg, who teaches its little owner that heat 
 will develop and mature that germ! Who 
 acquaints her with the fact that her own 
 body possesses the precise kind and degree 
 of warmth required? And what is it that 
 holds her so constantly and so long upon the 
 nest, amid light and darkness, storm and 
 sunshine, without the least knowledge or 
 idea as to what the result or fruit of all 
 this toil and self-denial is to mean? Do 
 you say, *^Instincf ? What is instinct to 
 the bird or the beast but the teaching of 
 Almighty God to His creatures? 
 
 The migration of the birds is also a most 
 wonderful thing. The Scripture says, **The 
 stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed 
 times; and the turtle and the crane and the 
 swallow observe the time of their coming. '^ 
 So fixt are the dates of departing and 
 returning with many tribes of birds that in 
 certain Eastern countries at the present day, 
 almanacs are timed and bargains struck upon 
 the data they supply. Now, who informs 
 them that the day is come for them to 
 
182 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 take their leave! Or announces to them that 
 the time is arrived for their return? With- 
 out science, without a map, without a com- 
 pass, without a way-mark, who acquaints 
 them with the direction they are to take? 
 Or measures out for them the length of the 
 journey they have to perform! Who enables 
 them to pursue without confusion their 
 course over pathless oceans, and through 
 the trackless voids of the atmosphere, alike 
 in the daytime and in the night season, and 
 to arrive exactly at the same spot from 
 year to year? To whom shall we ascribe 
 this extraordinary power — to God, or to the 
 little bird? It must be either to one or to 
 the other. It is obvious that the little bird 
 does not possess either the reasoning powers 
 or the geographical acquaintance or the 
 meteorological knowledge which would en- 
 able it to either plan or carry out such 
 astonishing enterprises. Indeed, if man 
 could thus steer his voyages over the ocean, 
 he could throw away the compass and the 
 sextant and dispense with his trigonometry 
 and logarithms. Whatever name we may 
 give this mysterious power, we are brought 
 back to the conviction of Sir Isaac Newton, 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 183 
 
 that all this is done through the immediate 
 influence and guidance of Him in whom all 
 ^4ive and move and have their being/' and 
 without whom '*not a sparrow falleth to 
 the ground." And in all this there can not 
 help being afforded a sublime comfort to 
 our own hearts. It is impossible for us to 
 believe that the God who has furnished 
 water for the web-foot and sunshine and 
 buoyant air for the wings of birds has 
 forgotten man and will fail to furnish satis- 
 faction for those higher and nobler longings 
 which inspire our souls. It is impossible to 
 believe that the God who guides the little 
 bird across the trackless ocean has not con- 
 stant thought and care about the children to 
 whom He has revealed His very soul. With 
 WiUiam Cullen Bryant we must agree that 
 
 He who, from zone to zone, 
 
 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
 In the long way that I must tread alone 
 
 Will lead my steps aright. 
 
 Jesus Christ often used the most com- 
 mon beasts and birds as illustrations of the 
 divine care and sympathy. To illustrate 
 
184 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 His own power and willingness to share 
 with us and help us in all the burdens of 
 life, He called the attention of tired and 
 weary people to the oxen yoked together 
 that they might the more readily draw their 
 loads and said: *^Come unto me, all ye that 
 labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest. Take my yoke upon you and 
 learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in 
 heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
 For my yoke is easy and my burden is 
 light. '^ 
 
 And John the Baptist, turning the atten- 
 tion of his own friends and disciples to 
 Jesus as the true Savior, said to them, 
 ** Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away 
 the sin of the world.'* William Blake, in 
 a little poem full not only of sweetest sim- 
 plicity but of deep spiritual suggestion, 
 sings to the lamb; 
 
 Little Lamb, who made thee ? 
 Dost thou know who made thee ? 
 Gave thee life, and bid thee feed 
 By the stream and o'er the mead; 
 Gave thee clothing of delight, 
 Softest clothing, woolly, bright; 
 
BEAUTY AND BEAST 185 
 
 Gave thee such a tender voice, 
 Making all the vales rejoice? 
 
 Little Lamb, who made thee ? 
 
 Dost thou know who made thee? 
 
 Little Lamb, I'll tell thee. 
 Little Lamb, I'll tell thee; 
 He is called by thy name. 
 For He calls Himself a Lamb. 
 He is meek, and He is mild; 
 He became a little child. 
 I a child, and thou a lamb. 
 We are called by His name. 
 
 Little Lamb, God bless thee! 
 
 Little Lamb, God bless thee ! 
 
 And so, my dear friends, begin where we 
 will, and wander where we may, in all God's 
 universe, we get back to Jesus Christ as 
 the one comfort of our hearts and the one 
 hope of the salvation of our souls. With all 
 my heart's earnestness I point you to Jesus, 
 **The Lamb of God that taketh away the 
 sin of the world.'' He bore your sins, and 
 if you will open your heart to Him, His 
 atoning sacrifice will be accepted for you, 
 and your sins shall be blotted out. 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 
 
 *'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after 
 our likeness; and let them have dominion/* — Genesis 
 1:26. 
 
 A ITER describing the transformation of 
 chaos into continent and sea and sky; 
 into a world of fertility and beauty, peopled 
 with living creatures, John Milton sings of 
 the vacant position still waiting on the 
 earth. He says: 
 
 There wanted yet the master-work, the end 
 Of all yet done ; a creature, who, not prone 
 And brute, as other creatures, but endued 
 With sanctity of reason, might erect 
 His stature, and upright, with front serene. 
 Govern the rest, self -knowing ; and from thence 
 Magnanimous, to correspond with heaven; 
 But grateful to acknowledge whence his good 
 Descends ; thither, with heart, and voice, and eyes, 
 Directed in devotion, to adore 
 And worship God Supreme, who made him chief 
 Of all His works: therefore the Omnipotent 
 Eternal Father (for where is not He 
 Present?) thus to His Son audibly spake: 
 *'Let us make now man in our image, man 
 186 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 187 
 
 In our similitude, and let them rule 
 
 Over the fish and fowl of sea and air, 
 
 Beast of the field, and over all the earth, 
 
 And every creeping thing that creeps the ground. ^ * 
 
 It must be accepted by the most critical 
 caviler concerning man's childhood to the 
 divine, that he has in one sense at least 
 lived up to the purpose for which the Bible 
 says he was made and is entering upon 
 dominion over the forces of nature. As Dr. 
 Boardman has said, all history is the story 
 of man's entering upon this great commis- 
 sion for which he was created. Civilization 
 is the unfolding of the privileges of the 
 charter which God put in man's hands at 
 the beginning. And wherever civilized man 
 has gone, there he has gained or is gaining 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and the 
 fowl of the air, and every living thing that 
 moves on the earth, subduing even the 
 earth itself. Man makes the fish feed him, 
 and the sheep clothe him, and the horse and 
 the ox draw and plow for him. He dikes 
 out the ocean, as in Holland; and opens up 
 harbors, as at Port Said; and digs canals, 
 as at Suez and Panama. He builds railroads 
 through the mountains, as at Saint Gothard, 
 
188 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 in the Alps, and under rivers like tke Hud- 
 son at New York. He binds the continents 
 together with electricity and steam. He 
 pours the waters of lakes and rivers across 
 the deserts and makes them blossom like 
 the rose. He drains pestilential swamps and 
 makes gardens out of them. But this is 
 only the outer surface of man^s supremacy 
 over nature. He takes the sand under his 
 feet and turns it into lenses, its clay into 
 endless blocks of bricks, its granite into 
 stalwart buildings, its iron into countless 
 shapes for bridges and heaven-reaching con- 
 structions. He subsidizes its vegetable 
 products, making its grains feed him, its cot- 
 tons clothe him, its forests house him, its 
 coals warm him, and its electric currents 
 give him light. See how man takes dominion 
 over the mechanical powers of nature, mak- 
 ing the air waft his ships, the water run 
 his mills, the heat move his engines, the 
 electricity bear his messages, turning the 
 very law of gravitation into a force of 
 buoyancy. Surely in our day man, more 
 than ever before, is coming rapidly into 
 dominion over this wonderful home in which 
 God has placed him. 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 189 
 
 Our theme suggests to us the dignity of 
 man above all other created things. As 
 Pulsford says, it shows man's height and 
 depth and breadth and mystery. He did 
 not come from one principle or distinction of 
 the divine nature, but out of all principles. 
 Man is the image of the whole Deity. There 
 is in him a sanctuary for the Father, for 
 the Son, and for the Holy Ghost. Man's 
 creation called for a council in heaven. Note 
 the difference in the expressions concerning 
 the other creative epochs. In the others 
 we read, **And God said. Let there be 
 light,'' **Let there be a firmament," **Let 
 the waters under the heaven be gathered 
 together, " * * Let the dry land appear, " * ^ Let 
 there be lights in the firmament of heaven, ' ' 
 *'Let the waters swarm with swarms of liv- 
 ing creatures," *'Let the earth bring forth 
 the living creatures," and it was so. But 
 now, how different! There is a council in 
 heaven, and we read, *'And God said. Let us 
 make man in our image, after our likeness." 
 
 Joseph Parker says that there is no 
 bolder sentence in all human speech than 
 
190 THE WOULD 'S CBILDEOOV 
 
 that which declares that man was made in 
 God's image. He says it takes an infinite 
 liberty with God and is blasphemy if it is 
 not the truth. We have been so accustomed 
 to look at the statement from the human 
 standpoint that we have forgotten how 
 deeply the divine character itself is im- 
 plicated. If some man were to tell us that 
 all the sign-boards in Italy were painted 
 by Eaphael or Michelangelo, it would be 
 to dishonor the great artists. We would 
 resent the suggestion that Beethoven or 
 Handel is the author of all the noise that 
 passes under the name of music. Yet here 
 we come face to face with the statement that 
 God made man in His own likeness. Some- 
 times we look at men, and that does look 
 like an impossible thing. We look at lying, 
 drunken, selfish men; plotting, scheming, 
 cruel men; foolish, vain, babbling men; 
 prodigal man, wandering in wildernesses in 
 search of the impossible, sneaking in for- 
 bidden places with the crouch of the crimi- 
 nal, putting his finger in human blood and 
 musing as to its probable price per gallon — 
 Ah, it seems impossible. When we look at 
 this depraved and marred and dwarfed 
 
MAIf CBEATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 191 
 
 kind of manhood, we are ready to cry out: 
 **Is this heaven's lame success in self -re- 
 production T' It seems enough to ruin any 
 Bible to have such a statement in it. Ah, 
 but that is only on the surface. We must 
 go deeper. When we look at the idiot's 
 leering face and the sensualist's bloated 
 features and the puppet's powdered and 
 painted countenance, we have, not seen the 
 real man, the real woman. We pass these 
 poor bankrupts in character as a man passes 
 a church or a cathedral that seems rough 
 and unattractive on the outside and sees not 
 within. The sinful man is greater than his 
 sin. God sees him and loves him in all his 
 shame and ruin. And there is that within 
 him which proves his likeness to God in 
 that he has power when divinely taught and 
 led to throw off all this ugly and repulsive 
 appearance and walk forth in beauty and 
 moral splendor. Some races have been 
 found that seemed very low indeed, like 
 Darwin's Patagonian Indians, whom he 
 thought to be lower even than four-footed 
 beasts, and yet after twenty-five years of 
 missionary work among them, Darwin came 
 back and was glad to call them brothers. 
 
192 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 We sometimes see in the slums of the great 
 city men so depraved and vicious that the 
 image of God seems to have been lost. But 
 out of the worst gang that ever infested 
 New York City, after years of skulking 
 thievery, came Jerry McCauley, who became 
 a saint of God, gloriously blest of Him 
 in winning multitudes to righteousness. My 
 friends, we need to tread reverently even 
 among the jungles of humanity, where the 
 weeds are rankest, and the desert desola- 
 tion most appalling; for in every man there 
 is a buried magnificence, worthy to com- 
 mand reverence and awe. We need to make 
 much of this inner life of the soul. Our 
 physical lives are very frail. A great many 
 of the beasts of the earth and many even 
 among the birds of the air are more 
 tenacious of life, and have a more secure 
 tenure than we. Our glory is in the inner 
 being, where we were made in the likeness of 
 God, and which shall go on living forever. 
 A keeper in the British museum once found 
 pinned to a skeleton which is among the 
 specimens preserved in that institution a 
 poem entitled, ** Lines to a Skeleton." In- 
 terested and persistent search was long 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 193 
 
 made for the author, but, tho after a time 
 five hundred dollars was offered, the author 
 was never discovered. These lines set forth 
 with great clearness the superior value of 
 the unseen life over the life of the physical 
 house in which our real life is carried on ; 
 
 Behold this ruin! 'Twas a skull 
 
 Once, of ethereal spirit full; 
 
 This narrow cell was life's retreat; 
 
 This space was thought's mysterious seat. 
 
 What beauteous visions filled this spot, 
 
 What dreams of pleasure long forgot, — 
 
 Nor hope, nor joy, nor love, nor fear. 
 
 Has left one trace of record here. 
 
 Beneath this moldering canopy 
 Once shone the bright and busy eye; 
 But start not at the dismal void! 
 If social love that eye employed, 
 If with no lawless fire it gleamed, 
 But through the dew of kindness beamed, 
 That eye shall be forever bright 
 When stars and sun are sunk in night. 
 
 Within this hollow cavern hung 
 
 The ready, swift, and tuneful tongue; 
 
 If falsehood's honey it disdained. 
 
 And where it could not praise was chained; 
 
IH THM WOULD' S CHILDHOOD 
 
 If bold in virtue's cause it spoke, 
 Yet gentle concord never broke, — 
 This silent tongue shall plead for thee 
 When time unveils eternity. 
 
 Say, did these fingers delve the mine, 
 Or with its envied rubies shine? 
 To hew the rock or wear the gem 
 Avails but little now to them; 
 But if the page of truth they sought. 
 Or comfort to the mourners brought. 
 These hands a richer meed shall claim 
 Than all that wait on wealth of fame. 
 
 Avails it whether bare or shod 
 These feet the paths of duty trod? 
 If from the halls of ease they fled 
 To seek affliction's humble shed. 
 If grandeur's guilty tribe they spurned. 
 And home to virtue's cot returned, — 
 These feet with angel's wings shall vie. 
 And tread the portals of the sky. 
 
 n 
 
 The supreme evidence of the truthfulness 
 of the statement of our text is in the person 
 of Jesus Christ. Here we have a man 
 who fills to the full the picture outlined 
 here. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, in a great 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 195 
 
 discourse on ^^The Witness of Nature to 
 God," says that the golden ladder which 
 is set on the rock of the earth finds its 
 summit in the life of Jesus. One of the 
 things that nature and life oifer us, in addi- 
 tion to the laws of light and heat and 
 gravity, is a Life, a Man that lived and 
 walked over the hills of Galilee. He un- 
 rolled His heart as a flower unrolls its 
 crimson secret. He took the children in 
 His arms and pointed to the angels who 
 guarded them. He touched the rags of a 
 beggar boy and made them seem silken. 
 His tears fell upon the stained hands of an 
 outcast girl and mercy, falling like heaven's 
 dew, washed the little red hand clean. He 
 stood beside the prodigal and whispered, 
 **Made in the image of God.'* He saw the 
 people, poor, ignorant, marred with sick- 
 ness, stained with sorrow, and He had com- 
 passion toward them, for they were as sheep 
 that had no shepherd. And when the 
 man went down beneath the oppressor's 
 heel, He pointed to the stars and whimpered 
 words of hope. He called the Unseen 
 Force that makes for righteousness his 
 Father. Jesus recognized that man was of 
 
196 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 infinite worth because the intellect that was 
 little in man answers to the genius that 
 was large in God. Jesus loved the birds 
 and the flowers and the stars because His 
 Father was the artist who made them. 
 Jesus bade us live on this earth in unending 
 happiness because it was the floor of His 
 Father's house, because it was fitted up icfr 
 God's dear children as no palace is fitted 
 up for a prince's child. When man's tears 
 fell, He whispered that there was a divine 
 hand that would wipe them away. When the 
 youth stumbled and sinned, He urged that 
 there was a divine mercy that would pity 
 and forgive. And when the eyes of the 
 sweet mother, the old hero, or the little 
 child closed in death. He smiled and said, 
 *^In my Father's house are many mansions." 
 My friends, it is in Jesus that we see the 
 supreme evidence of our dignity and our 
 glory. And we are invited to become like 
 Him. We are marred and hurt and de- 
 faced, but David says, **He restoreth my 
 soul," and John says that the man who 
 gets into his heart the hope of becoming 
 like Christ, ''purifieth himself, even as he 
 is pure." You think of entering upon the 
 
MAN CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE 197 
 
 Christian life and entering into the Chnrch 
 of Christ and you pause on the threshold 
 timid and afraid. You say to yourself, 
 *^I am not good enough to take upon me this 
 great obligation.'' My friend, for that very 
 reason you should without delay make this 
 great attempt, for it is not alone, not in your 
 own inspiration or in your own strength, 
 that you must go. No, indeed; the same 
 Christ who came and lived among us to 
 show what our manhood could be like, and 
 who died on the cross to redeem us from our 
 sins, says, '^Him that cometh unto me, I 
 will in no wise cast out." He will walk 
 the way of life with us, and in His strength 
 and fellowship we shall lose our imper- 
 fections and grow into His likeness. 
 
THE GARDEN OF EDEN 
 
 "God planted a garden, eastward, in Eden." — Gen. 
 
 2:8. • 
 
 IT is a very interesting and significant 
 fact that traditions of the Garden of 
 Eden have been handed down from genera- 
 tion to generation among nearly all the 
 tribes of men. The scholarly Kalisch says 
 that Paradise is no exclusive feature of the 
 earliest history of the Hebrews; most of 
 the ancient nations have similar narratives 
 about a happy abode, which care does not 
 approach, and which re-echoes with the 
 sounds of the purest bliss. The Greeks 
 believed that at an immense distance, be- 
 yond the Pillars of Hercules, on the borders 
 of the earth, were the islands of the blest, 
 the elysium, abounding in every charm of 
 life, and the Garden of the Hesperides, with 
 golden apples, guarded by an ever-watchful 
 serpent. But still more analogous is the 
 legend of the Hindus, that in the sacred 
 mountain Meru, which is perpetually clothed 
 
 198 
 
TEE GABDEN OF EDEN 19^ 
 
 in the golden rays of the sun, and whose 
 lofty summit reaches into heaven, no sinful 
 man can exist; that it is guarded by dread- 
 ful dragons; that it is adorned with many 
 celestial plants and trees, and is watered 
 by four rivers, which thence separate, and 
 flow to the four chief directions. Equally 
 striking is the resemblance in the belief of 
 the Persians, who suppose that a region 
 of bliss and delight, the town Erriene 
 Vedsho or Heden, more beautiful than the 
 whole rest of the world, traversed by a 
 mighty river, was the original abode of 
 the first men before they were tempted by 
 Ahriman, in the shape of a serpent, to 
 partake of the wonderful fruit of the for- 
 bidden tree Hom. And the books of the 
 Chinese describe a garden near the gate 
 of heaven where a perpetual zephyr 
 breathes ; it is irrigated by abundant springs, 
 the noblest of which is the ^^ Fountain of 
 Life"; and abounds in delightful trees, 
 one of which bears fruits which have the 
 power of preserving and prolonging the 
 existence of man. All these are significant 
 as showing that mankind is of one origin 
 and that the* beauty of man's first home, the 
 
200 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 bliss of his surrounding, and the tragedy of 
 his expulsion made an ineffaceable mark 
 upon the heart of universal mankind. 
 
 It will be interesting and profitable for 
 us to note in connection with our present 
 theme the gardens of the Bible in which 
 Grod is specially present. Our first garden 
 gives us our theme. The name Eden signi- 
 fies pleasure: and it is certainly true even 
 to this day that the idea of pleasure is 
 inseparable from that of a garden. The 
 farmer may think about his great fields only 
 with reference to hard toil and unromantic 
 business results, but about his garden there 
 is something different. It is not only for 
 food, but for beauty as well. When old 
 Diocletian was invited from his retreat, to 
 resume the royal purple which he had laid 
 down some years before, he exclaimed: 
 ^^ Could you but see those fruits and herbs 
 of mine own raising at Salona, you would 
 never talk to me of empire!" 
 
 Bishop Home says that we must believe 
 that God esteemed the life of man in a 
 
TEE GARDEN OF EDEN 201 
 
 garden the happiest he could give him, or 
 else He would not have placed Adam in that 
 of Eden. The Garden of Eden had, doubt- 
 less, all the perfection it could receive from 
 the hands of Him who ordained it to be the 
 mansion of His favorite creature. It was 
 morning with man and the world. As man 
 was made for the contemplation of God 
 here, and for the enjoyment of Him here- 
 after, we can not imagine that his knowl- 
 edge would terminate on earth, tho it took 
 its rise there. Like the patriarch's ladder, 
 its foot was on earth, but its top, doubtless, 
 reached to heaven. By it the mind ascended 
 from the creatures to the Creator, and de- 
 scended from the Creator to the creatures. 
 It was the golden chain which connected 
 matter and spirit, preserving a communica- 
 tion between the two worlds. AMienever the 
 Garden of Eden is mentioned in the Scrip- 
 tures, it is called '*The Garden of God,'* or 
 **The Garden of the Lord" — expressions 
 which denote the immanence of God in His 
 world and the tender and familiar relation 
 which God seeks to have with His children. 
 But over this beautiful scene of the 
 world's childhood and man's morning, which 
 
202 TRE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 promised a cloudless day, there comes the 
 tragedy of sin and the Eden of bliss becomes 
 a haunting memory to the race. It is a 
 far cry from the Garden of Eden to the 
 Garden of Gethsemane, but they have very 
 intimate relations. The tragedy enacted 
 in the one is the reason for the tragedy of 
 the other, and when we go out into the 
 garden on the Mount of Olives with Jesus 
 and His disciples after they have taken the 
 last supper together, and we see Christ 
 kneeling there alone in the garden, apart 
 from the disciples, and hear His agonizing 
 cry, while the great drops of bloody sweat 
 roll down His brow, *^If it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not 
 my will, but thine be done!'' we see the 
 beginning of a tragedy which is to end 
 on the cross of Calvary. And the agony 
 of atonement for sin which we see in the 
 Garden of Gethsemane has to do with the 
 tragedy of sin of which we learn in this 
 Garden of Eden. 
 
 The next garden is close at hand. It is 
 the garden of Joseph, who had had a new 
 tomb built against the day of his own 
 burial. But when he was convinced that 
 
TEE GARDEN OF EDEN 203 
 
 Jesus was the Christ, and had stood amid 
 the throng that sneered and hooted at the 
 dying Son of God and heard Him pray for 
 His murderers, *^ Father, forgive them, for 
 they know not what they do!'' he went 
 away to Pilate and begged the privilege of 
 carrying the body of Jesus into his own 
 beautiful garden where his new tomb had 
 been built. It was in this garden that 
 Nicodemus and Joseph and the faithful 
 women who never deserted Him tenderly 
 laid the body of Jesus. Into this garden 
 the soldiers came, and after Pilate had 
 put the seal of the Eoman Empire on the 
 closed tomb, these old veteran soldiers kept 
 watch, trying to keep a dead man in his 
 grave. But they were not strong enough, 
 for soon came Easter morning, the angel 
 came down from heaven, and the light of 
 his face so overwhelmed the soldiers that 
 they fell like dead men, the Eoman seal 
 was broken, the stone rolled back from 
 the door of the tomb, and Jesus came 
 forth in mighty power to live forever. 
 
 There is still another garden which has 
 to do with all the others. That is the 
 garden that is to come, the Paradise of 
 
204 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 God. John saw a glimpse of it in his 
 wonderful vision on the Isle of Patmos. 
 He says o£ it: **And he showed me a 
 river of water of life, bright as crystal, 
 proceeding out of the throne of God and of 
 the Lamb. In the midst of the street 
 thereof, and on this side of the river and 
 on that, was the tree of life, bearing twelve 
 manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every 
 month: and the leaves of the tree were 
 for the healing of the nations. And there 
 shall be no curse any more; and the throne 
 of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: 
 And his servants shall serve him: And they 
 shall see his face; and his name shall be 
 on their foreheads. And there shall be 
 night no more; and they need no light of 
 lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord 
 God shall give them light: and they shall 
 reign forever and ever." 
 
