THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND OTHER PAPERS ROB ROY M^GI^GOR. CONVERSE CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM J. S. Armstrong olin Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029631755 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND OTHER PAPERS {^^'>tytr^-l''^iUL THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMON W EALTH AND OTHER PAPERS BY ROB ROY McGregor converse, D.D. GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1916 '^ COPYRIGHT, igi6, BY HOWARD CONVERSE " — Not what we think or say, but what we do, will have its effect upon the world. Let therefore the thinker do and the doer think. — " — R. R. M. Converse. FOREWORD In presenting this selection from among the papers of Doctor Converse, the reader is asked to bear in mind that, unfortunately, no revision by the author was possible. Such errors or omissions as may appear will, it is hoped, for this reason be condoned. H. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS ADDRESSES PAGE The Heritage of the Commonwealth 3 Washington and Lincoln ... 9 The Moral Limits of Prayer .... 15 Address at First Commencement of William Smith Col- lege 21 Power of Attention 26 ESSAYS Nietzsche 33 Lucretius .... S° Moral Liberty and Reign of Law 62 Conditions of Moral Certitude 74 Abbe Felicete Robert de Lamennais 81 Bacon — Shakespeare 87 The Lords of Creation 103 Japan ^^5 Koheleth ^^4 SERMONS Baccalaureate Sermon, Hobart College, June, 1904 . . 147 Sermon in St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N. Y., Sunday, September 12, 1915 ^"^ Miscellaneous Sermons Delivered in St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N. Y., May 18, 1913, to July 25, 191 5 • • 166 INTRODUCTION The many friends of the late Doctor Converse have greatly desired some memorial of his gifts and his services. Those gifts and services were so varied, yet so unostentatious, that only his few intimates were acquainted with them all. There was a noble reticence about him that shrank from pubhcity. Yet he went about doing good with the impartiahty of the sunlight, and no one whom he met, whether high or low, rich or poor, could escape the contagion of his gentleness and good will. He was a man of learning and of philosophical acumen. Not many clergymen had so large or so well selected a library — ethnology, meta- physics, history, physics, literature, theology, were all repre- sented there by their latest and most tj^ical productions. He had spent years in the study and teaching of ethics. But the average man of his acquaintance knew nothing of this multifari- ous activity, though the results of it were apparent in the added weight and attractiveness of his pulpit utterances. It is this combination in Doctor Converse of unobtrusiveness and real greatness that leads his friends to wish for such a memorial as is furnished in the present volume. No single book can do more than hint at the wideness of his s3Tnpathies or the breadth of his intellectual interests. Suffering at Andersonville opened his heart when yoimg. Religion and his sacred calling taught him to regard nothing himian as foreign to himself. His friends honor his memory, but they wish also that others may honor it, and they believe that notWg will so surely lead to this result as letting him speak for himself. So they have urged the printing of this book, not only that it may keep fresh their own love for a noble character, but also that it may furnish an object-lesson to all God's ministers of large-minded as well as of large-hearted service. Augustus H. Strong. Rochester, N. Y., January 12, 1916. ADDRESSES THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMON- WEALTH AND OTHER PAPERS THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH* "Wherefore I praise the dead that are already dead, more than the living that are yet alive." — Eccl. iv:2. CONVERSATIONS before and during the procession on Memorial Day revealed the fact that in the minds of not a few of the veterans still with us Memorial Day is coming more and more to be characterized by exhibitions of mere holiday hilarity, little in keeping with the solemn sentiments of reverence and gratitude which inspired and brought about the institution and observance of Memorial Day. It may be well then, on this the Lord's Day and in the courts of His house, to remind ourselves of the real meaning of Memorial Day, to recall some of the solid grounds of obligation and respect upon which our gratitude and reverence for the brave dead do rightfully rest. We honor the brave dead, then, for the noble work in which they wrought — noble war is noble work. Let us distinguish — wars differ from each other as assassination differs from surgery, as the vanity of duelling differs from the heroic defence of home and household against the armed burglar or murderer. The war of mere ambition or mad passion is abhorrent to God and to the moral sense of mankind. But war where the eternal principles of liberty, justice, and good government are at stake finds vindica- tion alike in the reason of man and the revelation of God. The Old Testament is written from end to end in the very key of the battle trumpet— "the Lord is the God of battle." The New Testament, as a great writer has pointed out, nowhere disparages •Delivered at Linden Opera House, Geneva, N. Y., May 30, 1890. Delivered at St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N. Y., Sunday morning, June 1,1913. 4 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the military life, but rather delights to employ its analogies of discipline, devotion, and valor to enforce the rule and to illustrate the virtues of Christian Hfe and conflict. Compare, or rather contrast, the spirit and principles of the military life with those of the industrial and commercial life of the day— I challenge contradiction when I say that the principles of the former are far more nearly the ideal than the latter. The spirit of the army is summed up in two words, Duty and Honor. Am I wrong in saying the confessed and recognized ideal of the other is personal advantage and selfish aggrandizement? There is to-day far more of personal hatred, hard feehng, and malevolent rivalry wrapped up in the word "Business" than in the word "Battle." I undertake to defend the assertion that more of individual ani- mosity and personal ill-will is entertained and exhibited in many a ten-dollar lawsuit than was felt by all the hosts engaged on any of the great battlefields of the war. In battle — especially the battles of to-day where such tremendous energy is employed — the passion of hatred— the direct and definite enmity in the breast of the soldier actually engaged is in reality merely spectral in amount — it is as nothing. His mood of mind is more nearly that of the sailor in the midst of the storm at sea — there is no personal element in his rage. He feels himself, as it were, but an atom swept along in clashing conflict by the two great oceans of contending forces. Viewed again from the standpoint of history, war seems to be designed, in the Divine economy of this world, to be the remedy of real though last resort for the recovery and restora- tion of a nation to its better self. Survey the course of history and you find it the recurring misfortune of humanity, in periods of prolonged repose, to become so engrossed with ignoble cares — the pleasures of sense — the mad pursuit of wealth — of mere gain and on-getting — as to lose all sense and conviction of the moral dignity of human destiny. Selfishness of aim and aspiration characterize the national life. The great atheist cry grows louder and louder — "The life is no more than the meat, and the body than raiment." It is at such periods the pursuing purpose of Divine Providence overtakes an age or a people and rescues them from moral corruption by the stern and searching remedy of war. At such times the tempests of battle are "the stormy AND OTHER PAPERS 5 winds fulfilling his word" — that like mountain breezes sweep in "with healing on their wings" amid the crowded and corrupt avenues of national life. The Angel of Mercy in the garb of an Angel of War comes to surprise the repose of widespread selfish- ness, to pour confusion and uproar into the "piping times of peace" — to break up, in a word, with unsparing mercy, the long propriety of national stagnation and moral degeneracy which invests a people given over to custom and self and material ag- grandizement. So it was at the epoch of our Civil War. At the final hour, when it was evident we would no longer redeem our- selves by peaceful means, Providence planned our rescue by the violence of war. In this great "work of God" then — this work of national deliv- erance — of national elevation and renewal — the noble dead we commemorated on Memorial Day were called to be most honored instnunents. Co-workers with the moral Providence of the world, they share alike in the lustre of the deed. They stand "transfigured in the light" — ^with that noble army of martyrs — the elect of every age — who made part of the Divine power against evil in the regeneration of the world. Wherefore we honor them on Memorial Day for the noble work in which they wrought. We honor the brave dead not only for this but for the noble heritage they have left us — ^material and moral. Material heritage: "What have we that we did not receive?" may well be the confession on every lip as we reflect that this magnificent continent on which we dwell has been purchased and bestowed upon us by the patriot dead. We possess it by deed of gift, coimtersigned with the blood of the fallen braves. Survey then, in imagination, the magnificent heritage — the broad plains, rich with coming harvests, the lofty mountains clothed with deep forests, hiding within them "the precious things of the ever- lasting hills" — these and all that rest on these — the cities of wealth and splendor — the peaceful villages — all institutions of art and science, religion and liberty. Survey these and then read the inscription written across the continent in patriot blood: "Purchased and redeemed by the valor and sacrifice of the soldier dead." As Ruskin finely said of the old Cathedral builders, "they took with them to their graves their faults, their failings, their infirmities, all the littlenesses of life, but in the superb 6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Cathedral they have left us their devotion." We may repeat the same in the truest sense of our dead. This superb country — the whole country is their monument — ^with all its incomparable store of beauty and power and treasure, it is at once their gift and their memorial. It seems in place to emphasize this fact to-day. Aristotle said long ago of all the virtues, gratitude is the one that soonest grows old. Above all, we honor the brave dead on Memorial Day for the moral heritage they have left us — the priceless and imperishable example of patriotic devotion and heroic self-sacrifice. The most glorious of all national possessions is the living tradi- tion of heroic lives. The old Roman legend of Marcus Curtius plunging his horse over the brink of the forum's chasm as he cried, "Rome's best riches are her bravest men," embodies an everlasting truth. This grand old parable of manhood may be called the pagan comment on the words of inspiration, "I will make a man more precious than gold — a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." The nation, after all, is but the individual man, "writ large" as Milton would say. It is not the body, much less the clothing, that makes the man great. It is the nobility of soul alone that gives to manhood its grandeur and its worth. Make a man's garments as resplendent as you may, deepen the purple in his robes of power, increase his bodily vigor to the strength of Her- cules, discipline to full perfection his powers of sharp and selfish insight, yet if the nobler soul be uncared for, if the spirit within him be the slave of insurgent passions and ignoble moods, he is no longer great, he is a shell, he is a wreck, a hollow surprise, no better than the puff-ball of the field, filled with dust and darkness. So, likewise, in a nation's life. Let a nation neglect the nobler virtues, and though she may increase her treasures, multiply her industries, crown her eminences with temple and palace and court, whiten the seas with her frequent sail, yet the finger of decline and death is upon her. Her material riches are no more her support than the camel's burden is the camel's strength. The nation, as the individual, has a moral destiny; and the recognition of this great truth we take to be the characteristic AND OTHER PAPERS 7 which distinguishes trae statesmanship from mere statecraft, the true statesman from the mere politician. The pettifogging politician who ignores or dismisses with a sneer the moral aim of national life and "points with pride" to mere wealth and material prosperity, when high virtue, valor, and patriotic devotion are wanting, reasons like the madman who mistakes his jailer for a guard of honor. He is no more to be classed with true statesmen than a ship's carpenter is to be ranked with navigators, or a camp sutler with the generals of an army. The secret and the guarantee of national strength and greatness then are the nobler virtues. But how best are they to be awakened and maintained? The answer is in one word — Example. All experience proves that mere precept and maxim and ad- monition can furnish but feeble energy for good in a world like this. It is to living patterns and instances that we must look. And it is, in a word, Example, which possesses and provides the real power and practical efficiency for enlarging and uplifting men and nations. And here we eagerly confess, all worthy lives are a contribution so far forth to the national store of greatness and strength, but above all and before all, we place the example of absolute self- sacrifice for the country and the common good by the patriot dead whom we honor on Memorial Day. Destiny demanded an immense ransom for a guilty past. The brave dead replied, calmly and without halt or hesitation, without pause or regret, "Here are we, take us!" In spirit, if not in words, they said, "We seek no treasures of wealth in return, no storied monument or noisy recognition from the trump of fame; we ask but bread to our hunger, water to our thirst, linen for our wounds, and arms with which to win our country's cause or die with honor on the field." In the memorable words of President Garfield, "They siumned up and perfected by one supreme act the highest virtue of men and citizens." All gave somewhat — ^many gave much; but the dead gave all, even life itself. "Wherefore, we praise the dead that are already dead, more than the living that are yet alive." Further, let us not fail to emphasize the glorious truth that not alone the great captains, the shining names of history — but 8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the common soldiers of the line, the youngest, the weakest, the humblest, each and all share equally in the consecration and the honor of the great sacrifice. Astronomers tell us that it is not the heat of the great sun alone, but the heat of the unnamed and numberless stars that renders the earth habitable and prepares and preserves the temperature and conditions of material life. The analogy is most striking and most true between the material and the moral world. It is not alone by the conspicuous examples of the famous few, the great captains in war, the great leaders in peace, that the moral temperature is maintained, that makes possible the nobler virtues and exalts the common spirit of the people, but the nameless and numberless dead who have given their examples, but not their names, to history. It is these, the common soldiers, the heroes of the line, which like the innumera- ble stars contribute their indispensable proportion to the great effect. Individually unknown to history, no song of minstrel, or page of chronicler, makes record of their names, yet the col- lective virtues of their heroic examples create that moral tem- perature which enkindles and sustains the nation's nobler light. So with "banner and with musket and with priest" we honor the brave dead on Memorial Day. In sepulchre known or nameless, upon a thousand battlefields, in the ditch-graves of prison pens, their bodies lie at rest, but the magnanimities of their valor and devotion, their great deeds of self-sacrifice, like stars of imperishable lustre, "shall arise and remain and take station" forevermore in the moral firmament of man! WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN* Great national characters are distinct and conspicuous pledges of Providential favor toward a people. History shows that it is chiefly by the great characters from time to time raised up that Providence inspires and guides the upward march of nations, conducting by the inspiration and the pattern of these great personalities the people as a whole to higher levels of truth and tnanhood, of social welfare and social righteousness. Great characters are object-lessons addressed to the moral imagination of their countrymen, enlarging the limits of expectation and endeavor, inspiring and uplifting the conmion mind and heart by their disclosures of the ampler possibilities of nobleness and manhood that lie concealed or unsuspected within the reach of hvmian nature. How large, how potent a factor in the conduct of Providence a single great personality may be! We have the witness and the exhibition, the most astoimding in all history, in our very midst to-day: our citizen Jews. When we speak of them we speak virtually of one great Man. Their quality, distinction, enterprise, success, are the perpetuation of the influence of one character. The memory of a single great man — Moses — ^kept and conse- crated through the ages by supreme veneration and obedience, has sufl&ced to preserve intact a wandering people and to confront the modem world with what I may call tJie one outstanding miracle of civilization, "a race without a coimtry." It is a first duty, then, to guard resolutely against any lessening of our admiration for these great benefactors, the lowering of our enthusiasm in consequence of any mousing, microscopic criticism, any clamor of cynical disparagement, sure to make its "importu- nate chirp resound," as Burke expresses it, in and about the times and the seasons set apart to commemorate the great careers. Minds of this complexion, sibilant and venomous, are sure to be roused, like serpents under summer suns, to special activity by *This address was delivered on numerous occasions during the years 1900-1912. lo THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the heat of popular enthusiasm. As Edmund Burke declared, deep insight of hvunan nature was displayed in the old Roman formality that required or allowed opportunity for public detrac- tion and obloquy as a recognized part of every Roman trivunph. For minds of this order, "like the poor, we always have with us." Cynically nearsighted, morally dyspeptic, with digestion too weak for massive and strenuous things, their chief vocation is detrac- tion, their main delight "damning with faint praise" the noble memories which they can neither appreciate nor endure. We hear their carping chirp of criticism to-day. Only recently I have noted such expressions as "the legendary Washington," ' ' the Lincoln idealized beyond recognition, " " the popular apothe- osis of characters in the past that were in great part essentially commonplace." Great characters, like great objects in nature, demand distance and perspective to be viewed aright; to be judged aright, they must be judged by their total mass, their dimensions, and eleva- tion, by the way they tower above the common horizon. Gazing admiringly upon a giant oak or pine, if some pettifogging botanist or entomologist intrudes himself and, flattening his nose against the noble tree, begins to tell me of knots and gnarls and worm- holes in the bark, I say, "Begone! Get thee behind me, thou 'minute philosopher,* thou ferreter of trifles. Never by such process can the measure or the meaning of the noble object make itself felt. Stand back! Survey its grand dimension as a whole; see its mighty arms in Titan battle with the winds of heaven; mark how its giant roots, piercing the earth with the dark energy of their powerful life, anchor securely the mighty form!" Contemplating with growing sense of grandeur the mighty Fremont Peak or the Grand Teton in the Rockies, should some landscape gardener with his water-pot and foot-rule announce himself and begin rehearsal of his petty rules of judgment drawn from garden lore as the proper scale of measurement for my emotion and my admiration, I would say: "Away with thee! Get thee to the cabbage-patch, the flower-beds, the miniature pastures of city folk 'where boxwood hedge and gravel walks make dainty passage for my lady's feet, ' but leave me — leave me alone with my great mountains." AND OTHER PAPERS n So would we look at Washington and Lincoln. Without in the least attempting any extended conunent on their lives and labors, any formal analysis of their characters, permit me to emphasize for you to-night a single great truth, pre-eminently illustrated and confirmed by their personalities and careers. The history of our country reveals in marked degree, not only the general fact of Providential guidance, but in the characters of the great leaders raised up in our times of crisis, the turning- points of our history, the personalities of a Washington, a Lincoln, illustrate most impressively the further fact that Providence definitely prepares its Instruments — ^prepares them by original gifts of faculty and temperament, by careful discipline, circum- stance and experience, by long severity, it may be, of hardship and peculiar trial; so that "when the fubiess of time is come," these Instnunents stand forth each definitely equipped, each pre- eminently fitted for the special work allotted him to do. Washington and Lincoln — ^how supremely fitted each for his special task; and yet, as men, how different in personal history, in habit, in temperament, in aptitudes! Washington in the Civil War, Lincoln in the Revolutionary War, might have been equals only in conspicuous failure. This is the point we would empha- size. The War of the Revolution was a war of the "classes." It was, in the main, the revolt of wealth and culture against a foreign tyranny that touched chiefly the purses and the pride of our fore- fathers. In Revolutionary days the ' ' classes ' ' and the ' ' masses " were still distinctly defined. Social separation, social distinction, on the groimd of birth, of ancestry, of landed proprietorship, was frankly asserted and as frankly accepted. Democracy as we know it had but a slight hold as yet upon either the convictions or the customs of the leading men or even the masses. The Fathers of the Revolution were, in point of sentiment and habits of life, cultivated Englishmen in revolt. General Washmgton, in taste and temperament and largely in political conviction, was, to all intents, a great English Commoner fighting against George the Third, his English King. To marshal and direct and imify the wealth and culture of the Colonies in support of the patriot cause, there was demand 12 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH and necessity that one of the same class be raised up as leader— a man like Washington, a man, indeed, of supreme integrity, ability, and patriotism; yet withal a rich man, a man possessing social prestige and influence, a man of courtly conventions, in- sistent upon all the formalities of intercourse between high and low, a man whose austere and patrician dignity kept perpetual guard against all familiarities of approach or companionship. Such, in brief, was the essential character of the Revolutionary War, and such the personality of the great leader required and commissioned by Providence to conduct it to success. But the Civil War, the war for the Union as carried on by the North, was the war not of the " classes " but of the "masses"; it was .distinctly the war of the common people. The wealthy, the cultured, the socially distinguished, in good part, perhaps in majority, were ready to say in the beginning and long afterward: "Let the South go — let them set up for themselves." But the common people, " the plain people," as Lincoln loved to call them, insisted first and last, and through the leadership of one of them- selves, Abraham Lincoln, made good their insistence, that the Union must be and shall be preserved, one and inseparable, now and forever. Providence, we repeat, not only appoints but prepares its Listrimients. The man to champion to successful issue the cause of the common people for the preservation of the Union must be one in complete touch and sympathy with all the people — a man of the people, by the people, for the people. Abraham Lincoln was pre-eminently that man — a man of "the plain people," his faith, his vision, his moral passion, and ideals all were theirs; known to all, accessible to all, in fellowship with all. General Washington we know and admire; President Washington we know and venerate; but George Washington, the individual man, remains to this day practically an unknown personality. Not so with Lincoln, the individual man. All knew him, all loved him, all trusted him, not only as the great leader but as the common friend and fellow and brother-man. Let me not be misunderstood. No lapse of time, no compari- son or contrast should or can diminish one ray of glory or abate one thrill of gratitude due the mighty patriot Washington. As there could be but one Columbus, so there could be but one AND OTHER PAPERS 13 Washington— Father and Founder of the Republic. Full meas- ure of that awe felt by the Greek of old before the statue of Jupiter or before the Mountain of Olympus we ourselves must feel, and must ever feel, as we recall and perpetuate the august memory of Washington. Washington, calm, remote, majestic, like some snowclad moun- tain "whose awful form Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm." His absolute integrity, his high-mindedness, his perfect self- mastery, his serene sense of duty that never swerved from its task, his fortitude (patient to the point of miracle), his clearness of judgment which was in him a special form of genius, his utter imselfishness in devotion to his country's cause and liberties (greater than a Caesar, he could spurn aside the crown of king- ship pressed upon him) — these qualities command the reverence and the immeasured gratitude of every true American to-day and every day, and constituted, in the case of Washington, a person- ality that, measured by the moral stature even of his great con- temporaries, towers above them as the colossal figure of Liberty towers above the level waters of New York Bay. Great character was the secret of his supremacy and his achievement. "Ah!" said Mirabeau, in the crisis of the French Revolution, "if I had but character I could save France." Washington had character, and so saved the Republic. But Lincohi— Abraham Lincohi, "the only." The memory and impress of the man stir the national heart with the fervor of an immense enthusiasm. His early years of incredible toil, privations, and struggle, registered so deeply in that strong yet seamed and saddened face — let me pause to remind you— not chance, this, but Divine appointment, Divme preparation work- ing to an end. Others might wear soft raiment, others might sit in kings' houses faring sumptuously every day; but Lincohi, like Hercules, to do the work of Hercules, "must be fed early and long on the marrow of lions." I love to thmk of his rugged strength, his huge and homely figure, his patriarchal simplicity, his honesty, so transparent, so absolute it has passed into proverb and song, "Honest Old Abe"; his wealth of ready sympathy for 14 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH all classes, "the very milk of human kindness in the man"; the immeasurable commonplace of his genial humor, the unshakable integrity of cheer with which his great heart bore the burden of his giant labors, his prophet insight of the times, his vital trust in Providence, his unfailing faith in fellowman, "the plain people" — "Here was a type of that true, elder race. And one of Plutarch's men lived with us face to face." This great and wise and kindly man, this servant of God and his coimtry, inspires not only veneration and gratitude, but fills the common heart of his countrymen with the warmth and glow of a personal affection. Such were the great characters providentially raised up; such were the great leaders selected, disciplined, and equipped by Providence, each to do his special work; the one as the Founder and Father of the Republic, the other to lead the Republic, rent and riven by the passion born of discordant moral and political conviction, to lead the Republic through the flame and thunder of warring times to the promised land of restored union and peace, of permanent brotherhood and universal freedom. May the memories of these two great characters, like stars of imperishable lustre, shine down and shed abroad, not only for us but for all men, the benediction of their light and guidance — binary stars, that "Arise and remain and take station Forevermore in the moral firmament of man." THE MORAL LIMITS OF PRAYER* Prayer we may distinguish into two great divisions, adora- tional and petitionary. There is prayer that is talking with God — spiritual intercourse; it is praise, it is adoration, it is thanks- giving; and such prayer may employ many words or few. I re- call the memorable example of Saint Francis of Assisi on the Mount Alverno, where he was accustomed to pace back and forth for hours uttering but the one word, "God!" First of all, is there any limitation to such prayer? I think there is; that is, even such prayers of adoration and spiritual intercourse can never be made a substitute for conmion, every-day himian duties. Time may not be appropriated from that which by reason of things and by the circumstances of the case is the duty first in order — be it only a matter of commonplace obliga- tion. I think it would surprise us, my friends, if we should look at some expressions of our Lord and see with what boldness He puts even common duties rightly in front of those which the leaders of His day were prone to think more especially religious, and therefore at all times to have preference. You remember that picture of the man on the way to the Temple — "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee" — [some mark of kindness you ought to do him, no matter who he is, something that you owe him] — "leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." There is a duty to man that goes before that — duty to God — ^first make yourself right with your fellow. As St. John says, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how" — in the name of common sense — "can he love God whom he hath not seen? " It is when we come to the second division, that of petitionary prayer, that serious debate really begins to-day, and as Christians we must face it. There is no manner of doubt to-day that there •Delivered before the Church Congress, Troy, N. Y., April 7, 1910. IS i6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH are many high-minded, conscientious, firm, sincerely reverent people who are ready to condemn petitionary prayer, in the first place as irrational, and further than that, as essentially presump- tuous. In other words, they question not only the efficacy and power of petitionary prayer in view of universal law and order, but they question the propriety of such prayer, the morality of such prayer, if you please, in view of the revealed character of God. Let us look briefly at these objections : Prayer is called irrational in the name of natural law, in the name of the invariable sequence of facts and events in the world, and, let us note, some are ready to carry this reign of law right over into the spiritual realm and claim that the sequence of mental events — emotions and all that furniture of desire and resolve within us, are just as subject to invariable sequence and the rule of Law and Order as are the planets in their courses or the adjustments of the atoms in chem- istry. The only difference being that it is infinitely more difficult for us to define or discover that law in the one case than in the other. Such teaching to be consistent must deny utterly the moral freedom of man. And indeed, let us observe that the moral freedom of man — the freedom of man's will — and the rationality or justification of prayer, stand or fall together. Rob man of his moral freedom, and prayer becomes nothing more than a mechanical pastime. But further, there are many who admit that within the spiritual sphere we may pray for love, we may pray for faith, for the spirit of patience and thanksgiving, and for personal forgiveness; for these we may pray at all times with unqualified assurance. Why? Because we know that it is in accordance with the Divine will; therefore we need not even condition such prayer with the "if it be Thy will," for we know as we know our own existence that such spiritual blessings are in accordance with the declared (re- vealed) Divine will. But beyond this: when we go beyond the range of the purely spiritual, when we trench upon the material — the material in our bodies and in the world of nature about us — there the debate to-day becomes strenuous and fierce. Beyond the reahn of the purely spiritual, they argue, prayer can have absolutely no effect. Every Christian believer must challenge that