NOV 1 7 1917 
 
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 BL 51 .B726 1917 
 
 Brandenburg, Walter E. 
 
 The philosophy of Christian 
 
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 T no- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTEH E. BRANDENBURG, A.M. 
 
 .J " ■ 'K 
 
 NOV 17 191' 
 
 vM 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 
Copyright, 1917 
 Sherman, French 6* Company 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 MY FATHER, 
 
 NOW IN HEAVEN. WHO READ WITH 
 SUPREME SATISFACTION MOST 
 OF THE MANUSCRIPT, AND 
 WHO WAS DEEPLY IN- 
 TERESTED IN THE 
 SUBJECTS HERE- 
 IN DISCUSSED 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Christianity has fundamentals. They are the 
 cardinal doctrines relating to Jesus Christ. De- 
 stroy belief in any of them, and all are reduced 
 to devitalized formulas of thinking and living. 
 
 One of these fundamentals, central to all, is the 
 resurrection of Jesus. Without his resurrection, 
 sin has no atonement, and there is no hope for our 
 dead. Christianity itself is supported by false 
 witnesses, as declared by the Apostle Paul. 
 
 Co-related to that subject are the incarnation, 
 doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the death and ascen- 
 sion of Christ. These have been presented so 
 many times in familiar form that their attractive- 
 ness is sicklied over. A fresh presentation from 
 the scientific viewpoint by sound reasoning will do 
 good. 
 
 The chapters of this volume have been con- 
 structed out of sermonic material, begotten by a 
 yearning desire to convince doubters, answer dis- 
 believers, and confirm Disciples of Christ. To 
 render this threefold service, the author submits 
 facts, quotes utterances of thinkers, applies 
 Scripture and argues to logical conclusions from 
 the premises he submits. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 An empty tomb at Jerusalem was the objective 
 for which the Crusaders in their zealous struggles 
 under mighty leaders like Godfrey and Richard 
 Coeur de Lion battled. The possession of that 
 empty tomb could make no contribution to the 
 world's thought or salvation. The living, reg- 
 nant Christ who emerged from that tomb as Con- 
 queror of Death alone can lead the world's forces 
 to victory. His resurrection accounts for its 
 emptiness. 
 
 Mr. Brandenburg's trained mind, ardent love 
 of research and genuine motive to serve make liis 
 book worthy of study. 
 
 I. N. McCash, 
 President, Phillips University, 
 
 Enid, Oklahoma. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The author, in his study of Philosophy, came 
 to the conclusion that the distance made to ap- 
 pear between Christian teaching on the one hand 
 and philosophy on the other was largely imag- 
 inary. He felt that many who had written in 
 one or the other of these realms of thought had 
 done so with too little regard to the principles 
 and teaching in the other; that the tendency of 
 this policy, in the reaches of the years, had re- 
 sulted in an almost complete separation of two 
 kindred and very closely related branches of 
 learning. Tliis situation had produced an im- 
 pression among college professors and students 
 generally that philosophy was a thing of the ut- 
 most importance, while Christian teaching was of 
 little consequence, and that in all matters where 
 there was conflict or seeming conflict, the voice 
 and authority of philosophy was to be given the 
 preference. 
 
 Thus no little injustice had been wrought upon 
 both these branches of learning, for while philos- 
 ophy seemed to have the advantage, yet that very 
 condition made it a thing that was held in sus- 
 picion by large numbers of Christian people. 
 Many seem to have the impression that if one is 
 to study philosophy to any extent, his usefulness 
 
PREFACE 
 
 in the ministry will thereby be diminished, if not 
 entirely destroyed. On the other hand, there are 
 those, not a few in number, who hold that for one 
 not to study philosophy would mean, not only 
 that he is limited in his range of thought, but 
 that he is limited also in liis ability to tliink. 
 
 The writer soon came to the conviction that 
 neither one of these two realms of thought has a 
 monopoly upon any fundamental principle and its 
 related truths ; that in so far as philosophy is 
 true, its truths are universal truths. But the 
 truths of Christianity are likewise universal 
 truths. This fact, therefore, relates these two 
 realms of thought inseparably. Hence, any 
 classification of knowledge that makes it appear 
 otherwise is arbitrary, and not real. Further- 
 more, all such classification is apt to be detrimen- 
 tal, rather than helpful, to the gaining of real 
 knowledge. In the author's view, all fundamental 
 principles, with all related truths, should be but 
 bridges, spanning the seeming chasms between any 
 two or more realms of human thought. 
 
 It has appeared to him that philosophy could 
 fittingly act as a background upon which to paint 
 the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; 
 that this should be done by bringing into bold re- 
 lief the doctrine of the Incarnation, the death and 
 resurrection, the ascension and coronation, the 
 incarnation of the Spirit, the beginning of the 
 church, the law of its growth, and so forth, — 
 these great first facts which were the soil whence 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Christianity sprang. Set in this relationship, 
 neither philosophy nor Christianity would suffer, 
 but both would be strengthened inherently, and 
 would enjoy a degree of confidence wliich prob- 
 ably neither has at the present. 
 
 This little volume has been designed in response 
 to the earnest solicitation of many colleagues, 
 student friends, and Christian workers in all 
 phases of religious work, to whom much of the 
 subject matter has been presented in conferences, 
 ministerial institutes, and convention addresses. 
 The volume is sent forth in the hope and belief 
 that all students in colleges and universities, who 
 are preparing for the ministry or other lines of 
 church work, will find in it a mine of suggestive- 
 ness if taken either as a brief course or in con- 
 nection with regular courses in theology and phi- 
 losophy. The book, with the possible exception 
 of the chapter on philosophy, will be found to be 
 so simple in its presentation of the various themes 
 discussed as to be readily understood by any and 
 all who may have been troubled with misgivings 
 upon some of the great basic facts of Christian- 
 ity. It is, therefore, recommended to all Sunday 
 School teachers and workers, all ministers in 
 active sei^vice of the church, all Young Men's 
 Christian Association secretaries and their classes 
 and to all others who wish for a deeper and 
 clearer understanding of the fundamental truths 
 of Christianity, as these truths may relate them- 
 selves to any true philosophy. 
 
 The Author. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I The Philosophic Basis for the Begin- 
 ning OF Christianity 1 
 
 II The Word Made Flesh 33 
 
 III The Naturalness of the Resurrection 44 
 
 IV The Resurrection Meets Demands of 
 
 Psychology 55 
 
 V The Resurrection 67 
 
 VI Things Pertaining to the Kingdom , 79 
 
 VII The Ten Days of Prayer .... 91 
 
 VIII The Baptism of the Holy Spirit . . 102 
 
 IX The Problem and Process of Growth 
 
 for a New Type of Being . . .115 
 
 X Christian Liberality Meeting an 
 
 Emergency 127 
 
 XI A Miracle Wrought That the King- 
 dom Might Grow 137 
 
THE PHILOSOPHIC BASIS FOR THE 
 BEGINNING OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 In attempting a discussion of so lofty a theme 
 as the above, a writer naturally feels his unpre- 
 paredness in the field of philosophy as well as 
 his unworthiness to deal with so glorious a period 
 of Christianity as its beginning. Yet, in an age 
 of material allurement, unscientific rationalism 
 and unintellectual infidelity, if one could, by philo- 
 sophic conclusions, cause a ripple in the already 
 somewhat troubled waters of the stream of hu- 
 man thought in its onward flow, one would cer- 
 tainly feel amply rewarded. 
 
 Philosophy we shall understand in its usual 
 meaning: 
 
 " Philosophy is a search for a comprehensive 
 view of nature, an attempt at a universal explana- 
 tion of things. It is both the summary of the 
 sciences and their completion ; both general sci- 
 ence and a speciality distinguished from science 
 proper; and, like its elder sisters, religion and 
 poetry, forms a separate branch among the mani- 
 festations of the human mind." ^ 
 
 1 Webeh — History of Philosophy; p. 1. 
 
2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 " But philosophy publishes results which claim 
 to be universally valid if they are valid at all." ^ 
 
 " Science is partially unified knowledge ; philos- 
 ophy is completely unified knowledge." ^ 
 
 Christianity shall mean for us, in time, a life 
 of internal peace and intense activity, resulting 
 from one's being brought into right relationship 
 with God through Jesus Christ, and which brings 
 one, in eternity, into his complete self and into 
 full harmony with his Creator. It is seen at once 
 that the idea of Christianity differs from the or- 
 dinary definition or idea of religion, as such, by 
 a difference as great as there is between the liv- 
 ing voice, or the touch or companionship of a 
 divinely energized individual on the one hand, and 
 the cold, lifeless, abstract reasonings and experi- 
 ences of a frail finite being on the other. Or in 
 other words, any definition of Christianity that 
 would leave out the Christ idea would not neces- 
 sarily differ from the generally received idea of 
 religion. 
 
 We are dealing with Christianity. So that our 
 field necessarily limits itself. Not taking into ac- 
 count that vast field of religious experiences or 
 of philosophic speculations on natural religion, 
 only in so far as these may serve in the solution 
 of the problem before us, namely, the application 
 of philosophic reasoning to Christianity, in order 
 to discover the basis for its beginning. It will 
 
 2 James — Varieties of Religious Experiences; p. 430. 
 
 3 Spencer — First Principles; p. 119. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 8 
 
 be seen that our problem further limits and sim- 
 plifies itself by the fact that we are to discuss 
 Christianity with respect to its beginning and 
 not to its history. So that whether as applied 
 to Christianity, politic or individual, our discus- 
 sion need only cover a comparatively short period 
 of time. If the application be with respect to 
 the beginning of Christianity on the earth, then 
 the problem is politic and would necessitate a 
 careful scrutinizing of the phenomena in produc- 
 ing the first Christian. And if the application 
 be with respect to the beginning of the Christian 
 life in the individual, then the discussion turns 
 upon that portion of the individual's life in which 
 he is becoming a Christian. The problem, then, 
 as I understand it, lies in these two fields. For 
 the present, I think this suflicient as to the limita- 
 tions of the subject. And yet, I am sure that 
 further on we shall have to make this still more 
 explicit. 
 
 Now as to the philosophic instruments which 
 are at our hand and are for our use in this under- 
 taking we may need to take every precaution, 
 both in the selection of the instrument and also 
 in its use ; for a mistake here may result in tak- 
 ing the life of the very thing which we would re- 
 store to philosophic soundness. The question 
 naturally arises, then, are we to accept out of 
 the many some ready made philosophic instru- 
 ment to the exclusion of all others.'' And if so, 
 which one? Or are we to accept and use them 
 
4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 all; each in its turn as it may suit our fancy, 
 or serve our purpose? If these different philo- 
 sophic instruments were but so many component 
 parts of the apparatus of one great philosoph- 
 ical laboratory, then prudence would suggest the 
 latter. But since each instrument claims to be 
 complete in and of itself, the second alternative 
 is not open to us. Then as a third alternative, 
 shall we thrust all these instruments into the cru- 
 cible of human thought and recast them, sepa- 
 rating all the alloy, and bring forth the instru- 
 ment with which to perform this most delicate and 
 no less important operation? This were too 
 great an undertaking. The writer lays no claim 
 to originality in the production of tliis instru- 
 ment. If there is any merit or novelty in this 
 undertaking, it is in the skill with which the ready 
 made instrument is applied to the subject in hand. 
 Hence, it is the former of the three alternatives 
 that is open to us at this time. 
 
 Professor Josiah Royce, in the first series of 
 his GifFord lectures, delivered in the University 
 of Aberdeen, entitled " The World and The Indi- 
 vidual," presents and discusses what he terms 
 " The Four Historical Conceptions of Being." 
 After a vigorous examination of three of these 
 conceptions ; viz., — Realism, Mysticism and Crit- 
 ical Rationahsm, in which Mr. Royce shows the 
 weakness of any one, or all three, of these to 
 fully satisfy and explain the phenomena of being, 
 he presents what he terms the " Fourth Concep- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 5 
 
 tion of Being." This is not wholly different from 
 all of these other conceptions, but to me it seems 
 to contain all of the elements of strength found 
 in the other conceptions, and also to be void of 
 many of the weaknesses which are so apparent in 
 the other theories of being. 
 
 Of course it is not my intention to discuss or 
 contrast these theories, for this would require a 
 volume, not only materially but mentally as well; 
 and while I could probably furnish the former, I 
 do not claim the latter. I shall say, therefore, 
 that, in the main, I accept this theory of being 
 in so far as at present I understand it. 
 
 I proceed to state it as clearly and briefly as 
 I can. It is a theory, not so much of the 
 origin of being, as it is of the true natwre of 
 what it is to be or to exist. And yet, it seems 
 to have within it a place for the origin of being 
 also. The author's chief energy seems to be ex- 
 pended in an attempt to see and to explain things 
 as they are. Or in his own opening words, " But 
 the central problem of our discussion will be 
 the question : What is Reality' ? " ^ Or again, 
 " My precise undertaking, then, in the following 
 lectures, is to show what we mean by being in 
 general, and by the special sorts of Reality that 
 we attribute to God, to the World and to the 
 human individual." ^ "I shall dwell upon the 
 nature of being," etc.® Others might be cited, 
 
 4 First Series; p. 6. 5 Ibid., p. 11. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 12. 
 
6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 but these I think sufficiently set before us the au- 
 thor's thought that his chief problem will be to 
 discover the real nature of being. 
 
 Mr. Royce's Fourth Conception of Being, as I 
 understand it, is the final and complete expression 
 or embodied form of the surviving purposes that 
 have ideated in the consciousness of the being, 
 whether we have reference to God, the world, or 
 the individual. To use his words, " What is, or 
 what is real, is as such the complete embodiment, 
 in individual form and in final fulfillment, of the 
 internal meaning of finite ideas." ' 
 
 " And, therefore, we can say, never in the 
 present life do we find the Self as a given and real- 
 ized fact. It is for us an ideal. Its true place 
 is in the eternal world, where all plans are ful- 
 filled. In God alone do we fully come to our- 
 selves." ® 
 
 As I said, this theory does not primarily deal 
 with the origin of being; and yet, there seems to 
 be a partial treatment of the origin of being. 
 This, however, will be treated further on in this 
 discussion. 
 
 From this conception of being, it will be seen 
 that in time there is all the while a ceaseless chang- 
 ing of this being. For ideas are being incubated 
 at every instant; some to perish at once, others 
 to be expressed in purposes which find their imme- 
 diate expression, thus becoming a permanent part 
 
 7 First Series; p. 339. 
 
 8 §econ^ Series; p. 290, 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 7 
 
 of being. Still others find expression in purposes 
 reaching far into the future for their embodiment. 
 So that as innumerable ideas spring up ceaselessly 
 within the " stream of consciousness," so do these 
 crystallize into permanent form in being in the 
 labyrinth of the everyday experiences of the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 It is also seen that in this conception there is 
 the connection of " internal and external mean- 
 ing " or purpose. And that the uncrystallized 
 or unearned out purpose of the idea, if it be 
 a true idea, is as truly being of the being as is 
 the already completed purpose. Or that there 
 can be no sundering of the " that " and the 
 " what " in true being. " The that thus comes 
 into unity with the what." ^ 
 
 This theory teaches also that not only is there 
 the linkage of " internal and external meaning," 
 as pertains to human individuals, but that this 
 same principle holds true with respect to God. 
 That is, that in God all being is united and ex- 
 ists. " All appearance of isolation in finite be- 
 ings, all the fragmentariness of their finitude, 
 these are indeed but aspects of the whole truth." 
 " The One is in all, and all are in the One." . . . 
 " For God is the Absolute Being and the perfect 
 fullness of life." ^^ All being, all existence, all 
 life, then, however much of seeming variety there 
 may be, is but the expression of God. And if 
 seen in its entirety, it would constitute God as the 
 9 First Series; p. 387. lo Ibid., p. 394. 
 
8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 One Absolute Being inclusive of all others. So 
 that all that is, is but the outworkings of the 
 purposes of God. In hell itself, the wicked will 
 be in God, through all eternity, only working out 
 the purposes of God. For we all are in this Ab- 
 solute Being always. 
 
 We, however, as finite beings included in this 
 Infinite Being, have all the liberty and freedom of 
 will that we have capacity for using. And this 
 is the only sense in which Ave may think or speak 
 of any individual as having a free choice of will, 
 or of being a free moral agent. And, therefore, 
 to ask for or demand more freedom is to desire a 
 different nature or constitution. 
 
 I will let this serve in general as a brief state- 
 ment of my understanding of INIr. Royce's Fourth 
 Conception of Being ; and as I said, this is the 
 philosophic instrument which I shall use in the 
 present undertaking; viz., to discover the philo- 
 sophic basis underlying the beginning of Chris- 
 tianity on the earth and also in the human indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 And now, permit me to repeat my definition of 
 Christianity. Christianity is, in time, a life of 
 internal peace and intense activity, resulting from 
 one's being brought into right relationship with 
 God through Jesus Christ, and a life which brings 
 one, in eternity, into complete embodiment and 
 harmony with his Creator. " For which cause we 
 faint not; but through our outward man perish, 
 yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 9 
 
 " For our light affliction, which is but for a mo- 
 ment, (time) worketh for us a far more exceed- 
 ing and eternal (eternity) weight of glory." 
 " While we look not at the things which are seen, 
 but at the things which are not seen : for the 
 things which are seen are temporal ; but the things 
 which are not seen are eternal." ^^ " For I am 
 shortly to be sacrificed and the time of my de- 
 parture is at hand; I have combated the good 
 combat; I have finished the race; I have contin- 
 ued faithful; henceforth there is laid up for me 
 a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, will deliver to me at that 
 day." ^^ "Look! I see the heavens opened and 
 the Son of man standing at the right hand of 
 God !"..." Lord Jesus, accept my spirit." ^^ 
 " Even so, come, Lord Jesus." ^^ These examples 
 indicate the readiness with which the Christian is 
 willing to quit time and enter eternity. 
 
 And now, I wish you to consider with me Pro- 
 fessor Royce's Fourth Conception of Being in the 
 light of Scriptural teaching, in which I hope that 
 we shall see that it is not far from the Scriptural 
 idea of what it is to be. 
 
 But before we do this, we must ask the ques- 
 tion, is it possible, according to this conception of 
 being, for an individual to be in the Absolute and 
 yet not know that fact? And just because of a 
 
 11 Paul — 7/ Cor. 4:16-18. 
 
 12 Paul — II Tim. 4:6-8; Living Oracles. 
 
 13 Stephen — Acts 7:56, 59; Ferrar Penton's Translation. 
 1-1 John — 2?e». 23:20. 
 
10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 want of this knowledge on the part of the indi- 
 vidual, to live a life of rebellion against that 
 "larger self" the Absolute in which he exists? 
 To both of these questions we must answer in the 
 affirmative. Professor Royce feels this to be true. 
 For in his Second Series he devotes one whole lec- 
 ture to the treatment of the subject, " The Strug- 
 gle with Evil." 
 
 And our answer is in perfect accord with Paul's 
 words to the Athenians as he addressed them upon 
 the topic found upon one of their altars of wor- 
 ship — " To The Unknown God." In the address 
 Paul said, " Whom therefore ye ignorantly wor- 
 ship, Him declare I unto you." ^^ Here were 
 individuals, who, according to our Fourth Con- 
 ception, were in God, and yet, according to their 
 own testimony upon their altar of worship, they 
 did not even know God ; much less did they know 
 that they existed in Him. And also, according to 
 Paul, they did not know God. But yet, Paul 
 states positively that they were in God. " For 
 in Him we live, and move and have our be- 
 ing." ^° We must bear in mind that these are 
 not Christian people, and yet, Paul declares 
 that they are in God. Now if they are in 
 God, and yet, do not know God, they can not 
 know the relation that exists between God and 
 themselves. And hence, they will be liable to 
 courses of conduct that are contemptible in the 
 sight of God, and Paul intimates that this is ex- 
 16 Acts 17:23. la Acts 17:28. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 11 
 
 actlj the case. " For as much, then, as we are 
 the offspring of God, we ought not to think that 
 the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone 
 graven by art and man's device." ^^ This he said, 
 condemning their conduct as wrong in the sight 
 of God, in presuming to make and worship a like- 
 ness of God out of dead material. Of course this 
 is particular. But Paul makes the same prin- 
 ciple general in his statement to the Corinthians, 
 " For when, in the Divine Philosophy, the world 
 did not perceive the God through the philosophy, 
 it pleased God to save the faithful by means of 
 the folly of preaching." ^* Paul claims with our 
 Fourth Conception of Being, that we are all in 
 God, and yet, he makes this statement of the 
 world in general, that it " knew not " or " did not 
 perceive God." " Awake to perfect sobriety and 
 sin not ; for an ignorance of God possesses 
 some." ^^ Another utterance of Paul's, embody- 
 ing the same thought, is in the Ephesian letter, 
 " One God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
 through all, and in you all." ^^ So much, then, 
 on the thought of our being in the Absolute and 
 not knowing it, and consequently of a liability to 
 a course of deeds that is out of harmony with 
 the purposes of the Absolute. 
 
 And now, we are ready to consider more par- 
 ticularly some of the Scripture references which, 
 
 iiActg 17:29. 
 
 18 1 Cor. 1 : 21 ; Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
 19 Paul — I Cor, 15:34; Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
 20Eph. 4:6. 
 
12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 in general, corroborate the principles set forth by 
 our Fourth Conception of Being. Chief among 
 these principles is the idea of our incompleteness 
 in this life, or the lack of our being fully embodied 
 in our complete and individual form in this state 
 of our existence. Or in other words, that we ex- 
 ist in time only fragmentarily ; and that in eter- 
 nity we will be completely embodied and fully ex- 
 pressed. John says that, " We are now the chil- 
 dren of God ; and it is not yet revealed what we 
 shall become. But we do know that when He 
 is manifested, we shall be like Him ; because we 
 shall see Him as he actually is.^^ 
 
 This scripture emphasizes three facts, all of 
 which are set forth in our Fourth Conception of 
 Being: First, that we are children of God and, 
 therefore, necessarily in God; second, that we in 
 this life are not complete, but only partially so, 
 and are to become fully expressed after time ; and 
 third, that we now do not fully and completely 
 know God. 
 
 Paul sets this forth in the following: "But 
 as for eloquence, it will cease ; as for languages, 
 they will be silent ; as for science, it will become 
 useless. For we know imperfectly, and we teach 
 with imperfection ; but when the perfect arrives, 
 the imperfect will become useless. When I was 
 a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, 
 I reflected like a child ; but when I became a man, 
 the ideas of the child were useless. For we look 
 
 21/ John 3:2; Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 13 
 
 now (in time) through a loop hole into the dark- 
 ness ; but then (in eternity) face to face: now I 
 know partially; but then I shall know perfectly, 
 even as I am perfectly known." ^^ 
 
 So much, then, in general, on our fragmentari- 
 ness or incompleteness in time, and our complete 
 embodiment in eternity. And here also the Scrip- 
 tural teaching seems to accord with our Fourth 
 Conception of Being. 
 
 We now pass to a consideration of the origin 
 of being. We can not think of Christianity as 
 other than a state of being; a life that is lived 
 according to our definition. And as our present 
 undertaking has to do with Christianity in its be- 
 ginning, both on the earth and in the individual, 
 we see at once that this is the question in this 
 discussion which is of chiefest interest for us. 
 And as we are using the Fourth Conception of 
 Being as a means or instrument in the solution of 
 this problem, it is proper that we here acquaint 
 ourselves with the origin of being according to 
 this Fourth Conception. 
 
 As was remarked, a few lines back, the Fourth 
 Conception does not deal so much with the 
 origm as with the nature of being. Now this is 
 particularly true with reference to the Absolute 
 Being. But the theory does discuss the origin 
 of the human individual, in time, as a type of be- 
 ing. And since in this production we are dis- 
 cussing a type of being existing within the human 
 
 22/ Cor. 13:8-125 Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
14 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 individual, our Fourth Conception will be sufficient 
 to meet the needs of our present undertaking. 
 