 II 
 
 We find here in this first garden of God, 
 where man found his first home, the dignity 
 and glory of work. Man was put into the 
 garden not simply to revel in it, but to keep 
 
THE GABDEN OF EDEN 205 
 
 it and to dress it. God made it beautiful 
 to look at, fragrant to the smell, and de- 
 lightful to the eyes ; but man was to take care 
 of it. It was made beautiful that he might 
 enjoy his labor, but the work was no less 
 necessary and important on that account. 
 Work is the natural and normal condition 
 of mankind. Work did not come because of 
 sin. Work is not a punishment for sin. 
 Before sin had found its way into the world, 
 man was already a worker by the command 
 of God. Indeed, if Eve had been at work 
 instead of experimenting with her curiosity, 
 she would have escaped the awful tragedy. 
 There is no armor to protect us from 
 temptation equal to that of good, wholesx)me, 
 honest work. Idleness is always the nesting- 
 place for sin. The shameful sins that 
 have disgraced so many of -the very wealthy 
 and prominent men and women -of our great 
 cities during the last decade have been very 
 largely the sins born of idleness. To be 
 healthy, mentally, morally, and physically, 
 we all need to have plenty of good whole- 
 some work. 
 
 Every one of us has at least two gardens 
 to look after. First, there is the garden in 
 
206 TKE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 our own hearts, the garden in each indi- 
 vidual soul. True, the garden is no longer 
 an Eden. An enemy hath come and sown 
 tares in it. Instead of the fir-tree has come 
 up the thorn, and instead of the myrtle-tree 
 has come up the brier. But, thank God, 
 the soil out of which the garden of Eden can 
 be developed still lies latent within every 
 one of us. Some one says that like seeds 
 which have for ages lain buried beneath 
 the soil of our primeval forests, there lie 
 deep down in the sub-soil of our moral 
 natures the germs of giant spirit powers and 
 experiences. Fallen as we are, we are capa- 
 ble of being redeemed, reinstated in the 
 conscious son-ship to our Heavenly Father. 
 When we let Jesus Christ become the 
 gardener in our hearts, the chief gardener, 
 while under Him we do His will, it is 
 wonderful what beautiful flowers and plants 
 will grow and bloom in the garden of 
 our hearts. Some of you have become dis- 
 gusted with your own inner selves and never 
 like to be left alone to contemplate the 
 moral weeds that have grown up in your 
 soul. If you would but yield the direction 
 of your soul garden to Jesus Christ, the 
 
TKE GABDEN OF EDEN 207 
 
 beauty and loveliness which He would soon 
 bring into existence there would be beyond 
 your fondest dreams. 
 
 In addition, every one of us is a gardener 
 in relation to the community in which we 
 live. Alas, some sow only weeds and poison- 
 ous plants that put danger and death in the 
 path of others. But we are intended to 
 be a blessing to others. No man liveth to 
 himself. We must either do good or evil 
 to those about us. What sort of seeds 
 are you planting in the hearts of your 
 neighbors? We who are Christians should 
 especially be aroused to the great truth 
 suggested in our theme, that we are put 
 into this garden of the world to help dress it 
 and keep it. Nothing will kill out the 
 religious life so quickly as idleness. Dr. 
 George Truett, in a recent evangelistic 
 sermon on the desire of those Greeks who 
 came to Christ's disciples saying, ^^Sirs, we 
 would see Jesus,'' declares that modern 
 Christians in order to see Jesus must be 
 busy for Him. The indolent Christian can 
 not see much or know much of Jesus. Idle- 
 ness is one of the most terrible foes to 
 gra(5e. It is the running stream that is 
 
208 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 the healthy stream. The stagnant pond 
 breeds mosquitoes and malaria and death. 
 Many a Christian who is spiritually sick, he 
 knows not why, would thrill with a new 
 joy and new visions ^of Jesus if only he 
 would be busy for Him. Doubt, unbelief, 
 despondency, are all cut to pieces by in- 
 dustry and activity. Jesus says, **If any 
 man will do his will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine.'' It is in the activity, in the 
 doing, that doubt perishes and faith and 
 courage are fed their elixir of life. 
 
 I read a story recently of a young fellow 
 Aj^rho had lived for a time a very joyous 
 Christian life, but who had fallen into a very 
 low and uninteresting state spiritually. He 
 had come to have many doubts and fears 
 concerning the great doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity. He was very unhappy, and finally 
 came to his pastor and opened his heart to 
 him. The pastor listened to it all with a 
 heart beating with tenderest pity for the 
 youth. When the boy was done the pastor 
 said, **It is a most serious hour for you, 
 my friend ; will you do me a favor this after- 
 noon?'' The boy's face brightened, and 
 he said, ^*I will, with pleasure; I will be 
 
THE GABDEN OF EDEN 209 
 
 glad to do anything I can for you.'* The 
 pastor said, *^I wish very much to have 
 you go for a visit this afternoon to an old 
 blind man. He is a very intelligent man, but 
 he has lost his sight altogether. He is so 
 poor that he is unable to hire any one to 
 come and read to him, tho that is his 
 greatest comfort. I will be much obliged if 
 you will call on him this afternoon and 
 read to him several chapters from the 
 Bible. *' 
 
 The young fellow turned pale. How could 
 he do it? What should he read? But when 
 he suggested his fears to the pastor, he 
 gave him a list of chapters to ready and 
 asked him to come back again at seven 
 that evening and tell him about his visit. 
 The day passed by, and at seven the pastor 
 was waiting for the young man with a 
 good deal of interest. He was promptly on 
 time, and came in with a transformed face. 
 All the leaden sadness and doubt had dis- 
 appeared. Instead, his face was eager, and 
 laughter and tears chased each other in 
 bis enthusiastic sympathy. Before the 
 pastor could speak or question him, he 
 cried out, * * Say not a word about my giving 
 
210 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 up the Church — about my doubts and fears. 
 When I read to the old blind man, he be- 
 came so happy that he shouted for joy, 
 and I think before he got done I shouted 
 too. Oh, I have learned my lesson — ^hence- 
 forth I will be busy for my Lord.'' 
 
 George Macdonald, the poet preacher, has 
 put with graphic clearness the price we must 
 pay if we are to be true gardeners in God's 
 garden of the world: 
 
 I said, *'Let me walk in the fields"; 
 
 He said, ''Nay, walk in the town"; 
 I said, ''There are no flowers there"; 
 
 He said, "No flowers, but a crown." 
 
 I said, "But the sky is black. 
 
 There is nothing but noise and din"; 
 
 But He wept as He sent me back — 
 
 "There is more," He said. "There is sin." 
 
 I said, "But the air is thick 
 
 And fogs are veiling the sun"; 
 He answered, ' ' Yet souls are sick. 
 
 And souls in the dark undone." 
 
 I said, "I shall miss the light. 
 
 And my friends will miss me, they say"; 
 He answered me, "Choose to-night 
 
 If I am to miss you, or they." 
 
TEE GARDEN OF EDEN 2X1 
 
 I pleaded for time to be given; 
 
 He said, ^'Is it hard to decide? 
 It will not seem hard in heaven 
 
 To have followed the steps of your Guide." 
 
 I cast one look at the fields, 
 
 Then set my face to the town; 
 He said: **My child, do you yield? 
 
 Will you leave the flowers for the crown ? ' ' 
 
 Then into His hand went mine, 
 
 And into my heart came He, 
 And I walk in a light divine 
 
 The path I had feared to see. ^ 
 
MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 
 
 **God said, It is not good that the man should be 
 alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him/' — 
 Gen. 2:18. 
 
 JOSEPH Pabker, commenting on the lone- 
 liness of Adam, even in the Garden of 
 Eden, when left to himself without com- 
 radeship, says that God, who is always think- 
 ing about what would be for man's good, 
 did not make another man to be his com- 
 rade, because if He had, one would have 
 killed the other, as Cain killed Abel. It 
 seems to be one of the deepest laws of human 
 nature that man thrust out alone with man 
 must kill him, and that the only chance 
 of keeping society together is by the 
 marvelous influence of woman. For man 
 to be alone means suicide; for two men to 
 be together, means homicide; woman alone 
 can keep society moving and healthful. The 
 woman and the little child are the saviors 
 of social order all over the world. For 
 woman to be alone is as bad as for man 
 
 212 
 
MABEIAGE AND TEE FAMILY 213 
 
 to be alone. Safety is in contrast, and in 
 mutual complement. Eeverence for woman- 
 hood will save any civilization from decay. 
 
 Whether you take this story told in these 
 first chapters in Genesis as a literal state- 
 ment of historical facts, or whether you 
 take it as a poetical biography of the child- 
 hood of the world, really makes no dilBfer- 
 ence as to the importance of its teaching. 
 This beautiful notion of throwing man into 
 a deep sleep to take a rib from him as the 
 starting-point of a divinely planned com- 
 panionship is very beautiful and full of 
 very tender, significant suggestion. The 
 greatest blessings that come to us are those 
 that come as beautiful surprises as the free 
 gift of God. And so love, which deepens 
 into that supreme comradeship of human 
 society, can not be brought about by shrewd- 
 ness or scheming, but comes as the breath 
 of the springtime of heaven. 
 
 The picturesque and beautiful imagery 
 surrounding this story of the first marriage 
 in Eden ought to silence much of the foolish 
 
214 TRE WOMLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and absurd discussion carried on by people 
 who ought to know better in all parts of 
 the world. It is an absurd discussion to 
 compare men and women, and try to make 
 out that one is brainier than the other, or 
 that one is superior to the other. It is the 
 glory of the sexes that they are not alike 
 and yet are alike. Some scholar comment- 
 ing on the passage, **I will make him a 
 helpmeet for him," says that literally it 
 might be translated, *^I will make him one 
 over against him'* — a counterpart. Each is 
 the equal and complement of the other. 
 There can be no true comparison between 
 man and woman which implies an inferiority 
 in either, for each has what the other lacks 
 and lacks what the other has. The distinc- 
 tion of sex runs through intellect and heart 
 and sensibilities. They are differently con- 
 stituted and organized; but the two to- 
 gether make up the symmetrical humanity. 
 Woman has her sphere, and they are com- 
 rades and helpmeets, but nothing that 
 essentially unsexes a woman can fail to be 
 a curse to humanity as a whole. Tennyson 
 never sang with more of the prophetic in- 
 sight than when he wrote : 
 
MAEBIAGE AND THE FAMILY 215 
 
 The woman's cause is man's; they sink or rise 
 
 Together, dwarfed or Godlike, bond or free, 
 
 If she be small, slight natured, miserable, 
 
 How shall man grow? 
 
 The woman is not undeveloped man. 
 
 But diverse. 
 
 Yet in the long years, liker must they grow, 
 The man be more of woman, she of man; 
 He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
 She mental breadth, nor fail in childhood care, 
 Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind. 
 
 And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time 
 Sit side by side, full-summed in all their powers 
 Self-reverent each, and reverencing each ; 
 Distinct in individualities 
 But like each other, as are those who love. 
 
 Then comes the statelier Eden back to man; 
 
 Then reigns the world's great bridals, chaste and calm, 
 
 Then springs the crowning race of human kind. 
 
 II 
 
 The fellowship of married love and the 
 home which it builds is God's supreme gift 
 to man and the supreme safeguard of 
 civilization. It is the most important thing 
 
210 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 in all our human life. The matter of supreme 
 importance in the nation is not the schools, 
 nor even the State or national government, 
 but the family and home life of the people. 
 If we have good homes, the abode of love 
 and good comradeship, made sacred by 
 the divine institution of marriage, where 
 childhood is protected and developed and 
 brought to manhood and womanhood in the 
 atmosphere of mutual love and faith, out of 
 such homes, indeed, builded on them as a 
 base work, you may have good schools, 
 good government, and a noble civilization. 
 But the pure home is the fountain from 
 which everything else of value springs. 
 
 It is well not to get away from this idea 
 of comradeship in marriage. Both husband 
 and wife are dependent upon each other for 
 their truest development and their noblest 
 success. Under our Christian dispensation, 
 husband and wife are jointly and mutually 
 partners in the home, and the child is to 
 honor father and mother alike. The Chris- 
 tian idea of marriage is that married life 
 is to be of mutual helpfulness and self- 
 sacrifice. Paul declares that the husband 
 stands in relation to the wife as Christ does 
 
MAEEIAGE AND THE FAMILY 217 
 
 to the Church, a relation of infinite love and 
 tenderness. 
 
 Many a famous man has come to his 
 power through the love and fidelity of his 
 wife. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said 
 that he had often seen a tall ship glide by 
 against the tide, as if drawn by some in- 
 visible bowline with a hundred strong arms 
 pulling it. Her sails unfilled, her streamers 
 drooping, she had neither side-wheel nor 
 stern- wheel ; still she moved on, stately, in 
 serene triumph, as with her own life. But 
 he knew that on the other side of the ship, 
 hidden beneath the great bulk that swam 
 so majestically, there was a little toilsome 
 steam-tug, with a heart of fire and arms 
 of iron, that was tugging it bravely on; and 
 he knew that if the little steam-tug untwined 
 her arm, and left the ship, it would wallow 
 and roll about, and drift hither and thither, 
 and go off with the refluent tide, no man 
 knows whither. And so we have often seen 
 a great genius, high-decked, full-freighted, 
 idle-sailed, gay-pennoned, that but for the 
 toiling arms and brave, warm-beating heart 
 of the faithful little wife that nestled close 
 to him, so that no wind or wave could part 
 
218 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 them, would have gone down with the 
 stream and have been heard of no more. 
 
 And, on the other hand, let no woman 
 imagine for a moment that there is any- 
 greater happiness in this world than that 
 which comes from loving fidelity in the 
 home life. Mrs. Browning, herself a most 
 loving and devoted wife, beautifully sang; 
 
 The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, 
 
 Whose deeds, both great and small, 
 
 Are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread, 
 
 Where love ennobles all. 
 
 The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells; 
 
 The Book of Life the shining record tells. 
 
 Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes 
 
 After its own life-working. A child's kiss 
 
 Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; 
 
 A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; 
 
 A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; 
 
 Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense 
 
 Of service which thou renderest. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The fulfilment of the ideal of family life 
 depends upon the complete sympathy be- 
 tween the husband and the wife, on their 
 
MABEIAGE AND THE FAMILY 219 
 
 love and their hope and their enthusiasm 
 for common ends. Out in the Eocky Moun- 
 tains it is a common sight to see a train 
 being drawn up the grade by two loco- 
 motives. The grade is so steep and the 
 load so heavy that it requires the com- 
 bined power of the two engines working to- 
 gether to reach the summit. So the build- 
 ing up of a true home life is a matter of 
 such momentous importance and the dif- 
 ficulties in the way are so varied and so 
 complicated that it requires the united force 
 and sympathy of both the household engines. 
 Earth holds no sadder sight than that of a 
 husband and wife drifting apart in their 
 purposes, ambitions, and interests. The 
 same roof is over their heads at night; they 
 meet to partake of their food at the same 
 table, and then each hastens away, seek- 
 ing that which is his or her special interest. 
 The beginnings of all such driftings apart 
 should be carefully watched for and at once 
 overcome. 
 
 It is the little rift within the lute 
 That by and by will make the music mute 
 And, ever widening, slowly silence all. 
 
220 TRE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 The little rift within the lover's lute, 
 Or little pitted speck in garner 'd fruit, 
 That, rotting inward, slowly molders all. 
 
 IV 
 
 The most beautiful thing about this picture 
 of the first marriage in Eden is the ap- 
 proving smile of God. The Heavenly Father 
 brooded over it all with infinite love. The 
 conscious presence of God was as natural 
 to them in their innocence as the perfume of 
 the flowers, or the breath of the rivers 
 that watered the garden of Paradise. And 
 so if we are to have noble homes and beauti- 
 ful family life where love shall be at its 
 best and no burdens or struggles shall be 
 able to crush out hope, we must not leave 
 God out of account. Make the home *^of the 
 earth earthy," where only secular things 
 are talked about, where only worldly suc- 
 cess is aspired after, and you will corrupt 
 its atmosphere to such a point of unwhole- 
 someness that the noblest life and the most 
 abiding joy will be impossible. Take re- 
 ligion out of the home, do away with prayer 
 and thoughts of eternity, leave the spirit of 
 
MABBIAGE AND THE FAMILY 221 
 
 worship and love to God out of family life, 
 and all the relations between husband and 
 wife, between parents and children, to a 
 very great extent lose their holy and sacred 
 character. On the other hand, how many 
 times I have seen a home that has been 
 broken by sin a!nd vice, where husband and 
 wife, once devoted and loving, had lost 
 the joy out of their fellowship, and where 
 childhood was being robbed of all that 
 beautiful sense of united care and pro- 
 tection that children know in a home full 
 of love and confidence — and into a situation 
 like that I have known the awakening of 
 husband and wife to a sense of God and His 
 love which led to worship and a restoration 
 of spiritual communion, to bring together 
 again the broken fragments of that home and 
 so cement them by the wonderful binding 
 force of love that all the old beauty and 
 joy of home life was known again. I have 
 no happier memories than scenes like that 
 which it has been my privilege to have a 
 part in bringing about through the infinite 
 grace and love of God. 
 
 My friends, make much of your religion if 
 you would ask much of God in the happiness 
 
222 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 of your home. I never can talk on this 
 subject without a tender heart. My own 
 childhood, tho it was lived on the frontier 
 among the rudest physical surroundings, was 
 so glorified by love, and the atmosphere it 
 breathed was so fragrant of worship, and 
 so full of inspiration that came from faith 
 in God and heaven and the eternal life, 
 that I have always carried it in my heart as 
 the richest possible inheritance that could 
 have come to me. And my heart grieves 
 when I see children growing up without re- 
 ceiving that tender religious teaching from 
 father and mother which was the sweetest 
 thing that I knew in my childhood. My 
 friends, if you want your children to rise up 
 and call you blest, and remember you 
 after you are gone with benedictions, and 
 tell about you for generations with reverent 
 love, then I pray you by your reverence and 
 your loving devotion to God bring the divine 
 presence into the home life where your 
 children are growing into manhood and 
 womanhood. 
 
^^MABBIAGE AND THE FAMILY 223 
 
 Let US never forget that the home is the 
 place where we must grow old and die, and 
 should therefore be kept sweet and full of 
 comfort against the days of weakness. A 
 few years ago an English lawyer was called 
 up in the night to go to the house of a 
 farmer several miles away. On arriving, 
 he found that the farmer was dying, and 
 wished to make a will. The lawyer asked 
 for pen, ink, and paper. There happened 
 to be neither pen nor ink in the house. 
 The lawyer had not brought any himself, 
 and what was he to do! '^Any lead- 
 pencils T' he asked. No, they had none. 
 The farmer was sinking fast, tho quite 
 conscious. At last the lawyer saw, up on 
 the side of the bedroom door, column upon 
 column of figures in chalk. So he took a 
 piece of chalk and wrote out on the smooth 
 hearthstone the last will and testament of 
 the dying man. The farmer died that night. 
 The hearthstone was taken up, and taken 
 into court, duly registered, and its provisions 
 executed. As I read that strange incident, it 
 occurred to me that that was not the only 
 
224 TEE WOBLD'8 CHILDHOOD 
 
 hearthstone that was being registered in a 
 court-room, and that if a man could stand 
 the registry of his hearthstone, there was 
 not much fear from any other record that 
 could be brought against him. 
 
 The wise man will make sweet and 
 fragrant the home where he is to grow old 
 and sicken and die. The homeless Gold- 
 smith sings: 
 
 In all my wanderings round this world of care, 
 
 In all my griefs — and God has given my share — 
 
 I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, 
 
 Amid these humble bowers to lay me down; 
 
 To husband out life's taper at the close, 
 
 And keep the flame from wasting by repose; 
 
 I still had hopes — for pride attends us still — 
 
 Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill; 
 
 Around my fire an evening group to draw. 
 
 And lcU of all I felt and all I saw; 
 
 And as a hare, whom hounds and horn pursue. 
 
 Pants to the place from whence at first she flew, 
 
 I still had hopes, my long vexations past, 
 
 Here to return — and die at home at last. 
 
PARLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 
 
 **And the woman said unto the serpent.'^ — Gen. 3: 2. 
 
 OME people have sneered at the idea of 
 
 s 
 
 a good God permitting His children, 
 whom He loves, to be tempted. They think 
 that life would be a great deal better if there 
 had been no possibility of evil. Bnt in order 
 to do that, it would have been necessary for 
 us to have been made without any will, 
 blindly obeying instinct, simply animated 
 machines. Watkinson, the English preacher, 
 saw a certain mechanism described as being 
 **fool-proof,'* that is, the machine is so con- 
 structed that even the most stupid can not 
 easily disarrange it, neither can they well 
 injure themselves. There are persons who 
 seem to think that this world should have 
 been **fool-proof ''; that it ought not to have 
 been easy to hurt ourselves, that it ought 
 to have been impossible to destroy our- 
 selves; we ought to have water that would 
 not drown, fire that would not burn, gases 
 that would not poison. But these people fail 
 
 225 
 
226 TBE WOELD'S CHILDHOOV 
 
 to consider that if it were possible to call 
 into existence a ^^fool-proof *' world, it would 
 be impossible to people it with men and 
 women and children with the hopes and 
 ambitions and possibilities which animate 
 us. We owe more than we can dream to 
 the fact and imminence of danger. It is 
 thus that our faculties are disciplined, that 
 we have reached strength and acuteness of 
 mind and body. 
 
 Mark Guy Pearse aptly says that while it 
 is true we might have been placed in such 
 circumstances that we never would have been 
 tempted and therefore would not have fallen, 
 but then again we would not have risen. 
 Innocence is not a virtue until it has had 
 temptation and opportunity to sin; then 
 innocence is strengthened by resistance, and 
 exalted by victory into virtue. Everywhere 
 and in everything that is a poor, languid, 
 sickly kind of life which never had a chance 
 of overcoming. Temptation overcome is the 
 way, the only way, to the very throne of 
 God. Suppose, to return to Watkinson's 
 figure, that this world were morally ** fool- 
 proof — that is, that it were impossible 
 for us to go wrong — what manner of men 
 
PARLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 227 
 
 should we be! Not men at all. The con- 
 stitution of things does not tempt us to go 
 wrong, but the possibility of transgression 
 is the condition of our greatness and its per- 
 fection. The world was evidently not de- 
 signed for amiable lunatics, but for the 
 wise, the strong, the faithful ; and such are 
 educated into perfection through difficulty 
 and temptation and danger. 
 
 Amongst the brave men of old there was a 
 notion that when one conquered an enemy 
 the strength of the enemy went into the 
 conqueror, and he became so much stronger 
 by every conquest, and thus went on from 
 strength to strength. So God grows His 
 heroes by overcoming. And this is the law 
 of all great success. A young man comes 
 here to Kansas City to enter into business 
 or professional life. He does not expect to 
 get on without any struggle. He knows 
 that if he is to win his way, he must work 
 hard, keep his eyes open, and be ready to 
 resist temptations to weakness and dissipa- 
 tion, and strive to overcome. If he has 
 any true metal in him, he rejoices in real 
 difficulties, where it is a fair ^ght and a 
 chance to win by hard work. It knits the 
 
228 TEE WORLD'S CEtLDHOOD 
 
 muscles of Ms character; it develops in 
 him courage, determination, and heroism. 
 So you can never develop great moral char- 
 acter without the resistance of temptation 
 to evil. There may be many questions about 
 this that we can not answer, but of this we 
 are sure, we never could have been the 
 kind of men and women pictured to us in the 
 manhood of Jesus Christ without the dis- 
 cipline of temptation overcome. 
 
 What I have said in this introduction ap- 
 plies really to the next ten sermons in our 
 series, but it seemed more appropriate to 
 have it come here at the opening discussion 
 of this question of temptation to sin. Our 
 special theme at this moment is the danger 
 of parleying with evil; the weakness that 
 must always come to us when we give way 
 to a discussion with the tempter. Eve's 
 position was invulnerable if she had but 
 turned her back upon Satan and given 
 herself in loyalty to God. But when she 
 condescended to talk the matter over with 
 
PABLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 229 
 
 the enemy, and permitted herself to listen 
 to his sneers and insinuations against the 
 goodness and truthfulness of God, the be- 
 ginning of the end was in sight. People 
 who question the credibility of this story 
 of temptation in the Garden of Eden are 
 always compelled to admit that whether it is 
 accepted as a literal story or is only a 
 poetic or allegorical history of the beginning 
 of evil, it is nevertheless true to life, and 
 as true to-day as on any day in the history 
 of man. 
 