assertion. We AND OTHER PAPERS 17 hear so much to-day about "Natural Law" that deference for the term has become a veritable obsession. A very distinguished scientist of our time has frankly admitted that "Natural Law" has become for the common man, and very largely for the scien- tific man, a kind of fetich. Jeremy Bentham, however, said very truly — and many are coming to recognize the truth of his saying —that "Natural Law" is simply "a metaphor founded upon another metaphor." That conception of the world as ruled mechanically by "Nat- ural Law" as if it were a fixed, cast-iron, impersonal framework that stood by itself, and God a mere spectator, or as if the physical world were simply a great machine, God having wound it up once and now having no further concern with its on-going — we can dismiss to-day in the name of science itself. Further, let us observe, that without breaking natural law man can and does adjust the sequence of events in the natural world, can and does adapt them to the accomplishment of his purposes; they are, in a word, flexible. We speak of having discovered the "laws of nature." I presume, my friends, if we had a handful of sand and stood by the seashore, it would be just as fair to say, "Here is the sand of the seashore," as to say of the whole range of sci- ence to-day, "Here are the laws of nature." There may be, there must be, millions of invariable sequences of which, even as yet, in the experience of the human race, there has been no knowledge. Suppose fifty years ago, for instance, one should have said, " I am going to speak so that my voice shall be heard in New York or Buffalo," how busy the physicists and mathematicians would have been to deplore or even to stop the experiment. Why? They would say, "We think that in order to produce wave vibra- tions of the air that would reach New York City or Buffalo you would have to produce a concussion here that would absolutely level to the ground every building in this city. A hundred tons of dynamite exploded would not produce a shock of sufficient violence to carry those wave pulses that far." And yet I can go to a room in the Parish House and I can speak through the wire, and my voice is heard and recognized at a point five times farther off. Am I breaking a law of nature? I am simply bringing to bear another law that was discovered a little while ago. i8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH But, says one, the deflecting or the bending of these laws of nature requires force to do that, and when you speak of adding any degree of force to the force aheady existing, you are coming right counter to the great doctrine of the conservation of energy. That is a big word. My friends, what are the terms "energy," "force," "power?" Absolutely nothing but symbols. There is but one power, the will of God, that works through the universe. As a distinguished scientist has said, when you name such names as energy, force, and power, looking at them as independent en- tities "doing things," you are as far wrong as the savage who supposes that his words of incantation actually hasten the passing of the eclipse. There is one power, and that power is of God. "Well," but say some, "take care, take care! Do you forget the old revered distinction between what God actually performs in nature and what He only permits?" Let us say that the venerableness of this distinction cannot save it from utter rejection. The teaching of Scripture is clear that the Almighty does not wish us to fabri- cate any kind of excuse which shall seek to shift from His shoul- ders the responsibility for the on-going of the universe. There is no need to attempt to "prove an alibi for God." All energy, all power, are but names for His will — and that will is not fettered, enslaved, by any invariable pre-established order. He can bring about the most tremendous changes, not by any direct and down- right smashing, so to speak, of any order recognized, but by means of infinitesimal, insignificant deviations. Take one illustration: Upon the death of King Edward of England the present King was at once proclaimed, as his father had been, both King of England and Emperor of India. How did the title of "Emperor" come to be his? Simply, as has been pointed out, because a despondent and desperate young English clerk in India twice tried to take his own life, and twice the powder refused to explode. That would- be suicide became the great administrator who brought to the Crown of England the great domains of India. How easily we might imagine the process by which Providence brought that event about without any infraction of so-called natural law. Suppose that the man who made the powder had a mixing-table by a window; some passing objects divert his attention for a moment; in consequence he does not put in the exact proportions AND OTHER PAPERS 19 of the elements making the mixture. The result is the imperfect powder in the flash-pan of that pistol which failed to explode — CUve's life is saved and that saves the King of England an empire. We have time to but touch briefly upon the second objection to petitionary prayer. There are good, high-minded men to-day who claim that "apart from all question whether petitionary prayer may have or can have any possible effect, this thing is clear, that such prayer is and must be at best a presumption — an impertinence. God knows what is best; He knows the how and the why and the best that should be given or withheld, and, more than that. He is infinitely more ready to give the best gifts than we are to receive them. Hence, in any form of petition, even for spiritual benefits, what are we doing, say they, but pitting our feebleness and ignorance against the wisdom and the power of God?" I answer that by saying that while God is Almighty, yet there is in human nature a limit even to the power of Almighty God. He will not invade personality by force. When God gave me the power of choice, He gave me that mysterious power, that wonder- ful power, of shutting the heart against the Divine invasion. Prayer is the opening of the doors of the heart to let in the divine power and the divine blessing. This attitude of super-humility and resignation, so far from being an attitude of meekness, is really an attitude of pride and arrogance. May I, in conclusion, just say a word that is suggested by the fact that in the Old Testament, while we have many examples of prayer, I am not aware that we have a single explicit command or requirement to pray, and yet when we come to the New Testa- ment, how different! The Master has laid it down again and again; and after Him His apostles again and again; pray, pray, pray. It seems to me we have there a striking instance and evidence of our Lord's prevision of the very times in which we live. With the progress of man's knowledge, revealing the invariable order and sequence of things in the world of nature. He knew that doubts and difl&culties would arise as to prayer. But beyond this fact, that the domain of prayer is narrowing with the advances of man's knowledge, there is another great truth that has come to counteract that; and that is the imma- nence of God, God dwelling in this worid. To my mind one of 20 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the greatest and most momentous of changes is being wrought in man's conception of God's relation to the world and to life. The old "carpenter" theory of a world that was formed and made complete at once is gone for good. The world was never made, but is still in the making. "Ever fresh the broad creation, A Divine improvisation, From the heart of God proceeds." Standing in the relationship, so frequently emphasized in Scripture, of the child to the Father, the Father who lives with us and in us now and here, and who has not deserted His child for a moment, we recall the words of the Christ: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make our abode with him."* And those other words, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This is not the farewell of a departing, but the salutation of an ever-present. Friend. "Speak to Him, then, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit may meet; Closer is He than breathing — nearer than hands or feet." *John 24:23. COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE* I CANNOT begin the formal paper that I have prepared — let me say, to calm any alarms that may be arising, that the paper will be very brief — without expressing my deep sense of the honor and privilege of being asked to be here on this first Commence- ment of William Smith College; and I would like just to, in the way of an introduction, make a few preliminary remarks. I have no doubt there has been impressed upon you the im- portance of this occasion — that you are now passing from condi- tions in which regularity of task, thoroughness of work, definite- ness of aim have been, as it were, imposed upon you by others, by those who have had the conduct of your education. Now you are passing out into life where these rules must be self-imposed. I have no doubt, again, that your most excellent staff of teach- ers here has impressed upon you that, after all, real mental cul- ture, like every other good, must be self-won. Teachers — the best of teachers — they have for you and me their undoubted worthy place; but I should say that at the great banquet of culture — mental culture — the most that the best teacher can do is to show you how to use your knife and fork and spoon; they cannot eat your dinner for you. You must bear that in mind. In other words, you must do your own thinking. Any teacher who would try to relieve you of that — I think we might describe such a teacher as Disraeli did one of his bitter opponents in the House of Parliament. Some one said, "You must admit he is a good man." "Then," said DisraeU, "he is a good man in the very worst sense of the word." And the teacher who would try to relieve you, I say, of the duty— and it is a difficult duty— of doing your own thinking, he may be a good teacher, but it is in the very worst sense of the word. Just one other caution— and I have no doubt it has been im- *Delivered at First Commencement of William Smith College, Geneva, N. Y., Jiuie i8, 1912. 21 22 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH pressed upon you — that you and I will get out of books largely just the interest on the capital of direct attention and thinking that we put into the books. You know Emerson has said, " To be a good reader you must be an inventor." It is the same idea. Of course, there are good books and poor books just as there are good roads and poor roads; but did you ever find a road that would do your walking for you? No. If you go an5^where and get anywhere, no matter how good the road is, you must do your own walking; and no matter how good the books or the literature that you consult, unless you peruse them with honest energy of attention, with your own powers of mind, you will get very little out of them. Old Hobbs said, "Of course, if I had read as many books as my opponents I would have known as Uttle." Not the number of books that we read, but the amount of direct attention and definite mental effort that we put into the reading is of prime importance. That is just what John Locke meant, I think, when he said: "The true end of education is not to store the mind with knowledge" — simply making our mind a kind of granary of wise saws and instances and conclusions of other people's thinking — "the great end of education is not so much to store the mind with knowledge as to give activity and vigor to its powers." I suppose I ought to feel a little like the old lecturer who found himself talking on the subject of war when he discovered at last that Hannibal and his generals were there at the same time; but I know I am speaking in the line of the conviction and of the efforts of the teachers that it has been your privilege to be under. To-day, I wish to present to you in a very familiar way some thoughts that I am sure if we grasp them — and especially you, as the types and symbols of educated womanhood — will un- doubtedly be for your moral betterment and for your success in the nobler sense in hfe. Briefly, I might call these remarks some considerations on the import and the power of womanhood. Now, whether we take the early chapters of Genesis as literal history or whether we take them as inspired allegory, they em- phasize the same truth — woman made after man. The finer succeeds the ruder. The law of creative energy is advance, not retrogression. Robert Burns writes, himself, we may say, the Scriptural exegete as well as a poet, in the lines: "First nature tried her practice hand on man and then she made the lassies, 0." AND OTHER PAPERS 23 But not only a great poet like Burns, but I remember reading how this same thought had taken possession of a young girl out in Lander, Wybming. She was in her teens. She was writing an essay on man, and she said: "It is said that men are more logical than women. I am not sure about that," she writes, " but of one thing I am sure: they are much more zoological than women." And she also said: "It is claimed that both men and women are sprung from monkeys. Of one thing I am sure: that the women have sprung much the farthest." A gentle, pure-minded, rich-hearted womanhood is the very flower and the consummation of humanity. The plan of Provi- dence in the progress of the race we plainly see gives to man the ruder tasks to do, the sterner labors of enterprise and of achieve- ment, while to woman falls, as her chief charge, the noble ministry of refinement, the enhancement of the gentleness and the grace of life. If the ideal of womanhood is responsible for these things by assignment of very nature, how greatly is that responsibility increased in your case by the advantages of training and culture that have been yours! Through all your years the "tender grace of your guarded lives" has been the chief care and joy and pride of parents and teachers. To you much has been given; from you much is to be required. You stand for the higher good; to be exemplars of what is finest and what is best in conduct and in character at aU times. The very fact, however, that you are, and that you have been, for the most part, shielded from the ruder demands and tasks of life and livelihood makes you, unless you are perpetually on your guard, more readily accessible than your brothers to the temptation to waste life; to let it sink to a careless, aimless level. Have a purpose in life. Life is real, life is earnest for you just as for the warrior or the statesman or the man of professional or commercial affairs. Remember that for all these you in your glory of womanhood remain, and must remain, the standard of what they hold fairest, highest and best. Good women must embody the finer, the choicer things of moral good and moral beauty if their very tradition is not to perish from the earth. What a sacred charge! What a sense of noble stewardship should it inspire you with. The Reverend Williams, who for so long a time was missionary among the Indians at Green Bay, Wisconsin— I remember reading the account where 24 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH on one occasion he was asked to do something that seemed off color to a high-minded man like that, and he replied: "No, I cannot so act; I cannot so Uve; I stand for a royal house." To his dying day he believed he was the Dauphin, that he was the royal heir to the throne of France; and he never forgot it. No matter what he was engaged in — stooping to tie a moccasin, doing any of the common labors — ^he carried with him that great thought that he stood for a royal house. So should you with like loyalty of spirit and with unquestioned claim of Hneage say: ' ' I cannot so live ; it is not for me. I cannot be careless or spiteful or selfish; I cannot be idle, ungrateful, unforgiving, unkind. I stand for the royal house of womanhood. " Not only the charm and the grace of life, but, in reality, its finer power — the power that makes for righteousness in moulding men and common life to finer issues, is largely, very largely, in your keeping. Next to Omnipotence itseK, there is no influence on earth so effective for the higher goodness as that of a noble and approved womanhood. The meanest man, if there be any recoverable and inflammable spark in the ashes of his moral nature, cannot but feel within him a sense of awe and of obligation to better things when confronted by the presence of a noble-hearted, high-minded woman. All the old remonstrances of conscience renew themselves and challenge him with a new imperativeness that he henceforth be a better man. With you, in a sense, more than with men, lies the power of so living and so acting as to make all scepticism and debate regarding the possibihty of realizing the Kingdom of God on earth a manifest absurdity. Now, do not think, let me counsel you, because your sphere is relatively secluded and inconspicuous, that because the outer forms and circumstances of your activities are not obtrusive and spectacular, that, therefore, they are the less significant and effective. Not so. In the moral sphere the greatness, the dig- nity, the worth of hves and of duties are not measured by the scale of the transactions or by the volume of their report, but by the quality of spirit and of motive inspiring them. It is the motive which determines the real moral magnitude of what you plan and pursue and achieve. Now, no matter how circumscribed your sphere, no matter how lowly the duties, if you, in a great spirit enter into them with noble motives of gentle truth and un- AND OTHER PAPERS 25 selfish kindness, you can thereby banish all sense of Uttleness and drudgery and commonplace; you can transfigure any set of cir- cumstances and make them spacious and dignified and noble. As a great writer has finely said : "Woman may by simply desiring and standing for the nobler good and the true, though she see it but in a glass darkly and cannot for the time, it may be, achieve all that she deems highest and the best, still, she is making a part of the divine power against evil, widening the skirts of life, and making the struggle with the darkness narrower." Assuredly, to be good and to do good is aUke the duty of man as well as wo- man; but to make all goodness beautiful, to enhance its attrac- tiveness and power by the charm of grace and gentleness, this is the ideal and the prerogative of womanhood. Youth with its enchantments is yours now, but age must come. To the eye of sense, indeed, age brings change and failing powers and decay of comeliness; but to one who has cherished steadily a noble ideal of womanhood and striven to realize its import and its power, age means not decline; age means not senility; age means not "fife bUnking" — to use Coleridge's expression — "life blinking through the watery eyes of superannuation"; but it means the ripening of richer beauties in the soul and rarer attrac- tiveness of personaUty. Let me quote, as I close, in witness of this last thought, the words of a wise and genial old traveller. He says : " I have lived a long life; I have travelled the wide world over; and but one thing have I found more charming than a lovely young woman, and that is a lovely old one." POWER OF ATTENTION* Porter: "Attention is the power to concentrate effort." Lilly: "Attention is the power of active self-direction." Rosenkranz: "Attention is the power to adjust self to the object." Hamilton: "Attention is consciousness concentrated." Attention is the focussing of consciousness, and as conscious- ness is not a particular faculty but the atmosphere which sur- rounds and informs all mental phenomena, so attention is not a separate faculty, but is the efl&cient power of consciousness which may attend and gives quality to every kind of mental activity, whether the object of that activity be objects without or ideas within. We see, then, its immeasurable importance. It is the begin- ning and the middle and the end of education. How to get it, how to keep it, how to make it grow, is the fundamental problem of teacher and learner alike. There are two conditions of its exercise: one physiological, the other psychical. The physiological — a sound and healthy brain. The psychical — some form of mental interest. For consciousness to focus itself the brain must be in vigorous condition and well supplied with nervous energy (essential depth of mind in brain). The blood must be well aerated. (A Greek professor raised the windows for fresh air; another indulged in a two-mile walk.) As to mental interest: I believe we may recognize three kinds, automatic, associative, and voluntary. The first, when the in- terest is excited, directly or automatically, by an object itself; in the case of the young especially — the sights and sotmds of nature. Second, where the interest is excited indirectly by association or relation to other objects or experiences. Third, where the interest is due to some ulterior motive, * Notes used for an address before Teachers' Training Class, Rochester, N. Y., February 9, 1899. 26 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 27 which incites and brings into play, distinctly and forcibly, the activity of the will itself. For example, a politician remem- bering faces and names; or Mr. Blaine making himself master of parliamentary rules. The history of mental progress may be said to be the history of the transition from the lower or automatic form to the higher or voluntary form of attention. And the inspiration and the guide of this transition is some form of interest. In childhood and youth attention is aroused and dominated chiefly, if not entirely, by the attraction of the properties and form of natural objects and their changes. It is interesting to note how objects like the magnet seize upon the child's mind and sense. Now it is important for the teacher to bear in mind that it is the first or automatic kind of interest that is chiefly to be relied upon in the case of youth. For the will is weak. Wilfulness in youth is like a child driver with a team of bronchos. The possibility of associative interest is slight, for associations are few. Therefore, make the object attractive directly, if possible, by picture alphabets and jingling rhymes and marching, teaching children about housekeeping. (Not philosophy, history, and their kindred.) Make association interesting by connecting it with what is already known. For, while too long or great famil- iarity destroys interest and therefore destroys attention, too great dissimilarity acts likewise and fails to arouse it. (For instance, an Indian boy with a watch; Darwin's ships and Terra del Fuegans.) But can the third or higher kind of attention, voluntary atten- tion, attention from motive, be brought into action at all at this early stage? I believe it can— fitfully, spasmodically,^ but still real so far as it goes and so long as it lasts. That motive in the child, although there may be others, wiU be the approbation of the teacher. A child's affection for its teacher will work wonders in this respect. The little child driving the team of bronchos will tighten the reins and exert its little strength to the utmost to guide and control the restive team of its faculties out of love for ■i+c tG3.clicr It is important with aU ages, and especially with youth, to 28 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH avoid distraction. Young life, like the Fountain of Ammon, has an enormous surplus of nervous energy. A child's brain is like a summer sky filled with flames of sheet lightning. A hair trigger, a slight thing, will destroy equilibrium and pro- duce discharge. Activity of brain in young and old tends to be a consohdated and unified affair, determined now by this current, now by that, but determined as a whole. As a whole bell vibrates, so the whole brain reverberates at each discharge. Like the explosion of a keg of powder, the powder goes off all over. In older scholars the teacher has a larger store of associa- tions and relations to work upon to provide interest and thus fix or steady attention; and besides, the personal motive, of which we have already spoken, may bring other and wider motives to bear to incite the will more distinctly and strenuously to action — such as love of mastery, achievement, even love of knowledge for its own sake. Talmud: "Love of exceeding in excellence gets children to study." But still, the law holds that the teacher should try to enrich the subject with additional relations and associations. For ex- ample, mathematics and philosophy are enriched by knowl- edge of the biographies of great masters. There is no such thing as prolonged and sustained holding of attention upon a subject destitute of interest, that does not scintillate and coruscate with new associations and new relations. Hamilton quotes Helvetius : "Genius is a sustained attention, but it is his genius largely that makes Mm attentive, not his attention that makes him a genius." But here, let us observe, there seems scarcely a limit to the intensity with which the will may work in attention. Therefore the motto: "Study not long but hard, work at high pressure." Remember the rule of archery: Draw arrow to the head for all distances. This makes the difference in men — not so much difference of faculty as of energy. The colored pigment in the eyes is different not in kind but in quantity. Remember Hamilton: "Tear the vitals out of a book." AND OTHER PAPERS 29 Account for the mystery of transmission as we will, something of the intensity and vital energy with which we acquire a piece of knowledge passes over into that knowledge itself and makes it living. One man's knowledge may be a museum with its folios of dried plants and stuffed skins of birds and beasts; another's, a zoological and botanical garden, with beasts of agility and strength, birds of beauty and song, trees of living growth and bright foliage. I may sum up in two quotations the gist of my remarks: Adam Smith: "The secret of knowledge is directing vanity to proper objects. For we must find or make every object interesting, directly or indirectly, before the mind, through attention, will or can seize upon it, hold it steadily, assimilate it, and add it to its stores. But attention, simply for the sake of retention, is but partial and one- sided development." John Locke: "The true end of education is not to store the mind with knowledge, but to give activity and vigor to its powers, true force and freedom to the play and direction of all its faculties. Mere acquiring of knowledge is no more mental force than the camel's bur- den is the camel's strength." Energy of attention, then, through all the range of mental activity, is the first and the last word for teacher and learner alike. This is the price that must be paid for all real progress and advance. The gates of failure open of themselves. The gates of all success must be stormed and won. The kingdom of a truly educated mind, a mind strong, flexible, efiicient, trained to habits of intense and disciplined attention; the kingdom of mind, like the kingdom of any good, like the kingdom of Heaven itself, suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. ESSAYS NIETZSCHE FRIEDRICH WILHELM NIETZSCHE was born at Rocken, near Liitzen, Germany, October 15, 1844. His father was a country pastor, a model of Christian virtues, and especially gifted in music. Says Mencken*: "As a preacher's son, brought up with all strictness in the fear of the Lord, he had the ideaLtraining for a future shamsmasher and free- thinker. Let a boy of alert and restless intelligence come to early manhood in an atmosphere where doubts are blasphemies and inquiry a crime, and rebeUion is certain to appear with his beard." (Similarly Bob Ingersoll, whose father was a Congregational clergyman.) Nietzsche's mother was also the daughter of a clergyman. His family on the father's side descended from Polish nobles, compelled by religious persecution to flee from their own country. After several years at common and final schools he entered the Gymnasium at ten years of age, in 1854. He took high rank in all studies save mathematics. In 1864, at twenty years of age, he entered the University of Bonn, as a student of philology and theology. The latter, however, he soon discontinued. The re- moval of Ritschlf from Bonn to Leipsic caused Nietzsche to change universities also. He remained at Leipsic from 1865 to 1867. During this period he became an enthusiastic adherent of Schopenhauer's philosophy. In 1869, upon Ritschl's recom- mendation, he was appointed to Professor of Classical Philology at Bale; not yet twenty-five years of age, and in less than a year was made Professor Ordinarius. During this period his intimate friendship with Wagner was formed. After ten years' service, in 1879, on account of failing health, he resigned his professorship. *" Phflosophy of Nietzsche," p. 3. tFrederick William Ritschl, the noted German classical philologist, bom 1806, died 1876. 33 34 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH By 1882 his physical condition became so much improved that he was able to publish book after book in rapid succession. In January, 1889, at forty-five years of age, he became hopelessly insane, and lived chiefly with his sister at Weimar until his death in August, 1900. Why should we spend an hour about a madman's reveries, or at best a philosophic Mr. Hyde? There was, if not a rounded "method in his madness," a startling significance and power. Within the last ten years he has acquired an influence over modem Continental culture equalled by no philosopher since Hegel. He has created an independent school of thought, and in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, and Scandinavia a whole literature has sprung into existence bearing directly upon his work. The problems he has raised it is no longer possible to neglect or avoid; it is preferable to look them straight in the face. Apart from the startling originality of his thought, his immense rhetorical power and rhapsodic gift have helped to extend his influence. Friends and enemies alike praise him for his match- less command of word music. His works must not, it is true, be read rapidly. " It is not only my habit, but even my fancy — ^perhaps a malicious fancy — to write nothing but what may drive every reader to despair who is 'pressed for time.' "* In a recent Life, by M. A. Miigge (London and New York, 1909) two whole pages are devoted to German editions of his works. (Only first editions mentioned.) Translations, three pages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Biographies, commentaries, and essays on Nietz- sche, within the last fifteen years, thirty-three pages. Revolt against the whole civilized environment of modern life is the keynote of Nietzsche's hterary career, says Professor Lichtenberger. All commentators of Nietzsche recognized a triple division of his mass of writings. His whole labor may be said to have addressed itself to answer the question: "If life is worth living, what makes it so? What is the supremely valuable?" During the first or aesthetic period, he approached, in the *" Dawn of Day," p. 28. AND OTHER PAPERS 35 "Birth of Tragedy," the question from the aesthetic point of view and answered, Beauty. In the second, or intellectual period, changing his standard of valuation. Truth became the one thing supremely desirable; even should the truth be that there is no absolute truth allowable. In the third, or ethical period, everything is valuable in proportion as it can further the full, rounded, complete development of the "Over-man," the "Super-man," the "Beyond-man." Beauty and truth are of course included, but only in so far as they strictly make for this development of individual man. Whatever does not promote this end, whether true or false, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, is vigorously cast aside. This period is difficult for us to grasp, in consequence of our inborn respect for truth and right. In Nietzsche's view, moral and intellectual values cease to be the only or all-important ones. There is no necessity for a so-called moral basis of the world or life, or of a science to co-ordinate the facts of the world and life. If the world and life are beautiful or can be made beautiful, why need we look further? Any amount of tribulation and hardship is justified if it produces only a Httle good music, painting, sculp- ture, or poetry. One really good song compensates for all the tragedy of existence. To ask whether a book or a play has a moral or an unmoral tendency is the very impertinence of absurd- ity. The only relevant question is. Are they works of art? Are they beautiful? Not only art for art's sake, but life* for art's sake. In the second or intellectual period he was no longer satis- fied with contemplation of aesthetic beauty, but takes another step in the direction of destructive criticism. He starts with Pilate's question. What is truth? but, unlike Pilate, he stays for an answer. All his commentators acknowledge, however, his answer on the positive side is most indefinite. He tells us every- thing truth is not, but makes no positive definition. " Of all forms of madness," says Voltaire, " the insistence on see- ing things exactly as they are is the most appalling and hopeless." Nietzsche says: "Truth for truth's sake is an enemy to exis- tence. Truth, regarded as agreement with reality, or as that which is guaranteed by universal consent, has for the most part been directly hostile to the advance of human reason. 