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 FIRST BATTLES.
 
 BATTLES 
 
 AND HO W TO FIGHT THEM. 
 
 f ricntrtp Cfjat toitlj Ifoutig 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK A. ATKINS. 
 
 *UTHOR OF " MORAL MUSCLE, AND HOW TO UFF IT.' 
 
 " We are like soldiers in a vast, widely-extended battlefield (wrapped 
 in obscurity) of which we know not the phases, of which we seem utterly 
 powerless to control the issues; but we are responsible for our own part 
 whatever goes on elsewhere, let us not fail in that. The changes of the 
 world, which men think they are bringing about, are in the hands of 
 God. With Him, when we have done our duty, let us leave them." 
 DEAN CHURCH. 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, 
 
 NEW YORK: i CHICAGO: 
 
 30 Union Square: East. | 148 and 150 Madison Street 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature.
 
 /W 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, 
 
 In the o*nc3 of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 I. MONEY AND MORALS 5 
 
 II. WHAT Is A GENTLEMAN ? 22 
 
 III. How TO BE INSIGNIFICANT 39 
 
 IV. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE 53 
 
 V. CHRIST AND COMMERCE 65 
 
 VI. ABOUT HOLIDAYS 77 
 
 VII. SHAMS 85 
 
 VIII. THE LOST CHRIST.., ..102
 
 THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 CHAPLAIN FLOY T. BARKMAN 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It falls to the lot of most persons to find life a 
 conflict: to some it is a protracted and arduous 
 campaign. This is only to say that, if we would 
 come successfully through it, we must assume the 
 attitude of soldiers, and be well accoutred for the 
 fight. Much as there is in military life which we 
 cannot but deplore, there is no illustration more 
 frequently employed in Scripture to set forth the 
 duties and the character of a Christian; and, how- 
 ever much we may be out of sympathy with the 
 profession, and lament the need for it, it cannot be 
 denied that most of the personal qualities that 
 make a good soldier are just those which go to 
 constitute an exemplary Christian. 
 
 A man may be soldierly, no doubt, without pos- 
 sessing even a semblance of piety; but, all other 
 things being equal, the more soldierly he is, the 
 higher will be the type of his religion. If godly 
 men in the army are rare, they are generally ex- 
 ceptionally good! they have the courage of their 
 convictions, and are decidedly aggressive in their 
 piety. Particularly valuable are the qualities 
 referred to in the beginning of life, when tempta- 
 tions are most numerous and powerful. When St.
 
 INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 Paul exhorted his young friend Timothy to be "a 
 good soldier," he gave advice which all young men 
 would do well to lay to heart ; and never, perhaps, 
 was it more needful than in an age like this,\vhen 
 the prevalence of luxury and the appetite for pleas- 
 ure are so apt to take all the grit and manliness 
 out of the rising youth of our land. Just as many 
 a raw recruit has joined his country's service, 
 tempted by the seemingly gay and easy life of a 
 soldier, but has found, when called to active duty 
 in the field, that the discipline was very different 
 from what he expected, so it is with thousands of 
 young men in their setting out on life; what 
 promised to be almost a holiday proving a stiff 
 conflict, and demanding a " hardness " they had 
 not calculated upon. The first battles are there- 
 fore the most trying and crucial. 
 
 It is well that this should be understood and 
 prepared for. Many a young man makes a moral 
 collapse, because he did not know of the dangers 
 he had to face, the enemies he had to conquer, and 
 the special qualities he needed to possess; whereas, 
 had he been duly warned and counselled, he might 
 have come through victorious. Those are the best 
 friends of youth who faithfully point out the per- 
 ils that lie before them, and urge preparation for 
 the fight. No living man better understands how 
 to do this than the author of First Battles, and 
 Hoiu to Fight Them. I think it was John Bright
 
 INTRODUCTION. iii 
 
 who happily remarked some years ago, when 
 speaking of a popular nobleman, Lord Roseberrv, 
 that he had the face of a boy and the tongue of a 
 sage; and it would be no extravagance to say of 
 our author that his writings combine the vivacity 
 of youth with the mellow wisdom of maturity. 
 He is already favorably known by his little book, 
 Moral Muscle, and Hoiv to Use It, and has se- 
 cured a wide influence among the rising gener- 
 ation by his able editorship of THE YOUNG MAN. 
 First Battles is an admirable successor to Moral 
 Muscle, the title in both cases being singularly 
 felicitous. 
 
 One can scarcely fail to be struck with the un- 
 usual number of books that have been published 
 within the last few years, specially addressed to 
 young men. The press has clearly been alive to 
 the growing need for this class of literature. At 
 no period of the world, probably, have the claims 
 of young men been so fully recognized, or so much 
 attention been bestowed upon the temptations, 
 difficulties and dangers that specially beset them. 
 This is a hopeful feature of the age; and all the 
 more so because, on the whole, the tone of these 
 endeavors is bracing and invigorating in its char- 
 acter. It is no longer assumed that a young man of 
 undoubted piety must be effeminate in his bearing, 
 morbid and whimsical in his principles, and hostile 
 to every species of physical culture and recreation.
 
 iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On the other hand, thank God, it is coming to 
 be generally recognized that Christianity aims at 
 saving the whole man, " body, soul, and spirit;" 
 and that genuine religion develops and ennobles 
 all the powers. The author of First Battles is a 
 recognized apostle of this doctrine. He is the 
 sworn enemy of cant. He believes that godliness 
 and manliness are close akin. He goes in for a 
 religion that is bright and brotherly, courteous 
 and unselfish, and whose invariable tendency is to 
 elevate and refine, and to turn out true gentlemen. 
 Well does he say, " One of the most remarkable 
 characteristics of gentlemanliness lies in the fact 
 that it is not so very far removed from womanli- 
 ness. It has a sacred modesty, a tender regard 
 and respect for weakness and loneliness and infer- 
 iority, a deep and genuine reverence for the inno- 
 cence and purity of womanhood. But you say, 
 How about manliness? I reply by asking another 
 question, Do you know what manliness means? 
 It means -virtue. When Garfield said, ' I shall try 
 and become a man ; if I do not succeed in that, I 
 shall be good for nothing,' he did not mean that 
 his ambition was to be merely big and boisterous 
 and robust he desired to become gentle and strong 
 and good." 
 
 The object of this little book, of course, is not 
 to teach theology, but there is not a sentence in 
 it that is not in harmony with healthy evangelical
 
 INTR OD UC T1ON. 
 
 teaching. The writer is not forgetful of the Cross, 
 with its wondrous mystery and its matchless 
 power; but his special aim is to present to young 
 men the living Christ, as at once the brightest 
 example and the truest Friend. Leaving Chris- 
 tian doctrine to be handled by others, he shows 
 what Christian practice is; and to all who, under 
 cover of religion, allow in themselves anything 
 that is false or cowardly or mean, he administers 
 vigorous and merited castigation. The perusal of 
 these pages cannot but be useful to all who are 
 just entering on life's first battles; here they will 
 find the wise counsels and cheering words they 
 need. For young men who are leaving school 
 and home, and going forth to push their own way 
 in the world, a more suitable gift could hardly be 
 selected than First Battles, and How to Fight 
 Them. 
 
 J. THAIN DAVIDSON.
 
 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM. 
 
 I. 
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 
 
 '' When a man dies, they ivho survive him ask what 
 propertv he has left behind him. The angel -who 
 bends over the dying man asks -what good deeds he 
 has sent before him." THE KORAN. 
 
 " It is physically impossible for a ivcll- educated, intellec- 
 tual, or brave man to make money the chief object of 
 his thoughts." RUSKIN. 
 
 IT seems a strange combination ! Is 
 there any connection between money and 
 morals ? If there is it is the connection 
 which exists between the neck of the 
 criminal and the axe of the executioner 
 a connection that is, as a rule, hopelessly 
 and absolutely fatal. The reckless greed 
 of gain has driven more men away from 
 Jesus Christ than any other passion. 
 " Very sorrowful . . . for he was
 
 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 very rich." That is a miniature portrait 
 of a young man who once came to Christ, 
 and it tells the story of many a prosperous 
 but dissatisfied man to-day. Have you 
 ever known any man who received the 
 slightest benefit of a high and noble kind 
 from money ? Has it ever made a man 
 good ? Has it ever increased his gener- 
 osity, broadened his sympathies, or roused 
 in him a longing after righteousness? 
 Never ! It adds to your creature com- 
 forts, ministers to your merely sensuous 
 enjoyment; if you possess brains it en- 
 ables you to encourage art and science, 
 and if you are a practical Christian it 
 places in your hand the wherewithal to 
 succor the suffering and relieve the dis- 
 tressed. But in itself money has never 
 made any man happy or healthy or holy. 
 On the contrary, it has dimmed the love, 
 wrecked the peace, and spoilt the charac- 
 ters of countless thousands. One of the 
 ablest preachers of the day, speaking re-
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 
 
 cently, said that " nothing but the mercy 
 of God prevented money from doing harm 
 wherever it went." 
 
 Don't you think it is a very impressive 
 and significant fact that the most heart- 
 less and contemptible act of treachery 
 ever committed an act which has excited 
 the horror and disgust of all the ages 
 should have been due to the selfish desire 
 of a miserable and covetous man to se- 
 cure thirty pieces of silver? Judas Iscar- 
 iot was not a degraded profligate he was 
 a disciple, with a character, no doubt, of 
 the utmost decency and respectability. 
 He may have been alluded to, for all we 
 know, as a shrewd, practical, hard-headed 
 man of business. But it was that little 
 bag of money which led to his sin, his 
 suicide, and his destruction. His love of 
 gain was greater than his love for his 
 Lord. 
 
 And this is just where the danger ex- 
 ists. Young men will exclaim, " Surely
 
 8 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 it is not wrong to wish to make money?" 
 Certainly not, if you are careful that when 
 you have made the money it does not mat 
 you. Riches are like a rose in a man's 
 hand; if he holds it gently it will preserve 
 its beauty of shape and fragrance of smell, 
 but if he handles it tightly he will crush 
 and destroy it. Make your pile of money 
 if you will work on with earnestness, in- 
 dustry, and persistence, and may large 
 success attend all your endeavors. But 
 bear with this brotherly warning. Hold 
 the riches lightly let them flow out free- 
 ly in wise benevolence, use them liberally 
 for the highest ends, and you will have 
 done well. But hug your wealth, set your 
 heart on it, let the miserly and covetous 
 spirit paralyze your very soul, and life 
 will become a hideous nightmare, a foul 
 sepulchre, a long spell of hopeless servi- 
 tude. 
 
 Do you doubt this? Then listen to the 
 testimony of a man who made mone)'
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 
 
 with great rapidity and got rid of it with 
 equal celerity. " I have never seen the 
 use of hoarding money," said George 
 Moore; "we may gather riches, but can 
 n?ver know who is to spend them. God 
 preserve me against the sin of covetous- 
 ness. It is a curse that eats out the heart 
 and dries up the soul of a man." Have we 
 not all seen the man who is rich and 
 wretched? He has given up his life to 
 the pursuit of wealth, and in so doing the 
 man has been utterly lost in the machine. 
 When his bank-book bulges out with un- 
 told riches, he finds that it is impossible 
 to enjoy them. He has cultivated no 
 lofty tastes, formed no healthy habits, in- 
 dulged in no Christly beneficence, and so 
 the money is nothing but an intolerable 
 burden, and all he can do is to go on rak- 
 ing, and reckoning, and grinding, and 
 fighting for gold that he does not want, 
 and which he does not know how to use 
 when it is acquired.
 
 io FIRST BATTLES, 
 
 Beware of this reckless and ruinous 
 ambition for wealth. Remember the 
 words of Goethe 
 
 Men may bear much from harsh severity, 
 But not a long run of unmixed prosperity! 
 
 Riches are like thorns touch them ten- 
 derly and lightly and they are harmless ; 
 rest on them and they will cut and rend and 
 pierce you. Therefore do not allow your 
 mind to be muddled and your life to be un- 
 settled by a vain desire for a big bank bal- 
 ance. "A restlessness in men's minds," 
 says Sir William Temple, " to be some- 
 thing they are not, and to have something 
 they have not, is the root of all immoral- 
 ity." That is profoundly and terribly true. 
 We forget that a good farthing is better 
 than a bad sovereign, and that it is far 
 more manly to do the best we can with 
 our own feathers than to strut in bor- 
 rowed plumes. Why should we be so 
 anxious for the gilded shams and spark- 
 ling mockeries of the world ? Is a man's
 
 MONE Y AND MORA LS. 1 1 
 
 heart more restful because his head is 
 adorned with a coronet ? Does his life 
 gain in buoyancy because he keeps more 
 horses than he can ride ? What nonsense 
 it all is ! Instead of spoiling your life by 
 any mad ambition for personal aggrandize- 
 ment, do the present duty manfully and 
 well. After all that is the surest road to 
 prosperity. And if you have sufficient 
 grit in you to stand the overwhelming 
 temptations of riches, they may be be- 
 stowed on you one of these days, and then 
 you will wonder how you could ever have 
 wasted a single moment in longing for so 
 fleeting and superficial a possession. But 
 never allow the devil to make you morbidly 
 discontented with your environment. If 
 he once does that, he can work your ruin 
 without much further trouble. "You 
 were meant," he will say, " for something 
 better than this monotonous toil ; get 
 gold and plenty of it, put on fine airs, 
 and help to swell the mob of fashionable
 
 12 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 pleasure-seekers ; live for sensual de- 
 lights, smother your conscience with 
 bank-notes, and laugh at the puritanical 
 ravings of modern faddists and philan- 
 thropic cranks." The man who is 
 caught by this temptation seldom escapes. 
 He gambles and plunges furiously, and 
 tries to get rich by rapid and unrighteous 
 means. He becomes selfish and cynical 
 and dishonest, winks at falsehood, laughs 
 at license, is unscrupulous in his passion for 
 wealth and position, and, almost without 
 knowing it, the poor fellow has sunk into 
 the uttermost depths of cowardice and 
 vice. There is, however, an ambition 
 which is noble and commendable, but it 
 is ruled by love, guarded by honesty, and 
 sanctified by a generous goodwill towards 
 men. The best ambition is the ambition 
 to be good and brave and true. Let us 
 not be at the beck and call of every pass- 
 ing fancy. Let us earnestly and cour- 
 ageously perform the task intrusted to us,
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 13 
 
 however lowly it may be, and however 
 inadequate its reward. To us it may 
 seem the dreariest drudgery, but when 
 we do it well and cheerfully for Christ's 
 sake, even drudgery becomes divine. 
 