 Dr. McGee Waters, when he was a little 
 boy, had for his companion a sister two 
 years younger than himself. They had for a 
 playmate a neighbor's child nine or ten years 
 of age, a little older than they. This 
 older girl seemed to the younger children 
 to be the sum of all that was beautiful. It 
 was a great treat to them to go to her 
 house. She lived in a much bigger house 
 than they did, and she was the only child, 
 and her parents doted on her and denied her 
 almost nothing. One rainy afternoon the 
 younger children had been invited, and 
 had gone to the great house, and in the 
 splendid living-room the playthings had all 
 
230 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 been gathered and they entered into their 
 Eden. They played store, housekeeping, 
 church, and many other things. The little 
 girPs mother had gone away for an hour 
 or two, and she told the children they were 
 to have a good time, and also told Edmonia, 
 her own daughter, that she was not to cross 
 the hall or go into the parlor. The children 
 had been into the parlor many times when 
 the mother was home and had admired the 
 beautiful things. Among other things, there 
 was a cabinet filled with rare and beautiful 
 ceramics and miniatures. There was also 
 some rare china which the lady of the house 
 prized beyond any other possession, and she 
 had told the children that it had belonged 
 to her great ancestor when she had en- 
 tertained General and Lady Washington, 
 Edmonia had been told never to touch these 
 things, and how exceedingly valuable they 
 were, and how some day they would be hers. 
 All went well until they were having a 
 dolPs wedding, and in preparing for the 
 feast the children suggested how grand it 
 would be to use the Washington china. At 
 first Edmonia was firm. Her mother had 
 told her not to go there and she would not. 
 
FABLE YIN G WITH TEMPTATION 231 
 
 Then the little boy began to take on the 
 airs of a man and dared Edmonia to use the 
 dishes. She refused and then she cried, and 
 then the boy dared her some more. She got 
 mad and stamped her foot and sprang up, 
 ran into the parlor, turned the key in the 
 cabinet and took out the priceless china and 
 brought it into the dolPs wedding. But 
 somehow they did not enjoy it, and the 
 feast was spoiled. Finally one of the three 
 jumped up quickly and the table was upset 
 and one of the priceless plates was broken 
 into bits, and all three children burst into 
 tears. It was not anger this time, but terror 
 and regret and shame that shook them 
 with sobs. 
 
 The little boy and his sister went home 
 and left the other girl to face her judgment 
 day alone. About dark that night the lady 
 came rushing over to their house and wanted 
 to know where Edmonia was. She said 
 that she had been home for over an hour 
 and had found the broken plate, and had 
 looked everywhere and could not find the 
 little girl. She had called and called, but 
 there had been no reply. The alarm was 
 raised and all the neighbors started out to 
 
232 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 find her. Just about the time they were 
 getting desperate, a little figure, all sobbing 
 and covered with straw, came rushing into 
 the house. She had felt so terribly that 
 she had made up her mind to run away. 
 She had gotten as far as the straw-rack be- 
 hind the barn and crawled in there and 
 waited to die. The little soul suffered 
 enough, no doubt, to die, but the gathering 
 shadows of the night brought her back to her 
 mother ^s arms. 
 
 Now, my friends, you have there the whole 
 story of the Garden of Eden in miniature, 
 and most of us could people it ourselves 
 and portray it ourselves out of our own ex- 
 perience. The danger with the little girl 
 was that she parleyed with the boy about 
 it and allowed herself to be excited with 
 his dare and challenge to disobey her mother. 
 The danger with Eve was that she listened 
 to the tempter, and not only listened, but 
 talked back and entered into conversation 
 with him, and that parley was fatal. 
 
 You may see the same thing in reality 
 pictured from another point of view in the 
 case of Esau and the loss of his birthright. 
 He comes home from the hunting, having 
 
PARLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 233 
 
 had hard luck, and is hungry and asks 
 Jacob for food. Jacob takes advantage of 
 his brother's appetite and offers to trade 
 him a dish of pottage for his birthright. 
 
 Now Esau, if he had been awake to his 
 real manhood, would nave turned away from 
 the very sight and smell of that food as if 
 it were a deadly poison. For to lose his 
 birthright was to forfeit his real place as 
 a man on earth, his true relation to God 
 and to his family. But he was hungry, and 
 to a man of his make-up that means a great 
 deal. He stopt to parley with Jacob and 
 make a better trade if he could. And the 
 more he looked at the food, and smelled 
 it, the more it seemed to him that it was 
 worth all the birthrights in the world. The 
 birthright was something spiritual, shadowy, 
 and unseen, but the pot of lentils smelled 
 sweet in his nostrils and bore down every- 
 thing else. He feels he is going to die. 
 Prof. Hugh Black says that a man of 
 Esau's type is always sure he will die if 
 he does not get what he wants when the 
 passion is on him; and supposing he does 
 die, it will be poor consolation that he did 
 not barter this intangible and shadowy 
 
234 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 blessing of his birthright. ''Behold I am at 
 the point to die; and what profit shall this 
 birthright do to me?" 
 
 Now, in all these cases the lesson is prac- 
 tically the same. To parley with the 
 tempter, to admit that our doing right or 
 wrong is an open question, is to be over- 
 thrown. True triumph morally must be 
 based upon a decision, absolute, irrevocable, 
 ' ' I will do right tho the heavens fall. ' ' When 
 a man or woman of real character makes a 
 decision like that, there is no more parley- 
 ing. The question is not open for dis- 
 cussion. And, depend upon it, as long as 
 it is open for discussion, your soul is in 
 deadly danger of overthrow and destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 n 
 
 We are living in a time when all this is 
 of peculiar significance. Everything is 
 questioned to-day. There is nothing that 
 men dare not call in question. There is 
 nothing so sacred that it can escape chal- 
 lenge, and men and women are being ruined 
 in multitudes because, like the little girl in 
 
PABLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 235 
 
 Dr. Waters 's story, they can not stand being 
 dared or challenged to experiment with evil. 
 It is a time when men and women seem 
 reckless in trying to see how near they can 
 come to the precipice of eternal disaster 
 and yet escape with a whole character. But 
 it is as true to-day as it was in the days 
 of Eve that to parley with temptation is 
 to take the risk of ruin. A famous chemist 
 recently said that cyanid of potassium is 
 the most dangerous of all poisons because 
 of a singular quality it possesses. It is in 
 appearance so very attractive to those who 
 handle it that they are often seized with an 
 almost overwhelming desire to eat it. To 
 one man who has a fondness for saccharin 
 substance, it suggests sugar; and to another, 
 snow newly fallen; but to both it is so al- 
 luring that they may only overcome the 
 temptation to put it in their mouths by 
 great force of will power. The very men 
 who make it, and who are most familiar with 
 its deadly properties, are pursued by an 
 unreasonable desire to eat the poison, and as 
 long as they remain in its vicinity this ex- 
 traordinary craving endures. They know 
 that to give way to the craving means death 
 
236 TEE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 almost instantly and horribly, and as a con- 
 sequence are usually able to resist the 
 strange temptation, but during the last ten 
 years, in one large manufacturing chemist's 
 laboratory, four intelligent and steady work- 
 men have committed suicide in that way. 
 The owner of the plant recently said that 
 many times when in contact with the cyanid 
 fumes, he himself had been compelled to 
 leave the work precipitately for fear of 
 yielding to the deadly temptation. What a 
 graphic illustration of the deadly power 
 which sin exercises over the human imagina- 
 tion and heart. It also suggests the wisdom 
 of keeping out of temptation as much as 
 possible. It is great folly for men and 
 women to thrust themselves where they 
 know the dangerous fascination of their 
 besetting sin will be felt. 
 
 Ill 
 
 After all is said, certain safety is only to 
 be found in the active exercise of ourselves 
 in doing that which is right and true and 
 good. Eve's folly began in settling down 
 
PABLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 237 
 
 to gaze on the forbidden fruit. If she had 
 been going about her work with a song of 
 praise to the God who had created this 
 beautiful garden for her gladness, or with 
 thoughts of how she might make it still 
 more beautiful by her loving service, Satan 
 would have had no chance at her. Christmas 
 Evans, one of the quaint old preachers, in 
 one of his sermons gives a parable, telling 
 how the devil once went out determined to 
 do a mighty business. He came upon a 
 plowboy working in the field, and he said 
 to himself, **I will tempt the boy to rob his 
 master; then he will get into prison; 'twill 
 bring him into bad company, so that he will 
 get worse and be transported, and ulti- 
 mately get to the gallows, and I shall have 
 his soul forever.'' The devil strode across 
 the moor and, as he approached the plow- 
 boy, he heard him singing : 
 
 My God, the spring of all my joys, 
 
 The life of my delights, 
 The glory of my brightest days, 
 
 And comfort of my nights. 
 
 **Ah!" said the devil, ^^he won't answer 
 my purpose," and off he went. So, flying 
 
238 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 over hill and dale, he came to a quiet nook 
 in a valley between two high mountains 
 where there was a sweet little cottage over- 
 grown with ivy, with its porch covered with 
 flowers. Beneath the porch a maiden sat, 
 knitting. Said he, ''I will entice her away 
 to the big town and lead her into ways of 
 folly and sin and shame. She shall perish 
 in an infirmary, and her soul shall be mine 
 forever." He drew near to whisper in 
 her ear some temptation, but he heard her 
 singing : 
 
 Jesus, I love thy charming name, 
 
 'Tis music to mine ear; 
 Fain would I sound it out so loud 
 
 That earth and heaven should hear. 
 
 **That won^t answer,'' said he, and so he 
 flew away until he came to where an old man 
 named Williams lived, and as he drew near 
 he said, ''Here old Williams lives. He has 
 served God these fifty years, and if I can 
 get him now what a trophy that would be ! ' ' 
 So he went in and passed up-stairs where 
 Williams lay dying. ''Now,'' said he, "I 
 will make him doubt and die in despair." 
 
PABLEYING WITH TEMPTATION 239 
 
 Satan crossed the room to get at the dying 
 man^s ear, and as he came close to him, 
 Williams stretched out his hand and said, 
 *^Yea, tho I walk through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou 
 art with me, thy rod and thy staff they com- 
 fort me." Satan shrank back abashed into 
 the darkness. And so he would always if he 
 found our hearts and our thoughts taken up 
 with doing our duty. It is the earnest, 
 active soul, that is positively doing right, who 
 is beyond the reach of Satan. Paul sums it 
 all up in his word to the Galatians: **Walk 
 in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the 
 lusts of the flesh." 
 
THE FIEST LIE 
 
 ''The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not 
 surely die. ' ' — Gen. 3 : 4. 
 
 WE have here the first record of a lie. 
 Satan has been making suggestions 
 and sneers to Eve, but up to this time he 
 has not dared to openly attack God. If 
 Eve had held firm to her loyalty and refused 
 to open the door of her mind and heart to 
 the suggestions of the evil one, she would 
 have been guiltless and Satan never could 
 have made an entrance into her heart. She 
 held the key in her own hand, and if she 
 had not opened her heart to the insinuations 
 of Satan, she would have held safely the 
 gold of her character. 
 
 Many years ago a band of Apache Indians 
 captured the army paymaster's safe out 
 in the Western mountains. The safe con- 
 tained about seven thousand dollars in gold. 
 It weighed four hundred pounds and worked 
 with a combination. None of the Indians 
 had ever examined one at close quarters 
 
 240 
 
THE FIRST LIE 241 
 
 before, but they all knew why it was hauled 
 about from post to post and were very 
 anxious to get hold of the money. They 
 first pounded off the knob with stones, think- 
 ing the door would then fly open. When that 
 failed, they tried their tomahawks on the 
 chilled steel, hoping to cut a hole in it. 
 After they had worn their tomahawks out in 
 that effort, some of them remembered that 
 they had seen iron softened by fire, and their 
 next move was to give that safe a roasting 
 of many hours; but it proved to be fire- 
 proof. They threw big rocks upon it while 
 it was still hot, and dented it till it looked 
 as if it had been through the war, but tl^ey 
 were as far from the money as ever. Then 
 they dragged it up the side of the mountain 
 and tumbled it over a precipice several 
 hundred feet high. They expected that when 
 it lighted on the rocks beneath it would 
 burst open like a watermelon, but the only 
 damage done was to break off one of the 
 wheels underneath. They left it lying there 
 where it fell for a while, and then came 
 back and carried it to the river and left 
 it to soak for a week. It was thought that 
 this would soften it up, and great was their 
 
242 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 chagrin to find it as hard as ever. They 
 knew that white men sometimes tore things 
 open with gunpowder, so they set to work 
 to blast the safe open, and not knowing 
 how to do it, they spoiled a half-a-dozen 
 Indians and did no damage to the safe. 
 Thus for a month the Indians worked at 
 that safe harder than they had ever worked 
 at anything else in all their lives, but they 
 failed to get inside of it, and finally tumbled 
 it into a deep ravine and left it. A year or 
 two later, after peace was made, the govern- 
 ment got on the track of the safe, and an 
 ambulance and a guard were sent for it. It 
 was found lying in the bed of the creek with 
 a pile of driftwood around it. It was a 
 rusty, dented, lonesome-looking old safe. I 
 suppose there never was a worse looking 
 safe so far as outside appearances are con- 
 cerned. But when it was brought into the 
 fort and the door was opened it yielded up 
 its contents without the loss of a dollar. 
 True, genuine character, that stubbornly 
 maintains its loyalty to God in simple 
 obedience, is like that. You may thrust it 
 into the den of lions with Daniel; you may 
 put it into the fiery furnace with the Hebrew 
 
TBE FIRST LIE 243 
 
 worthies ; you may put it into the stocks with 
 Paul and Silas, or into the prison with John 
 Bunyan, and it will come out with all its 
 treasures safe and secure. Wise, indeed, 
 was Solomon, when he advised, ^^Keep thy 
 heart with all diligence, for out of it are 
 the issues of life." It was because Eve 
 left the doors of her heart ajar and gave 
 entrance to the suggestions of the evil one 
 that Satan triumphed. 
 
 If Satan had approached Eve at first with 
 the rude and direct declaration that her God 
 was a liar, he would have lost his case and 
 she would have turned from him in disgust. 
 But after she had listened to his suggestions 
 and began to argue and debate with him, 
 a subtle change took place. She had pre- 
 pared her heart by parleying with the 
 tempter to hear his lie about God without 
 being shocked. At first he is fairly reverent 
 in his references to God, in his conversa- 
 tion with Eve, but now the mask of rever- 
 ence is thrown aside. The doubts which he 
 
244 THE WORLD *S CHILDHOOD 
 
 has aroused in her mind having done their 
 work, he does not need longer to pretend 
 to regard God^s word. He now openly con- 
 tradicts God and charges God with petty 
 jealousy and ignoble fear lest man attain 
 equality with him. And to Satan *s bold 
 denial of the truth of God's word Eve at- 
 tempts no reply, and an ominous silence 
 ensues. We may wonder that she, so re- 
 cently perfect from the hand of her Creator, 
 could bring herself to listen without even 
 a word of j)rotest to the blasphemy of 
 Satan. But the explanation is th^t her par- 
 leying with the tempter has resulted in the 
 drugging of her conscience so that that 
 which would have seemed horrible to her 
 at first she now receives without a shock. 
 Who of us has not known some evolution 
 of sin like that? Be careful lest the con- 
 science be drugged. For Satan attempts our 
 overthrow in the same way. The form may 
 vary with the individual, from a refined 
 worldliness in one case to a vulgar sensuality 
 in another ; but in whatever form temptation 
 comes to us, there are always these two 
 ways of dealing with it, to turn from it with 
 scorn, confidently affirming our trust in God 
 
TEE FIBST LIE 245 
 
 and our allegiance to Him, as did Jesus 
 Christ, or to stand and parley and debate 
 with the enemy, as did Eve. One method 
 leads to the comfort of angels and the 
 triumph of the spirit and the other to sorrow 
 and death. For ^ ^ the wages of sin is death, ' ' 
 to-day as surely as in the days of Eve. The 
 devil says to men to-day when they are 
 tempted to sin, **Ye shall not surely die," 
 but he is lying to us as he did to Eve. For 
 Eve did die, as to her soul, at once; as to 
 her body, after she was driven forth from 
 Eden; and her knowledge of good and evil 
 made her not a god, but a sinner. The 
 promises which the enemy of our souls holds 
 out to men to-day are no better. Satan 
 baits his trap with hopes of liberty, happi- 
 ness and final truth, and when the trap has 
 fallen and the soul is ensnared, it finds it 
 has been the victim of the falsehoods of the 
 evil one. 
 
 II 
 
 'We may be sure from this study that any- 
 body who promises us more than God does 
 is trying to deceive us. God had warned 
 
246 THE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Eve that to taste the forbidden fruit meant 
 death, but Satan tells her that it will mean 
 the open eye and the alert mind and a 
 personality like a god. If we are to credit 
 the annals of the Eussian Empire, there 
 once existed a noble order of merit, which 
 was greatly coveted by the nobility of the 
 Eussian Court. It was, however, conferred 
 only on the peculiar favorites of the Czar, 
 or on the distinguished heroes of the king- 
 dom. But another class shared in its honor 
 in a very questionable form. Those nobles 
 or favorites who either became a burden 
 to the Czar or who stood in his way, received 
 this decoration only to die. The pin-point 
 was tipped with poison, and when the order 
 was being fastened on the breast by the 
 imperial messenger, the flesh of the person 
 was ** accidentally" pricked. Death ensued, 
 as next morning the individual who had been 
 so highly honored with imperial favor was 
 found dead in bed from apoplexy. So Satan 
 offered to confer a brilliant decoration, god- 
 like in its nobility, on Eve and her husband, 
 but it was a poisoned pin-prick, and she 
 knew too late that **The wages of sin is 
 death.'' 
 
TEE FIRST LIE 247 
 
 Satan is always appearing to men and 
 women in some beautiful and charming 
 guise appealing peculiarly to their situa- 
 tion, and it is not until too late that the 
 mask is thrown off and we learn that any- 
 one who by any promise lures us from obedi- 
 ence to God is to us the very devil. Bates, 
 the naturalist, found on the Amazon a bril- 
 liant spider that spread itself out as a flower. 
 It was most attractive to insects, promising 
 as it did a rich pasture-ground for food. But 
 when they lighted on it, seeking sweetness, 
 they found horror, torment, death. Such 
 transformations are common in human life. 
 Things of poison and blood are everywhere 
 displaying themselves in forms of inno- 
 cence, in dyes of beauty. *^The perfection 
 of mimicry,'' Watkinson says, *4s in the 
 moral world, deceiving the very elect." 
 Satan is transformed into an angel of light; 
 his blasted brow is disguised by a wreath, 
 his fiery darts seem glittering scepters, the 
 smoke of his torment goes up as incense. 
 The same preacher recalls that another 
 celebrated naturalist one day saw a bird 
 drowning in a lake, and he felt sure that 
 the bird had mistaken the water for the 
 
248 tb:e would 's childhood 
 
 sky. It was a bright, transparent day, the 
 clear, calm lake reflected the sky and the 
 whole landscape in its depths, and the bird, 
 not discerning that the world below it was 
 a world of shadows, was betrayed to its 
 doom. So all the glories of the upper world 
 appear inverted in the world of evil. The 
 lofty, the pure, the beautiful, the bright, are 
 all seductively reflected in the depths of 
 Satan; they are exaggerated there, they are 
 seen in surpassing magnitude and splendor; 
 error seems some nobler truth, disobedience 
 some larger liberty, forbidden things seem 
 the sweetest flowers and the mellowest fruit 
 of Paradise. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Eve learned, and we ought to learn from 
 our theme in the study of her example, that 
 the size of the bait does not excuse the 
 folly of yielding to sin. It was the dazzling 
 bait of becoming wise and associating with 
 lofty personalities which deceived Eve and 
 seemed to make the risk worth while. So 
 men and women now are led to their ruin. 
 A man who ordinarily tells the truth is 
 
THE FIBST LIE 249 
 
 ready to excuse the man for lying if he 
 may win a fortune by it. A woman who 
 has meant to be true and good is ready to 
 parley with the tempter if thereby she may 
 climb high in social splendor. The sin that 
 would be condemned at once where the stake 
 is small and there is little to be gained by 
 it, seems to the drugged and bewildered soul 
 to be a venial offense if it is to bring great 
 material success. Ah, such sophistries are 
 only the delusion of the evil one. There 
 is an historical story of the Duchess Isa- 
 bella who, wishing earnestly to obtain some 
 object, was instructed by the crafty court 
 astrologer to kiss day by day for a hundred 
 days a certain beautiful picture and she 
 would receive her wish. It was a sinister 
 trick, for the picture contained a subtle 
 poison which stained the lips with every 
 salutation. Little by little the golden tresses 
 of the queenly woman turned white, her 
 eyes became dim, her color faded, her lips 
 became black; but, infatuated, the suicidal 
 kiss was continued, until before the hundred 
 days were complete the royal dupe lay dead. 
 Alas! how many such cases we see to-day 
 of men and women who are bent on some 
 
250 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 worldly triumpli, upon obtaining some ma- 
 terial success, and are willing to have it 
 at any cost to their better natures. We see 
 men and women who kiss day by day the 
 goddess of worldliness, and tho there is 
 poison in every salutation, and they are 
 losing before our very eyes all that which 
 makes men and women noblest and most 
 worthy, still they press on and pay their 
 devotion to their worldly god while the heart 
 hardens, and the conscience loses its power 
 to warn, and the soul languishes and dies 
 even before the body has begun to decay. 
 
THE LOST PARADISE 
 
 "She took of the fruit thereof and did eat." — 
 Gen. 3:6. 
 
 YES, that is what she did; but the evolu- 
 tion that went on before that is the 
 interesting and important theme for our con- 
 sideration. She would not have disobeyed 
 God's law and bidden defiance to her Creator 
 offhand. Something else had been going 
 on. As you read the story you see the com- 
 mon and ordinary evolution of sin. I think 
 it will be interesting and, I trust, helpful 
 for us to examine this evolution, for some- 
 thing like it goes on every time any man or 
 woman gives way to sin against God. Briefly 
 note the stages of this evolution! 
 
 It began with listening to the devil. When 
 Satan first drew near to Eve, clothed with 
 the skin of the serpent, he began his attack 
 upon her by insinuating that, after all, God 
 
 251 
 
252 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 was not really good to His children. **Can 
 it be possible," says that smooth, insinua- 
 ting voice, in substance, and I imagine with 
 a sardonic smile, '^that your God has shut 
 off a part of the garden from you and 
 forbidden you to eat of some of the trees 
 of the garden!'^ Now, if Eve had gone her 
 way and let Satan go his, she would have 
 been safe. If, instead of listening to the 
 insinuations against the goodness of God, 
 she had recalled the bountiful provision and 
 loving care which God had made and ex- 
 ercised in preparing this beautiful garden 
 with all necessary food and with abounding 
 beauty, instead of having mischievous and 
 dangerous doubts born in her soul, her 
 heart would have overflowed with gratitude, 
 and she would have gone her way singing 
 her thanksgiving among the fragrant trees 
 of God\s garden. But, alas! she listened. 
 And there is where we all get into trouble. 
 We can not help being tempted. Jesus 
 Christ, who was without spot or blemish of 
 any kind; whose heart and whose thoughts 
 were pure and clean, was tempted ; severely, 
 terribly tempted. But He did not listen to 
 the enemy. At every temptation He met 
 
TEE LOST PARADISE 253 
 
 Satan with the Word of God, and came out 
 of His forty days of temptation in the 
 wilderness as spotless as when He entered 
 it. It is in listening to the evil one that 
 the danger begins. 
 
 A little boy ten years old a while ago 
 found in a gutter in New York City a 
 beautiful diamond ring worth four thousand 
 dollars. He was the son of poor people 
 to whom only one dollar would be a mat- 
 ter of importance. But he had had clean, 
 wholesome Christian training. He did not 
 play with the ring, nor take it home, nor 
 wish he could keep it, nor in any way parley 
 with the temptation. Straight as a die 
 he went to the police station and told the 
 police sergeant all about it, and just where 
 and how he found it. The owner, a wealthy 
 woman, was soon found, and has exprest 
 her purpose to see that that boy has a 
 good education. Now it is easy to see 
 how, if that boy had given way to evil long- 
 ings about that ring, it might have been 
 the beginning of his ruin, and transformed 
 him into a criminal; but as it was, he was 
 tremendously strengthened in righteousness 
 by that one straightforward deed. 
 