36 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH "Error, on the contrary, furthers happiness. It is rooted so firmly in the passions, in language, in art, and religion, and in everything, in fact, that lends value to life, that the abolition of error would be an irremediable injury. "The real motive energies of life are pleasure and pain, health and injury, and they have nothing whatever to do with a sense of truth." Nietzsche is open to criticism here: First, for his double as- sumption: He presupposes the existence of absolute truth and just as constantly denies it. Second: He confounds the his- toric problem wilii that of essence or value; e. g., no permanent worth attaches to anything that has been proved to have its his- torical origin in subtlety. Let us now review Nietzsche's "Theories of Kultur ": in its re- lation to "the free spirit" ("Freigeist"). First: True Kultur has certain indispensable prerequisites. The first is frequent war. Kultur cannot dispense with the strong passions, the force and swiftness of hand and brain, the readiness to fight for one's self; the barbarity, if you please, which war brings with it. Permanent peace would mean physical and mental enervation. Second: Two social casts: Laborers and men of leisure; free interchange, however. Third: The occasional appearance of exceptional characters makes character, in fact. A race only maintains itself where the majority cling to com- mon convictions, behefs, and customs; this bringing about firm- ness of character. But the danger always accompanying this stabiUty is stupidity. Hence, for a high grade of Kultur to arise necessitates the appearance of exceptional characters, sometimes even madmen. Most of these must undoubtedly perish after a brief existence; but a few here and there manage to maintain themselves for a longer period and so introduce new elements into society, and are indispensable to progress. Fourth : Rehgion : A chapter by him on religion in Kultur would be as brief as Dean Swift's chapter on Snakes in Iceland: "There are no snakes in Iceland." There is no place for positive religion in culture, except what each makes for himself. (He was espe- cially severe against Christianity.) In his value all religions, AND OTHER PAPERS 37 Christianity included, are the product of anxiety and need, and are based upon erroneous reasoning. The common consent of mankind, so often advanced as an argument for religion, is one of the chief reasons for rejecting it. Nothing but foolishness is common or believed by everybody. His charge against Chris- tianity is twofold. First, it is false. Second, assuming it true, Christians do not live in accord with its rules. Christianity is utterly and frankly illogical. It requires belief and belief only, and rejects every demand for reasons. "Believe and you wiU be happy. ' ' That is, the personal utility of an opinion is the proof of its truth. Further, its dictum of prayer is illogical. Here we have an echo of Emerson. (We know he read Emerson in earlier years.) "All men's prayers are a disease of the wiU, as their creeds are a disease of the intellect." Prayer is reasonable only under two assumptions: First, that it is possible to change the determination of the divinity; second, that the petitioner is the best judge of what he needs. Both suppositions, which are accepted in many or most other religions, are flatly denied by Christianity; but nevertheless prayer is retained. Still, we must admit its retention was a stroke of great cleverness. What would the saints, those unhappy men who could not or would not work, have done without it? If an evil exists (pain, suffering, persecu- tion) Christianity does not try to destroy it, but to change opinion concerning it; to make it seem a blessing in disguise. Christian- ity at best, therefore, is a narcotic, and not a true remedy. A consideration of his ethics discloses: AU prevailing moral distinctions are false; the standards of morality and the theories that support them are erroneous. For instance, sympathy, in- stead of being the proper basis of moral action as Schopenhauer taught, is another name for weakness. It is a poor kind of mor- ality which depends upon pain and weakness in others for its very existence. Sympathy is a sign of contempt and essentially indeli- cate. SjTupathy, instead of being beneficial, is positively harmful. It increases the sum of misery by adding my own sympathetic suffering to that of the original sufferer. The truly moral man has as his distingiiishing characteristic "force." He wishes to stand or fall alone. He thinks and acts for himself. Everything, in order to have worth for him, must be strong and great. He would rather have a great pain than a little pleasure. Feelings 38 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of responsibility and sinfulness do not trouble him, simply from the fact that he knows there is no such thing as sin, and that no one is really responsible. The development of his own person- ahty is the one thing that concerns him. In the third or ethical period Nietzsche's destructive criti- cism of existing standards differs from that of the second only in being more radical, but his positive or constructive theories show themselves more completely. His aim, it must be said, was not to overthrow all moral valuations, but only those he considered dominant in modern civilization. The ideal which he makes the centre of his system is that of the " Over-man," the "Beyond-man." ' ' When the Over-man at last appears on earth, it may be asked : Will a Super-man or a Super-super-man come after that? Nietz- sche answers. The universe moves in regular cycles. All that is now happening wiU happen again. The cosmic year has its counterpart in the terrestrial years."* The chief results of this period: First, as to Truth: There are no absolute or universal truths. No man can go beyond what is true for himself. Indeed, the desire for such a standard is a sign of weakness. A man should be too proud to accept his neighbor's truth or even to desire to share with him his own. It is to say the least bad taste to wish to agree with many people. Second, as to Religion, especially Christianity: In the in- tellectual period Nietzsche was concerned to show that Chris- tianity was not true; but now his radical change of attitude is manifested in the fact that he is no longer interested in its truth or falsity, but in the fact that it is at once a symptom and a cause of degeneration. So long as a people has confidence in itself — ^is strong and free — ^its God will be the reflection of its own real character. His bad qualities will be quite as prominent as his excellencies. It is not imtU a nation begins to degenerate that their God becomes merely a good God. The strength and pride of race being weak- ened, they are ready to share their God with other nations — a most unnatural thing — to give him a cosmopolitan character. The ze al, then, to spread the knowledge of a God or of a religion *Mencken, "Philosophy of Nietzsche," p. 117. AND OTHER PAPERS 39 (so characteristic, for instance, of Christianity) is always an index and a measure of race degeneracy. Christianity has pandered from the beginning to the sorrows and sufferings of the poor and the weak. As a means of bringing all to the same base level, the strong and proud as well as the weak and abject, it has invented the casmstry of sin and self-criticism. AU men are sinners, is one of Christianity's axioms. As if that were a charge which, even if true, could have any necessarily sinister consequence. Christianity has shown great cleverness in providing a narcotic for the pain of the spiritual disease with which it has inoculated the world. That narcotic consists in its three great doctrines of faith, hope, and love. Faith in something, whether true or false; hope in another world; and love for a God who is arrayed in such a variety of attributes that all ages and dispositions may find in him their ideal and counterpart. "I do not love the New Testament. But the Old Testament — here is a difference. My highest respect is commanded. In it I find great men, real men, an heroic landscape. I might summarize by saying they were men who made their religion as fiiey went along; and we, instead of striving to rise up and do likewise, are content to set our- selves the slavish and impossible task of beKeving theirs."* In moral valuations there are two sets of opposites : Good and evil (Schlecht), and good and bad (Bose). These have an entirely different historJ^ Good and evil ex- press valuations of the superior or strong or ruling class, in rela- tion to their inferiors. Good (bonus, from the same root as beUum, points to the fact that the good man was the fighting man), far from being an altruistic sense, is entirely egoistic. Whatever expresses the will of the individual is good; all that he does and is, his impulses, his passions, his actions, he calls good. Whatever is different is scorned and called evil. ' Good, in fact, originally is a sign of aristocratic class; it is distinctive of the strong or warrior class. Only later, in periods of decline and degeneracy, was it extended to characterize mental and spiritual qualities as such. Evil (in Latin malus, Greek lieXai) meant the dark-colored, especially black-haired, common man; the pre-Aryan inhabitant *" Genealogy of Morals,'' p. 202. 40 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of Italy as distinguished from the ruling Aryan class. All that he was and did was, in the view of the rightful, superior class, evil. The rise of a priestly aristocracy added the word "pure"; but that meant originally no more than the man who washes himself, who refrains from certain foods that cause skin diseases, who has a dislike of blood. While the priestly aristocracy was due to partial degeneracy of the ruHng class, we should never forget that we owe it to them that man has become both interest- ing and bad — two advantages that man has over the animal. So much for "Good" and "Evil." Good and Bad are the characteristic terms of the slave mo- rality, and have quite a different content from those of the aristo- cratic morality. "Good," with the aristocrats, characterizes every form of self-expression; marks it as praiseworthy no matter how much it transgresses every so-called moral precept originating with the lower classes. The nobleman, however much he may be bound by custom, reverence, or gratitude to his equals, feels and acknowledges none of these trammels in his intercourse with the vulgar horde below him. Compare Emerson: "Do not teU me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, I grudge the doUar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me." The slave morality speaks a different language. It says, "Let us be different from our wicked rulers; let us be good." And by good they mean the man who raises no violence, injures no one, who leaves revenge to God; who loves his neighbors, and is penitent for his sins. One great invention turned the magician into a priest: the invention of a bad conscience. The will to cause pain is natural to man, therefore. The subject of slave morality invented bad conscience, the sense of guilt, for the purpose of causing pain to himself after the natural power of this will to cause pain had become obstructed through his weakness. In a word, the weak are the good. These two opposing systems have had a long and terrible struggle, and though the slave morality is practically generally AND OTHER PAPERS 41 accepted, it is not yet universally dominant. The last great victory of slave morality was in the French Revolution, when it conquered the French nobility, the only real aristocracy remain- ing in Europe. The last great individual example of aristocratic morality was that afforded in the person and career of Napoleon Buonaparte; but he was done to death by the slave class. Let us now consider the "moral ideal," "fulness of life." At the bottom of everything Hes the "wiU to power." "A creed is a rod, And a crown is of night; But this thing is of God: To be man with thy might. To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit, And live out thy life as the light."* Strength and force, and joy in the unrestricted use of them, are the natural and foremost qualities of the higher man. Ce- sare Borgia had the qualities in an unusual degree. Self- assertion is the first and last command. All restrictions are shunned — for instance, wedlock. Even the wretched philoso- phers seem to have had a glimpse of this truth. Who among them is known to have been married? Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Lubrietz, Kant, and Schopenhauer were not. A married philoso- pher is a figure of comedy. Socrates married, it would seem, expressly to demonstrate this proposition. Life is essentially the overcoming of the forceful and the weak. Everything is good that increases the will power; everything is evil that springs from weakness. Not restraint, but power; not peace, but war; not virtue, but ability — these are the virtues of the higher man. Compare: "To demand of strength that it should not manifest itself as strength; that it should not be a will to overpower, to subdue; that it should not be a thirst for enemies, resistance, triumphs, is as absurd as to demand of weakness that it should manifest itself as strength." t "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that string."t ♦Swinburne, " Songs Before Sunrise." t "Genealogy of Morals," p. 46. tEmerson, "Self-reliance." 42 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH He is proud and free. Proud, he loves solitude; he stands alone. Free, he cHngs to no person, no country; he has freed himself from everything: sympathy, science, his own virtues. Such a morality must necessarily be confined to the few. Doubtless, says Nietzsche. The common people must struggle on as best they can; they only exist, in fact, as a foil for their masters and betters. " Every religion of pity, as, for instance, Christianity, tends to pro- tect and prolong the existence of degenerates." " Christianity, the religion of pity, has most effectively contributed to the degradation of the European race and to handicap the evolution of humanity toward the Super-man." * The "Over-man," then, represents that t)^e or ideal which will be realized when the aristocrat has resolutely renounced the existing hierarchy of values ethical and rehgious, especially the Christian ideal, democratic or ascetic, that is current to-day, so far as confession, in the whole of modern Europe, and has re- turned, says Professor Lichtenberger, to the table of values acknowledged among the noble races, among the masters, who themselves create the moral values that they recognize, instead of receiving them from without. The affirmation of self, the "will to power," is the one all- embracing characteristic of the "Over-man." Negation, denial, restraint, have absolutely no place or recognition. Here we note the diametric opposition between Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's ideal man reaches his goal by supreme denial, denial of the "will to power " ; Nietzsche's by supreme affirmation. The significance of Nietzsche's philosophy is to be found chiefly in his ethics, for here lies his true originaHty of view and teaching. While ethical writers accept for the greater part the moral phenomena as something given and base their doctrines upon the distinctions of good and bad as actually made by man- kind, Nietzsche proposes not to explain morality, but to recon- struct it. He denies entirely the vahdity of universal consent, or the conscience of the race, as a guide or guarantee in determining *Henri Lichtenberger, "Gospel of Super-man: the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche." AND OTHER PAPERS 43 moral values. There is but one fundamental principle : the " will to power." His extreme individualism is perhaps of equal significance. In his philosophy the individual is all in all; there is no suggestion of a social ideal; no problems to be solved arising from the conflict of the good of the individual and that of society; because the latter in his system of "master mor- ality" deserves no consideration. Only the best of the race, of course, are or can be worthy of the new morality. It is never to be degraded by acceptance on the part of the common herd. He does not deny that man as he is is naturally social and sym- pathetic; but he bids the great man restrain or destroy these feelings, lest they drag him down to the level of the masses. SjTnpathy, imselfishness, sacrifice, all exist; alas, they are only too common. But until a man has conquered them in himself he has no share in the higher moraUty. This validity he an- noimces but nowhere condescends to prove. If any doubt it, it is evidence that they are not of the class for which he writes. They belong to the common herd. Notwithstanding the savage extravagance, the furious rage, the riotous exuberance of epithet with which the impassioned philoso- pher wreaks himself tipon his whole environment, religious, moral, social, and political, yet may we not in the pages of Nietzsche, as in a magnifying mirror, behold some of the sinister, unconfessed, yet salient features of the so-called Christian civilization of our day? Granted the reflection is immensely enlarged and in parts shockingly distorted, yet the lineaments are there, and the like- ness s;ifficiently close to startle and give pause to the thoughtful observer. "It may be confidently asserted that among aU the opponents of Christianity, from Celsus down to our contemporaries, few have been at once bolder and deeper than Nietzsche. To say the very least, a good deal can be learned from him, for there is no weak spot in his enemy's armor that escapes his eagle eyes." . . . "He possessed something which was lacking in many of his contemporaries: a psy- chological perception of the essence of the reUgion and a knowledge of the believer's heart."* ♦Professor Weinel, of the Univeisity of Jena, "St. Paul, The Man and His Work," p. 85. 44 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Third: Does he not, for instance, in his "master morality" lay bare the real principles which, in part at least and under specious disguises, rule the national and mdustrial activities and much of the social Kfe of our time? The Christian democratic- neighbor moraUty — what Nietzsche calls the "slave morality" — we preach and chant, we praise and prefer it; but in cold fact are not the principles of the other, the "master morality," largely the dominant ones? Somewhere it is written: " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? " * "A literal faith in the Gospel narratives (devils in swine and all that) is confined to-day to ecclesiastical reactionaries, pious old ladies, and men about to be hanged."! Professor Lille, of Glasgow in his introduction to "Genealogy of Morals," p. xv, says: "The peculiarity by which moral values in polite society are distinguished from that of Christian morahty as taught in the New Testament, the school and the church, is that it is merely a morality of an upper caste in contradistinction from the lower classes of people. By force of the quaHties de- manded by this code, the upper class feels itself to be something better than the lower. He who does not comply with the special demands of that essentially aristocratic code is 'not a gentle- man.' She who does not master its requirements is 'not a lady,' however good, industrious, prudent, economical people they may be; nay, however great things they may occasionally have accomplished. For it is not the goodness, nor the deeds of magnanimity, nor the accomplishment of something great and valuable, which makes the gentleman of to-day. In numerous cases, though not in all, the commandments of the gentleman morality are absolutely contrary to those of the Ten Command- ments." We have so intoxicated ourselves with phrases like altruism, charity, social justice, equality before the law, free- dom and right to labor and happiness, that we fail to realize that we are living in a world where these things are by no means recognized as self-evident truths or as principles necessary to social welfare. *Luke, vi46. fMencken, "Philosophy of Nietzsche," p. 128. AND OTHER PAPERS 45 In the Hibbert Journal for January, 1904, says the editor, Mr. L. P. Jacks: " We hear a great deal to-day about ' What is Christianity? ' Har- nack asks the question and gives the answer; Christianity is not a creed, but a Ufe; 'eternal Ufe m the midst of time'; and the essence of that life is the Higher Righteousness and the Law of Love. But another question unmediately presses and that is: 'If this be Chris- tianity, where is Christianity? Where are the Higher Righteousness and the Law of Love to be seen in operation? ' The number who ask that question and get either no answer or only an answer which lacks both authority and deamess, is rapidly increasing." Where is Christianity, then? Is the life of the Christian state, church, or average individual validly a Christian life? Does recent history, as read not in books of the learned, but in the works of nations, governments, parties, trade, finance, suggest that the Life is lived? Does the nominally Christian world mean to be Christian in fact? Is Christianity thus interpreted (as a life) really the name for anything characteristic or dominant in the western world? Does it really animate and direct any of the great underlying forces and tendencies which are now making the history of the nations, guiding the policy of the churches, pointing the goal of the social activities, forming the individual characters of the millions of to-day? Is not the Christianity of to-day rather the name of something (as the French would say) "arriving after the event," which tries to undo a small fraction of the havoc wrought by the forces which are characteristic of our time? Shall society call itself Christian because, forsooth, after living all day by principles which turn the earth into a battle- field, it siunmons the ambulances in the evening and picks up the wounded and sheds tears of pity over the dead? Wherefore, the plain man doubts whether he could seriously and honestly'claim to be Christian. He is by all operative standards an honorable man; deals honestly in trade, is a good husband and father, faithful to his friends (perhaps a little hard on his foes), patriotic, munificent. But for the plain man to pretend that the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount are his, even in spirit, would be a flagrant falsehood. He admires the beauty, may even admit the philosophic truth of the principle which bids him lose his life to save it; but he is an acting member of a community 46 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH whose industrial life is based on the opposite principle of Compe- tition. He is a firm supporter of the criminal law; holds great armaments are necessary to the life of nations; takes pride in the superiority and power of the British or American fleet; upholds the Government when it shakes its mailed fist in the face of foreign nations. And he will not sully his conscience by pretending that he who does those things is a beHever, in any sense whatever, in non-resistance to evil, ia unlimited forgiveness, or in the principle of turning the other cheek. He is aware that the world's maimer has been softened, its grosser evils redressed, and the general life elevated by the influence of the religion of Christ. But all this falls infinitely short of what the case requires, before we are justi- fied in calling ourselves Christian. Have we any serious intention of making our international politics, our trade and finance, our criminal codes, oxir social habits, our personal aims, conformable to that life which we are told constitutes Christianity? The plain man may or may not think such conformity desirable; but until the attempt is more seriously made, the calKng ourselves a Christian nation seems to be something of a mockery. He is indifferent to a religion which while interpreted as a Life is yet so remote from the actual imderlying motives and currents of the world where it is professed. And in the name of honesty he refuses to be publicly associated with it. Again, take a testimony from quite a different sphere. An Englishman, H. Fielding Hall, in Burmah, author of those won- derful books, "The Hearts of Men," and "The Soul of a People": "After studying long the life and teachings of Buddha, and observing the life of the people, it seemed to me that the religion of Buddha was one reUgion, and the religion of the mass of Buddhists another. When I said so to the priests, they were horror-stricken and insisted that I did not understand. In my perplexity I fell back, as we all must, to my own thoughts and those of my people and tried to imagine how a Burman would act if he came to England to search into the religion of the English and to know the real principles that dominated their Uves. I saw how he would be sent to the Bible as the source of our religion. I followed him in imagination as he took the Bible and studied it, and then went forth and watched our acts and lives. I thought of him coming upon those verses in the New Testament: AND OTHER PAPERS 47 "Love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. To him that smiteth thee on the o"ne cheek, ofEer also the other. Give to him that asketh thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. "He would read them as what we believed and then he would go forth — and what would he see? A nation proud and revengeful; glorying in her victories; always at war; a conqueror of other peoples; a mighty hater of her enemies. He would find, too, in her inner social life that the man who took a cloak was not forgiven, but terribly pun- ished. He would find that a people who professed to beheve that 'hardly shall a rich man enter the Bmgdom of God' were daily fighting and struggUng to add field to field, coin to coin, till death comes to end the fight. He would see wealth everjrwhere held in great estimation; he would see the very children urged to 'do well,' that is, to make money, to struggle to rise in the world. He would see the ministers who taught the Book with fair incomes ranking themselves not with the poor, but the middle classes; and the prelates, the dignitaries of the church, among the wealthy of the land. "And he woidd wonder. 'Is it true,' he would say to himself, 'that these people beUeve that riches are an evil thing? In what sense are they Christian?'" Further, coming to our own land. Secretary Hay, in an address a few years ago, said: "Perhaps in the wide view of ethics one is always right to follow his conscience, though it lead him to disaster and death. But history is inexorable. She takes no account of sentiment and intention, and in her cold and luminous eyes that side is right which fights with the aid of stars in their courses. The past gives no clue to the future. The Fathers, where are they? And the Prophets, do they hve forever?" This, we think, the Springfield Republican rightly characterizes as a " clear system of the moral Law as entering into the conduct of nations and of men in public affairs; a substitution of "the stars in their courses" (whatever that may be) "for conscience and Christian principle." Indeed, there seems abundant evidence that as a nation we are coming to our senses in the Nietzschean point of view. Thus, for instance, Ernest Crosby in the North American Re- view, April, 1904: "There is a public madness of the war spirit; a delirium of national pride and power; a general fever of money-gettmg; a government 48 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH which assassinates one sister-republic in the Philippines and vivisects another in South America, which bombards defenceless villages in Sanova, killing women and children in a cause afterward pronounced by an impartial tribunal to be absolutely unjust; exhibiting the 'wUl to power' to a degree that might well gladden the heart of Nietzsche. 'A deep duality.' " Here are hopeful signs, from Nietzsche's point of view. Lucretius, Lamennais, Nietzsche: While they differ im- mensely in detail of doctrine and vision, yet the dominant note of their passionate utterance is one: Revolt. Lucretius, revolt against religion, its terror and tyranny, as he knew it. Lamen- nais, revolt against the injustice of the social order as he saw it. Nietzsche, revolt against everything; the universal environ- ment of civilization as he felt it. Let us imagine these three pushing their bark from the sand out into the sea, the ocean of the Great Unknown, for those shores of the blest, where the "Over-man" dwells in his glory. They sing the Song of Revolt: "Push hard out over the sand, For the salt wind gathers breath; Shoulder and wrist and hand, Push hard as the push of Death. "The wind is as iron that rings. The foam beads loosen and flee; It swells and welters and swings, The pulse of the tide of the sea " Good hap to the fresh fierce water, The quiver and beat of the sea; While three men hold together, The kingdoms are less by three. "Out to the sea with her there. Out with her over the sand; Let the kings keep the earth for their share! We have done with the sharers of land. AND OTHER PAPERS 49 "They have tied the world with a tether, They have bought over God with a fee; While three men hold together, The kingdoms are less by three. "While the shepherd sets wolves on his sheep And the Emperor halters his kine. While Shame is a watchman asleep And Faith is a keeper of swine, "Let the wind shake our flag like a feather, Like the plumes of the foam of the sea! While three men hold together. The kingdoms are less by three. "In the teeth of the hard glad weather. In the blown wet face of the sea; While three men hold together, The kingdoms are less by three." * ♦Swinburne. LUCRETIUS ON THE WORLD AND LITE AND DEATH Lucretius, a Roman aristocrat; Omar-Khaj^am, royal astron- omer of Persia; Haeckel, a modern professor, "all nature for his own." One thousand years separate Lucretius from Omar; one thousand years separate Omar from Haeckel. Yet all three contemplate the same problems, argue from essentially the same premises, and reach 'the same conclusions respecting the world and life and death. But the spirit of each — how different! Haeckel, the type and extenuator of the cahn, self-contained, scientific indifferentism of our own day; Omar, the poet of cyni- cism and merry despair; Lucretius, the stern and mighty prophet, who defied the gods of old in the name of religion itself, of the moral freedom of man, and of his duty of moral heroism without hope beyond the grave. All we know of Lucretius, apart from his great poem, may be summed up in half a dozen words. He was a Roman gentleman, a contemporary of Cicero and Julius Cfesar; born about the open- ing of the first century before the Christian era, he died at the age of forty-four by his own hand. His one great work, his Hfe work, "De Rerum Natura," a didactic poem in six books, has come down to us, hke the Aeneid of Virgil, in a seemingly unfinished state, having been published under the editorship of Cicero within a year or so of the author's death. By general consent of competent judges the poem ranks among works of genius of the first order. In force, sincerity, and un- swerving devotion to truth as he saw it, in grandeur of plan and purpose, in imagination and insight, in sustained and impas- sioned eloquence, it remains, taken as a whole, one of the grandest monuments of the ancient mind. The following brief summary will give some idea of the plan of the poem: so THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 51 Book I : After an invocation of Venus comes the Epicurean doctrine of atoms, the original substance out of which all are produced and into which all are ultimately resolved; that all phenomena are expUcable by fortuitous concurrence of atoms, the present order being the result of infinite experiments. The close, some two hundred lines, demonstrates the infinity of the universe in space and time by arguments which Bruno, Voltaire, Buchner, Renan and Haeckel have only repeated or, at most, only enriched with further illustrations but without adding necessarily to their strength. Book 2: Opens with an impressive passage on the security and charm of the contemplation of Kfe, the life of reason, con- trasted with the restless anxieties and alarms of a life of worldly ambition. He then passes on to a more technical exposition of nature and movements of atoms. They are primordial, inde- structible and infinite in number. Sensation, life, birth, growth and decay are but the results of their combination and disintegra- tion. The sum of all things remains always the same. All things are in ceaseless motion; rest is only apparent to our sense. From infinity of space and matter he implies a plurality of worlds' or infinitude of other systems beside our own. The earth is decaying and we live in its old age. The spirit of some of these passages is reflected, consciously or unconsciously, in the lines of Emerson: "Wouldst thou know the mystic song, Chanted when the sphere was young? To the open ear it rings, The eternal genesis of things; Of tendency thro' endless ages, Of stEir dusk and star pilgrimages, Of rounded worlds of space and time, Of the old flood's subsiding slime; The rushing metamorphosis. Transforming aU that fixture is, Melts things that be to things that seem, And soUd nature to a dream." Book 3: Trials of the soul and life as vital principle. The fear of death and of eternal torments after death is the chief source of human misery. The fear of death and hell must there- 52 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH fore be eradicated. Twenty-six formal arguments are proposed and enforced to prove that soul and body are alike material and that the soul perishes with the body. The last two hundred lines or so constitute one of the grandest passages of his work and finds its nearest parallel in the pages of Bossuet. It is an impassioned expostulation with those who would tarry past their hour at the banquet of life; who, having warmed both hands at the fire of life, repine against going the way appointed on which all the great and good and wise of the past have gone: Homer and Scipio, Socrates and Epicurus. There is no tone of c)micism or pessimism in his words; all are inspired by a feeling of august resignation to the universal law. No such bitterness, for example, as in Omar's lines: "And fear not, lest Existence closing your Account and mine, should know the like no more; The Eternal Saki from that bowl has poured Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour." Or in Tennyson's "The Dark Voice": "And will one beam be less intense When thy pecuUar difference Is cancelled from the World of Sense?" Compare Macaulay: "Socrates said to die was gain, even if death were nothing more than dreamless sleep." Milton thought otherwise: "Sad cure: for who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being; These thoughts that wander through eternity." Macaulay says: "I once thought with Milton; but every day brings me nearer and nearer to the doctrine here laid down by Socrates." Book 4: Is intimately connected with the third. To the question which naturally arises. If there is no life after death, what is the origin of the practically universal belief in a future hfe? he replies, by the celebrated theory of perception, that deli-| cate films or emanations, the images of things, are thrown ofE| AND OTHER PAPERS 53 constantly from the surfaces of all bodies and are borne inces- santly through space, appearing to the living, sometimes in wak- j; ing visions, but especially in sleep. It is these presentations or ,■ subtle images which have given rise to the belief in the ghosts j of the dead. His furious protest against design or final causes in nature occurs as a kind of digression near the close of the book, and is argued and enforced with an energy which betrays his passionate earnestness, and with an acuteness and variety of detail that shows his wide observations. "Sed quod natumst id procreat usum" — i. e., "eyes not made to see, but we see because we have eyes." — Book 4, 835. Book 5 : Deals with astronomy, the history of the globe and the origins of life and civilization. The purpose of the discussion is to show that all our system was produced and is maintained by natural agency; that it is neither divine nor created by divine power. The earth is at rest at the centre of our system "sup- ported by the air as our body is by the vital principle." Then follows an animated sketch of prehistoric anthropology, which is doubly startling from its contrast on the one hand with the astronomical proclivities which precede it and, on the other hand, its striking agreement with the most recent conclusions of such authorities as Darwin, Tylor, Lubbock and Spencer. Book 6 : As the last source of superstition is our ignorance of the causes of unusual natural phenomena, the sixth book is de- voted to explanation of thunder-storms, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes and the like — ^phenomena generally attributed to the direct agency of the gods but are as natural as flight of birds or fall of leaves. The first question naturally asked is, What is the object of the poem? It was not speculative nor even poetical, but practi- cal. The secret of that immense enthusiasm which sustained him unfailingly throughout his vast adventure was not simply the joy of a poet in his art, or a scholar in his book, or a philosopher in his thought, or a naturalist in his observations; but all these moods of feeling were combined and concentrated by a lofty moral purpose and passion seeking the emancipation and eleva- tion of human life. This is the soul of his argument and of his eloquence as well. 54 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The first step in the emancipation of man must be the utter rending and destruction of every shred of belief in the hideous system of superstition which passed for religion in his day. Both Tennyson and Mrs. Browning have deemed that Lucretius was not atheistic at heart. "Lucretius, nobler than his mood Who dropped his plummet down the broad Deep imiverse, and said no god." We may observe that there are hints here and there in his great work which would seem to justify the picturing his real state of mind as this: "Whether there are good gods or a supreme good god, that is a later question. However it may ultimately be answered, meanwhile infinitely better that no gods be recog- nized than the gods that are." So Tennyson interprets: "My Master held That gods there are, for all men so believe. I pressed my footsteps into his and meant Surely to lead my memories in a train Of flowery clauses onward to the proof That gods there are, and deathless."