 Many years ago Charles Kingsley, as 
 " Parson Lot," inaugurated a valiant 
 crusade against the mammon worship of 
 his day. Of course he met with the 
 bitter and virulent hostility of all who 
 loved money more than justice and 
 brotherly love. But he earned an undy- 
 ing reputation as the friend and champion 
 of humanity. We want another " Parson 
 Lot" in these days to teach us that money 
 is not a thing to be played with at the 
 will of its possessor. Nothing will help so 
 much to solve certain modern problems as 
 the dissemination of Bible teaching regard- 
 ing money. The idea of the Bible is dis- 
 tinctly that of stewardship. The money 
 you put away in the bank is, in a limited 
 and mechanical sense, your own property.
 
 14 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 But looked at from the higher and more 
 Christian standpoint, it is not yours at all. 
 It is given to you as a trust, not as a pos- 
 session. If that great and unassailable 
 principle could prevail in the minds and 
 hearts of men, gambling would be anni- 
 hilated once and for all. Because the old 
 stock argument in favor of betting it 
 generally comes from flabby, unhealthy 
 young men of dissipated life and restricted 
 intellect is this : " Oh, but you know, 
 old fellow, a man can do as he likes with 
 his own money." Certainly; I grant that 
 entirely. But the fact is that the money 
 is not yours. God has placed it in your 
 hands for fifty or sixty years, and there 
 will come a day of reckoning when He 
 will want to know what good you have 
 accomplished, what poverty you have 
 relieved and what evil you have destroyed 
 by the powerful and influential gift which 
 He intrusted in your keeping. One 
 hardly likes to think what the result will
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 15 
 
 be when you have to confess that you 
 tossed the gold to the devil that you 
 flung it away at poker or that you handed 
 it to some rascally poolseller. 
 
 It is impossible to write of money and 
 morals without protesting against the 
 biggest curse of modern times. Nothing 
 is more calculated to turn the smiling 
 optimist into a despairing pessimist than 
 the incalculable ruin which is being 
 wrought every day by betting and gam- 
 bling. This is undoubtedly the most seri- 
 ous and difficult problem with which 
 Christian reformers have to grapple. So 
 far we have scarcely touched it. There 
 have been long and wordy discussions, a 
 great deal of purposeless chatter has been 
 poured forth in speeches and leading arti- 
 cles, and still we seem to make no prog- 
 ress we are engaged in the useless occu- 
 pation of beating the air. Convocation 
 will not untie the knot; the newspaper is 
 impotent simply because it is implicated ;
 
 1 6 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 and Christian men are too apt to trust to 
 silvery rhetoric rather than to stringent 
 reform. 
 
 The fact is, that nothing very helpful 
 will be done until we clear our minds of 
 cant. The practical common-sense of 
 solemn dignitaries who fervently de- 
 nounce betting and then sit down to play 
 whist for dime points is somewhat difficult 
 to detect. The wisdom of arresting one 
 gambler and asking another to open a 
 church bazaar is scarcely perceptible to 
 the man in the street. Betting is fashion- 
 able ; the gambler is a respected, or at 
 least a tolerated, individual, and even the 
 great mass of Christian men and women 
 have not yet had their eyes opened to 
 the awful havoc caused by this passion- 
 ate lust for gain. When they see how it 
 robs men of character, health, and friends ; 
 when they realize that horse-racing has 
 more votaries than any religion ; then, 
 I believe, they will rise up and de-
 
 MONL Y AND MORA LS. 1 7 
 
 nounce it fearlessly. The literature of 
 the turf is enormous in extent and world- 
 wide in influence. It provides a risky 
 excitement for the rich and a hideous 
 fever for the poor. It shows men how 
 to get hold of their neighbors' property 
 without giving any honest equivalent, 
 which means, in plain English., that it 
 makes men thieves. 
 
 It is simply alarming to contemplate 
 the extent to which the deadly contagion 
 is spreading through the country. Boys 
 bet; young men neglect the beauties of 
 literature for the " tips " of sporting 
 papers ; and scarcely an office is without 
 its sweep-stake on the Derby or the boat- 
 race. This vice controls its victims with 
 a fascination which is absolutely devilish, 
 and the unutterable ruin which it inevi- 
 tably works is almost heartbreaking. 
 I therefore call upon every earnest, manly, 
 Christian fellow to do all he can to stamp 
 out this degrading and unchivalrous
 
 1 8 FIRS 7 ' BA TTLES. 
 
 habit. For this two reasons are suffi- 
 cient : (i) It must be wrong to accept 
 money for which you have given nothing 
 in return ; and (2) it is the very essence 
 of selfishness to use, as Kingsley says, 
 " what you fancy your superior knowl- 
 edge of a horse's merits to your neigh- 
 bor's harm." " Work faithfully," says 
 Mr. Ruskin, " and you will put yourself 
 in possession of a glorious and enlarging 
 happiness ; not such as can be won by 
 the speed of a horse or marred by the 
 obliquity of a ball." 
 
 All thoughtful and observant men must 
 admit that materialism is the dominant 
 peril of our age. As young men, there- 
 fore, we must be on our guard. Wealth 
 is a useful servant when guarded by char- 
 ity and wisdom, but it is a tyrannical mas- 
 ter, and holds its subjects in galling and 
 miserable servitude. Christ never thought 
 much of money. The most hopeless and 
 melancholy characters He ever drew
 
 MONEY AND MORALS. 19 
 
 were rich men. His Gospel teaches us 
 that character is more than circumstances 
 a clean heart better than a big check- 
 book. Bacon has called riches " the bag- 
 gage of virtue." "As baggage is to an 
 army," he says, "so is riches to virtue; it 
 cannot be spared or left behind, but it 
 hindereth the march. Of great riches 
 there is no real use, except it be in the 
 distribution; the rest is but conceit." I 
 have heard of a very wealthy merchant, 
 who, attending church one night, was 
 greatly impressed by the words of Christ, 
 " A rich man shall hardly enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven." They lingered in 
 his memory, and for years his rest was 
 broken and his peace disturbed by this 
 discomforting thought, "Shall hardly 
 enter" Let us frankly confess then that 
 if we have given our hearts over to mam- 
 mon worship, we have, to say the least of 
 it, made a tremendous mistake. The 
 millionaire is not always the successful
 
 20 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 man. The richest merchant in the city 
 may in reality be poorer than his meanest 
 servant. For all the money on earth 
 cannot compensate for a starved soul, a 
 narrow mind, a limited outlook, and a life 
 that confers no blessing on humanity. 
 <' Chinese" Gordon was comparatively 
 poor, but he achieved what was better 
 than all the fortunes of all the world's 
 millionaires put together a Christ-like 
 character and a noble life-work. Who 
 would not infinitely prefer to be Gordon 
 with empty pockets than the richest gam- 
 bler in the land? 
 
 Over the triple doorways of the cathe- 
 dral of Milan there are three inscriptions 
 spanning the splendid arches. Over one 
 is carved a wreath of roses with the 
 bgend, "All that which pleases is but for 
 a moment." Over the other is sculptured 
 a cross accompanied by the words, " All 
 that which troubles is but for a moment." 
 But on the great central entrance to the
 
 MONE Y AND MORALS. 2 1 
 
 main aisle is the inscription, "That only 
 is important which is eternal." The les- 
 son is obvious. It teaches us that morals 
 are of more account than money, and 
 that if we are wise we shall care less and 
 less for the passing pageants of the hour, 
 for the gratification of our frivolous fan- 
 cies, and for the attainment of our worldly 
 ambitions. We shall live for the heav- 
 enly, for the eternal, for the service of the 
 strong and tender Christ, whose "well 
 done " is more to be desired than all the 
 plaudits of the universe.
 
 II. 
 
 WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? 
 
 And thus he bore -without abuse 
 The grand old name of gentleman, 
 Defamed by every charlatan, 
 
 And soiled -with all ignoble use. 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 NEVER imagine that the swaggering brag- 
 gart can move the world he is as feeble 
 as he is loud. Jesus Christ was the strong- 
 est man who ever lived and the gentlest. 
 He would not have hurt the feelings of a 
 child, and yet He could conquer hell. 
 "He opened His mouth and taught them, 
 saying, Blessed . . ." That was the 
 keynote of His life. He was always 
 blessing somebody healing the sick, 
 comforting the sad, cheering the weary, 
 raising the dead; His life was one long 
 series of kindly, brotherly actions. And 
 yet, how He could burn with moral indig- 
 nation! The same Christ who was ten- 
 
 (22)
 
 WHA T IS A GENTLEMAN? 23 
 
 der and gentle and forgiving to the sinners 
 who were tired of the dreary heartache 
 of their useless lives, and longed to be 
 better and do better, could denounce the 
 hypocrites of His day as " a generation of 
 vipers." We must -rid ourselves of the 
 popular delusion that tenderness denotes 
 weakness. It doesn't. Bullies are weak 
 gentlemen are strong. The braggart is 
 impotent; the empty noise of his braying 
 is quickly exhausted, and then he is used 
 up and has nothing to go on with. The 
 man who endures and overcomes is the 
 man who follows Christ in His sweet 
 reasonableness of temper and thought and 
 action. 
 
 What is a gentleman? First of all, let 
 me tell you what he is not. He is not 
 that well-known youth, with vacant, lamb- 
 like expression, gorgeous necktie of many 
 colors, immense cuffs, large trousers, tiny 
 shoes, and a buttonhole of huge dimen- 
 sions. He is not the kind of young man
 
 24 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 whom Charlotte Bronte once described 
 as "pretty-looking and pretty-behaved, ap- 
 parently constructed without a backbone, 
 by which I don't allude to his corporal 
 spine, which is all right enough, but to 
 his character." We all know this nerve- 
 less automaton. He is destitute of one 
 throbbing impulse or lofty ideal. King- 
 doms might crash, empires might totter 
 and fall he soars above such trifles, and 
 views them with stately unconcern. The 
 only matters which trouble him are the 
 straightness of his necktie, the smoothness 
 of his hair, and the whiteness of his cuffs. 
 One day somebody suggests that lawn 
 tennis is a nice, gentle game, and this 
 amiable youth becomes quite interested. 
 Of course he "hasn't an idea how to 
 play," but he knocks the balls about for a 
 quarter of an hour, and is ill with exhaus- 
 tion for a week afterwards. In company 
 he is silent, hoping, perhaps, that his rav- 
 ishing beauty may make up for his help-
 
 WHA T IS A GENTLEMAN f 2$ 
 
 less taciturnity. He is too modest to sing 
 a song, too lazy to learn an instrument, 
 too dignified to ride a bicycle, too stiff to 
 run a race, too noble to stoop to the clam- 
 or of debate or the jealousies of journ- 
 alism, and much too prudent to venture 
 on any more dogmatic assertion than 
 "Nith day after the wain." The incon- 
 venient question was asked one day con- 
 cerning a man of this caliber, "What can 
 he do?" Well, truth to tell, he can look 
 ladylike, behave beautifully, curl his hair 
 to perfection, and pose for a photograph 
 rare accomplishments, which, in a more 
 advanced age, might perhaps win for him 
 respect and admiration. Let us do him 
 justice, however; he is vain but not vi- 
 cious, puny but not prodigal, languid but 
 never licentious, though certain cynics 
 have suggested that he is mildly respecta- 
 ble only because he lacks the pluck to be 
 madly riotous. It is an old saying and a 
 true one that " Fine feathers do not make
 
 26 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 fine birds." A decorated donkey is a 
 donkey still. The slaves of nineteenth 
 century masherdom may be exquisitely 
 beautiful, but they are not gentlemen in 
 the noblest sense of the word. 
 