254 TUE WOULD 'S CHILDSOOD 
 
 II 
 
 The next stage of the evolution after the 
 listening was the seeing. After she had 
 listened to the evil one she began to study the 
 tree that was forbidden. The record says, 
 *^And when the woman saw that the tree was 
 good for food, and that it was pleasant to 
 the eye." There is the second stage of the 
 evolution. Eve let her eyes linger lovingly 
 about the fruit that she knew she had no 
 right to touch. Be careful what you see. 
 Be careful what you go on purpose to see, 
 knowing that it will not have a tendency to 
 make you a better man or a nobler woman. 
 The perilous thing about much of the theatri- 
 cal presentation of our time is that its atmos- 
 phere and spirit and the suggestion which 
 it gives to the young mind are often such 
 as to take the bloom off innocence, and 
 makes it possible for men and women to pic- 
 ture to themselves vicious and evil things 
 without being shocked. A thing does not 
 have to be broken all to pieces in order to 
 lose its beauty and usefulness. Henry Ward 
 Beecher once said that he liked beautiful 
 china cups, but he had noticed that when a 
 
TEE LOST PABADiSE 25S 
 
 handle got knocked off from one of his 
 cups, that cup was spoiled for him. And 
 that, if he had a beautiful mirror and it 
 was cracked, it was spoiled for his eye; its 
 perfectness was gone. There are many 
 things in these great cities which men and 
 women can not see without being damaged. 
 As an eel, if he were to wriggle across your 
 carpet, would leave a slime which no brush 
 could take off, so there are many things 
 which no person can behold and ever re- 
 cover from the sight. Parents sometimes 
 talk about giving their children, especially 
 their boys, freedom in which to see life, as 
 it is said. One might as well bring up a 
 child by cutting some of the cords in his 
 body and lacerating his nerves, and scarring 
 and tattooing him, as an element of beauty, 
 as to think of developing true manhood or 
 womanhood by bringing youth up to see 
 life — to see its abominable lusts ; to listen to 
 its hideous incarnations of wit; to see its 
 infernal wickedness; to see its extravagant 
 and degrading scenes; to see its miserable 
 carnalities ; to see its imaginations set on fire 
 of hell; to see all those temptations and de- 
 lusions which lead to perdition. Nobody 
 
256 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 gets over the sight of these things. And to 
 get yourself accustomed to sights and sounds 
 that sneer at God, and the Bible, and make 
 a joke of Sabbath and the Church, is to get 
 yourself ready with Eve to forfeit Paradise. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The next step was the play of Eve's 
 imagination. First, she listened to the in- 
 sinuations of evil; then she looked at the 
 fruit until it was pleasant and beautiful to 
 the eyes; and then she began to dream of 
 becoming wise and brilliant until she should 
 be like the gods. Take care what you dream 
 about when you are alone. It is the theme 
 of the secret imagination that has more 
 really to do with our outward conduct in 
 the end than anything else. Thomas a 
 Kempis, in his famous description of the 
 successive steps of a successful temptation, 
 says that first, there is the bare thought of 
 the sin. Then, upon that, there is a picture 
 of the sin formed and hung up on the secret 
 screen of the imagination. A strange sweet- 
 ness from that picture is then let down drop 
 
THE LOST PABADISE 257 
 
 by drop into the heart; and then that secret 
 sweetness soon secures the consent of the 
 whole soul, and the thing is done. That is a 
 graphic and powerful description, but it is 
 as true as it is picturesque and strong. 
 
 The Japanese have a proverb that a snake 
 is quite orderly and straight so long as you 
 keep it in a bamboo stick, but the moment 
 it gets out it begins to wriggle and act snaky. 
 My friend, be careful how you turn an im- 
 pure thought, an evil suggestion, loose in 
 your imagination to wriggle and squirm 
 itself through all your thinking and dream- 
 ing until it has made itself at home there. 
 A temptation to yield to that thing finds all 
 your walls of resistance broken down. 
 
 A young boy of seventeen, who worked in 
 a carpenter shop, was sent out in one of 
 our cities to take the measure for a new 
 counter in a saloon. It was very cold 
 weather. The saloon-keeper mixed up a 
 hot drink and pushed it over the counter 
 to him. *^It'll cost you nothing,'* he said; 
 ** drink it down, and you'll soon stop shiver- 
 ing, my boy.'' *^He meant it kindly, too, 
 and didn't think any harm," said the boy, 
 telling about it afterward. ^* That's what 
 
258 TSB WOBLD'3 CHILDHOOD 
 
 made it harder to push it back and say I 
 didn't want it/' *^It must have been a 
 big temptation/' said the friend to whom 
 the boy was talking. ^^That saloon-keeper 
 might have started you on the road to ruin." 
 *^Well," replied the young carpenter, 
 frankly, ^'I'd rather have had it than some 
 other kinds. You see, it takes two to make 
 a temptation. There is no saloon-keeper and 
 no cold weather can make me drink when 1 
 don't want to. The temptation I'm afraid of 
 is the one that I am ready for before it 
 comes, by hankering after it." That was a 
 shrewd boy, and nothing could be truer than 
 that diagnosis of temptation. Be careful 
 that the substance of your dreams and long- 
 ings are such as make for a wholesome per- 
 sonality. 
 
 IV 
 
 Then she took the fruit and ate it. There 
 is the fourth stage in the evolution of the 
 loss of Paradise. Eemember, in all this, 
 that Satan could have had no power to 
 entice Eve to disobey God if she had not 
 listened, and let her eyes play on the for- 
 
TEE LOST PABADISE 259 
 
 bidden fruit, and dreamed and imagined 
 happy results from her disobedience. St. 
 James, speaking of temptation, says, ^' Every 
 man is tempted when he is drawn away of 
 his own lust and enticed." Dr. Arnot, com- 
 menting on that sentence, says it means 
 literally *^ drawn out and hooked.'' The 
 first expression does not yet mean drawn 
 by the hook; it means rather drawn to the 
 hook. The first is a drawing toward the 
 hook and the second is a dragging by the 
 hook. If you have ever watched a skilful 
 angler fishing, you have noted that no noise 
 is made and no danger permitted to meet 
 the eye of the victim. By some enticing 
 lure the fish is drawn from his safe hiding- 
 place in the brook or river or lake. The 
 victim, not perceiving the danger, is by its 
 own *4ust" — its own appetite — drawn to its 
 doom. The next part of the process is the 
 act of fixing the barbed hook in the victim's 
 jaws. When the fish has been enticed by the 
 bait to swallow the hook then there is 
 another drawing ; but how different from the 
 first! The fisherman does not now hide 
 himself, and tread softly and speak in a 
 whisper. There is no more gentleness. He 
 
260 TEE WOULD* S CHILDHOOD 
 
 rudely drags his helpless prey to the shore 
 and takes his life. I have often seen it 
 like that in the devil's hooking of human 
 souls. Perhaps some of you even now are 
 following the bait that is drawing you away 
 from safety into waters that you know to be 
 perilous. 
 
 Now, the best, and indeed the only, pre- 
 ventive against these baited hooks of evil, is 
 to be fed to satisfaction with a sweetness in 
 which there is no sin and no danger. It is 
 the human soul that is empty, that is not 
 satisfied with the peace of God, that is 
 easily drawn into the pleasures of sin. 
 It is not by living a negative life, simply 
 standing on guard against the approach of 
 evil, that we can insure our safety. It is 
 the living positively a deep and earnest life 
 of good deeds, following on noble purposes, 
 that makes us secure. No man is safe 
 from moral overthrow who lives a life on 
 the surface — a haphazard life from day to 
 day. But it is possible for us to live a 
 deep, earnest, spiritual life that will be rich 
 enough to so satisfy us that the devil's 
 insinuations against God will wake no doubt 
 in our minds. Eecent experiments in re- 
 
THE LOST PARADISE 261 
 
 claiming the great deserts have called at- 
 tention to the fact that below the earth's 
 surface there is a vast and seemingly in- 
 exhaustible supply of water whose existence 
 we little suspect until we begin to tap these 
 hidden sources. Something like that exists 
 in the soul. As our nature deepens through 
 worship and service and honest doing of 
 duty, we discover ever new sources of 
 spiritual supply, ever new and hidden 
 springs by which the higher nature is 
 nourished. This is the true source of the 
 peace and security of a human soul. Give 
 yourself up in genuineness and sincerity to 
 do God's will and you will have reached the 
 secret springs of religious life and health. 
 It will be to you the most beautiful of all 
 miracles, the conscious communion with God, 
 a joyous divineness filling earth and heaven 
 — a heightened blush upon the rose, a 
 lovelier glow in the evening sky, a richer 
 zest for the perfect, the good, the pure of 
 heart. To have this hidden resource of 
 joy in God and in His constant presence in 
 the soul is like the gushing of a clear, sweet 
 fountain in desert places, the secret source 
 of happiness, the banisher of gloom, 
 
262 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 suspicion, jealousy, fear, and distrust. If 
 we have the secret understanding of what 
 God means for us — that we are His dear 
 children, His helpers and coworkers in 
 His great purpose of making the world 
 happier and better — fears vanish like morn- 
 ing mist, anxieties disappear; for, as some 
 one has said, all God's dice are loaded and 
 we are sure, if we are on His side, to win 
 in the game. Life is worth living when 
 you can live like that, and we can catch the 
 heart-throb of a man like Maltbie Babcock 
 when he sings : 
 
 Be strong! 
 We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, 
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift. 
 Shun not the struggle, face it, 'tis God's gift. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 Be strong ! 
 Say not the days are evil — who's to blame? 
 And fold the hands and acquiesce — shame! 
 Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name, 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 Be strong! 
 
 It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong. 
 
 How hard the battle goes, the day, how long; 
 
 Faint not, fight on! To-morrow comes the song. 
 
 Be strong! 
 
THE SINNER BECOMES THE 
 TEMPTER 
 
 ''She gave unto her husband with her, and he did 
 eat. ' * — Genesis 3:6. 
 
 SOMEWHERE out in the Atlantic Ocean 
 there is a steamer whose crew is eagerly- 
 feeling on the far-off ocean bed, trying to 
 hook up the broken end of a deep-sea cable. 
 Already the steamer has had to come back 
 to port for more coal and supplies and 
 additional lengths of cable. One end of the 
 broken cable has been picked up and 
 fastened to a buoy, but the other end has 
 thus far eluded the vigilant rescuers. A 
 dozen times the grapple has caught hold of 
 it, and every time, before it could be brought 
 on board and secured, the cable has parted 
 again, being broken by the high waves. 
 This has happened so often, and the breaks 
 have been so extensive, that at the last re- 
 port there was no less than forty-six miles 
 between the broken ends of that cable. The 
 break was a matter of a minute, repairing 
 
264: THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 it is a matter of some months already, and 
 no one knows how many more. 
 
 Eve's sin was like that broken cable. It 
 was the work of a moment, but it broke the 
 cable connection between her heart and God, 
 and caused her to be to Adam not what God 
 had purposed her to be, a helpmeet that 
 should lead him upward, but a tempter that 
 should lead him downward. 
 
 The first great message of our theme, 
 which I wish to impress on our thoughts, is 
 the fact of our influence upon others. 
 AVhether we will or not, we are constantly 
 affecting other lives than our own. No man 
 can say, *^I am my own, and I will live my 
 own life and have no effect or influence on 
 anybody else.'' That is absolutely impossi- 
 ble. The late Dr. Eeuen Thomas declared 
 that an individual life would have to start 
 as the Scriptures say of the life of Melchize- 
 dek, without father and without mother. We 
 all of us are related. Whether we choose 
 to acknowledge it or not, the fact remains. 
 
THE 8INNEB BECOMES THE TEMPTER 265 
 
 We need not concern ourselves, however, 
 about remote ancestries. Those immediately 
 back of us we can not help but know have 
 influenced us more or less. We see family 
 likenesses extending not alone to facial ex- 
 pression, but family likenesses extending to 
 character. If you find a proud and obstinate 
 mother, you are pretty sure, if there are 
 children in the family, to find also a proud 
 and obstinate son; if you find a weak and 
 indolent father, you will not be surprised 
 if somewhere in the family you find a still 
 weaker and more indolent daughter. Our 
 relationships count for something. They 
 are not mere matters of convenience. Soul, 
 as well as body, descends. And yet every 
 man has something which individualizes him. 
 There is a spark, as it were, of spiritual life 
 in every one of us, as there is a spark of 
 electricity in every drop of water and in 
 every grain of sand. Electricity in matter 
 is often used to represent spirituality in 
 mind. So each of us is confronted with 
 these two facts — the fact of relationship to 
 others, making our life a continuation of 
 their life, and the fact of each of us having 
 a distinct personality. Now, this relation 
 
266 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 to others, from which we can not free our- 
 selves, shows that the good in us and the 
 evil in us are not entirely our own, and that 
 no man can be judged simply as an indi- 
 vidual. It is not our own until we adopt 
 it as our own. Eelated all around as we 
 are, we can see that Paul announces a uni- 
 versal law of life when he says, ^^For none 
 of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth 
 to himself.'* Every man is related all 
 around. Is it not clear that no good man 
 lives to himself? The very idea of goodness 
 implies unselfishness, kindness, sympathy. 
 When a man with whole-hearted sincerity 
 cooperates with God, or, as Paul says, 
 *4ives unto the Lord,'' then we see that 
 he is not living to himself. And yet if we 
 look into the matter sufficiently close we 
 shall find that there is a sense in which a 
 man is never so much living to himself or 
 for his own interests as when he is volun- 
 tarily living to God. The laws of the 
 universe are such that benevolence ulti- 
 mately hangs up by the neck the man whose 
 selfishness has blinded his eyes to the fact 
 that he has been occupying himself all his 
 life, like Haman of old, building a gallows 
 
THE SINNEB BECOMES THE TEMPTEB 267 
 
 for his own disaster, for living to himself 
 is forever an impossible task. In some 
 degree or other every man is multiplying 
 himself; his character does not remain at 
 home, but it travels abroad. 
 
 These are solemn facts. Dr. Chalmers, 
 the great Scotch preacher, once said that 
 every man is a missionary now and forever, 
 for good or for evil, whether he intends it 
 or designs it or not. He may be a blot 
 radiating his dark influence to the very cir- 
 cumference of society; or he may be a 
 blessing, spreading benediction over the 
 length and breadth of the world ; but a blank 
 he can not be. There are no moral blanks. 
 There are no neutral characters. "We are 
 either the sower that sows, or the light 
 that splendidly illuminates, or the salt that 
 silently operates; dead or alive, every man 
 speaks. 
 
 n 
 
 This study of influence must certainly 
 make sin look more terrible to us than when 
 we think of it only as a personal matter, 
 for no man can tell how far his sin may 
 
268 THE WORLD *S CHILDHOOD 
 
 spread in its deadly influence. A while ago 
 scientific men made investigations into the 
 cause of a contagious disease which had 
 spread over the city of Moscow. It turned 
 out that a young man had been stealing gold- 
 fish, which he put in a little tank in the 
 floor of his room, covered with the boards, 
 to keep until he could sell them in another 
 place. Soon after the great contagion 
 sprang up in that vicinity — indeed, in that 
 very room. It began with him at first, and 
 he was left crippled and blind, and went 
 limping along on crutches, a suffering, per- 
 manent invalid. The contagion spread to 
 others, and upon examination made by scien- 
 tific men from Warsaw and Berlin they 
 found that these fish had died in the tank, 
 and that they were of such a nature as to 
 spread at once a contagion which became 
 of a most malignant type. A scourge over- 
 spread the land and carried away tens of 
 thousands of innocent people. Sin is like 
 that. Every act of evil deposited in a heart 
 given over to disobedience to Grod breeds a 
 miasma, the fumes of which go out unseen 
 on the silent air, poisoning the life of others. 
 
THE SINNEB BECOMES THE TEMPTER 269 
 III 
 
 There is another thought that ought to 
 give us pause in the study of this theme, 
 and that is that when we sin against God 
 we are most likely to bring hurt to the 
 people that are dearest to us. The stranger 
 or the people who do not care for us, and 
 for whom we do not care, are likely to be 
 the least influenced by our conduct. But 
 those whom we love and for whose happiness 
 we have great desire, and the people who 
 tenderly love us, they are the people who 
 will be the most quickly damaged and 
 harmed by our sin. Eve could not sin alone. 
 She immediately afterward became a 
 tempter to her husband. And so when we 
 sin, the one we love is likely to be the most 
 harmed by our sin. And surely it was a 
 terrible thing that Eve, having been tempted 
 and deceived by Satan, should immediately 
 become herself a Satan to work ruin to him 
 whom she loved best. Henry Ward Beecher 
 brings out this truth very clearly in a 
 sermon on the murder of John the Baptist 
 by Herod, which was brought about against 
 the judgment and desire of Herod under the 
 
270 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 influence of his wife Herodias. When Herod 
 ensnared his brother's wife, when he tempted 
 her into adulterous abandonment of her hus- 
 band and into unlawful fellowship with him, 
 he wa3 the aggressor and she was the part- 
 ner ; but when they were living in unholy con- 
 cord she became the avenger, and her influence 
 upon him led him into the infamous crime 
 of John's murder. He destroyed her virtue, 
 and she destroyed his manhood; and from 
 that time to this how many have been de- 
 stroyed by those who should have been their 
 protectors, and who should have inspired in 
 them purity and gentleness and forgiveness ! 
 Oh, what chance was there for sweet and 
 wholesome water to come out of such 
 fountains! But they rotted together and 
 spoiled each other. How many times, if we 
 could look into the secrets of the household, 
 should we see the same work going on: a 
 bad man lowering the tone of the woman 
 that came to him pure and simple-minded, 
 destroying her aspirations, familiarizing her 
 with vulgarity, urging all his influence and 
 power to take away from her the fear of 
 evil and wrong, and rather rejoicing as 
 every barrier is broken down to bring her to 
 
TEE 8INNEB BECOMES TEE TEMPTEB 271 
 
 his level! And how many men have been 
 despoiled by hard, selfish, and ambitious 
 wives, the man being simple-minded, and 
 on the whole having right notions, and the 
 woman perpetually employing the subtle arts 
 of influence, persuasion, and fascination, and 
 all of them in the direction of selfishness, 
 and often in the direction of corruption and 
 malignant crime. 
 
 There is in all this a tremendous message 
 for us. We can not sin against God with- 
 out poisoning the very streams of our af- 
 fection, so that our very love will have in 
 it a touch of death and disaster to those 
 that come under its influence. And some- 
 times the pleasant sins of selfishness and 
 worldly indifference to sacred things work 
 the greatest destruction to those whom we 
 love. 
 
 When Dr. Wilbur Chapman was conduct- 
 ing a mission in an Eastern city, a young 
 man came to him one day at the close of the 
 service and said: **You talk about a mother. 
 Whenever you speak of your mother my 
 heart aches, and I get into a rebellious spirit. 
 My mother has never told me that she loved 
 me. My mother has never invited me to 
 
272 THE WOELD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 become a Christian. My mother is a social 
 queen and a rich woman in this city. I 
 would be ashamed to say it publicly, but, sir, 
 some day you ought to preach a sermon to 
 the boys and girls who have had no true 
 mothers. '^ Is there any mother here who 
 would like to have her boy talk like that! 
 But, how about it? Are you giving him to 
 understand that his mother by example, and 
 prayer, and love, cares more for his good- 
 ness and his purity of soul than anything 
 else? Eemember that your selfishness and 
 your worldliness and indifference to God 
 and Christ as a father or a mother may be 
 the poison of hell to the children who are 
 dearer to you than your own life. 
 
 Once, during the Civil War, after a great 
 battle, a chaplain going about among the 
 wounded in the hospital stopt beside the 
 bed of a young fellow and said: **Can I 
 do anything for you?" The boy said: **Yes, 
 chaplain, pray for me." And the chaplain 
 thought that he was to pray that the young 
 fellow might be ready to die, but when he 
 started in that way, the boy broke in on 
 the prayer, saying: ** Chaplain, just be 
 thankful for me. First of all, thank God 
 
THE SINNER BECOMES THE TEMPTEB 273 
 
 for my mother. Thank Him that she ever 
 gave me birth. Thank Him that when I 
 came into the world she wet my face with 
 her kisses; that when I could not walk 
 alone she held me; that when I grew to 
 young manhood she steadied me. Thank 
 Him that I have a Savior. Thank Him that 
 the gates of heaven are open. Thank Him 
 that I am going home.^' Who would not 
 like to be worthy to be a mother whose in- 
 fluence should produce a boy like that, and 
 give to him ^ benediction such as that mother 
 bestowed upon her son ? Thank God ! Many 
 men grown gray could gladly join with 
 the poet who sings : 
 
 "Rock of Ages, cleft for me"— 
 
 Mother sang it long ago, 
 Sang it low and soothingly. 
 
 Rocking in the afterglow. 
 Sang it to me as I slept 
 
 In my snowy trundle-bed, 
 As the lengthening shadows crept 
 Eerie like about her head. 
 
 *'Let me hide myself in Thee" — 
 
 Still I hear it echo there, 
 As she sang it o'er to me, 
 
 From her swaying rocking-chair; 
 
274 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 And I am a boy again, 
 
 As so sweetly back along 
 Distant years I catch the strain 
 
 Of that old familiar song. 
 
 /'Other refuge have I none" — 
 
 Often in the long, long years 
 I have missed the touch of one 
 
 Who could soothe my doubts and f e^rs, 
 One to whom I used to go 
 
 With each boyish grief and care. 
 Sometimes in the afterglow, 
 
 I catch glimpses of her there. 
 
 *'Rock of Ages"— and I feel 
 
 Mother's arms about me prest, 
 As to her embrace I'd steal 
 
 To be rocked away to rest. 
 Dreamy-like once more I hear 
 
 Softly, gently, soothingly, 
 That faint echo in my ear: 
 
 *'Let me hide myself in Thee." 
 
THE DAWN OF GUILT 
 
 **The eyes of them both were opened and they 
 knew that they were naked." — Gen. 3 : 7. 
 
 SOME time ago passers-by in the streets of 
 Paris were attracted by the figure of a 
 woman on the parapet of a roof. She had 
 fallen asleep in the afternoon, and under the 
 influence of somnambulism had stept out of 
 an open window on to the edge of the house. 
 There she was walking to and fro, to the 
 horror of the gazers below, who expected 
 every moment to witness a false step and 
 terrible fall. They dared not shout, lest 
 by awaking her suddenly they should be only 
 hastening the inevitable calamity. But this 
 came soon enough ; for moving, as somnambu- 
 lists do, with eyes open, the reflection of a 
 lamp lit in an opposite window by an artizan 
 engaged in some mechanical operation, all 
 unconscious of what was going on outside, 
 aroused her from sleep. The moment her 
 eyes were opened to discover the perilous 
 position in which she had placed herself, she 
 
 275 
 
276 TH3 WOULD* S CBlLBEOOD 
 
 tottered, fell, and was dashed below. So, 
 Joseph Parker says, temptation blinds us, 
 but guilt opens our eyes ; temptation is night, 
 guilt is morning. In guilt we see ourselves, 
 we see our hideousness, we see our baseness, 
 we see hell ! ' ' Their eyes were opened, ' ' and 
 they saw that their character was gone! 
 You can throw away a character in one act 
 as you throw away a stone, but you can not 
 go after it and recover it in the same way. 
 You may get it back again by penitence and 
 strife, but it is something different even 
 then. A stone that is thrown along the 
 road you may recover, but a stone thrown at 
 night into the sea who can get back again? 
 
 Even with all our knowledge of sin in 
 ourselves and in the men and women whom 
 we know, it is hard for us to appreciate what 
 the dawn of guilt must have meant amid the 
 innocence and beauty and perfect joy and 
 peace which reigned in the Garden of God. 
 It is hard for us to appreciate the transfor- 
 mation which changed all the forces of the 
 
THE DAWN OF GUILT 277 
 
 soul from instruments that give pleasure to 
 powers that can punish. 
 
 Watkinson quotes one of our American 
 naturalists as saying that the human brain is 
 full of birds. The song-birds might have 
 all been hatched in the human heart, so well 
 do they express the whole gamut of human* 
 passion and emotion in their varied songs. 
 The plaintive singers, the soaring, ecstatic 
 singers, the gushing singers, the inarticulate 
 singers — robin, dove, lark, thrush, mocking- 
 bird, nightingale — all are expressive of 
 human emotions, desire, love, sadness, 
 aspirations, glee. Very beautiful, indeed, is 
 it to find our brain full of sweet minstrels 
 of the air; but, alas! when guilt dawned on 
 the human soul as the result of disobedience 
 to God and the yielding to temptation to 
 evil, the mysterious and marvelous human 
 soul was so changed that it became the 
 nesting-place of a far different sort of birds. 
 Jesus Christ, who knew what was in man, 
 and who, loving man better than any one 
 else, still saw what sin had wrought there, 
 gives us a view of a sinful heart, showing 
 it to be the hold of every foul spirit and 
 a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
 
278 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Fierce hawk, croaking raven, ravenous vul- 
 ture, obscene birds, birds of discord, birds 
 of darkness, birds of tempest, birds of blood 
 and death — these are all typical of the 
 heart's base passions; these all brood and 
 nestle within and fly forth to darken and 
 pollute and destroy. 
 