* "His mode of conceiving the operation of law in the universe is not irreconcilable with the conception of modem theism." f "The idea of law in nature as understood by Lucretius is not neces- sarily inconsistent with that of a creative will determining the condi- tions of the elemental substances." J Therefore, the instant and pressing need is to annihilate in men all faith and fear aUke respecting the capricious, tyrannical phantoms masquerading as gods to the misery and degradation of man. How thoroughly even an accomplished critic may misconceive the true purport of the great work, the following judgment of Macaulay is in evidence. Says that illustrious essayist: "The greatest didactic poem in any language was written in defence of the silliest and meanest of all systems of philosophy." * Lucretius. tSellar. tSeUar. AND OTHER PAPERS 55 From the real point of view of the true purpose of Lucretius, that is the silliest and meanest of criticism possible. No, Lucre- tius did not pursue his great argument to defend or to confirm the Epicurean philosophy; but he used that philosophy as the best available means to meet the phantoms of the mind and drive them once for aU, to use his ovm expression, beyond the flaming walls of the world, "flamantia novenia mundi." "Pagan religion, a vast and complicated instrument of terror- Heaven, earth, and hell were infested with immeasurable divinities who exercised over men a tyranny at once cruel, inexplicable, and ridiculous. For poor humanity fear reigned everywhere, on land and sea, in the air, in darkness, light, in noise and silence. Man could neither speak nor think nor even sneeze, without exposing himself to the capricious reprisals of celestial vengeance. To escape these haunting horrors, more than for any other cause, men sought to drown their thoughts in vicious excesses or in the mad pursuits of ambition and luxury." * To this one great end, the liberation of mankind from these debasing terrors which dishearten and demoralize Ufe, to free them once for all from the dread of that tyrannous crew of gods, those vile and capricious deities whose rule wrought only misery and corruption in mankind — for this he built his lofty rhyme, for this he marshalled his mighty arguments, to this end his sonorous and magnificent lines, like Roman cohorts, march ever steadily onward without halt or deflection, over mountain, or morass, or vast desert tracts of the drear, cold, mechanical system of philoso- phy he perforce adopted as the best available. The secret of that fervor which leads him to push his argument even beyond the grave and to assert with enthusiasm and demonstrate with im- mense elaboration the non-existence of the soul after death, is not merely speculative or philosophic, but the grim determination to make it no longer possible for human faith or fear to deepen the miseries of present Hf e by forebodings grounded on a behef in the future continued and conscious subjection to the tyranny and cruelty of the terrible divinities. "The best we can desire after a courageous life spent in doing good according to our lights, is the eternal peace of the grave." "Lord, give them an eternal rest!"t •Constant Martha, "Le Poeme de Lucrece," p. 87. tHaeckel: "Riddles of the Universe," p. 207. 56 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH His poem is a huge rampart raised against the invasion of the gods, here or hereafter. There is undoubtedly a personal note to be distinguished in his outbursts of eloquent denunciation and impassioned argument. The sensitive and imaginative nature of the great poet had doubtless suffered immeasurably in earlier years by reason of the dark and sinister beliefs of pagan super- stition. "He would not make his judgment bHnd; He faced the spectres of the mind — At last he beat his music out." Hence the sudden and indignant outbursts against the gods in the model of a scientific demonstration. Hence the repeated and superfluous assaults upon ideas and doctrines which he has already shown to be false and groundless; slajang over again the already slain. They are the irrepressible notes of a personal joy in a new-found freedpnij the cries of one who, having escaped from the horrible obsession of superstitous terrors, is not content to vanquish them simply; his vengeance must also triumph over them. The Epicurean philosophy of nature had wrought his freedom; there he found his Trinity — eternal atoms, infinite space, and universal law. In his fierce championship of that Epicurean philosophy Lucretius is but defending the last asylum wherein his own reason and moral sense foimd final refuge. "In singular contrast" [says Martha*] "to that which takes place in the world of communities to-day, the philosophy of antiquity fulfilled the moral functions reserved among moderns for the priests. To-day souls oppressed with heart troubles or tormented with doubt and the dark problems of destiny turn from philosophy to rehgion. The ancients for the same reason turned from religion to philosophy." Although no new principle or maxim of conduct appears in his teaching, yet the old were enforced, defended, and applied with such noble sincerity of passion and insight, with such power and grandeur of argumentative eloquence as to make them seem new. The first surprise which greets us here is to find in Lucretius a strenuous defender of the moral hberty of man. Of the three fundamental postulates, God, Freedom, and Immortality, which the com mon conscience of the modern world regards as the 'Constant Martha, "Le Poeme de Lucrece," p. 36. AND OTHER PAPERS 57 necessary conditions of religion and morality, he discards de- fiantly the first and last, but maintains as resolutely the second — freedom. This is the power, "quod fati foedera rumpat." — Book, ii, 254. "Sua cinque voluntas." "His own will makes for each a begin- ning." Compare Omar in contrast: "We are But helpless pieces of the game He plays Upon this checker-board of nights and days; Hither and thither moves and checks and stays, And one by one back in the closet lays." The strength of his teaching is rather to be found in his im- passioned protest against the varying forms of evil rife in his day, rather than in the detailed proclamation of positive good. Against the ambition and love of luxury, the satiety and discon- tent of his age, he inveighs with extraordinary power. Over and over again he inculcates the lesson that "a life governed by reason, passions ruled by will, plain living, high thinking, and a contented spirit are the only ends worthy of man's endeavor." Yet he does not preach cynicism, like Omar; or despair, like Schopenhauer. The former's advice to man, "Drink! for we know not whence we came, nor why; Drink! for we know not why we go, nor where " finds no echo in Lucretius. Lucretius never thus uses the doc- trine of the extinction of all life at the grave as an argument for men to wreak themselves upon the pleasures and excesses of life. He draws a higher lesson than " eat, drink, for to-morrow we die." There is no hell after death, it is true; still hell is here, and it is of every man's own making. "Hie Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita." ("The hfe of fools at length becomes a hell here on earth.") — Book iii, 1023. Here Lucretius and Omar strike a common chord: "I sent my soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that after-life to spell. And by and by my soul returned to me, And answered, 'I myself am Heaven and Hell.'"* *Omar Ixvi. 58 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH "The tortures of Tantalus, Lityus, and the Danaides and Lyseplus — symbols of the bUnd cowardice and superstition, of the craving pas- sions, of the ever-filled and ever-renewed ambitions which curse and degrade our mortal existence."* Cerberus and the Furies and the tortures of the damned do not exist beyond the grave, but here— the creations of a guilty conscience. " We learn from him that man's first business is to know and obey the laws of his own nature; that his well-being consists in valuing rightly the common real blessings of life rather than in following il- lusions of fancy or custom, in reverencing the sanctity of family Ufe, and in cherishing a kindly sympathy with all living things." f These truths he presses with a moral earnestness and intensity akin to the noblest examples of modern religious fervor. We have hardly more than touched upon what to many is his chief characteristic. Lucretius is the poetic incarnation of the scientific spirit. In this regard he has been held dear and chiefly honored by Bruno, Bayle, Voltaire, by Goethe, Buchner, Huxley, Haeckel, and all the hosts of the church militant of science. "He has drunk deeper of the scientific spring than any poet of ancient or modem times, save perhaps Goethe." J There are in his system of natural philosophy many mistakes, exaggerations and puerile conceits at which even the boy at school to-day may smile; yet, on the other hand, his frank, fearless, and absolute allegiance to nature and to nature's laws alone, as dis- covered or discoverable by reason and sense, apart from the direc- tion or intervention of any gods whatever — this attitude not only wins the applause of the scientific hosts, but his profound imagina- tive grasp of general principles, his many and marvellous antici- pations of some of the most recent conclusions of modern science, may well fill all minds with admiring wonder. He maintains the infinity of the universe, the indestructibility of matter and energy, the universal reign of law, the probability of a plurality of worlds, the incessant motion and transformation that pervade all nature, *Sellar. fSellar. I Huxley. AND OTHER PAPERS 59 the steadfast hills as well as sea and rivers and organic life, and the possibility of the mechanical explanation of all phenomena. He has the fundamental conception of evolution and the "survi- val of the fittest." His startling similarity of expression regard-! ing sense perception reminds us of the latest teaching of that! department of psychology called "psycho-physics." The origin| of language, the prehistoric life and progress of man he describes and imf olds in terms which amaze us by their identity with the teachings of Darwin, Tylor, Lubbock, Morris, and Spencer. In Professor Haeckel's last book, "The Riddle of the Universe," the chapter on Unity in Nature, which in the author's view is the final epitaph on the doctrine of design in nature, seems written with the open page of Lucretius before him. This summing up of natural science at the hands of Haeckel after its long march of two hundred years furnishes us hardly anything in point of principle essentially new; the same old difl&culties, objections, arguments, illustrations, and assumptions famihar to us in Lucre- tius present themselves anew, disguised in the modern drapery of scientific terminology. The recent book by Professor Becker- ton on the "Romance of the Heavens," the central ideas of which are the eternity of the cosmos and the function of "constructive collision" of steUar masses, recalls not only in general view but in imaginative details as well the clash of atoms and the endless transformations of Lucretius. True, the battle in his time was a conflict between science in its ; infancy and pagan religion in its decrepitude; still, may we not ask, has the old controversy no meaning or message of importance for us to-day? "May we not say that the conditions which evoked that philosophy | are once more reappearing? Once more we are confronted with two| solutions of life: that which takes as its basis some creative act of faith, ; and that which is based solely on observation of such phenomena as are apprehended by the senses." * Two thousand years, indeed, separate the treatise of Haeckel from the poem of Lucretius, "The Riddle of the Universe," from "De Rerum Natura." Meanwhile experience and ordered observation have enriched and enlarged the materials of argu- •Mallock, "Lucretius," p. 21. 6o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH ment beyond the boldest dreams of the Roman poet. But the conclusions themselves are the same, and they remain equally unsatisfactory, equally unverified. Marking time instead of marching, the demonstration has not advanced a single step with- in the realm of the invisible. Natural science halts frustrate at the same impassable limits where Lucretius left it, the limits of time and sense, of nature and experience. Omar's experience with the prophets of Mohammedanism has its parallel in man's experience with the sages of militant science : "Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and saint, and heard great argument About it and about — ^but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went." "The gospel of science as in the days of Lucretius, so now, has no hope to offer us but that of eternal death."* In a word, the ultimate mysteries of the world and life and death and Deity remain to-day as far beyond the reach of human penetration and proof by unaided reason as they ever were, ^o the vision and to the act of faith alone these mysteries can reveal their meanings, the substance of things hoped for, the end of things not seen; not in whole, indeed, but in part, "for now we see through a glass darkly," but sufficient for the needs of the nobler life, the satisfaction of the reason, the peace and assurance of the heart. In a last word let us not fail to emphasize again the honor due to the noble aim of Lucretius; for that aim was no less noble than the system which supported it was false. For all his phi- losophy and all his science and all his poetical power as well were consecrated to one supreme end : the emancipation of human life from the fears and the passions which enslaved and degraded it. A deep compassion springing from the sense of man's actual misery and debasement, a noble hope inspired by the conviction of a peace and a dignity and a moral worth still possible for man — these vibrate through every line of his great poem, imparting to his powerful numbers that pecuUar tone of impassioned, we might almost say religious, earnestness that infests his great *Mallock, "Lucretius," p. 28. AND OTHER PAPERS 6i work with a moral grandeur, a majesty and dignity without par- allel in all the range of pagan literature. More than poet, more than philosopher, the burden of a prophet seems to rest upon his soul, as with Uterary gesture so com- manding, in tones so resonant and majestic, with the passion of Isaiah and the subUmity of Job, he preaches for all time the gospel of man's freedom from passion and fear under the conduct of the universal and impersonal law. "He builded better than he knew." His atheism might better be called the greatest protest against pagan religion in the name and in the spirit of true religion itself. MORAL LIBERTY AND REIGN OF LAW Lecky: "The eternal question of free-will and determination is a subject upon which it is idle to suppose that a modem writer can do more than define the question and state his own side." James: "A common opinion prevails that the juice has ages ago been pressed out of the free-will controversy, and that no new cham- pion can do more than warm up stale arguments which every one has heard. This is a radical mistake. I know of no subject less worn out or in which inventive genius has a better chance of breaking open new ground — ^not perhaps of forcing a conclusion by assault, but of deepening our sense of what the issue between the two parties really is — of what the ideas of fate and free-wiQ imply." Dr. Johnson: "Sir, I know I'm free, and that's the end of it." A COMPLETE discussion includes three main parts: The first shows that determining arguments are not decisive or conclusive. Liberty is possible. The second shows as positive proof that in crises of delibera- tion we are conscious of a reserve power by which we can freely enforce this motive or that. Therefore liberty is real. The third shows from the ethical principle that their under- lying postulate is freedom. Liberty is necessary. A full discussion would require a treatise, rather than a paper. We shall attempt only to give a condensed statement of part of the argument under each main division. PRELEarNAHY Considered in its entirety, an act originated by a free volition consists of four parts: (i) Conception of the act; not free. (2) Deliberation — survey of motives; not free. (3) Decision, adoption, and enforcement of a particular motive; free. (4) Execution; not free. Not all actions are free, but — we must ask. Are any ? Take, for instance, the illustration of a man in a rowboat: 62 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 63 the question is not whether he always rows, but whether he ever does, or only drifts. Not whether motives influence the will, but whether they com- pel it — ^not whether the current makes no difference which way he moves, but whether he must always simply drift downstream. However, even if it could be shown that vohtion always follows the strongest motive, that would not be conclusive against free- dom; for it only shows at most that if the man rows at all he only rows downstream. I. IS LIBERTY POSSIBLE? The Deterministic argument attempts to show moral Liberty is not possible. There are two great (hvisions of the Determinis- tic argument: The first, drawn from facts of nature: scientific determination. The second, drawn from principles of reason: metaphysical determination. The Deterministic argument from science is based on: First, history and statistics: (compare writers like Buckle, Draper, Leslie Stephens, MorseUi). History shows perpetual examples of the same causes, physical and social, producing invariably the same results. (Thus a rise in thermometer increases certain vices.) Statistics show that acts called free are subject to certain fixed laws: that circumstances being the same, classes of actions, i. e., theft, murder, suicide, dropping unaddressed letters, etc., occur in constant ratio to population. The fallacy of these universal conclusions from particular pre- mises, to show that many or even most actions are necessitated by circumstances, would not prove that all are; one exception being sufl&dent to afford ground for liberty. We have the gratuitous assurance that irregularity is and must be the necessary mark of hberty. Why should not liberty work reg- ularly if it chooses? In other words, they assume that hberty is subject to a necessary law in order to prove that it is subject to other necessary laws. Another fallacy: The fundamental conception of the syllogism that you can collect only in the conclusion what is distributed in the premises — it must not contain more. Take the case of crime. 64 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The law of statistics detennines only the abstract or ideal criminal, not a real one; only a numerical ratio, not an objective existence. The result, determined by statistics, however accurate, lies wholly within the logical or ideal order and can exercise no eflSi- ciency or compulsive force in the order of the real, and therefore cannot affect the liberty of the individual. In addition we have the Deterministic argument from physical science: Using the conservation of energy. Du Bois Raymond thus declares: "The state of the entire world, comprising therein that of each and every human brain, is at each instant the necessary mechanical result of its preceding state and the necessary mechanical cause of its succeeding state. We cannot admit that two cerebral events (and therefore two mental acts or phenomena, whatsoever) are equally possible in a given moment, for the cerebral molecules can only be disposed in one way at one time, and, as the kind of result necessarily de- pends on that one disposition, but one kind of result is possible at any given time. For one molecule to alter its place or disposi- tion arbitrarily would be as great as for Jupiter to break from its orbit. Now, since every mental phenomena is accompanied by cerebral changes — molecular movements — every act of will, if free and self -originated, would necessarily constitute an addition to the sum of energy or force in the universe." The law of conservation of energy disposes completely, then, of the possibility of moral hberty in man. In criticism of this argiunent, we observe first, that the princi- ple of conservation of energy was arrived at, not by induction in the sphere of the real, but as a conclusion of pure mathematics. In 1847 Helmholtz, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, pub- hshed his essay on the "Conservation of Force" (tjber die Erhaltung der Kraft). He showed that "if the forces acting between material bodies were equivalent to the attraction and repulsion between the particles of those bodies, the intensity of which depends only on the distance, then the motion of any ma- terial system would be subject to a certain equation from which can be deduced the fact that the vital energy of the system is always constant." The criticism of this argument lies in the fact that mathematics is not an absolutely perfect instrument; it has its incompati- AND OTHER PAPERS 65 bilities. For example: the v^i" represents, as the mathematician Lambert wrote to his friend the philosopher Kant, an unthink- able nothing (nichtgedenkbares Unding), yet algebra handles such expressions. B D F B In geometry by means of the calculus it is shown that the area between the cissoid of Diodes, the curve A B C in the figure and its asymptote, D E, is three times the area of the circle described on B F as a diameter. Common sense and reason alike teach that no exact area can be enclosed so long as the bounding lines do not absolutely- close in each other; yet the solution of the cissoid shows it has a definite area. This law has been verified, so far as verified by experiment at all, in the domain of physics and chemistry, where liberty is never attributed. It has not been and cannot be verified to any degree of exactitude in the domain of living beings. Its verification in the realm of the real being dependent on experiment, absolute exactitude can never be attained. Com- pare Joule's most careful experiment: The quantity of work necessary to raise one gramme of water through one degree centi- grade is equal to the work which a gramme would perform in falling through a height of, first, water heated by friction in a brass vessel— 424.9 metres; second, mercury in an iron vessel, two experiments— 425. and 426.3 metres; third, two experiments, a conical ring rubbed against another surrounded by mercury— 426.7 metres and 425-6 metres. Here, then, is room left for Uberty to increase the sum of energy in a degree that might still be imperceptible to scientific detection or measurement. . But suppose, instead of the accuracy of physical laws bemg estabhshed to sixth place of decimal, it was the sixtieth? The mathematical physicist and others have shown that a mech- anism may be conceived so perfectly constructed that an m- 66 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH finitesimal force would sufl&ce to disrupt the equilibrium and set it in motion; e. g., a sphere on the point of a cane. Why may not brain be the same kind of exquisitely adjusted machine? Faraday thought the theory of gravitation in flat contradiction of the principle of conservation of energy; because, First, it acts instantaneously. Second, it is indifferent to intervening bodies. Third, it is inexhaustible; planets by the million would attract each the same. Fourth, a gravitating body possesses the power of creating or annihilating force. When we hear the cry continually dinned in our ears to-day that to admit any degree of moral liberty in man would put all science in jeopardy of wreck and confusion, it is in place to ask what, as matter of fact, is the logical value of these imperious claims of science to an exactitude so absolute that it must per- force banish liberty? Let Professor Jevons* answer: "Serious misconceptions are entertained by some scientific men as to the logical value of our scientific knowledge of nature. It is feared by many and maintained by some that the progress of scientific method must result in dissipating the fondest beliefs of the human heart, e. g., the existence of a personal God and the moral liberty of man. My strong conviction is that before a vigorous logical scrutiny the Reign of Law will prove an unveri- fied h)^othesis, the uniformity of nature an ambiguous expression, and the certainty of our scientific inferences to a great extent a delusion." There is really no such thing as exact science of nature and her laws. The law of nature is Hke a curve, a curve of the third order, one of the highest degrees of complex curve. Its true equation is very different from the equation of a perabola. "There must always be an analogous possibility in regard to those natural laws which seem to be most thoroughly verified, that there may be isolated phenomena, really a part of the whole, of which our law as stated takes no ac- covmt. Our whole system of natural law may be in reality little better than a castle in the air. For nowhere in the whole realm of natural and physical science can we find certainty." * "Principles of Science." AND OTHER PAPERS 67 Again, facts of science are not determined with absolute ac- curacy. All instruments of measurement are faulty; the plum- met line is never vertical; mercury surface of 5 inches departs from the horizontal plane by TTf,WTr,7nrir of ^^ inch; pendulum vibrations are only perfect for infinitely small arcs; definite com- bining proportions in chemistry are only approximate, for no balance is or can be perfect; results never do absolutely accord. The law of gravitation as mathematically deduced applies directly only to infinitely small particles; the true law may be a vastly more complex statement, including in one formula not only the relation of sensible masses at sensible distances, but rela- tions of molecules and atoms at infinitesimal distances. To go a Uttle further, let us recur to Kant's objection to moral liberty (Scientific Professor, University of Edinburgh) : A free act, he says, would be a violation of the principle of causality and of uniformity in nature; for by definition it does not result from antecedent phenomena, forming a necessary link in the chain of causation; it would be a solution of continuity, an abso- lute commencement, a real miracle in nature. In criticism of this, we agree that a free act is a kind of miracle in nature, but we deny that it is therefore an infraction or viola- tion of the principle of causality. The principle of causality de- mands that every change have a cause; but in the case of a real miracle, if God — the first cause — allows at a given time His power to descend, so to speak, upon the chain of second causes, interrupting some force or forces in nature so as to produce phenomena that these secondary causes could not otherwise produce, the effect would surely have a cause, although that cause could not be found in the ordinary way by searching vigorously along the line of antecedent phenomena. The line of search would be not backward, but upward. How can it affect the principle of causation whether we look back or look up to find the cause? Now so the will acts; it is a power, a cause above the chain of cause and effect in nature, acting down upon it.* The principle of uniformity, properly understood, does not con- flict with moral liberty. It is at most a conclusion having a high ♦Compare Chapter 2 of Buchnell's "Natural and Supernatural.'' 