 No ; ladylikeness of exterior and a sort 
 of" got - up - regardless - of- expense " ap- 
 pearance are not the outward and visible 
 signs of gentlemanliness. Some of the 
 roughest and most erratic men possess 
 the truest hearts and the tenderest spirits. 
 I shall always feel intensely grateful that 
 the blind and blundering Peter was one 
 of the disciples, for it shows that Jesus 
 Christ can sympathize with men who are 
 recklessly enthusiastic. Some of the most 
 useful, genial, and delightful men I have 
 ever met have been impetuous Peters 
 true and honest disciples, but afflicted 
 with the unhappy knack of occasionally 
 doing the right thing in the wrong way. 
 They seem to possess every other virtue 
 except caution and prudence. And yet
 
 WHA T IS A GENTLEMAN? 27 
 
 what a gentleman this erratic kind of fel- 
 low sometimes is ! How sunny his 
 smile, how loving his heart, how honest 
 his voice, how firm the grip of his hand, 
 and, alas ! how unreliable his promises I 
 Write him a long and important letter, 
 and insist in several postscripts on an 
 immediate reply. You may, by means 
 of unusually favorable circumstances or 
 a wet day, receive an answer within a 
 week ; but it is more likely that after 
 many days he will be surprised by finding 
 your letter in an odd corner, and write off 
 an apologetic but almost illegible postcard. 
 We all know the man, nimble-minded, 
 keen-witted, and apparently reckless, al- 
 ways eager to listen to a new story, al- 
 ways ready with a good yarn in return. 
 He has boundless energy, never-failing 
 vivacity, and a heart that overflows with 
 love. There is no game or recreation 
 that he does not dabble in. He can ride 
 any kind of cycle, he revels in cricket,
 
 28 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 and he can swim like a duck. But he 
 flies from one to the other with the most 
 delightful inconsistency, one day perspir- 
 ing at lawn tennis, a week later rowing 
 as if for dear life, and anon ready to enter 
 into an ardent dispute with any man who 
 dares to assert that gymnastics do not form 
 the best exercise in the world. In one 
 word, he is a rocket he may go up, he 
 may splutter and fall. If he does go up 
 there is sure to be a brilliant display, for 
 his ability is undeniable, and his career is 
 only hindered from being a conspicuous 
 success by his erratic and disorderly 
 methods. But look at him and tell me 
 if he is not a gentleman. See how he 
 dries the falling tear ; observe how read- 
 ily he bears the bitterest inconvenience 
 in order to do a service for a man who is 
 "down" ; notice how he stints himself 
 that he may help any prodigal who hap- 
 pens to be "hard up" ; see how the tiny 
 children love this great-hearted, merry,
 
 WHA T IS A GENTLEMAN? 29 
 
 boyish fellow, climbing all over him, ca- 
 ressing his rough face, and pulling his 
 grizzly beard. Yes, this man knows 
 something of the gentlemanly Carpenter 
 of Nazareth, or he could not be so re- 
 freshingly frank, so transparently sincere, 
 so sublimely unselfish. After all, I would 
 rather have the rugged warmth of a fire- 
 work than the prim and pompous frigidity 
 of an iceberg. 
 
 But let us come to close quarters, and 
 inquire into some of the indispensable 
 characteristics of a gentleman. In the 
 first place, he is brimming over with 
 brotherliness. Not only is this the first 
 indication of gentlemanliness it is the 
 very essence and heart of true Christian- 
 ity. The Apostle John evidently thought 
 so, for he said, in his frank, straightfor- 
 ward way, that "If a man say, I love 
 God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar "; 
 and again, " Let us love one another, for 
 love is of God ; and every one that loveth
 
 30 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 is born of God and knoweth God "; and 
 then, in a burst of indignation, he de- 
 clares that the man who hates his brother 
 is a murderer. I firmly believe that the 
 crowning necessity of the Church to-day is 
 not an austere and unbending Puritanism, 
 but a large-hearted, cheerful spirit of 
 Christian brotherliness. While we have 
 been wasting our strength in drawing up 
 resolutions, arranging our formulas, and 
 throttling enthusiasm with red tape, the 
 devil has been winning hosts of adherents 
 by means of cheerful resorts, bright music, 
 and good fellowship. The shallow critic 
 cannot save the world even the skillful 
 theologian cannot do it. What we want 
 is sympathy. There are men who have 
 fallen in the tragedy of life, and, bleeding 
 and forlorn, they need the hearty hand- 
 giasp, the friendly help ol brotherly men. 
 We must cast away our supercilious self- 
 conceit and our chilling cynicism. We 
 must get hold of those who have been over-
 
 WHAT fS A GENTLEMAN? 31 
 
 come of evil, and cheer them with words 
 of hope, and encourage them to begin a 
 better life. We must treat with infinite 
 tenderness bewildered, misguided, un- 
 happy souls who have blundered and 
 fallen, and are gradually sinking into 
 despair. Such men will be repulsed by a 
 tract, they will resent an arrogant inquisi- 
 tion into their intellectual eccentricities, 
 But we may love them to Christ. We may 
 gently succor them from their evil selves 
 and show them the noble character, 
 the mysterious self-sacrifice, and the 
 resistless power of Him who was the 
 Friend and Savior of thieves and harlots. 
 All brotherliness must begin at the Cross. 
 Inspired by the supreme revelation of the 
 Father's love, we shall lose our unworthy 
 pride, our reckless ambition, and our false 
 notions of respectability, and learn the first 
 lesson of gentlemanliness, which is to love 
 our brother even as Christ has loved us. 
 Then you will always notice that a gen-
 
 32 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 tleman possesses a dexterous and most de- 
 lightful tact. I think it was Dr. Culross 
 who, at a gathering of young men, gave 
 an admirable example of this quality. 
 He said that at a certain breakfast a guest 
 upset a cup, and its contents soiled 
 the cloth. A neighbor quietly placed a 
 vase of flowers over the stain, and thus 
 hid the blot with beatity. Another story 
 occurs to # me about General Grant, who 
 avoided taking Lee's presentation sword 
 at the capitulation without either " clumsy 
 bluntness or caddish showiness," simply 
 by adding this to the terms, " All officers 
 to retain their side-arms." A third ex- 
 ample is given by Mr. R. L. Stevenson, 
 who reminds us of how Wellington, 
 meeting Marmont years after Salamanca, 
 was asked by the agreeable marshal his 
 opinion of the battle. "I early per- 
 ceived," was his gentle reply, " that your 
 excellency had been wounded." I men- 
 tion these incidents to explain what I
 
 WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? 33 
 
 mean by a " dexterous tact" a considera- 
 tion for the feelings of others, a desire to 
 put people at their ease, and to make the 
 best of a trying situation. After all, this 
 is summed up in the Christian law of 
 bearing one another's burdens, and of 
 doing to others as we would others should 
 do to us. 
 
 But if we imitate the gentlemanliness 
 of Jesus we shall go further, we shall look 
 for the good in men, we shall try to ig- 
 nore their weaknesses, and our judgments 
 will be very kind. We must remember 
 that no man is utterly and irretrievably 
 bad. We all have a good side to our char- 
 acter a Dr. Jekyll, who is generous and 
 charitable and upright. And alas! what 
 life is not embittered and hampered by a 
 ghostly Mr. Hyde, black with iniquity, 
 terrible with hatred, scorched with hell! 
 Hercules, the strong man, had a robe 
 sent to him poisoned with blood. He 
 put it on, and as soon as it became warm
 
 34 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 the poison entered his flesh ; he could 
 not tear it from him, and he died, strong 
 man as he was. The evil spirit is part of 
 us, it destroys our rest, it assails us at oui 
 weakest points, and when we would do 
 good there is the desperate and deadly 
 temptation to be reckoned with, and 
 sometimes we are swept along before the 
 withering blast of our unrestrained pas- 
 sions. Life is a mixed quantity. We 
 are bad for a time, then we rise up and 
 declare that we will be Christ's men. 
 We pray with eager desire and intense 
 earnestness, and immediately afterwards 
 give both hands to the devil. One day 
 we are cursed with hideous and soul- 
 haunting thoughts, and the very next day 
 blessed with all the calm of heaven's 
 peace. Our life is a maze, a tangled 
 mystery, a grim tragedy. The great les- 
 son to be learnt from this duality of pur- 
 pose is that no character is altogether 
 bad. The worst part of a man's nature
 
 WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? 35 
 
 may have caught our attention, and we 
 instantly condemn him as a most hopeless 
 and degraded sinner. What blind injus- 
 tice I He may all the time be fighting a 
 winning battle with a thousand tempta- 
 tions of which we know nothing. So 
 we must cultivate a gentlemanly kindness 
 in our criticisms, knowing that we shall 
 often experience the pain of defeat ere 
 we know the glory of ultimate victory. 
 
 Among other unmistakable indications 
 of true gentlemanliness are chivalry and 
 unselfishness. He is no gentleman, but 
 the meanest and most contemptible of 
 creatures, who is unclean in thought and 
 unchaste in life. One of the most re- 
 markable characteristics of gentlemanli- 
 ness lies in the fact that it is not so very 
 far removed from womanliness. It has a 
 sacred modesty, a tender regard and re- 
 spect for weakness and loneliness and in- 
 feriority, a deep and genuine reverence 
 for the innocence and purity of woman-
 
 3 6 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 hood. But, you say, how about manli- 
 ness ? I reply by asking another ques- 
 tion, Do you know what manliness 
 means ? It signifies virtue. When 
 Garfield said, " I shall try and become a 
 man ; if I do not succeed in that I shall 
 be good for nothing," he did not mean 
 that his ambition was to be merely big 
 and boisterous and robust, he desired to 
 become gentle and strong and good. 
 Vice is no mark of cleverness or manli- 
 ness. It is a shameful, devilish thing that 
 scars the soul, wounds the heart, rends 
 the whole life asunder, and turns the fu- 
 ture into darkness. 
 
 There is one other mark of the highest 
 Christian gentlemanliness it absolutely 
 prohibits sickening personalities in con- 
 versation. "There are times," says Dr. 
 John Hall, "when we are compelled to 
 say, 4 1 do not think Bouncer is a true and 
 honest man.' But where there is no 
 need to express an opinion, let poor
 
 WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? 37 
 
 Bouncer swagger away. Others will 
 take his measure no doubt, and save you 
 the trouble of analyzing him and instruct- 
 ing them." The gentlemanly thing to do 
 is to dwell as much as possible on the 
 best side of human nature. Healthy 
 men will not wish to dine at a dissecting 
 table. Instead of retailing petty gossip 
 about people, and criticising small mis- 
 takes, and exaggerating trifling defects, 
 rise higher, speak of nobler things, man- 
 lier thoughts, loftier objects, and try and 
 keep the atmosphere pure and fragrant 
 with charity and brotherly love. Per- 
 haps it has not occurred to you that to 
 ridicule or slander an absent man is the 
 most vulgar and cowardly thing you can 
 do. The Apostle has told us that " the 
 tongue is a fire," and we know it is so. 
 Nothing stabs so deep as slanderous and 
 bitter words. Avoid suspicion, resent- 
 ment, subtle and base insinuations, and 
 scorn to indulge in unwholesome gossip ;
 
 38 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 for, as Cardinal Newman wisely said, the 
 true gentleman " has no ears for slander, 
 never takes an unfair advantage, and in- 
 terprets everything for the best."
 
 III. 
 
 hOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 
 
 Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
 
 Act ivell your part, there all the honor lies. POPE. 
 
 " To be at work, to do things for the -world, to turn the 
 currents of the thing's about us at our will, to make 
 our existence a positive element, even though it be no 
 bigger than a grain of sand, in this great system 
 where we live, that is a new joy of -which the idle 
 man kno-ws no more than the mole kno-ws of the 
 sunshine, or the serpent of the eagle's triumphant 
 flight into the upper air. The man -who kno-ws indeed 
 what it is to act, to -work, cries out, ' This, this alone is 
 to li ve ! ' " PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 THE world is full of insignicant peo- 
 ple. They are born, they go to school, 
 they work, they eat, they sleep, they 
 talk rather frivolously, they live very 
 aimlessly, and one day they die, and the 
 world is not much the poorer because of 
 their disappearance. A few men strug- 
 gle to the front, rise beyond the humdrum 
 level of the crowd, and make their voices 
 heard above the common clamor. But
 
 40 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 as for the rest, they are insignificant. 
 Why? Because it is the easiest thing in 
 the world. 
 
 Probably the surest way to be insignifi- 
 cant is to inherit wealth. It is generally 
 the greatest possible curse for a man to 
 begin life in opulence. It ties his hands, 
 lowers his ambition, and narrows his sym- 
 pathies. He is fettered by fashion, and 
 bound tightly by the conventional preju- 
 dices of society. He will not succeed in 
 journalism, for he cannot bend his back 
 to begin with the daily drudgery. He 
 will hardly consent to soil his hands in 
 trade ; and as for science and art, why 
 should he endure the long toil and severe 
 training of the student when he can oc- 
 cupy the pleasurable position of the pa- 
 tron ? Except in a few remarkable cases, 
 the young man who enters on life's 
 tragedy to the music of jingling gold 
 plays an insignificant part, far from 
 danger, and therefore far from honor.
 
 HOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 41 
 
 My brother, be extremely thankful if you 
 are thrown entirely on your own re- 
 sources. Many of the men who have 
 won the highest success in commerce and 
 science and art, many of the boldest re- 
 formers, most brilliant writers, and most 
 forceful orators, have been men who 
 commenced life without a penny in their 
 pockets. One of the best men I have 
 ever known once thoughtlessly sneered 
 at a young journalist because he lacked 
 the supposed advantage of a college edu- 
 cation. He did not know that the suc- 
 cessful journalists in the city of London 
 this day who can put B.A. after their 
 names can be comfortably counted on the 
 fingers of one hand. The smartestjour- 
 nalist in that city to-day had no schooling 
 after he reached twelve years of age, ex- 
 cept what he gained by his own unaided 
 efforts. It may seem the strangest para- 
 dox, but it is nevertheless a simple unde- 
 niable fact, that poverty is often one of
 
 42 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 the greatest blessings a man can have in 
 beginning his career. It nerves him for 
 the battle, it hinders self-indulgence, and 
 it is a sure preventive of laziness. 
 
 Another certain method of acquiring 
 insignificance is a love of ease. "Any- 
 thing for a quiet life" is the motto which 
 has ruined the prospects of thousands. 
 The man who is content to exist the 
 man who says that work is an excellent 
 thing, and he would rather enjoy a short 
 spell of it, but he feels that " to work be- 
 tween meals is not good for the diges- 
 tion" that man will always^be miserably 
 small and contemptibly insignificant. 
 You have got to climb the ladder of life 
 there is no elevator to take you up. There 
 are prizes to be had, but you must ivin 
 them they will not drop into your hands. 
 Do you wish to avoid insignificance and 
 rise to some nobler height of work and 
 character and attainment ? Then you 
 must be ready not only to take opportu-
 
 HOW. TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 43 
 
 nities, but to make them. You must be 
 trenuous in effort, dogged in persever- 
 ance, indomitable in courage, and cheer- 
 ful and alert in mind. When Cromwell 
 was asked to postpone an enterprise and 
 "wait till the iron was hot," he bravely 
 replied that he would make the iron hot 
 by striking it. That is the dauntless 
 spirit we want to-day the spirit which 
 laughs at difficulty, and is not to be 
 turned aside from its ambition by all the 
 amiable warnings of prudence or timidity. 
 There is one hymn which is sometimes 
 sung at revival meetings we do not 
 hear it so often now. It begins 
 
 Oh, to be nothing, nothing. 
 