 II 
 
 Our theme shows us clearly that the dawn 
 of guilt means the awakening in the sinning 
 soul of a sense of shame and loss of self-re- 
 spect. And that is a characteristic of sin. No 
 man ever consciously sins against God without 
 a feeling that he is tarnished, he is damaged, 
 he is in some sense unclean, he has lost the true 
 manhood, the nobility of his self-respect. A 
 man told me that once in a Boston hotel 
 several men who were casual acquaintances 
 met in the lobby, and during the conversa- 
 tion one man invited the others into the 
 barroom to drink with him. Among these 
 men there was one with his little boy, and 
 he begged to be excused until he went to 
 his room and left the boy. Being a little 
 
TEE DAWN OF GUILT 279 
 
 curious about it, the man who related the 
 incident asked him why he did that, and the 
 other man blushed and showed a good deal 
 of consciousness of shame when he said that 
 he did not care to have his little boy see him 
 drink at the bar. It is easy to see that that 
 man's eyes were opened to regard himself as 
 a damaged man. A sense of shame made 
 him uncomfortable. Right there is one of 
 the points where Satan is always deceiving 
 young men and young women. The devil 
 tries to make men believe that careful obedi- 
 ence to God is a sort of slavery and that in 
 personal liberty, the doing what we please 
 without regard to the Bible or our own con- 
 science on the subject, is in some sense fine 
 and splendid, quite superior in a way; but 
 the realization is very different. When the 
 deceived soul has broken away from God 
 and taken its own course, it soon finds that 
 sin shames and degrades and despoils us 
 of the finest sense of courage and confi- 
 dence. I have been reading recently a 
 story of a man who has been in Africa hunt- 
 ing lions, who tells of the terrible disap- 
 pointment the experience was to him. He 
 thought a lion was a terrible beast, coura- 
 
280 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 geous, magnificent, and all that. But his 
 first lion opened his eyes and the sight was 
 immensely disappointing. It shambled along 
 with head down and nothing majestic about 
 it. That skulking beast, gray-yellow in hue, 
 almost maneless, stealing shamefacedly along 
 like an unwieldy cat, was that the monarch 
 of the forest? The average lion of the 
 menagerie has twice his grandeur and three 
 times his growth of mane; such, the hunter 
 meditated, is the effect of regular and 
 generous feeding. Sin is always a skulking, 
 vicious thing. The devil often deludes the 
 young into viewing a sinful life as full of 
 something fascinating and heroic, but sin 
 has been a skulker and a vagabond from the 
 beginning. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Our theme brings out with terrible clearness 
 the premonition of disaster and the dread of 
 God which guilt brings upon the soul. Adam 
 and Eve had basked in the smile of God. 
 They had conversed with God as with a 
 dear friend. His perfect love was their 
 supreme joy. But as soon as they yield 
 
TEE DAWN OF GUILT 281 
 
 to temptation and break His command- 
 ment, the dawn of gnilt brings sunset on 
 the joyous day of their innocence, and they 
 shiver and shrink away from the presence of 
 Grod. Heretofore they have rejoiced in the 
 presence of their Heavenly Father, now they 
 are afraid and they dread and flee from 
 Him. Something like that is forever hap- 
 pening when we yield ourselves to sin. Eegi- 
 nald Campbell paints a graphic picture of 
 this mysterious but tremendously real con- 
 sciousness of sin: Here is a man who 
 started life high in the social scale. He has 
 come down, he has flung away his opportuni- 
 ties, he has forfeited the regard of his 
 friends, maybe he has broken his mother's 
 heart and brought down his father's gray 
 hairs in sorrow to the grave. We have all 
 known many such. Mark him as he sits 
 near you, shabbily drest, unkempt, hope- 
 less-looking, the flash of his eye dimmed, his 
 manhood gone. If you were to talk to him 
 about sin in ordinary religious language, 
 he would be angry and impatient; but if 
 you tell him he has made his bed and must 
 lie on it, he will bow his head in shame, for 
 he knows that it is true. 
 
282 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Close by him sits another. You pitied the 
 poor unfortunate, but here is more cause for 
 pity. He is cursed with success, because 
 the foundation of that success was laid in 
 falsehood. Years ago he got his first op- 
 portunity by telling a black lie. He has suc- 
 ceeded; but if he could put the clock back 
 and cancel that lie there are times when he 
 would gladly give up all his success. But 
 he can not; other people are concerned 
 beside himself, and to publish to the world 
 what he is and what he was would be use- 
 less now. He has nothing to do with re- 
 ligion, for he will not play the hypocrite. 
 But his remorse is eating out his heart. 
 
 Here is another case — a man who fights 
 with an evil propensity the very existence of 
 which is a humiliation. He won a victory 
 this morning, but he knows that to-morrow 
 the fight will have to be fought all over 
 again. He is wrestling with a demon, the 
 existence of which it may be few, if any, 
 of his close friends suspect. Oh! pity the 
 man with a vile secret sin. His despairing 
 cry of agony rises up — *^Is there no help 
 for such as II" We may sympathize, but 
 without the experience we never can really 
 
THE DAWN OF GUILT 283 
 
 know the sorrow of a man like that. Wash- 
 ington Allston spent more than twelve years 
 attempting to paint the chief scene of Bel- 
 shazzar's feast, and then left the work un- 
 finished. It is said that the chief difficulty 
 which the artist's genius could not overcome 
 was that of depicting the despair of the 
 doomed king. Well it might be so, for it 
 was the despair of a lost soul brought sud- 
 denly face to face with the retributive judg- 
 ment of God, written by a mysterious hand 
 from another world. What art can portray 
 it in the look of a human face? That pic- 
 ture now hangs in the Art Museum in Bos- 
 ton. Its unfinished condition is perhaps the 
 strongest testimony to the terror of a guilty 
 conscience. Lord Byron, who came at last 
 through his own sinful heart to have a kin- 
 dred feeling, saw the picture in his poetic 
 vision : 
 
 The king was on his throne, 
 
 The satraps thronged the hall, 
 A thousand bright lamps shone 
 
 O'er that high festival. 
 A thousand cups of gold, 
 
 In Judah deemed divine — 
 Jehovah's vessels hold 
 
 The godless heathen's wine. 
 
284 TR:E WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 In that same hour and hall, 
 
 The fingers cf a hand 
 \ Came forth against the wall, 
 
 And wrote as if on sand: 
 The fingers of a man; — 
 
 A solitary hand 
 Along the letters ran, 
 
 And traced them like a wand. 
 
 The monarch saw, and shook, 
 
 And bade no more rejoice; 
 All bloodless waxed his look. 
 
 And tremulous his voice. 
 *'Let the men of lore appear. 
 
 The wisest of the earth, 
 And expound the words of fear. 
 
 Which mar our royal mirth." 
 
 Chaldea's seers are good, 
 
 But here they have no skill ; 
 And the unknown letters stood 
 
 Untold and awful still. 
 And Babel's men of age 
 
 Are wise and deep in lore; 
 But now they were not sage. 
 
 They saw — but knew no more. 
 
 A captive in the land, 
 A stranger and a youth. 
 
 He heard the king's command. 
 He saw that writing's truth. 
 
TEE DAWN OF GUILT 285 
 
 The lamps around were bright, 
 
 The prophecy in view; 
 He read it on that night, — 
 
 The morrow proved it true. 
 
 Belshazzar's grave is made, 
 
 His kingdom passed away, 
 He, in the balance weighed, 
 
 Is light and worthless clay. 
 The shroud his robe of state. 
 
 His canopy the stone; 
 The Mede is at his gate ! 
 
 The Persian on his throne! 
 
 Sin uncleansed from the heart and the 
 life must always bring about a sad doom. 
 But it is the glory of our Christianity that 
 it has the power to cleanse the heart of the 
 poison of guilt, to take the sting of sin 
 out of the soul, and bring man back again 
 into harmony and peace with God. Oh^ 
 the gentleness and the patience of God, who 
 follows after us in our sins with infinite 
 loving kindness to reclaim us from our lost 
 estate ! 
 
 Some years ago the wife of a noble-hearted 
 business man in Chicago became insane, and 
 yet this man loved his wife as never before 
 and gave up his business that he might give 
 
286 THE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 her tender care. The neighbors complained 
 of her shrieking and he moved to a new 
 neighborhood, built a large house, put a 
 great fence about it, only to have other com- 
 plaints come to him, which, of course, he 
 could not heed, for his wife whom he loved 
 was under his own care. One day the 
 physician suggested to him that he take her 
 to the mountains where she was born. Possi- 
 bly the mountain scenery, the music of the 
 birds, and the sight of the flowers she used 
 to love would bring back again her old 
 mental power. The journey was made, but 
 with disappointing results, and the broken- 
 hearted husband set his face toward Chi- 
 cago without his cherished desire being 
 granted him. But when they reached their 
 city home the wife fell asleep. Sitting by her 
 bedside he scarcely stirred for fear he 
 would arouse her, for she had had no natural 
 sleep for months. She slept on and on, 
 and all night long he sat there by her side, 
 thanking God for the sleep that had come 
 to her and hoping against hope that it was an 
 omen of happier days. As the sun rose in the 
 morning she opened her eyes to look with 
 clear vision into her husband's face and 
 
THE DAWN OF GUILT 287 
 
 say, ** Where have I been all this timer' 
 And he said, '^You have been away on a 
 journey, but now you have returned to me." 
 **Aiid where have you been all this time?'' 
 she asked, and his answer, made with sobs, 
 was, ^^I have been sitting by your side 
 waiting, and now you have returned to me.' ' 
 And yet even that, beautiful and noble as it 
 is, is but a poor picture of the infinite God 
 waiting by the sinner's side through all his 
 days and nights of guilt and transgression, 
 seeking to woo him while he waits. Are 
 there not some who hear me for whom God 
 has been thus waiting, who will open your 
 eyes and see your Lord, and then in memory 
 of all His patience and loving kindness say 
 with David, **Thy gentleness hath made 
 me great"? 
 
USELESS COVERING FOR SIN 
 
 ^'They sewed fig-leaves together and made them- 
 selves aprons." — Gen. 3 : 7. 
 
 THESE fig-leaf garments which Adam and 
 Eve sewed together in the Garden of 
 Eden, which had suddenly lost its sense of 
 peace and security, are expressive of the 
 vivid and horrible transformation from in- 
 nocence to guilt in a soul which has yielded 
 to evil. A consciousness of nakedness, a 
 desire to cover up that which would shame 
 and disgrace us, is one of the first results 
 of sin. Some one has said that there is no 
 man who would not rather die than that all 
 which he knows of himself should be known 
 to the world. It is the want of a covering 
 which we so deeply and thoroughly feel. So 
 that when we turn for sympathy to each 
 other, our language conceals as much as it 
 expresses ; and when we turn to God, our 
 prayers immediately take the form of con- 
 fession, tho it be but to confess what we 
 know that He knows ; yet it is expressive of 
 a burden which we feel, and which we most 
 of all wish to get rid of; and in turning 
 
 288 
 
USELESS COVEEINa t'OB SIN 28d 
 
 to Him, our feeling is, *^Thou art a place to 
 hide me in'^: *^Thou shalt hide me by thine 
 own presence/' Did the Psalmist mean to 
 be hidden from other men? Perhaps that 
 thought was in it also, but the chief thought 
 was that he might be hidden from himself, 
 that his sin might be covered. The Savior 
 in His message to the churches as given to 
 John says to one of them, ^^Thou sayest, I 
 am rich, and knowest not that thou art 
 poor and miserable and blind and naked/' 
 That which makes the chief dread of death 
 is the thought that all our disguises will be 
 stript from us and we shall go naked into 
 the land of spirits. Paul says, **For in this, 
 our earthly house, we groan, earnestly de- 
 siring to be clothed upon"; **If so be that, 
 being clothed, we shall not be found naked." 
 The glory of the redeemed is to be ** clothed 
 in white raiment before the throne," and 
 to *^walk with Christ in white." 
 
 We are so made that by the very character 
 of our creation it is impossible for us to 
 securely cover our own sins. Take the 
 
290 TRE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 power of the human memory. While it en- 
 riches us, it carries with it also all the 
 elements necessary for the sinner's bitter 
 despair. Walt Whitman once wrote a little 
 poem entitled, *^The Dome of Pictures," in 
 which he said: 
 
 In a little house keep I pictures suspended; it is not 
 
 a fixt little house, 
 It is round, it is only a few inches from one side to 
 
 the other; 
 Yet behold, it has room for all the shows of the 
 
 world, all memories! 
 Here the tableaux of life, and here the groupings of 
 
 death. 
 
 Meditating on this thought of Whitman's, 
 Sam Walter Foss has taken it for a text, 
 and written a song helpful for its practical 
 suggestion : 
 
 Ah, each man bears his Dome of Dreams — 
 A picture dome 
 Whereon are painted homely cares, > 
 
 Defeats and triumphs and despairs; 
 A gallery thronged with wider themes 
 Than those of Rome. 
 
USELESS COVERING FOB SIN 291 
 
 The pictures on this Dome of Dreams 
 Are memories. 
 Young Barefoot wandering through the dew, 
 Through daisied fields when life was new, 
 By woodland paths, by lilied streams 
 And blossomed trees. 
 
 The picture of a maid at school 
 With floating hair; 
 Transfigured in the mist is she 
 On that dim shore of memory, 
 Life's dewiness about her, cool 
 And pure and fair. 
 
 The picture of a road that leads 
 From an old home : 
 A boy that from a wooded swell 
 Lookg through his tears and waves farewell — 
 Then down through unknown hills and meads 
 Afar to roam. 
 
 The pictures of the long, long way 
 He traveled far; 
 Fair fruited hillsides slanting south, 
 Baked herbless uplands smit with drouth, 
 And night paths with no gleam of day — 
 Without a star. 
 
^d^ fKE WORLD'S CEILDHOOD 
 
 And pictures of wide-sleeping vales 
 And storm-tossed waves; 
 Of valleys bathed in noonday peace, 
 Of sheltered harbors of release, 
 
 Blue inlets specked with sunlit sails; 
 Of open graves. 
 
 And pictures of fair islands set 
 In golden foam; 
 And pictures of black wrecks upcast 
 On barren crags by many a blast — 
 
 But on! Life paints more pictures yet 
 Upon that dome. 
 
 The quality of the human soul is such 
 that when we commit sin it is not something 
 outside of us; it becomes a picture in our 
 own memory ; it becomes a part of ourselves, 
 and no man can tell when his sin will dis- 
 cover itself and give him up to justice. Men 
 shut their teeth together and say that their 
 past evil deeds never shall be known, but 
 they fail to reckon on the self-discovering 
 power of sin. All peoples, in all ages, have 
 had proverbs and legends which tell of this 
 universal fact. **The Cranes of Ibycus'* 
 have long since passed into a proverbial ex- 
 pression, and the old story is full of sug- 
 gestion. The story is that Ibycus, a famous 
 
USELESS COVE BIN G FOB SIN 293 
 
 Grecian poet, was going to Corinth. Rob- 
 bers attacked and murdered him. As he was 
 falling and dying he looked aromid to see 
 if there were no witnesses or avengers. All 
 he could see was a flock of cranes high in the 
 air. With his last strength the dying poet 
 called on the cranes to avenge his blood. The 
 robbers were greatly amused at it, and jested 
 and laughed at what they thought was an 
 idle call. They got their prey, and came to 
 Corinth. They went to the open theater. 
 As they sat there, they looked up, and saw 
 above them a flight of cranes, and one 
 scoffingly said, *^Lo, there are the avengers 
 of Ibycus,'^ and they all laughed heartlessly. 
 The words were overheard by a man sitting 
 near them. Already fears of the poet's 
 safety began to be common. The gang was 
 arrested, and on being questioned, betrayed 
 themselves, and were put to death. So, 
 ^*The Cranes of Ibycus'' became a proverb. 
 But it is not needed that even **The 
 Cranes of Ibycus*' should give witness to 
 make sure that a man's sins will find him 
 out. Every sinner carries in his own heart 
 and in his own mind that which will dis- 
 cover him to judgment. We think the kineto- 
 
294: TEE WOELD*S CHILDHOOD 
 
 scope a wonderful invention, but God has 
 His kinetoscope in every man's memory. 
 We may think we have forgotten some things, 
 but we have not. When we shall stand in the 
 clear light of eternity, all the negatives 
 stored away in the great storehouse of the 
 human soul will be easily developed. Some 
 men seem to think that there is some magical 
 change in the fact of death to separate a 
 man from his sins, but there is no such 
 teaching in God's Word, and it is utterly 
 false and contrary to all true human reason- 
 ing. Shakespeare, the great student of human 
 nature, brings out very clearly this solemn 
 truth that the sinner carries the evidence 
 to condemn him in his own heart. In 
 ^^Eichard III'' he makes false Clarence say: 
 
 My dream was lengthened after life; 
 Oh, then began the tempest to my soul! 
 I passed, methought, the melancholy flood, 
 With that gi'im ferryman which poets write of 
 Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. 
 The first that there did greet my stranger soul, 
 Was my gi-eat father-in-law, renowned Warwick, 
 Who cried aloud — *^What scourge for perjury 
 Can this dark monarchy afford :Calse Clarence?'* 
 And so he vanished : Then came wand 'ring by 
 
USELESS COVEBING FOB SIN 295 
 
 A shadow like an angel, with bright hair 
 
 Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud, 
 
 ' * Clarence is come — false, fleeting, perjured Clarence — 
 
 That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury; 
 
 Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments ! ' ' 
 
 With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends 
 
 Environed me, and howled in mine ears 
 
 Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise, 
 
 I trembling waked, and, for a season after, 
 
 Could not believe but that I was in hell; 
 
 Such terrible impression made my dream. 
 
 I have done these things 
 That now give evidence against my soul. 
 
 Again the great Shakespeare makes King 
 Richard say: 
 
 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, 
 
 And every tongue brings in a several tale, 
 
 And every tale condemns me for a villain, 
 
 Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree; 
 
 Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree; 
 
 All several sins, all used in each degree. 
 
 Throng to the bar, crying all *^Guilty!'' ''guilty!'* 
 
 I shall despair. There is no creature loves me ; 
 
 And if I die, no soul will pity me : 
 
 Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself 
 
 Find in myself no pity to myself? 
 
 Methought the souls of all that I had murdered 
 
 Came to my tent, and every one did threat 
 
 To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard. 
 
290 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Some men think they will be able to escape 
 from their sins, and from the remorse for 
 them, by engrossing themselves in business, 
 and so filling the mind and heart with cares 
 that there will be no time for thoughts of 
 the past. Herod tried that after he had be- 
 headed John the Baptist. But he failed. 
 And as soon as the news came to him of the 
 wonderful miracles which Jesus Christ was 
 working, the terrible picture came back to 
 Herod's imagination. Memory put him 
 again at that dinner table where the young 
 Herodias danced before him and the cruel 
 hard-hearted guests sat about him. He 
 sees again the courtesying young maiden as 
 she calls upon him to make good his drunken 
 promise to give her whatever she asks, as 
 she demands the head of John the Baptist 
 on a charger. He feels again the sinking 
 of his coward heart as he gives command- 
 ment for the awful crime, and again he looks 
 upon that pure stern face, that even in death 
 seems to be his judge, as they bring the 
 dead man's head into the dining-room. And 
 so Herod, when he hears about Jesus, cries 
 out, *^It is John the Baptist whom I be- 
 headed. He is risen from the dead!" No, 
 
USELESS COVE BIN G FOB SIN 297 
 
 tho you are as busy as a king, you will not 
 thus keep your sins covered. 
 
 Some think time will wear sin out and 
 efface its memory. They have not thought 
 of their sins for a long time, and they fancy 
 therefore that their remorse, like a 
 scorpion's sting, has been plucked out by 
 the roots, and will never trouble them any 
 more. The brethren of Joseph thought that. 
 But on that memorable day in the palace 
 of Pharaoh, when the prime minister's heart 
 seemed turned against them, the sorrow of 
 Joseph, the lad whom they had sold into 
 slavery twenty years before, gleamed be- 
 fore their faces again, and made them 
 tremble as they exclaimed one to another, 
 **We are verily guilty concerning our 
 brother.'' Who had said anything about 
 their brother? Ah, it did not need that 
 anybody should say anything. The dust that 
 had been gathering for twenty years was 
 whisked away with one blast of harsh wind, 
 and their sin which has been hidden all these 
 years is uncovered and stands naked and 
 glaring before God and man. 
 
298 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 II 
 
 There is only one safe covering for sin, 
 and that is to have it hidden under the 
 forgiving love of Jesus Christ. It is not 
 the man that hideth his sins that shall 
 prosper, but he who confesses his sins and 
 through faith in Jesus Christ finds pardon 
 and forgiveness, he it is who leaves the 
 dungeon behind him and goes forth to per- 
 fect freedom and peace. 
 
 A man in sin is like the man in the castle 
 in that old story — ^bound — fettered — thick 
 walls — ^bolts — waiting for execution. But 
 one night, when he had fallen into a heavy 
 sleep, a strange dream of home haunted 
 him. He thought his mother had come to 
 him. Starting up, he saw that there stood 
 beside him a beauteous form, who said to 
 him, ^^Make haste! Lift your hands that I 
 may release them." And she took off the 
 chains. She had beheld him when he knew 
 nothing of it, and she knew his name, and 
 love had brought her there. It was the 
 castle-keeper's daughter. **Lift up your 
 feet,*' she said, **that I may set you free." 
 What he could not do for himself, love and 
 
USELESS COVEBING FOB SIN 299 
 
 mercy were doing for him. ^^Now follow 
 me silently/' She led through passages 
 where he never could have found his way 
 alone. He breathed again the pure air of 
 freedom and felt its cooling touch upon his 
 cheek. Would not that liberated captive be 
 a monster if his heart did not overflow with 
 thanksgiving to her who had been his 
 savior ? 
 
 My friend, you are such a prisoner. 
 Jesus is that loving one, seeking after you 
 in your dungeon. When you did not know 
 about it He was looking upon you, and down 
 deep in your heart He has seen something 
 worth loving, something worth saving, He 
 beholds the man or the woman you may 
 become; one fit to be lifted to the joy and 
 glory of heaven. And so, with infinite love 
 Christ has come, and He has unlocked your 
 cell and stands over you with love-lit eyes 
 and says: '*I will be your Eedeemer. I 
 will be your Guide. I will lead you gently 
 as a mother leads her child. I will put my 
 arm between you and all evil. I am the 
 Good Shepherd that giveth my life for the 
 sheep. Come, follow me!" 
 
THE COWARDICE OF A GUILTY 
 CONSCIENCE 
 
 * * The man and his wife hid themselves. ' ^ — Gen. 3 : 8. 
 
 IK no way does the tragedy of Eden come 
 out with more picturesque realism than 
 in these hiding figures fleeing from the 
 face of the God against whom they have 
 sinned. But yesterday the presence of 
 God was their chief delight. It made the 
 flowers more beautiful; it added to the 
 fragrance of the blossoming trees; it gave 
 more exquisite harmony to the singing of 
 the birds; it was the perfection of their 
 delight and their joy. Fear was not in all 
 their thoughts and they gazed rapturously 
 into the countenance of their Heavenly 
 Father as a child gazes with unspeakable 
 confidence and trust into the eyes of its 
 mother. But now there is nothing they 
 dread so much as the face of God. And we 
 watch them as they haste into the thickest 
 part of the garden and vainly try to hide 
 themselves from the eye of their Creator. 
 
 300 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 301 
 
 Let US notice in our study of this pictur- 
 esque and interesting theme that sin is pri- 
 marily and supremely against God. Your 
 sin may have wronged others; it may have 
 harmed your father; it may have grieved 
 your mother; it may have injured your 
 brother, or your sister, or your neighbor; 
 but your great transgression was against 
 God. You do not make sin right again, 
 nor heal its hurt, when you have obtained 
 the forgiveness of some one else whom your 
 sin has injured. Your sin will never cease 
 to pursue you like a nemesis, nor to fill 
 you with terror, until through penitence 
 and appeal for mercy you have been for- 
 given of God. Here is where some make a 
 great blunder. Sin is not simply a mistake, 
 it is not simply bad form, it is not simply 
 folly and unwisdom; it is a wrong against 
 God; and no man can get rid of his sin 
 till he has had sincere and genuine dealing 
 with God, whom above all else his sin has 
 wronged. 
 