68 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH degree of probability in its favor, but absolutely incapable of demonstrative certainty. But, even if demonstrated, it would only apply to causes and effects already at work or existing in the world. It does not forbid the intervention of new causes. It is in part a hypothetical and not an unqualified or absolute univer- sal declaration. Its true formula is, "If causes remain the same, the effects will be the same." It does not pronounce that the causes will be or will not be the same. Now, as in all conditional or hypothetical propositions, the afl&rmation rests solely upon the relation or hnk between the two terms, and by no means limits reaUty to the contents of those terms. Hence, the principle of uniformity does not exclude the intervention of new causes, e. g., free volition, producing new effects in the realm of nature. Therefore, liberty is possible. Let us look now to the argument for determinism from princi- ples of reason. This was never better stated than by Leibnitz: "The free act has its cause in the will itself. But why does any given act or volition come forth at any given time rather than another? Not by chance — this would deprive the act of all in- telligence — ^no longer an act of will. Now as we demand a cause for the reality of a voluntary act, so we must demand a reason to be given to account for the quality of the act; that is, why it is this act and not another. This reason is the idea of the act to be accomplished, joined to the idea of its moral value or utility. It is, in a word, the MOTIVE. Motive determines, then, the act of will; motive is not free, therefore the volition it determines is not free." Our first reply : Motive is the condition, not the efficient cause of the free act. Motives are ideas or conceptions of the intelli- gence. They are representative, not dynamic. They light up the field of choice and disclose the end, but it is the will which selects that end by its own free power. (Illustration: A man in darkness; flash of Hghtning.) So the motive renders the act of will possible and intelligent, but does not produce it. Deterministic reply: A motive is never a simple idea; some measure of feehng, desire, or impulse always enters into its com- position, and though the idea be contemplative only and not AND OTHER PAPERS 69 active, yet the feeling element accompanying it is d}Tiamic; and the motive having the most of this element compels its own reah- zation. The strongest motive rules the will; therefore the will is not free. First reply: It is not denied that motives influence the will. The question is, do they compel it? Even if proved, it only means the will always follows the strongest motive. Which only shows that the man in the boat rows with the stream; still, he may be rowing independently all the time. Second reply: Let us consider what we mean by strongest motive. Is it the greatest good in the judgment of the intellect? So Socrates, Plato, Spinoza, Descartes. But every-day experi- ence contradicts this. We find the will choosing an insignificant good that is near in preference to a vastly greater good far off. Third reply: Precisely, says Liberty. The less good moves the sensibility more because of its very nearness. (For example: Endora five miles in diameter, pulls the earth thousands of tons. Levius [twenty times mass of the sun] pulls less than one hundred tons.) The Determinist, then, insists the correct statement of his position is that the will yields infallibly to that which is immedi- ately felt to be the greatest good. Reply: We can never tell beforehand what will be the strong- est motive; this can only be decided after the volition, and, in that sense, as Maniel well says, the strongest motive merely means the prevaihng motive, as matter of fact prevails. But further, conscience certainly seems to report quite the con- trary. Do not such expressions as "doing a thing against my wishes," "in spite of myself," etc., indicate that if we do some- times prefer a good only felt to be greatest to a good rationally judged to be greatest, that we can and do reverse the action at times and consciously prefer a good which seems "greater to reason" to a good which more powerfully affects feeling, sensibihty, de- sire? If this is not a fact, why is the fulfillment of duty so often a confessedly difficult matter? As Professor James says, "The definition of free moral action which best agrees with the facts of consciousness is action along the line of greatest resistance." That is, against the strongest motive rather than with it. 70 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Our position is that while in many or most actions we are ruled by the strongest motive, yet we can and do on occasion adopt the weaker motive, enforce it, and make it prevail. Again, therefore, Liberty is possible. U. IS LIBERTY REAL? Consider the direct appeal to our individual consciousness. In the crisis of deliberate action I am conscious of a reserve power at my disposal with which I can enforce any particular motive and make it efl&cient. In a word, I am conscious of my freedom; and, as Maniel has said, "If I am conscious of freedom, I am free in reality, for in the psychic or spiritual realm consciousness is reahty and the highest reality." To this objection is made that both the possibility and reality of this experience have been denied. It is argued that conscious- ness, being a faculty of perception, its object must be real and present, actual. Now the actual volition, being a present fact, may be perceived by consciousness, but this actual volition is and can be no longer free. It is a fixed fact in nature. But the alter- nate volition being only possible, how can we perceive or predicate anything of its nature while in the possible state. The possible is that which is not; consciousness can perceive only that which is. Consciousness, therefore, cannot bear witness to our liberty. This argument, indicated by Hobbes, was greatly elaborated and pressed with an air of assured triumph by J. S. Mill. To be conscious of free-will is to be conscious before choosing that we could choose otherwise. This is impossible. Consciousness can only declare concerning what I do or what I feel; but what I am simply capable of does not faU within the sphere of consciousness. We are conscious only of what is, not of what will be or may be. In answer to this it will be readily granted that the future itself cannot be an object of perception; still we claim the possible may certainly be affirmed as such; e. g., if one perceives some actual reality which estabhshes or guarantees that possibility. Now this, it can be claimed, is just what does take place. Consciousness, at the moment of deliberation, perceives in the self (or will, if you please) a reserve force at its disposal that can, if applied, cause any one of several motives to be realized, and therefore makes any AND OTHER PAPERS 71 one of several motives possible. (Illustration: General with troops in reserve.) But, says Mr. Mill: "We must still deny that you can be con- scious of any power antecedent to its activity. For if we could be conscious of a force or feel an aptitude independent of all ex- ercise present or part of that force, it would be a fact totally with- out analogy with the rest of our nature and experience." We reply: Without doubt, consciousness of will as a power, and that independent of its actual exercise, is a unique fact. All defenders of f ree-wiU recognize that. But the uniqueness is to be expected, for freedom is unique. And further, as Forillie points out, we could not have consciousness of acts without this con- sciousness of free power. For how could I distinguish between what I do and what I merely feel or undergo if I perceive the act only as being done, realized, without any bond or coimection with the free power whence it is derived? For direct proof we have the universal practical belief in free- will or moral liberty. In fact, men believe in their liberty and attribute to themselves, right or wrong, the power of choosing between a plurality of resolutions, the antecedents remaining the same. Common sense has never been deterministic. It is ob- jected, common sense is often common ignorance; universal belief, universal illusion. But we observe any such universal conviction is a fact; true or false, it is a fact. And as a fact it must be satisfactorily accounted for. The philosopher is not boxmd to accept aU imiversal beliefs, but if he rejects them he must explain their origin. The attempted explanation is based (as Hobbes, Spinoza, and Bayle have claimed) on ignorance of motives. We reply: Our conviction of freedom, then, would be in inverse proportion to our knowledge of the motives which address the will; whereas, the reverse is the fact. If we cannot render account of our acts, or give a reason or motive for them, the conviction of moral freedom is wanting in the case; we reject responsibility for an act so characterized. Far from believing on this ground such an act free, we deny it that characteristic; we say it was involuntary. The most ra- tional explanation of this universal belief in moral liberty is, we submit, that it arises from our consciousness of a free power with- 72 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH in us that can adopt and enforce (if need be) any particular mo- tive, and make it effectual. Therefore, Liberty is real. in. IS LIBERTY NECESSARY? "The best argument for the reality of moral responsibiUty is the fact that it is impossible really to disbelieve it." * By way of indirect proofs we would point to the sentiment of responsibility which justifies rewards and penalties. Without moral hberty there can be no merit or demerit and consequently no just infliction of penalty or bestowal of reward. Take the matter of legal punishment: Take away moral hberty in man and you render impossible all moral justification of punishment. The Determinist replies (Leibnitz) : Society can punish for its own defence, though man is not free, just as an individual could rightly bind or slay a maniac to save his own Uf e, though the maniac is certainly not free. Society can employ penalties as means of correction, as we do with animals which are not free. Society can employ penalties as an example, as a means of intimidation. We reply: All these reasons resolve themselves into the one first given — self-defence. Self-preservation, then, is the sole reason to which society (guided by Deterministic views) can logi- cally appeal when it arrogates to itself the right to punish. If this be so, society has no more right to call it punishment to hang a murderer than to kill a mad dog or to put out a fire. Punishment, as Kant well says, must be justified independent of any and all consequences j solely from considerations drawn from the conduct and moral desert of him who undergoes it. Let us state the case thus: A man (without moral Hberty), necessarily and fatally moved by motives, commits a murder. Society, equally urged and controlled by necessity, arrests and executes him; not, in point of fact, because he committed murder, but that murders may not be committed. Now the only differ- ence between society and the murderer is a difference in relative power. If the murderer had been more powerful than society his resistanc e would have been successful and equally legitimate, for *Lecky. AND OTHER PAPERS 73 the same (and the sole) motive which arms society against him arms him against society, namely, self-preservation. Of the two parties the RIGHTS are equal, the MOTIVES the same. The only meaning we can attach to the word "criminal" in his case is the fact of his relative weakness, his want of power to success- fully resist society. On the Determinist principle, then, strength is the only right; superior power is not only an evidence of justice, but the very substance of it. The only escape from this, we submit, is to acknowledge the fact of moral freedom in man, and that punish- ment for crime is vindicated not simply by reason of society's superior power, but because the individual merits it in view of his moral freedom in wrongdoing. He is punished not simply be- cause he is a weak man, but a wicked man. On Determinist principles, we repeat, justice and right in soci- ety, stripped of all disgtiises, are but synonyms for brute strength. Individual conscience itself is simply a more imperious form of imagination whose dictates by their peculiar persistency and viv- idness delude us into a belief of their special authority. Finally: It has been most ingenuously contended that to banish moral liberty in man is to abohsh all distinction between Truth and Error universally. Any kind of certitude becomes impossible. This has been elaborated especially by the French writers Secretan, Renovier, NavOle, and particularly the Belgian philosopher Delboeuf. If everything is necessarily determined, human opinions and beliefs are therefore necessarily determined. Contradictory opinions and beliefs then are equally true, for they are equally the product and expression of the same absolute and universal necessity. A necessary error, as Delboeuf puts it, is not an error ; for example, if the ancients must necessarily have beUeved the earth immobile, nothing authorizes us to beheve that in their time it was not so. For why should not the laws of physical na- ture change as well as the laws of thought, since both are by hypo- thesis equally necessary? Therefore, Liberty is necessary. CONDITIONS OF MORAL CERTITUDE SOME POINTS IN THE NATXTRAL HISTORY OF BELTEP (i) Taking belief as the general term, we regard it as including the two stages or degrees of Opinion and Certitude. By Opinion we mean that state of mind and soul in which we feel our mental representation corresponds with fact so far forth as present evidence determines the fact. At the same time we are conscious to a greater or less degree of the possibility that further or other evidence might occasion qualification or even removal of our view. (Compare Doubt.) By Certitude we mean that state in which, by reason of the quality or quantity, or both, of the evidence, our whole being rests purely and simply in the feeling or conviction that our mental representation corresponds with fact, without any haunt- ing consciousness whatever that this conviction may or can be revised, much less removed. (2) We start with the distinction first laid down by Kant, we believe, and elaborated by Letze and especially Ritschl,* be- tween judgments of truth and judgments of value or worth. The former, judgments of truth, have the intellect for their realm; the latter, judgments of value, all have their root in feeling and will. The fundamental principle of all judgments of truth is that the constitution of the universe is rational. The fundamental principle of all judgments of value is that the ultimate end or aim of the imiverse is the good. All beUef, as distingmshed from knowledge, rests ultimately, however remotely, upon judgments of value; and all judgments of value depend upon probable and not demonstrative evidence. (3) By demonstrative evidence we mean a series of proposi- tions every one of which is seen not only to be true, but the con- tradictory is seen to be not only false but unthinkable. By probable evidence we mean a series of propositions judged •Compare Ormond's "Foundations of Knowledge." 74 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 75 to be true, but the contradictory while judged to be false is not unthinkable. No object, then, beyond the sphere of immediate consciousness — that is, no matter of external fact — is capable of demonstra- tion. All the truths of the whole body of natural science in reality rest in the last analysis on probable evidence.* Demonstrative evidence is incapable of degrees. The demon- stration that three angles of a triangle equal two right angles in the case of one particular triangle cannot have its logical force increased by addition, repetition, or enlargement. But probable evidence is capable of indefinite increase; there is no theoretic limit to its cimaulative force. Further, as Bishop Butler points out, "Probable proofs, by being added, not only increase but multiply the evidence" — by their simultaneity and consequence. (4) Now Certitude may be equally attained by either line of proof, for there is a certitude of knowledge as well as moral certitude or certitude of belief, e. g., I am as certain of the exist- ence of the Pacific Ocean or San Francisco city as that two times two equal four; though I can think the non-existence or con- tradictory of the one and not of the other. (5) Now in aU cases of probable evidence, i. e., when the judg- ment is not necessitated by the very structure of our mental nature, a moral element comes in. By moral element we mean an act of choice. Put broadly, all our judgments upon probable evidence are choices, and all choices are betrayals. They dis- close and record in a measure the present moral make-up of the chooser, the aflMty or non-aflGinity between the chooser and the object chosen or rejected. In the sphere of demonstrative evidence the pure intellect de- cides ; decides by necessity and therefore mechanically. Otherwise there might be as much moral quality in the belief in and employ- ment of the multiplication table as in the belief and practice of the maxim, "To love your neighbor and enemies is good and right." In the sphere of probable evidence the whole spiritual nature is called more or less into play; not only the pure intellect but the passional nature, heart and wiU and conscience as well.f •So Isaac Taylor, "Restoration of Belief," p. io8. t James' "WiU toBeUeve." 76 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Therefore, in all judgments upon probable evidence, i. e., value judgments, the state of and disposition of the passional as weU as intellectual nature must be taken into account in explana- tion of decision. (6) This leads to the important observation that in all acts of behef or doubt or disbelief (belief of the contrary), resting as they must on probable evidence, there will be and must be an antecedent preparation for belief or doubt or disbelief in the moral history of the man. For instance, we do not and cannot in strictness believe any fact on the strength of external evidence or testimony alone that is unsupported by what Mozley has aptly called "a sense of antecedent probability" in ourselves. This sense of antecedent probability, the result of our past moral experience or history, must, so to speak, go out to meet the external evidence to fortify and complete it before belief can arise. "Every perception is an acquired perception; that is, is a combi- nation of reproduced attributes with presently felt attributes in the unity of a thong." * "The general law of perception is that while part of what we per- ceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part — ^and it may be the larger part — always comes out of our own mind." f Take the illustration of a Missionary and Tropic Islander. The Missionary alludes to sharks and to sohd ice. The Islander cannot believe the latter at first; further companionship creates a sense of antecedent probability of the fact being true, arising from his experience of the inteUigence and entire truthfulness of the Missionary; and he comes to beUeve it. (7) Now transfer observation to the distinctly moral and re- ligious sphere: the same law prevails. Men can believe and will beUeve what their moral history has prepared them to believe: those things with regard to which there exists in them a sense of antecedent probability. "If your heart does not want a world of moral reality, your head will assuredly never make you believe in one." J *James' "Psychology," p. 312. fid. p. 329. tJames' "Will to Believe," p. 23. AND OTHER PAPERS 77 (8) To come at once to the practical object of this discussion: The evidence of Christianity is probable, not demonstrative. The whole circle of its converging proofs confronts men not as a demonstration but as a test; it comes not to win what Pascal would call a "barren victory" over the understanding by the force of evidence, but to try the moral temper of the soul, to re- veal the faithful or unfaithful use of moral liberty in the fact. (9) The immense mass of unbelief in the world regarding the essential truths of Christianity is robbed by these reflections of much if not all of its disturbing force. Their unbeHef is natural, inevitable (in their present condition), and to be expected. It is strictly in accord with the moral make-up of man, so long as his choices, desires, hopes, wishes, convictions — in a word, his moral experience as a whole has not created in him a sense of antecedent probability respecting those truths. The practical question for us is how can this antecedent preparation be secured, which makes the external evidence of Christianity cogent and effective finally in producing certitude? That there is a practical and sure way we beheve; and in sub- mitting a statement of it we desire it to be borne in mind that for the purposes of this paper we emphasize the human side or ele- ment in special. (10) Let us take Christ's two sayings, First: "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Second: "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." The first assumes the distinction between Theism and Chris- tianity; the second supplies a practical formula for making our way from mere belief in God to belief in the essential truths of Christianity proclaimed by Christ. (We start with the assumption of a man's behef in God. Ra- tional atheism we think logically impossible — it is intellectual suicide. AU arguments of atheism, in fact, must assume as the only possible guarantee of their premises and processes the very truth which their conclusion seeks to overthrow.) W illin g or striving to do the will of God, or duty as Divine com- mand, then, is the Divinely assured way to certitude of faith in Christianity. But what are we to understand by doing the will of God? What is the will of God? To answer that "belief in 78 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Christ and His claims is the will of God, therefore to believe in Him is to do the will of God," would be not only reasoning in a circle but in a circle of amazingly small diameter. For to believe that beUef in Christ is the will of God is the very point to be established. This would be to ask a man to begin to be a Christian by being a Christian. We believe the true starting-point is well stated by Kant in his "Duty as Divine Command," or by Foster in his "Christian Life and Theology": "The ultimate thing in Christian hfe (i. e., the primary will of God) is the permanent choice of duty." He who seeks earnestly and honestly to do all duty at all times as the will of God, will by that very process create in himself that antecedent state of prep- aration which will not only welcome but perfect the incoming ex- ternal evidence of Christianity and turn its probabiHties to certitude. The objection is sometimes raised that many eminent moral- ists of to-day and other days are not Christians. We observe, in answer, that it is not simply doing duty but doing duty as fulfillment of Divine will, with desire to please God, that has the positive preparatory effect desired. Agnostic morahty — morality without reference to the will of God — ^will have a precisely opposite result. Such a moralist has for ideal only an abstract law or proposition. Therefore, just in proportion as he realizes in Hfe and conduct the rules and maxims of the moral system he frames or adopts, does he come to exaggerate his own sense of self-importance, moral worth, and self-sufficiency. This endured in Stoic morality. His moral arrogance may reach the height so bluntly expressed by Seneca: "A truly moral man is better than any of the gods; for they are good by necessity of nature, but the moral man is good from choice." Why this relation between doing duty devoutly and gaining certitude respecting the essential truths of Christianity? The answer in brief is that the essential postulates of Christi- anity are of such special nature that the disciphne of devout duty creates a sure and certain sense of fitness and harmony in their favor which, when these truths present themselves, coalesce with them, and their evidence creates invincible assurance or certitude. AND OTHER PAPERS 79 The essential truths of Christianity may be stated in a few words: (a) Man's moral guilt before God, and need of forgiveness. (b) Man's moral helplessness in himself and need of Divine grace. (c) Christian authority and power and compassionate readi- ness to meet those needs and aspirations. Plainly, then, any discipline or form of moral probation that tends to deepen, intensify, and make real man's sense of moral burden and of moral inabihty before God, tends to create that inner preparedness — that predisposition of heart and will and moral reason that forms the effective half of the argument which brings him to see and accept as divinely true the harmony and fulness and efficiency and the promise of mercy and grace and forgiveness proclaimed by Christ; e. g., to do duty devoutly deepens and quickens immeasurably the sense of guilt. Such a man sees as he otherwise could not see the essential enormity of sin, even the least. He casts aside his former worldly, shallow conception of guilt as simply a reflex of personal or social disap- probation and recognizes that the sense of guilt within is nothing less than the shadow of the favor of Divine displeasure falUng upon the soul. His conviction finds voice in the Psalmist's words: "Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned." Hence arises the conscious and imperative need of forgiveness; not from self or from men, but from God. Again, striving devoutly to do duty, he learns with ever-grow- ing clearness of conviction his moral inability, the utter hopeless- ness of self-help. For it is one of the most tragic facts of his moral nature iJiat the sense of moral helplessness and iaability is quickened and intensified by the very honesty and earnestness of the efforts put forth to attain and conform to a higher ideal. It is often in moments of clearest moral vision that he feels an evil and insurgent nature pressing on his will and leading him to do the evil he would not; and such experience brings home to him the truth that it is not moral knowledge (which might be gained) but moral power (which must be given) which is the su- preme need of his soul. Like the wounded traveller found by the 8o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Good Samaritan, what he consciously needs is not instruction but invigoration; not a ministry of counsel and admonition, how- ever wise and well reasoned, but a ministry of living energy and compassionate power Hke that of the Good Samaritan. Hence his conscious need and recognition of the necessity of Divine grace offered by Christ. Now, let a man disciphned to such experience by devout per- formance of duty open the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth and read the record of Christ's claims and promises and teachings as uttered by Himself and amplified by His apostles; and he will find that within him which goes out irresistibly to meet those overtures and to confirm those truths. His measure of conviction finds expression at first, perhaps, in words like those of the Apostle, "Lord, to whom else can we go? Thou alone hast eternal life"; but rises later to that fulness of certitude foreshadowed by the Psalmist outburst: "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise." As Coleridge has finely said: "Only let a man be brought to feel the need of Christianity, and Christianity is its own best evidence." By the profound needs of the soul which the discipline of devout duty makes clear, emphatic, intense; by the fitness and fulness of Christian persuasion and teaching to meet those needs which experience verifies, a man comes to beheve with the certitude of an assured faith that the same being that made the human soul speaks to that soul with authentic voice in the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth. ABBE FELICETE ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS On February 27, 1854, the day was gloomy and lowering. An immense concourse of people, estimated at twenty thousand and headed by such celebrites as Lamer tine Beranger and Victor Cousin, followed through the streets of Paris to Pere la Chaise the hearse of the city poor. That hearse bore to its burial the re- mains of a remarkable man. It is safe to say there were no in- different spectators; all who knew him were divided into two and only two classes: those who admired, and those who detested and cursed him. By his own orders there were no religious services whatever performed over his body. No cross and no name were to mark the place of his burial; that place was the common pauper trench. Only a few friends and a file of soldiers stood immediately by dur- ing the interment. But one word was spoken on the part of the friends, and that word a monosyllable. The grave digger, suppos- ing it was one of the common destitute, asked, as he looked around on the group, " II n 'y a pas de croix? " " Non," was the solitary answer. And this was the man whose fame for years had reverberated through Europe, who in earher years had been regarded as the most brilliant and impassioned champion of ecclesiastical author- ity, even of the absolute supremacy of the Pope. Born at St. Malo in Brittany in 1782, dwarfish in stature, of delicate and nervous constitution, he never attended regularly either school or university. Under the random guidance of a skeptic uncle he pursued his studies altogether in accordance with his own tastes. His ardent zeal for knowledge and his exception- ally keen mental powers soon made him proficient in the classics and in several of the modern languages. Philosophy and mathe- matics were also favorite studies. He began his career as a writer at the age of twenty, in 1802, and for fifty-two years, up to the date of his death, his pen was incessantly active. He became a priest in 1816, in his thirty-fourth year. The 81 82 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH year after, in 1817, tie began the publication of his largest work, in four volumes, the last volume appearing in 1823. The title was, "Essay on the Indifference in Matters of Religion." His temperament and genius were essentially poetic, his style rhythmic and impassioned. He Hved in the extremes of mental mood. Passionate love or intense indignation seemed to be the normal states of his soul. Despite the immense force and fer- tihty of his intellectual powers, he was essentially and at all times a man in whom the feelings were dominant. Renan was just twenty-one at the time of Lamennais' death. The lives of these two men, polar opposites in temperament, purpose, and philosophy of life, illustrate the truth of the old saying that "Life is a comedy to those who think, but a tragedy to those who feel." To the casual student of Lamennais ' life, that life seems sepa- rated into two parts, not only distinct but contradictory; in the one an apologist, in the other an apostate, the definite break being assigned to the year 1834, the year in which appeared the most popular and best known of his books, "Words of a Believer." Beginning as the most imcompromising defender and advocate of the absolute authority of the Pope, he becomes a Democratic Socialist and ends, in the opinion of many, as a defiant infidel. Such a verdict, however, is essentially superficial. A more care- ful study of the man and his works causes the starthng inconsis- tency to disappear. From first to last, in passion and purpose, he was the same man. "There were no folds in that inflexible spirit." One dominant principle ruled his life and gave it unity. There was change indeed, but it was change of method, not of fundamental purpose or ideal. That dominant principle which unified his life was his abiding and passionate sympathy and love for the mass of his countrymen, the plain people, the insignificant poor, the oppressed of mankind. He was, in reality, all uncon- sciously to himself, a SociaHst masquerading in the garb of a priest from the very first. Let us consider some points in illustration. In 1817 appeared the first volume of his most elaborate work, the "Essay on the Indifference in Matters of ReHgion." This (to use the language of St. Beuve and also of Lacordaire) raised him at a single stroke to a position of religious leadership and power unexampled since Bossuet. This volume, falling into the hands of Lacordaire, a AND OTHER PAPERS 83 young law student and professed infidel, converted him to Chris- tianity; and the celebrated conferences of Notre Dame are the offspring of the "Essay on Indifference." The ultramontanism of de Maistre and the traditionalism of de Bonald were fused and developed to their extreme limits by Lamennais.* In the first two volumes he emphasizes the errors of the senses and of the reasoning faculties in order to overthrow the right of private judg- ment. After this destruction of all certitude derived from in- dividual reasoning, he attempts to restore what he has destroyed by establishing a new criterion, viz., universal consent. On this basis he seeks to ground and to demonstrate the truth of Deism, Revelation, and Catholicism, the essence of Catholicism being the absolute, unquestioned authority and supremacy of the Pope. In the last two volumes he traced the transmission of truth through the ages and collected the scattered traditions of various peoples, and sought to show that Christianity and Christi- anity alone possesses the double character of universality and per- petuity .f The double doctrine of the book, supremacy of the Pope and the validity of universal tradition of which the Pope is mouthpiece, apart from revelation, roused up vigilant and deter- mined enemies from opposite quarters — the "free thinkers," the Liberals and the Ultramontanists; the first condemning his dis- paragement of Reason, the second condemning his support of extreme ecclesiastical pretensions, and the third (in the words of Ueberweg) denounced him as the founder of theological skep- ticism in the nineteenth century. In 1824 he went to Rome. Leo XII, who two years before had offered him a Cardinal's hat, which he refused, now treated him with coldness and manifest dislike. The year 1830 was the culminating point of the impopularity of the Church in France. The Archbishop's palace was destroyed by fire, and for three years no priest dared appear in the street in his cassock. After the Revolution of 1830 he foimded the political journal L'Avemr,vnth its motto: "Dieu et Liberie — ^lePape et le Peuple." 