 Now if that is your ambition, you can 
 easily gratify it. Nothingness is soon 
 achieved. But surely no young man with 
 a healthy mind and a Christ-like spirit 
 will be deceived by this hideous mockery
 
 44 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 and caricature of true humility. To want 
 to be nothing is an insult to the God who 
 made you. Was it worth while bringing 
 you into the world to whine and cant 
 about being nothing ? Rouse yourself 
 and think ! God has surrounded you 
 with a wealth of privileges and an infini- 
 tude of priceless blessings. You inherit 
 all the wisdom and genius and benevo- 
 lence of the ages riches that are vast, 
 golden, immortal. You are placed within 
 reach of the noblest possibilities ; you 
 have all the help and advantage which 
 come of dwelling in a Christian and civil- 
 ized land ; you live in an age when the 
 zeal and ardor and strength of young 
 men are greatly in demand, and when the 
 opportunities for usefulness are singularly 
 favorable ; and yet in the meanest, lazi- 
 est, most spiritless fashion you ask to be 
 " nothing, nothing." Give up, once for 
 all, this cowardly and characterless whim- 
 pering. Be something. Be a man I
 
 HOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 45 
 
 Shake off your dull sloth and rise to a 
 nobler life. Do you murmur about the 
 fierce and relentless competition ? There 
 is no competition at the top. The crowd 
 is at the bottom ; but look ahead, battle 
 forward, fight your way against every 
 difficulty, valiantly overcome every obsta- 
 cle, and by the time you have climbed 
 half-way to success you will find that the 
 throng which once pressed around you 
 begins to thin and disappear. And when 
 by skill and industry, faith and fortitude, 
 pluck and perseverence, you have attained 
 the height you set your young heart on 
 reaching, you wjll discover that there is 
 no competition there you will then be 
 able to dictate your own terms, and 
 claim the adequate reward of honest, 
 skillful, earnest work. 
 
 Yet another most fruitful cause of in- 
 significance is what I should call " time- 
 frittering." Some months ago several of 
 the most prominent ministers in New
 
 46 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 York were persuaded to give their views 
 on "The Best Use of Leisure," for the 
 guidance of young men. I am not sure 
 that there is any topic of much greater 
 importance than this, for you can generally 
 tell the character of a man with almost in- 
 fallible accuracy, by the way in which he 
 uses his leisure hours. Time-frittering is 
 undoubtedly the besetting sin of the young 
 men of to-day. Thousands of fellows 
 turn with horror from actual dissipation. 
 But their virtue is of a negative and 
 therefore of a very worthless kind. They 
 abstain from evil, but they never do any 
 good. The worst and most costly ex- 
 travagance of which you can be guilty is 
 to throw away your evenings. They are 
 golden opportunities for which you are 
 responsible, and of which you should 
 make the best and highest use. One of 
 the most popular of our writers and ora- 
 tors was once asked how he managed to 
 get through such a prodigious amount of
 
 HOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 47 
 
 work. " Simply by organizing my time," 
 he replied. It is by this invaluable habit 
 of organizing your leisure hours that you 
 will be able to " wrestle from life its uses 
 and gather from life its beauty." It is won- 
 derful what may be accomplished by de- 
 voting the evenings to some useful study 
 or helpful recreation. Earnest and per- 
 sistent students have learnt several lan- 
 guages in the odd hours of a busy career. 
 Never be afraid of giving up one or two 
 nights a week to your books. " Knowl- 
 edge is power " all the world over, and 
 what you learn will be sure to come in 
 useful one day. It is an old saying, but 
 I may repeat it with advantage, that 
 " Time-wasting in youth is one of the 
 mistakes which are beyond correction." 
 Let me mention two more paths to 
 insignificance. One is the loss of a good 
 name. A blasted reputation will carry 
 you into nothingness at express speed. 
 Lose your character, and men will drop
 
 48 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 you with stinging promptitude, and you 
 will sink into the lowest depths of insig- 
 nificance. Scarcely anybody will want 
 to know you nobody will employ you, 
 and only a few Christ-like souls will be 
 ready to lend you a helping hand. We 
 are too apt to read the Bible nowadays 
 as if it were an old-world story, which 
 has no bearing on the practical matters 
 of everyday business. But has it never 
 struck you that " a good name is rather 
 to be chosen than great riches," even as 
 a worldly investment ? Punctuality, con- 
 centration of effort, ceaseless energy, and 
 many other qualifications, will help a 
 man forward ; but, possessing all these, 
 he may yet be a miserable failure 
 if he has not a good name. Character 
 stands for a good deal, even in these days 
 of fraud and deceit. A band of thieves 
 will want an honest treasurer, and men 
 who are themselves full of trickery will 
 appreciate a sturdy, honest character in
 
 HOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 49 
 
 others. The young man whose word 
 cannot be relied upon, whose honesty is 
 not beyond suspicion, and whose personal 
 life is not clean, will search in vain for a 
 position in the business world to-day. 
 Be careful that you never lose your good 
 name. It may take you ten or twenty 
 years to gain a high and spotless reputa- 
 tion, but you can easily destroy it in ten 
 minutes ; and a man who has once proved 
 himself unworthy to be trusted will find 
 it an almost helpless task to win back 
 confidence and regard. He may even 
 possess influence, and family position, and 
 hosts of friends ; but the way upward 
 will be hard and thorny, because he once 
 surrendered his reputation. Be on your 
 guard, be watchful and vigilant ; let him 
 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
 he fall. Count your good name as a 
 possession above price, and by the strong 
 help of your Father God, never permit it 
 to soiled or sullied. Honesty is better
 
 50 FIRSTS A TTLES. 
 
 than brilliance ; purity and uprightness 
 are greater than dash and cleverness. 
 
 I must refer to one other way in which 
 you may become insignificant it is by 
 turning your back on God. Do that, 
 and although you are decorated with all 
 the tinsel honors of the world, your sel- 
 fish, shrivelled, narrow little soul will be a 
 daily torment to you. The foundation of 
 all true success is an unswerving fidelity 
 to the highest religious principle. I like 
 to think of George Moore the uncouth 
 country boy going to London with 
 little education, less money, and no intro- 
 duction ; indeed, with nothing but a brave 
 heart and a fervent trust in his God. At 
 first he met with the keenest disappoint- 
 ments, but his manly courage never gave 
 way. He was determined not to sink 
 into nothingness and insignificance. He 
 pushed, and prayed, and persevered, and 
 the opening soon came, as it always does 
 to vigorous and high-minded fellows, and
 
 HOW TO BE INSIGNIFICANT. 51 
 
 after some years George Moore, the mer- 
 chant prince, was giving away money at 
 the rate of $80,000 a year. He would 
 not have achieved this if he had been 
 a thoughtless, shiftless, lounging ne'er- 
 do-well. The great secret of his won- 
 derful success was his simple unaffected 
 piety. Men trusted him implicitly be- 
 cause of his genuine godliness. Brothers, 
 never imagine for a moment that Chris- 
 tianity is a vapid, fastidious, sentimental 
 thing. The truest heroes have been the 
 truest Christians. Think of Paul and 
 Luther, and Havelock and Gordon, Gen- 
 eral Lee and strong, noble, manly souls, 
 unfettered by guile or meanness, unfal- 
 tering in their transparent sincerity of 
 character, and in their unbending loyalty 
 to truth. Believe me, nothing will do so 
 much to save a man from insignificance 
 as a chivalrous, upright character, and a 
 simple, stalwart faith in God.
 
 52 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 Go forth 'mong men, not mailed in scorn, 
 
 But in the armor of a pure intent ; 
 
 Great duties are before you, and great aims, 
 
 And whether crowned or crownless when you fall, 
 
 It matters not, so be God's work is done.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE- 
 
 " We must deal -with pleasures as -we do -with honey, only 
 touch them with the tip of the finger, and not with 
 the -whole hand, for fear of surfeit.'' 1 VENERABLE 
 BEDE. 
 
 " They came to a delicate plain called Ease, where they 
 ^vcnt with much content, but that plain was but narrow, 
 so they were quickly got over it." PILGRIM'S PRO- 
 GRESS. 
 
 PLEASURE is the most uncertain thing in 
 the world. That which gives one man 
 a glow of genuine happiness is to another 
 man nothing but unutterable weariness. 
 And more remarkable still, that which 
 bores a man at one time will delight him 
 at another. But the strangest character- 
 istic of pleasure is this : that it is not to be 
 bought with money, or acquired by effort, 
 or secured by influence. " Fly pleasure," 
 says Shakespeare, " and it will follow 
 thee." And we may well add, " Pursue 
 it, and it will utterly fade away." Pleas- 
 
 (53)
 
 54 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 ures are transitory, mysterious, and, to a 
 large extent, dangerous. They are dan- 
 gerous in this sense, that they need to be 
 governed, restrained, and limited by wis- 
 dom, by piety, and by Christian sagacity. 
 The transient and evanescent nature 
 of pleasure is seen in the fact that half 
 the enjoyment of life is in anticipation. 
 How the keen, shrewd man of business 
 revels in his work 1 To him it is full of 
 romance, interest, and excitement. He 
 has made up his mind to succeed, to at- 
 tain a high reputation, to build up a great 
 career, and to earn a fortune. Now look 
 ahead. He has completed his task and 
 retired from work. All his desires are 
 more than fulfilled, and life would seem 
 to be a garden of beauty and comfort and 
 unsullied joy. That is where you are 
 mistaken. He is miserable. He has 
 acquired a huge fortune, but his happiest 
 days were spent in making it ; and he 
 would give a good deal to be back in the
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE. 55 
 
 dingy little city office, where he planned 
 his campaigns and enjoyed his triumphs. 
 All the pleasure, you see, was in the 
 anticipation. 
 
 This is often the case, also, in planning 
 a holiday. For weeks beforehand you 
 spend long hours in poring over guide- 
 books, studying time-tables, working out 
 routes, and interviewing tourist agents. 
 What a time you are going to enjoy ! 
 And when the tour begins, you wonder 
 what you left home for. Was it to see 
 this ? Is that the paradise pictured in 
 the guide-books and praised in the rail- 
 way advertisements ? It is grand, cer- 
 tainly ; but you expected so much more. 
 All the pleasure was in the anticipation. 
 So when you visit a great man, you look 
 fowrard with eager delight to the match- 
 less wit and the lofty wisdom you will 
 gain from his lips. And when the inter- 
 view is over, you are asking to what 
 accident that man owes his reputation.
 
 56 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 He was positively dull ; and yet the 
 world hangs upon his utterances. 
 
 Superficial as pleasure is, it occupies a 
 very large and prominent part in life. 
 Men will do for pleasure what nothing 
 else under heaven could prevail upon 
 them to attempt. See the athletic young 
 men grinding their bicycles up a steep hill 
 till the machines groan under the desper- 
 ate and painful effort. If requested by 
 their employers to work with half this 
 zeal and persistence, they would promatly 
 and indignantly resign. See the dense 
 swaying mass of people outside a theatre, 
 clamoring for admission. They will en- 
 dure the utmost inconvenience and dis- 
 comfort in order to obtain a few hours 
 of recreation. The love of pleasure in- 
 fluences the masses with magnetic effect. 
 It is hardly an exaggeration to say that 
 the man who writes a popular song exerts 
 a greater power than the man who pro- 
 duces a thousand sermons. The most
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE. 57 
 
 brilliant discourse will only reach a few 
 thousand hearers ; and even when the 
 press gives it wings, and sends it flutter- 
 ing through ten thousand homes, its work 
 is still limited. But think of the immeas- 
 urable power of song. A million sermons 
 would not reach the people who have 
 been influenced by the " Lost Chord" or 
 the "Better Land." 
 
 It is time that the Church took her 
 part in providing rational pleasures for 
 the people. Why not start a music-hall 
 and run it on right lines, without beer 
 and without vulgarity ? Why should 
 Christianity calmly submit to be outdone 
 in this direction ? With certain classes 
 the Church has absolutely no chance. Its 
 doors are opened on fifty days in the 
 year, but the theatres and the music halls 
 are busy for three hundred days in the 
 year, and it is not difficult for the devil to 
 outdo in six nights the good which the 
 Church has accomplished in one. We
 
 58 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 want some one to do for the people's 
 amusements what the London Religious 
 Tract Society, and many private firms 
 have done for the people's literature. In 
 one case the argument is this : " Here are 
 bad books that stir np evil passions, dis- 
 seminate degrading thoughts, and work 
 the ruin of the people. Now books are 
 not in themselves bad. Let us therefore 
 provide good reading, that shall be as 
 interesting and attractive as the bad ; 
 reading that shall be pure but not puri- 
 tanical, mildly exciting but not contamin- 
 ating and scrofulous." Why should we 
 not reason in the same eminently wise 
 and practical way regarding amusements ? 
 Let us argue thus : " Here is a great 
 city, absolutely honeycombed with places 
 of amusement. Some of them are hope- 
 lessly bad and demoralizing, the atmos- 
 phere is foetid and enervating, and the en- 
 tertainment is often unblushingly filthy. 
 And yet amusement is not necessarily an
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE. 59 
 
 evil. It has been shown that there is a 
 profitable market for good books. Why 
 not also as large a demand for pure pleas- 
 ures ? Let us therefore provide laughter 
 that shall be clean, merriment that shall 
 have no pain in it, pleasure that shall 
 never be the forerunner of torment." 
 The wise and Christian policy is to sup- 
 port and promote the good, and to reject 
 and annihilate the evil. Pure amuse- 
 ments would do as much to promote the 
 welfare of the people as high-class fiction 
 has done. 
 