 " An explanation of the particular existence of 
 this finite consciousness can be given, therefore, 
 only in one of two forms : First, in terms of uni- 
 versal principles, in so far as without just this 
 finitude the eternal purpose would not obtain the 
 wealth of individual expression that it actually 
 possesses ; or secondly, in terms of the particular 
 relations of each finite being, in so far as it is 
 what it is in consequence of the presence in the 
 world, and especially in the temporal past, of 
 other finite beings, whose nature and acts required 
 some aspect of its own life as their resultant. 
 
 " Consequently, any effort to give an account 
 of the temporal origin and evolution of any par- 
 ticular finite being, such as one of ourselves, must 
 follow the second of these forms of explanation, 
 and cannot undertake to give an account of the 
 origin of all finitude. The question about the evo- 
 lution of new forms of finite life then becomes 
 this: What conditions of the previous finite life 
 of the world explain why, just at this point, a 
 new Self should begin to appear? Or again, to 
 put the question a little more generally, our 
 former theory as to evolution accepted the thesis 
 that humanity, as a whole, has sprung from some 
 nonhuman process of experience which before our 
 special type of selfhood appeared was taking place 
 in the natural world. This previous process, we 
 have said, was no doubt in itself a conscious 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 16 
 
 process, perhaps possessing a type of conscious- 
 ness whose ' temporal span ' was more or less dif- 
 ferent from our own just because its present in- 
 terest was always expressed by a longer or shorter 
 series of facts than we now at present take into 
 account. But, in any case, it was not what we 
 should have called a human process. How came 
 it to give origin to a process of our type.'' " ^^ 
 
 " What interests us here is simply the problem ; 
 given such forms of finite striving, how could new 
 forms, new selves, arise from them.'' What about 
 their nature makes them fruitful of new types of 
 individuality.? What constitutes a new form of 
 finite life and experience — a new sort of self- 
 hood.'* A new form of selfhood means simply the 
 appearance (as in our own case) of a new type 
 of interest in the world, in God and in finding 
 the way to self expression. A new individual 
 is thus never a new thing, but a new kind of 
 life-purpose, finding unique individual embodiment 
 in experience by means of definite acts." ^* 
 
 From the foregoing, two things, at least, are 
 apparent: First, that new selves do originate in 
 time; and second, that these new selves are never 
 new things, but new life purposes. 
 
 So much for the first principle of the origin of 
 being according to our Fourth Conception. 
 
 But now we wish to ask, does this accord with 
 the Scriptural teaching relative to the origin of 
 
 23 Second Series; p. 304-305. 
 2i Ibid., p. 308. 
 
16 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Christian Being? And our answer, whether the 
 appHcation is to the beginning of Christianity on 
 the earth or in the individual, must be in the af- 
 firmative. 
 
 And now, we are at the place where it will be 
 necessary for us to understand more explicitly the 
 limitations of our theme; or in other words, just 
 what we mean by the beginning of Christianity on 
 the earth and in the individual. By the beginning 
 of Christianity on the earth we shall understand 
 beginning in the same sense in which Peter ex- 
 presses his understanding of it in the Jerusalem 
 conference. " And as I began to speak, the Holy 
 Spirit fell on them (the Gentile household of 
 Cornelius) as on us (the Apostles — Jews by na- 
 tionality) at the beginning." ^^ From this we 
 gather that Peter understood that the coming of 
 the Holy Spirit into the Apostles on Pentecost 
 marked the beginning of the Christian era, or of 
 Christianity on the earth. 
 
 And, indeed, does not this mark the instant in 
 the life of each one of these twelve men, when 
 he is lifted into a new universe? And in which 
 he is filled with a new "life purpose"? And 
 with a sense of new relations to God and to 
 his fellowmen? A state in which he is not a 
 " new thing " but an individual having a " new 
 kind of life purpose," which impels him on, " find- 
 ing unique individual embodiment in experience 
 by means of definite acts " ? This is the event in 
 
 2^ Acts 11:15. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 17 
 
 which the chief interests of heaven and earth 
 have been centered, from God's viewpoint, ever 
 since man abused his freedom in rebelling against 
 his Creator. Why should it not produce a new 
 " type of being "? 
 
 So tliat, with respect to the beginning of Chris- 
 tianity on the earth, our problem is limited, in 
 persons, to the twelve apostles: in time to the 
 day of Pentecost. 
 
 As to the beginning of the Christian life in 
 the individual we cannot be so explicit. It may 
 help us here, however, to emphasize the fact that 
 we are dealing with Christianity rather than that 
 broader state of being; i.e., religion. A failure 
 to differentiate just here has caused, on the part 
 of many, no little amount of confusion in investi- 
 gations of this nature. 
 
 For instance. Professor William James, in his 
 lectures entitled " The Varieties of Religious Ex- 
 perience," has treated the subject of Natural 
 Religion, from the psychological viewpoint, in a 
 way that certainly merits our admiration. But, 
 from the standpoint of Revealed Christianity, 
 these lectures are of very little worth to us, aside 
 from the psychological agility with which the 
 author proceeds. 
 
 In fact, there is not to be found the account 
 of the experience of one New Testament conver- 
 sion among the many, many examples which the 
 author reviews, so far as I have seen. This is 
 remarkable in the face of the following statement 
 
18 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 of the author: "The only novelty that I can 
 imagine this qourse of lectures to possess lies in 
 the breadth of the apperceiving mass ... I may 
 succeed in discussing religious experiences in a 
 wider context than has been usual in university 
 courses." ^^ We naturally ask, should not this 
 breadth have included at least one from among 
 the ten thousand New Testament examples that 
 are recorded? 
 
 On the other hand, the author gleans his ex- 
 amples almost entirely from the writings of com- 
 paratively modern writers, as the following shows : 
 " These men of course are either comparatively 
 modern writers, or else such early ones as have 
 become religious classics." ^^ 
 
 He seems to ignore the principle that the foun- 
 tain is purer and richer at its head than at any 
 other place. " Interesting as the origin and 
 early stages of a subject always are, yet when 
 one seeks earnestly for its full significance, one 
 must always look to its more completely evolved 
 and perfect forms." ^^ 
 
 Of course one who is acquainted with the his- 
 tory of Christianity knows that it emerged from 
 the Dark Ages colored with every tint of coloring 
 that could be produced in the human heart dur- 
 ing a long period of darkness ; and from which 
 reason ought to expect it to purify itself only 
 
 2« James — The Varieties of Religious Experience; p. 25. 
 (The underscore is mine.) 
 2T Jbid., p. 3. 28 Ibid., p. 3. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 19 
 
 after long, weary years. And so, for one to 
 scrutinize numberless cases of the so-called modern 
 conversions taken from the experiences of men 
 living immediately, or even quite remotely this side 
 of the Dark Ages, would mean very little, so far 
 as getting at the real nature of true Christian 
 being is concerned. 
 
 But the whole difficulty in the way of Professor 
 James' lectures being a help to one in such an 
 undertaking as the present, is the lack of dis- 
 crimination properly between Christianity and re- 
 ligion ; but he is not to be criticized in this regard, 
 for his subject is that of natural religion rather 
 than Christianity, as such. 
 
 So then, individual examples of men becoming 
 Christians which will satisfy us in this discussion 
 must not be found this side of the Dark Ages ; 
 neither can they be taken during these Dark Ages. 
 And since we must go back of the Dark Ages, this 
 will bring us so near to the fountain's head that 
 we cannot resist the temptation to proceed into 
 the New Testament time for our examples ; for, 
 in this field, so full of examples that are so rich 
 in character and set forth in such straightfor- 
 ward, simple language, we feel sure that we can 
 understand them, and we know that here we shall 
 not be led astray. And so, for our individual 
 examples we shall accept none but those in the 
 New Testament. So much, then, for the explicit 
 limitations of the two phases of our problem. 
 
 And now, having cleared the way, we are ready 
 
20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 to more fully develop the answer to our last ques- 
 tion : " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he 
 is a new creature ; old things are passed away ; 
 behold all things are become new." ^^ " Except 
 a man be born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom 
 of God." ^*^ "As new-born babes," etc.^^ 
 
 These sufficiently bring before us the thought 
 that in becoming a Christian, in time, one be- 
 comes a nem self. But new in what sense, we ask. 
 In precisely the sense in which our Fourth Con- 
 ception teaches ; i.e., new in " Life purpose." 
 
 But again, this theory teaches that we exist in 
 a " larger self." This is true of the Christian 
 being in a peculiar, or as we might say, double 
 sense. Yet not so peculiar. For in the Supple- 
 mentary Essay to the First Series, Professor 
 Royce develops the idea of a Self-representative 
 System, in which the largest self includes all the 
 others. In a previous part of this production, 
 this thought has been shown to accord in gen- 
 eral with the Scriptures. 
 
 But now, we wish to notice especially the unique 
 position of the Christian in this Self-representa- 
 tive System. Here we must call to mind our defi- 
 nition of Christian being, remembering that it is 
 through or in Christ that we sustain our unique 
 relationship to the Absolute. Let us note the 
 following: " Neither pray I for these alone, but 
 for them also which shall believe on me through 
 
 20 Paul — 7/ Cor. 5:17, so Jesus — /o/in. 3 : 3. R.V. 
 
 31 Petee — I Peter 2:2. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 21 
 
 their word: that they all may be one; as Thou, 
 Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also 
 may be one in us : ... I in them, and Thou in 
 me, that they may be made perfect in one." ^^ 
 " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No 
 one can come to the Father, except through 
 me." ^^ " For whom I have suffered the loss of 
 all things and do count them refuse, so that I 
 may win Christ, and be found in Him." ^^ " For 
 you died, and your life is hid with Christ in 
 God." ^^ " As you have therefore received Christ 
 Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him ; rooted and 
 builded up in Him. ..." And you are completed 
 in Him." ^^ " And be not conformed to this 
 world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of 
 your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, 
 and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." ^^ 
 " There is therefore now no condemnation to 
 them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." ^s 
 
 Time and space fail us to catalogue and develop 
 this type of New Testament teaching, in which 
 it is the manifest intent to set forth the thought 
 that the Christian is in Christ and Christ is in 
 God. 
 
 But now, do we ask as to the benefit to the 
 Christian of his unique position in relation to the 
 
 32 Jesus — Joftji 17: 20-23. 36 Paul — Co?. 2: 6, 7, 10. 
 
 33 Jesus — /o^TC 14:6. 37 Paul — Bom. 12:2. 
 
 34 Paul — Phil. 3 : 8-9. 38 Paul — Bom. 8 : 1. 
 35PAUL — CoZ. 3:3. R.V. 
 
22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Absolute? Indeed, this is the anxious desire of 
 Philip : " Show us the Father and it will satisfy 
 us." It shows us the Father, and we, with the 
 Psalmist of old, exclaim, " We shall be satisfied, 
 when we awake, with thy likeness." 
 
 So as we saw before, it is possible, and not 
 only so, but highly probable, that individuals exist 
 in God, and yet, do not know the relation which 
 they sustain to the Absolute, and because of this 
 they wander in the darkness, many times taking 
 courses that are contemptible in God's sight. So 
 we see that in Christ such a course is, if not 
 impossible, highly improbable. " If we say that 
 we have fellowship with Him, and walk in dark- 
 ness, we lie, and do not the truth : but if we 
 walk in the light, we have fellowship one with 
 another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
 cleanseth us from all sin." ^^ " And hereby we 
 do know that we know Him, if we keep His com- 
 mandments. . . . But whoso keepeth His word, in 
 him verily is the love of God perfected ; hereby 
 know we that we are in Him." ^^ 
 
 So that the Christian's unique relation to the 
 Absolute enables him to know the purposes of the 
 Absolute in a way far beyond that of the ordinary 
 individual ; and because of this, he so fashions his 
 own wa3's as to fit into the divine plan. He " so 
 runs, not as uncertainly " ; He " so fights, not as 
 beating the air " ; on the other hand, " He walks 
 but faints not; he runs and is not weary." 
 39 John — / John 1 : 6-7. «> Johk — / John 2 : 3, 5. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 23 
 
 We now come to consider another phase of the 
 origin of being: the real process in the origin of 
 being. I am sure that the mere quotation of a 
 few sentences from Professor Royce can, in no 
 way, either do him justice or satisfy us on this 
 point. But of course in a production of this 
 kind that is the most we can do. But for one 
 to comprehend the professor's teaching on this 
 phase of the question, would necessitate a careful 
 study of at least the Supplementary Essay to the 
 First Series ; and also the two lectures in the 
 Second Series, entitled " The Human Self " and 
 " The Place of The Self in Being." 
 
 I here present a few statements on this point 
 that must suffice for the present. " I now make 
 the wholly tentative hypothesis that the process 
 of the evolution of new forms of consciousness in 
 nature is throughout of the same general type as 
 that which we observe when we follow the evolution 
 of new sorts of plans, of ideas, and of selfhoods 
 in our own life," *^ " For imitation means that 
 a new process results from the conscious union of 
 the influence of two previous processes; and in 
 case of imitation, as we have just seen, the new 
 process lies between the original processes." *^ 
 *' But further, the new living individuals in their 
 development largely illustrate what we call the 
 process of gradual adaptation to the environment 
 by novel forms of structure and function." *^ 
 
 41 Second Series; p. 315. 42 Ibid., p. 316. 
 
 43 Ibid., p. 317. 
 
M THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 "But upon what does all imitation depend? 
 First, upon an interest in discriminating between 
 the doings of some other individual and the pres- 
 ent deeds of one's own organism; and secondly, 
 upon an interest in seeking, through a persistent 
 process of trial and error, to find a new course of 
 action which, when discovered, shall constitute a 
 modification of the former deed of one^s own 
 organism in the direction of the deeds of one's 
 model.'' ■*■* " But I never repeat his act. Imita- 
 tion is a kind of a trial series of acts." ^^ " The 
 finite beings whom we acknowledge in the concrete 
 are always, at any temporal moment, such as 
 they are by virtue of an inattention which at 
 present blinds - them to their actual relations to 
 God and to one another." ^^ " And as we saw, 
 it is an activity directed by nothing so much as 
 by an attention to tlie contents of experience when 
 once they chance to have been discriminated." '^'^ 
 
 These will have to suffice us as to the teaching 
 of our Fourth Conception on this point. Now, 
 from these we see that there is a " longing " for 
 a different " life purpose " a " discriminating " 
 between one's deeds and the deeds of another — 
 an accepting the other as a " model " for " imita- 
 tion " and the setting about to " gradually 
 adapt " one's self to the " new environment " 
 which has resulted from the new " life purpose." 
 
 i* Second Series; p. 310-311. 48 Ibid., p. 307. 
 45 Ibid., p. 311. 47 Ibid., p. 310. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 25 
 
 Indeed the individual comes to grasp the fact that 
 he is what he is by " inattention " to things that 
 would make him other than he is. And that by 
 " attention " he shall become what he hopes to 
 be. The way is open to him. He enters and 
 runs his course. 
 
 But what has taken place? There has been 
 the " union " of two selves, with the result that 
 " gradually " will be developed a thirds or " new 
 self " lying " between " formerly existent beings. 
 Now it is very apparent that this new creature 
 cannot be just like both of the former beings. 
 But he will be found to be made up of the charac- 
 teristics of both, blended in a way too intricate 
 for our discrimination. But we may rest assured 
 on this point; that in spiritual realms, and where 
 the " union " has been a mutual and congenial 
 one, the Spirit which animates this " new being " 
 will be the Spirit of the larger of the two selves. 
 Or in other words, in this respect there will be 
 the " survival of the fittest." 
 
 Now that this type of " new being " has been 
 originated, it will possess the power of natural or 
 self generation, else it could not properly be 
 termed a type. And this is the point toward 
 which we have been moving all along. This is the 
 meaning of the words of the Savior — our model 
 to His Apostles, " Abide in me, and I will abide 
 in you ; as the branch can not bear fruit of itself, 
 unless it abides in the vine, no more can you, 
 
26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 unless you abide in me. I am the vine: you are 
 the branches." ^^ " It was not you who chose 
 me, but I have chosen you. And I planted you 
 in order that you might take root, and become 
 fruitful, and your fruit continue." ^® 
 
 From this we adduce the following: First, 
 that in the process of the origination of a new 
 type of being the ^rst product will receive the 
 Spirit of life of the larger of the two selves that 
 have combined to produce this product of the 
 " new type " ; and second, that this first product 
 will possess power to generate its kind. 
 
 And now to turn to the scenes of Pentecost. 
 What do we find? Here is the first and finished 
 product of this new type of being in the twelve 
 apostles, as a body. And into tliis product is 
 being infused the Spirit of the larger self. 
 " During the celebration of the day of Pentecost 
 they were all harmoniously assembled in one 
 place; when, suddenly, a sound was heard from 
 the sky, similar to that of a very violent tempest 
 blast, filling the whole house in which they were 
 seated. And they saw distributed to themselves 
 fiery tongues, which settled upon every one of 
 them. And they were all filled with the Holy 
 Spirit ; and began to speak in foreign languages, 
 as the Spirit endowed them with clear expres- 
 sion." ^'^ 
 
 *sJokn 15:4-5; Living Oracles. 
 
 *^ John 15:16; Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
 60 Acts 2:1-4; Ferrar Fenton's Translation. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 27 
 
 As God, at the beginning of the human race, 
 breathed into man of His Spirit and he became a 
 new type of being (a mere clod of clay, animated 
 with life and posessed with power to produce his 
 kind, not as he was produced; i.e., miraculously, 
 but in the natural way) so now, in the fullness 
 of time, at the beginning of the reign of the King 
 of Righteousness in the hearts of these men, 
 God, from the effulgence of His glory, sends forth 
 His Holy Spirit that he may abide a " treasure 
 in earthen vessels," a pilot " to guide them into 
 all truth," the haven of rest, and to possess them 
 with power to produce their kind. Not as they 
 were produced (i.e., miraculously), but through 
 natural means. 
 
 This is the finishing touch of the beginning of 
 Christianity on the earth. And this is the philo- 
 sophic basis for the same. The first phase of our 
 problem is solved, but in its solution is the key 
 to the solution of the second phase. 
 
 Now that the type is complete, the process in 
 the origination or generation of other individuals 
 of this same type will be natural, not supernat- 
 ural. Once we learn with certainty the nature of 
 that process, the second phase of our problem is 
 solved. As we said a few sentences back: we 
 can not wholly trust individual experiences which 
 have been the outgrowth of the internal longings, 
 influenced more or less by the conditions of the 
 times, and that are far removed from the foun- 
 tainhead, in time. Such experiences can be ac- 
 
28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 counted valid in a discussion of this nature only 
 in so far as they accord with those recorded in 
 the New Testament. This is the more obvious 
 when we consider the fact, that of the many New 
 Testament examples of the process of the begin- 
 ning of Christianity in the individual there is no 
 discord. But all is harmony. The process is the 
 same in all the cases. This is still more remark- 
 able when we consider that within these examples 
 are to be found individuals from all the different 
 nations of the then inhabited earth. 
 
 In this, we are simply emphasizing with respect 
 to the Christian religion that which Professor 
 John Caird holds to be true with respect to re- 
 ligion in general. 
 
 " Religion must indeed be a thing of the heart ; 
 but in order to elevate it from the region of sub- 
 jective caprice and waywardness, and to dis- 
 tinguish between that which is true and false in 
 religion, we must appeal to an objective stand- 
 ard. That which enters the heart must first be 
 discerned by the intelligence to be true. It must 
 be seen as having in its own nature a right to 
 dominate feeling, and as constituting the prin- 
 ciple by which feeling must be judged." ^^ "In 
 estimating the religious character of individuals, 
 nations or races, the first question is, not how 
 they feel, but what they think and, believe — not 
 whether their religion is one which manifests itself 
 
 61 " Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion," p. 174: 
 Abridged. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 29 
 
 in emotions, more or less vehement and enthusi- 
 astic, but what are their conceptions of God and 
 divine things by which these emotions are called 
 forth. Feeling is necessary in religion, but it is 
 by content or intelligent basis of a religion, and 
 not by feeling, that its character and worth are 
 to be determined." ^^ 
 
 We are appealing to " an objective standard " 
 that shall be valid. That standard is the New 
 Testament. 
 
 Now according to this authority, what is the 
 process in the propagation of this new type of 
 being which finds its first complete product in the 
 twelve apostles .f* 
 
 Permit me here to preface the New Testament 
 quotations with a few general statements: This 
 Christian being can be produced only from human 
 individuals. We may not speak of a rock, a bird, 
 a flower, as belonging to this type of Christian 
 being. Neither may we so speak of an idiot or 
 an insane person ; but of human individuals who 
 are in full possession of their intellectual facul- 
 ties, and with their understanding somewhat de- 
 veloped. 
 
 The process, then, of entering into this type 
 of Christian being is one in which there is the 
 response, internally in a state of mind, externally 
 in acts, of the intellect, the will and the feeling 
 of the individual; to words, either written or 
 
 52 " Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion," p. 186: 
 Abridged. 
 
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 spoken, which embody the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be 
 preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
 nations." ^^ " Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." ^* 
 " But these are written that ye might believe that 
 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." ^^ "For 
 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: For 
 it is the power of God unto Salvation to every- 
 one that believeth." ^^ " For there is no other 
 name under heaven given among men, whereby we 
 must be saved." ^^ " Therefore they that were 
 scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the 
 word." ^^ " But when they believed Philip, 
 preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of 
 God and the name of Christ, they were baptized, 
 both men and women." ^^ " And many of the 
 Corinthians hearing, believed, and were bap- 
 tized." «« 
 
 I will not continue these quotations, for these 
 are sufficient to indicate the nature of the process 
 of entering or taking on this new type of being. 
 I may say, further, that these are in harmony 
 with all of the many New Testament examples of 
 this process. 
 
 Well, what have we.^ Here are these twelve 
 
 63 Jesus — Matt. 2i:l4>. 57 ^ cts 4 : 12. 
 
 64 Jesus — 3fa<«. 28:19. 5»Acts 8:i. 
 
 65 John 20:S1. ^s Acts 8:13. 
 
 66 Bom. 1:16. eo Luke — A cts 18 : 8. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 31 
 
 apostles of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy 
 Spirit given them from God. They, as a body, 
 constitute the first finished product of this new 
 type of being. In this body dwells the heaven 
 given Spirit, to energize and give life to the whole 
 body. 
 
 As this body takes on new material through the 
 proclamation of this Gospel of Christ, the natural 
 process, and as this material becomes assimilated 
 to this body in a new type of being, this Spirit 
 will energize every member of the body. 
 
 The process of the natural generation or per- 
 petuity of this type of being is thus indicated. 
 The second phase of our problem is solved. 
 
 Shall we now close with a homely and simple 
 illustration? Here is a piece of material, it may 
 chance to be a potato or any other product of 
 the vegetable type of being. And here is my 
 body, animated with a human spirit. The ques- 
 tion arises, can this human spirit be placed within 
 this material which is of another type of being? 
 And if so, how? The answer is yes. And by 
 one and only one process. And that is by masti- 
 cating into, and assimilating to my body, this 
 material, and then my human spirit will permeate 
 this material in my body as it does all other parts 
 of my body. And thus is it changed into a new 
 type of being. And thus have I placed my hu- 
 man spirit within it. 
 
 Thus it is with one who enters into the type 
 of Christian being. He is masticated into this 
 
32 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 type of being through the fundamentals of the 
 gospel. He is assimilated to this type of being 
 by growth in the Christian graces. 
 