302 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 II 
 
 We can not fail to learn from our study 
 that one of the first results of sin is to 
 awaken the conscience and make it an ac- 
 cuser and pursuer. All great literature 
 abounds in illustrations of this theme. No 
 man deals with it with more wisdom and 
 fidelity to life than Shakespeare. We have 
 all had on our lips at one time or another 
 those words of Hamlet in which he declares 
 that ** Conscience doth make cowards of 
 us all.'' And in the tragedy of ^*King 
 Richard III*' Shakespeare makes a wicked 
 man say of his conscience, ^^I'll not meddle 
 with it: it is a dangerous thing: it makes 
 a man a coward: a man can not steal, but it 
 accuses him: he can not swear, but it 
 
 checks him: it is a blushing 
 
 shamefast spirit that mutinies in a man's 
 bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it 
 made me once restore a purse of gold, that 
 I found; it beggars any man that keeps it; 
 it is turned out of all towns and cities for 
 a dangerous thing ; and every man that 
 means to live well endeavors to trust to 
 himself and to live without it. ' ' And yet when 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 303 
 
 we look over toward the east and see those 
 rich scoundrels who have been trying to live 
 without it, and have been piling up their 
 ill-gotten gains by municipal fraud, flying 
 to the court-room and falling on their knees 
 to make confession, hoping to escape the 
 penitentiary, we are assured that to-day, as 
 well as in the past, no man escapes the 
 following of a guilty conscience by refus- 
 ing to heed it and trying to live without 
 it. There is one thing that can not perma- 
 nently be bribed, and that is that court in 
 a man's own bosom which we call con- 
 science. And when men sin against God, 
 conscience makes them cowards, and tho 
 they may brave it out for a while, a de- 
 tective is on the track who is sleepless in 
 vigilance and relentless in determination. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon tells of an Englishman 
 who was so constantly in debt and so 
 frequently arrested by the bailiffs that on 
 one occasion, when going by a picket fence, 
 the sleeve of his coat catching on one of 
 the pickets, he turned around and said, 
 obeying the instinctive JPear of his heart, * * I 
 don't owe you anything, sir." He thought 
 the picket was a bailiff. So the man who 
 
304 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 sins against God, unless it be forgiven, 
 must come to the time when his sin will 
 make of his conscience a terrible perse- 
 cutor. And no man has been able to hide 
 from God. Adam and Eve failed. Cain 
 failed. Judas failed. Every sinner fails. 
 It was said of the Eoman Empire under the 
 CaBsars that the whole world was only one 
 great prison for Caesar, for if any man 
 offended the emperor it was impossible for 
 him to escape. If he crossed the Alps, 
 CaBsar could search him out in Gaul; if he 
 sought to hide himself in the Indies, even 
 the swarthy monarchs there knew the power 
 of the Eoman arm, so they could give no 
 shelter to a man who had incurred imperial 
 vengeance. And yet, perhaps, a fugitive 
 from Eome might have prolonged his 
 miserable life by hiding in the dens and 
 caves of the earth, but all the worlds belong 
 to God and no sinner can hide from Him. 
 
 Professor Phelps tells of a burglar who 
 rifled an unoccupied house by the seaside. 
 He ransacked the rooms and heaped his 
 plunder in the parlor. There were evi- 
 dences that here he sat down to rest. On 
 a bracket in the corner stood a marble bust 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 305 
 
 of Guide's ^^Ecce Homo'' — Christ crowned 
 with thorns. The guilty man had taken it 
 in his hands and examined it. It bore the 
 marks of his dirty fingers; but he re- 
 placed it with its face turned to the wall, 
 as if he would not have even the sightless 
 eyes of the marble Savior look upon his 
 deeds of infamy. But all such efforts to hide 
 from God are a failure. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Our study ought to teach us by contrast 
 that while a guilty conscience is the source 
 of cowardice and fear and terror and a 
 sure guarantee of a sorrowful and wretched 
 life, on the other hand there is no source of 
 peace within our reach so pure as a quiet 
 conscience. Shakespeare, whom we were 
 quoting a moment ago, in ^^King Henry 
 VIII, ' ' makes Cardinal Wolsey say to Crom- 
 well, who asks him how he is: 
 
 Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. 
 I know myself now ; and I feel within me 
 A peace above all earthly dignities, 
 A still and quiet conscience. 
 
30« THE WORLD* S CHILDHOOD 
 
 But how can a poor sinner accomplish the 
 cure of his fear and shame and get victory 
 over the sin that makes a coward of him? 
 My friends, the whole Bible is given to 
 answer that question. The sinner must in 
 some way come into fellowship with Jesus 
 Christ. My friend, Prof. C. M. Coburn, 
 relates a very wonderful incident of 
 travel told by Julian Hawthorne. The nov- 
 elist was traveling in Wales, accompanied 
 by a friend, a Harvard student, who had 
 a periodical passion for strong drink. One 
 day they were standing together watching 
 some women with their little children gather- 
 ing herbs at the foot of a great cliff. They 
 filled the basket with these herbs, and the 
 fathers, away up at the top of the cliff, by 
 means of a rope, would draw the baskets up. 
 Suddenly, as they watched, the Harvard 
 student said: **The passion for drink is 
 on me again.'* Mr. Hawthorne, noting a 
 narrow pathway running almost up the face 
 of the cliff, said, *^Run up that quickly. 
 You will forget it.'' When he had gotten 
 fairly started, a little girl, noting him, 
 started after him, when she stumbled and 
 fell, and fortunately fell into one of the 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 307 
 
 baskets. Tlie father, feeling the tug upon 
 the rope, thought the basket filled and 
 started to draw it up. The child became 
 frightened, and as the basket was drawn 
 up rapidly attempted to climb out. It 
 would have been sure death, when Julian 
 Hawthorne, with his hands to his mouth, 
 shouted to his friend: ** Spring out and 
 catch the rope. Let yourself down. Save 
 the child." The trained athlete balanced 
 himself a moment and sprang out; let him- 
 self down hand by hand, and saved the 
 child. And the passion for drink never 
 returned to him. My friend Coburn thinks 
 it was because of the great principle of 
 sacrifice getting into his life. Certain it is 
 that a guilty conscience can only be cured 
 through the forgiveness of God in Jesus 
 Christ, and it is only when we get into 
 fellowship with Him that we may find peace. 
 
 A dissipated wreck of a man came up 
 to a preacher one day in an open-air 
 service in a great city and said, ** Gov 'nor, 
 you told us to be good. Look at me. Can 
 I be good?" 
 
 The minister looked at him — and finally 
 said, **Do vou want to know the truth?" 
 
308 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 **Yes/* he said, ** let's have the honest 
 truth.'' 
 
 '^Then," said the minister, '*I think you 
 are the worst specimen of humanity I 
 ever saw. You are soaked in drink. Sin 
 has marked your very flesh. I give you up. 
 I honestly don't think you can be good. 
 But I did not ask you to be good in your 
 own strength. I asked you to let the 
 Lord take your case in hand. He will rinse 
 your mouth and cleanse your heart and 
 sweeten your body and make a saint of 
 you. ' ' 
 
 The poor sinner looked back at him and 
 said, *^Do you mean it I" 
 
 The preacher said, **I mean it." 
 
 And the man began then and there to 
 enter into fellowship with Christ and to 
 escape from the thraldom of his sin and 
 the persecution of a guilty conscience. 
 
 My friend, do not thrust these illustra- 
 tions aside as of no account to you because 
 your particular sins have not taken on 
 such a hideous type. They are just as 
 hideous to God and they grieve His heart 
 as truly as did the sins of the poor drunkard. 
 For you, as well as for the man whose sins 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 309 
 
 are publicly shaming him, there can be real 
 peace only in the consciousness of a divine 
 fellowship with the Savior. 
 
 A little boy came home one day, having 
 been in a fight. The father inquired into 
 it and found that he had been imposed upon 
 and had fought in self-defense against a 
 boy much bigger than himself. He asked, 
 **Were you frightened, Arthur f He said, 
 **No." The father said, *^You ought to 
 have been. The boy was bigger than you.'' 
 **I wasn't, dad," he replied. **You see, 
 Norman [his big brother] was only just 
 around the corner." It is a grand thing 
 to have a big brother in reserve. Oh, my 
 dear friends, reverently, lovingly, let me 
 assure you that the weakest and frailest and 
 most discouraged of sinful men and women 
 who will turn their faces toward righteous- 
 ness and seek to make battle against their 
 sins may be sure that our Elder Brother, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, will be not round the 
 comer, but in our very hearts, to give us 
 strength and victory. 
 
 I doubt not there are some here con- 
 scious of sin and needing above everything 
 in the world to feel the presence of Jesus 
 
310 THE WOULD 'S CHILVHOOD 
 
 Christ and His power and willingness to 
 redeem from the guilty conscience that 
 pursues and will give no peace. In '*John 
 Inglesant/* Maltvoli, the wicked prisoner, 
 is '-in his cell, waiting for Justice, with her 
 scales and sword, to write finis at the end 
 of the chapter. Suddenly in his dream he 
 sees a bright form looking down upon him 
 with eyes full of love. He hears the words: 
 **What doest thou here? I bought thee in 
 the garden. I won thee upon the cross. 
 Thou wast mine with me when the tomb 
 burst." And Christ stretched out His 
 hands of pleading love. Maltvoli sprang 
 up to weep and beat upon his breast and 
 pray and cry: **He calls me. He loves 
 me," and in that tremendous moment of 
 divine vision he shouted to his sins: ^^Oh, 
 let me go!" And lo, the sins which had 
 made him a slave and a criminal melted like 
 fetters of ice, and the prisoner was free. 
 My friend, I do not know your sin. It 
 may be the people that are nearest to you 
 in your daily life do not dream of your 
 sin. But God knows, and your conscience. 
 His spokesman within your breast in His 
 efforts to save you, will not let you forget 
 
COWARDICE OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE 311 
 
 it. Let me call you to this vision of Jesus 
 Christ, who died on Calvary to redeem you 
 and save you, that you may, even in this 
 hour, yes, even in this moment, yield your 
 heart to Him and be forgiven. 
 
THE CALL OF GOD 
 
 **God called unto the man and said unto him, 
 Where art thou r'— Gen. 3:9. 
 
 THE writer of this story of the childhood 
 of man says that it was **in the cool 
 of the evening'' that God came walking in 
 the garden and speaking to the man who 
 had sinned. Evening is the time for re- 
 flection. Many things look different in the 
 quiet evening honr when we sit down to 
 think them over than they did in the glare 
 of the noonday, with the telephone ringing 
 in our ears and the din and dust of the 
 street rising up to the open window. There 
 are things that seem right enough in the 
 bustle and competition and struggle of the 
 exchange and niarket-place which take on a 
 different look when in the cool of the 
 evening we sit down to reflect. We may 
 sin during the day, but let us not lose out 
 of sight the fact that God will call us to 
 account at night. The heat and stress of 
 life soon passes, and there comes the cool 
 
 312 
 
TEE CALL OF GOB 313 
 
 of the evening of old age to every one of 
 us, when peace can only be ours because we 
 have nothing to hide from God. 
 
 The first message that speaks out to us 
 from this theme in tones that we can not 
 fail to hear and understand is the stu- 
 pendous fact that God speaks to men. The 
 Bible is full of the record of the voice 
 of God. It is the great phonograph of the 
 ages, and we turn over the record and hear 
 the august voice which gives us pause. 
 God speaks to men under varying conditions 
 and circumstances. He spoke to Cain 
 when the bitterness of his envy and jealousy 
 like a wild beast crouched at the door of his 
 soul. He spoke in warning, but in vain. 
 God spoke to Noah and told him of the 
 impending deluge and gave him the message 
 concerning the ark that was to save the 
 race from total disaster, and Noah hearkened 
 and found his salvation. Again and again 
 God spoke to Abraham in the desert tent, on 
 the mountain top, and in the plain, and 
 
314 THE WORLD'S CHILDEOOD 
 
 Abraham was so loyal that he became known 
 as the ^'friend of God.'' He spoke to Jacob 
 flying into exile because of his sins and 
 revealed to his astonished gaze the heavenly 
 stairway with its angels passing to and 
 fro between the earth and the sky. God 
 spoke to Moses in the burning bush on 
 the slopes of Mount Horeb and again and 
 again through the forty years of his career in 
 the wilderness. He spoke to Job out of 
 the whirlwind. He spoke to Elijah in the 
 mountain cave and called him back to 
 courage from the depths of despair. He 
 spoke to Saul on the way to Damascus and 
 transformed him into Paul, the apostle. 
 And God has not ceased to speak to men. 
 He is forever speaking to the souls of 
 men when they look into the sunset at the 
 cool of the day. 
 
 If we would hear the voice of God we 
 must be alert, with souls sensitive to His 
 tones. He does not always speak through 
 the voice of a white-robed angel. Often 
 He speaks from the lips of a good man or 
 a good woman, sometimes from the very 
 poor and humble, and not infrequently from 
 the lips of a little child. If we would never 
 
TEE CALL OF GOD 315 
 
 fail to hear Him, we must be looking for 
 the divine in every human being we meet. 
 A friend put into my hand not long ago a 
 poem which brings out our theme very 
 beautifully : 
 
 They said, *'The Master is coming 
 
 To honor the town to-day. 
 And none can tell what house or home 
 
 He may choose wherein to stay.'^ 
 Then straight I turned to toiling, 
 
 To make my home more neat, 
 I swept, and polished, and garnished. 
 
 And decked it with blossoms sweet. 
 
 But right in the midst of my duties 
 
 A woman came to my door; 
 She had come to teU me her sorrow, 
 
 And my comfort and aid to implore. 
 And I said, *'I can not listen. 
 
 Nor help you any to-day, 
 I have greater things to attend to,'* 
 
 So the pleader turned away. 
 
 But soon there came another — 
 A cripple, thin, pale and gray — 
 
 And said, ^*0 let me stop and rest 
 Awhile in your home, I pray. ' ' 
 
316 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 I said, ^*I am grieved and sorry, 
 
 But I can not keep you to-day; 
 I look for a great and noble guest,*' 
 
 And the cripple went away. 
 And the day wore onward swiftly, 
 
 And my task was nearly done, 
 And a prayer was ever in my heart 
 
 That the Master to me might come. 
 
 I thought I would spring to meet Him, 
 
 And treat Him with utmost care, 
 When a little child stood by me, 
 
 With a face so sweet and fair — 
 Sweet, but with marks of tear-drops — 
 
 And his clothes were tattered and old; 
 A finger was bruised and bleeding. 
 
 And his little bare feet were cold. 
 
 And I said, *'I am sorry for you; 
 
 You are sorely in need of care, 
 But I can not stop to give it; 
 
 You must hasten other where.'* 
 And at the words a shadow 
 
 Swept o'er his blue-veined brow, 
 ^ ^ Some one will feed and clothe you, dear. 
 
 But I am too busy now." 
 
 At last the day was ended. 
 And my toil was over and done; 
 
 My house was swept and garnished, 
 And I watched in the dusk alone, 
 
THE CALL OF GOD 317 
 
 I waited till night had deepened, 
 
 And the Master had not come; 
 **He has entered some other door/* I cried, 
 
 **And gladdened some other home." 
 
 Then the Master stood before me, 
 
 And His face was grave and fair: 
 ** Three times to-day I came to your door. 
 
 And craved your pity and care. 
 Three times you sent Me onward, 
 
 Unhelped and uncomforted; 
 And the blessing you might have had was lost, 
 
 And your chance to serve had fled." 
 
 **0 Lord, dear Lord, forgive me; 
 
 How could I know it was Theef " 
 My very soul was shamed and bowed 
 
 In the depths of humility. 
 And He said, **The sin is pardoned. 
 
 But the blessing is lost to thee, 
 For, failing to comfort the least of Mine, 
 
 You have failed to comfort Me." 
 
 II 
 
 We have also here the most gracious and 
 beautiful thought in all the Bible, that God 
 is calling to the man who has sinned. 
 Speaking after the manner of men, with the 
 selfishness of the world, we would not be 
 
318 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 astonished to hear Adam calling after God 
 for pardon and forgiveness, but we would 
 marvel if we had not become so accustomed 
 to the thought of God's loving kindness to 
 us through Jesus Christ to hear God call- 
 ing after man, the sinner, not in words of 
 wrath, but speaking to him in the quiet of 
 the evening, speaking to the depths of his 
 soul to awaken repentance and win him 
 back from his folly. All that was necessary 
 to let Adam and Eve die out of the earth, 
 poor melancholy failures, was but to let them 
 alone. But in His infinite love God does 
 not let man alone. That would be irretrieva^ 
 ble ruin. He seeks him out and speaks 
 to him and calls him to account, that there 
 may be the possibility of his salvation. You 
 may always depend upon it that anywhere 
 in this world there are two seekers after 
 every sinner. The Old Testament speaks a 
 universal truth when it says, **Be sure your 
 sin will find you out.'' There is a detective 
 always on the track of unforgiven sin, sure 
 to ferret it out and bring about the sinner's 
 overthrow, and there would be no hope for 
 any sinner in the world if it were not also 
 true that there is another seeker after the 
 
THE CALL OF GOD 319 
 
 sinner. Jesus Christ said, **The Son of 
 man is come to seek and to save that which 
 was lost/' And when the conscience smarts 
 and condemns until men flee to hide them- 
 selves, it is a part of the love and the 
 mercy of God to make the path of the 
 transgressor thorny and hard in order that 
 man may be won from the path because 
 of its terror and unhappiness and find 
 refuge in the arms of his Savior. 
 
 Sometimes God calls men in the tenderest 
 tones, tones as gentle as a whisper and as 
 tender as a tear. One evening, in a service 
 in New York City, Dr. Wilbur Chapman 
 saw a very distinguished-looking man rise 
 and say, **I will accept Christ.'' Dr. Chap- 
 man went back to the hotel and told his 
 wife that he believed he had been used by 
 Christ to lead a great man to God. He 
 thought he had; but the next day, at the 
 prayer-meeting in the afternoon, he saw this 
 man come into the service carrying in his 
 arms a little lame boy. He brought him 
 forward and sat him on the platform. Then 
 he came over to Dr. Chapman, and, placing 
 his hand up to his mouth so that the 
 child could not hear him, he said, **I want to 
 
320 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 introduce to you my little Joe; lie is going 
 to die." He did not need to have told 
 that, the little fellow's face was so white 
 and his hands were so thin. When the 
 minister went over to where the child was, 
 with all the pride of a father the gentleman 
 said, ^^This is Joe; he led me to Christ.'' 
 Then he told his story. He said, ^*When the 
 mission started, Joe said to me, ^Father, I 
 can not go, but mother will take you; and 
 all the time you are gone I will pray." I 
 never came into the house at night that I 
 did not hear the thud of his little crutch 
 on the floor as he came to welcome me the 
 moment the door was opened. He would 
 spring into my arms and say, *Did you comeT 
 But last night he did not ask me. I heard 
 him coming to the door, and as it was 
 opened he sprang into my arms and buried 
 his face on my shoulder and I heard him 
 say, with a sob, *You have come, you have 
 come; I know you have.' " My friend, is 
 the voice of God coming to you in some 
 tender way like that? Does it speak in the 
 gentle tones of a mother, in the kindly 
 voice of a father, in the pleading of a loving 
 wife, or the manly regard of some true- 
 
THE CALL OF GOB 321 
 
 hearted friend? In whatever loving way- 
 God's voice is making itself heard in your 
 heart, it is the greatest privilege of your 
 life to heed that divine call. 
 
 Ill 
 
 I think we should learn from our study 
 that the success of our Christian life, the 
 noblest triumph of our personality, must 
 come from keeping ourselves ever ready 
 to hear and heed the voice of God. Whether 
 our path be humble and restricted by nar- 
 row limitations, or whether it be along the 
 high places of far-reaching influence, the 
 voice of God must mean to us the supreme 
 guidance of our lives. And if we live 
 humbly and faithfully before God, we shall 
 not fail to know the voice of our Heavenly 
 Father in the plain and simple duties of 
 every-day life. Whatever is revealed to us 
 as our duty to do, that we may take to 
 be the voice of God to us, and there is no 
 way in which we can show our love and 
 our fidelity to God so surely as in loyally 
 doing our duty. We often think that if we 
 
322 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 could do something heroic and romantic to 
 show our gratitude and love for God, it 
 would be a beautiful thing; but, my dear 
 friend, heroism and romance do not depend 
 upon quantity, but upon quality. It does 
 not depend upon the size of the canvas, but 
 upon the spirit of the artist. And the 
 humblest surroundings may be made 
 glorious with romantic heroism if there 
 be there the spirit of loving fidelity to 
 God. Henry Van Dyke in one of his greatest 
 poems tells how, 
 
 At a certain hour, before the throne, 
 
 The youngest angel, Asmiel, stood alone. 
 
 **Lord, in the city Lupon I have found 
 
 Three servants of thy holy name, renownea 
 
 Above their fellows. 
 
 But, Lord, I fain would know, which loves 
 
 Thee best?" 
 
 Then spake the Lord of angels, to whose look 
 
 The hearts of all are like an open book. 
 
 **Thou shalt go to Lupon, to the three 
 
 Who serve Me there, and take this word from Me; 
 
 Tell each of them his Master bids him go 
 
 Alone to Spirants huts, across the snow; 
 
 There he shall find a certain task for Me, 
 
 But what, I do not tell to them nor thee. ' * 
 
THE CALL OF GOD 323 
 
 First to the temple door he made his way. 
 
 Through the aisles that hushed behind him, Bernol 
 
 came. 
 One moment at the pulpit steps he knelt 
 In silent prayer, and on his shoulder felt 
 The angePs hand: **The Master bids thee go 
 Alone to Spiran's huts, across the snow, 
 To serve Him there.'* Then Bernors hidden face 
 Went white as death, and for about the space 
 Of ten slow heart-beats there was no reply; 
 Till Bernol looked around and whispered, 
 
 '^Whyf*' 
 
 Within the humble house where Malvin spent 
 His studious years, on holy things intent, 
 Sweet stillness reigned; and there the angel found 
 The saintly sage immersed in 'thought profound. 
 ^'The One of whom thou thinkest bids thee go 
 Alone to Spiran's huts across the snow. 
 To serve Him there.*' With sorrow and surprise 
 Malvin looked up, reluctance in his eyes. 
 The broken thought, the strangeness of the call. 
 The perilous passage of the mountain wall, 
 The solitary journey, and the length 
 Of ways unknown, too great for his frail strength, 
 Appalled him. With a doubtful brow 
 He scanned the doubtful task, and muttered, 
 **Howr' 
 
324 THE WOBLP'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Now as he went, with fading hope, to seek 
 The third and last to whom God bade him speak, 
 Scarce twenty steps away whom should he meet 
 But Fermor, hurrying cheerful down the street, 
 With ready heart that faced his work like play, 
 And joyed to find it greater every day! 
 The angel stopt him with uplifted hand, 
 And gave without delay his Lord 's command : 
 *^He whom thou servest here would have thee go 
 Alone to Spiran's huts, across the snow, 
 To serve Him there/' Ere Asmiel breathed again 
 The eager answer leapt to meet him, 
 ^^When?'' 
 
 The angePs face with inward joy grew bright. 
 
 I have found the man who loves Him best. 
 
 Not thine, nor mine, to question or reply 
 
 When He commands us, asking *'how?** or **why?'' 
 
 He knows the cause; His ways are wise and just; 
 
 Who serves the King must serve with perfect trust. 
 
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 *'The man said, The woman thou gavest me to be 
 with me, she gave me of the tree.'' 
 
 ''The woman said, The serpent beguiled me." — 
 Gen. 3:12-13. 
 
 THE Bible is the great book of human 
 nature. More than any other book it 
 is a book of living documents. There is 
 photographed in the Scriptures every phase 
 of human nature. We may live in a very 
 different age and in a widely divergent 
 civilization, but in the record in this book, 
 that tells how Adam, when he had yielded 
 to temptation and had eaten the forbidden 
 fruit, undertook to shirk the responsibility of 
 his own act by throwing it on his wife we 
 recognize that he acted exactly as men are 
 acting to-day. There are none of us who 
 find him hard to understand. And when 
 we see Eve, conscious of guilt and shamed 
 by her sin, seeking to evade the force of 
 an accusing conscience by laying it on Satan 
 and his beguiling influence, she seems very 
 
 325 
 
326 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 much like the women we have seen. When 
 we turn further over into the records and 
 see Pilate, when he has not the moral 
 stamina to stand out against the men who 
 are clamoring for the life of Jesus, bring- 
 ing a basin of water into the court-room and 
 washing his hands before the multitude, as 
 if by that act he would wash away all of 
 the stains of responsibility for his conduct 
 as governor in connection with the cruci- 
 fixion of Christ, we recognize him at a 
 glance as one of the politicians with whom 
 we have had to do. 
 
 Our theme is one of the greatest that has 
 to do with our human life, our accountability 
 and responsibility for our own conduct. 
 
 It is well for us to note in the study of 
 this scene that we can not put the re- 
 sponsibility of our sin on God. How natural 
 it seems to be to attempt it. See how Adam 
 suggests this. **The woman, whom thou 
 gavest to be with me, she gave me of the 
 tree, and I did eat!*' You see the suggestion. 
 