 I cannot imagine any man finding sat- 
 isfactory delight in dancing. There may 
 be no harm in a quiet dance amongst the 
 home circle. But the public dancing- 
 rooms are nothing less than dens of de- 
 struction. Dancing, when indulged in at 
 promiscuous assemblies, has two grave 
 dangers. There is a tendency to make it 
 the .one business of life ; indeed, I have 
 known men whose conversation seldom
 
 60 FfRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 rose beyond vague and mysterious dis- 
 cussions regarding the relative value of 
 the waltz and schottisch. It also leads to 
 late hours, and you may be quite sure that 
 the young man who turns up at business 
 in evening dress, with sleepy eyes, weary 
 frame, and a splitting headache, will soon 
 find himself presented with an indefinite 
 holiday. Dancing has been described as 
 " hugging to music, " and it is undoubted- 
 ly true that, apart from the music, Mrs. 
 Grundy would soon step in and put a stop 
 to the whole business. It is said that 
 dancing leads to marriage. That may be 
 true ; but who would care to look for a 
 wife amongst the giddy, thoughtless, 
 gushing creatures at a public dance ? 
 
 Pleasure is an excellent thing if it is 
 well chosen, wisely guarded and vigor- 
 ously controlled. So long as you can 
 master it and keep it in its place, all will 
 be well ; but give yourself up to it, and 
 the Biblical prophecy shall be fulfilled,
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE. 61 
 
 " He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor 
 man." The most pleasureless man in the 
 world is the man whose whole life is de- 
 voted to the pursuit of pleasure. Pleas- 
 ure is like fire a useful and indispensable 
 servant, but a dangerous and fatal master. 
 A room with a fire in it is comfortable ; 
 a room all fire means death and destruc- 
 tion. So it is with pleasure. A life with 
 pleasure in it is entirely right and satisfac- 
 tory ; but a life all pleasure is not life at 
 all, the grand purposes of life are forgot- 
 ten, the noblest ideals are buried under a 
 load of reckless mirth and senseless tom- 
 foolery. 
 
 I am not speaking rashly, but with 
 careful forethought, and as the result of 
 some years of observation and experience, 
 when I say that the cause of failure in five 
 out of every six young men is the insane 
 passion for pleasure. Thousands of men 
 come to the large cities every year, all 
 bent upon success. What is the result?
 
 62 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 Their great aims are soon forgotten, their 
 youthly enthusiasm quickly cools, and 
 they have to rub along with a small wage 
 which hardly keeps them alive. The 
 cause is not always to be found in lack of 
 ability or failure of character. It lies in a 
 love of debilitating and unwholesome 
 pleasures. When they should be en- 
 gaged in healthful physical exercises or in 
 strenuous mental improvement, they are 
 kicking up their heels in a dancing-hall, or 
 stewing in the gallery of a third-rate the- 
 atre. Such men will fail, inevitably and 
 completely. They will sink by degrees. 
 Gambling will fascinate them, strong 
 drink will stupefy them, bad men will vic- 
 timise them, and through love of pleasure 
 they will become "poor men," stunted in 
 intellect, enfeebled in body, ruined in soul. 
 Beware, then, my brothers, of riotous 
 and irrational pleasures. The disillusion- 
 ment is swift and terrible, and leaves a 
 lasting scar behind. The pleasures that
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF PLEASURE. 63 
 
 satisfy and invigorate are to be found in 
 sturdy exercise, in healthful rambles 
 through the verdant country, or amid the 
 exquisite and ever-varying delights of the 
 sea-shore, in the enjoyment of good 
 books, noble pictures, and soul-stirring 
 music. These are pleasures upon which 
 you can ask the blessing of God, pleas- 
 ures in which you can look for the com- 
 panionship of your Master, Christ. They 
 may not excite, but they recreate, and 
 that is what you want. Remember, no 
 man has a right to any enjoyment until he 
 has earned it by steady, persevering toil. 
 Before you can properly appreciate an 
 evening's pleasure, you must do a day's 
 work, and do it with thoroughness and 
 alacrity. Those who never do any work 
 never enjoy a holiday. 
 
 Remember, also and this is the chief 
 thing after all that the truest pleasure to 
 be found on earth is in self-sacrificing, 
 Christian service. The only happy life is
 
 64 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 that which is lived "unto God." Spend 
 much of your leisure in trying .o bring 
 heaven's rest nearer to earth's weariness. 
 Succour the helpless, stand up for the op- 
 pressed, oppose every prevailing evil, seek 
 the highest welfare of men, and you will 
 experience a sacred rapture in the glow- 
 ing brightness of which all earth's super- 
 ficial pleasures will rapidly fade away. 
 Such work will prevent all morbid intro- 
 spection, all the wretched ennui of a self- 
 centred existence, and it will drive away 
 all melancholy and gloom. The only last- 
 ing pleasure is that which is found in an 
 inflexible allegiance to duty, and in earn- 
 est social service for Jesus Christ.
 
 THfS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 FLOY T. BARKMAN 
 
 V. 
 
 CHRIST AND COWAERCE- 
 
 " 0, -while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil" 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 IF there is anything which Christianity 
 needs to-day it is the practical and sagac- 
 ious help of business men. Christianity 
 has suffered more from the dense stupid- 
 ity of some of its followers than from the 
 venomous opposition of all its enemies. 
 A lazy, half-hearted, careless Christian 
 can do more harm to Christ's cause than 
 the most unscrupulous atheist. And if 
 there is anything which commerce needs 
 to-day, it is the cleansing .ennobling influ- 
 ence of Christianity. The men who are 
 immersed in the burning excitement and 
 relentless whirl of business will be almost 
 surprised if you tell them that Christian- 
 ity is of far greater importance than all 
 their commerce. They will laugh with 
 
 (66) 
 
 THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 CHAPLAIN FLOY T. BARK MAN
 
 66 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 a scornful incredulity, but it is a simple 
 fact nevertheless. And for this reason, 
 that commerce builds a fortune, but 
 Christianity builds a character ; commerce 
 gives you a bank balance, but Christianity 
 gives you an unfailing fund of happiness ; 
 commerce makes money, but Christianity 
 makes men. And it makes what Carlyle 
 used to call, "upright, downright, straight- 
 forward, all-round men." It smashes the 
 unjust weights, breaks in pieces the fraud- 
 ulent measures, banishes all trickery and 
 cunning, kills the ready and plausible lie, 
 and enables weak, imperfect, tempted 
 men to practice the highest truthfulness 
 and the sturdiest honesty. 
 
 I fear it must be admitted that these 
 are days of great commercial corruption. 
 There is, for instance, a despiciable sys- 
 tem of bribery which is cleverly and con- 
 veniently disguised by such terms as 
 " commissions " and " presents." It is 
 time that all this trickery should be abol-
 
 CHRIST AND COMMERCE. 67 
 
 ished, so that the polished rogues who 
 have for so long waxed fat on the " usual 
 commission," may be compelled to give 
 up their secret spoils and enjoy the re- 
 freshing novelty of honest work. Then 
 there is the scandalous and revolting sys- 
 tem of " sweating," and many other foul 
 systems of oppression and injustice, which 
 indicate that the commercial atmosphere 
 sadly needs the purifying influence of a 
 living Christianity. 
 
 The Churches have been greatly to 
 blame for much of the anti-Christian 
 character of present-day commerce. 
 They have busied themselves with theo- 
 logical sham-fights, and have played at 
 conflicts in the clouds, when they ought 
 to have descended into the actual throb- 
 bing, palpitating life of the people and 
 fought a stern battle for uprightness and 
 rectitude. And they have smilingly and 
 gratefully accepted the haughty patronage 
 and substantial checks of their wealthy
 
 68 FIXS T BA TTLES. 
 
 supporters, without a single inquiry as to 
 the glaring immoralities by which these 
 men had heaped up their ill-gotten spoils. 
 Henceforth the battle of Christianity will, 
 to a large extent, have to be fought out 
 in the counting-house and the ware-house. 
 And the victory will not have been won 
 so long as it is possible for men to be re- 
 ceived with ringing cheers in religious 
 assemblies, while they are grinding the 
 life out of their unhappy employes, and 
 indulging in practices which may be re- 
 garded in the city as commercially expe- 
 dient, but looked at in the light of Christ's 
 gospel are absolutely antagonistic to truth 
 and righteousness. 
 
 There is one lie which needs to be 
 promptly and publicly exposed. I refer 
 to the miserable delusion which supposes 
 that a man cannot be at once honest and 
 successful in business. The best answer 
 to this debasing theory is to be found in 
 the lives of such men as the late William
 
 CHRIST AND COMMERCE. 69 
 
 
 E. Dodge, of New York, and Samuel 
 
 Morley, of London. They were as un- 
 swervingly upright as they were enor- 
 mously prosperous. It is an undeniable 
 fact that the principles of the sermon on 
 the Mount, when faithfully carried out, 
 form the surest guide to genuine success 
 in the market-place of to-day. The man 
 who gains a reputation for scrupulous 
 fidelity is the man everybody will want 
 to do business with. Let him guard the 
 most trivial details of his business with 
 tender jealously, let him discharge every 
 obligation with rigorous exactness, and 
 then when success crowns his efforts, he 
 will have maintained what is worth far 
 more than countless fortunes, an un- 
 stained name, an unsullied record, and a 
 conscience void of offence. 
 
 " But," says a young man, " I have 
 been honest, but I have not been success- 
 ful." Of course not ! Merely negative 
 virtues are absolutely valueless. The
 
 70 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 office boy is not promoted because he 
 never stole the stamps, but on account 
 of his energy and vigilance, his ability and 
 intelligence. The post assigned to you 
 now may seem woefully small and unim- 
 portant, but it is just the way in which 
 you do or neglect these apparently trifling 
 duties that will make or mar your future. 
 Never be discouraged because your pres- 
 ent position is humble and obscure. If 
 you sit down and mourn you will never 
 get on. Do you want a better place ? 
 Then outgrow the one you are in. Do 
 your present work lowly and monoto- 
 nous as it may seem with as much vigor 
 and care as if it were of crowning im- 
 portance. Fit yourself by strenuous cul- 
 ture for the opportunity which will surely 
 come. But never dream that you can be 
 a success because you abstain from down- 
 right evil. You have got to do some- 
 thing, and what is more, you have got to 
 do it well, do it better than you have ever
 
 CHRIST AND COMMERCE. 71 
 
 done it before, and do it better than any- 
 body else can do it. Then success is sure 
 to follow. 
 
 Do you think that business life is hum- 
 drum and prosaic ? That shows how 
 little you know about it. I tell you it is 
 full of sublimest romance and deepest in- 
 terest. You may look back longingly to 
 the days when men could make a valiant 
 stand for the right, and prove their faith- 
 fulness to God by going manfully to the 
 stake. But circumstances make no differ- 
 ence to the true hero. If you cannot 
 fight the battle of purity and virtue in a 
 city office, you would never have braved 
 the faggot-fire in the old days of martyr- 
 dom. There is a holy war to be waged 
 to-day. Never were self-sacrificing, hero- 
 ic young men so greatly needed as they 
 are now. You have to preserve your 
 own manhood chaste and pure in the midst 
 of flaring enticements to evil. You have 
 to promote a nobler spirit in commerce, a
 
 72 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 more brotherly and righteous spirit, which 
 shall lift business into a sweeter atmos- 
 phere and turn the factory into a sanctu- 
 ary. Never believe that business is a 
 dull, bald, grey, uninteresting thing. It 
 simply glows with poetry and romance. 
 Let us peep into a little city office. 
 There is a young man, with a pale and 
 haggard countenance ; he sits on a high 
 stool counting checks. He earns barely 
 two dollars a day, and yet a year or two 
 ago he had the temerity to marry a fair, 
 sweet girl. He loved her, and laughed at 
 the warnings of stern, logical, social econ- 
 omists. Now, she is thin and weak and 
 ill ; and as he left her bedside this morn- 
 ing the doctor remarked in commanding 
 tones, that wine " port, sir, good port " 
 was absolutely necessary, and that a 
 change of air would soon be advisable. 
 And on twelve dollars a week ! A fifty 
 dollar bill is in the young man's hand. 
 How he trembles ! Dare he do it ?
 
 CHRIST AND COMMERCE. 73 
 
 Three months hence the amount can be 
 repaid and no one will be the wiser. Ijt 
 is just the amount he needed ! Oh, the 
 desperate conflict ; but he is gloriously 
 victorious. He jumps from his stool, 
 defies the tempting devil, locks the 
 money in the safe, and whispers, in a 
 voice broken with tears, "Lord, help 
 me!" 
 
 Ah! the race of heroes is not extinct. 
 There is plenty of romance in the appar- 
 ently dull routine of business life. Men 
 who toil cheerily and live celibate lives in 
 order to care for a dear old mother who 
 has no other helper; great-hearted fellows 
 who might rise to wealth if they would 
 stoop to trickery, but who keep their 
 hands clean and their hearts pure in spite 
 of all the chicanery and cunning of the 
 city these are earth's truest heroes. 
 And you can do the same if you put your 
 trust in the unfailing help of a living 
 Christ.
 