 " And besides this, giving all diligence, add to 
 your faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge ; and 
 to knowledge temperance ; and to temperance pa- 
 tience ; and to patience godliness ; and to godli- 
 ness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness 
 charity. For if these things be in you and 
 abound, they make you that you shall neither be 
 barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." ^^ 
 
 61 Peteh — 7/ Pet. 1 : 5-8. 
 
II 
 
 THE WORD MADE FLESH 
 
 THE INCARNATION 
 
 In writing the Fourth Gospel, John goes back 
 to creation's morning for his beginning. He 
 states in the opening paragraph that Jesus had 
 wrought with the Father in the creation of the 
 world in its beginning. We are reminded of the 
 statement in Genesis in which God said, " Let m 
 make man in our own image and likeness." 
 
 But John's purpose was not to write of the 
 physical, but of the spiritual creation. Conse- 
 quently, he adds but a brief paragraph upon this. 
 Then he makes brief mention of the one who came 
 as a witness, to bear witness of the Light that 
 was the true Light, coming into the world bear- 
 ing light and life to all men. He then takes up 
 the particular purpose of his narrative, which is 
 to give a deep spiritual and philosophical narra- 
 tive of Jesus — the Word made flesh. I direct 
 your mind to the following text for our consid- 
 eration. 
 
 " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
 
 Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
 
 33 
 
34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among 
 us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
 only begotten of the Father) full of grace and 
 of truth." ^ In this he suggests to us the Mys- 
 tery, the Mission and the Message of Jesus — the 
 Word made flesh. 
 
 The mystery of his coming into the world has 
 become a stumbling block to the curious spirits of 
 a superficial and artificial age. Hence, the vir- 
 gin birth of Jesus is no longer accepted by those 
 who court the favor of modem scientists. That 
 there was any mystery about his coming into the 
 world is rejected by them as unworthy of serious 
 thought. To speak to them of the incarnation 
 of Jesus is preposterous. 
 
 In fact, there was no incarnation. Jesus of 
 Nazareth was the son of Joseph. He was con- 
 ceived and bom just as other children, except that 
 He was an illegitimate child in conception, but 
 was legitimatized by Mary's marriage before His 
 birth. 
 
 When Jesus was on the earth He freely en- 
 tered the synagogues of the Jews everywhere and 
 upon all occasions. He was honored in many in- 
 stances by being called upon to read out of the 
 law, to speak and to teach. It might be said of 
 Him that He grew up in the synagogue. He 
 went into the synagogue " as His custom was." 
 He was found in the temple. He said, " Know 
 you not that I must be about my Father's busi- 
 
 1 John — 1:1, 14. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 35 
 
 ness ? " " They marveled at His teaching." 
 " For He taught them as one having authority." 
 
 Yes, He entered the synagogues freely ; and 
 all His critics and opposers were powerless to find 
 a way to prevent Him. They knew all the time 
 that their law forbade a " bastard to even enter 
 the synagogue," much less to teach. Is it to be 
 presumed that they would not have hurled this 
 at Him upon every occasion had it been true? 
 Yet, when His ringing challenge came, " Which 
 of you convicteth me of sin.'' " they were help- 
 less. In all their opposition to Him, this ob- 
 jection is never raised. He who " was tempted 
 in every point," was also criticized in every con- 
 ceivable way. 
 
 He graced the marriage occasion. He looked 
 into the face of the water. Under His majestic 
 presence it moved with the blush of life. He 
 taught the sacredness of the marriage vow. The 
 adultery of a heart that would " look upon a 
 woman to lust after her." In parables He 
 taught the purity of the church by comparison 
 with the virgin, and the sacredness of the mar- 
 riage relation. Yet, in all this He called forth 
 no criticism upon His mother, no stigma upon 
 His own character. 
 
 In the face of all this, our modern scientists 
 see no inconsistency. They seem to feel that 
 " scientific conclusions " can be drawn over irre- 
 concilable inconsistencies. Jesus was never called 
 upon to defend His character from the stain and 
 
86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 stigma which these so-called scientists seek to 
 throw upon it. 
 
 These same scientists would teach us, and per- 
 haps with a good deal of truth, that the sense 
 of shame in the mother stamps itself indelibly 
 into the life of the illegitimate child; and bars 
 the way to greatness or distinction on his part. 
 But where was any sense of shame on Mary's 
 part? Where did it ever stand out in the life of 
 Jesus? If He was peculiarly bold and emphatic 
 in any one line of teaching, it was in the realm of 
 personal morality and sex purity. 
 
 Matthew and Luke stated the fact of the vir- 
 gin birth, but knew no necessity of arguing it. 
 It M^as never questioned in their day by any who 
 were competent to know. They knew the fact 
 and presented it, as we would present as axiom 
 in mathematics. To them this truth was made 
 self-evident by every deed that He ever did; 
 and enforced by every principle He ever taught. 
 
 The early church placed no particular emphasis 
 upon it; did not make it an essential article of 
 faith. It, like many other facts, was taken by 
 implication in the statement of the great confes- 
 sion. "Thou art the Christ, The Son of the 
 living God." If " the Son of God," in the sense 
 in which this part of the confession was under- 
 stood by all the early Christians, then He was not 
 the son of Joseph. He was the only begotten 
 of the Father, and the child of the virgin Mary. 
 But this is not emphasized, nor indeed, need it 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 37 
 
 be. For the great confession is all comprehen- 
 sive and all sufficient in its statements and impli- 
 cations. 
 
 Our creed makers in a later day made a blunder 
 when they undertook to improve upon the sim- 
 ple, yet comprehensive, confession of the Apos- 
 tolic Church. 
 
 It was not the virginity of Mary, but the divin- 
 ity of Jesus, that concerned the early church. 
 A clear note upon this, it seems to me, ought to be 
 sounded in every pulpit in this day of rationalism. 
 
 " The Word became flesh," says John. In this, 
 he states the fact of a great mystery, but adds 
 no word of explanation or argumentation. The 
 great apostle to the Gentiles is content to rec- 
 ognize and state the fact without comment. 
 " Great is the mystery of Godliness : God was 
 manifested in the flesh." ^ But our curious spir- 
 its of this age, confronted with and compelled to 
 recognize mystery in almost every other realm, 
 will have none of it in religion. Religion must 
 conform to known natural laws. 
 
 What is there impossible about the mystery of 
 the incarnation — the virgin birth — more than 
 the impossible in scores of other mysteries recog- 
 nized and utilized by these so-called scientists? 
 Why should it be singled out and rejected? 
 
 Take John's statement of this mysterious fact; 
 and what have we? Simply a statement that the 
 immaterial has passed over into the realm of the 
 
 2/ Timothy — 3:16. 
 
38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 material. " The Word (immaterial) became flesh 
 (material)." The mystery does not consist in 
 the method, but in the thing accomplished. This 
 being true, may we not ask, are not similar mys- 
 teries in evidence all around about us? Do we 
 not think? Do we not cause our thoughts (im- 
 material things) to find expression in material 
 forms? What about the inventor? The genius? 
 The author? The great captains of industry? 
 
 Not only so ; but we take of the material sub- 
 stances and cause them to pass into the immaterial 
 realm. They become mental energy — sight — 
 hearing — feeling — thought — power. They are 
 ours to use in a great variety of ways in the 
 immaterial realm. Thus in a thousand ways 
 daily, in our human experiences, this mystery is 
 before us. Material things are passing con- 
 stantly into the immaterial realm, and vice versa. 
 Millions of times within the life of any intelligent 
 being these experiences are occurring. 
 
 Who are we, then, that we should assume to cry 
 " impossible " when God chooses to cause His 
 Word to pass over into the material realm and 
 express itself in material form? " And the Word 
 became flesh." Yes, the virgin birth is easily 
 within the realm of mysterious probabilities. 
 
 But in the next place : the Mission. The Word 
 not only " became flesh," but, it " dwelt among 
 lis." The first question that naturally arises is, 
 what for? What was the purpose? What was 
 the Mission? 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 39 
 
 Whatever may be said of the works and teach- 
 ings of Jesus, His mission culminated in the great 
 fact of His suffering upon the cross. Indeed, if 
 it did not consist in this. His works and teach- 
 ings were incidental to, and in anticipation of, the 
 cross. This was the one thing He had to do. 
 Many other things He may or may not do. But 
 this He had to do. 
 
 In this day, when the meaningless cry is heard 
 everywhere, " Back to Christ and His teachings," 
 it is well that there be clear thinking just here. 
 If He expressed the love of God toward mankind, 
 when, by His touch and teaching, He put new 
 content into old teachings, new life and health into 
 dead and diseased bodies ; by his suffering upon 
 the cross, He expressed God's eternal hatred for 
 sin. But more. He met the final issue of sin. 
 He went to the extremest limits of sin's conse- 
 quences. " He who knew no sin, was made sin 
 for us." ^ " He bore our sins in His body upon 
 the tree," says Peter.* When in the death 
 agonies He exclaimed, " Why hast thou forsaken 
 me.'^ " He was in a place of utter abandonment, 
 God-forsaken, sin-cursed, with all nature in re- 
 volt against Him. He was suffering alone the 
 consequences of the sins of a world. He was pay- 
 ing the penalty. He was purchasing liberty, life 
 and immortality for a world. No man ever has 
 or ever can die as He died. At most, a man 
 abandoned by God, could suffer condemnation 
 
 3 // Cor.— 5:21. *IPeter — 2:2i. 
 
40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 only for his own sin. Jesus, upon the cross, 
 drank the essence of a world's sin in order to re- 
 deem that world. Well may we sing: 
 
 Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary's tree, 
 Paid the great debt and my Soul he set free ; 
 Oh, it was wonderful, how could it be? 
 Dying for me. Dying for me. 
 
 Approaching the cross, in that greatest of all 
 prayers, Jesus said, " Father, I have finished the 
 work which Thou gavest me to do." '^ In His last 
 breath upon the cross He made the statement, " It 
 is finished." ^ So far as He was concerned. He 
 had taken the place and performed the work as- 
 signed to Him to do in heaven's plan for the sal- 
 vation of men. His resurrection, ascension, coro- 
 nation, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the estab- 
 lishment of the church, and the Spirit's message 
 — these are all in the hands of the Father ; and 
 are to be wrought out in the councils of heaven. 
 
 This brings us to the next thought — the Mes- 
 sage. The coming of the Word into the world 
 may be veiled in mystery, in the incarnation. 
 The mission may pass into the realm of the in- 
 comprehensible, in the suffering upon the cross. 
 But, standing in the light of the cross, we have 
 a feeling that the message is clear. The dazzling 
 beauty and the effulgent glory of the sun may 
 forbid its analysis ; but this need not make us 
 stumble when walking in its light. 
 
 5 /oAn — 17:4. 6/oft» — 19:30. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 41 
 
 Standing in the light of that cross, John said, 
 " (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
 only begotten of the Father) full of grace and 
 truth." Here is an individual, who " dwelt among 
 men," with a halo of glory round about Him, " full 
 of grace and truth." That is John's adorned 
 statement. Stripped of its adornment, the state- 
 ment is, " The Word became flesh and dwelt among 
 us full of grace and truth." 
 
 The Word of God; that is, the thought, pur- 
 pose, plan, intention, will, of God. It was this 
 that became incarnate ; and dwelt among us " full 
 of grace and truth." The message springs out 
 of the fullness of the " grace and truth." It did 
 not come so directly out of what Jesus did and 
 taught as out of what He was. 
 
 He did and taught many, many things of 
 which we have no record. Much that He did and 
 taught, we cannot do and do not teach. Of His 
 recorded teachings, much as to the message was 
 intended by Him as in no way final. It is not 
 what He taught ; it is what He was. 
 
 He taught no theory of the atonement. He 
 •was the atonement. He taught no theory of the 
 resurrection. He said, " I am the resurrection." 
 He had no theory of life. He was Life. He left 
 no specific message. He was the message. He 
 had no theory of the gospel. He was the Gospel. 
 He was " grace and truth." Grace, mercy, pity on 
 the one hand; truth, righteousness, justice on the 
 other. Mercy and justice meet in Christ the Lord. 
 
42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Paul says, " God set Him forth ... to show 
 that He (God) might be just and the justifier of 
 him that believes in Jesus." ^ That was the great 
 accomplishment of Jesus. In Him, God is at 
 once, all righteous and all merciful. He is " just 
 and a justifier." 
 
 I repeat it, Jesus left no specific message. He 
 was the message. 
 
 This is what Jesus left, in His last moments be- 
 fore leaving the earth. This was specific and 
 final. He left a charge (command) and a promise 
 to His chosen apostles. He promised them the 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit ; and the abiding pres- 
 ence and power of the Spirit to guide them into all 
 truth,* He repeated this promise and charged 
 them to remain in Jerusalem for its fulfillment in 
 a few days.^ 
 
 The apostles returned to Jerusalem and as- 
 sembled in the upper room. There they waited. 
 After ten days Jesus redeemed that promise.^^ 
 The Spirit came upon, and entered into, the apos- 
 tles. He guided them into all truth. He en- 
 dued them with all power necessary to the proper 
 direction of the things of the kingdom. Through 
 them. He enters into the lives of all Christians. 
 
 He gave to them a full message — a message 
 full of grace and truth, for He revealed Jesus 
 unto them. Jesus was the full message. He took 
 of the things of Jesus and showed it unto them. 
 
 7 Rom.— 3 : 35-26. ^ Acts— I: 4-5. 
 
 e John — 16. 10 Acts — 2. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 4.3 
 
 They proclaimed that message as long as they 
 lived, and wrote it when ready to die. In the 
 providence of God, it has come through the cen- 
 turies to us, and we have it substantially as they 
 proclaimed it. 
 
 That message is Jesus the Christ. Not any 
 theory about Him, but Christ, the babe in Bethle- 
 hem ; Christ in the agonies of the cross ; Christ 
 in the tomb; Christ triumphant in the resurrec- 
 tion; Christ regnant on the throne; Christ in 
 faith, in repentance, in confession and in baptism ; 
 Christ supreme in the heart; Christ dominant in 
 the life; Christ in Mystery, in Mission and in 
 Message; Christ full of grace and truth. 
 
 May the twentieth century find men — full 
 orbed men — to proclaim this full message until 
 the whole world shall be filled with this full mes- 
 sage of grace and truth. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE NATURALNESS OF THE 
 RESURRECTION 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a 
 grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it 
 abideth by itself alone." ^ Immediately preceding 
 these words of Jesus is this statement, " The hour 
 is come, that the Son of man should be glori- 
 fied." ^ Following the text is the statement, 
 " Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say.'* 
 Father, save me from this hour." ^ 
 
 Thus, getting the line of thought, we see that 
 Jesus is here speaking of his death upon the cross, 
 and of the results that will follow out to humanity 
 and to the world because of that event. The 
 death of Jesus and his resurrection are the two 
 great facts in this text. These facts are here 
 presented in the imagery of the deepest and most 
 fundamental law of all existence: the law of sow- 
 ing and reaping. I wonder if we have deeply and 
 seriously thought how meaningful this law is when 
 applied to the tilings of the kingdom, or more par- 
 
 iJofen — 12:24. 
 
 2 Ibid., 12: 23. 3 Ibid., 12: 27. 
 
 44 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 46 
 
 ticularly, when applied to the death and resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus? 
 
 I would direct your thought into a study of 
 the Naturalness of the Resurrection. I am not 
 unmindful that the very wording of my subject 
 seems to be paradoxical in statement. In the 
 very beginning of Jesus' ministry, he placed the 
 fact of his divinity upon the reahty of his actual 
 bodily resurrection from the dead, when he said, 
 " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will 
 raise it up." * At the close of his ministry, he 
 placed the condition of establishing his church on 
 the earth upon the fact of his divinity, when he 
 said, " Upon this rock, (the truth that he is the 
 Christ) I will build my church."^ Thus, the 
 church rests upon the fact of his divine sonship. 
 And his divine sonship rests, humanly speaking, 
 upon the reality of his bodily resurrection from 
 the dead. Hence, the importance of our study. 
 
 The falling of wheat into the ground, and dy- 
 ing, in order that it may live, suggests to us the 
 ground, the wheat, the sowing (falling into the 
 ground), death and life. If it shall be seen that 
 the death and resurrection of Jesus are in har- 
 mony with this most fundamental law of all life, 
 then it must be conceded that, instead of being 
 unnatural, the way of life in Christ Jesus is in 
 full accord with the most fundamental of natural 
 laws of which we have any knowledge; that it is 
 in strict harmony with that most natural law of 
 * John — 2:19. - 6 Maf^— 16: 18. 
 
46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 life known to the farthermost limits of the human 
 family. So that if a man will not lift up his 
 eyes and gaze into the heavens, and there behold 
 the beauty, the order, the power, the wisdom and 
 the loveliness of his Creator; if he is determined 
 to be " of the earth, earthy " ; if he, like the ant 
 that crawls at his feet, will know nothing but to 
 fix his mind and heart and life upon the things of 
 the earth, yet the Father would impel him, by the 
 very intelligence with which he has endowed him, 
 as he eats even the herbs of the forest, to familiar- 
 ize himself with this most natural and fundamen- 
 tal law of life. If perchance, this might prepare 
 him for an easier entrance into the way of life 
 in Christ. 
 
 The ground into which this grain of wheat fell 
 was of course the Jewish nation. This people 
 had been prepared, through the many centuries of 
 their history, for the coming of the Christ. In 
 types and shadows: by precepts and command- 
 ments ; by rewards and punishments ; by protec- 
 tion and exposure; by slavery and freedom; by 
 kingly greatness and national humiliation; by 
 water and fire ; in prosperity and poverty ; 
 through king and prophet ; by signs in the heavens 
 and wonders in the earth; by all of these, and a 
 thousand other devices, through the centuries, the 
 Creator had been slowly but surely preparing a 
 field into which this kernel of wheat was finally to 
 fall. 
 
 Under the lash of the Egyptian master, in that 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 47 
 
 most fertile of all agricultural lands, the Israel- 
 itish slave had learned the law of sowing and reap- 
 ing, of death as the entry way into life, in all 
 of its naturalness and beauty. In Palestine, a 
 " land flowing with milk and honey," the " garden 
 spot of the earth " — in freedom and national 
 greatness, the Hebrew had beheld the " Rose of 
 Sharon " and the " Lily-of-the-Valley," blossom- 
 ing in response to this great natural law. He 
 had beheld the " cattle upon a thousand hills," 
 sustained by the same natural law. He had seen 
 the " sower go forth to sow." He knew what it 
 meant to see " the blade appear, and after that 
 the corn, and then the full corn in the ear." He 
 knew what it meant to " put forth the sickle at 
 the harvest time." He had heard the tramp of 
 the oxen upon the " summer threshing floor." 
 With all of these things he was familiar in every 
 detail. Yet, all of these things centered in this 
 great natural law. 
 
 In tent, in tabernacle, in temple and in syna- 
 gogue ; by prophet, priest and king, Israel had 
 been developed, in mind and heart, into a condi- 
 tion of readiness for the coming of this grain of 
 wheat. Indeed, she had been lashed by the ex- 
 periences of captivity and servitude into a desire 
 for His coming. If perchance, his coming might 
 be a means of deliverance. Fain would Israel 
 have planted this " finest of the wheat " into the 
 mellowed richness of her own, the " fairest of 
 hearts," and rejoiced to have seen it blossom into 
 
48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the Paradise of God. For, said Jesus, " From 
 the days of John the Baptist until now the king- 
 dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent 
 take it by force." But no, the matter is not to be 
 forced. It will take its own course. And that 
 course will be in harmony with this most funda- 
 mental of natural laws. 
 
 The wheat must be such in nature, that when 
 placed in the proper soil, it, like real wheat, will 
 spring forth into life. We see the manifestation 
 of life everywhere. Yet life itself eludes our gaze. 
 We have never been able to say, " here is life." 
 "This is life," or "that is Hfe." Now, that 
 which manifests itself so abundantly must have 
 existence in and of itself. Life must be more than 
 simply manifestations. There must be a foun- 
 tain, a source, a head. 
 
 If life does, then, exist in and of itself, and we 
 were able to find it at its source, let it be embodied 
 in whatever form, manifested in whatever way. 
 It is quite unlikely that we would be able to de- 
 stroy it. If the fountain of life — life, and the 
 very source of all life was incarnated in Jesus of 
 Nazareth, His body might be crucified, placed in 
 the grave — in the sea or anywhere else ; and it 
 will spring forth into life. As wheat, it possesses 
 not only the germ of life, but life itself. This 
 is what John is saying, " In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God. The same was in the beginning 
 with God. All things were made by him; and 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 49 
 
 without him was not anything made that was 
 made. In him was life; and the life was the light 
 of men." — " And this Word was made flesh 
 and dwelt among us." — This is what Jesus means 
 when he says, " I am the resurrection and the 
 life." " You will not come unto me that you 
 might have life." This is what Paul means when 
 he says, Jesus " brought life and immorality to 
 light." 
 
 It is into this prepared field of Jewish mind 
 and heart and thought that this grain of wheat 
 falls. It was placed there in the fullness of time, 
 by the age working purpose divine. It remained 
 for thirty-three years in the earth before it finally 
 burst forth into life. Failing in their efforts to 
 " take the kingdom by force," the leaders of the 
 Jewish people, like the young lover, disappointed 
 when his proposals are not accepted, these lead- 
 ers spring into a rage, take the life of the object of 
 Israel's love; and commit suicide for the nation. 
 
 As the leaders went from the scenes of the 
 cross back into the senate chamber that day, there 
 was no question in their minds as to the com- 
 plete success of the plot into which they had en- 
 tered. They felt that He, who would not accept 
 their conception of things, and whom they would 
 gladly have crowned as their king if only he had, 
 was now removed from their midst. That no 
 more would He trouble Israel with His teaching 
 of new and strange things. In other words, they 
 knew that He was dead. 
 
50 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 As the whole nation, in the thousands of its 
 representatives who were at the feast, passed by 
 the cross and viewed his lifeless form; as they 
 read the inscription, — " This is Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, the King of the Jews," — they all knew that 
 he was dead. As the sun's face was draped in 
 mourning for the space of three hours in silent 
 testimony, all nature seemed to be acknowledg- 
 ing this mighty fact — His death. 
 
 As the friends of Jesus returned to their homes, 
 and as his followers even turned to take up their 
 former occupations, the fact of his death was writ- 
 ing itself in the annals of that people as no other 
 fact of their history had even done. Egyptian 
 bondage; the ten plagues of Egypt; the death 
 angel ; the crossing of the Red Sea ; Mount Sinai ; 
 the Decalogue ; the brazen serpent ; the conquest 
 of Canaan; the crowning of the first king (Saul) ; 
 the building of Solomon's Temple; the Assyrian 
 and the Babylonian captivities ; all of these, and 
 a thousand others, are facts no more firmly estab- 
 lished than is this one. Thus, this grain of wheat 
 had fallen into this field, and the inherent forces 
 had acted upon it and killed it. Other peoples 
 of other localities and other ages may hold what- 
 ever notions, relative to the death of Jesus, they 
 may wish. But to the Jew, his death has never 
 been questioned. 
 
 We now come to the place where the processes 
 of this most fundamental and most universally 
 known of natural laws are enshrouded in the deep- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 61 
 
 est of mystery. No man has been able to explain 
 these processes. The Master recognized that 
 they were not known by men, and made no at- 
 tempt to explain them. But said, " The king- 
 dom of God is as if a man should cast seed into 
 the ground . . . and the seed should spring and 
 grow up, he Jcnoweth not how." 
 
 Perhaps it were well that no attempt at ex- 
 planation be made. That we pause before the 
 great silent mystery in frank acknowledgment 
 that we do not " know how." But it were well 
 also that we do not single out this mystery, of 
 the death and resurrection of Jesus, and arbi- 
 trarily put it in a class by itself ; and, then, make 
 our own arbitrary classification the occasion for 
 rejecting it. Is it not much more complimentary 
 to one's intelligence, while recognizing in this the 
 deepest of mystery, yet to frankly acknowledge 
 the similarity of this whole matter with the proc- 
 esses of this great natural law? 
 