PERSONAL BESPONSIBILITT 327 
 
 *^I was all right when I was alone. I kept 
 away from the forbidden fruit and attended 
 to my own business. If you had left me 
 alone, this never would have happened. But 
 you gave me this woman, and this is what 
 comes of it.'' All this you read between the 
 lines of this suggestion. And, indeed, you 
 may see the same thing suggested in Eve's 
 answer. **The serpent beguiled me, and 
 I did eat." It is as tho she said, **If there 
 had not been a Satan to tempt, I would not 
 have fallen." But this is all folly. St. 
 James says, **Let no man say when he 
 is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God 
 can not be tempted with evil, and he him- 
 self tempteth no man; but each man is 
 tempted when he is drawn away by his own 
 lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it 
 hath conceived, beareth sin; and the sin, 
 when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death." 
 We all know the strange readiness to feel 
 that the situation in which God has placed 
 us, or the disposition He has given to us, is 
 in some way responsible for the wrong we 
 do. But we can not abuse God's gift and 
 then use that as an excuse for breaking His 
 law. God pours forth His gifts upon us 
 
328 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 for our enjoyment and for our blessing. He 
 gives us abundance that we may grow strong 
 and beautiful and splendid, but we can not 
 make these things the excuse for sinning 
 against Him. Instead of blaming God for 
 giving us blessings which we can abuse, the 
 blame is always on us for perverting the 
 good gifts of God. The farmer to whom 
 God has given seed-corn, who afterward 
 makes him a still-house and changes it into 
 intoxicating liquor and becomes a drunkard, 
 can not blame God because he made it out 
 of the corn which God bestowed upon him. 
 
 II 
 
 Neither can we throw the blame on the 
 devil. There are a great many people who 
 slander the devil. Eve says, ^*The serpent 
 beguiled me, and I did eat.** But Eve 
 did not have to surrender to Satan. She 
 did surrender, because she wanted the fruit. 
 However cunning and wily the devil may 
 be, and however beguiling his manner and 
 his language and the pictures he places be- 
 fore the imagination, he has no power to 
 force us to do evil. He tried it with Job 
 and failed. He took away his property. 
 
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 329 
 
 robbed him of his family, afficted him with 
 disease, and yet Job said, **I know that my 
 Eedeemer liyeth/* Satan tried his most 
 beguiling arts with Jesus in the wilderness 
 and from the pinnacle of the temple in the 
 city, and he met the stem rebuke, **Get 
 thee behind me, Satan.*' He failed com- 
 pletely. Christ went away from him and 
 on to His work in the ministry in the power 
 of the Spirit. It is a mean thing to try to 
 throw off on the devil our own personal 
 guilt. Satan may tempt us, but he has no 
 power to betray the fortress of our hearts 
 into his hands. There must be treachery 
 in our own souls or we will never yield to 
 his beguiling fascination. It used to be a 
 favorite plan among the Indians in the 
 early border warfare with the settlers to 
 manage to get a hitherto friendly old squaw, 
 or a half-breed Indian supposed to be trust- 
 worthy, smuggled into the fort with the 
 whites, and then in the stillness of the night 
 these treacherous spies would creep stealth- 
 ily to the door or gate and let in the lurking 
 foe upon the sleeping garrison. It is in 
 like manner that human hearts are captured 
 by the evil one. He is powerless to do us 
 
330 THE WOULD* 8 CHILDHOOD 
 
 harm unless there be a traitor within our- 
 selves. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Neither can we throw the blame of our 
 sins on a wife or a husband, or neighbors, 
 or friends, or the circumstances which are 
 surrounding us. Because Eve had eaten 
 of the fruit first and then persuaded her 
 husband, was no possible excuse for him. 
 Because Satan beguiled Eve was no real 
 excuse for her breaking the law of her God. 
 How ready we are to try to find somebody 
 else responsible for the sin which we commit. 
 But we can not escape responsibility that 
 way. Adam could have refused; Eve could 
 have refused. And our sins gain their evil 
 standing before God from the fact that they 
 can be avoided. We are not here to be 
 driftwood on the current of the river of 
 circumstance, but we are here to use the 
 currents of life and make them turn the 
 wheels of our purpose and grind the flour 
 that makes our bread. It is idle to say we 
 are in the grip of circumstances. We must 
 grip circumstances by the power of God and 
 
PEBSONAL BESPONSIBILITY 331 
 
 make them our servants. Herod, when he 
 slew John the Baptist, put himself off, I do 
 not doubt, with excuses about the wine he 
 had been drinking and the oath into which 
 he had been deceived, and the people who 
 had heard his promise, who were his guests 
 at the table. No doubt he lulled his con- 
 science to sleep for a while by shuffling out 
 of a sense of responsibility on the ground 
 that his act was forced on him by circum- 
 stances that he could not control; but after 
 a little while some one came and told him 
 of the miracles that were being wrought 
 by Christ, and he did not know what to 
 make of them, and in a moment all the ex- 
 cuses with which he had been drugging his 
 conscience were swept away, and he drew 
 back in fear and horror and cried aloud, 
 ' ^ It is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded ! ^ ' 
 Depend 'Upon it, my friends, all your efforts 
 to shirk the responsibility of your own con- 
 duct by laying it upon others will end like 
 that. One of the great poems, entitled *^The 
 Hound of Heaven," has for its theme the 
 description of the soul chased by an awa- 
 kened conscience. It was written by a man 
 who was very brilliant, and blest with great 
 
332 THE WORLD* 8 CHILDHOOD 
 
 intellectual powers, but who yielded to the 
 beguiling fascinations of evil until his life 
 was marked by dissipation and despair. 
 But in this poem he tells us that wherever 
 he wandered, however great his misfortune, 
 however reckless his sinning, he could not 
 get away from God, and he speaks of con- 
 science and the voice of conscience as if it 
 were a hound, perpetually chasing him: 
 
 I fled him down the nights and down the days; 
 I fled him down the arches of the years; 
 I fled him down the labyrinthine ways 
 Of my own roind, and in the midst of tears 
 I hid from him, and under running laughter 
 Up vistaed hopes I fled ; 
 And shot precipitated 
 Adown Titanic glooms of chasm 'd fears, 
 From those strong feet that followed, followed after, 
 But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace. 
 Deliberate speed, majestic instancy. 
 They beat, and a voice beat. 
 More instant than the feet — 
 All things betray thee, who betrayest me. 
 
 The poet tells us that he sought to hide 
 himself from this hound- that followed him 
 wherever he wandered, but it was impos- 
 sible. Whether he sought to drown his fear 
 
PEBSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 383 
 
 in pleasure, or whether he was engulfed in 
 sorrow, that hound never lost the scent of 
 his trail. 
 
 Still with unhurrying chase 
 And unperturbed pace, 
 Deliberate speed, majestic instancy. 
 Came on the following feet, 
 And a voice above their beat- 
 Naught shelters thee, who will not shelter me. 
 
 That is surely a grim figure which pictures 
 conscience like a hound on the track of its 
 prey, but terrible as the figure is, it is 
 truthful, and it is only the assurance of the 
 mercy of God that He will not permit us to 
 be lulled to sleep long at a time concern- 
 ing our responsibility for our sins. 
 
 In order to save ourselves from being 
 thus deceived, we ought never to permit our^ 
 selves to blame any one else for our deeds. 
 Nothing is more unwise than to allow 
 children to lay their faults on any one 
 else, even on the devil. Dr. Charles F. 
 Deems tells the story of a child whom he 
 knew — a child of strong character and 
 strong passions who had paroxysms of rage. 
 Her parents would sometimes tell her to 
 open her mouth and let the bad spirit go 
 
334 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 under the table. The child was growing 
 into the belief that she was the innocent 
 victim of an unseen being, who was another 
 person, and she was learning to shift all the 
 responsibility upon that person. A friend 
 one day wisely taught her the fallacy of 
 this; showed her that she was the only 
 person responsible; that she herself was the 
 bad spirit, and there was nothing to do 
 but to have that spirit — namely, herself — 
 totally changed. She went away by herself 
 and prayed — prayed as David prayed when 
 the conviction seized him that it was against 
 God and God only that he had sinned. There 
 was no third party in the transaction. 
 From the hour the child had the convic- 
 tion of her personal responsibility, she was 
 a changed person. So must we all feel. 
 We can never resist temptation as we should 
 so long as we hold anybody else responsible 
 for our sins. 
 
 IV 
 
 These sins for which we are personally 
 responsible are those for which we must 
 give an account at the great judgment. I 
 
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 335 
 
 read not long ago a comment on the refer- 
 ence to what is called '^The Book of Life'' 
 in the 20th chapter of the Book of Eevela- 
 tion. The writer declared that this sugr 
 gested that each of our lives was an auto- 
 biography which we were daily and hourly 
 writing. There is something very striking 
 about that thought, for this Book of Life 
 which each of us is writing in the deeds of 
 every day has its transcript in the other 
 world. Every act which men do here, and 
 which they are responsible for doing, is 
 known yonder. What John says about the 
 book is figurative, of course. God forgets 
 nothing, and so requires no actual records 
 to remind Him. But there is a deep truth 
 underlying such figures, which is apt to be 
 overlooked. That truth is, that every act 
 that we do here is known to the great 
 Judge, and is recorded against us. You 
 have seen those old-fashioned manifold 
 writers. Possibly some of you use them 
 yet in your places of business. The con- 
 struction of them is this: a sheet of paper, 
 a black carbon paper to be put in below it, 
 and then another sheet on the other side, 
 and the pen or pencil that writes on the 
 
336 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 top surface, makes an impression that is 
 carried through the black to the sheet 
 below, and there is a duplicate which the 
 writer keeps. So you and I upon this 
 fleeting life are penning that which goes 
 through the mysterious dark and is repro- 
 duced and docketed yonder. That is no 
 fancy; it is a tremendous fact. Every day, 
 every hour, every moment, we are writing, 
 writing, writing our own biography, and 
 God knows every word, every syllable, every 
 letter that we put into it, better even than 
 we know it ourselves. 
 
 My dear friends, what have you written 
 there? Is there writing there that you dare 
 not meet in the presence of the great white 
 throne! Then, I pray you, now and here, 
 bring your own sins to judgment by invoking 
 the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ 
 your Savior. 
 
THE CONFLICT OF THE CENTURIES 
 
 **I will put enmity between thee and the woman/' — 
 Gen. 3:15. 
 
 WE have here the beginning of the 
 mighty conflict of the ages. All 
 other wars that have curst the earth and 
 have fattened on bloodshed and human 
 anguish have been but phases of this age- 
 long warfare. All other struggles have been 
 evanescent and transitory; this has never 
 ceased for an hour since the opening gun 
 was fired in the Garden of Eden. The ages 
 have counted themselves off by the century 
 and by the thousand years; nations have 
 been born and come into power and gone 
 forth to conquest, and have in turn disinte- 
 grated and been broken in pieces that their 
 fragments might build up still other nations ; 
 but this fight goes on, and must continue 
 to go on, until man everywhere has been 
 redeemed from the power of evil and has 
 come to his rightful place as the ransomed 
 son of God. 
 
 387 
 
338 THE WOBLB'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 Onr theme suggests to us a battlefield. 
 On one side is Satan and all evil spirits; 
 on the other side is God and the angels, and 
 man is the prize over which this conflict 
 of the centuries is being fought. The ma- 
 terialism of the world in which we live 
 presses in upon us so continuously through 
 all the windows of our senses that it is 
 sometimes hard for us to appreciate the 
 reality of these vital spiritual warriors who 
 are fighting in this conflict, and yet the 
 Bible revelation concerning them is the 
 most probable order when we reflect upon 
 it. Canon Liddon points out that it is only 
 reasonable to suppose that the graduated 
 series of living beings, graduated as it is 
 so delicately, which we trace from the lowest 
 creatures up to man, does not stop abruptly 
 with man, that it continues beyond, altho 
 we may be unable to follow the invisible 
 steps of the continuing ascent. And this, 
 which appears reasonable to us, is con- 
 firmed by the Scriptures, which reveal to 
 us on one hand the pure and holy angels, 
 
THE CONFLICT OF TEE CENTURIES 339 
 
 and on the other hand evil spirits who 
 were not created evil, but who lost their 
 high estate through abuse of their freedom, 
 as man lost his in Eden. These spiritual 
 beings, the Bible assures us, both the good 
 and the evil, act upon humanity as clearly, 
 as certainly, and as constantly as man him- 
 self acts upon the lower creatures surround- 
 ing us in the world. And this is what 
 Paul means when he says, **Our wrestling 
 is not against flesh and blood, but against 
 the principalities, against the powers, 
 against the world rulers of this darkness, 
 against the spiritual hosts of wickedness. ' ' 
 And I am sure that all thoughtful men and 
 women must agree with Canon Liddon that 
 our experience bears out this declaration 
 of Paul. Who of us has not known what 
 it is to be carried away by a sudden im- 
 pulse — to be driven, we know not why, 
 hither and thither in conscious humiliation 
 and shame before some strong, overmaster- 
 ing gust of passion? Surely we, too, like 
 Paul, have often seen another law in our 
 members, warring against the law of our 
 minds, and bringing us into captivity to 
 the law of sin that is in our members. And 
 
340 THE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 what is this at the bottom but to feel our- 
 selves in the strong arms of another power, 
 who, for the moment, has overmastered us 
 and holds us down? We may be unable to 
 discern his form; we may be unable to de- 
 fine the exact limits of his power; we 
 may despair to decide what it is that we 
 supply to the dread result of our own fund 
 of perverted passion, and what it is that this 
 unseen evil personality adds from the hot 
 breath of an intenser furnace. But the 
 reality of that evil influence is as sure as 
 any physical experience that we know. You 
 might as well say that some fearful epi- 
 demic which sweeps over one of our modern 
 cities ravaging it of hundreds of human 
 lives is itself a creation of human fancy, 
 that it had in itself no real existence, that 
 it was the real cause of no real disease in 
 the individuals who succumbed to it. Our 
 imagination may do much; but there are 
 limits to its power, and the higher facts are 
 just as much beyond it as are the facts of 
 physical nature. The mightiest battle that 
 is going on in this world is that contest be- 
 tween good and evil which goes on in the 
 human soul, where good spirits and evil 
 
TEE CONFLICT OF TEE CENTURIES 341 
 
 spirits do fierce battle, with our manhood 
 and our womanhood as the noble prize. 
 
 n 
 
 This great theme suggested by our text 
 makes it evident to us that if man were 
 simply a neutral factor, the battle would 
 soon be over. God and Christ and the 
 spirits of good would sweep the battle- 
 field of the universe and man would be 
 saved, heaven's prize forever. But man is 
 not a neutral factor, he is not a mere 
 machine. He is a creature who thinks, who 
 has the power of choice and decision, 
 and he throws his influence constantly 
 on the one side or the other. We 
 ought to learn, therefore, from our theme 
 the supreme importance of seeking to main- 
 tain our purity and in every way possible 
 strengthen our honor against the invading 
 hosts of evil. 
 
 A gentleman describing a visit to a light- 
 house on a high point of a wild and rocky 
 coast, says that he was interested to know 
 about the oil that made the lamps burn so 
 brightly. It was paraffin oil, the lighthouse 
 
342 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 keeper told him, and he showed him a cup- 
 ful. He struck a match, and was bringing it 
 near the oil, when the visitor grabbed the 
 keeper's hand. **Take care," he said. **If 
 that oil explodes there is enough to kill us 
 all." ^* There would be," said the lighthouse 
 keeper, **if this was like most paraffin oil; 
 but you won't find any danger about this." 
 Then he took the lighted match and put it 
 into the oil! And the oil put out the match 
 as if it had been water, and did not take 
 fire itself. And the visitor says he learned 
 that day that there was pure paraffin; and 
 that when paraffin is pure, quite pure, it 
 gives the brightest light when used in the 
 proper way for the lamp, but it will not 
 explode and do harm as common paraffin 
 when a light comes near it. 
 
 So, my friends, the heart that is impure 
 catches fire at every temptation, but the 
 clean heart and the right spirit, which God 
 is ready to give to all who really seek after 
 them, enables us to overcome temptation and 
 make our lives *'as the dawning light, that 
 shineth more and more unto the perfect 
 day." 
 
 The armor and the weapons by which 
 
THE CONFLICT OF TEE CENTURIES 343 
 
 alone we may overcome the evil hosts that 
 war against the soul are not physical or 
 temporal, but are spiritual. Neither wealth 
 nor culture are able to save the fortress of 
 man's soul from the invasion of wicked- 
 ness. Society in every age has seemed as 
 rotten at the top as at the bottom. And 
 surely, if we may judge by the manifesta- 
 tions which come to us in the courts, in the 
 life of our own time, there is no power in 
 that thing called social refinement, or good 
 breeding, or social status, or position, that 
 can defend the soul of man from the in- 
 vasion of wicked spirits. 
 
 Neither is there any power in learning to 
 help man to win the battle against evil. 
 Education quickens the intellect, it sharpens 
 the intellectual abilities of men, but it does 
 not give power to curb the passions. Even 
 a professor of Harvard University was 
 hanged for murder of the most brutal char- 
 acter. 
 
 Neither is there any power in art, or 
 music, in the more esthetic and delicate 
 graces of life, to master wicked passions and 
 unholy appetites. It was in the palmiest 
 days of her art and literature that Greece 
 
344 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 became most corrupt and wicked. And 
 so to-day there is no evidence in any land 
 that the mere love of beautiful things, of 
 the possession of a cultivated critical taste 
 for beauty in art or music or literature, is 
 any guarantee of moral purity or safety. 
 No, indeed ! our warfare is not temporal, but 
 spiritual. The weapons with which we 
 fight to maintain righteousness must be the 
 weapons of the spirit. 
 
 I do not doubt that many of you noted, 
 as I did, the description given in the news- 
 paper dispatches of the visit of Theodore 
 Roosevelt to the tomb of Napoleon, and you 
 perhaps noted how he took up the sword 
 which the great warrior carried in the battle 
 of Austerlitz, and waved it about his head 
 and examined its edge, and held it aloft, 
 seeming in the meantime to be profoundly 
 imprest. And we may well imagine and 
 believe that the hero of San Juan Hill was 
 stirred in every drop of his soldierly blood 
 as he stood on that historic spot with that 
 famous sword gript in his right hand. 
 But if we could gather together all the 
 famous swords kept in all the capitals of the 
 world, in memory of princes and warriors 
 
THE CONFLICT OF THE CENTURIES 345 
 
 and heroes who have carried them on his- 
 toric battlefields, they would be insignificant 
 in comparison to that ** sword of the Spirit," 
 of which Paul speaks in his letter to the 
 Ephesians — a sword by which millions of 
 humble men and women, and even boys and 
 girls, have put to flight the alien armies 
 of hell and maintained their integrity 
 against odds as the faithful children of 
 God. 
 
 m 
 
 Our theme should make every human 
 being interesting to us, for it teaches us 
 that this conflict of the centuries is going on 
 ir every man and woman we meet. I think 
 we are too easily discouraged in regard to 
 the possibility of winning the battle for 
 God among sinning men and women. We 
 should remember that naturally the human 
 heart belongs to God and not to the devil, 
 and that the fact that some people are 
 notoriously wicked and that other people's 
 sins are seemingly more respectable, may 
 not mean that the one is farther away from 
 God or in greater danger of eternal de- 
 
346 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 feat than the other. It should give us 
 courage that in any fight we make to win 
 a sinner from his sins, we are fighting on 
 the side of the angels, on the side of Christ 
 and God. That thought should make us 
 brave and hopeful in every such struggle. 
 One of the bravest soldiers of Christ I 
 have ever personally known was Ira D. 
 Sankey, Mr. Moody's singing partner in 
 his great evangelistic campaigns. Sankey 
 feared nothing when in pursuit of a soul 
 which he felt called upon to capture for his 
 Master. John L. Sullivan, the notorious 
 pugilist, recently told the story of how he 
 was stopping in a hotel in Buffalo, N. Y., 
 some fifteen years ago, when a bell-boy re- 
 ported that a man down-stairs wanted to 
 come up to his room and see him, and that 
 if Sullivan would not give his permission 
 he was coming up anyhow. Curiosity to see 
 the author of this daring message induced 
 the pugilist to return a rather grudging in- 
 vitation, and in a moment or two Mr. Sankey 
 appeared in the doorway of the fighter's 
 room. 
 
 **What do you want with me?" Sullivan 
 growled at him. 
 
TBE CONFLICT OF THE CENTUBIES 347 
 
 Sankey came back at him straight as a 
 shot; *^I want you to change your way of 
 living and set a different example for the 
 youth of the country. You have no right 
 to squander your strength on wild living. 
 It was given you for a different purpose. *' 
 
 Sullivan admits that it made him mad 
 clear through. He tried to beg off from his 
 visitor's condemnation by saying that Mr. 
 Sankey could not possibly know what it was 
 to want liquor, nor how badly some poor 
 fellows need a drink when they are in hard 
 luck. 
 
 To this Sankey replied: **Now, Mr. Sulli- 
 van, don't make the mistake of thinking 
 that I don't know anything about the world 
 and the things to which you refer. I have 
 been pretty close to them in more countries 
 than one, and I am here to ask you to do 
 something for the growing boys by setting 
 them a good example. Those are the people 
 we want to start in the right channels. By 
 showing them the proper way to live, you 
 can do as much for saving them as I can." 
 
 Such straight, manly, friendly appeal soon 
 disarmed the big, rough fighter's resent- 
 ment, and he surrendered utterly to his 
 
348 THE WOBLD*S CHILDHOOD 
 
 unbidden guest. Sullivan's final comment on 
 the occurrence is : * * We sat there and talked 
 for an hour, and he soon got it through my 
 head that I was wrong and he was right. 
 And tho I did not heed his advice at the 
 time, he certainly made a great try, and 
 went a long distance out of his way to force 
 something on me that I needed. When I 
 read of Sankey's death in the papers I could 
 not help but think of his meeting with me 
 and how hard he tried to make me do right. 
 I have often wondered what he would say of 
 me since I have cut out the red stuff and 
 tried to live as he told me.*' 
 
 No such effort, bravely made, ever fails 
 of good, tho at the time it may seem to be 
 lost, and every struggle that we make to 
 throw our force, such as it is, on the side of 
 truth and righteousness and against wrong 
 and evil helps others about whom we do not 
 know. If we evermore keep our sword 
 drawn on the right side, we may be sure 
 that the glitter of that sword will put 
 courage in other souls who are ready to 
 faint. Some poet sings : 
 
IRE CONFLICT OF THE CENTURIES 34© 
 
 The far winds brought me tidings of him — one 
 Who fought alone, a champion unafraid, 
 
 Hurt in the desperate warring, faint, fordone; 
 I loved him, and I prayed. 
 
 The far winds told the turning of the strife; 
 
 Into his deeds there crept a strange new fire. 
 Unconquerable, the glory of his life 
 
 Fulfilled my soul's desire. 
 
 God knows what mighty bond invisible 
 
 Gave my dream power, wrought answer to my prayer ; 
 God knows in what far world our souls shall tell 
 
 Of triumph that we share. 
 
 I war alone; I shall not see his face. 
 
 But I shall strive more gladly in the sun, 
 More bravely in the shadow, for this grace : 
 
 <*He fought his fight, and won.*' 
 
THE PEOMISED SAVIOR 
 
 "God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done 
 this ... I will put enmity between thee and the 
 woman, and between thy seed and her seed: He shall 
 bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," — Gen. 
 3:14-15. 
 
 THERE is an old legend about a temple in 
 Paradise. The early traditions tell 
 us that there was a temple in Eden for Adam 
 and Eve to worship in. Watkinson wittily 
 says that the place certainly would not have 
 been crowded. But the old legend tells us 
 that this temple was built of pearls, and was 
 the most magnificent shrine that ever stood 
 on the globe. The foundations were dia- 
 monds, and the dome was a mighty, flashing 
 sapphire. It was the most majestic temple 
 the world has ever seen. But the story 
 says that on the day when Adam and Eve 
 yielded to the beguiling temptation of Satan 
 and sinned against God, this glorious temple 
 fell into ruin and was scattered all over the 
 planet. So the diamonds and pearls, the 
 topaz and beryl, and all the other precious 
 
 350 
 
TEE PBOMISED SAVIOB 351 
 
 stones round to-day are the remnants of that 
 primitive shrine. There is a deep and 
 significant lesson in this old legend. Through 
 human sin and folly the temple of truth 
 has been shattered, and you may search 
 through the legends and traditions and creeds 
 and philosophies of all the tribes of men 
 and you will find the scattered remnants 
 mixed with rubbish, yet shining in the dust. 
 But in Jesus Christ, the Savior promised 
 for the first time in this early morning of 
 the world's childhood, we get back the 
 temple of truth in more than fabled 
 splendor. 
 