 74 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 Beware of mere cleverness. There is 
 a superficial kind of shrewdness which is 
 extremely dangerous. The man who is 
 only clever is always in peril of becoming 
 a trickster ever dodging, shifting, and 
 deceiving. In these days of shallow 
 knowledge and empty boasting, men 
 need to be restrained and guided by the 
 great example of the Christ life. In the 
 Master we have all the best qualities of 
 the ideal manhood combined in a perfect 
 model. He had a mind quick to per- 
 ceive, and a soul pure and clear as the 
 noonday sun. It is for this lofty charac- 
 ter that we must strive and pray. We 
 want intellectual alacrity, but we also 
 want unflinching rectitude. " There is 
 only one post for you," said Carlyle to a 
 bad man, " and that is perpetual presi- 
 dent of the Heaven and Hell Amalgama- 
 tion Society." There are many men in 
 commerce of whom that would be true. 
 They are engaged in a hopeless attempt
 
 CHRIST AND COMMERCE. 75 
 
 to serve God and mammon to increase 
 their wealth by the maximum of swind- 
 ling, while they try to deaden their con- 
 science by the minimum of empty and 
 formal pietism. It will never do. The 
 attempt can only end in failure and dis- 
 honor and endless shame. But the man 
 who by the power of an ever-present 
 Christ has been able to conquer himself, 
 who has calmly ignored the sneers of the 
 cynic and resolutely withstood the wiles 
 of the tempter that man has in his 
 heart the sublime consciousness of having 
 done right, and his path is bathed in 
 brightness. He is governed by principle 
 instead of passion, by truth instead of 
 trickery. His soul is possessed by an 
 unspeakable peace, his heart is filled with 
 an unfaltering trust in God, and he has 
 no damning recollection of cruel wrong 
 or foul injustice to darken his outlook 
 and destroy his rest. He may not be 
 followed by the fawning adulation of
 
 76 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 men, but with the pure in heart he will 
 see God. And that will be far better 
 than if he had gained the whole world 
 and lost his own soul.
 
 VI. 
 
 ABOUT HOLIDAYS. 
 
 If thou art worn and hard beset 
 
 With troubles that you -u/ouldst forget^ 
 
 If thou -jjouldst read a lesson that -will keep 
 
 Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep t 
 
 Go to the -woods and hills ! no tears 
 
 Dim the sweet look that Nature -wears. 
 
 H. W. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 I BELIEVE no one in this world enjoys a 
 holiday more thoroughly than the hard- 
 working business young man, and for this 
 reason that fifty weeks of honest toil 
 form the best possible preparation for two 
 weeks' recreation. Many a man does 
 not think so, I admit. When he sees the 
 " gilded youths " who have nothing to do 
 from January ist to December 3ist but 
 go a-pleasuring, he looks around at his 
 dingy office, counts the weary weeks that 
 have to elapse before his humble two 
 weeks' vacation, and feels like breaking 
 
 (77)
 
 78 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 the tenth commandment. He is under 
 an immense delusion. u If all the year 
 were playing holidays, to sport would be 
 as tedious as to work. " No man revels 
 in twelve or twenty days' exemption 
 from toil like the busy worker who has 
 been plodding manfully for eleven long 
 months to earn his bread, and who, in 
 spare hours, has lived earnestly and 
 fought valiantly in order to acquire a cul- 
 tured mind and achieve a lofty character. 
 No man need forswear the luxury of a 
 holiday because he is poor. The most 
 rational and refreshing delights are gener- 
 ally the cheapest. I have had better hol- 
 idays for twenty dollars than I have had 
 for two hundred. Those who travel 
 most sometimes see the least. You may 
 rush through Europe and squander your 
 substance at fashionable hotels only to be 
 bored by the inanity of table-cThote chat- 
 ter, bewildered by the eccentricities of 
 railway porters, pestered by garrulous
 
 ABOUT HO LI DA VS. 79 
 
 guides, and broiled by the hot suns of 
 Continental cities. I shall never forget 
 the fatigue I endured after my first visit 
 to Paris. Those brilliant boulevards and 
 glittering cafes and feverish crowds how 
 J tired of them all; and how supremely 
 happy I felt for a week afterwards, rest- 
 ing in a quiet French seaside town, where 
 I could dine when I liked, dress as I 
 liked, and do what I liked, and where no 
 one thought it undignified to lie on the 
 sands in flannels with the Tauchnitz edi- 
 tion of the last new romance. I would 
 not underrate the value of a European 
 trip to a healthy young man nothing 
 surely could be more interesting or de- 
 lightful ; but for a jaded mind and a 
 weary body there is, perhaps, better relax- 
 ation to be found nearer home. There is no 
 lack of variety in temperature and scenery 
 within the compass of reasonable distance, 
 and many delightful resorts are to be dis- 
 covered by a little effort and inquiry.
 
 80 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 When Mr. Ruskin urges us to play 
 wisely as well as to work well, he gives 
 us a very necessary and important advice. 
 What can be more irrational than the 
 way in which many people spend their 
 holidays ? They frequently toil much 
 harder during what they playfully term 
 their " vacation " than under the most 
 strenuous pressure of business. They 
 either rush from monument to museum, 
 from park to picture-gallery, from cafe to 
 cathedra], in a cruel but conscientious 
 attempt to "do Europe," or else they 
 " rest " amid the shrill and vulgar 
 choruses of nigger minstrels and the mad 
 whirl of fashionable folly. All this is a 
 huge blunder. Do you follow a seden- 
 tary occupation ? Then, why not spend 
 your holiday on a wheel ? Mounted on 
 a good cycle you can roam through the 
 most charming country entirely at your 
 own sweet will. The expense is incon- 
 siderable, the exercise healthy, and the
 
 ABOUT HO LI DA VS. 8 1 
 
 enjoyment boundless. Others will prefer 
 rowing, and will gain equally beneficial 
 results. I always feel that the vain crea- 
 tures who deck themselves in gorgeous 
 raiment, squander money on unnecessary 
 luxuries, and then start up and down the 
 crowded promenade of a fashionable re- 
 sort all day, and breathe the vitiated at- 
 mosphere of the dancing saloon at night, 
 are greatly to be pitied. What do they 
 know of the simple, honest pleasures of 
 pure air, plain food, genial companionship, 
 and healthy exercise? Yet these are 
 the chief desiderata of a real holiday, and 
 while their value is priceless their cost is 
 insignificant. 
 
 How can we make sure of an exhilarat- 
 ing and thoroughly satisfactory holiday ? 
 Let me offer a few friendly suggestions. 
 (i.) By going at the right time. Sep- 
 tember is probably the best month, if you 
 can conveniently manage it. The air is 
 cool and bracing, popular resorts are not
 
 82 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 overcrowded, and the voice of the stroll- 
 ing musician is no longer heard in the 
 streets. (2.) By earning it. The man 
 who has worked perseveringly through- 
 out the year goes away with a clear con- 
 science, and enjoys his vacation with a 
 buoyancy of spirit and a lightness of 
 heart sufficient to turn the idler and 
 lounger green with envy. (3.) By pre- 
 paring for it. The joys of anticipation 
 are often greater than the pleasures of 
 realization. Having chosen a place that 
 will suit your tastes and temperament, 
 read up all the best books that refer to it, 
 plan a pleasant route, and inquire for 
 comfortable but not necessarily expen- 
 sive quarters. (4.) By sharing it 'with 
 genial companions. It is far better to 
 be alone than to endure the endless 
 cackle of feather-brained chatterers, or 
 the morbid growls of dyspeptic cynics. 
 Amongst " genial companions " I would 
 include books. To enjoy a holiday we
 
 ABOUT HOLIDA VS. 83 
 
 need not put aside all work. What we 
 want, as a rule, is not so much entire 
 rest as change of scene and occupation. 
 Why not take a few books for which no 
 time could be found in the work-days ? 
 To read about the places visited will help 
 to store the mind with useful information, 
 (c.) By keeping your eyes 'wide open. 
 I know men who have been veritable 
 globe-trotters, and yet they are as insular 
 in their sympathies, and as narrow in 
 their information, as the most thorough- 
 bred Cockney. All the inspiring paint- 
 ings and noble architecture, all the pre- 
 cious memorials of genius and antiquity, 
 have failed to make the slightest impres- 
 sion ; but they will tell you with the ut- 
 most gravity, that in London the cost of 
 shaving was only half as much as in New 
 York; that in Venice the lodgings were 
 shockingly vile ; and that Paris was the 
 only place where they could get decent 
 coffee.
 
 84 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 Holidays have their dangers. Re- 
 straints are removed no one knows you 
 and you are in the extremely perilous 
 position of being able to do as you like. 
 I have seen young men do things abroad 
 which they would have solemnly con- 
 demned at home. Be ware of the "gaiety 
 of those whose headaches nail them to a 
 noonday bed ; whose haggard eyes flash 
 desperation and betray pangs." Healthy 
 merriment and innocent pleasure will do 
 us all good ; but may God save us from 
 the " gaiety that fills the bones with pain, 
 the mouth with blasphemy, and the heart 
 with woe." There is such a gaiety, and 
 it flashes with seductive charm in many 
 a holiday haunt. No recreation is worth 
 the name which does not make us buoy- 
 ant with renewed health, eager for social 
 service, and strong for daily toil.
 
 VII. 
 
 SHAAS. 
 
 "Some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of 
 mischiefs." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 "Tou can fool some of the people all the time, and all 
 the people some of the time, but you can' 1 1 fool all the 
 people all the time" ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 To say that a sham is the most despic- 
 able thing in the world is merely to utter 
 an obvious truism. To observe that so- 
 ciety is cursed by shams is only to ex- 
 press the most general sentiment. And 
 yet it is possible that we have not alto- 
 gether realized how deplorable is the in- 
 fluence of the hypocritical spirit how it 
 poisons the moral atmosphere, hinders all 
 good work, and casts a withering blight 
 over everything it touches. The weakest 
 point in any body of men is that occupied 
 by the counterfeits, the frauds, the im- 
 postors. Any political party might attain 
 office to-morrow if all its followers were 
 
 (85)
 
 86 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 downright in earnest. Christianity might 
 conquer the world in a year if every man 
 who bears the name of Christ were de- 
 termined, loyal, burning with fervid zeal, 
 and thoroughly genuine and sincere. 
 Then every disciple would be terrible in 
 battle, irresistible in prayer, and stalwart 
 in faith. But the victory is postponed by 
 the half-hearted, the hesitating, the shams, 
 the hypocrites, the people who are never 
 to be depended upon. 
 
 Let us glance rapidly at a few of these 
 counterfeits. Perhaps the most terrible 
 hindrance to the free and unrestricted 
 progress of Christianity is the religious 
 sham. The question that proves such a 
 stumbling-block to thousands of intelli- 
 gent and large-hearted young men to-day 
 is this : " How is it that while profess- 
 ing Christians are frequently mean and 
 selfish and proud, worldlings are so often 
 generous and brotherly and Christ-like ?" 
 " Look there," said a young man to Pro-
 
 SHAMS. 87 
 
 fessor Drummond, "you see that elderly 
 gentleman ? He is the founder of our in- 
 fidel club. " " But, " said the Professor, 
 " he is a leading elder of the Church. " 
 " I know he is, " was the young man's 
 reply, " but he founded our infidel club. 
 Every man in the village knows what a 
 humbug he is, and so we will have noth- 
 ing to do with religion. " It is all very 
 well to say that Christianity should notbe 
 judged by such feeble and unworthy spec- 
 imens the fact remains that it is judged 
 by those who profess it ; and so long as 
 that is the case, every sham representa- 
 tive will be a source of weakness and a 
 hindrance to all true progress. 
 
 The religion which is going to influence 
 the world to-day is a religion not merely 
 of creeds but of conduct a religion that 
 softens the heart, controls the passions, 
 checks the hasty and impatient word, and 
 purifies the life both of the home and the 
 office. " I would not give much for that
 
 88 FIRSTS A TTLES. 
 
 man's religion, " said Rowland Hill, 
 "whose very cat and dog are not better 
 for it. " Every Christian should so live 
 as to be able to say with the good old 
 Methodist preacher, "If you don't believe 
 I am a Christian, ask my wife!" A re- 
 ligion which is confined to a prayer-meet- 
 ing is a counterfeit religion, and may be 
 swept away as absolutely valueless ; true 
 Christianity sweetens the whole life, and 
 uplifts everything it touches. There is 
 no better defense of Christianity than the 
 generous character and upright life of a 
 true man, and there is no more danger- 
 ous enemy of Christianity than the crea- 
 ture who steals "the livery of the Court 
 of Heaven to serve the devil in, " whose 
 tongue is fluent with plausible profes- 
 sions while his hands are busy with the 
 works of hell. 
 
 An Athenian once delivered a long and 
 brilliant speech, in which he made large 
 and liberal promises. Another who
 
 SHAMS. 89 
 
 lacked eloquence but was full of sincerity 
 got up and said, "Men of Athens, all 
 that he has promised I will do. " That 
 is the spirit we need to-day. There is 
 nothing more pitiable than to see good 
 men wasting time and talent in little, 
 unworthy squabbles about their pet dog- 
 mas, while their next door neighbors are 
 going to the devil for want of a strong 
 arm of help and a kindly word of cheer. 
 The man who boasts that his soul is 
 saved and never feeds a poor body or 
 cheers a sad heart is a living contradic- 
 tion an awful sham I " Quit your mean- 
 ness " is a favorite expression with a cer- 
 tain revival preacher, and really it is a 
 very necessary piece of advice. The 
 popular idea of religion is a comfortable, 
 jog-trot, respectable kind of life an oc- 
 casional visit to a church, a prompt pay- 
 ment of pew rents, a few stray sub- 
 scriptions to painfully importunate collec-
 
 90 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 tors, and then you may be as selfish and 
 cynical as the rest of the world. This is 
 meanness contemptible and pitiable. 
 We can do without these lazy sentiment- 
 alists, these dilettanti church-goers, 
 these religious shams, who never do a 
 day's helpful work to relieve the world's 
 agony or minister to the world's necessi- 
 ties. There are thousands of young men 
 in our homes and churches who indo- 
 lently stand aloof from the great battle 
 for good and right and truth. Is this 
 manly, or chivalrous, or Christ-like ? Is 
 it not cowardly and selfish and mean ? 
 How can we be surprised if the Master 
 should pronounce over all such shams 
 those sad words that are full of tears, 
 
 " Inasmuch as ye did it not " 
 
 Then there is the sham in business. 
 He is lazy, flabby, slovenly, careless. He 
 shrinks from the monotony of routine, 
 despises the daily drudgery, postpones
 
 SHAMS. 91 
 
 every disagreeable duty, and then won- 
 ders how it is that he is such an utter 
 failure in life. Lowell has told us that 
 
 Folks thet worked thorough was the folks that thriv, 
 But bad work follers ye ez long's ye live, 
 Ye can't get red on't just az sureaz sin, 
 It's allers askin' to be done agin. 
 