 If a stalk of corn or of wheat, or of any other 
 of the grains from the vegetable kingdom had 
 been crucified, so to speak, and then buried, would 
 anybody have thought it strange if it had burst 
 forth into life.'' You say " no." " But this was 
 a man!" Well, what of that? Is a blade of 
 grass to have rights and privileges in a world of 
 God's ordering that are denied to a man? Is a 
 blade of grass of more consequence than a man.'' 
 " Is a sheep of more value than a man ? " Jesus 
 asked, in the long ago. He said, " Behold, are 
 
62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 not ye of much more value than many sparrows? " 
 I repeat then, is a blade of grass to have a mo- 
 nopoly on the uses of a great fundamental and 
 natural law? 
 
 " But," you say, " any grain of wheat or kernel 
 of corn placed in the earth would spring forth 
 into life." " But this is not true of any and 
 every man." All of which is quite true. But you 
 would readily admit that there was a time when 
 this law, in its application to the seed kingdom, 
 had its beginning. That before that beginning 
 could be, there was, of necessity, the preparation 
 of a soil or field. That the inherent forces that 
 work so mysteriously upon the seed all had to be 
 arranged, all of these had to be placed in their 
 mysterious interrelationships. Sun, light, heat, 
 moisture, soil, with all its chemical properties. 
 These, and no doubt numberless hidden forces 
 which the eye of man hath never seen. (For it 
 is the working of the hidden forces that veils this 
 whole process in mystery.) All of these had to 
 be in readiness before there could be any begin- 
 ning of the application and operation of this 
 natural law in the seed kingdom. 
 
 But more than this. You readily admit that, 
 with all of these things in readiness, there could 
 be no operation of this law until a seed has been 
 prepared in which has been placed the in- 
 herent properties and powers to respond to these 
 inherent mysterious forces within the field. Still 
 more ; after soil and seed, with all of their peculiar, 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 53 
 
 wonderful, mysterious forces and properties, have 
 been prepared, the}' must be brought together in 
 the proper way. So that the application of this 
 law may be inaugurated, with assurance of its suc- 
 cessful operation throughout the whole realm 
 involved. 
 
 Now, it was the ultimate destiny of the whole 
 human realm or family that was involved here. 
 It was the beginning of the application of this 
 great natural law to the human family. The 
 Jewish people were the prepared field. Jesus of 
 Nazareth was the prepared seed. His thirty- 
 three years on the earth was the planting time. 
 His death and resurrection were the beginning of 
 the application of this law of life to the whole 
 human family. 
 
 So that it is with farreaching meaning that 
 Jesus says, with reference to himself, " Except a 
 grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it 
 abideth by itself alone. But if it die, it bringeth 
 forth much fruit." If not in Christ, then, we ask, 
 in what other person did this law have the begin- 
 ning of its application to the human family.? If 
 he did not bring " life and immortality to light," 
 who did.'' In the origin of the human family, some 
 one became the first " living soul." In the devel- 
 opment of the human race, some one became the 
 first " life giving Spirit." Who was that some 
 one if not Jesus of Nazareth.'' It is written of 
 Adam, " He became a living soul." Paul adds of 
 Christ, " He became a life giving Spirit." 
 
54 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 It has not been our eflFort here to prove the 
 resurrection. We have sought only to point out 
 that the fact of the resurrection is a fact, while 
 enshrouded in mystery, yet, which is no more 
 unnatural than hundreds of incidents that pass 
 before our attention every day. And which have 
 become so common that we speak and think of 
 them as belonging to the world of natural phe- 
 nomena. All of which, including even this one, 
 conform quite fully to this great natural law of 
 sowing and reaping. The chief difference of 
 course being that other phenomena are observed 
 as successive links in a chain, while this one is the 
 heginnvng link in the chain. With its one end 
 linked to humanity and the other anchored in the 
 eternal purposes of the Creator himself. 
 
 Once we come to know His purposes, we feel 
 that it is more natural that such a great and 
 fundamental law should be applied to the human 
 family than to any other realm in His whole uni- 
 verse. The more so when we consider the pur- 
 pose for which it is applied. So it would seem 
 that the death and resurrection of Jesus are in 
 harmony with this most fundamental of natural 
 laws. And is the most natural thing that could 
 have been in the heart of the Creator. 
 
IV 
 
 THE RESURRECTION MEETS DEMANDS 
 OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Having shown that the fact of the resurrection 
 is in full harmony with the deepest and most 
 fundamental law of all life, we now wish to show 
 that nothing' short of the actual fact of the resur- 
 rection could have met the demands of the science 
 of psychology. But some object that psychology 
 is a new science, and can have no place in deter- 
 mining a fact of history. To which we answer, 
 quite true. It is new. But the principles upon 
 which it is founded are as old as the human mind. 
 The science of physiology is, likewise, quite recent 
 in discovery and development. Yet the principles 
 are as old as the human body. The law of gravi- 
 tation was discovered only recently, yet its princi- 
 ples are as old as the universe. Many, in fact 
 most of the sciences, have been worked out in 
 recent years. Yet the principles upon which they 
 rest, reach back into the very beginning of things. 
 
 I suppose few now would deny that Jesus was 
 
 crucified and that He died upon the cross. The 
 
 " swoon theory " seems to have gone by default in 
 
 recent years, even among critics and skeptics. 
 
 55 
 
56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Now if psychology, the science of the mind, or 
 the laws by which it works, is to be of any help 
 to us in a matter of this kind, it cannot be by con- 
 sidering how our own minds may work on the case. 
 But it can only be by watching the movements of 
 the minds of those associated with Jesus and His 
 cause at the time the resurrection is said to have 
 occurred. And those also who were implicated 
 in His crucifixion. It matters little what attitude 
 our minds may take toward the resurrection, as a 
 fact. Removed as we are, in point of time, and 
 biased more or less by the rationalism and nat- 
 uralism of the day, it is to say the least very diffi- 
 cult for us to be absolutely fair in the handling 
 of evidence both for and against the fact of a 
 physical resurrection. 
 
 It is not the province of this chapter to discuss 
 the discrepancies of the gospel narratives. That 
 belongs to the exegete and the harmonologist, and 
 has been dealt with by many of our ablest writers. 
 
 Our question has to do, mainly, with the chang- 
 ing attitude of the mind of the friends and enemies, 
 also of those who were neither friends nor enemies 
 of Jesus, on account of His death on the cross and 
 that which followed. 
 
 Attention is called first to the changing attitude 
 of mind of His friends. If the Scriptures are to 
 be relied upon, His friends did not think He would 
 die, and when he expired upon the cross, the ex- 
 pectant hope that they had followed for the three 
 years of His ministry was shattered and vanished. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 57 
 
 There was a psychological change wrought in 
 them. They passed from an attitude of simple, 
 trustful followers, to chagrined, hopeless, yes even 
 despondent individuals. They were willing to 
 show any act of respect or of kindness to the body 
 of Jesus. Because, though lifeless (and this fact 
 had stamped itself indelibly into the mind of every 
 follower of Jesus), yet this body represented to 
 them all that was left of a forlorn hope. They 
 would now return to their former callings, after 
 their three years' nightmare, to recover the shock 
 and to meet the rebuffs of the foes of Jesus as best 
 the}^ could. 
 
 The mind of the followers of Jesus, with refer- 
 ence to his death and resurrection, is perhaps 
 most clearly expressed in Mark 9:10 in record- 
 ing the incidents following the transfiguration. 
 Jesus charged the three to tell no man what they 
 had seen, until " The Son of man should arise 
 from the dead." " And they kept the saying, 
 questioning among themselves what the ' rising 
 again from the dead ' should mean." 
 
 Peter voices the same state of mind, perhaps 
 general among His followers, when Jesus " began 
 to teach them, that the Son of Man must suffer 
 many things, be rejected — and killed — and rise 
 again. . . . Peter took Him and began to rebuke 
 Him." ^ And although severely rebuked by the 
 Master Himself for entertaining such thoughts, 
 yet this same thought, now settled into a deep con- 
 
 1 Mark — 8:31-32. 
 
58 TPIE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 viction and expressive of a state of mind held by 
 the friends of Jesus, flashes from the point of 
 Peter's sword when Jesus is arrested.- It would 
 seem from Luke 22 : 49 that the question of de- 
 fending Him was being discussed by all His friends 
 who were present. I mention this to show that, 
 from their state of mind. He was not to die. Not 
 dying, of course, there was no conception in their 
 minds of His resurrection. I need not take the 
 space to examine all the Scripture references. 
 But suffice it to say (and I say it without fear of 
 its being questioned), that in each and all of the 
 many instances when Jesus raised the question 
 with His disciples of His death and resurrection, 
 if they gave any expression as to the state of their 
 minds (and they did in a number of cases), the 
 expressions show either that they did not under- 
 stand what He meant, or that they expected some 
 way to open up whereby He would avoid death. 
 In either case, the Scriptures all show that He 
 never, in all His teaching upon the subject, 
 brought their minds to a state of reconciliation 
 to the thought of His death and resurrection. 
 They had made no plans for His burial. That 
 was left to two who were not open and avowed 
 disciples, but secret friends of Jesus. 
 
 Peter rushes to the ultimate consequences of 
 this state of mind when he breaks out into bitter 
 cursings, and denies that he ever knew Jesus. He 
 sees Jesus betrayed into the hands of his enemies. 
 
 2 Mark — 14. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 59 
 
 The fearful fact of his death begins to image 
 itself, for the first time, into his very soul. He 
 is not fortified for any such an experience. There 
 had been no mental conception, no anticipation, 
 of any such a thing. He feels keenly the humilia- 
 tion that will come to him. This feeling was 
 shared, no doubt, by all the eleven. The feeling 
 was a perfectly natural one. One that has been 
 experienced by hundreds of men who have seen 
 religious hopes vanish as air bubbles before their 
 eyes. Have felt themselves left with nothing but 
 an exploded hope. We hear the echo of that same 
 forlorn hope from two others of the apostles in 
 the conversation with the " stranger." " We had 
 hoped it was He who should redeem Israel." ^ 
 
 Thus, with the crucifixion, every hope they had 
 had in Jesus vanished. The three hours' expos- 
 ure upon the cross " so fixed the fact of His death 
 upon the sensitive plates of their understanding 
 as to bring to naught all previous conceptions." 
 
 They lingered near the cross till His life went 
 out. They left the cross with a hope as dead 
 as was the individual in whom they had trusted. 
 The great fact of his death, as a reality, had 
 written itself against their wills in the deepest cur- 
 rent of consciousness. It was there, indelibly 
 written. It haunted them by night. It was the 
 all dominating fact in their day dreams. 
 
 This, then, is the state of mind with which they 
 came to the resurrection morning. Something oc- 
 
 3 Luke — 24, -.21. 
 
60 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 curred that morning which either erased or neu- 
 tralized this fact of His death in the minds of 
 these apostles. I now ask, what was it? I am 
 not now asking what you think or believe about 
 the resurrection. I am not now even concerned 
 as to what I think about that. But I am ask- 
 ing the deeper, the more difficult question. Yes, 
 the one which, when answered, will give the cor- 
 rect answer. What necessarily had to happen if 
 the fact of His death is to be erased or neutral- 
 ized in their minds.'* 
 
 From the psychological viewpoint, this is the 
 crux of the whole matter. These were men, ma- 
 ture in mind. Their minds would work the same 
 as yours or mine under similar circumstances. It 
 is not a question of how our minds might work in 
 weighing testimony and drawing conclusions at 
 this distance. But how our minds would have 
 worked had we been there or in their places at the 
 time. It is safe to say that we would have done 
 just as they did. 
 
 " But," some one says, " they did not want to 
 believe that he was dead." (And I grant the as- 
 sertion.) "Therefore; it was easy for them to 
 believe in his resurrection." The conclusion does 
 not follow the premise. They did not want to 
 believe that He was dead. Therefore they did not 
 believe it until it forced its awful reality into their 
 consciousness. Here, conclusion follows premise. 
 
 " Easy for them to believe in his resurrec- 
 tion ! " That statement was never made by one 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 61 
 
 who has gone doAvn into the shadow land, and 
 clasped the hand of a friend and held it, while 
 the awful unwelcome fact of his death was burn- 
 ing its way into his very soul. Did you ever stand 
 beside the casket of your mother, brother or 
 friend? If you have, stand there once more and 
 try to make yourself say, " It is easy for me to 
 erase this experience from my mind." If you 
 have never passed through such an experience, 
 then your opinion may not be very weighty when 
 you say " it is easy to erase the fact of death " 
 from the mind. 
 
 But I ask the question again. What neces- 
 sarily had to happen if the fact of his death is to 
 be erased or neutralized in their mind.'' I an- 
 swer, in the first place, by saying that it never 
 could be erased. In the second place, I may state 
 that it could have been neutralized only by an 
 experience founded upon a related fact no less 
 real. What was that fact.? A fact real enough 
 to neutralize the thought of His death in their 
 mind.'* Or if you have looked into the lifeless face 
 of your sainted mother, what fact can ever neu- 
 tralize that fact in your mind.'' Just one, my 
 friend. That is, an actual resurrection by which 
 you shall be enabled to meet her in life again. 
 No apparition ; no hallucination ; no vision ; no 
 hearsay ; no anything but the actual living pres- 
 ence and association with her. Again I ask, what 
 was the related fact, big enough and real enough 
 to cover up the fact of his death in the minds 
 
62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 of these apostles? Psychologically, there is but 
 one answer. The science of psychology demands 
 the actual resurrection. Its demands are unmet 
 by anything less than this. 
 
 It matters not what I may think. What my 
 attitude toward miracles may be. I simply can- 
 not account for the state of their minds apart 
 from the actual resurrection. Here is a mental 
 phenomenon. As a psychologist I am asked to 
 account for it. This I simply cannot do apart 
 from the actual resurrection. It baffles analysis 
 and explanation upon any other theory. 
 
 But now, as to the foes of Jesus. It will be 
 remembered that they clamored for His death. 
 That when Pilate was minded to let Jesus go a 
 great multitude of them cried, " Crucify him." 
 Then Pilate washed his hands and said, " I am 
 free from the blood of this just person." Then 
 all the multitude answered and said, " His blood 
 be upon us, and upon our children." So that 
 when He expired upon the cross a few hours later, 
 the fact of His death was one of the most wel- 
 come impressions that had been produced in their 
 minds. It was a fact that they would gladly re- 
 tain in consciousness as long as they lived. They 
 would be as reluctant to relinquish that fact as 
 the disciples had been stubborn in receiving it, 
 and much more so. It is true, the disciples felt 
 humiliated in His death. But, aside from their 
 tender regard for Him, there was only the humil- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 63 
 
 iation and disappointment born of blighted 
 hopes. But with His enemies it is far different. 
 If He remains dead, they are justified. They 
 have put out of the way a disturber of the re- 
 ligious peace. But if He lives, they are all crim- 
 inals of the worst type. They are murderers. 
 Consequently, they will hold to the fact of His 
 death as to no other related to Him. If we 
 could feel that there could have been any possi- 
 bility that the disciples were mistaken as to His 
 actual death, not so with these. His enemies. 
 They are going to be satisfied with nothing short 
 of His real death. Not until this fact is firmly 
 fixed in their consciousness do they leave the cross. 
 
 Fifty days from that time Peter, with the other 
 apostles, faced a large gathering of these same 
 people in the city of Jerusalem. He then told 
 them that " God hath made that same Jesus whom 
 ye crucified both Lord and Christ." Jesus had 
 spent forty days mingling freely with the people 
 in and around Jerusalem, so that the fact of His 
 resurrection had become generally known and ac- 
 cepted. Three thousand, many of whom had par- 
 ticipated in His crucifixion, surrendered the fact 
 of His death and accepted the fact of His resur- 
 rection. 
 
 A few days later Peter addressed a still larger 
 gathering, and said, " But you denied the Holy 
 one and the just one . . . and killed the Prince 
 of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; 
 
64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 whereof we are witnesses." Five thousand men 
 now openly acknowledge the fact of His resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 We need not take into consideration each case. 
 But it probably mil not be disputed that within 
 a few months of his resurrection, most of the peo- 
 ple who had participated in His crucifixion 
 openly acknowledged the fact of His resurrection. 
 Now, the question is again a psychological one. 
 
 With the fact of His death so willingly and 
 prominently in their minds, and desirous as they 
 were that it remain there unchanged, what did 
 happen on the resurrection morning if He did not 
 actually arise from the dead? Why did they 
 change their minds in that regard? Would they 
 have changed their attitude of mind in and of 
 themselves ? Or was it a change which they could 
 not avoid? How do you account for this mental 
 phenomenon, apart from the actual resurrection 
 of Jesus? This is a psychic phenomenon. As a 
 psychologist, I am asked to account for it. 
 Again I can do this in no other way than upon 
 the theory of the actual resurrection. 
 
 Attention is jfinally called to the state of mind 
 of those who were perhaps neither essentially 
 friends nor enemies of Jesus at the time of the 
 crucifixion. 
 
 There were thousands of loyal, honest, well 
 meaning Jews, who simply did not know what at- 
 titude to take toward Jesus during his ministry. 
 They recognized in Jesus a mighty miracle worker 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 65 
 
 and a master teacher. Yet they were un- 
 schooled, unsophisticated. They would gladly 
 have followed Jesus, but, like the parents of the 
 blind man whom Jesus healed, they feared the rul- 
 ers of the synagogues, for they " had agreed al- 
 ready that if any man should confess Jesus to be 
 the Christ, he should be put out of the syna- 
 gogue." ^ Membership in a synagogue had a 
 meaning then not to be compared with membership 
 in our churches of today. It is not improbable 
 that to this class belonged the very cream of the 
 Jewish Church. 
 
 Then there were the Josephs of Arimathasa, 
 the Nicodemuses and the Gamaliels. Stephen also 
 was in this class. Stalwart men intellectually. 
 Men high up in official position. Men of great 
 heart power who, in the time of religious con- 
 troversy, are too big to be seen. Yet who, in the 
 hour of need, are too little to be seen for the big- 
 ness of the things which they do. These always 
 constitute the real power in any community, age 
 or movement. 
 
 Multiplied hundreds of these answered the first 
 call of the gospel on Pentecost and later. So that 
 the early church was literally filled with this class 
 of people. 
 
 What was it that moved these from a state of 
 noncommittal to an attitude of open avowal of 
 the cause of Christ.'' Nothing short of the fact of 
 the resurrection can again satisfy the demands of 
 
 4 John — 9 : 22. 
 
66 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 psychology in the change wrought in their minds. 
 
 Here, then, are the three classes. Friends of 
 Jesus, who do not want to believe the fact of His 
 death, and who having been forced to accept it, 
 relinquish it only when a greater related fact has 
 neutralized it. The enemies of Jesus, criminals, 
 murderers, glad to receive and eager to retain the 
 fact of His death ; yet forced by the other greater 
 fact to relinquish it and accept Him as the liv- 
 ing Savior. And finally, the well meaning, honest, 
 upright class who had been noncommittal in atti- 
 tude, because of a fear of being dismembered from 
 the synagogue, or some other unknown cause. 
 These are brought to a positive, open attitude of 
 friendship toward Jesus. 
 
 Now we ask once more, in the face of the di- 
 vergent psychic phenomena here evident, what 
 happened that forced a blending of all these into 
 a unified attitude of love and loyalty to Jesus.'' 
 
 The actual resurrection of Jesus is the one 
 thing that can meet the demands of the science of 
 psychology in this matter. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 
 ITS PLACE IN SCRIPTURES AND FORCE OF LOGIC 
 
 We have shown that the resurrection is in full 
 harmony with the deepest and most fundamental 
 law of all life and existence. That instead of 
 being unnatural it is, therefore, the most natural 
 thing that we could expect from Him who is the 
 Creator of life and the author of its laws. We 
 have shown that nothing short of the actual resur- 
 rection could have met the demands of the sci- 
 ence of psychology. That the divergent psychic 
 phenomena, so in evidence at the time of the cru- 
 cifixion, could not have been unified in the attitude 
 toward Jesus apart from the actual resurrection. 
 That, therefore, these psychic phenomena are in- 
 explainable upon any theory that eliminates the 
 actual fact of the resurrection. 
 
 We now wish to speak of the position, from the 
 Scriptural viewpoint, which the fact of the resur- 
 rection had in the beginnings of Christianity ; and 
 the conclusion to which we are impelled by the 
 force of logic. 
 
 Matthew tells us that the Roman guard was 
 
 67 
 
68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 placed to watch the sepulcher. This probably 
 consisted of sixty soldiers, with the night divided 
 into four watches. Fifteen soldiers would be on 
 guard during each watch. At the critical mo- 
 ment (which in this instance of course was the 
 last watch of the night before the morning of the 
 first day) it would be arranged for the whole 
 guard to be upon the scene. The statement of 
 Matthew, (who himself had been in the service of 
 the Roman government, and who to some extent 
 knew the graft of office) is that these soldiers 
 " became as dead men," in the presence of the 
 resurrection. That they afterwards came into 
 the city of Jerusalem and told the chief priests 
 the whole story of the resurrection, just as it had 
 happened, as nearly as they could. That the 
 priests and the elders then got together and held 
 a counsel. That in this counsel they entered into 
 an agreement to bribe the guard. That this cost 
 them a considerable sum of money. And a pledge 
 that if it became necessary, they would stand be- 
 tween the governor and the soldiers. The soldiers 
 were to say that the disciples stole the body away 
 while they were asleep. On the statement of Mat- 
 thew they were " as dead men." On their own 
 public testimony they were asleep. But in neither 
 event can their testimony be admitted as evidence 
 in the case as to what really happened on that 
 morning. 
 
 When Jesus appeared unto the Apostles 
 after his resurrection, we are told by John 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 69 
 
 (20:24) that Thomas was not present. That 
 when they told him that Jesus had arisen; that 
 they had seen him ; he said, " Except I shall see 
 in His hands the print of the nails, and put my 
 finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand 
 into His side, 7 zvill not believe.^' We learn from 
 Luke (24:9-11) that when the women, who were 
 first at the sepulcher, told the apostles that He 
 had arisen, " their words seemed to them as idle 
 tales, and they believed them not." A few days 
 later Jesus stood in the midst of the disciples, 
 Thomas being present, and said, " Thomas reach 
 hither thy finger, and see my hands, and reach 
 hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be 
 not faithless but believing." And Thomas, the 
 doubter, said " My Lord and my God." Jesus 
 said, " Because thou hast seen me thou hast be- 
 lieved ; blessed are they who have not seen and yet 
 have believed." 
 
 When the women first brought the news of the 
 resurrection to the apostles, Peter and John ran 
 to the tomb. They saw the open and empty tomb. 
 They saw the burial clothes. Peter entered into 
 the tomb and saw the napkin that had been about 
 His head, folded and lying in a place by itself. 
 Then John entered and saw the same things. 
 " And believed." ^ Peter and John left the tomb 
 that morning convinced of the resurrection. This 
 conviction passed from the realm of belief, founded 
 upon the testimony of the women, the empty tomb, 
 
 t John — 20: S. 
 
70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the burial clothes, the folded napkin, etc., into 
 the realm of actual fact when in the evening Jesus 
 " stood in their midst," the doors being shut, and 
 asked them to examine His hands and His side. 
 
 For the next forty days Jesus is with the 
 apostles, in the most intimate relationships. He 
 showed Himself to be alive by all kinds of " infalli- 
 ble proofs." He taught them during these days, 
 specifically, of the one great subject of His whole 
 ministry ; viz., " The kingdom of God." He 
 finally commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until 
 the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them, with the 
 instruction that the Spirit would guide them in all 
 the work of the coming kingdom. He was then 
 received back to the Father, where he was coro- 
 nated the king of this kingdom. 
 