'Catholic Review, p. loi. t " Caro Etudes Morale." Compare Pfliederer's criticism on Lightfoot's answer to Supernatural Religion— "Development of Theology," p. 397. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 333, note. 84 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Lacordaire and Montalambert, who had been fired by the sight of the wrongs of Catholic Ireland (it was from Ireland that Mon- talambert wrote to Lamennais, placing his services at his disposal), assisted him in the cares of editorship. The journal took a bold stand, advocating extension of suffrage, freedom of worship, universal and equal freedom of conscience, freedom of instruc- tion, and liberty of the press. A stormy year ensued. Opposition fierce and widespread arose on every hand from all shades of ecclesiastical belief. The journal was suspended, and Lamennais, Lacordaire, and Montal- ambert made a pilgrimage to Rome to lay their cause and their arguments before the Pope. Gregory XVI refused to see them. After a useless wait (Roma patiens qua aeterna) of several weeks, they set out on their return, and at Munich were overtaken by the Papal encychcal formally and unconditionally condemning the doctrines advocated in L'Avenir. Lamennais returned to the seclusion of his old home. La Chenaie in Brittany. What was he to do? He had ably, loyally, and sincerely tried to interest and induce organized Christianity, as represented in the Roman Catholic Church, to bring about the one dominant object of his life — the material, moral, and spiritual uplift and betterment of the masses, the common people — and that organization had painfully failed him. What should he do? Well, one experiment had failed, but there was still an- other possible. If organized Christianity would not hsten to his appeal, he would turn direct to the people themselves. In the retirement of La Chenaie, after months of profound and painful reflection, he took the decisive step and composed in one week that wonderful little book "Paroles d'un Croyant " — a book which St. Beuve, who superintended its publication, declares compelled the printers, awestruck, to abandon their t)^esetting for hours entranced with reading its pages. "That book," said the Archbishop of Paris, "could wake the dead," and demanded in- stant punishment of its revolutionary author. More than one himdred thousand copies were sold in a short time, and transla- tions were made almost contemporaneously into all the languages of Europe. Gregory XVI condemned its contents as "falsas, calumnisas, temerarias, scandalsas, erroneas, and impias." This book dates his final and definite rupture with the Roman AND OTHER PAPERS 85 Catholic Church. Henceforth Lamennais is the apostle of the People alone. The shock of transition was far greater in appear- ance than in reality, for, as Renan well points out, Lamennais' religious belief had always been "more moral and political than dogmatic," so that his piety might well survive, even flourish, upon the ruins of his former faith. He dropped the aristocratic prefix " de " from his name, took his stand, so to speak, in the very ranks of the common people, and for eighteen years waged inces- sant and powerful battle in the cause of extreme Radicalism, putting forth book after book. To mention the chief: "A Voice from Prison," "Modern Slavery," "The Book of the People," "The Past and Future of the People," "A Sketch of Philosophy," "Philosophical and Political Miscellanies." He had believed sincerely in organized Christianity, had championed its cause with incomparable brilliancy and ability, until he had found it utterly deaf and indifferent to his importu- nate appeals in behaK of the ignorant, oppressed, and depraved, appeals dictated alone by his sense of justice and mercy and the belief in human brotherhood. Then he broke with it; and by very necessity of his nature and genius broke with it completely. The human mind, says de Maistre, cannot suddenly rise to su- preme heights of audacity. It is necessary again to place Ossa on PeUon before declaring war on heaven. Here was an exception. This intrepid priest, without pause or preliminary, began forth- with to launch his bolts against the powers on high, impelling them with such energy of indignation and such passion for social righteousness that, like the shafts of Acestes, they seemed to take fire by the very speed of their flight. Renan attempts an indirect compliment to himself in compari- son with Lamennais on the fact that he (Renan) made his exit from the faith in formal or organized Christianity by the quiet and orderly road of History and Criticism. Of the two, we think Lamennais' exit incomparably the nobler, rock strewn and diflS- cult though the pathway be along which he pressed with bleeding feet. He went forth, not as a lettered saunterer, not as one amused rather than disturbed at the spectacle of Life — ^its comedy of errors, its much ado about nothing — but with his burden of moral passion and the pain of social wrong — like a prophet he went forth as of old by the Spirit into the wilderness. 86 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The last work that engaged his hand was for the common people: a translation of the four canonical Gospels. This work will be taken by not a few to emphasize the fact that in turning away from the Christianity of the churches, the organized Chris- tianity of the day, Lamennais believed he was but returning to the Christianity of Christ. The vitality, variety, and power of his genius are seen in the fact that his works are a treasury from which the leaders of promi- nent and opposing religious movements have largely borrowed their arguments. Both Liberals and Ultramontanists find in them materials suitable to their use. De Maistre and Lamennais were favorite authors with the second school of tractarians. In his earlier career he tried to reahze his ideal of a religious democracy by allying the people and the Pope against the mon- archy, in contrast with de Maistre, whose plan was a system of union between papal and regal absolutism. In the later part, he sought to exalt the people to supremacy in spite of both the Pope and civil monarchy. He became the prophet and inspirer of Modern Christian Sociahsm. That part of his "Essay on Indif- ference " which treats of the fragments of Divine truth held by aU peoples — that the ethnic reUgions are not simply devil-invented delusions — ^is conceived in the very spirit and anticipates many of the approved conclusions of the best works in Comparative Religion of to-day. BACON— SHAKESPEARE "There are certain traditions," says the redoubtable critic, John Churton Collins, one of the most violent — ^we may say virulent — of the orthodox Shakespeareans, "there are certain traditions which the world appears to have made up its mind to accept without inquiry. Their source or sources may be sus- picious, their intrinsic improbability may be great, but no one dreams of seriously questioning them. Whatever else becomes the subject of dispute, of doubt, or of dissent, a strange supersti- tion seems to exempt them even from debate." We agree most fully with this statement of our modern Aris- tarchus, only we would apply it differently. He applies it to the traditional belief in Shakespeare's lack of classical culture, while in our opinion it appKes much more reasonably, we submit, to the traditional belief in Shakespeare's authorship of the Plays that pass imder his name. Mr. Collins exerts himself through three elaborate essays (just published in book form, 1904), to prove Shakespeare's per- fect literary command of the Latin classics, with more than a probability that he also read Greek at first hand; not a pedant, like Ben Jonson, but read them with ease, as a gentleman should, with his feet on the fender. Yet this is the same Mr. Collins who, in his review of "Lee's Life of Shakespeare," published a few years ago, could deliver himself in the following terms: "Shakespeare's life between birth, 1564, and the publication of Ve- nus and Adonis (1593) is an absolute blank. That he was educated at Stratford grammar school is pure assumption. We know nothing of his life in London or of the date of his arrival there, of the date of his return to Stratford, of his habits, of his last days, of the cause of his death. Not a single letter of his (assuming he could write a letter) has been preserved; not a single sentence that ever fell from his lips has been authentically recorded. At least one-haK of the alleged facts of his most conservative biography (Lee's) is as purely apocryphal as the Life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus."* ♦Review of "Lee's Life of Shakespeare," p. 213. 87 88 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Verily, we may say with Professor Brandes, "When we pass to the consideration of Shakespeare all our ordinary critical methods leave us in the lurch." Doubt as to the identity of the author of the Shakespeare Plays is by no means of so recent origin as commonly supposed. With many the controversy is supposed to have begun* so late as Janu- ary, 1856, by the pubUcation in Putnam's Magazine of the mem- orable article by Miss DeHa Bacon; but as matter of fact Prior's "Life of Malone," page 48, shows that the "anti-Shakespearean authorship theory" was strictly maintained in and about the year 1780. We propose to throw together by way of introduction a few data selected from the huge mass that makes up the general liter- ary or historical argument going to show the improbability of the Stratford Player's authorship and the probability of the Bacon- ian authorship of the immortal Plays. The authorities selected from are chiefly the works of Sidney Laz-Levi Lee, George Brandes, W. H. Edwards, Hallowell Phillipps, and especially Judge Webb, Professor of Laws, Dublin University, and Mr. Edwin Reed, Andover, Massachusetts. The author of the Shakespeare Plays was a linguist, a classical scholar, a jurist with a fondness for legal and technical terms and phrases, a philosopher, a scientist, a naturalist, and of course a poet. Bacon was a master of all these subjects. Shelley: "Lord Bacon was a poet." Macaulay: "The poetic faculty was powerful in Bacon's mind." Blackie: "Another virtue of the Essays: poetical imagination. His similes are of a kind of which Shakespeare, Goethe and Rich- ler might have been proud." Compare Milton's translation of Psalm vii: "Lord, my God, to Thee I fly; Save me and secure me under Thy protection while I cry, Lest as the Lion (and no wonder) He haste to tear my soul asunder — Fearing, and no rescue nigh. *Mr. J. C. Hart's "Romance of Yachting," 1848. AND OTHER PAPERS 89 His armies purposely made he For them that persecute. Behold, He travails big with vanity: Trouble he hath conceived of old As in a womb, and from that womb Hath at length brought forth a lie." With Bacon's translation of a verse from Psalm xc: "Teach us, O Lord, to number well our days, Thereby our hearts to wisdom to apply; For that which guides man best in all his ways Is meditation of mortality. This bubble Ught — this vapor of our breath, Teach us to consecrate to hour of Death." His prose betrays a cast of mind distinctly and powerfully poetic. To cite a few judges: Charles Knight: "That high poetical spirit which gleams out at every page of his philosophy." Spedding: "The truth is that Bacon was not without the fine frenzy of the poet. Had his genius taken the ordinary direction, I have no doubt that it would have carried him to a place among the great poets." Shakespeare was the uneducated son of parents who could not write their own names, a man who married an illiterate woman, a man who never taught his own children how to write, a man who lived in a squalid town where there were no books and where half the aldermen and biurgesses had to make a cross for their signatures, a man whose own handwriting was illegible, the only five known signatures showing that he spelt his name five differ- ent ways, including two different ways in the course of one day. Shakespeare lived in London about twenty-five years, returned to Stratford with a fortune in the prime of life, never wrote an- other line, never referred to his literary works, was unknown among his townsmen as a scholar or author, engaged in money- lending and harsh litigation, possessed no library whatever, was noted for being against the people in their desires to obtain con- cessions of pasture-land from the authorities; married one daughter to a quack doctor who was expelled from the corpora- tion, and who prescribed worms and snails and goose-excrements 90 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH for various diseases; married his second daughter (without a license) to a Uquor dealer who was fined for profanity and tippling. Shakespeare died, and gave not the slightest hint of the exist- ence of literary works in his will, though he bequeathed 21s. 8d. each to Heminge and Condell, whose names appear as Editors in the 1623 Edition of the Plays. Mr. Reed enumerates one hundred and twenty-seven contem- porary references to Shakespeare. Of these one hundred and twenty are to the author, seven only to the man, the Stratford Player. Of these seven, one calls him an idiot, another an ape, another a Jack of aU trades, another a sensualist, another refers to his wealth, another calls him a pirate, and the last an impostor. Bacon dared not reveal himself as a playwright, even if he was one — ^for social and professional reasons. Why should he make a mystery of or conceal his authorship of the plays, if really the author? A vahd answer would be, because it would have been at once and immediately destructive of his aim to rise high in the legal profession and at court. In this connection it is interesting to read in Lockhart's "Life of Scott,"* a letter to J. B. S. Morritt, July 24, 1814: "I shall not own Waverly; my chief reason is that it would deprive me of the pleasure of writing again. I am not sure it would be considered quite decorous for me as a Clerk of Sessions to write novels. Judges being monks, clerks are a sort of lay brethren from whom some solemnity of walk and conduct may be expected. So whatever I may do of this kind, 'I shall whistle it down the wind and let it prey at fortune.'" ("Othello," Act 3, Scene 3.) I shall point later to a far more serious reason, if the typo- graphical cipher can be accepted. Bacon's love for the stage was well known. Ben Jonson, who called Shakespeare an ape, makes half a dozen allusions to a "mystery" in Bacon's life which would be a "brave cause for joy" if known to the public. Jonson lived with Bacon at Twickenham, and was his confidant. Bacon's "Promus" (published in 1882) contains 1,655 words and phrases which are used in various ways 4,404 times in the Shakespeare Plays, but only to a limited extent in Bacon's prose. These include new and *Vol. 4, pp. 176-177. AND OTHER PAPERS 91 carefully manufactured words unknown in English before. In the "Northumberland Papers," a manuscript in Bacon's own writing, appear the names "Francis Bacon" and "WiUiam Shakespeare," written alternately six or eight times, as if written by one who was trying his pen at writing both names. In Bacon's list of authors for the period the only name omitted is the greatest, William Shakespeare. In Ben Jonson's list of authors for the period Bacon is put first, and described as " the mark and acme of our language." Shakespeare is not men- tioned. In Jonson's poem on Shakespeare the poet is pro- nounced superior "to all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome sent forth." Jonson was not given to repeating himself, but a few years later he omitted Shakespeare from his Ust of authors and declared that Bacon's works were to be "preferred either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome." Bacon was the historian of the period; so was Shakespeare. The only omission in the Shakespeare series of histories is "Henry VII," and it is supplied by Bacon's prose history. This prose his- tory begins at the exact place at which Shakespeare's drama of "Richard III" leaves off, and ends at the exact place where Shakespeare's drama of "Henry VIII" begins. Shakespeare died in 1 616, seven years before the first folio of the Plays was published. That edition contained additions, alter- ations, excisions, etc.^who made them? These revisions con- tinued until the year of Bacon's death, 1626. Bacon's prose works were reissued and revised in the same style. The Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, the incomparable pair of brethren, to whom the first folio is dedicated, were Bacon's private friends and partners in various enterprises. Even in their blunders the two authors were not divided, says Mr. Reed, and gives many instances. The curious and erroneous theory of heat taught in the ' ' Pr omus " and in the " Advancement of Learning" is repeated in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and again in " Coriolanus." Bacon in his " Sylva Sylvarum " quotes facts from six books; exactly the same six books are quoted and passages taken from them by Shakespeare. Bacon knew noth- ing of animals, except from books, and makes at least half a dozen glaring errors as to their habits. The same errors are repeated in the Plays. 92 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The books from which the plots for the Shakespeare Plays were drawn were part of Bacon's library. The untranslated works which helped the dramatist were in Bacon's possession. The foreign countries minutely described in the Plays are the countries Bacon visited or resided in. The usury laws ridiculed and condemned in the "Merchant of Venice" (1595) are the laws under which Bacon suffered the year previous (1594) at the hands of a Jewish money-lender. The college referred to in college terms in the Plays, e. g., "Titus Andronicus," was Bacon's college, Cambridge. (Knock at his study, where they say he keeps." — Titus Andronicus.) The periods of Shakespeare's activity coincide with the periods of Bacon's leisure; the periods of Bacon's public activity coincide with the periods of Shakespeare's silence. The politics of Ba- con's writings are the politics of the Plays. The contempt for the common people and tradesmen, the "mob," the "unmasked mul- titude," the "swinish rabble," occurring over and over in the Plays, is an echo of the words used again and again by Bacon as the expression of the intensely undemocratic spirit that was his, and seems very unfitting in Shakespeare. A technical knowledge of printing is displayed in the dramas — was Shakespeare a printer? Bacon was a master of the printer's art. A remark- ably exact knowledge of navigation is displayed in the Plays. Bacon, as is well known, wrote a special treatise on the subject of navigation. Shakespeare's exceptional and accurate knowl- edge and portrayal of the pecuUarities of the insane has fre- quently been commented upon. Professor Elze, in his "William Shakespeare," quotes Prof essor Newman and Doctor Bucknill as maintaining "that watching the insane must have been a favorite study of Shakespeare." Well, from 1601 to 1610, we know that Bacon lived with and had under his unremitting care an insane person, viz., his own reputed mother, Mrs. Nicholas Bacon. It may be worth while noting here also one coincidence, that whereas Mrs. Bacon went insane in 1601, the passage in Hamlet where he says — "It is not madness That I have uttered — ^bring me to the test And I the matter will re-word, which madness Would gambol from — " AND OTHER PAPERS 93 was first inserted and first appeared in the revised Edition of the Play published in 1604. Bacon had by that time served three years' apprenticeship in observing the ways of the insane. For details of heraldry and witchcraft both authors went to the same books for information and used the same facts and names. The last drama was "Timon of Athens," in which the author bitterly railed against the world which had treated him badly. At this time Shakespeare was Hving at ease on an ample fortime; but Bacon had been deserted by friends and flatterers, and had been unjustly compelled to retire from pubUc life. Particular significance, we believe, attaches to the discussion and evidence relating to the lost part of Bacon's system of univer- sal philosophy.* Bacon died April 9, 1626. In his last will he disposed of his unpublished writings as follows: "I desire my executors, especially my brother constable, as also Mr. Bosvile (Boswell), preferably after my decease, to take into their hands all my papers, which are either in cabinets, boxes or presses, and them to seal up till they may at their leisure peruse them." About a year after Bacon's death, probably 1627, the above mentioned Bosvile, having been appointed British Minister to Holland, carried the manuscripts to The Hague, and committed them to his learned friend, Isaac Ginter, for publication. Dur- ing a series of eighteen years, from 1633 to 1652, Ginter reissued for Continental readers the works already printed in England. Finally, in 1653, Ginter gave to the world nineteen of the unpub- lished manuscripts in a work entitled, "Francis Baconi de Ver- danio Soupla in Naturali et Universah Philosophia." In an address prefijced to the reader Ginter tells us that he and Boswell had many long and confidential interviews concerning the publi- cation of the papers and that in consequence some of the papers, for reasons not given, were withheld from the pubUc. That Ginter regarded these reserved papers (whatever they were) of great importance, and that against his will he was compelled to keep them b^ck, we know, for on March 20, 1655, he wrote to Sir William Rawley, Bacon's old chaplain and amanuensis in ~*belia'Bacon, Book 2, Chapter 2, "The Missing Books of the Great Instaura- tion." 94 THE HERITAGE- OF THJE COMMONWEALTH London, expressing great impatience because he was not per- mitted to publish them, sa}ang in that letter: "At present I will restrain my impatient desires in hope of seeing some day these things which are now committed to faithful privacy, await the time when they may safely see the hght and not be stifled in their birth." What was the nature of that secret which the unpublished papers would have revealed? The terms in which Ginter refers to the secret effectually preclude the supposition that it had to do with personal criticism of his contemporaries. That a secret of some kind did exist in Bacon's literary works admits of no doubt. "The great secret which he had, or thought he had, in his keeping." * EIHs, the co-editor, discusses the value of it, e. g., the new philosophical method, in the preface to "Novum Organum." Spedding (after his, EUis', withdrawal) later on in the work repudiates EIHs' interpretation, but admits that after thirty years' study he can supply no satisfactory solution. Bacon, we know, had a scheme of universal philosophy. He tells us, in "De Augmentis," that he had two methods of com- municating his philosophy to the world; one, exoteric, open to all; the other, esoteric, enigmatic, designed to exclude the vulgar and to admit only those who have wits of such sharpness to pierce the veil. Bacon divided his great work on philosophy, the "Instauratio Magna," into six books, viz.: Part First: Gives a survey or inventory of knowledge as then existing in the world, with a statement of deficiencies found in it : "Advancement of Learning," "De Augmentis." Part Second: Treats of human understanding, the rules and principles of research after truth: "Novum Organum." Part Third: Seeks to bring together out of every department of nature, but one — the ardent collection of facts, "arranged for the work of the understanding": "Sylva Sylvarum," "History of the Winds," "History of Life and Death," and some others. Part Fifth: Miscellaneous in character, including essays: "History of Henry VH," "Apothegms," "De Sapentia Veler- ium," "Legal Arguments," etc. 'Spedding Edition of Bacon, Vol. 2, p. 27. AND OTHER PAPERS 95 Part Sixth: This was never perhaps even attempted. He states distinctly, "we entertain no hope of our life bemg pro- longed to the completion of the sixth part." Part Fourth: Was it also unattempted, or was it completed and concealed? Bacon tells us distinctly that Part Fourth, like Part Third, was designed for an inquisition only — facts, but facts of a mental and moral nature. Strange as it may seem, not a single line except a brief preface entitled "Scala Intellectus," is to be found in Bacon's acknowledged works under this head. Spedding says:* "Of the Fourth Part not even a fragment has come down to us." Now from Bacon's words we infer that he considered the Fourth Part an integral and important part of his system — "Novum Organum": "I am forming a history and tabulae inveniendi for anger, fear, shame, and the like." Again, in "Filum Labyrinthi," in referring to these tabulae, he instances, "tabulae concerning animal passions, tabulae con- cerning sense and objects of sense, tabulae concerning the afEec- tions of the mind, tabulae concerning the mind itself and its faculties." Where now are these writings that deal with the passions and affections of the human heart? They are missing; but that they were actually composed and were designed to form the Fourth Part (which also is missing) seems at least a most reasonable inference, from what Bacon says of the Fourth Part in " Distribuo Operis":t "I set forth examples according to my method, choosing such sub- jects as are most noble in themselves among those under inquiry. By examples I mean actual types and models, by which the entire process of the mind, from the beginning to the end, in certain subjects and those various and remarkable, should be set, as it were, before the eyes. For I remember that in the mathematics it is easy to follow the demonstration when you have a machine beside you. To examples of this kind the Fourth Part is devoted." It seems then, as we have said, that it is a reasonable inference, to say the least, that Bacon left behind him for the Fourth Part *VoL s, p. 174- tSpedding, Vol. 8, p. 51. 96 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of his system writings which would accomplish in the interpreta- tion of human nature what he sought to accomplish in the Third Part for the interpretation of physical nature. But have we any hint as to the nature or form such writings would take? Further,- he tells us, in the "Advancement of Learning," that "historians and poets" are the best instructors in this branch of knowledge, "for in them," he says, "we may find painted forth with great hfe how affections are kindled and in- cited, how they disclose themselves, how they work, how they vary, how they gather and fortify, and how they are enwrapped one with another." Again, in "De Augmentis": "Historians and poets are best quahfied to treat of human nature, because man's character can be more powerfully delineated in action than in formal criticism." How significant in this connection the remark of Gervinus in his Commentary on Shakespeare: "If Bacon felt the want of a science of human nature, he rightly thought that historians and poets are the ones to supply it; and he well might have searched for it before all in the writings of his neighbor Shakespeare, for no other poetry has taught us as his has done that the taming of the passions is the aim of civilization." Such was the state of the argument up to a few years ago. About fifty years ago a document was discovered which, though not appreciated at the time by the discoverer (Mr. Spedding), would seem strongly to confirm the belief that the lost part had been actually composed in part, if not completed, by 1608, and that it was in dramatic form. Among the manuscript papers pubKshed for the first time by Ginter in 1653, not until twenty-seven years after the death of Bacon, and standing first in the volume, is one entitled, "Cogi- tata et Visa." It was written in or about the year 1607. It contains a rapid sketch of Bacon's system of philosophy and es- pecially, in the last paragraph (occupying a page and a quarter in the Spedding edition), a summary of the secret or enigmatical kind of writing in which an important part of his system was to be embodied. The text of Ginter's was the only copy known to exist for more than two hundred years, and this copy is the only one Miss Delia Bacon could have seen or used. Some short time before 1857 Mr. Spedding found another AND OTHER PAPERS 97 manuscript copy of the "Cogitata et Visa," in the Library of Queen's College at Oxford. It was undoubtedly genuine for, according to Mr. Spedding, "it is carefully corrected in Bacon's own hand." And this he prints instead of following Ginter. A comparison showed that for some unknown reason Ginter had omitted in one place thirteen lines, in another eleven lines. The omissions seemed to Mr. Spedding to be "immaterial," and he makes no further comment upon the fact. Within the last three years, Mr. Edwin Reed, of Andover, Massachusetts, profovmdest Shakdspearean scholar in this coimtry, carefully comparing the two, has reached the conclusion that Ginter omitted the above mentioned passages dehberately, as coming too near revealing the secret to be allowed to see the light at that time. For the first time these passages are presented by Mr. Reed in English dress. We will quote a few sentences from the "paragraph" before we come to the omitted passages, giving the latter in fuU: " Bacon observes, ' some men minister to their love of fame and profit sometimes by pubHshing and sometimes by concealing the knowledge of things they have acquired. We must remember that moderate errors, like the ravings of lunatics, are overcome by ingenuity and tact, but aggravated by violence and opposi- tion ; therefore we must use prudence and humour people, to get a hearing.' So he determined to prepare 'Tabulae Inveniendi,' i. e., 'examples of invention,' or 'forms of inquiry,' to serve as almost visible representation of the matter. ('Bacon calls the Dialogues of Plato 'Tabulae.')" Now for the omitted passages: "But when these 'Tabulae Inveniendi' have been published and seen, he does not doubt that the more timid wits will shrink, almost in despair, from imitating them with similar productions with other materials and on other subjects. They will take so much delight in the specimen given that they will miss the precepts, or lessons, in it. StiU, many persons wiU be led to inquire into the real meaning and highest use of these writings, and to find the key to their interpretation. . . . But he intends yielding neither to his own personal aspira- tions nor to the wishes of others, but keeping steadily in view the suc- cess of his undertaking, having shared these writings with some, to withhold the rest until the treatise intended for the people shall be published." 