 We all know men who work in this 
 superficial way. They do everything 
 lazily, partially, unsatisfactorily. Their 
 work will not bear inspection it may be 
 showy, but it is also valueless. What 
 thou doest, do -well, is the best motto for 
 young men to-day. The man who knows 
 how to do one thing thoroughly, and is 
 determined to do it better than anybody 
 else, is the man who will succeed. Mr. 
 Vanderbilt paid his cook a salary of 
 $10,000 a year because he understood the 
 art of cooking to perfection. As a well 
 known humorist says in his funny way, 
 "If Monsieur Sauceagravi could cook 
 tolerably well, and shoot a little, and
 
 92 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 speak three languages tolerably well, and 
 keep books fairly, and could telegraph a 
 little and so on with a dozen other 
 things he wouldn't get ten thousand a 
 year for it." No, what is needed is 
 strenuous concentration of effort. Aim 
 definitely at one great object and bring 
 all your powers to bear upon the work in 
 hand, and you cannot fail to rise to fairer 
 heights of honor and achievement. 
 
 Do you know the sham sceptic the 
 man who is glad of any excuse for tramp- 
 ling on Christianity ? " I hate cant," he 
 says, with great unction and self-satisfac- 
 tion, forgetting that Christianity by no 
 means possesses the monopoly in cant. 
 There is a good deal of cant about some 
 atheists. It is not always the "fool" 
 who says " there is no God ; " it is very 
 frequently the arrogant sham, who thinks 
 it supremely clever to display his shallow 
 and flippant atheism. He will learn one 
 day that honest, manly Christianity is
 
 SHAMS. 93 
 
 the avowed enemy of "cant," and hates 
 and suppresses it wherever it lurks, 
 whether in the form of superficial pietism 
 or hypocritical infidelity. 
 
 While I sympathize from my very 
 heart with earnest men who reject Chris- 
 tianity, because of the shortcomings of its 
 professors, I must still maintain that their 
 position is utterly childish and illogical. 
 It is really a most lamentable fact when 
 men come into the region of religion 
 they so often leave their common sense 
 behind them. In politics they are influ- 
 enced by the great party leaders, not by 
 flabby wire-pullers. Sensible citizens do 
 not reject the Republican party when a 
 few weak-kneed constituents turn trai- 
 tors ; nor do honest Democrats falter at 
 the sight of a handful of feeble renegades. 
 And yet in religion the same persons will 
 allow their minds to be prejudiced by the 
 apparent inconsistencies of any blatant 
 professor, rather than go straight to
 
 94 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 the great Founder of the Christian faith, 
 who alone can show them what Chris- 
 tianity really is. Surely the answer of 
 Christ to any young man who excused 
 himself from discipleship on account of 
 the unlovely lives of professors, would 
 be, " What is that to thee ? Follow thou 
 Me" It is neither fair nor manly to 
 point to the failings of professing Chris- 
 tians as a reason for ignoring Jesus Christ. 
 One man hunts up a bigot, another dis- 
 covers a Pharisee, and a third glances 
 sneeringly at some faltering and unhappy 
 struggler who has blundered back into 
 sin and shame ; and then in scornful 
 chorus they cry, " Behold, this is Chris- 
 tianity ! " The derision is utterly unjust. 
 Christ calls men to Himself. He is the 
 typical man His was the perfect life 
 He is the supreme example. 
 
 With every desire to look on the bright 
 side of things and magnify the redeeming 
 features of the age, I must frankly admit
 
 SHAMS. 95 
 
 that there is amongst men to-day a start- 
 ling amount of shallowness and superfici- 
 ality of thought. Instead of honestly 
 thinking out great problems, and labor- 
 iously unwinding the puzzles of life, they 
 indulge in mental gymnastics and hastily 
 jump at conclusions. We have all around 
 us feeble imitations of Robert Elsmere. 
 Such men meet a free-thinking friend, 
 listen to his tall but trumpery talk, and 
 immediately, with scarcely a moment's 
 heartache or an hour's mental struggle, 
 throw overboard the little religion they 
 possessed, and denounce the Evangel of 
 Christ as a myth and a sham. The most 
 uncertain of political weathercocks would 
 refuse to budge an inch on the flimsy 
 evidence which sends these young men 
 into the dreary night of a Christless life. 
 Can anything be more painful than the 
 careless and frivolous spirit with which 
 they leap into the cold abyss ? Self-con- 
 fident youths, with more collar than cul-
 
 96 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 ture, and more millinery than manliness, 
 swallow two or three pages of a magizine 
 article, and, without questioning the cre- 
 dentials of the writer, calmly turn their 
 back upon their Father God, and go out 
 to sip the latest fashionable mixed drink 
 at the hotel bar. 
 
 Very few of us have ever thought what 
 it is to be a Christian. When we see a 
 man ticketed as orthodox in creed and 
 regular in church attendance, and then 
 discover that he is harsh and bitter and 
 sensual, we immediately begin to throw 
 stones at Christianity. But that man is 
 not a Christian ! He may cry, " Lord, 
 Lord," but loud professions will never 
 open the kingdom of heaven. " Follow 
 thou Me " is the great command. By no 
 other test are we at liberty to judge our 
 brethren. If any man lives the Christ 
 life then he is a Christian, whatever may 
 be the opinion of the pedantic critic or 
 the priestly ceremonialist. The duty of
 
 SHAMS. 97 
 
 every young man is not to dissect disci- 
 ples but to study Christ. Pure religion 
 and undefiled is to do the will of God on 
 earth as angels do it in heaven. 
 
 Now turn for a moment to another 
 kind of sham the society sham the 
 miserable spirit of counterfeit respectabil- 
 ity. It is not greatly afraid of evil, but 
 it particularly hates the appearance of 
 evil. u People might talk " that is the 
 awful bogie that frightens society, and the 
 characterless chatter of brainless men 
 and women is more to be dreaded than 
 all the bitterness of wrongdoing. This 
 hypocritical system of sham respectability 
 is dead against those peculiar " people " 
 who hold out hands of welcome and 
 friendship to ragged castaways, prodi- 
 gals, and sinners, and do other strange 
 and eccentric things. It crushes kindli- 
 ness out of young hearts ; smothers the 
 vivacity of buoyant spirits ; reckons de- 
 corum to be more than purity, good
 
 98 FIRST BATTLES. 
 
 breeding to be far above honesty, and the 
 esteem of Society (with a large "s") to 
 be infinitely preferable to Heaven's " Well 
 done 1 " You may be mean, selfish, and 
 cowardly ; but you must not eat peas 
 with your knife. You may be hard- 
 hearted, cynical, and cruel, if you will, 
 but consent to wear an unhealthy and 
 uncomfortable stove-pipe hat on Sundays, 
 and avoid speaking to any man to whom 
 you have not been formally introduced. 
 It has a smile for the well-dressed de- 
 bauche, the polite and wealthy knave ; 
 but it would cast into outer darkness the 
 repentant Magdalene to whom Christ ex- 
 tended infinite sympathy. 
 
 Beware of this cold, critical, carping 
 spirit. Beware of the slavery of society, 
 the thraldom of caste, the oppressive cy- 
 ranny of custom. Think for yourselves, 
 use the intellect with which God has 
 blessed you, and prove yourselves tne 
 conquerers, not the creatures, of circum-
 
 SHAMS. 99 
 
 stances. Goodness is the truest nobility. 
 The man who has faith in God, love for 
 humanity, and the resolve to live a Christ- 
 like life, can afford to ignore all the threat- 
 enings of social ostracism, and wait 
 patiently till the brotherhood of men shall 
 be universally acknowledged. 
 
 One of the most discouraging features 
 of life amongst young men is the preva- 
 lence of sham-cynicism. A clever writer 
 but short-viewed critic, who is a living 
 example of this unhealthy habit, tells us 
 in a recent article that "the young man 
 of to-day has no religion and no enthus- 
 iasm," that he is ready to "throw a 
 woman on the dissecting table, " and that 
 to him love is nothing but " a cruel enig- 
 ma. " Can anything be more utterly 
 ridiculous ? To mix with small-minded 
 pessimists, listen to the unclean tittle- 
 tattle of the club, and then rush into the 
 awful belief that chivalry is dead, and that 
 faith and earnestness no longer exist, is
 
 ioo FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 about as sane an action as that of the man 
 who dissected a dust-heap and then de- 
 nounced the world as a great conglomer- 
 ation of putrid ashes. Thank God the 
 great mass of young men are true in heart 
 and upright in life. Melancholy cynics 
 and blase club-men may not believe it, 
 but there are thousands of men to-day 
 who prefer to feed on Kingsley and Ten- 
 nyson and Longfellow rather than pink 
 sporting papers and cheap works of scan- 
 dal generous and high-minded men 
 who can grapple with giant temptations 
 and control the reins of passion, because 
 they have grasped the hand of Christ and 
 asked Him to keep them pure and strong. 
 Let us beware of hastily judging the 
 whole race of young men by the cheap 
 cynicism of a few battered roues. " Con- 
 tinue for ever, " said Carlyle, " to take 
 the best view of all mortals which your 
 understanding will admit ; nay, it is often 
 also truer than the surly one."
 
 SHAMS. 101 
 
 There are other shams, of which the 
 merest mention is sufficient. There is 
 the sham who is a smiling philanthropist 
 in the church, and a frowning tyrant in 
 his business. There is the sham who 
 wins a woman's pure affection by his fair 
 words, and then wrecks her young life 
 by his foul animalism. There is the sham 
 who eloquently advocates reform on the 
 platform, while his own house is devoid 
 of order or comfort. There is the sham 
 who says there is no God, because it will 
 be easier to lie and swindle when he has 
 persuaded himself into that belief. 
 
 The only cure for shams is at the Cross. 
 No counterfeit can live at Calvary. There 
 the hypocrisy is pierced, the mask falls 
 off, and all is revealed. But there also 
 we find forgiveness, there all the wild and 
 bitter past is blotted out ; there we learn 
 to love, there we begin to live.
 
 VIII. 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 
 
 Abide in me ! There have been moments blest, 
 
 When I have heard Thy voice and felt Thy power; 
 
 Then evil lost its grasp; and passion, hushed, 
 Owned the divine enchantment of the hour. 
 
 These -were but seasons, beautiful and rare: 
 
 Abide in me and they shall ever be! 
 Fulfill at once Thy precept and my prayer: 
 
 Come, and abide in me, and I in Thee! 
 
 MRS. H. B. STOWE. 
 
 IN the second chapter of Luke there is a 
 most significant and instructive incident. 
 Jesus, a boy of twelve, had gone with 
 His parents to Jerusalem to attend the 
 Feast of the Passover. At the close of 
 the great festival, Joseph and Mary joined 
 their friends and set out for home ; but 
 after a day's journey they discovered, to 
 their bitter consternation, that they had 
 come without Jesus. A simple, unexcit- 
 ing incident but one that is pregnant 
 with meaning, and one that conveys a 
 
 (102)
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 103 
 
 most helpful message to the young men 
 of to-day. 
 
 They "supposed Him to have been in 
 the company." That was their supreme 
 mistake. Christ's presence is so essential 
 that it must never become a matter of 
 careless supposition or momentary specu- 
 lation. There is more hope of the man 
 who deliberately turns his back upon 
 Christ, frankly confesses his entire disbe- 
 lief of the Gospel, and cuts off all connec- 
 tion with the church, than of the weak, 
 superficial, backboneless professor, who 
 swallows his father's creed to save 
 trouble, keeps what little religion he has 
 as quiet and obscure as possible to avoid 
 persecution, and then " supposes " it is 
 all right. But " suppose " it is not all 
 right, " suppose " Christ is not with you, 
 " suppose " you are like a rudderless boat 
 in a hurricane impotent, feeble, demor- 
 alized without guide or light or friend ? 
 This is a matter about which we must be
 
 104 FIRST B A TTLES. 
 
 definite and sure. Let everything else 
 go, but at least aim at the certitude and 
 safety which come of daily intercourse 
 with Christ, who alone can secure our 
 highest welfare, promote our most perfect 
 happiness, and cleanse our lives from cor- 
 ruption and sin. 
 