 Beginning at nine o'clock on the first Pente- 
 costal morning, after the resurrection, the procla- 
 mation of the resurrection of Jesus went forth to 
 the world. It went forth from Peter, the one com- 
 missioned to be " first among equals." It went 
 forth as a part of the gospel message. It was 
 proclaimed hy those who ate, walked and talked 
 with Jesus for forty days after His resurrection. 
 Those chosen to be eye witnesses of His resurrec- 
 tion. It was proclaimed to those who had partici- 
 pated in His crucifixion, many of whom had seen 
 Him after His resurrection, and all of whom had 
 the opportunity to know of the truthfulness of the 
 proclamation. 
 
 Assume for a moment that this proclamation is 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 71 
 
 not true. We can then see how entirely out of 
 place it was to proclaim it in Jerusalem, the very 
 city in which every citzen had the opportunity to 
 know or find out as to the truthfulness of the 
 resurrection. We can see how easily public senti- 
 ment would have been set against the apostles and 
 the church. But on the contrary, the statement 
 is made in this very connection, that " they took 
 their food with gladness and singleness of heart 
 praising God and having favor with all the peo- 
 ple." ^ It might have been excusable to have 
 preached this falsehood in some locality far dis- 
 tant from Jerusalem. For there the people could 
 not have known positively, and would have been 
 left to their acquaintance with and confidence in 
 the speakers. But how foolish it was, from the 
 viewpoint of common sense and general princi- 
 ples, to expect to build a church on a falsehood 
 by proclaiming that falsehood first in the one city 
 where all the people knew, or could know, it was a 
 falsehood. 
 
 But if the ordinary citizen could know, how the 
 foolhardiness of these apostles is multiplied when 
 we consider that they proclaimed this as a fact 
 to the identical individuals who crucified Jesus, 
 and who had guarded and watched the tomb at 
 every tick of the clock, and who could have re- 
 buked the lie in the very teeth of him who was 
 speaking it. If lie it were I He who assumes that 
 these apostles are proclaiming a falsehood, throws 
 2Acts — 2:4i7, :'4'r::|"?3 
 
7S THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 this whole matter from the realm of logic, and 
 makes the whole procedure of the apostles 
 imbecilic. 
 
 When one was chosen to fill the place of Judas, 
 Peter laid down the rule that he must be from 
 those who had followed Jesus from His baptism 
 to His ascension. One who had been an eye wit- 
 ness of all the details of Jesus' ministry, and who 
 could testify as an eye witness of the resurrection. 
 The resurrection was preached in the first apos- 
 tolic sermon. It would be difficult to find a para- 
 graph from an apostolic sermon that does not 
 contain, either by statement or direct implication, 
 the fact of the resurrection. The church was 
 established and grew upon that truth. 
 
 Paul says ^ that the gospel message is the death, 
 the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. It was 
 so understood by Peter, James and John; by 
 Stephen and Philip ; and was so proclaimed by all 
 who " were scattered abroad." And who " went 
 everywhere preaching the word." Now if there 
 had been any weakness about the fact of the resur- 
 rection, the early preachers would certainly have 
 known it and, therefore, would not have presented 
 this as the leading and first fact in the entire chain. 
 It is not what / think about miracles ; not what 
 you may think. But seriously, what would com- 
 mon sense and the logic of the whole situation have 
 impelled them to do in the matter.? On the as- 
 sumption that they were rogues and entered into a 
 
 3/ Cor.— 15:1-4. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 73 
 
 conspiracy to deceive, would they not have had 
 sense enough to have held the matter of the resur- 
 rection in the background? To have touched 
 upon it carefully? How does the attorney handle 
 the weak link in the chain of his evidence? Does 
 he hold it before the judge and jury first, last and 
 always ? 
 
 Jesus' body was not in the tomb after that 
 morning of the first day. This is conceded by 
 friend and enemy alike. There are then three 
 possible hypotheses relative to His body. First, 
 He could have been stolen from the tomb by His 
 friends. Secondly, He could have been stolen 
 from the tomb by His enemies. Thirdly, He could 
 have arisen and walked forth into life. 
 
 To have stolen the body, the disciples would 
 have had to pass in, break the Roman seal and 
 pass out with the body, in the presence of the 
 Roman guard. This in itself would be highly im- 
 probable. But more than this, they would have 
 had to conceal the body, so that no one was ever 
 able to find it. Another most difficult thing. 
 They then would have had to enter into a league 
 to perjure their own conscience on the matter as 
 long as they lived. This would be the most diffi- 
 cult of all. When we consider the number and 
 character of the people involved, this would be 
 next to impossible. No motive can be assigned, 
 as none existed, sufficient to justify any such pro- 
 cedure. 
 
 If He were stolen, it must then have been by His 
 
74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 enemies. They arrested Him. They influenced 
 Pilate to give permission to crucify Him. They 
 called for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. 
 They said they were willing to accept the responsi- 
 bility for His blood. They finally crucified Him. 
 They were murderers. Therefore, none too good 
 in character to have stolen the body from the 
 grave. They themselves, indeed, suggested the 
 thought of stealing the body from the tomb. 
 They had the tomb sealed. They placed the 
 guard. The guard was under their instructions. 
 They talked first with the guardsmen after they 
 left the sepulcher. They had access to the 
 sepulcher all the time. They had the only avail- 
 able opportunity to steal the body. Logic would 
 impel the conclusion, therefore, that if any liv- 
 ing persons removed the body from the tomb, they 
 were from among the enemies of Jesus. 
 
 Then He either arose from the grave, laid aside 
 the burial clothes, and walked forth into life, or He 
 was carried from the tomb by some of His ene- 
 mies. It was only three days from the time of 
 His burial till all Jerusalem was filled with the 
 talk of His resurrection. There were but the 
 two classes. Those who enthusiastically pro- 
 claimed His resurrection ; and those who were 
 against it. The line was drawn. The issue was 
 clear cut. If He had been yet in the tomb, all 
 Jerusalem could have visited the tomb (as hun- 
 dreds no doubt did) and could have seen for them- 
 selves. He was not there. Where was He.'' 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 75 
 
 When the disciples began to preach that He 
 had arisen; and when thousands began to flock to 
 and accept their teaching, do you not think that 
 the enemies and unbelievers in their extremity 
 would have produced the dead body of Jesus in 
 order to have nailed the falsehood and thus 
 brought to naught the whole movement? Yes, 
 you know they would have done this if they could. 
 There has never been a day since that resurrection 
 morning, nor a community on the face of the 
 earth, in which the enemies of Jesus would not have 
 quickly produced the dead body of Jesus in order 
 to silence the teaching on the resurrection if it 
 had been in their power to do so. 
 
 My point is, that these enemies and unbelievers 
 in Jerusalem had the power and the opportunity 
 (on the supposition that he did not arise) to pro- 
 duce His body. That before they would have al- 
 lowed the preaching of the resurrection to have 
 succeeded, they would have done this. That the 
 fact that they did not do so is a manifest evidence 
 in itself that He had arisen from the dead. 
 Every sermon preached was a direct challenge to 
 every enemy or unbeliever to accept its truth, or 
 present the dead body of Jesus, or at least explain 
 where it was. In the absence of the body, and in 
 the failure of the unbelievers to make any reason- 
 able explanation as to its whereabouts, we are 
 impelled by the very force of reason and logic to 
 the conclusion that He arose from the dead. 
 
 The enemies and unbelievers thought to meet the 
 
76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 challenge by hurling back at the disciples the 
 counter-challenge, " You produce the living 
 body." This the disciples did by pointing to the 
 Church of Christ, or body of Christ, as they called 
 it in many instances in the New Testament. Thus 
 it is, that the issue over the body of Jesus has 
 moved down through the centuries. While infi- 
 dels and unbelievers in all ages have been unable 
 to find and present the dead body of Jesus, yet 
 they have always pointed the finger of scorn at the 
 church and have denied that it was the body of 
 Christ or that there was anything divine about it. 
 I presume this will continue till the end of time. 
 Here, then, the matter rests. The body of 
 Jesus was practically in the hands of His enemies 
 from the arrest until the morning of the resurrec- 
 tion. He then appeared to, and continued with, 
 the Apostles for the next forty days, forcing them, 
 against their own first thought in the matter, to 
 accept the fact of His resurrection. He com- 
 manded them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming 
 of the Spirit. When the Spirit came, they knew 
 that this was evidence of His acceptance and coro- 
 nation at the Father's right hand. All things 
 were ready then for the Spirit's public proclama- 
 tion, through Peter, that He had arisen from the 
 dead; and had been made both Lord and Christ. 
 This occurred in Jerusalem on Pentecost. In the 
 very city where He was crucified. It was pro- 
 claimed to the very people who had participated in 
 His crucifixion. Many of these accepted the fact 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 77 
 
 of the resurrection. Every sermon became a chal- 
 lenge to unbelievers to accept the resurrection or 
 produce the body of Jesus. Finally the church 
 stood forth as the mystical body of Jesus on the 
 earth, and was pointed to as the divine institution 
 in which dwelt the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 If infidels and unbelievers in all ages have been 
 unable to produce the dead body of Jesus, then 
 they ought to keep still in this matter. But that 
 in no way releases the believers from the responsi- 
 bility of producing the living body, the church, 
 on the earth, and using every available oppor- 
 tunity to extend its power and influence as the ages 
 move on. It was the living body and presence 
 of Jesus in and around Jerusalem during those 
 forty days that paralyzed the infidels of that city, 
 and made them helpless in their opposition to the 
 church. He has had that same effect in every 
 community in all ages when he has really lived 
 in His body — the church. 
 
 " When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time 
 shall be no more. 
 And the morning breaks eternal bright and fair; 
 When the saved of earth shall gather over on the 
 other shore. 
 And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. 
 
 On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead 
 in Christ shall rise. 
 And the glory of his resurrection share; 
 
78 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 When his chosen ones shall gather to their home be- 
 yond the skies, 
 And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there." 
 
 Standing before the lifeless form of Lazarus, 
 Jesus said to his sisters in discussing the question 
 of the resurrection, " I am the resurrection and 
 the life." ^ Paul says, " But now hath Christ 
 been raised from the dead and hath become the 
 first fruits of them that are asleep. For since by 
 man came death, by man came also the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead." '^ Even so may it come to all 
 who love life and righteousness in Christ. 
 
 * John — 11:35. 
 6/ Cor.— 15:20. 
 
VI 
 
 THINGS PERTAINING TO THE 
 KINGDOM 
 
 ACTS — 1:3 
 
 We have passed the Easter time, so-called, in 
 the events of the life of the Savior. We have 
 dealt with the resurrection as the greatest fact 
 in the chain of Christian doctrine, first as to its 
 naturalness in the light of modern science ; sec- 
 ondly, psychologically ; and thirdly, as to the logic 
 of the facts in the case. It will be in order now 
 for us to take up some of the important matters 
 which come in the history succeeding the resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 First in order is the forty days between the 
 resurrection and the ascension. We are told in 
 our text that Jesus was seen for forty days by 
 the apostles whom He had chosen, and that He 
 spoke to them during this time of the things per- 
 taining to the Kingdom of God. One short chap- 
 ter in each of the synoptics, two in John, and 
 eight verses in the opening chapter of Luke's 
 Acts of the Apostles, are all we have in the in- 
 spired record of Jesus' association with his apps- 
 
 79 
 
80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 ties after the resurrection. Certainly very brief 
 for so important a period of the stay of our 
 Savior upon the earth. A period in which every- 
 thing pertaining to the kingdom was taking its 
 final and eternal form, that is so far as the estab- 
 lishment and development of the Kingdom of 
 God among men is concerned. Had not John 
 preached " the kingdom of heaven is at hand " 
 during his ministry four years previous to this? 
 Did not the Master enter upon His ministry three 
 and a half years prior to this, preaching from the 
 same topic? Did He not select, qualify and send 
 out first the twelve and later the seventy, instruct- 
 ing them to preach upon the same topic? Had 
 not " all Judea " repented at John's preaching? 
 What, then, was there new in this teaching of 
 the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God? 
 What was the new element or force in this teach- 
 ing? Yes, there was the new element. The un- 
 known quantity in the human side of the equation 
 has become known. It is not a thing to be de- 
 termined now by future history; but a thing 
 that is to determine future history. Teaching 
 that had previously been based upon the pro- 
 spective will now be based upon the retrospective. 
 As everything had looked forward to the cross and 
 resurrection in anticipation, so now everything 
 will look back to the resurrection in realization. 
 
 The kingdom is to continue until the end of 
 time, and is to subdue all things. And in the 
 teaching concerning the kingdom, the resurrection 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 81 
 
 is to be the dominant fact, the ever abiding and 
 constant element. It is the one gigantic fact of 
 the gospel. 
 
 In the second place, in this kingdom are to be 
 permanent institutions, first among which is to be 
 the initiatory rite into the kingdom, Christian bap- 
 tism. There had been the various washings and 
 dippings of the Hebrew people for various pur- 
 poses. Also the baptism of John, which had had 
 its day and fulfilled its mission. All of these had 
 been temporal. There is now to be instituted a 
 baptism that shall be as eternal as time. Though 
 not differing in its form from John's, yet it will 
 differ in almost every other essential. The form 
 even will have new significance. It will set forth 
 in picture, beautifully, the death, burial and resur- 
 rection of the Savior; thus keeping ever before 
 the mind the big fact of the gospel. John's was 
 to prepare the way. This is for the purpose of 
 entering into that way. John's was upon the 
 confession of sin. This is to be for the remis- 
 sion of sin. John's was to prepare for the king- 
 dom. This is for the entrance into the kingdom. 
 John's was for the penitent Jew. This is for the 
 penitent of every nation. John's was upon a 
 pledge of belief in Him who was to come. This 
 is upon the confession of Him who has come. 
 John's was to get one ready to accept. This is 
 to prepare one to serve. John's was to agitate 
 the conscience. This is to clarify the conscience. 
 John's was a call to a principle. This is a call 
 
8a THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 to a person. John's was to entitle one to good 
 standing in the Jewish church. This is to consti- 
 tute one a member of the church of Christ. 
 John's was a worthy closing to the old dispen- 
 sation. This is to be a beautiful beginning of the 
 new. John's was the " outward sign of an in- 
 ward grace." This is the entrance of a new per- 
 sonality into the life. 
 
 There is a new term in the Christian baptismal 
 formula. Men have known the Father all through 
 the Jewish age through the work of the prophets 
 and other great leaders. They have known the 
 Son in His mission and ministry in the world. 
 But this new personality that is placed in the 
 baptismal formula, the Holy Spirit. What place 
 is He to have in this coming kingdom? What 
 is to be His function, His place of operation, the 
 agency through whom He is to accomplish His 
 work.'' These were interesting questions in a dis- 
 cussion of the things pertaining to the Kingdom 
 of God. And we do not have to stretch the imag- 
 ination to conceive of Jesus' taking them over 
 this subject and teaching it to them as fully as 
 it was possible for Him to do in their limited 
 vision of the great and eternal things of the king- 
 dom. Teaching them that they, as his chosen 
 apostles, were to be the first ones to meet this 
 new personality that has appeared in the new 
 baptismal formula. That He shall come to be 
 not only with them as the Savior had been, but in 
 them, filling them with all divine power and wis- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 83 
 
 dom to meet the problems of the coming king- 
 dom, becoming in them, what Jesus had been to 
 them. That His coming upon them was to be the 
 long promised " baptism of the Holy Spirit." 
 That Jesus was to ascend back to the Father, to 
 be coronated the King in this coming kingdom 
 and from His throne there in the presence of the 
 Father; and by the Father's authority to admin- 
 ister this baptism upon His chosen ones in His 
 holy city. And further, that when thus baptized, 
 they are to constitute the kingdom. God dwelling 
 in them in the Spirit, and they dwelling in the 
 earth in the human family, thus constituting the 
 Kingdom of God among men. This also would 
 be the Kingdom of God within them even as He 
 had said, " The Kingdom of God is within you." 
 But still further, that He would seek to explain 
 to them, as pertaining to the kingdom, how this 
 new personality, this Spirit that dwells in them, 
 so potent and powerful, is to pass into the lives 
 of all those who come penitently and submit to 
 this new and eternal baptism of the kingdom, that 
 He may there work the regeneration and trans- 
 formation of the life and out from that, as a 
 citadel of power and influence, reach other lives 
 until He has conquered the world for the King. 
 
 But there was another eternal institution that 
 was destined to play no small part in this coming 
 kingdom, and as the baptismal ordinance is to be 
 a powerful teacher of the great facts of the gos- 
 pel — ' the deathj burial and resurrection — so thi§ 
 
84. THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 one also, the communion seryice. And Jesus 
 must have a final word with them upon this in- 
 stitution. When as a family they shall meet to- 
 gether there is to be an institution that shall be 
 a deep searcher of the heart motives, a powerful 
 rectifier of the daily walk, deeply devotional, re- 
 ligious and spiritual. This institution, when the 
 heart is in deep, serious, solemn, prayerful medi- 
 tation ; when the heart is beating in accord with 
 other loyal hearts, in sweetness of fellowship, in 
 the sacredness of the Lord's day, with the holy 
 sentiment of sacred song, with the reading from 
 the sacred word, with all these hallowed influences 
 focused upon the heart, this institution — the 
 communion — is to take advantage of this op- 
 portune time, this most teachable moment, to 
 impress upon the heart the deep significance of 
 the Lord's death. True, Jesus had broken the 
 bread and partaken of the wine in their presence. 
 Had even given it to them to eat and to drink, 
 anticipating the cross. But the bread and the 
 wine are to be taken " new in my Father's king- 
 dom." That is, with new significance. Yes, 
 Jesus must speak to them of this institution. 
 The how and when and where it is to be observed. 
 His death and resurrection are to speak through 
 this institution to the thousands of generations 
 yet unborn in shaping the future history of the 
 world in this coming kingdom. Thus is this in- 
 stitution to have such an abiding and prominent 
 place of influence in the coming kingdom that it 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 85 
 
 may powerfully " show (proclaim) the Lord's 
 death till He comes again." In the church, then, 
 on the Lord's day, when the congregations of 
 disciples have come together, this will be the 
 proper and fitting time for the observance of this 
 eternal ordinance. If not in the preaching of 
 the word, if in no other way, if only in the deep, 
 silent, solemnity of the occasion, yet they are 
 never to come together upon the Lord's day with- 
 out each one becoming a participator in the proc- 
 lamation of their Lord's death and resurrection. 
 This simple, sacred service is to be the thing that 
 is to cause the Marys and the Salomes to meet 
 at the sepulcher of their Lord upon the first day 
 of the week. This holy service is to be the power 
 that is to attract the Peters and the Johns and 
 cause them to hasten to the sepulcher (the death 
 and resurrection) of their Lord upon the Lord's 
 day. This service, the flower with sweet incense 
 with which His grave is to be decorated upon 
 each Lord's day. Not only is this service to 
 be powerful in strengthening the individual dis- 
 ciple and in edifying the congregations of disci- 
 ples everywhere and always, but it is to be a po- 
 tent proclaimer of the Lord's death to the 
 unbeliever who may chance to be within the con- 
 gregation. And this leads us to the considera- 
 tion of the next abiding and permanent institution 
 in this coming kingdom, the living ministry. 
 
 God had chosen in this coming kingdom that by 
 the " foolislmess of preaching " those who believe 
 
86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 should be saved. In each of the synoptics Jesus 
 gives His final word upon this abiding institution 
 of the gospel age substantially as it is given by 
 Matthew, " Go ye therefore and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ; teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world." John gives His final 
 words to His apostles as follows, " As my Father 
 hath sent me, even so send I you." " Whose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; 
 and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- 
 tained." John also records the incidents of Pe- 
 ter's leading the disciples on a fishing expedi- 
 tion ; the sleepless and fruitless night having been 
 spent, Jesus came unto them in the morning and 
 had a testing and interesting conversation with 
 Peter upon the things pertaining to the coming 
 kingdom. During this interview, Peter is pledged 
 not once, not twice, but thrice to feed the sheep. 
 So that the function of this permanent institution 
 in the coming kingdom is somewhat twofold in 
 its nature, evangelizing and shepherdizing. The 
 teaching of " all nations " and the teaching of 
 " all things commanded." Accordingly, we hear 
 Paul speaking in a later day, with a clear under- 
 standing of the things that Jesus was at this very 
 time doing. For it is the " forty days " just pre- 
 ceding His ascension of which we are speaking; 
 and during which time He " spake to the apostles 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 87 
 
 of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." 
 Paul says, " When He ascended up on high, He 
 led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." 
 In the distribution of these gifts to men, in the 
 beginning of this coming kingdom, the apostle 
 goes on to say, "And He gave some (gifts quali- 
 fying certain individuals as) apostles; and some 
 (qualifying others as) preachers; and some 
 (qualifying still others as) traveling evangelists; 
 and some (gifts qualifying others as) pastors and 
 teachers." The reason for this is not difficult to 
 see. The time had come, with the opening of this 
 coming kingdom, when by reason of the unfold- 
 ing of God's purposes to the children of men 
 through the Hebrew people, that " they ought to 
 be teachers, that they had need that some one 
 teach them again the rudiments of the first 
 principles of the oracles (purposes) of God." 
 And to supply this need, the King must give 
 special gifts, conferring them upon certain indi- 
 viduals temporarily, to supply a present need that 
 was twofold in its nature: First, the supplying 
 of efficient leaders, teachers, ministers, etc., to 
 guide and direct the infant church or kingdom in 
 its growth and development; secondly, the supply- 
 ing of individuals who could by miraculous deeds 
 attest the divineness of the kingdom. These were 
 the first ministers of the church. This was the 
 first ministry of the church. And it is this of 
 which we speak as an abiding institution in the 
 church. It had its beginning in miracle, as we 
 
88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 have seen — gifts miracuously conferred upon 
 individuals in the origin of an institution, the Hv- 
 ing ministry. So far as we are concerned, this 
 is the divine order in all things. Things begin in 
 miracle, or by an act of the Divine power and 
 will ; and then are placed under the principles of 
 natural law, to grow and develop accordingly. 
 Under natural laws (and in this connection, by 
 natural laws is meant the laws of the kingdom or 
 the laws natural to the kingdom) men are now to 
 be trained for this ministry, as is clearly shown 
 by the apostle in this same connection. In fact, 
 this seems to be the chief function of the church. 
 Perhaps we had thought that the church was an 
 institution into which people are gathered and 
 thus saved ; and this is of course true in a sense. 
 But we will have a far clearer conception of the 
 church if we think of it as an institution into 
 which people are gathered in order to be trained 
 " for the work of the ministry." As the apostle 
 says, these, the first ministers of the church, were 
 qualified so that they might "edify (train) the 
 saints unto the work of the ministry." In our 
 own day there is a great dearth of men for the 
 ministry, due largely, apologize for it as we may, 
 to the fact that the church has lost the art, has 
 ceased to perform the function, of " training its 
 saints unto the work of the ministry." There is 
 a vast difference between a church's training a 
 sinless saint unto the work of the ministry and ac- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 89 
 
 cepting the services of a saintless sinner, as that 
 of the ministry. 
 
 So we are sure that Jesus did not speak the 
 final word to His apostles " of the things per- 
 taining to the coming kingdom," without speak- 
 ing to them in regard to this most essential and 
 no less vital institution of the kingdom. He who 
 doubts need but take a look into the liistory of 
 the newly established kingdom when these apostles 
 are putting into practice, as the Spirit brings to 
 their remembrance, the " things pertaining to the 
 kingdom " which Jesus had taught them. He 
 will there see the seven saintly, spiritual men ap- 
 pointed to care for the widows and orphans, a 
 holy ministry for which they are fitted and one 
 that will tell mightily for the extension of the 
 kingdom. The Stephens and the Philips will arise 
 before him in ever increasing numbers. The 
 Barnabuses, Timothys, Aquillas and Priscillas, 
 indeed, will come before him in countless num- 
 bers as he reads that " they that were scattered 
 abroad went everywhere preaching the word." 
 All the saints, trained in the highest sense of 
 the term " for the work of the ministry," and 
 understanding the urgent importance of doing 
 that work. 
 