98 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Thus Ginter also: "He anticipates that some persons of higher and more exalted genius taking a hint from what they observe, will without more aid appre- hend and master the others themselves. For he is almost of the opin- ion that this wiU be enough for the wise, while more wiU not be enough for the duU. (Omitted: He therefore wiU intermit no part of his undertaking so far as these writings are concerned). (Omitted: Be- sides, he does not wish to impose any rigid forms of inquiry upon men; but he is assured that when these productions have aU been tested after long use and with some judgment, this form of investigation thus proved and exhibited by him will be found the truest and most useful. Still, he would not hinder those who have more leisure and who are free from the special difSculties which always beset the pioneer or who are of a more powerful or sublime genius, from improving on it; for he finds in his own experience that the art of inventing grows by inven- tion itseK.)" What, then, was the character of these writings? Mr. Sped- ding says that at one period it would seem that Bacon thought of throwing the exposition of his argument into a dramatic form. Would it not be admissible to argue from the facts and hints pointed out, that he actually did so, and that the pictorial alle- gory which Ginter inserted in his edition of "De Augmentis" was intended to symbolize that fact? The original edition of " De Augmentis " was published the same year as the Shakespeare Plays — antedating them only a few weeks, in 1623. Was not this, then, the work concerning which he said, as quoted above, "I will withhold the rest until the treatise intended for the pubHc shall be pubHshed? " The picture: Bacon seated with a large open volume before him (his acknowledged writings), the index finger of his right hand pointing to it. With his left arm extended he is restraining a female figure intent upon carrying a clasped book to a Temple, evidently the Temple of Fame. This figure is clad in a beast's skin. Does not this symbolize the Muse of Tragedy? Tragedy is literally, as we all know, "goat-song." In ancient Greece the goat was sacred to the drama; in every performance in the theatre actors and even members of the chorus wore goat skins. Bacon, then, is the author of two works: one, open and acknowl- edged; the other, enigmatical, dramatic and unacknowledged. The restraint exercised upon Ginter as to publishing is typified AND OTHER PAPERS 99 by the figure struggling to bear the closed volume aloft to the Temple of Fame. Professor Mendenhall (Superintendent of Coast Survey) sug- gested the scheme of depicting graphically the unconscious peculi- arities of style in any given author by use of the familiar device of rectangular co-ordinates. This method, of course, may be ap- plied to show graphically quite a number of idiosyncrasies of style in composition; but the easiest and most readily appreci- ated appHcation is to determine graphically the prevailing use of longer or shorter words by any two or more authors compared — that is, the relative number of letters in the words most used. Mr. Herninray, of Boston, a few- years ago became interested in the scheme and proposed to Professor Mendenhall to defray the expenses for a trial on a grand scale. By aid of a simple record- ing machine which greatly simplified the labor, several young ladies were able, in a few weeks, to count and classify about three milHon words in the works of Elizabethan authors alone, besides several authors in foreign languages. The results were plotted graphically, the outcome being that Shakespeare had for his characteristic difference the use of "four-letter" words. Bacon "three-letter" words. Only one author beside. Shakespeare of the same period had the same characteristic, the predominant use of "four-letter" words, and that was Marlowe — a most interesting coincidence, some may be inclined to think. In fact, Shakespeare's curve and Marlowe's are indistinguishable — ^practically identical. This seemed to settle the Baconian claims for good and all, leaving Marlowe an open question. For the method, as Professor Mendenhall points out, while perfectly vaHd for excluding an author whose curve differs from a given arc, only affords a probabihty or strong presumption of identity in the case of one whose curve coincides with a given one, e. g., blue eyes and red hair v6rsus black eyes and black hair. On later consideration, reflecting that in the case of Shakespeare only poetry was counted and in the case of Bacon only prose, it seemed to me a question whether Professor Mendenhall had made sufficient allowance for the difference that might naturally be expected in emplo}dng the two divine forms of expression — ^poetry and prose. A niraiber of experiments as to the difference of loo THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH curves to be found in the same author when using now prose exclusively, now poetry exclusively, convinced me that Professor Mendenhall had not proved his case as between Bacon and Shakespeare so completely as at first seemed. I give the curves of Milton and Scott respectively, both in prose and poetry. The typographical argument in the controversy is based upon the Baconian cipher. About eight years ago, the widow of a well-to-do Detroit (Michigan) doctor, working on some matters connected with the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy in the British Museimi, came upon the pages in Gilbert Watts' transla- tion of "De Augmentis," 1640, where Bacon gives a full accoimt, accompanied with elaborate illustrations, of the celebrated cipher which he had invented and used for many years. Dropping her immediate work, she determined to seek whether in Bacon's acknowledged works published under his own direc- tion he had anywhere used the cipher which he commends so highly. She claims to have found it in the itaUcized words and passages of the "Advancement of Learning" (English, 1605), of the "Novum Organum" (Latin, 1620), of the "Life of Henry VH" (1622), and in others of his works. Taking up the Folio (1623) Edition of Shakespeare's Plays, she discovered the cipher running through aU the Plays wherever italicized passages and words were found. The same in the Quarto Edition of the Plays, published before Shakespeare's death but without his name. The effect of this professed discovery was immediate and tre- mendous. AU the literati on both sides of the controversy were up in arms; the rage of the Pro-Baconians, with few exceptions, fully equalled that of the Pro-Shakespeareans. Judge Webb, of Dubhn University; Begley, the Cambridge critic; Messrs. Reed and Keefer, of our coimtry, not to mention others, joined voices of more or less contemptuous condemnation with Sidney Lee, George Brandes, Leslie Stephens and John Collins. The reason for this unanimity of condemnation is plain. If Mrs. Gallup's claim be good, then the whole literary and historical argument, built up on both sides with such infinite toil and pains, is, for the moment at least, brushed aside and relegated to an altogether secondary place. The august order of scholars and Shakespear- 210 ZZO 200 ISO 160 140 120 100 80 60 10 20 1 ''■ ' — ' — — — — 1 1 ', Bacon ■ Prose Shakespeore-PodPY — £ r ' II ' 1 ' 1 A 1 \ ' \ . \ \ t ^ \ 1 v, f s r c '\ i \^^ 1 '^".^ ' S ■s* "^ ■^^ 240 220 20O reo 160 140 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 M 12 13 14 15 Prose Poetry 1000 Words each. > V — *■ 1 tlhcUdyoflheLakcPrntrY t ', L ' ■" I ' 1 1 \\ , y \t y I \ J ' \ » S' s ^» ,' \- 1 '\ 1 ■*~^ 1 \ I s >, S ■— — - rrr = _ fl 'Paradise Lost-Poetry v^rcopagitico Pro« — \ ' 's ; , ;/ ', / \\ 1 \\ ' \\ \\ \ \ \ > f I », I s N { \ \ f \ f S i '\ i w I ^ i \ N f ^ 260 240 220 200 80 e g 10 II 12 13 14 \5 3. 4 5 6 9 10 II 12 13 14 AND OTHER PAPERS lOI ean critics, and with them the general experts in EHzabethan merature-authorities all who have ruled unquestioned so long uiese one and several, are invited to vacate their thrones on the stage, step down, at least temporarily, and take seats in the pit or m the gallery, as suits their humor. Their office now is no longer to mipose as of yore oracular utterances, ex cathedra deasions pro and con, but simply to look and hsten while the practical prmter speaks; or indeed while any one speaks who, with good eyes, great patience and a hand glass, has honestly applied himseK to the problem of decipherment. For the proof, if proof there be, is pure typography. Bacon himself gives a clear accoimt of his cipher or secret writing,* closing with this significant sentence: "These arts (cipher-writing) placed here with the principal and supreme sciences seem petty things; yet to such as have chosen them to spend their labors and studies in them, they seem great matters." In "De Augmentis"t Bacon gives an elaborate account of his own great cipher and illustrates its use by printing into a letter of Cicero's without alteration of a word, simply by the use of two slightiy different fonts of italic type, the secret Spartan message (given in Plutarch). We remark, first, that it seems passing strange that, so far as record goes, from Bacon's day to this it never occurred to any one to take up and examine carefully the original Editions of Bacon's acknowledged works to see if he had anywhere made use in them of his favorite cipher. No one, it seems, had the wit or patience to make the experiment until the matter was accident- ally suggested to Mrs. Gallup eight years ago by coming upon the cipher passage and explanation in Watts' translation of the "De Augmentis." Second, if the decipherment is valid, we are furnished with the best of all reasons for Bacon's not acknowledging the Plays, namely, the danger by so doing of leading to the discovery of the great secrets imbedded therein, secrets whose discovery would have cost him his head: his claim to be the lawful son of Queen •"Advancement of Learning," Book 2, section 16, paragraphs 6 and 7. tSpedding Edition, Vol. 2, pp. 420-427. I02 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Elizabeth, and therefore to be the lawful heir to the throne of England* According to the cipher, Queen Elizabeth was married to Rob- ert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, when they both were prisoners in the Tower, and Bacon was the first-born; the Earl of Essex the second. Mallock's test: The keen and accomplished scholar and writer, Mr. Mallock, asked Mrs. Gallup to mark each letter of Macbeth's letter to his wife according to her interpretation of the cipher. Then, having enlarged photographic copies made of the letter from the Cambridge Folio (1623), he examined with great care 328 letters in all, with the following result: Comparing his mark- ing with hers, he found that in 277 cases, he agreed perfectly; 43 cases, thinks her marking inconsistent; 8 cases, the compar- ison left him in doubt. To sum up, he says: "Taking the passage (Macbeth's letter) as typical of Mrs. Gallup's interpretation, her rendering will be found to be demonstrably in accordance with a systematic use of two italic alphabets, as laid down by Bacon in his 'De Augmentis.' " *National Biography admits Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, was undoubtedly a mother; of whom or when it does not transpire. "THE LORDS OF CREATION" SINCE WHEN AND WHY? "An' there began a lang digression About the lords o' the creation."* In ms book entitled "Ant Communities," just issued from the Harper presses, that renowned entomologist, Dr. Henry C. McCook, expresses his wonder at the failure of the woman suffra- gists to use the arguments at hand from the poHty of Ant Com- munities that make so powerfully in favor of their movement and claims. "For among ants as among other insects, Nature has bmlt upon the female organization, and not upon the male, the most remarkable and successful examples of social life and gov- ernment known to natural science: the Ant Commune, the Bee Hive, and the Hornet's Nest." The object of this paper is to press the argument very much farther in a biological way, and to show that the dominant male of to-day, from Protozoa to Man, so far from being aboriginally and of right the lords paramount of creation, are but late para- sites and usurpers upon the rights and domain of the female. ANDROCENTRIC THEORY In the old Judean prophetic narrative (Gen. 11:21-22) man, or the male element, was presented as the primary form, the original type of human nature; woman, or the female element, was sec- ondary, simply an afterthought, made from a rib taken out of the first man. This symbolizes picturesquely the common view, the one held practically throughout historic times, that all things centre about the male, and that the female, though necessary to the work of * Robert Burns, in the Poem of the Twa Dogs. 103 I04 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH reproduction and continuance of the race, is otherwise an unim- portant accessory, an incidental factor in the general result. To review the facts in support of this theory, appealed to by its adherents: (a) In many of the most common animals, with which every one is more or less famiUar, the males are dominant, are larger, stronger and more varied in structure and more highly ornamented. Among birds, for instance, the females are smaller, less ornamented, and the male alone possesses the power of song. Narrowing the view to the human race, we see the same set of facts even more emphasized. Women of all races are smaller and weaker, and in all lower races at least, less finely propor- tioned than men. Difference in size and weight of brain in man and woman, civilized or uncivilized, is quite as great as that of their general stature. Lopenard (Elements of Anthropology) gives exhaustive details of what he considers evidences of this comparative inferiority of female structure. (b) Passing to mental qualities, De CaudoUe (History of Sci- ence and Scientists) may be quoted as affirming that women are lacking in invention and in the powers of scientific discovery (before Madame Curie), her reasoning faculty less strong, gen- eral truths have little or no interest for her. Her conclusions are generally reached by intuition. There are no women Platos or Hercules.* Creative genius is low in woman compared with man. Says Francillon: "No woman ever wrote a great drama; not one of the world's great poems came from woman's hand; no great woman architects, sculptors, painters, or even musical composers. Only in one art, that of acting, has she been able to rise to any- thing approaching the level of man's achievements." Lastly, in poHtical affairs, she has been practically a cipher; except where hereditary descent has chanced to place a crown upon her head. These, perhaps, are the chief points adduced in defense of the hitherto universally accepted Androcentric Theory. We close with a declaraction of the Pope, made in 1910, to a delegation of the Union of Italian Catholic Ladies: " Woman can never be man's equal and cannot therefore enjoy equal rights. Few women would ever desire to legislate, and those who did would only be classed as eccentrics." ♦See Lecky's "History of European Morals," Vol. II, p. 358. AND OTHER PAPERS 105 II GYNOCENTRIC THEORY This is Mr. Lester F. Ward's name for his revolutionary view of the fundanaental relation of the sexes. From a universal survey of organic life, the female sex is seen to be primary and all impor- tant, the male secondary and adscititious. "The Egyptians believed there were no males among vultures, and they accord- ingly made that bird an emblem of universal Nature."* That originally and normally aU things centre about the female and that the male, though not even necessary for the continuity of the organic scheme, was finally and late in the day developed as a complementary factor by reason of the advantages, in the way of variation, to organic progress, found to accrue through the crossing of strains. Professor Thomson,t puts the matter thus: "Life itself, all Hfe, was in the begiiming female, in so far as sex can be postu- lated of it at all. In human kind. Nature obviously started out on the plan of having the woman the dominant force and factor with man simply as aid. But after a time a reversal of plan was brought about and man became, and continues to-day, the dominant force." To review the facts in support of the gynocentric theory: We must distinguish between evolution and progress. Lang holds degeneration indeed — rather than progress — but he also says that the race has not fallen away from any supernatural revelation made to the earliest man, but only from that much more modest altitude to which every man may raise himself. J *Lecky's "History of European Morals," Vol. I, p. io8. t"Sex and Society," p. 224. fMyth, Ritual and Religion." Vol. I p. 13. So Max MuUer, Introduction to "Science of Religion," p. 41; Professor Davidson," Philosophy of Religion and History," p. 13-14; Professor Flint, "Theism," pp. 22-23; Professor Pfleiderer, "Philosophy of Religion," Vol. H, pp. 6-7; Professor Schurman, "Belief in God," p. 81. On degeneration, compare articles by Ramsay in Contemporary Review for Novem- ber and December, 1907, by Bryce in Atlantic Monthly for November and De- ■^ember, 1907. Per contra: Article by Professor Giddings, Munsey's Magazine for November tnd December, 1907. Also "Ant Communities," by Rev. Dr. McCook, Current literature for January, 1910, p. SS- io6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH We must first grasp clearly the relation between reproduction and fertilization. The former is fundamental and necessary to the continuity of organic life; the latter is not fundamental or original in the organic Scheme of life, but an afterthought, an expedient, a device if you please, brought in at a late date and having its justification not as a necessary factor for the con- tinuity of organic life, but for its more rapid progress and higher development by reason of the manifold variations found to arise from the crossing of strains. Organic Ufe, then, begins as female — i. e., the fertile sex — and is carried on a long distance by means of the female alone. In fact, more than half (numerically) of all known organic beings even at this late day are of this order — self-fertilizing — ^no dis- tinct males. Passing now to the higher orders where fertilization is accom- plished by a separate male organism, we can see in numberless instances how Nature still chngs to her original plan of making the female most important. To take but one instance from the plant world, the common Hemp: the male plant leads a short Hf e, sheds its pollen (in fact, its only useful function) , turns yel- low and sere, withers and dies. The female continues to grow taller and stronger, be it observed, and it is only from this robust and vigorous female plant that the hemp of commerce is ob- tained. Darwin gives many remarkable examples of female superiority in relation to the male. Take this one from his "Life and Let- ters:"* " The unisexual cirripede has in each of her two valves a little pocket, in each of which she keeps a little husband, to be let out of their pris- ons as occasion requires." He speaks of another case in which, though the cirripede was a true hermaphrodite, yet she carried about with her, safely se- cluded, no less than seven tiny httle complementary males or husbands. Female superiority is especially striking in the spider family; the female generally gigantic in size relatively, and may often be seen t o seize and devour entire the tiny male fertilizer. Pro- *Vol. I, p. 34S. AND OTHER PAPERS 107 f essor Howard gives a graphic description of similar action in the case of a female Mantis or Praying Insect. He placed a male maiitis in a jar where he had a female in captivity. She first bit off the male's left front tarsus and consumed his tibia and femur; next she gnawed out his left eye. It was at this stage, strange to say, that the male first began his efforts to mate. But she pro- ceeded to eat up his right front leg, then she entirely decapitated him, devouring his head and gnawing into his thorax. Not until this stage did she resign herself to his efforts at mating; which, though in this, to say the least, fragmentary condition, he actu- ally accomplished. These are but samples of practically the relation of the sexes among invertebrates. Passing to the vertebrates, in one species of lower vertebrates, Agassiz says: "I found the females averaging fully five times the size of the males; male fishes commonly the smaller. Trout fish- ermen are well aware of this. Even among birds there are some large fanailies, e. g., the Hawk, if I mistake not, the Owls, also, in which the female is almost imiversally the larger and finer bird." In falconry, only females take the name of Falcons, as being the most courageous and powerful.* Coming to mankind, notwithstanding the universally recog- nized dominance and superiority of the male in human society to-day, there are facts, and a vast array of them, that go to show how persistently Nature struggles to keep to or to recover her original plan of female dominance. Morphologically, men are more unstable than women, and this unstability expresses itself also in the mental sphere, in the two instances of genius and insanity, both occurring much more frequently in men than in women. Mortality is also much higher among insane men than among insane women. Ana- tomical anomalies, such as cleft palate, hare-lip, supernumerary digits, are more frequent in males. Strange to say, supernu- merary mammae or nipples were found, as the result of nearly 4,000 examinations, four times as frequent in men as in women. As a resiilt of the combination of statistics from the hospitals in Glascow, Edinburgh, and Paris, in the case of similar amputa- * "Encyclopaedia Brittanica," under Falcons. io8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH tions performed upon men and women, Professor Thomson in- forms us that there were about ten per cent, less deaths from the operations of the same kind in the case of women than in the case of men. There is a vast consensus of testimony that women, whether on the surgeon's table or the dentist's chair, bear pain with greater fortitude than men. It seems also a well-attested fact that under the same circumstances the female body offers greater resistance to disease in general than the male. The ex- cess of mortality among male children at and shortly after birth is a striking testimony in the same direction. Lombroso points out the interesting fact that on the average women are longer lived than men. Out of 459 cases of well- authenticated centenarians, which he collected, 271 were women and only 188 were men. The facts of organic life then (plant and animal) combine to show that the female constitutes the original and main trunk, descending essentially unchanged from the asexual or presexual condition; that the male was added at a late stage in life history for the sole purpose of securing, by crossing of strains, more rapid variation, and consequently the possibility of higher development; that the male began as a simple parasitic fertilizer, and only after incalculable ages became an independent or separate organism; and that throughout nearly or quite the whole of the inverte- brates, and to a considerable extent among vertebrates, the male has remained an inferior creature. How then are we to explain the fact that the male, primarily and normally an inconspicuous and insignificant afterthought of Nature, a mere fertilizing organ attached to the female, or a minute organism detached from her and whose sole function was fertilization for the sake of variation — how are we to account for the fact that in the higher existing organism, including especially the human race, the male has attained an unquestioned superior- ity of development and dominance over the female? The first answer is, sexual selection, on 'the part of the female. Darwin, as is well known, has investigated and established this fact with immense patience, accuracy, and insight. This principle applies practically to the whole range of animal life. In brief, the female selects from her suitors those having the qualities she prefers, choosing the largest and finest specimens. The qualities of AND OTHER PAPERS 109 bodily strength, courage, tenacity of purpose, and so forth, being inherited by the offspring chiefly in the male hne; as it is well known the laws of heredity generally secure the predominance of the quaUties of the male parent in the male children. This sexual selection bringing about not only increase of bodily strength and stature, but increase of brain mass and increase of natural faculty, enabled the male by his superior wit and sagacity to employ his superior strength in the gradual subjugation of the female, taking from her in part and gradually what had been the secret of her supremacy, viz., her perfect freedom in choosing her mate. But here, majora canere, sexual selection is the only important principle at work in the domain of animal Hfe up to mankind. At that point, however, we must take account of another factor, a factor peculiar to the human race, and of supreme importance in explaining the present relation of the hiunan sexes. The rec- ognition and elaboration of this factor or principle, be it said, is the chief claim of Mr. Ward to originality. The factor of which we speak was the discovery of paternity. At some point quite early in the protosocial stage it began to dawn slowly upon the growing intellect of man that a casual relation existed between mating with the female and reproduction or the birth of children. It was this simple act of ratiocination on the part of the male, this discovery of paternity, which liter- erally revolutionized the whole social system. For the first time the man, the male, began to perceive that he, too, had a part in the continuance of the race; that the children were in part his and not whoUy the woman's (an idea that had never entered his head before). To emphasize his partnership in the children, there arose at the very earUest stage that singular custom, observed in America, Asia, and Europe, for which so many explanations have been given. We refer to "Couvade" — the custom of the man going to bed with the newborn babe while the wife and mother nurses and tends the reputed father and goes about her usual duties. Even to-day instances are found in Russian Baltic provinces, and in the little island of Marken, in the Zuyder Zee.* *Letourneau, "Evolution of Marriage," p. 318. no THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Here we may quote Professor Letourneau: "For a long time it was not even suspected that the man had any- thing to do with the pregnancy of the woman. When the suspicion strengthened to conviction, then the ridiculous ceremonies of the 'Couvade' were invented, by which the man emphasized his pa- ternity and sought also to draw upon himself, in part at least, the malevolence of the evil spirits to whom were due the pains of parturi- tion on the part of the mother." The "Couvade," then, was the first step toward Fatherhood and the Patriarchate. The discovery of paternity completed the subjection of woman universal throughout historic times. It seems the irony of evolution that man, acquiring his superior strength and sagacity solely through the female selection, should use that strength and sagacity for the domination and terrible subjection of the iimocent and unconscious authoress of those very gifts and acquirements. Here we think we come upon the explanation of the strange fact that the majority of male writers of books in all past ages, when they touch upon woman, seem to be animated with feelings of suspicion and horror for the female sex. "We hate whom we have injured." , The growing sense of unjust usurpation and ingratitude could only be allayed by aspersing, ridiculing, and defaming the subject and enslaved woman. Not only Oriental literature, ancient sacred books and books of law, but largely the literature of Greece and Rome, almost all that was written during the Middle Ages down even to the seventeenth century, teem with epithets, slurs, flings, and open condemnation of women as creatures in general vile, hateful, spiteful, malicious, sensual, irreclaimably prone to make league with the devil. "It is difficult to understand why Christian ethics should be con- sidered the cause of woman's emancipation, when we know that for more than fifteen centuries woman was the mere chattel of her husband in Christian Europe. To those who contend she was anything more we would commend a careful consideration of the ' Garde de Chastite,' a practice the bare mention of which is enough to stupefy the minds of moral men and women of to-day. Why did the gentlemen of me- dieval Europe enforce this unspeakably abominable practice upon the wives of their bosoms? Was it because Christian ethics had been AND OTHER PAPERS III proclaimed in Europe for more than a thousand years? Or was it not rather because Christian ethics had no effect whatever upon the condition of woman? "* "Women, on account of their inherent impurity, must not receive the Eucharist into their naked hands." Lecky's "History of Euro- pean Morals," p. 3384 The horrors of witchcraft were beyond doubt the normal fruit of this perverse conception of woman. Take as a sample this extract from a book written at the close of the fifteenth century, a book called the "Witchhammer," formally approved, be it said, by Pope Innocent VIII: "Woman has no moderation of evil. Solomon himself, tempted by them to idolatry, has given true testimony to their uiherent evilness of nature." So also has the holy Chrysostom: "What is woman," saith he, "but an enemy of friendship, a necessary evil, a natural temp- tation, a constantly flowing source of tears, a wicked work of Nature covered with a shining varnish?" Thus first, woman, entering into a compact with the devil, set an example which her daughters, the witches, have always been eager to follow. The very word for woman (femina) means "wanting in faith," for "fe" means "faith"; "minus" means less. Made from a crooked rib, her entire nature is inclined more to vice than to virtue. They are worse than the devil, for the devil sins only against the Creator; but the woman, as witch, sins both against Creator and Redeemer. So the eloquent Bossuet: "Let women consider their origin; they are after all only a supernumerary bone with no beauty but what is outward and evanescent." So Napoleon the Great: "Woman is our property, even as the tree is the property of the gardener. The husband should have absolute power over the wife." Schopenhauer says that women are essentially childish, frivol- ous, short-sighted; in a word, big children all their life long. Perjury comes so natural to them that it is questionable whether they should be sworn at all. *" Level of Social Motion," by M. A. Lane, p. S43- tCompare Decree of the Council of Auxerre, A. D. 578. 112 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH But it remained for the last decade to produce the work which, for scurriUty, revolting defamation, and insanity of rage against woman, surpasses all ever written aforetime. We refer to the ponderous book by Weiniger, a young German, entitled, "Sex and Character," translated into Enghsh last year. We forbear to make even a simple quotation. Let us recapitulate: 1 . All organisms, unicellular or multicellular, are capable not only of nutrition proper, but of that form of nutrition which goes beyond the individual and carries the process into another in- dividual; which we call reproduction. 2. The manifest advantage of crossing strains and infusing into life elements that come from outside. The organism was seized upon by natural selection and a process was inaugurated that is called fertilization . This took place first through an organ belonging to the organism itself (hermaphroditism), then by the detachment of this organ and its development into an independent but min- iature organism totally unlike the primary one, being, in fact, but a miniature sac. If we look no further than to second causes, we may say, then, that not the Creator originally, but the female herself, by sexual selection, "created man in her own image"; and from a shapeless sac gradually developed him into an inde- pendent form after the general likeness of the original or female organism. Brain development in man, in consequence of female selection, led to man's recognition of his paternity and joint partnership with woman in the offspring. This discovery produced a pro- foimd social revolution, overthrew the authority of woman by destroying her hitherto supreme characteristic — the power of se- lection in mating — and finally reduced her to utter subjection. The stage of Matriarchy, thus fatally undermined, passed away, and was succeeded by Patriarchy. The advance of so- ciety producing a leisure class resulted in a high aesthetic sense in man and led him to a widespread system of male sexual selection. This also tended to strengthen the fetters of woman's subjection; for while it produced the types of beauty and grace generally characteristic of woman, it tended distinctly and directly to dwarf her stature, sap her strength, contract her brain, and enfeeble her mind. AND OTHER PAPERS 113 Throughout, then, the historic period, woman has been power- fully discriminated against and held down by custom, law, Uter- ature, and public opinion. Only in the last one hundred years or so, and in the most advanced nations, has some slight relief from her long thralldom been accorded her. But the vast downward curve of woman's degradation (to use the words of Mr. Ward) has passed its "nadir," and the ordinates have begun to shorten as the curve tends upward. In confirmation of this, we give a splendid tribute quoted by EUis from Professor Mason's article in the American Antiquarian for 1889: "We must now recognize how much of the material art and science, by virtue of which the race has risen from the lowest barbarism to the highest culture, is due to the thinking brain and laboring hand of woman. The Mother (and not the Man) was the first Poet, and the first Priest; the first food-bringer, weaver, skin-dresser, potter, artist, linguist, founder of society, and patron of religion. For in these forms of human activity man has simply followed the elder woman." And to-day woman seems rapidly coming to her own again in all the fields of human activity. Says President McFarland, of the American Civic Association: "I do not know of a live and successful movement for social better- ment anywhere in the United States which has not either originated in the brain of some God-inspired woman, or been forwarded to active value by a body of such women. I have seen failures in many cases where men alone undertook these movements, but I do not know of a complete failure in any case in which the women handled the move- ment."* A curious commentary on Lord Byron's words, quoted with approval by Schopenhauer: "Woman's intellectual limitations are such that they should never be allowed to interest them- selves in either poetry or poHtics; their reading should be confined to books of piety and cookery." Choate, in a recent address: "There are more than a thousand women to-day practising law in this country; thirty-seven years ago there were none. Now thirty-four states admit women to the bar." *New York Times, Sunday, January 9, 1910. 