 Be careful that you do not lose Christ, 
 for His presence is the only guarantee of 
 a safe and joyous life. Mr. Quintin Hogg 
 tells a remarkable story of an incident 
 which happened at one of our largest 
 clubs. He was chatting with a friend 
 about a man who had died by his own 
 hand. His friend spoke rather indignant- 
 ly of such an ignoble termination to life, 
 and characterized it, rightly enough, as a 
 cowardly thing for a man to leave others 
 to meet the troubles and reap the bitter 
 harvest he had sown. A well-known 
 scientific man, who was sitting close by, 
 turned round and said, " I think you have 
 expressed a very harsh judgment. I
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 105 
 
 don't consider it the action of a coward, 
 and, for myself, the only rest I can look 
 forward to is the grave. " Mr. Hogg's 
 friend, thinking that perhaps the gentle- 
 man had lost some dear relative by sui- 
 cide, qualified his remarks by saying that 
 such crimes were generally committed 
 under the influence of a deranged mind, 
 and that his words did not, of course, ap- 
 ply to a man who was irresponsible for 
 his acts. " There is something worse 
 than derangement, " was the reply, " and 
 that is despair." Mr. Hogg says that 
 his friend was very much shocked at the 
 words, and at the tone in which they were 
 uttered, and began to speak to the scien- 
 tist as best he could about the love of 
 God. He told him that he could not 
 imagine how those who accepted the 
 help of God could ever despair. " Ah ! " 
 was the sad reply, " I gave up my 
 belief in God long ago, and I have 
 had nothing but a deepening despair
 
 106 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 ever since. I repeat that the grave is the 
 only rest I can hope for the only home 
 that remains to me. " 
 
 Was there ever a sadder story ? Here 
 is a noted man of science making the 
 humiliating confession that life has lost all 
 its brightness, that the outlook is irre- 
 deemably black, and that he is in the 
 depths of perpetual despair. He ap- 
 proaches the grave without God and 
 without hope with nothing but disap- 
 pointment and darkness and defeat. This 
 is what comes of losing" Christ. We 
 have no longer the power to overcome ; 
 we are the sport of circumstances, and 
 gradually we drift on to the cruel, grim, 
 frowning rocks of helpless misery. The 
 story is like a glaring signal, warning us 
 of the danger that lies ahead. It bids us 
 keep close to the strong, tender Christ 
 to walk in His footsteps, to try to 
 live His simple, unselfish life the life 
 that may sometimes be hard and rough
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 107 
 
 and bleak, but is always full of unfailing 
 hope and undimmed love, and bright 'with 
 the undoubted promise of ultimate vic- 
 tory. 
 
 Where was it that Joseph and Mary 
 missed the boy Christ ? Not in the quiet 
 secluded home at Nazareth. No; they 
 lost Him in the city. That is the concise 
 record of many a young man to-day. In 
 the old country home it was easy enough 
 to live the Christ-life; but when you are 
 pitchforked into the huge city, with all its 
 bewildering multitudes, its disenchanting 
 realism, its seductive snares, and its mad- 
 dening perplexities, then it is that you are 
 in danger of missing the presence of the 
 Master. When you leave Nazareth for 
 Jerusalem, then comes the battle. From 
 the plain, lonely, healthful life of the coun- 
 try you plunge into the enervating, arti- 
 ficial, and restless existence of the city, 
 and it will be almost a miracle if in this 
 complete change of environment you do
 
 1 08 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 not to some extent, lose the conscious 
 presence of Christ. 
 
 But what I want to point out to you is 
 this, that unfavorable circumstances are 
 to be conquered. The stern discipline 
 will do you good. Now you are in the 
 city you will require the moral invigora- 
 tion of Christ's companionship more than 
 ever. The very strenuousness of city life 
 will help to make your Christianity more 
 practical, more manly, and, shall I say, 
 more serviceable. The satisfaction of 
 selfish and conventional religiousness is 
 no match for the spiritual conflicts of the 
 city. You will have no time to waste in 
 quarrelling about doctrinal differences or 
 in arranging the complicated mechanism 
 of creeds. You want a strong, virile 
 Christianity, which does not frown on 
 the beauties of art, nor fear the researches 
 of science, nor shut its eyes to the charms 
 of music, nor leave the gymnasium and 
 outdoor sport to be the playthings of the
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 109 
 
 devil. This is the Christianity which is 
 to save the city, purging its pleasures and 
 ennobling its thoughts and elevating 
 every detail of its life. It says to young 
 men who are sinking into the aimless ex- 
 istence of the worldling, or the cold, song- 
 less despair of the unbeliever, " Brother, 
 you do not only want a Christ who is far 
 away in the dim records of ancient his- 
 tory; you want a friendly arm to guide 
 you and lift you up. The real Christ is a 
 wise counsellor and a loving companion. 
 He will not rob you of a single pleasure. 
 He will not crush your inquiring spirit or 
 dethrone your intellect. He will charm 
 you by His tenderness, deliver you from 
 the tyranny of passion, and enable you to 
 do the will of God on earth." This is the 
 Evangel for the field of sport, the Gospel 
 for the counting-house, the salvation for 
 the city, and, thank God, thousands of 
 the city young men have listened to its 
 message, and have joyfully received
 
 1 1 o FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 Jesus Christ as a Friend and Brother and 
 Savior. They love the Man of Naza- 
 reth the Christ of God and the Savior 
 of men with an ardent and unspeakable 
 affection which inevitably constrains them 
 to toil for the welfare and happiness of 
 their race. They live a large, free, happy 
 life, and they live it supremely for that 
 great Master whose presence is its sub- 
 lime inspiration, and whose " Well done ! " 
 is its highest reward 
 
 But I notice, also, that Christ was lost 
 during the excitement of a feast, and 
 many men to-day could testify that they 
 have found His presence less real and 
 their own love less warm, as the result 
 of reckless indulgence or irrational pleas- 
 ures. It was in a crowd, too, that Jesus 
 was missed and it is the busy whirl and 
 riotous rush of modern life that endan- 
 gers our unbroken communion with 
 heaven. We live at a desperate pace, 
 every hour is occupied by the bustle of
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 1 1 1 
 
 business or the fever of amusement, and 
 so in the jostling of the crowd it seems 
 as if He had slipped away, and behold ! 
 the light of our life has gone out, we miss 
 His smile and fear to take another step 
 because we have lost His protection. 
 Brothers, this must not be. We must 
 have our quiet hours of seclusion and re- 
 pose lest the world should altogether ab- 
 sorb our attention. 
 
 But there is a cheering sequel to the 
 story of the lost Christ. They found Him. 
 Directly they discovered that He was 
 missing, they went back to Jerusalem to 
 look for the lost Christ. But here is a 
 fact which we must not ignore. It did 
 not take one day to lose Christ, but it 
 took three days to find Him. How true 
 that is ! A foul jest, an impure thought, 
 an hour's dalliance with sin, and the sun- 
 shine of His presence is eclipsed. And 
 then comes the long and bitter repentance 
 that rends the heart, the weary soul-tor-
 
 1 1 2 FfXS T BA TTLES, 
 
 meriting search for the deserted Lord. 
 Let us not despair, however, for Christ 
 was found in the city after all. Perse- 
 vere manfully, hopefully do not give up, 
 even when the search seems to be in vain. 
 Christ is never very far from those who 
 seek Him, and even in the city dark 
 and bitter and unwholesome as it may 
 be He is to be found by honest hearts 
 and true. 
 
 The end of the story points a useful 
 moral for young men in great cities. 
 They found Christ in the Temple, and 
 you, my brother, will most .likely find 
 Him there too. Nothing is more distress- 
 ing to ministers than to witness the small 
 proportion of young men in our churches. 
 Nothing is more spiritually suicidal than 
 the way in which men neglect the house 
 of prayer. One reason for this is igno- 
 rance. Many young men, who in other 
 respects are sane and reasonable, have a 
 most baseless and unworthy prejudice
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 1 1 3 
 
 against preachers. But no manly, honest 
 fellow will allow himself to be fettered by 
 prejudice. Seek for Christ, therefore, 
 in the Temple. In the calm, quiet sanc- 
 tuary some sweet song may cheer you ; 
 some noble utterance may inspire you; 
 and Christ Himself may enter your heart 
 and make it to throb with love touch your 
 lips and set them on fire with a message 
 to the world, and clasp your hands and 
 make them busy in His service. Then 
 you will know the joy of faith and the 
 rapture of self-sacrifice. Then life will be 
 worth living. 
 
 And now as we finish the story of the 
 lost Christ, we may well ask : Is He 
 with us to-day, not only as a personal 
 friend and Savior, but as a powerful in- 
 fluence in the larger life of the nation ? 
 Is the spirit of Christ bringing us nearer 
 to the social regeneration of mankind ? 
 Looking out upon the world the first im* 
 pression is deeply discouraging. First of
 
 1 14 FIRST BA TTLES. 
 
 all, there is a distressing overplus of 
 laborers. Strong men, eager for honest 
 toil, endure the agonies of hunger and ex- 
 posure, and in many cases the additional 
 sorrow of beholding the sufferings of their 
 family. On the other hand, overwhelm- 
 ing wealth is often allied with avarice and 
 immorality, and while the poor starve by 
 inches, the rich to a large extent ig- 
 nore the needs of their brethren, and are 
 only solicitous that Lazarus should not 
 become inconveniently prominent. Thou- 
 sands of young men are forced to slave 
 in cramped shops and cheerless ware- 
 houses for sixty and seventy hours a 
 week, with never an interval for physical 
 recreation or intellectual improvement. 
 In attics and cellars women sew shirts or 
 make cheap clothing for inhuman " sweat- 
 ers " for a wage which is insufficient for 
 the rent of a bed not to speak of a sepa- 
 rate room and are often compelled to 
 choose between starvation and vice. In
 
 THE LOST CHRIS T. 115 
 
 other sections of the same cities whole 
 streets are in the possession of rouged 
 and painted sirens of sensuality and sin 
 every one a standing rebuke to the weak- 
 ness and wickedness of man. Europe 
 literally bristles with bayonets, and in- 
 stead of settling trifling disputes by wise 
 and fair consultation, the nations continue 
 to rush into the mad devilry of carnage 
 and conflagration. As for the young men, 
 thousands of them are gambling them- 
 selves into prison, or drinking themselves 
 into early graves ; and yet every respect- 
 able newspaper is occupied with long 
 reports of horse-races, and a so called 
 Christian Community permits a saloon 
 to be planted at the corner of every 
 street. Sin is made easy, vice is made 
 cheap, trickery prevails in trade, bitter- 
 ness in politics, and apathy in religion. 
 Does not the glad message of " Peace on 
 earth, goodwill to men," which the angels 
 once rang out over the moonlit meadows
 
 1 1 6 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 of Bethlehem, seem like a ghastly satire 
 in ears accustomed to the rumors of war 
 the strife of parties, and the cries of the 
 oppressed ? 
 
 Nevertheless, I maintain that Christ is 
 with us, and that there is a growing rec- 
 ognition of human brotherhood the world 
 over. Years ago we should have been 
 unmoved by the horror and iniquity of 
 war. The social sores which alarm and 
 distress us to-day would have been re- 
 garded as normal aud irredeemable. But 
 to the enlightened vision of earnest Chris- 
 tians they now appear diabolical and de- 
 grading, and this very fact proves that we 
 are advancing. Let those who think that 
 the general outlook is becoming more 
 dismal, read the history of what we ironi- 
 cally call the " good old times." They 
 will find that at a period within the mem- 
 ory of many now living, one-seventh of the 
 inhabitants of Liverpool, England, lived 
 in cellars, five-sixths of the inhabitants of
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 117 
 
 Rochdale had scarcely a blanket apiece, 
 one person in every eleven throughout 
 England was receiving relief from the 
 poor rates, and three children out of four 
 were receiving no schooling whatever. 
 Children of six, five, or even four years 
 of age, were kept at hard work in the 
 mines, and hunger, disease, ignorance, 
 and brutal vice were alarmingly preva- 
 lent. Of course, if it is any consolation 
 to unhealthy pessimists to believe that 
 we are inevitably getting worse, then 
 who would deny them that tender and 
 refreshing thought ? But we may well 
 rejoice in the fact that the general aspect 
 of social life was never so bright as it is 
 to-day. Poverty and impurity and in- 
 temperance still exist, but the way to 
 fight and annihilate these evils is not to 
 sit down and sigh, but to be up and doing 
 with cheerful alacrity and tireless prese- 
 verance. 
 
 Surely it is a striking indication of the
 
 1 1 8 FIRS T BA TTLES. 
 
 presence of Christ and the vitality of 
 Christianity when great evils are regarded 
 as intolerable. If our hearts are saddened 
 by the awful contrast between grim pov- 
 erty and glittering wealth, we may find 
 hope and courage in the fact that real, 
 vigorous, common-sense Christianity is 
 making unmistakable progress. The day 
 of hollow shams, of rigid formalism and 
 luxurious selfishness, is nearly over. 
 Thank God, all Christians are not loung- 
 ing in cushioned pews and comforting 
 one another with the assurance that 
 
 Doing is a deadly thing ; 
 Doing ends in death. 
 
 Some have discovered that to contem- 
 plate the prospective glories of heaven is 
 not nearly so useful as to bring heaven's 
 glory down to earth. The genius of true 
 religion is practical beneficence, and it 
 cannot be deaf to the cry of human sor- 
 row and need ; it must take the great
 
 THE LOST CHRIST. 119 
 
 bleeding world to its heart, and tend it 
 lovingly until all its wounds are healed. 
 
 Let us be of good cheer, for Christ is 
 not lost. We know He is with us, for 
 we see an ever-increasing spirit of broth- 
 er-hood extending throughout the world. 
 We know He is with us, for there is 
 springing up a self-sacrificing burden- 
 bearing, truth-loving Christianity, which 
 shall yet dispel the appalling gloom of 
 earth's despair. Christ Himself is with 
 us, and He is calling upon every young 
 man to join in the bloodless battle for 
 righteousness. Be silent and stagnant 
 and selfish no longer. Give Him your 
 unwavering trust, your unquestioning 
 obedience, your undivided love, and in 
 return He will give you a life that shall be 
 joyous, serene, triumphant.
 
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