 But we must speak a definite word in regard 
 to that part of the work of the ministry which 
 has to do with evangelizing. These saints trained 
 for the work of the ministry, then in this phase 
 
90 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 of their work, which is indeed not a small part, 
 are to be trained to preach the gospel. This is 
 an everlasting gospel, to be proclaimed by an ever- 
 lasting and ever abiding institution within the 
 coming kingdom or church. Paul says " though 
 we or an angel from heaven preach any other 
 gospel unto you than that which we have preached 
 unto you, let him be accursed." " Moreover, 
 brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I 
 preached unto you . . . how that Christ died for 
 our sins according to the Scriptures; and that 
 He was buried and that He arose again the third 
 day according to the Scriptures." This, then, is 
 the gospel which this living ministry is to be 
 trained to preach. 
 
 How beautifully significant: how harmoniously 
 Divine! These three abiding institutions within 
 the great institution, the church (the baptismal 
 rite, the communion and the living ministry) are 
 to unite their testimony, to exhaust their powers, 
 to focus their light upon the cross of Calvary; 
 and in the proclamation of His death, burial and 
 resurrection until He comes again. Well may we 
 sing with the poet — 
 
 " In the cross of Christ I glory; 
 
 Towering o'er the wrecks of time; 
 All the light of sacred story 
 
 Gathers round its head sublime." 
 
VII 
 THE TEN DAYS OF PRAYER 
 
 ACTS — 1:U 
 
 Following the resurrection and the " forty 
 days' teaching of the tilings pertaining to the 
 Kingdom of God," we have a short period which 
 we shall designate as the ten days of prayer. 
 
 We are told that at the end of the forty days, 
 while in the attitude of blessing the disciples, 
 Jesus was taken up from their midst and received 
 into heaven. The ascension is twice recorded by 
 Luke and once by Mark. Luke tells us that 
 when the company returned to Jerusalem from 
 Olivet near Bethany, the scene of the ascension, 
 the apostles resorted to the room where they were 
 abiding. Specifically naming the apostles as 
 abiding together in the " upper room," he says, 
 " These all continued with one accord in prayer 
 and supplication, with the women, and Mary 
 the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren." ^ 
 It is ten days yet before the kingdom is really 
 to be established among men, of which they had 
 heard so much and seemingly understood so little. 
 The watchword for these ten days is " Tarry ye 
 
 1 Acts — 1: 14. 
 
 91 
 
92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 in Jerusalem." They who could not watch " one 
 hour " with Him at Gethsemane's gate in the very 
 shadow of the cross, who could not hopefully 
 tarry near the sepulcher for three short days, are 
 able now, by the influence of the fact of the resur- 
 rection in their minds, to " tarry " patiently for 
 ten days. How different now the state of mind 
 of the apostles ! What a note of certainty now 
 as compared with the uncertainty of their state of 
 mind during the entombment ! No fishing expedi- 
 tion now. No absent Thomases now. No 
 Thomas's declaration of unbelief. No talk of 
 " idle tales " in these prayer meetings. How fit- 
 ting that these be days of prayerful waiting! 
 " Tarry ye." " These all continued with one ac- 
 cord in prayer." Tell us not that the fact of the 
 resurrection has not dominated every other fact 
 in their minds. Changes have been wrought in 
 their minds and lives that must now be reckoned 
 with. And no theory of the resurrection will ac- 
 count for the change. The fact, and nothing 
 short of it, will satisfy the demands of these 
 changes wrought in the minds of these eleven men. 
 The resurrection, as a fact, is beginning already 
 to do the work in the minds of these which it is 
 destined to do, increasingly so, in the lives of all 
 disciples of the Master until the end of the ages. 
 They are not in the attitude of turning back to 
 their old calling of fishermen, but buoyant in the 
 hope of the new. They are now to be " fishers 
 of men." 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 93 
 
 During their prayers and supplications they 
 take up the matter of choosing one to fill the apos- 
 tleship vacated by Judas, the betrayer. This is 
 a forward look rather than a turning back. It 
 is a manifestation of confidence in the coming 
 kingdom; that the Savior's promise that they 
 " shall receive power," will be redeemed. 
 
 It was at one of the regular prayer meetings 
 that Peter, when a goodly number of the believers 
 had come together, a hundred and twenty we are 
 told, brought the matter before them. After 
 speaking of the betrayal, the vacancy in the apos- 
 tleship and the prophecy concerning its being 
 filled by another, he then states the qualifications 
 whereby one would be eligible to the office, and also 
 the purpose for which he is to be chosen ; viz., that 
 he may be a witness with them of the resurrection. 
 They then pray in an appropriate manner and 
 proceed to the election of one to fill the vacancy. 
 The vote is taken ; Mattliias is elected and " num- 
 bered with the eleven apostles." 
 
 Naturally enough, when Peter makes known 
 the qualifications, and they begin to cast about 
 among themselves to see who is eligible, there 
 seems to be but two among the whole number of 
 the believers who are eligible. This is only as we 
 would naturally suppose when one of the require- 
 ments was that he must have " companied with 
 them all the time that Jesus went in and out 
 among them, from the baptism of John to the day 
 of his ascension." While there were, no doubt, 
 
94! THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 many who had been with them nearly all the time, 
 perhaps among the women many who had been 
 with them all the time, yet among the men we 
 would naturally expect to find few who had been 
 with them all the time between these two events. 
 This would cover a period of almost four years. 
 So we are not surprised that seemingly there were 
 but two of the men who were eligible — Joseph 
 and Matthias. 
 
 But this calls up another question which ought 
 to have at least a passing notice ; the question of 
 " apostolic succession." Claims have been made 
 by certain religious denominations that there was 
 to be in the church a succession of apostles. 
 That when Peter, who was the head, died the head- 
 ship succeeded to another, and so on down to the 
 present time. That in the matter of apostolic 
 succession the headship has succeeded to those 
 identified with this, that or the other religious sect 
 as the case might be. For instance, if the Roman 
 Catholic sect, it succeeded to the pope as head and 
 his cardinals as subordinates. But if the Episco- 
 pal sect, then the bishop, with his subordinates. 
 If the Mormon sect, then Joseph Smith as head, 
 with his twelve apostles. If the Eddy sect, then 
 it is Mrs. Eddy, with her under puppets. If the 
 Advent sect, then it is Mrs. White, with her under 
 corps of servants. And so on, until you have 
 gone the rounds. The strange thing about the 
 apostolic succession claim is that those sects put- 
 ting forward this claim are as a rule the farthest 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 95 
 
 from the teaching of the apostles in the New Test- 
 ament. But this is only a natural consequence 
 of the claim. Believing, as they do, that the head 
 men in the church have succeeded to the apostle- 
 ship, they do not need to heed the authority of the 
 New Testament apostles since they have apostles 
 of their own who can give them apostolic teaching 
 at any time. 
 
 But the question ought not to give us serious 
 difficulty when once we come to see clearly that 
 Peter lays down a rule in the matter of eligibility 
 that has never been changed, and by reason of 
 which every claimant in a later day would be ruled 
 out. The pretensions of any claimant can easily 
 be overthrown by simply saying to him that upon 
 the authority of Peter he is not eligible, since he 
 did not accompany the disciples from the baptism 
 to the ascension. That he did not see Jesus arise 
 from the tomb. That he has never seen Him 
 since His resurrection, save possibly in the sense 
 in which all believers have seen Him, by faith and 
 research into the testimony of history. 
 
 In a later day, when one was to be grafted into 
 the apostleship this rule was not violated. He 
 did not succeed to the office, but by special miracle 
 he was caught up and privileged to see Jesus. 
 And we hear him retort, when his apostleship is 
 questioned at Corinth, "Am I not an apostle.'' 
 Have I not seen Jesus? " Will any claimants in 
 these days reply in a like manner when their apos- 
 tleship is questioned .'^ Let them be tested by the 
 
96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 same rule ; if they can substantiate their claim in 
 this particular and can back up the claim by genu- 
 ine miracles, as did the New Testament apostles, 
 Paul included, then we will listen to them. But 
 otherwise, we shall dismiss the question of apos- 
 tolic succession as unworthy of serious consider- 
 ation. 
 
 Peter states the purpose of this appointment 
 in the clearest possible manner; simply that the 
 one so chosen could be a witness with them of the 
 resurrection. Tell us not in the face of this state- 
 ment that the resurrection is not the all dominat- 
 ing and absorbing fact in their consciousness. It 
 is to be the great fact of the coming kingdom. 
 But pray tell us how a man is to be a valid and 
 competent witness of an event that he did not see ; 
 that he only knows by hearsay or by historical 
 testimony? 
 
 But there is another phase of the choosing of 
 Matthias which has troubled some, and we must 
 not pass it witliout a word. There is a feeling 
 that inasmuch as the apostles were told to " tarry 
 in Jerusalem until they were endued with power 
 from on high," and as this had not yet occurred, 
 this appointment was out of order and was with- 
 out Divine sanction ; and hence, was not valid. 
 That in the Divine plan Paul was later chosen to 
 supply this vacancy. That his selection bears the 
 stamp of Divine approval. Therefore, the choos- 
 ing of Matthias was simply a blunder of impetu- 
 ous Peter. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 97 
 
 First, it is not altogether improbable that this 
 is one of the very things that Jesus had taught 
 them, in the " forty days' " teaching ; secondly, 
 there is nothing in the New Testament that would 
 cast the slightest reflection upon this appoint- 
 ment or upon the validity of Matthias' apostle- 
 ship. True, he is never specifically mentioned 
 afterwards. But this is no less true of others of 
 the apostles. He is mentioned with the others 
 later. 
 
 Being numbered with them, he was with them 
 in the room when on Pentecost the Spirit came. 
 And we are told the Spirit sat upon each of them, 
 that " they were all filled with the Spirit," and 
 " that they spake as the Spirit gave them utter- 
 ance." When Peter arose to speak upon that 
 occasion he is said to have " stood up with the 
 eleven " ; he being the twelfth one. " The apos- 
 tles " is a common expression, used in a collective 
 sense frequently in the Acts, and unless otherwise 
 modified, must be taken to refer to the twelve. 
 When the complaint came concerning the neg- 
 lected widows the twelve called the multitude of 
 the disciples together and had the seven ap- 
 pointed. There is no more reasonable way of 
 understanding these passages of the Acts than to 
 think of Matthias as being with the apostles and 
 one of them. The more so since there is no evi- 
 dence that he was not there. 
 
 But the chief feeling against the apostleship of 
 Matthias, I believe, is the fact of the Divine call 
 
98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 of Paul to the apostleship. And of this we must 
 speak a word. First, must the number be 
 twelve, no more and no less? Is there anything 
 that forbids there being thirteen, or even more, 
 Provided they are Divinely chosen? Of course 
 there were twelve tribes of Israel, also twelve of 
 the patriarchs. It will be perfectly in order to 
 have an apostle for each tribe. But there is a 
 whole world of Gentile people to be saved. They 
 must hear His voice and must come, " and there 
 must be one Shepherd and one sheepfold." Is 
 there anything to forbid the calling of one, or a 
 dozen for that matter, to be apostles especially 
 to the Gentile world? True, the twelve were com- 
 missioned to " go into all the world." This would 
 not forbid the calling and qualifying of others also 
 for that great task. I am sure we all agree that 
 whatever the Apostle Paul was, or was not, to 
 the Jew, he was first, last and always the apostle 
 with the universal gospel, to the Gentile as well 
 as to the Jew; that his primary mission field was 
 the Gentile world. He seems to be the specially 
 " chosen vessel of the Lord to bear His name be- 
 fore the Gentiles." This being true, and since in 
 his own defense of the Gentile world he tells us 
 that it was a branch taken from an " olive tree, 
 wild by nature, and was grafted into the tame 
 olive tree contrary to nature," is it then a won- 
 derful thing that he who is to dedicate his life 
 to the grafting in of this " wild olive branch " 
 into the tame tree — is it, I say, a wonderful thing 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 99 
 
 if he himself shall be grafted into the apostleship 
 unnaturally and out of order? Accordingly, we 
 hear him saying of his apostleship, " and last of 
 all He was seen of me (note the significant state- 
 ment), as of one born out of due time" (or 
 irregularly). So that his work having to do 
 largely with the grafting in of a " wild olive 
 branch," it will be only in harmony with the whole 
 arrangement for him to be grafted into the apos- 
 tleship. With this understanding of the matter, 
 then, we have twelve the natural and proper num- 
 ber for the Hebrew people, chosen regularly and 
 in due time, and one grafted in " out of due time " 
 in perfect harmony with the arrangement whereby 
 the Gentiles are to be grafted into the " house- 
 hold of faith " under his apostleship. 
 
 We must speak next of the ascension as one 
 of the great facts in the chain of Christian doc- 
 trine. Shortly before the crucifixion, according 
 to John, while talking to the apostles of His de- 
 parture, Jesus told them that they " knew where 
 He was going, and the way." They astonished 
 Him by saying that they did not know where He 
 was going, nor did they know the way. He then 
 enters into quite a lengthy explanation of the 
 matter,^ ending with his prayer in the seventeenth 
 chapter. He tells them that He is going away. 
 That it is expedient that He go away. That He 
 will give them another comforter. That this com- 
 forter will guide them into all truth. That he 
 
 2 John — Chapters 14, 18. 
 
100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 will abide with them forever. That he is the 
 Holy Spirit. That he shall come from the Fa- 
 ther. That Jesus is first to return to the Fa- 
 ther and then send him to them from the Father. 
 That when he comes, he will bring a message of 
 testimony to them from the Father's presence con- 
 cerning Jesus. 
 
 Having seen Jesus pass through the tomb and 
 stand forth triumphant in the resurrection, they 
 needed no further testimony so far as Jesus' 
 mission in the world was concerned, nor did they 
 want any. But they did need a message from 
 the Father to tell them whether " this same 
 Jesus " whom they had known and loved so ten- 
 derly on the earth had actually ascended back 
 to the Father. And had actually been received 
 of the Father. And was the actually crowned 
 and anointed King of this kingdom. And this is 
 the bit of new testimony — the connecting link — 
 the evidence which the Holy Spirit is able to bring 
 them from the Father concerning this newly 
 crowned King. The Holy Spirit is able to say 
 to them that all is well in heaven as well as on 
 the earth concerning this same Jesus. He is able 
 to say to them that when Jesus passed beyond 
 their vision. He was escorted into the presence 
 of the Father, and there the angelic chorus burst 
 forth into singing — 
 
 " All hail the power of Jesus' name. 
 Let angels prostrate fall: 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 101 
 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 And crown Him Lord of all. 
 
 That being dispatched, He (the Holy Spirit) 
 had come to bear this message to them and to re- 
 deem the latest promise Jesus had made in com- 
 ing to abide with them forever. To endue them 
 with all power, and to lead and guide them into 
 all truth. 
 
VIII 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 ACTS -^2:1-13 
 
 The text here cited contains an account in brief 
 of the events of the first Pentecost following the 
 resurrection. 
 
 We shall designate the first event of this 
 memorable day as " the baptism of the Holy 
 Spirit." This day might also be called, and prop- 
 erly so, too, the birthday of the church or the 
 inauguration of the kingdom of Christ among 
 men. It has also been designated the beginning 
 of the fulfillment of prophecies spoken by many 
 of the later prophets in Israel. All of which is 
 but to say the same thing of this occasion, the 
 greatest event of which was the marvelous out- 
 pouring of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 However great and necessary we have seen the 
 resurrection to be, this event is certainly not less 
 important. It differs in nature and belongs to 
 a different class of miracles; yet, miracle it is, 
 nevertheless, and wonderful in its interest and 
 significance to us. 
 
 If it were necessary that Jesus should enter 
 
 102 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 103 
 
 the tomb, the strongest hold of Satan and the 
 greatest fear and foe of the human family, and 
 come forth into life again, that the possibility of 
 the resurrection might be thus demonstrated in 
 theory, it was no less necessary that this miracle 
 should occur so that that which had had a theor- 
 etical demonstration might have a universal ap- 
 plication. If man's faith must rest upon one 
 positive demonstration of the resurrection, in the 
 person of Jesus, man's active service is to be se- 
 cured and, consequently, his soul saved, by the 
 practical and universal application of the Spirit 
 of life, applied first to the apostles and through 
 them to the whole human family. 
 
 Moreover, a mere theory of the resurrection, 
 demonstrated in one who was not only " Son of 
 man," but already "Son of God," could not 
 fully satisfy those of us who are simply and only 
 sons of men. To suffice, the theory must be given 
 universal application to those who are simply 
 and only " clay of our clay " and " bone of our 
 bones." Hence, this great miracle is not less in 
 importance, when we consider the real place which 
 it occupies in the scheme of human redemption, 
 than the resurrection itself. 
 
 Furthermore, if Jesus arose from the dead, it 
 was to say to his disciples, " Behold my hands 
 and my feet, that it is myself." " Handle me and 
 see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as 
 you see me to have." In simple words, " I am 
 the same Jesus now that I was before my death." 
 
104* THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 That he walked with them forty days, conversed, 
 ate and drank, thus mingling with them in the 
 most intimate way, there can be no doubt. That 
 they knew him as the same Jesus whom their rul- 
 ers had crucified there is no question. The mir- 
 acle of the resurrection had wrought no notice- 
 able or essential change in him. He was neither 
 more the " Son of God," nor was he less the " Son 
 of man," by the experience of the resurrection 
 miracle. 
 
 But here is a miracle, probably not less in 
 importance, though differing in nature, since it 
 fills an entirely different gap, performs a differ- 
 ent function relative to the salvation of men. A 
 look into it discloses wonderful changes wrought 
 upon the individuals. So much so that they are 
 not the same individuals, save in physical appear- 
 ances, that they were before the experience of this 
 miracle. 
 
 These changes are deep and vital, going to the 
 very heart of things and creating new personal- 
 ities. The apostles, by the experience of this 
 miracle, are radically changed in all the most im- 
 portant essentials that go to make up a person- 
 ality, so that they are different beings after this 
 miracle than they were before. The thought of 
 former occupation is forgotten. The plan to re- 
 turn to their homes in Galilee is submerged in 
 consciousness. Their feeling of timidity, in the 
 absence of their Leader, is obliterated. The cus- 
 tom of giving place to some Jewish rabbi in the 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 105 
 
 assembly is trampled beneath their feet, with no 
 consciousness on their part of having done any- 
 thing improper or out of order. 
 
 But this is not all : they now possess character- 
 istics that were unknown not only to their former 
 personalities, but hitherto unknown to any indi- 
 vidual simply a human being. They are speak- 
 ing in a universal language, or in a language so 
 as to be universally understood. If there had 
 been the confusing of languages centuries before 
 at the tower of Babel, and the scattering of the 
 human race to the four winds of the earth, here 
 is the fusing of the languages of men at Mt. Zion, 
 in the city of our God. And it is to be the means 
 by, and medium through, which all peoples and 
 kindreds and tongues are to be gathered into one 
 commonwealth — the kingdom of the Lord and his 
 Christ — and are to be taught to speak the one 
 language of the Prince of Peace — peace on earth 
 and good will to men. 
 
 But, further, these men now have power to 
 think the thoughts of God and express them in 
 simple language, so as to be understood by men. 
 This had been a difficult matter at times, even 
 for the great Master Teacher. To think the 
 thoughts of God was both easy and natural to 
 him. But to express them so as to be understood 
 by men was not easy at times. Consequently, it 
 is said of him at different times : " Then opened 
 he their understanding, that they might under- 
 stand the things which he spake unto them." Or 
 
106 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 again : " What I do, thou knowest not now, but 
 thou shalt know hereafter." Of his auditors it 
 is often said : " They knew not what the things 
 were which he spake unto them." But here are 
 men possessed with a power to speak the truths 
 of God in a way easily comprehended by all. 
 And these are men that, before this miracle, were 
 the most ordinary, even illiterate. How do we 
 account for it.? Not only so, but here are men 
 possessed with a power to speak the Word, and 
 even the most unwieldy laws of nature bow in 
 humblest submission. The diseased are cured. 
 Miracles are wrought in every realm of nature. 
 Men are blessed or cursed at the word of the 
 apostles. They, like Jesus, are able to pass out 
 or in, " the doors being shut." They have ceased 
 to be the same beings that they were before this 
 miracle. The world has lost its fascination to 
 them. They are living in the realm of God's 
 ideas. They are reveling in the realm of his pur- 
 poses now. Their chief desire is that God's plans 
 shall now be put into operation among men ; that 
 the will of the Father shall be done on earth as 
 it is in heaven. They now have a superhuman 
 vision, a superhuman purpose, a superhuman 
 tongue, a superhuman knowledge, a superhuman 
 power of touch and a superhuman boldness. 
 
 We must now seek for the significance of this 
 wonderful change and demonstration of seeming 
 divine favor upon these twelve men. They are hu- 
 man beings, but they are more — they have been 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 107 
 
 taken up from the human into another and higher 
 realm. Thej are a new type of being now. A 
 new species, if you please. They are the first 
 complete and finished product of a new species in 
 the realm of being. Individually, they are mem- 
 bers, parts or variety of the whole. Collectively, 
 they constitute an organic unity or whole — the 
 body of Christ — the church — in the world, with 
 his Spirit dwelling in and fully possessing the 
 body. 
 
 This view of the incident is in perfect harmony 
 with God's method, both in nature and revelation, 
 so far as we are able to see; viz., that things be- 
 gin by miracle and continue by natural law. 
 Here, however, is where the issue is taken with 
 Mr. Darwin and his disciples of the evolutionary 
 hypothesis. We do well to note this issue in these 
 days when the evolutionary theory has been cun- 
 ningly and stealthily worked into all the natural 
 sciences and philosophies of the educational sys- 
 tems and institutions of learning of Germany and 
 England, and in many of our own land, by the 
 craftiness of these evolutionary rationalists. In 
 many instances it is not only in the secular, but 
 in the religious institutions of learning as well. 
 So much so that good men, in hundreds of in- 
 stances, have come, seemingly unconsciously, to 
 assume that the evolutionary hypothesis has been 
 proven or is susceptible of successful demonstra- 
 tion. To verify this, one need but to glance at 
 the articles in many of the leading magazines of 
 
108 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the day, in most of the late books of fiction or, 
 in fact, in largely all of the new books that are 
 being put out, except, occasionally, when a re- 
 ligious writer has the courage to speak his con- 
 victions. 
 
 The evolutionary hypothesis teaches, contrary 
 to fact, reason or experience, either in nature or 
 in revelation, that new species come into being as 
 a result of slight variations according to the prin- 
 ciple of the survival of the fittest (strongest). It 
 allows, however, for the possibility, not to say 
 probability, of a miracle in the creation of the 
 first organic life. But it will not admit of any 
 such unreasonable and unthinkable thing as 
 a miracle after the creation of the first life- 
 cell. 
 
 On the other hand, our principle holds, as 
 above stated, that the various species and types 
 of being with which we are everywhere surrounded 
 in nature and revelation have been produced by 
 miraculous acts of a wise, providential, benevo- 
 lent God. That these species, having originated 
 in miracle, continue by natural law. In other 
 words, our explanation of nature and revelation 
 is of such a character as to allow God to work 
 in nature and revelation both by miracle and 
 natural law, or in any other way, for that mat- 
 ter, which He may choose or which, by the facts. 
 He is shown to have done. The evolutionary 
 theory assumes to prescribe for God the exact way 
 in which He shall work in nature and revelation. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 109 
 
 Prescribing for Him, it thus proscribes Him. 
 This no Christian writer will knowingly do. 
 