 We have in our text the beginnings of 
 the River of Life. Were you ever in at the 
 beginning of a river! Did you ever stand 
 up in that wet, spongy place on the mountain 
 plateau where the wild flags bloom and the 
 ferns are thick? And did you follow a little 
 farther down where a few drops of water 
 oozed out from under a stone and dropt 
 down over another? And did you go a little 
 farther on and notice how it began to trickle 
 
352 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 and then to gurgle and get a song in its 
 heart, and the birds and the squirrels and 
 the cotton-tails and the wild fawns came to 
 drink at its side and thank God? Ah! if 
 you have been there you have noticed how 
 soon it gets courage, that little brook, and 
 burrows out for itself deep holes under the 
 dark rocks where the trout hide, and then 
 rushes forth over the great boulders and 
 splashes white in the sun, making a sight so 
 beautiful that the little dark water-ouzels 
 dive into it for very delight. And then as 
 you follow it other brooks like it join hands 
 on the one side and then on the other. Soon 
 it is strong enough to turn the wheels of 
 a mill where men come for bread. A little 
 farther on it can give up water for a great 
 irrigation ditch to spread out over a hundred 
 miles of thirsty plains and make the desert 
 smile like the Garden of God. But on it 
 pours its ever-deepening and ever-widening 
 stream. Other rivers with a like history, 
 coming from mountains far away, grown 
 strong by a hundred brooks poured into their 
 bosom, add their floods to the now mighty 
 river. Towns and cities spring up along 
 its shores. Ships come in from the sea 
 
TEE PBOMISED SAVIOR 363 
 
 borne upon its swelling currents, and fifty 
 miles before it reaches the ocean the tides 
 of the mighty deep come with long arms to 
 welcome it to the home of the waters. 
 
 Our text reminds me of that evolution of 
 the river. Here upon the high tableland, 
 on the roof of the world ^s childhood, in the 
 midst of earth's sin and sorrow, in the 
 spoiled paradise, is the first spring of 
 promised mercy and salvation, in the 
 promise that the seed of the woman shall 
 bruise the head of Satan. Follow that 
 stream down through the hills of early 
 history and you will hear again the promise 
 made to Abraham that in his-seed shall all 
 the families of the earth be blest. Follow on 
 through the story of Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 Joseph, and Moses, and Caleb, and Joshua, 
 and you will see other streams adding their 
 waters to this growing stream of promise. 
 After a while you come to David, and the 
 Psalms add their force to the swelling tide. 
 On through the prophets, Isaiah, and Jere- 
 miah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, and Hosea, 
 and many others help to swell the stream of 
 hope and salvation that poured over Gol- 
 gotha's rugged crag a cataract of the River 
 
354 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 of Life, by the side of which the Savior Him- 
 self may cry, **The Spirit and the Bride say 
 Come. And he that heareth, let him say. 
 Come ; and he that is athirst, let him come : 
 he that will, let him take the water of life 
 freely. ' ' 
 
 Brahmo Somaj Fellow, a native of Bengal, 
 India, who has been for some years a student 
 in this country, recently declared in a public 
 address that the appearance of Jesus was 
 like the first glow of morning on the snowy 
 crown of the Himalayas. If you ever hap- 
 pen to be there, says this traveler from 
 India, go in the early hours of the morning, 
 when the mountains and valleys are still 
 enshrouded in darkness and the eastern sky 
 does not yet show the faintest tint of dawn, 
 and stand on the brow of a hill looking 
 northward and watch for the first morning 
 light. You do not see the light first on the 
 eastern horizon, but far above on the sky in 
 front of you. Above the slumbering moun- 
 tains and valleys there glows out almost 
 suddenly a beautiful point of light like a 
 piece of burning coal : Mt. Everest has caught 
 the light of the sun, even before it has ap- 
 peared on the horizon. Gradually this light 
 
THE PB0MI8ED SAVIOR 355 
 
 glides down the snowy peak, lighting up 
 each little pinnacle and bafliing the snowy 
 surface in pink and white, and anon the sun 
 rises on the eastern horizon and morning 
 breaks. Such, says the Oriental student, was 
 the appearance of Jesus and such the prog- 
 ress of His religion. The world was en- 
 veloped in darkness when Jesus was born. 
 Idolatry and superstition, with corruption, 
 extravagant luxury, unbridled dissipation 
 and cruelty following in their trails, stalked 
 over the length and breadth of the world. 
 Greece, Eome, Egypt, each had its pantheon 
 of gods. The light of wisdom and truth 
 which Socrates had kindled and Plato and 
 Aristotle had fanned into flame was well- 
 nigh extinguished. Epicureanism and skep- 
 ticism ruled on the thrones of philosophy 
 and ethics. Judaism, which had always stood 
 amid this sea of universal idolatry with the 
 flaming torch of monotheism in her hand, 
 was groaning under the burden of empty 
 rituals and ceremonies, and instead of the 
 thundering voice of the ancient Hebrew 
 prophets were heard only the senseless mut- 
 terings of the priests or the hollow, boastful 
 wranglings of the Pharisees. India, which 
 
356 TEE WOBLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 had once vibrated under the strains of the 
 Vedic hymns, had devoutly listened to the 
 deep words of wisdom of the Upanishads, 
 had seen the noble Sakya-Muni walking from 
 door to door, preaching his gospel of re- 
 nunciation and mercy, now lay in bondage 
 to a system of grim idolatry and priest- 
 craft from which God only knows when 
 she will be free. In the midst of such an 
 universal spiritual gloom, far above on the 
 firmament of Palestine, appeared the figure 
 of Jesus clad in raiment of light. 
 
 And the Christ who was born in Bethle- 
 hem and who lived and preached in Palestine 
 and died upon the cross and rose from the 
 dead on Easter morning is the fulfilment of 
 the promise made in our text in the world's 
 childhood. 
 
 It is recorded of Mendelssohn that at a 
 concert at which he was to play, he was 
 late in arriving, and meanwhile a local 
 organist filled up the interval of waiting 
 with a selection of Scottish airs. Mendels- 
 sohn, when he came, slipt unobserved into 
 his place at the organ, and, putting his 
 hands upon the keyboard, carried on without 
 any break the Scottish strain with his own 
 
THE FBOMISED SAVIOB 357 
 
 brilliant improvising. At once a thrill went 
 through the audience. They felt the change, 
 and, looking up, saw the explanation of it. 
 The master himself was there. It was some- 
 thing like that when Jesus came into the 
 world. He, too, came without observation, 
 and He, too, took up the strain of the 
 prophets of old, and carried it on, but in 
 His own wonderful way. The common 
 people felt the thrill of the Master's touch, 
 and from that day until this that thrill has 
 been felt more and more, until its electric 
 influence is beginning to awaken all the 
 nations of men. 
 
 II 
 
 It has been well said that every great and 
 important question always becomes a per- 
 sonal question with each individual. It is 
 impossible for us to talk about Jesus Christ 
 as the promised Savior for all mankind with- 
 out arousing in our hearts the question, 
 *^Has He become my Savior?" A moment 
 ago I was giving you the utterance of a 
 scholar from India concerning Jesus. Let 
 
358 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 me give you another Indian story. A gen- 
 eral in the British Army tells it. This 
 general was in service in India during the 
 awful times of the mutiny there. He had in 
 his regiment a little bugler twelve or thir- 
 teen years of age, a very frail little fellow. 
 His mother had been a Scripture-reader; 
 his father a brave man. The father died in 
 action, and the mother drooped and died 
 shortly after, and their boy was left alone 
 in the regiment. This little fellow was a 
 very saint. He nad a rough time of it, be- 
 cause he was made the butt of the coarse 
 jests of the crowd of soldiers. But he went 
 along his way quietly, living his Master's 
 life. One day they had gone away .some 
 miles from the seat of action for rifle prac- 
 tise. It was a swampy bit of country, un- 
 healthy, and the colonel did not want to take 
 the boy along, he was so delicate. But the 
 surgeon said: ^^Let the boy go. The men 
 drive him a hard life, but his presence 
 makes it so much easier to handle them. 
 He has enormous influence. Let him go. ' ' So 
 the boy went. 
 
 It was a very ticklish time in the regi- 
 ment. They had a lot of rough men. There 
 
THE PBOMISED SAVIOR 359 
 
 was a good deal of insubordination which 
 could not be traced down to the perpetra- 
 tors. One night the practise targets were 
 thrown down, and so injured that the prac- 
 tise had to be set aside for several days. 
 That was very serious, and so the general 
 gave orders to find out who the perpetrators 
 were. He thought he must make an ex- 
 ample of them. They traced the wrong-do- 
 ing to a certain tent in which this boy was, 
 a tent that contained some of the worst men 
 of the regiment, and they had a court- 
 martial. It was very clear that somebody 
 in that tent was guilty of this wrong-doing. 
 And the commander said, **Now, we know 
 this squad of men contains the guilty man, 
 and if the guilty one will step out like a 
 man the rest will go free." But nobody 
 came. He said: **If one of you men will 
 step out and take your punishment, ten 
 strokes of the cat, the whole squad will 
 go untouched.'' And he waited. Nobody 
 came. Of course, they would all have to be 
 whipt with the cat if the one man did not 
 step out. And as he waited, out from the 
 little bunch of men came this bugler-boy, 
 about fourteen by this time; Willie Holt, he 
 
360 THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 was called. He said: ^* Colonel, you have 
 given your word that if any man of this 
 squad will step out and take the ten strokes 
 of the cat, the rest will go free. I will take 
 you at your word. I will take the ten strokes 
 of the cat. ' * A look of disgust came into the 
 officer's face, and he said: ^'You men know 
 that boy is not guilty. Are you not man 
 enough to come out, the guilty one, and take 
 your punishment, and not let that lad take 
 it?*' 
 
 But there was no reply and the boy quietly 
 said: ** Colonel, your word is given/' And, 
 sick at heart, the order was given for the 
 boy to be tied up for the lashing. And he 
 was bared to his waist, and tied up, and 
 the strokes came down. One, the second, 
 the third; no cry came, then, as the fourth 
 stroke came down on that little back, just a 
 moan burst from the lad's lips that his 
 brave heart could not hold in. And then 
 Jim Skyes, the worst man in the regiment, 
 the black sheep, came bounding out. **Stop, 
 colonel, I should be there. That boy is not 
 guilty. I am. Tie me up; let me take the 
 strokes." 
 
 And the boy, with white, tense face, smiled, 
 
TEE PBOMISED SAVIOR 361 
 
 and said, ^'No, Jim, the colonel's word has 
 been given. I have taken the punishment. 
 You are free.^' Then he fainted. They car- 
 ried him off to the hospital and the next day 
 the colonel went down to see how the boy 
 was getting along. Stepping into the room 
 where his cot was, unnoticed, this was what 
 he saw: the boy lying there, pillowed up, 
 very frail, very weak; and on the floor, on 
 his knees by the boy's side, was Jim Sykes, 
 the blackguard of the regiment. He was 
 saying: "Oh, Willie, why did you do it! 
 What made you do it?^' And the boy smi- 
 lingly said, "Ah, Jim, I wanted you to know 
 this. I did it that you might know that this 
 is what Christ did for you; only He did so 
 much more. I suffered for one sin, but He 
 suffered for all our sins. He bore our 
 stripes for all our sins, and He loves you, 
 Jim.'' 
 
 "Oh," Jim said, **not the likes of me. I 
 am a bad one." 
 
 "Ah," the boy was saying, "He loves 
 you, Jim. Trust Him. He did what I did 
 but so much more." And then the boy 
 fainted. In a few days he passed away. 
 But Jim Skyes was utterly changed. And 
 
362 TEE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD 
 
 as the general told the story, it was plain 
 that he, too, had been changed. 
 
 Oh, my friends, what Jesus Christ did for 
 them. He did for you. Shall He not be 
 your Savior too? His love for you is pass- 
 ing all description. The love of Christ, as 
 Christina Rossetti says, is stronger than 
 death : 
 
 I have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee, 
 
 I have not thirsted for Thee, 
 
 And now cold billows of death surround me, 
 
 Buffeting billows of death astound me — 
 
 Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see 
 
 Thy perishing me? 
 
 Yea, I have sought thee, yea, I have found thee, 
 Yea, I have thirsted for thee; 
 Yea, long ago with love's bands I bound thee. 
 Now, the everlasting arms surround thee, — 
 Through death's darkness I look and see. 
 And clasp thee to me. 
 
 It is to this Savior, able to save unto the 
 uttermost every one that will come unto 
 God by Him, that I call you. Trust Him and 
 He will never fail you. Let us make our vows 
 unto Him now and say with Richard Gilder : 
 
TH^ PROMISED SAVIOR 868 
 
 If Jesus Christ is a man, 
 
 And only a man, I say. 
 That of all mankind I cleave to Him, 
 
 And to Him will I cleave alway. 
 If Jesus Christ is a God, 
 
 And the only God, I swear, 
 I will follow Him through heaven and hell. 
 
 The earth, the sea, the air. 
 
 THE END. 
 
ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
WORKS BY 
 
 DR. BANKS 
 
 IN TWENTY^ONE VOLUMES 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 FUNK &WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
The Pastor as a Soul 
 Winner 
 
 Dr. Banks's Experiknck 
 
 gVERY SUNDAY morning 
 and every Sunday eve- 
 ning I amat the main entrance 
 of the Church when the doors 
 are thrown open, half an 
 hour before the service be- 
 gins. I shake hands with the 
 people as they come in. The 
 first fifteen or twenty min- 
 utes, even in a very large 
 congregation, the people gather rather slowly, and 
 in a big city church with an average congregation 
 of from fourteen hundred to sixteen hundred people, 
 there will be a large percentage of strangers during 
 these early moments. I find out the names of these 
 people, find out whether they are Christians, and if 
 they have any church affiliation. If they are not 
 Christians, I get by tactful questioning as much in- 
 sight as possible into their mental attitude toward 
 Christianity. I go up to the sermon with my hands 
 full of memoranda of names and addresses. Often- 
 times I have in this way made discoveries that have 
 been very stimulating to me in the sermon which fol- 
 lowed, and the fact that I have had the friendly 
 talk at the door makes the sermon far more attract- 
 ive to many people. 
 
 ^T THE CLOSE of the sermon I say to the people 
 that I shall remain for a while at the altar of the 
 church, and shall be very glad to shake hands with 
 any who would like to meet me, and grateful if 
 strangers who come occasionally will wait long 
 enough for me to meet them. This brings to me 
 many people from those who come in late, after the 
 
service opered. It also brings, nearly every Sun- 
 day, some people to whom the sermon has been a 
 message from God, and who give me a glimpse into 
 their heeirts, and put me on the trail of a possible 
 convert. Again I have my pencil and memorandum 
 book, and gather still more addresses. The same 
 thing goes on in the evening, and all through the 
 year, every Sunday, rain or shine, when I am at 
 home with my church. 
 
 J^OW ON MONDAY MORNING I have this pile of 
 addresses. With some persons I have made defi- 
 nite engagements for a certain time of the day, and for 
 certain days in the week. For some people who are 
 busy during the day, I have made definite engage- 
 ments for certain evenings, and sometimes Monday 
 morning finds me with every evening in the week 
 booked full of this class of engagements, with the 
 exception of the evenings upon which I have regular 
 church services. This gives me a chance to follow 
 up the message of the sermon before it has been for- 
 gotten and ere its influence has been lost. 
 
 rfHE RESULT IS VERY REMARKABLE. 
 Scarcely a week has passed during the laat two 
 years that there have not been from one to a 
 dozen who have been brought to a definite de- 
 cision to seek Christ and to unite with his church 
 through these personal interviews in the week fol,- 
 lowing the sermon. I bring all these people into a 
 class, and meet them one evening in the week to 
 study the simple beginnings of Christian life and 
 character, etc., etc. — From the Preface to his book 
 " Sermons Which Have Won Souls." 
 
 Sad will be the day for any man when fie becomt$ 
 contented toith the thoughts he ia thinking and the deeds he 
 is doing-^where there is not beating at the doors of his soul 
 some great desire to do something larger which he knows 
 that he was meant and made to do." 
 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
His Latest Volume 
 
 The World's Childhood 
 
 Net, $1.30. Post-paid, $ 1 .35 
 
 TN this new volume are thirty sermons with texts 
 taken from the first three chapters of the Book 
 of Genesis. They are marked by the same spirit of 
 modernity and application to present conditions in 
 human life that have won for his many volumes 
 wide circle of readers. They abound in suggestive 
 anecdotes, pertinent quotations and uplifting com- 
 ments on life. Among the significant titles are ' ' The 
 Background of Human Life," "The Treasures of 
 the Night," "The Appeal of the Sky," "The 
 Romance of the Fields," "The Lost Paradise," 
 " The Conflict of the Centuries," etc. 
 
 Stirring Revival Sermons 
 
 Gracious revivals have been awakened by them 
 
 Sermons Which Have Won Souls. $1.40 
 
 Christ and His Friends 1.50 
 
 Paul and His Friends 1.50 
 
 David and His Friends 1.50 
 
 Fisherman and His Friends 1.50 
 
 The Unexpected Christ 1.50 
 
 John and His Friends 1.50 
 
 On the Trail of Moses 1.20 
 
 The Sinner and His Friends 1.30 
 
 u PREACHERS DESIRING- to get into the secret 
 of thorough, systematic, successful revival 
 work," says Dr. George E. Reed, President of Dick- 
 inson College, " will do well to sit at the feet of this 
 master in the art of winning men to the better life. " 
 His sermons are designed to save souls ; he goes into 
 his pulpit prepared " to throw the life-line " ; as was 
 said of Richard Baxter, the author of " Holy Living 
 and Holy Dying " — " He preaches as never sure to 
 preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." 
 
Illustrations 
 
 •' Our age is restleaa ; we mast not be prosy.'* 
 
 -SPURQKON. 
 
 Windows for Sermons $ 1 .20 
 
 Anecdotes and Morals 1'50 
 
 Poetry and Morals 1>60 
 
 For public speakers on religious topics, preachers, 
 writers, and others who have occasion to enforce 
 their spoken or written words with the best and 
 brightest of illustrations. Dr. Banks has provided 
 an unusually rich and abundant supply in these 
 serviceable books. 
 
 WINDOWS FOR SEBMONS is a stadj of the art of 
 fiermonic illuBtrations, together with 400 fresh, choice illus- 
 trations and a special department of illustrations suitable for 
 reform addresses. The author has endeavored to answer 
 many questions put to him concerning the art of apt illus- 
 tration. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND MORALS is a series of over 500 
 striking illustrations drawn from every-day incidents, each 
 accompanied with a clear and forceful character lesson. 
 
 POETRY AND MORALS— a unique adaptation of averse 
 or a poem to enforce a given truth— a volume of great service 
 to the speaker or writer desiring to quote an appropriate 
 poetic illustration. 
 
 "Dr. Banks has become recognized as a master of effective 
 illustration. His books have the charm of freshness ; his 
 anecdotes are bright, fresh incidents, as Dr. Banks has seen 
 them in actual life— not those gathered from other hooka." 
 —Christian index, Atlanta. 
 
 "More than half a thousand anecdotes, some witty, all 
 pointed and instructive, make up 'Anecdotes and Morals.' All 
 have a purpose and are forcefully expressed. They deal 
 with practical facts in an original way. There is nothing 
 dry about them. They are lively, straightforward, good- 
 humored, and above all, compact."— The Journal, Boston. 
 
To Young Men 
 
 SympathAtic— strong— true 
 
 The Christian Gentleman 76 
 
 Twentieth-Century Knighthood 75 
 
 My Young Man 75 
 
 " Dr. Banks is peculiarly happy in addreesing young men. 
 He arouses their best and noblest feelings ; he presents such 
 a strong, noble, attractive picture of pure manhood— the 
 Christian gentleman, the dutiful son— the kind brother, the 
 affectionate lover, the true husband and eeneible father- 
 that it is like a picture drawn by a great master, intensely 
 human, yet practically attainable. He has been much in de- 
 mand at Y. M. 0. A.''s, where the young men hear him with 
 marked attention, respect, and admiration.— Boston Herald. 
 
 *^ He has a picturesque vocabulary, a trenchant style, and 
 a happy power of illustration that call attention at once, and 
 doubtless make Dr. Banks a popular and effective clergy- 
 man."— Dally News, Nashville. 
 
 To Boys and Girls 
 
 He fascinstea children 
 
 Sermon Stories for Boys and Glrls.~ $1.00 
 
 Hero Tales from Sacred Story 1.50 
 
 " There will always be a demand for books suitable for chil- 
 dren's reading on Sunday. While many writers have 
 attempted, comparatively few have succeeded in producing 
 a book that could be strictly adapted to this particular pur- 
 pose. Dr. Banks certainly has succeeded in furnishing 
 several admirable Sunday stories. They have no text, but 
 the foundation for each story is a well-defined moral, kept 
 in the background till the incidents have captivated the 
 child's mind and made it ready for the final word."— The 
 Outlook, New York. 
 
 " Dr. Banks is an entertaining story-teller, and gleans from 
 mythology, history, newspaper observation- f rom all sources 
 for illustrations in these thirty-one Bermona."— Tho Con- 
 Oraaatlonslist, Boston. 
 
Temperance 
 
 New «nd forceful 
 
 Seven Times Around Jericho 75 
 
 The Saloon-Keeper's Ledger 76 
 
 ••Jericho is the vice of intemperance. The eeren marches 
 aroand it are seven diBCOurses contained In the volume. The 
 title BUggests that if the armiee of temperance persevere in their 
 warfare against the Jericho of liquor, its walls will fall like 
 those of Jericho of old. Hearts must be stirred, consciences 
 quickened, youth trained, soldiers recruited, sentiment crys- 
 talized. That's agitation, and means education at the fire- 
 side, in the schoolroom, in the church, in politics, in the 
 printed page. Apologists must be silenced and indifference 
 checkmated. Protection must be taken from the saloon 
 and given to the boy. All this involves consecralion, 
 time, labor, sacrifice, prayer, speech, and even song and 
 shouts, before the walls of this curse of modem Jericho of the 
 saloon shall fall. It will require man to pray as if everything 
 depended on Gk)d, and yet to work as if all must be done by 
 man— In short, a deep conviction that what ought to be^ vtU 
 5«, if we persevere.— Louisvlilo Courier-Journal. 
 
 Prayer-Meetings 
 
 Jost the book 
 
 A Year's Prayer-Meeting Talks $1.00 
 
 " The author's preface to this book contains the keynote 
 that is worthy of sounding. Dr. Banks says :— ' I think 
 one of the chief reasons why the prayer-meeting has been 
 well attended is because I have made much of my announce- 
 ments of It on Sundays, and have made as careful prepara- 
 tion for the prayer-meeting talk, in the selection and 
 arrangement of music, and indeed In all particulars, as for 
 the services on Sundays.' And when we look through these 
 ' talks ' we find the results of this preparation. He gives his 
 people something interesting and something practical as well 
 as spiritual. There is much that is truly inspiring; there la 
 life and action, apt illustrations and entertaining anecdotes. 
 In fact, they are eminently helpful talks for the every-day 
 life of the average man and woman."— Christian Obaarver, 
 Louisville, Ky. 
 
Tributes to Dr. Banks's Genius 
 
 " Dr. Banks's minietry has been a most fruitful one. He 
 preaches the sermon people gladly listen to— simple in lan- 
 guage, evangelical in spirit, deeply in earnest, and sincerely, 
 tenderly, and t&ctfnUj personal. We can not hare too many 
 of such sermons."— The Interior, Chicago. 
 
 " Dr. Banks is a type of the modern, progressive, success- 
 ful preacher whose heart is set on soul-saving, and who turns 
 his energy into those channels from which the best results 
 ensue.''- Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. 
 
 "Dr. Banks has eminent skill in stating and illustrating 
 familiar truths in a striking manner and in getting the ani- 
 mated interest of his hearers."— The Advance, Chicago. 
 
 •' There Is no more distinguished example of the modem 
 people's preacher in the American pulpit to-day than Dr. 
 Banks."— The Independent, New York. 
 
 " Dr. Banks is a born preacher, a man of God finding his 
 way into the hearts of the people by a plain, direct, forcible, 
 and fearless proclamation of the unvarnished truth. His ser- 
 mons are models of simplicity and a happy freedom from 
 strained effort. They have wonderful unction."— Balti- 
 more Methodist, Baltimore. 
 
 " Dr. Banks has great felicity in presenting themes that are 
 pertinent to the lives people actually live, and his command 
 of effective illustration is exceptional."— Christian index, 
 Atlanta. 
 
 " Dr. Banks is not patronizing, nor does he permit himself 
 to show any anxious effort to interest. His thought, with 
 its clever word illustration, is trusted to do its own work."— 
 Sunday-School Times, Philadelphia. 
 
 •• Dr. Banks is a preacher in actual battle. There are no 
 flourishes, but only the straight, hard thrust of the man of 
 God who knows his weapon and plies the Sword of 4he 
 Spirit right well. If any preacher aspires to becoming a soul- 
 winner, let him study Dr. Banks's books."— Charles L. 
 Qoodell, D.D., New York. 
 
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