 So, as God in the beginning miraculously made 
 a perfect man (Adam; not a cell, moneron or 
 a monkey), that he should be a first and complete 
 product of a new type of being — a human be- 
 ing — full grown and fully developed, with all the 
 powers of manhood, and then placed him under 
 the laws natural to his nature, so has he here 
 miraculously created another new type of being 
 — a Christian bevng — full grown and fully de- 
 veloped, with all the powers of Christian being. 
 And he immediately places him under the laws 
 natural to his Christian nature, in the church, 
 with the divine ordinances and Christian services, 
 as a realm in which he can grow and exercise his 
 powers. 
 
 There is a popular belief that the baptism of 
 the Holy Spirit is for all who would be Chris- 
 tians, and should be experienced by each as evi- 
 dence of genuine conversion, pardon and accept- 
 ance with God. Now, it is plainly to be seen that 
 such a contention is as illogical, unphilosophical 
 and unnatural as it would have been for Adam's 
 children to have refused to live because they were 
 not miraculously created full grown, as their fa- 
 ther had been. No ; Adam was created; they are 
 born. Adam was created full grown; they are 
 born and must grow to manhood if they are ever 
 to become men, Adam had to be a man ; you and 
 I may or may not be. 
 
110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 These apostles were miraculously created full- 
 grown Christians ; you and I are born into the 
 household of faith — infants in weakness — and 
 must grow if we would attain to mature Christian 
 being. They had to be Christians ; you and I may 
 or may not be. 
 
 Jesus said to Peter, " When thou wast young, 
 thou girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou 
 wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt 
 stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird 
 thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." 
 This he said signifying the martyr death by which 
 Peter should manifest the power of the all-im- 
 pelling Spirit that was soon to take possession 
 of him and impel him, through his apostolic ca- 
 reer, to a martyr's death and to a Christian's 
 crown. Accordingly, we hear Paul saying, " For 
 necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me if 
 I preach not the gospel." Yes, they had to be 
 what they were — Christians, You and I may or 
 may not be. It is optional with us. Not so 
 with Adam or with these apostles. They were 
 what they were by necessity. We, by the exercise 
 of our own free wills. 
 
 Not only so, but Jesus says to these apostles, 
 " Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon 
 you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until 
 ye be endued with power from on high." They 
 tarried. This is what occurred. Jesus says 
 also, speaking to the apostles, " John baptized 
 with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 
CHRISTIAN BEtNG 111 
 
 Spirit not many days hence." Ten days from 
 the making of this promise it was redeemed in 
 the Pentecostal scenes which we are discussing. 
 When Peter arose to speak upon this memorable 
 occasion he is said to have " stood up with the 
 eleven " and defended them against the charge of 
 drunkenness. If the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
 were for all, it would seem that it ought to have 
 been administered to all in the company upon as 
 important an occasion as this. But it is clear 
 from the record that no one except the apostles 
 received it. When Peter had completed his dis- 
 course the multitude, being " pricked in their 
 heart, said unto Peter and the rest of the apos- 
 tles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do.'''" 
 The language is clear and indicates, unmistak- 
 ably, that only the apostles were baptized in the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 So, then, the Holy Spirit is to be received now 
 through the natural processes and natural laws 
 for the development of the kingdom. It would 
 be of interest to us to take up the consideration 
 of these natural laws under which this new type 
 of being is to be placed. But for the present 
 we will not pursue the subject any farther. We 
 shall close this discourse with an analogy calcu- 
 lated to illustrate the principle here involved. 
 While we are well aware that analogies are not 
 proof, yet this fact does not lessen their value in 
 the field of forceful illustration. So we use this 
 one as a fitting close to the present study. 
 
lis THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Here is my fleshly body, animated by my hu- 
 man spirit. My body is a living organism. It is 
 an organic unity. The human spirit animates, 
 governs and directs every member of the organ- 
 ism. These statements no sane person will ques- 
 tion if only he knows that I am sane. Now, here 
 is another fleshly body of a diff'erent and lower 
 order than mine. It is a different species, a dif- 
 ferent type, than I am. It may chance to be of 
 the bovine type; but it is, nevertheless, a living 
 organism, an organic unity, with its own in- 
 dwelling spirit animating, governing and directing 
 every member in the organism. 
 
 Now, the question arises, can my human spirit 
 be put into the bovine organism? And if so, 
 how can it be done? To which we answer. Yes; 
 and by only one process known to man. Yet, so 
 simple is that process and so common in nature, 
 that we had hardly thought it worthy of serious 
 attention in this connection. In the first step, 
 the bovine spirit must yield the control of its or- 
 ganism. Or, in plain words, the bovine must die. 
 Then, through the process of mastication and 
 assimilation (the natural process for the build- 
 ing up of my body), the material of the bovine 
 organism may be made a part of my body. But 
 when this is done, lo! the miracle is performed! 
 My spirit, which animates every particle of my 
 body, will now permeate the material that was at 
 one time in the bovine organism. True, this ma- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 113 
 
 terial had to be changed, transformed, re-created 
 
 — regenerated, so to speak. 
 
 Now for the analogy. Here are these apos- 
 tles, constituting the body of Christ — the church 
 
 — animated, controlled and directed by the Spirit 
 of Christ or the Holy Spirit. This is the new 
 species or type of Christian being. Here is my 
 body, an organic unity, a species of a lower or- 
 der, animated by my human spirit. Question: 
 Can the Spirit which animates this new type of 
 Christian being be put into my body.'' And if so, 
 by what process.'' Yes; and hy a simple and 
 natural process. In the first step, my human 
 spirit must yield the control of its organism; it 
 must die, so to speak. " The old man, with his 
 deeds, must be crucified." ^ My body, then, (my 
 life) dead to sin, can be taken into the sinless 
 body of Christ by the process of mastication — 
 faith, repentance, confession and baptism and as- 
 similation — virtue, knowledge, temperance, pa- 
 tience, godliness, brotherly kindness, love — 
 wherein dwells the Holy Spirit. But when this is 
 done, lo ! the miracle is performed. The Holy 
 Spirit is permeating me now in a transformed, 
 recreated and regenerated state. Henceforth, 
 " It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in 
 me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I live 
 in the faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, 
 who loved me and gave himself up for me." ^ 
 That is all. 
 
 iJBom.— 6:6. 2Oal.— ^'.20. 
 
114 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 And so the " first man, Adam, was made a liv- 
 ing soul ; the last Adam [Christ] has become a 
 life-giving Spirit," so that now we may fitly sing 
 together : 
 
 " Holy Spirit, faithful guide, 
 Ever near the Christian's side. 
 Gently lead us by the hand. 
 Pilgrims in a desert land. 
 
 " Ever present, truest friend. 
 Ever near thine aid to lend. 
 Leave us not to doubt and fear. 
 Groping on in darkness drear." 
 
IX 
 
 THE PROBLEM AND PROCESS OF 
 
 GROWTH FOR A NEW TYPE 
 
 OF BEING 
 
 ACTS — ll:li-iO 
 
 We have considered thus far in this series the 
 basis for Christian being, the incarnation, the 
 resurrection, the forty days' teaching, the ten 
 days of prayer and the baptism of the Holy 
 Spirit. In the last named subject we saw a new 
 type of being brought into existence in the per- 
 sonnel of the twelve apostles. If this is a new 
 type of being, it follows that there will be a new 
 problem and a new mode of existence. To note 
 this problem and to understand the law whereby 
 this new type of being is to perpetuate and ma- 
 ture itself will be our task in this present dis- 
 course. 
 
 As to the problem. If an organism has been 
 
 miraculously created full grown, it is evident that 
 
 it has not had the experience of growth through 
 
 the different stages of development from infancy 
 
 to maturity, from weakness to strength. It is 
 
 also evident that the food best suited to the 
 
 U5 
 
116 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 proper development of the individuals within the 
 species, in the various stages of growth, will be a 
 big problem. It is only by costly and prolonged 
 experiment that we come to know what kind of 
 plant life is best suited to the various altitudes, 
 longitudes, fertility of soils, regularity and length 
 of seasons, etc. Only by prolonged study do men 
 come to know the kind of food best suited to the 
 proper growth of domestic animals in their dif- 
 ferent stages of development. So also in the 
 working out of a schedule for the gradation of 
 children in educational systems. 
 
 The proper fortification of the individuals 
 against the external forces that may seek to de- 
 stroy, neutralize or swallow up this new being 
 in the days of weakness will offer no little prob- 
 lem in finding a place for itself in the great world 
 of being. The more so since we are taught that 
 " nature abhors a vacuum." This being true, it 
 will be necessary for this new life force to make 
 for itself a place in the world of nature. In this 
 it will have to intrude itself into, or infringe upon, 
 the territory already occupied by other beings. 
 This phase of the problem will be enlarged if it 
 shall develop that there arc other species of being 
 in nature which are very similar to this new form. 
 Thus we can see that the nearer the approach 
 to identity, the greater, more complex and more 
 delicate is this phase of the problem. Yet, if 
 this new order shall approach very nearly to iden- 
 tity with other species in nature, but still main- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 117 
 
 tain its own distinctive individuality, it will 
 thereby manifest the power of its virility. 
 
 Now what are the facts in the case? First of 
 all, the apostles were miraculously created fully 
 developed products of this new type of being — 
 Christian being. I anticipate that it may be 
 urged that they had been with Jesus during His 
 ministry of over three years and had thus grown 
 to maturity. To this it may be ansAvered that the 
 problem of Jesus' ministry was not only to ex- 
 plain the coming kingdom or religion, but also 
 properly to interpret the religion that had been ; 
 the Jewish religion. 
 
 If His ministry formed a fitting prelude to the 
 coming religion, it was no less a postlude to that 
 which was passing. If there was in it seemingly 
 the fusing of the two, there was also apparently 
 the confusing of not a few, with respect to the lat- 
 ter. This is seen in the conversation with Nico- 
 demus, the young lawyer, and in many instances 
 with the Pharisees. It is also apparent in the 
 conduct of Peter, in the use of his sword at the 
 arrest of Jesus, in his denial at the trial. In the 
 fishing expedition after the crucifixion and also 
 in their question to Him at the last meeting just 
 before the ascension. 
 
 It is true that the things that Jesus had said 
 to them were to be brought to their memory by 
 this new personality who was soon to take posses- 
 sion of them. But this could not be said to be 
 of the nature of a normal growth or development. 
 
118 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 Rather was it the miraculous illumination of their 
 minds, and the Spirit's interpretation of the 
 things Jesus had said, in the light of the latest 
 developments, " He shall take of the things of 
 mine and show (interpret) them unto you." 
 
 The point which I am wishing to bring out is 
 that these apostles had not come up through the 
 system of Christian ethics by which one is now 
 to attain to Christian maturity, by normal and 
 natural processes ; but that they had attained 
 Christian maturity by the aid of miracle, and that 
 their problem is now to produce and develop to 
 maturity Christian beings by some natural and 
 normal process. 
 
 In the second place, they do not have a per- 
 sonal experimental knowledge of the food best 
 suited to the proper growth and development 
 through the various stages to maturity. 
 
 In the next place, it will take a powerful man- 
 tle of protection for this infant, lest he be swal- 
 lowed up by some external foe or annihilated by 
 some force or combination of forces out in the 
 great world of nature. An infant in the jungles 
 of Africa would stand little show of coming to 
 maturity unless protected in some way. Moses in 
 the bulrushes of Egypt had little chance of life 
 until the hand of providence, in the person of 
 Pharaoh's daughter, spread the mantle of the 
 royal palace over him as a shield and protection. 
 Joseph would never have been heard from had not 
 the hand of providence led him up the way into 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 119 
 
 the palace royal. Our " infant industries " of a 
 few generations ago would never have become the 
 gigantic monopolies that they are today had not 
 our government thrown the mantle of its protec- 
 tion over them years ago. You would not be the 
 man you are today had not the loving hands of 
 a kind mother shielded you in the days of youth- 
 ful tenderness. So also the church, which is an 
 aggregation of individual Christian beings, could 
 never have become the fully developed and power- 
 ful institution which it grew to be except under 
 the protection of the apostolic mantle. The odds 
 were all against it. 
 
 How different the children of the second Adam 
 (spiritually speaking) from those of the first. In 
 the beginning, Adam and Eve were created full 
 grown. They never knew the toys and joys of 
 childhood's days. They understood not the 
 proper training of children through the different 
 stages of development to proper manhood. And 
 what mistakes they made. What sorrow, shame 
 and disgrace — yea, what blackness of remorse 
 must have enshrouded their declining years. 
 Their home is the haunt of a murderer and at 
 the same time the scene of the funeral rites of 
 his victim. All this nerve wrecking and heart 
 breaking woe, because Adam and Eve had not 
 come through the experience of normal childhood 
 and growth to maturity. Consequently, they had 
 not the art of properly developing and cultivating 
 the temper in their children. How different with 
 
120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the infant children of the second Adam! Even 
 though the number runs up into the thousands, 
 born in a day, yet are they " together and have 
 all things in common." There is no fussing over 
 the things which they possess or the service which 
 they render. Where sin disgraces the first Adam's 
 children, virtue graces the children of the second 
 Adam. Thus the apostles are qualified with 
 power and " spiritual gifts " to nourish and de- 
 velop, to shield and protect the church in its in- 
 fancy. 
 
 But another and perhaps more difficult phase 
 of their problem is, how is this new organism to 
 find a place for itself in a nature already over- 
 crowded with similar organisms? Are there not 
 many strong religious organisms already in pos- 
 session of all the space there is for such organ- 
 isms.'' What hope can there be that this newly 
 born infant organism can find a place to exist.'* 
 What hope that it can live be3^ond the days of 
 infancy, in a world of struggle ; and in which there 
 is the "survival of the strongest"? How 
 strongly entrenched behind the magnificent tem- 
 ple service, the pagan priests ! How vividly they 
 and their gods live in the hearts and lives of the 
 people throughout the entire pagan world! How 
 jealous their eyes, how ready to bloodshed their 
 hands, at the rise of anything that shall even re- 
 motely appear to be a rival religion! What 
 place, then, is to be found for an organism whose 
 chief element is meekness and humility, in such 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 121 
 
 a world of struggle? But if there is no place, 
 seemingly, for a new type of religious being in 
 the pagan world, is the problem easier when we 
 turn to the Jewish world? 
 
 By no means. For while it would seem that 
 here ought to have been a field already well culti- 
 vated and ready to bring forth abundantly of this 
 new type of being, yet the facts are against such 
 a conclusion. The rejection of Jesus by the lead- 
 ers of the Jewish people in Jerusalem had, in a 
 very large measure, set the great mass of their 
 leaders in all the synagogues in motion against 
 the new order. In many instances it had closed 
 the doors of the synagogues against the mission- 
 aries of the cross. So that of the great mass of 
 the Jewish nation " only a remnant " accepted 
 the teachings and principles of the new order. 
 But still more. 
 
 The very similarity of the new order to the 
 Jewish religion complicated their problem tenfold. 
 Do not the Jews worship the same true and liv- 
 ing God? Do not they believe and teach, honor 
 and revere, the same eternal Word of Truth — 
 the Old Testament Scriptures? Was not this 
 the only authoritative writing of the new order 
 at this time? Do not they also believe that 
 prophecy had pointed to the coming of the Mes- 
 siah? How, then, are these apostles to lead peo- 
 ple to discriminate between the Jewish religion on 
 the one hand and the Christian on the other? 
 They have so many points in common and so few 
 
12a THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 of difference that the ordinary person will not 
 stop to discriminate on so small a point of dif- 
 ference. The thought of the average person will 
 be to classify them as one and the same type of 
 being. And as nature is no place in which to 
 multiply separate aggregations or families of 
 organisms of the same species, all nature will arise 
 in rebuke to the audacity of this new type of be- 
 ing in its insult to nature in assuming to force 
 a place for a separate existence in nature. 
 
 This will be sufficient, then, to indicate the 
 scope of the problem which confronted this new 
 type of being. What then is the law or process 
 by which this problem in its various phases is to 
 be solved: that increase and maturity shall be 
 given to this new order of being.'' 
 
 We have indicated before that the process is 
 to be normal and natural. But we must under- 
 stand more definitely in what it consists. First 
 of all, the gospel ; the death, burial, and resur- 
 rection, the ascension and coronation of Jesus is 
 to be the outreaching force by which this new 
 body shall manifest its hunger for food. The 
 only food by which this hunger may be satisfied 
 is the lives of men and women surrendered and 
 consecrated to this body. The proper prepara- 
 tion of such food for this organism is a deep and 
 abiding faith in the Person of this gospel, a genu- 
 ine longing for God in deep and contrite repen- 
 tance, a public statement of this condition of the 
 heart in the great confession and a passing 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 123 
 
 through the likeness of Jesus' death, burial and 
 resurrection in the rite of Christian baptism. 
 Then one has been brought into this new body or 
 type of being. This is what we see occurring as 
 the second group of events on Pentecost. 
 
 Peter preaches a sermon, setting forth in as 
 clear language as it is possible for one to do, the 
 death, burial, resurrection, ascension and coro- 
 nation of Jesus. The mass of the people present, 
 being moved by faith and repentance, express that 
 condition of their hearts by the great question, 
 "What must we do.'*" And three thousand of 
 them sealed their convictions in the rite of Chris- 
 tian baptism upon that occasion. 
 
 We would be glad to have had the record of 
 the " many other words " with which Peter led 
 them to discriminate between the " crooked gene- 
 ration " — the Jews on the one hand and this 
 new order on the other. And by means of which 
 he finally persuaded these three thousand to 
 withdraw from the one and join themselves to the 
 other. 
 
 But is this all? When they have been thus 
 taken into the body is this all there is to the 
 process of increasing and developing this body.'' 
 
 Oh no ! This is only one part of the process. 
 And though important, perhaps not more so than 
 the other. Certainly it is not complete without 
 the other part of the process. If in mastication 
 there must be the breaking up into particles, the 
 analytic, so to speak, there must also be the build- 
 
124. THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 ing into, by the process of assimilation, the syn- 
 thetic, if you please. 
 
 For it is apparent to all that if one organism 
 has been taken into another without the process 
 of assimilation having done its work, its proper 
 work, that a deadly conflict sets in which must 
 sooner or later end in the death of one or perhaps 
 both organisms. 
 
 It is in Peter's second general letter that we 
 find him giving the category of Christian graces 
 in this law of assimilation, as indeed, he may have 
 done upon this same occasion, for aught we know. 
 
 Taking faith as standing for the whole process 
 (mastication) whereby we come into this new type 
 of being and using it as a foundation, we are to 
 build into the life the various graces enumerated. 
 By a glance at the category it is apparent that 
 these are of a nature well calculated to change and 
 transform the entire personality into which they 
 are inwrought. 
 
 But does some one say that this system of 
 ethics, this category of Christian ideals may be 
 duplicated in numbers of instances in the great 
 ethnic religions? To which we answer, then the 
 burden of proof is upon you. How do you ac- 
 count for the distinctiveness of this organism, the 
 Christian religion, through the centuries? But 
 further, giving utterance to such a statement is a 
 manifest evidence of a gross misconception of the 
 whole order of things in this new type of being. 
 
 To summarize then. The apostles had before 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 125 
 
 them a grave problem, reaching in some of its 
 phases a network of complexities the finest of 
 which it is possible to conceive. The process by 
 which it was solved and the body given increase 
 and maturity was simple, natural and common ; 
 viz., through mastication (faith, repentance, con- 
 fession and baptism), as broken up particles of 
 a personality that once lived in the flesh (in sin), 
 men and women are brought into this new body 
 where dwells the Spirit of life. For is it not con- 
 tained in the Psalms : 
 
 " The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken 
 heart; 
 And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit .'' " 
 
 Being brought into the body, the great master 
 builder, the Spirit, takes these broken up parti- 
 cles, the " broken heart and the contrite spirit," 
 as material, and with the cement of virtue, knowl- 
 edge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly 
 kindness and love, fashions it into this new build- 
 ing according to His workmanship divine. So 
 that " we are no more strangers and foreigners, 
 but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the 
 household of God. And are built upon the foun- 
 dation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
 himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all 
 the building, fitly framed together, groweth into 
 an holy temple in the Lord; in whom we also are 
 builded together for an habitation of God in the 
 Spirit." 
 
126 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 " Love divine, all love excelling, 
 
 Joy of heav'n to earth come down! 
 
 Fix in us thy humble dwelling, 
 All thy faithful graces crown. 
 
 " Finish then thy new creation, 
 Pure and spotless may we be; 
 
 Let us see our whole salvation. 
 Perfectly secured in thee ! " 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY MEETING 
 AN EMERGENCY 
 
 ACTS — 2:4:5-4:6 
 
 " And all that believed were together and had 
 all things common, and sold their possessions and 
 goods, and parted them to all men, as every man 
 had need." 
 
 The phenomenon set forth in the above text 
 and other similar texts is thought by many to in- 
 dicate that the early church practised com- 
 munism in all material things. That this was a 
 necessary law of existence for this new type of 
 being; consequently, it is held that any organiza- 
 tion disregarding this law is not true to the orig- 
 inal type and is, therefore, not Christian being. 
 Relating itself, as it does, to the very beginning 
 of Christian being, it demands our attention. 
 The Spirit has entered the apostles. Peter has 
 preached the opening sermon. The invitation and 
 exhortation have been given. Three thousand 
 have been masticated into the body of Christ, the 
 church. The Spirit is animating the entire body 
 of believers. This is what the Spirit influences 
 
 them to do. 
 
 127 
 
128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 It is fitting, therefore, that we seek to ascer- 
 tain the meaning. If this is one of the funda- 
 mental laws by which this new being is to exist, 
 we must know it. We must ascertain how it is 
 to work, etc. On the other hand, if it is not, then 
 we must understand how it came to have the place 
 of prominence given to it here in the very begin- 
 ning of this new type of being. 
 
 At the very beginning of our problem, we must 
 try to see this whole situation as it necessarily 
 was. We must know that we are in Jerusalem at 
 the Pentecostal feast of the Jews — one of the 
 three great feasts in the year. We must know 
 that this is an affair that law and custom have 
 made a great occasion. That the male popula- 
 tion of the Jews is bound by law and urged by 
 custom to attend this feast. That they gather 
 into Jerusalem from all parts of the inhabited 
 world. That in the passing of the years the peo- 
 ple in Jerusalem have become so accustomed to 
 these feasts that every home has its " guest cham- 
 ber." That every home, nearly, is open to receive 
 guests or delegates during these feast days. 
 
 We do not know just what the custom was rela- 
 tive to the entertainment. Perhaps it was worked 
 out to suit the conditions in the various homes, 
 along a great variety of ways. Probably not un- 
 like the entertainment of a great convention in 
 our time and country. The people had to be 
 cared for in some way. They would have to have 
 lodging and meals. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 129 
 
 The greater number of course would find lodg- 
 ing in Jerusalem. Though some, no doubt, would 
 go out to the villages and wayside inns near Jeru- 
 salem for lodging and such lunching as might be 
 provided. It was Jesus' custom to go out to 
 Bethany. We read of two of the disciples that 
 were going to Emmaus, or the hot springs. Com- 
 ing to Jerusalem year after year as many of them 
 did, some, no doubt, would have their lodging, etc., 
 arranged for in advance. The thing that we need 
 to see here is that the matter of providing enter- 
 tainment for these people at these feast occasions, 
 while it came regularly, was nevertheless no little 
 undertaking. It is not improbable that there was 
 some system whereby the matter was looked after 
 by the people of Jerusalem through a committee 
 or some such plan. Many would want to enter- 
 tain their own friends and acquaintances. Others 
 would need to rent their rooms. Hence, would 
 probably have them listed in such a way that 
 those desiring rooms could be directed to them. 
 
 Of course it will not be overlooked that we are 
 in a city that is strictly Jewish. It is as Jews 
 that these people have thrown their homes open 
 to receive these, their Jewish brethren, during their 
 stay in the city. Although the Pentecostal fes- 
 tivities proper lasted but one day, yet many 
 would go to the city before that day. And many 
 would tarry after the day was passed. Espe- 
 cially do many tarry, having seen the turmoil into 
 which things have been thrown by the coming of 
 
130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the apostles. 
 They wish to see the thing through. To know 
 how it is going t© come out. 
 
 The apostles, led by the Spirit, continue a vig- 
 orous presentation of the gospel, and especially 
 of the fact of the resurrection. At the close of 
 the first sermon three thousand have renounced 
 Judaism and accepted Christianity. At the sec- 
 ond sermon, the number is increased to five thou- 
 sand men. The apostles are preaching in the tem- 
 ple, in the synagogues, in the streets, in the homes. 
 All Jerusalem is being filled with the doctrine of 
 the resurrection. 
 
 Jerusalem is the home of the Sanhedrin. This 
 is the body that is responsible for the crucifixion. 
 They are moving behind the curtains. Most of 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem have been brought, 
 either voluntarily or through fear, under the influ- 
 ence of the Sanhedrin. Many will hesitate to do 
 anything or take any attitude that could be in- 
 terpreted as disloyalty to this august body. 
 Hence, if those who have come to Jerusalem, who 
 have been received into Jewish homes and who are 
 recipients of Jewish hospitality, now turn their 
 backs upon the " traditions of the elders " to ac- 
 cept this fanatical teaching, they will have to 
 provide lodging and entertainment for themselves 
 in any way they can. They are unwelcome longer 
 in homes that are strictly Jewish. They would 
 have to go or they would be ordered out. 
 
 Now these people, large numbers of them, are 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 131 
 
 from the commoner walks of life among the Jews. 
 They have attended the annual feasts for years, 
 no doubt. They have heard the palaver of the 
 priests. They have seen them go through the 
 various forms, thus performing religion. They 
 have had a feeling that the whole performance was 
 one that was set to fine acting. A fine system 
 indeed. Almost perfect in its plans and opera- 
 tions. They have felt, indeed, that many of the 
 actors were very clever in the part which they 
 took. The " money changers," for instance, were 
 a most kind, courteous, clever set of vulturous, 
 parasitical thieves. They would rob a man in 
 broad daylight, with a cleverness that always 
 brought a hearty " Thank you " from the one 
 robbed. But after all, they had returned from 
 these feasts with a feeling of depression at times. 
 They had watched the priests perform religion so 
 long that they had become almost total strangers 
 to the Word of God, as contained in the Old Tes- 
 tament Scriptures, and the religion which it re- 
 vealed. 
 
 When the Spirit through the apostles began the 
 interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures 
 in the light of the cross of Christ, the fact of His 
 resurrection, and the radiant hope of life and 
 immortality for those who accept Him, a school 
 was opened to these yearning, hungering hearts 
 which they were loath to leave. They had come 
 to Jerusalem with no preparation to stay beyond 
 a few days. They now desired to remain under 
 
132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the teaching of the inspired apostles until they 
 should be led from their old misconceptions, to 
 a clear understanding of the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures and of the Will of God as revealed in 
 Christ. The apostles were explaining to them 
 " the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was 
 not made known to the sons of men as it was then 
 revealed unto the Holy Apostles and Prophets by 
 the Spirit." ^ In the face of this simple, clear 
 cut, vital teaching, thousands of these converted 
 Jews determine to remain right there indefinitely, 
 or until they feel that they can return to their 
 homes with clear conceptions on these matters. 
 
 It is in view of these circumstances and condi- 
 tions that it became necessary for them to be " to- 
 gether and have all things in common, ... to 
 sell their possessions and goods and divide them 
 to all men, as every man had need." The clos- 
 ing verses of Acts 2 must be understood rather 
 as sumTTiary statements of what is taking place 
 in the days succeeding Pentecost than as a spe- 
 cific account of what takes place upon any par- 
 ticular day or days. There seems to be no way by 
 which we can tell the length of time covered by 
 these summary statements. 
 
 There is another element that enters as an in- 
 fluencing factor in the situation here. Either in 
 their loyalty to Christ and enthusiasm for the 
 work, or because they expected his immediate re- 
 turn, or possibly both, many thousands of the 
 tEph.— S:5. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 133 
 
 first adherents of the gospel became preachers. 
 So that in a later day, when the vast congrega- 
 tion that had been built up in Jerusalem by the 
 preaching and labors of the apostles was scat- 
 tered, it is said of them, " Therefore, they that 
 were scattered abroad, went everywhere preach- 
 ing the word." ^ Two things may be pointed out 
 here. First, it will require a considerable length 
 of time, even under the teaching of the apostles, 
 for one to be qualified to go out as a preacher of 
 the gospel ; second, if one is going out as a min- 
 ister of the gospel, he will not care for nor want 
 to be burdened with his property. He will, there- 
 fore, sell it and place the price in the apostles' 
 hands, to be used in meeting the general expense 
 or in providing for the needs of others who may 
 want to enter the ministry, but have not the means 
 to do so. 
 
 It is not many days after Pentecost till the dis- 
 ciples are thrown upon their own resources 
 and have to provide for their own expenses in 
 every way. Those who were property owners in 
 Jerusalem, and who had become disciples, were 
 taxed a hundred times beyond their ability to 
 entertain all those who desired to remain in the 
 apostles' school ; yet, with the opposition which 
 the Jews are manifesting toward the cause of 
 Christ, there is nothing for the infant church to 
 do but provide for its own. It is an emergency 
 that must be met. And it is to be said to the 
 
 2Acts — S:i. 
 
134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 praise of these people, and in evidence of the genu- 
 ineness of their faith, that Christian liberality 
 arose to meet the emergency. 
 
 We read in this connection that " the multi- 
 tude of them that believed were of one heart and 
 one soul. Neither said any of them that ought 
 of the things which he possessed was his own; 
 but they had all things common. And with great 
 power gave the apostles witness of the resurrec- 
 tion of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was 
 upon them all. Neither was any among them 
 that lacked. For as many as were possessors of 
 lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices 
 of the things that were sold, and laid them down 
 at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made 
 unto every man, according as he had need." Spe- 
 cial mention is made of one Joseph (better known 
 as Barnabas, the preacher, exhorter and mission- 
 ary companion of Paul) who having a posses- 
 sion, sold it and gave the price to the apostles. 
 (Probably he did this, expecting to dedicate his 
 life to the work of the church.) Many others did 
 the same thing. 
 
 Then we are told also of one Ananias, with 
 Saphira his wife, who sold a possession and en- 
 tered into an agreement to attempt to deceive the 
 apostles and the church. They brought a part 
 of the price; and lied to the apostles by saying 
 that it was all. They paid the penalty for their 
 falsehood with their lives. The first attempt at 
 deception and hypocrisy in the church was thus 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 135 
 
 rebuked by death. But the question that con- 
 cerns us in this is, did the apostles require that 
 one give all his material means as a necessary con- 
 dition to entering into this body of Christians? 
 While from the incident some might so infer, yet 
 the language of Peter is clear and unmistakable 
 on this point. 
 
 " Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the 
 Holy Spirit ; and to keep back a part of the price 
 of the land? While it remained, was it not tJiine 
 own? And after it was sold, was it not in thy 
 power? . . . You have not lied unto men, but 
 unto God." It is clear from the language, that 
 Peter knows that Ananias knew he was under 
 no law or obligation to give all his means to 
 the church unless he wished to do so. But it 
 is also clear, that as a member, he was under the 
 most positive obligation to speak the truth under 
 all circumstances. It is highly important that 
 the church have enough material means to meet 
 its necessary expenses. But it is vastly more im- 
 portant — yes, it is absolutely imperative — that 
 the church, which is the " pillar and ground of the 
 truth," shall have a truth telling membership. It 
 is not the property that Peter is concerned about, 
 but the absolute falsehood that has been told. 
 This was a violation of one of the fundamental 
 laws upon which all Christian being rests. 
 
 In the many instances in which individuals are 
 inquiring the terms of admission into the king- 
 dom, no apostle or early disciple ever made the 
 
136 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 matter of selling one's property and giving it to 
 the church a condition of entering into the church. 
 In all instances where the matter of giving to 
 support the work of the church is emphasized by 
 the apostles, it is always assumed that it is to be 
 done on the basis of a man's willingness and in 
 proportion to his ability. There is no mention 
 of a communism related to the church outside the 
 city of Jerusalem; indeed, if we grant that this 
 was communism, even there. 
 
 We think it will be granted, then, when the 
 whole situation is taken into consideration, that 
 this was simple Christian liberality arising to meet 
 an emergency. That it was no essential part of 
 the fundamental law of Christian being. That it 
 has been repeated hundreds of times in the devel- 
 opment of Christian history. And that it will 
 continue to be a phenomenon relating itself to 
 Christian conduct. That wherever the need is 
 great, there great Christian hearts will overflow in 
 a liberality that will meet the need. 
 
XI 
 
 A MIRACLE WROUGHT THAT THE 
 KINGDOM MIGHT GROW 
 
 ACTS — 3:1-26 
 
 We direct your attention to the study of the 
 third chapter of Acts. This is the first recorded 
 miracle wrought by the apostles after the estab- 
 lishment of the church ; and is followed by the 
 second discourse. The general statement is made 
 near the close of the second chapter that " many 
 wonders and signs were done by the apostles." 
 This statement is made in connection with the 
 statement that " they were constantly attending to 
 the teaching of the apostles," " that they contin- 
 ued daily in the temple," etc. 
 
 Now these we take to be general summary state- 
 ments of the things that were happening in Jeru- 
 salem in the days following the establishment of 
 the church on Pentecost. It was during these 
 days that the liberality of the early church was 
 so manifest in meeting the needs of the circum- 
 stances, as we have seen in our last discourse. 
 
 But now in this third chapter, the author, hav- 
 ing made general statements, takes up a particu- 
 
 137 
 
138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 lar incident — the miraculous healing of a crip- 
 ple. He holds it up to our view, with the results 
 that follow; viz., the preaching of a sermon and 
 the conversion of " five thousand men." -^ So 
 that we have as our subject, " A Miracle Wrought 
 That the Kingdom Might Grow." As it was said 
 of Jesus, " This beginning of miracle did Jesus 
 in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His majesty 
 (power), and His disciples believed on Him"; so 
 may it now truly be said of the apostles, " This 
 beginning of miracles did the apostles in Jeru- 
 salem, and displayed the majesty (power) of the 
 church, and thousands believed on Jesus and be- 
 came Christians." 
 
 But standing as this does at the genesis of the 
 new age or order of things, there are certain ques- 
 tions that press upon us. If we were at the be- 
 ginnings of the old age and saw a man mirac- 
 ulously brought into being, full grown, the ques- 
 tion naturally would arise: how is this new order 
 to be perpetuated? If we wish to reproduce a 
 man in this new order, is it to be always by 
 miraculously bringing forth a full grown man.'' 
 Or standing at the genesis of the new age and be- 
 holding a miracle wrought upon the poor cripple, 
 we naturally ask to what purpose has this been 
 done? Is the preaching of the gospel always to 
 be attended by the working of miracle? Or are 
 there attending circumstances that furnish the oc- 
 casion for miracle? We have spoken in general 
 "i- Acts — 4:4. 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 139 
 
 upon this previously. But as this is a specific 
 case we deem it not out of place to give it special 
 attention; the more so since it is the genesis of 
 miracles in the new age. 
 
 Peter and John are going up into the temple 
 at the afternoon hour of prayer. The incidents 
 of Pentecost, the preaching of the apostles, and 
 the conversion of thousands from the old Jewish 
 faith to the Christian faith, have caused great 
 commotion in Jerusalem. Thousands of the Jews, 
 who came to Jerusalem to attend the Pentecostal 
 festivities, have remained, breathlessly waiting 
 and watching the developments in this new order. 
 Hundreds, and even thousands, are coming out of 
 Judaism into Christianity as the days go by. 
 The members of the Sanhedrin are not a little 
 exercised over the turn which things have taken. 
 They would gladly sing the doxology and pro- 
 nounce the benediction if they could thereby dis- 
 perse the people. But they cannot. 
 
 A few days ago these same people saw the 
 Sanhedrin triumphant and supreme, while Jesus 
 bowed low in death upon the cross. The Sanhe- 
 drin was loud in its praise of God, while Jesus was 
 silent within the tomb. But a mighty change has 
 taken place. These same people have seen Jesus 
 triumphant in the resurrection, and the Sanhedrin 
 has gone into the tomb (their private chamber 
 in the temple) never to come forth into life and 
 power again. But entombed as dead men while 
 yet living, they are destined to do considerable 
 
140 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 squirming around before they give up the ghost. 
 And this they do, as seen in the persecutions in- 
 stigated in and directed from their council cham- 
 ber a few days later. 
 
 As Peter and John appear before the beautiful 
 gate of the temple, there comes to their notice 
 this poor cripple, whom kind hands had brought 
 and placed at this conspicuous entrance to the 
 temple that he might become an object of pity and 
 compassion to those entering for worship, and 
 thus receive whatever alms they might give. 
 
 Hundreds of people are pressing the entrance 
 to the temple. If something can be done by 
 means of which the mind of the people can be 
 concentrated and the attention rivetted upon the 
 apostles, it will give them opportunity to speak 
 to the multitude. It will put them, so to speak, 
 between the multitude and the Sanhedrin. Peter 
 and John are quick to discern the situation. No 
 sooner do they discern than they launch into it 
 with all the earnestness of their souls, energized 
 by the Spirit of their Master. 
 
 The miracle, then, was the cause of turning 
 the mind of the multitude from the thought of 
 entering the temple for prayer to the apostles, 
 and furnished them the opportunity of preaching 
 to the people. It was, therefore, no essential part 
 of the gospel as some are wont to claim. 
 
 But there is another phase of this subject that 
 needs a word. In our modem cults, which claim 
 that miracles of healing are an essential part of 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 141 
 
 the gospel and should accompany the work of 
 the church of today, there is a loud demand for 
 faith upon the part of the one who is to be healed. 
 In all unsuccessful attempts (of which there are 
 many) the responsibility for the failure is ex- 
 plained as due to the lack of faith upon the part 
 of the patient. So we are led to look into this 
 phase of the subject just here at the beginning of 
 miracle in this new order of being. 
 
 Did this cripple have faith that he was going 
 to be healed? Was there any expectation of be- 
 ing healed upon his part.'* Indeed, does not the 
 whole appearance of things teach us that the op- 
 posite was true? If he knew or even believed 
 strongly that he was going to be healed, imme- 
 diately, he would not be at the gate begging for 
 alms. For he was a man grown, and able to earn 
 his bread if he had not been a cripple. But in 
 the very moment of being healed, he looks upon 
 Peter " expecting to receive something." And as 
 if to make the case still stronger against these 
 modem faith healers, Peter's opening words make 
 it clear that he knew the thoughts of the cripple 
 at that very moment, nor did Peter utter one 
 word of rebuke to him for his lack of faith and 
 his thought of receiving financial aid. Peter 
 tells him, plainly though kindly, that he had no 
 money ; but that such as he had, he would give to 
 him freely and unconditionally. Then he com- 
 mands him by the authority of Jesus Christ to 
 arise and walk, and he did so. Here is a mani- 
 
14.a THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 festation of the power of Christ that will impel 
 a cure, without the requirement of faith; and 
 even, if necessary, against faith. Here is an at- 
 testation of the divineness of the church that 
 will cause men to take notice, and that will 
 " multiply the believers." So the faith or worthi- 
 ness of this man, even granting that he was 
 worthy, which perhaps no one will question, yet 
 these must not neither can they properly be as- 
 signed as the reason why he should be favored 
 with this special divine blessing of healing. 
 There were thousands of others, no doubt, who 
 were as worthy as he. And no reason can be as- 
 signed why he should become a subject of divine 
 favor, aside from the fact that his healing will af- 
 ford an occasion for the preaching of the word 
 to the multitude. 
 
 The fact that the miracle of healing was fol- 
 lowed by the immediate preaching of a sermon, 
 the normal method of extending the kingdom, is 
 further evidence that the miracle of healing was 
 only incidental. 
 
 So we shall understand that miracles in the 
 apostolic age had just about the same place that 
 the helping hand of a mother has when her in- 
 fant is learning to walk. She gladly assists so 
 long as he strives to walk alone. But she confi- 
 dently expects him some day to be able to walk 
 without her aid. Nor is she usually disappointed 
 in her hopes. So, too, our Savior was willing to 
 aid the church by miracle in the days of its in- 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 143 
 
 fancy. But He did so confidently expecting that 
 the church would one day stand out in all the 
 strength and fullness of its majesty; and so com- 
 mend itself to every man's conscience as not to 
 need longer to hobble along upon the crutch of 
 miracle. Nor was He disappointed in this, for 
 even at the close of the apostolic age the church 
 had largely laid aside the aid of miracle and was 
 going into all the world, standing upon its own 
 merits ; viz., the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 
 life it produced in the hearts of Christians. 
 
 Before the close of the apostolic age Christ 
 was reigning so supremely in the hearts of Chris- 
 tian people everywhere that from this citadel of 
 power and influence He needed not the aid of 
 miracle to bolster up the work of the kingdom. 
 This was as it should be. The time was to come 
 that when the gospel was proclaimed the strongest 
 inducement to its acceptance was to be, not mir- 
 acle, not temporal " loaves and fishes," but the 
 Christianized life in the virility of its resurrec- 
 tion hope — a life transformed by the power of 
 Christ's presence continually abiding in the heart 
 by faith. 
 
 We hear Paul saying to the Corinthians, " You 
 are our epistle . . . known and read of all men 
 . . . written not with ink, but with the Spirit of 
 the living God, not on tablets of stone, but in 
 fleshly tablets of the heart." Yes, the gospel was 
 preached by the apostles and early disciples, but 
 in a practical and popular sense; it was read in 
 
144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 the lives of the early Christians long before it was 
 ever written or read in the New Testament. 
 Christ was proclaimed in the gospel message, 
 trtie! But it was from the lives of consecrated 
 Christians in the humble walks of life that He 
 spoke His most telling and forceful message. 
 
 So it is today and ever will be. The minister 
 speaks his message of Christ to the world. But 
 Christ speaks His own message to the world from 
 the lives of all Christians. After all, this is the 
 message which the world hears and heeds. The 
 ministry numbers few, but Christians are legion. 
 The minister speaks once in the week; the Chris- 
 tian speaks each day and each moment. " What 
 you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what 
 you say," is perhaps truer of Christians today 
 than ever before. What a church does, speaks 
 so loudly in the community that the people sel- 
 dom ever hear what the minister says. So we are 
 in the day not of the infancy, but of the maturity 
 of the church. Whether it will or not, it must 
 stand upon its own feet — its own merits — its 
 own deeds. It must walk without the aid of 
 crutches. 
 
 But we must look at the sermon, briefly, be- 
 fore we close. When the Spirit came upon the 
 apostles we are told that the appearance was in 
 tongue form " like as of fire." The tongue would 
 indicate the instrument they were to use in the 
 proclamation of the message. The fiery appear- 
 ance would indicate the purifying power of the 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING 145 
 
 gospel In the heart of the believer. We are not 
 to presume that we have here the full sermon. 
 Perhaps only a brief summary. But we see Peter 
 using those forces whereby there is to be the nor- 
 mal increase of the church. The tongue as the 
 instrument; the death, burial and resurrection of 
 Christ as the message of God unto salvation. 
 
 The preaching is substantially here as in his 
 first discourse. Perhaps the closing exliortation 
 is more to the point. Having preached to them 
 that they were the betrayers and murderers of 
 the " Prince of life," he therefore exhorts them, 
 as in his former sermon, to change their minds in 
 repentance and their state in obedience to Christ. 
 " Repent ye, therefore, and turn again (to the 
 Lord in obedience) that your sins may be blotted 
 out, that so there may come seasons of refresh- 
 ing from the presence of the Lord." The last 
 clause is not found in the Pentecostal sermon. 
 We will therefore notice it briefly. 
 
 What condition of mind were they in that they 
 needed " seasons of refreshing from the presence 
 of the Lord " ? Peter was not talking for ora- 
 torical effect. Nor was he " beating the air." 
 But as any faithful minister will do, so had he 
 done. He had moved around among the people 
 to whom he was to preach. Had learned some- 
 thing of the condition of their minds at that very 
 time. He knew that but httle more than fifty 
 days before these same Jews (many of them at 
 least) had been there at the great " Passover 
 
146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 
 
 feast." That that innocent man, Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, who was living not only according to the 
 letter of the law, but who was also living a spir- 
 itual interpretation of the law that was the 
 marvel of the age, had also come to the feast. 
 That he had been hounded by these Jews ; fol- 
 lowed by day and by night, overshadowed and 
 arrested in the darkness and secrecy of the night. 
 That the Sanhedrin had called an irregular and 
 illegal session. That a heresy trial had been 
 hurried through in the night time. That the in- 
 nocent man had fallen a victim to official bigotry 
 and religious prejudice and was condemned by 
 the highest ecclesiastical tribunal. That when 
 the crucial moment came (and all the powers and 
 sentiment available had been brought to bear upon 
 Pilate ; and he yet was vacillating and unde- 
 cided) that when he finally was minded to let him 
 go and asked the mass of the Jews, " What shall 
 I do with Jesus ? " that, with blood in their eyes 
 and murder in their hearts, they had cried out 
 with one accord, " Crucify Him.'* 
 
 He knew that Pilate, still hesitating and receiv- 
 ing the message from his wife, came out before 
 the multitude and washed his hands, saying to 
 them, " I am innocent from the blood of this just 
 person. . . . See ye to it." That they then, 
 with one voice, cried, " His blood he upon us, and 
 on our children.'* 
 
 Peter, with sword in hand, had been through 
 all these scenes a few days before. He knew that 
 
CHRISTIAN BEING !¥! 
 
 many of these Jews to whom he was speaking, had 
 been in the mob at that time. He knew that un- 
 der the mighty weight of their guilt they had 
 spent the intervening days restlessly and the 
 nights sleeplessly. That their consciences were 
 goading them by day and haunting them by 
 night. That there had been no rest for them 
 since the rash deed had been committed. It is in 
 the knowledge of these experiences that Peter 
 says, with a volume of meaning to the words, 
 " Change your minds and the relationship of your 
 hearts toward the Holy One of Israel, that so 
 there may come seasons of refreshing from the 
 presence of the Lord." 
 
 Yes, they needed seasons of refreshing sleep. 
 And seasons of quietude of mind and peace of 
 heart during the day. Yes, the blood of Jesus 
 was mightily upon them : there was no escape from 
 it for them, seemingly. Nor is there for you and 
 me. It may be appropriated, but it cannot be 
 repudiated. It will follow us by day and by night 
 even as it did them. If not appropriated, it will 
 haunt us in death ; and condemn us in eternity. 
 
 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy 
 upon the testimony of two or three witnesses : 
 " Of how much sorer punishment suppose you he 
 shall be thought worthy that hath trodden under- 
 foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood 
 of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an 
 unholy thing." 
 
 The miracle is wrought. The sermon js 
 
148 CHRISTIAN BEING 
 
 preached. The exhortation is given. And the 
 blood is appropriated by the thousands who heard. 
 For we are told that " the number of men came to 
 be about five thousand." 
 
 " There is a fountain filled with blood, 
 Drawn from Immanuel's veins: 
 
 And sinners plunged beneath that flood. 
 Lose all their guilty stains. 
 
 " The dying thief rejoiced to see 
 
 That fountain in his day; 
 And there may I, though vile as he. 
 
 Wash all my sins away. 
 
 " O Lamb of God, thy precious blood 
 
 Shall never lose its power, 
 Till all the ransomed Church of God 
 
 Be saved, to sin no more." 
 
Ms: Date Due 
 
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