114 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The United States Census of 1900 gives the number of women engaged in the various branches of business as follows : Agriculture 980,025 Manufacturing 1,315,890 Trade and Transportation 503)S73 Professions 43^,^53 Textile Workers 277,972 Saleswomen i49)256 Stenographers 86,158 Retail Dealers 34,132 Bookkeepers and Accountants 74,i86 Clerks 85,269 Telephone and Telegraph Operators 22,556 Bankers 253 Brokers 45 OflScers in Banks 1,271 Builders and Contractors 153 Civil Engineers 84 Carpenters 545 Blacksmiths 193 Machinists 571 Watchwomen and Detectives 897 Bootblacks 81 Hunters i>32i Surveyors 11 Chemists 248 Of 303 breadwinning occupations, women are in all but nine. Verily, in the words of Ellis, feminization — in the proper sense of that term — feminization of our social life in all its parts is one of the marked tendencies of our modern, complex civilization. All tends toward the approximation of equality between man and woman again, after untold centuries of artificial separation and divergence. In the words with which Goethe closed his "Faust" lies a bio- logical verity not usually suspected by those who quote it, a verity fulfilling itself before our eyes to-day: Margaret: Father, I am thine! Do thou deliver me! Mephistopheles: Ah, now she is judged! Voice from above: No; now she is saved! Mephistopheles [to Faust]: Come thou with me, to the nether world. JAPAN japan's rise to recognition as a first-class world power — some thoughts as to the possible results: military, commercial, and ethical* The astonishing victories of Japan both by sea and land, in the warf just ended, have given a shock to the conceit of Europe such as it has not felt for centuries. It is true both English (Fortnightly) and German [report of German Staff] miUtary experts have criticised the strategy of the Japanese generals as lacking in breadth and boldness, but all with one accord praise the rank and file as constituting a military machine for which, as to morale and efl&ciency, history affords scarce parallel. Against the most impregnable fortifications and the most intri- cate and impenetrable field defences her troops have marched to victory after victory; to use the well-known words of Macaulay, "with the precision of machines, the enthusiasm of Crusaders"; and, let us add, with incomparably greater recklessness and in- difference to death. The capacity for complete secrecy both on the part of com- manders of armies on land and sea navies, and of the civil officers as well, charged with preparations for the war, has been not only a provocation to the war correspondents, but an object-lesson causing surprise and ill-concealed concern to the western world in general. For ten years Japan was steadily preparing for her war with Russia, and not only Russia but no other European or world power had the faintest conception of the quality or extent of the war material she had so quietly and unobservedly accumu- lated. The thoroughness of their medical and sanitary arrange- ments has been the wonder of the world. It was said of Welling- ton that he put but Kttle emphasis upon courage in the make-up ♦"World's Parliament of Religions," Vol. 11. "Japanese Spirit."— Okakura; "The awakening of Japan." — Okakura (brother of same). tRusso-Japanese War, 1904-05. ii6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of a good soldier. It was discipline he counted upon. It was, he maintained, not so much the private soldier's business to be brave as it was to be obedient. It is acknowledged on all hands that the Japanese soldier exhibits the very perfection of discipline. He has but one fear: it is not death, much less the enemy; but only and solely the displeasure of his commanding officer. "Under other colors except that of the round sun of Japan, men are expected to do what is possible for the human to do. Something more is expected of the Nippon soldier." * "The secret of Japanese valor is the almost incredible intensity of their patriotism. With us patriotism rests upon an abstraction, with Japan its object is incarnate in the person of their Divine Emperor, over whom bends in transcendent purity the glory of a succession un- broken for eternity." f "Even religion, in the minds of some, must yield to patriotism, could they ever conflict. One of Japan's profoundest teachers of Buddhism and Confucianism, in replying to the question, 'What would you do, you with your overpowering love and devotion to Buddha and Con- fucius, if an army were to invade Japan and threaten the throne with Buddha as Generalissimo and Confucius as Lieutenant?' the great scholar made reply, without hesitation: 'Strike off the head of Sakya- humi and steep the flesh of Confucius in brine. "'J Japan stands forth confessedly the Sumurai of nations. WiU not Japan, in consequence of her astounding success, develop vast mihtary ambitions? If so, what direction will they most probably take? That she has already practically annexed Corea we all know. That a Protectorate — something more than a Protectorate, over China wiU inevitably follow in no long time, not a few careful students of the Eastern field are fully con- vinced — ^will be asserted and assured. Chinese students by the hundreds are flocking to Japan. Chinese papers in rapidly increasing numbers are passing under the control of Japanese editors. All Asia is vibrating with the shock of Japan's surpris- ing victories. The gigantic "boycott" of all and every product of EngHsh manufacture now rapidly spreading in India is evidence that the Japanese leaven is working there also. It is the con- viction of an EngUsh writer, Mr. Townsend, that the *Kinnosuke, in Renew of Reviews, December fOkakura, "Ideals of the East," p. 207. t" Ideals of the East," p. 410. AND OTHER PAPERS 117 "Japanese victories will give new heart and energy to all Asiatic nations and to tribes which now fret under European rule, will inspire in them a new confidence in their own powers to resist, and will spread through them a strong impulse to avail themselves of Japanese in- struction."* "The sacred duty is incumbent upon us as the leading state of Asia- tic progress to stretch a helping hand to China, India, Corea, to all the Asiatics who are capable of civilization. As their more powerful friend, we desire them all to be free from the yoke which Europe has placed ujxjn them, and that they may thereby prove to the world that the Orient is capable of measuring swords with the Occident on any field of battle."t With Japan as the commanding genius, with the millions of Asia at her back, with the Oriental indifference to or rather con- tempt for death as the foundation quality of the soldiery; on top of that the modern discipline and equipment that none better than Japan knows how to supply, will Europe or America retain any foothold in Asia for long? Some are ready to say, be it so, Asia for the Asiatics. But will triumphant Asia remain content with Asia? She has not always done so in the past. Baron Kaneko's adroit use of the Parable of the Good Samar- itan, in Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, April 28, 1904, claims: "Japan was thus the savior of Europe (from further Mongo- lian invasion in the thirteenth century) when Europe did not even know who had saved her" J Baron Kaneko, Professor White, and Professor Okakura labor insistently in recently published works to picture Japan as emi- nently, not to say invincibly, disposed to peace when her exist- ence is not at stake, that her victories will not unduly elate her. But army and navy officers recently returned from Japan, the Philippines, and the Chinese stations report quite the contrary. A military officer of high rank in our army, just returned from the East, told me last September in Boston: "It is my firm convic- tion that if Japan is victorious over Russia, either America or England will be compelled to fight her within five years. Their ♦Townsend, "Asia and Europe." tExtract from speech last May by the President of the Japanese House of Peers. tSee "Monguls and Arabs." ii8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH successes, their implicit belief in the invincibility of their army and navy, have made them so cocky and egotistical that they have not a friend in the East among mercantile, military, or naval men of white extraction." That they really resent our occupation of the Philippines is an open secret, it is said, among those ofl&cials familiar at first hand with Eastern affairs. That they supplied the Philippine insur- gents with munitions of war on conditions that made them prac- tically a gift; that Japanese ofl&cers were given leave of absence so opportunely as to enable them to serve under Aguinaldo, are facts beyond question in the minds of some of our best-informed ofladals. Mr. Meredith Townsend ("Asia and Europe") gives it as his carefully formed opinion that Japan's early military expan- sion will be the conquest and settlement of the great system of islands stretching down from Nagasaki to Australia. That there are apprehensions also concerning the safety of Australia itself, not only Mr. Townsend confesses, but an able article in the Contemporary Review some months ago, from a native of that continent, voices the same note of alarm. Japan (to quote Mr. Townsend) though naturally an expand- ing power, because its people are too numerous and because they are vain, has, like Great Britain, a strong commercial instinct. Her people may seek first in consequence to gain rather in com- merce and manufacture than in territorial acquisitions. To con- trol the commerce of China, to fill the ports of Asia with her merchantmen and her traders, may be her first ambition. One of the war cries of Japan by which she has sought and secured the friendly interest of the western nations has been "the open door in Asia for the commerce of the world." But what does it mean? An open door is no better than a closed door if there are conditions which make it inevitable that your rivals will crowd the entrance before you, making your own passage impossible. "On the balcony of the As tor House in Tientsin, clearing-house for northern China," says Gordon Smith, correspondent of the London Morning Post, "I asked the merchants of five countries which nation they would rather see victorious, Russia or Japan. They were British, American, German, Austrian, Dutch; their answer was unanimous: 'Russia.' Their sjmapathy," he adds, "was a 'dollar sympathy' but it was none the less significant." AND OTHER PAPERS up With Russian occupation the foreigners in Northern China had a market for their wares; with the Japanese in possession they will have none. Save the export of flour, and possibly of corn and steel for a time, the trade of the United States and Canada will be shortly insignificant if not nil. The Japanese, notorious imitators of the manufactures of the various nations which sell in the East, with their cheaply made and inferior pro- ductions, will undersell the manufacturers of other nations; for the purchasers in Manchuria and Corea are not discriminating. Imitations of American drills and sheetings are now turned out with counterfeit American trade-marks. In the past ten years (1895-1905) more than 14,000 trade-marks stolen from Europe and America have been registered by Japanese citizens in Tokyo. Machinery, printing presses, and telephones have been imitated even to the name plates of the American makers. French brandy; Colgate's "best white tooth powder" (made in New York); St. Julian claret, bottled by M. Bordeau; best English beer, the label on the latter declaring that the "ej0&cacy of this beer is especially for health and strength of stomach, the flavor so sweet and simple will not inspire for much drink "^ — all these and innumerable other imitations are now for sale in Manchuria and Corea at less than one third for what they could be profitably imported from this country or Europe. In view of these and other examples, a British merchant of many years' experience may be forgiven for the sweeping con- demnation: "Japan has no conscience in trade. The Japanese are past masters in commercial deviltry compared with any other or aU other Oriental nations. No other country but Japan has built its prosperity almost in a national way upon business dishonor. Our commercial interests would prompt us to affiliation with Russia rather than Japan, for with the latter victorious there lies before us, I am firmly convinced, a severe and bitter contest to preserve even the most moderate share of the trade of the East." To not a few reflective minds, however, the sudden revelation and recognition of Japan as a first-class world power has its chief significance in the changes, not to say reconstruction, it may effect in our western systems of morals and religion. I20 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH The Bishop of Carlyle writes in the Guardian that the whole career of government, and army and navy, the self-restraint and self-sacrifice of the people as a whole, have been a magnificent object-lesson to Western Christendom, placing Japan in the very forefront among ethical nations. "Not for her guns alone," says a distinguished foreign writer, "not for her guns alone, nor the way she handles them; not alone for her ingenuity, her imitativeness, her vast patience of detail in the sphere of manufacturing and commercial rivalry, is she to be feared. The 'yellow peril' is above all an ethical phenom- enon. Far more significant than the efficiency of Japanese arms and industry is the advent into the world's history of a whole people, possessed of a discipHned will, combined with the highest order of intelligence. In the minds of a thoughtful few already the conviction is shaping itself that outside the pale of Christendom there has arisen the type and example of a saner, simpler, more rational, more joyous, more humane, more self- controlled way of Hfe than Western Christianity has so far achieved. This is a fact that should alarm our self-sufficiency and ethical pride." "Our Western Christianity is more western than Christian, more racial than religious. In fact, the claim of Christianity to be supreme must assuredly fail unless it finds its exponent and jus- tification in renovated national life. The plain duty of Christen- dom is to recognize that her hold on the moral supremacy of the world is no longer so secure as many of us imagine. For centuries past nothing has occurred to shake the confidence of Christians in the effective moral superiority of their own to all other forms of morals and religion. We say 'effective moral superiority,' for it is not a question of moral ideal simply (here the Christian ideal as a whole is confessedly the superior), but as to the degree in which (taking human nature as we find it) it can and does realize itself in national and private life." Mr. Frederick Harrison in the Positivist Review writes that the churches and their poKtical allies are forever telling us that nothing but their prayers, their doctrine of individual immortal- ity and a personal God, can inspire and sustain the highest de- grees of courage, duty, virtue, and honor among nations. The AND OTHER PAPERS 121 rise and revelation of Japan is a knock-down blow to such conten- tions. No God, no Heaven, no Priests, led the Japanese soldiers to battle. All the intricate machinery of our theology is to them ahke useless, irrational, and absurd. They fight and die for their Mikado, for their ancestors, for Bushito, for Japan. Hear a Buddhistic note from Professor James: "I have said nothing in these lectures about immortality, for to me it seems a secondary point. If our ideals are only cared for in ' eter- nity' I do not see why we might not be willing to resign their care to other hands than ours."* Deeper and stronger than any other argument or evidence for the supremacy of our Western Christianity, for her claim to be of right the universal teacher of mankind, has been the conviction that our firm reUgion, Christianity as we hold it, produces mor- ally the best nations and morally the best men. Has the sudden revelation of Japan, a Buddhist nation, given the challenge di- rect and definite to this assumption? We will answer that it certainly has, in the minds of not a few profound thinkers and ob- servers. Let this beUef now entertained by the few filter down and become the conviction of the many, and all the united zeal and ingenuity of all the doctors of Christendom could not secure Christendom against the shock and consequences of the discov- ery that another religion produced better nations and stronger men. All differences between us, points of doctrine, over which the ages have resounded with the world's debate, would be in- stantly merged in a common insignificance. A mood would possess the general mind quite other and different than the philo- sophical calm of Omar in his Hnes : "Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about; but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went." As the wild creatures of the prairie suspend their wars when they scent the fumes of the oncoming fire, so would it be with Western Christendom and its controversies when this conviction had become general. Reason and authority, Christian meta- *" Varieties of Religious Experiences," p. 524- 122 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH physics and Christian evidence, dogma and apology, Catholic and Protestant, Churchman and Dissenter — of what consequence would these distinctions be in face of the advent of another re- ligion, another moral discipline, which was foimd to produce better disciplined wills and greater eagerness for self-sacrifice in the name of Duty? The Dean of Canterbury would forget his appeal to the first six centuries; Harnack, like Othello, would find his occupation gone; a mightier force would put M. Loisy to si- lence; foreign missions would collapse; Doctor Beet, of London, and Doctor Crapsey, of Rochester, would be left xmmolested; and the Reverend Messrs. Lowry and Alexander would have to close for want of business. No one would trouble about the last end of St. Mark's Gospel — whether Abraham stood for an individual or a tribe, or, as Professor Chene now thinks, for a constellation. Works of Newman and of Matthew Arnold would aUke become obsolete, and even the cheap edition of Haeckel would cease to sell. But, be it said in passing, this dismay would have short dura- tion. Soon the question would be asked, "What has Christ Himself to say to these new conditions, and how does He bid us greet their appearance?" Then for the first time in her long history would flash upon the Church the real meaning of those long-neglected words: "Neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall men worship the Father." It would be recognized that the rise of this new ethical and powerful nation with its reUgion of deed rather than of dogma was a providential challenge and warning to our Western Chris- tianity to return to the Christianity of Christ, our Western Chris- tianity, which, in the mind of Professor Browne, has become "more Western than Christian, more racial than rehgious." Fears would eventually give place to rejoicing, frowns to the look of welcome; the faithful would resume their labors. The spirit of exclusiveness would vanish, and a Christian religion worthy of its name, a genuine Open Brotherhood of the Children of the Spirit, might at last appear in the world. AND OTHER PAPERS 123 Do they then but dream or do they prophesy, who claim to see already a light upon the horizon, the light of a new and vaster hope for the betterment of the race, the prospect of the union of the forces of Christianity with the forces of Buddhism, the latter five hundred million strong, for the moral and spiritual uplift of mankind? Are these two religions entirely different but naturally exclusive of each other? Let us hear a final word of testimony from Professor Anesaki.* "We Buddhists are ready to accept essential Christianity. Nay, more, our faith in Buddha is faith in Christ. We see Christ because we see Buddha. The one came to release us from the fetters of egoism, passion, and avarice, by convincing us of an ideal higher than any worldly good. The other came as the Son of Man, to redeem us from sin and to reveal the pattern of perfect humanity, and to recover us to the Ark of our Father. Where there is faith in Buddha there may grow, and grow readily, the faith in Christ." " Far down below the noises of the warring creeds, the clash of words and forms, the differences of peoples, of claims, of civilizations, of ideals, far down below all these lies the essence, the soul of universal religion. For him that hath ears to hear its testimony is ever the same. The faiths in their deepest depths are all brothers, all born of the same mystery, some younger and some older; some babble in strange tongues different from your finer speech. Are they less the children of the Great Father for that? Surely, if there be the unforgivable offense, the sin against the Holy Ghost, it is this: to deny the truth that lies in all the faiths."t *Professor of Philosophy of Religion in the Imperial University of Japan. tFielding Hall, British Judge in Burmah, "Hearts of Men," pp. 323, 324. "KOHELETH," OR "ECCLESIASTES" (An attempt to sketch the mental and moral history of a power- ful and intrepid Jewish thinker of the third century B. c, whose book, after fierce and prolonged debate on the part of Jewish authorities, was admitted to a place in the canonical Old Testa- ment.) There are three dramatic dialogues in Scripture: The Song of Songs, a dialogue between the lover and the beloved one; the drama of Job, a dialogue between Job and his false comforters; and lastly, in Koheleth, or Ecclesiastes, we have in substance, if not in form, a drama, as Dean Stanley says, of a still more tragic kind. It is a dialogue of two voices, but the voices are the voices of the one soul: the pessimistic and the hopeful, or, more accu- rately, the God-reliant voice. Between these two the combat is sustained with intensity and unflinching candor up to the very end. The contest is by no means unequal or one-sided; charge and countercharge succeed each other with equal energy of affirmation and denial, and with equal dexterity of challenge and retort. Not imtil the very close is the hopeful or God-reliant voice able to sound its note of immeasurable triumph. The sincerity, the insight, the beauty, and above all the bold- ness of the utterances of Koheleth captivated the fancy both of Voltaire and Renan, leading the latter to assert, "Ecclesiastes is the one really charming book ever written by the hand of a Jew." "Of all forms of madness," says Voltaire, "the insistence on see- ing things exactly as they are is the most appalHng and hopeless." Koheleth certainly stands committed under this charge. "He saw, and he spake; and he spake as he saw," says Browning. In Koheleth's clear and searching survey of the facts of nature and life, of the sin, the sorrow, the vanity of man and his works, of the iron order of the world about him — "stem as tyranny, merciless as fate" — he is indeed far bolder in his utterances than any other canonical writer; bolder even than the occasional out- 124 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 125 bursts of Job. Hence, long after Job had attained a place in the canon of inspired Hebrew writings, that honor was withheld from Ecclesiastes. As a matter of fact, not until the close of the first century of our era was it so received. At the Jewish council of Jamnia, a few miles south of Java, in the year 90 a. d., after pro- longed and acrimonious debate chiefly on the ground of its supposed Solomnic authorship, Koheleth was formally admitted into the canon of the Old Testament. Reverberations, however, of the fierce debate over its admittance continued for almost a century more among the Jews. What we naturally ask is, what was really the aim or chief purpose of the book? Or has it one purpose or many? It is perfectly within bounds to say that in the case of no other writing, within or without the canon of Scripture, has there been such incredible variety of contradictory interpretations. We are positively assured that the book contains the holy lamentations of Solomon, written by himself, his penitence for his misspent past, together with his prophetic visions of the doom of the House of David, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity. We are equally assured that it is the record of a discussion between a refined sensuahst and a sober sage. Says another, "Solomon wrote it to seal his sincerity of repentance and to strengthen his brethren." Per contra: "Solomon wrote it indeed, but it is the product of his irreligious and skeptical manhood during the years he was given over to his amours and idolatry." It is a book in which the nobler Solomon, the true son of David, addresses the Saints. It is the work of an unknown profligate, who, in order to disseminate the more readily his infamous senti- ments, palmed them off as Solomon's. It teaches us to despise the world with all its pleasures, and to flee to monasteries (says Jerome, in his commentary, "to induce Blacilla, a Roman lady, to enter monastic life"). It shows that the pleasures of sense are after all man's surest and greatest if not the only blessings upon earth; therefore make the most of them, quite in the spirit of Horace — "Carpe diem" — or of Browning: "There may be heaven, there may be hell; Meantime there is our world here — well." 126 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Again, it is said to be a philosophical lecture addressed to a literary society upon subjects of highest moment. It is a medley of - heterogeneous fragments without unity or order, belonging, in fact, to various authors and to different ages. This latter was Luther's view. It describes the beautiful order of the Divine government of nature and man, showing that "all things work together for good to them that fear the Lord and obey Him." It proves to a dem- onstration that all is confusion and that "the world and man with it" are the sport of chance or fate. The chief object of the writer is to prove the immortahty of the soul. The author, says another, is a Sadducean physician, whose real design is to deny definitely a future existence. The author's aim is patriotic and religious, to comfort his unhappy fellow- Jews amid the desolation of their fallen fortunes, and to strengthen their hopes of future compensation. The sole pur- port of the book is narrow and personal, to give the relief of utter- ance to the author's satiety. There is nothing here but the gloomy imaginings, the despairing sentiments of a melancholy and jaded misanthrope. Apart from its profound moral and philosophic teaching, it actually anticipates many modern discoveries, among them, es- pecially, the theory of the trade winds and Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood. "Koheleth is the Song of Songs of utter skepticism," says the Jewish poet Heine. "It is the Song of Songs of a profoundly reUgious soul," says Professor Dehtzsch.* Finally, according to one of the latest and most learned author- ities (Professor Graetz) all previous interpreters are utterly mis- taken, for Ecclesiastes, in point of fact, must be recognized as simply a keen and searching satire on Herod the Great, written no earlier than about the year 8 B. c. After this survey we feel hke reading over a second time before assenting to it. Renan's declaration:! "The book as a whole is clear, very clear. It is only the theologians who have had an interest in finding or rather making it obscure." Before we attempt to decide as to the authorship or purpose, in the face of such a conflict of authorities, let us take a brief •Cheyne, "Jewish Religion After Exile," p. 183. tEccl., p. IS. AND OTHER PAPERS 127 survey of the book as we actually have it. The contents may be distributed with a Prologue — three acts or stages of experiences — and the Epilogue. We wiU attempt only a rapid survey. The Prologue: (Chap, i-ii) Problem to be solved: Quest of the sxmimum bonum. First stage: (Chap. i:i2-Chap. ii:26) Seeking it in Wisdom, Pleasure, and Philosophy. Second stage: (Chap. iii-Chap. v:2o) Trafl&c and Political Life. (Chap. vi-Chap. viii:i5) Wealth and Golden Mean. Third stage: (Chap. viii:i6-Chap. xii:7-i3) Chief Good In- cludes Hfe of reverence and righteousness — tranquil and cheerful enjoyment of the present. Epilogue: (Chap. xii:8 to 12 and 14) By later hand. PROLOGUE The book opens (Chap. i:i-i2) with reproducing the mood of weariness and despair in which it had originated. The author was evidently living in a dark day. His nation's hope was almost extinguished, the foreigner had sacked its cities, devas- tated its fields, carried its people into exile. Everywhere is failure, disappointment, misery. All things are vanity. The monotony of succession, the ever-recurring cycles in nature and human life were absolutely oppressing. It was made all the more so by the reflection that oblivion sooner or later falls upon all human activities. There was nothing new, nothing permanent. II The author, Koheleth, impersonating King Solomon, retraces his own past experience. "I, the preacher, was King over Israel in Jerusalem; and I applied my heart to survey and search by wisdom into all that is done under heaven." (Chap. i:i2.) He had foimdthe search after wisdom wearisome and unsatisfying. Increase of knowledge was but increase of sorrow. (Read Chap, i :i 2-18.) From wisdom he had turned to consider pleasure and kingly state, to find this also vanity. (Read Chap. ii:i-ii.) Then came study of hvunan nature, its sanity and insanity. 128 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH "Then I turned to compare wisdom with madness and folly." (Chap. ii:i2.) The former might be better than the latter, but it was only for a moment. Death, the great leveller, placed wise and foolish on the same footing. "The wise man dieth, even as the fool." This also is vanity. (Read Chap. ii:i2-23.) (Read the conclusion, ii:24-26.) He turns to the reHgionists of his time, only to find hollowness, formaHsm, hypocrisy, frivolous excuses, and dreams taken for reality. Ill From the reHgious Kfe he betook himself to the political. There he beheld rulers oppressing tillers of the soil, yet less happy in their wealth than the tillers in their poverty. The inequalities of the human lot were forced upon his attention; the manifest indifference of the world order as to whether men were virtuous or wicked, so far as regards the distribution of prosperity and happiness. Men misled by such teachings as Ezekiel xviii might indeed talk of a law of individual retribution; might feel and argue that there must be such a law, but facts were against them. "There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked." (Read Chap. ix:i-3.) At first this thought had nearly driven him to utter despair. Further reflection leads him, however, to what he thinks is the true, at least a truer solution: Make life worth living — ^work — rest — rejoice — laying resolutely aside the vexing ques- tions that make fife miserable. All beyond is darkness. (Read Chap. ix:4-io.) For "no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Chap. xi-xii:7.) Koheleth feels that it is time his story of these many experiments should end. He passes, therefore, to more direct and positive teaching. Whatever else was doubtful, it had become clear to him at least, beyond all peradventure of debate, that to do good must be right and wise. To do good, however, without anxiety and misgiving as to immediate results, this was the path of wisdom. (Read Chap. xi:i-6.) This at least made life worth Hving, even though darkness lay beyond. Ease and pleasure, it is true, are by no means evil in themselves, but may easily become so; and the young man in the glow and flush of life must remember that AND OTHER PAPERS 129 God is not only the Creator and Giver, but also, in a sense, the Judge. "Rejoice, O young, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee. Walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." (Chap, iirg.) We see, indeed, but partial tokens of that judgment working here and now. Soon the goal is reached, and death closes all. But beyond death — ^well, as for the wicked, he has no further word than Chapter viii — 12 b. c; but for him who has striven to live a life of reverence and righteousness, to "fear God and keep His commandments " — ^f or him he has this to say : That whether death be descent into Sheol or "return to God" (that is, perhaps, absorption in the Infinite) , his compensation is assured, for he has had it already in the quality of Ufe he has Uved. The Epilogue (Chap. xii:8 to end, last seven verses, excepting thirteenth) like the Epilogue to Job, is beyond all dpubt a supple- ment by a later hand, and adds nothing to the argument. IV Who Was the Author ? That Solomon had nothing to do with it is to-day the universal verdict of competent critics. "We could as easily believe that Chaucer wrote 'Rasselas' as that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes." — Professor Ginsberg. "If the Hebrew used by Koheleth could have been the Hebrew of Solomon's time, then the Hebrew lan- guage simply has no history." — ^Professor Delitzsch. In point of language, philosophic views, and the conditions of society reflected in the book, the author must have Hved many centuries after Solomon; probably at the very earHest not before the middle of the third century b. c. Among the best commen- taries on Ecclesiastes are the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Josephus' "Antiqxiities."* As we do not know, and in all probability never shall know from other sources, either the name or the personal history of this profound thinker on the highest themes, we may permit ourselves to gather what hints we can from the writing itself, in the way of *Renan, EccL, p. S9- I30 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH an "Imaginary Biography." (Dean Plumptre, Dean Perowne, Tyler, and Coxe.) Koheleth was born, let us suppose as most probable, some- where between 240 b. c. and 200 b. c, an only son of wealthy parents. "There is one alone and not a second; he hath neither child nor brother." The family lived in the country. He was brought up a coimtry lad, and in later life could recall how he regarded it as a venture of courage and sagacity "to visit the City." A Witless one could not well do it. (Chap. x:i5): "The work of a fool wearieth him, for he caimot find his way to the City." His early education was carried on in the synagogue of the Gallilean country town, later in the Jerusalem schools. It was a time of comparative deadness in Israel. The last of the Prophets, (Malachi) had spoken centuries before; the heroic struggles of the Maccabees were yet a generation in the future. There was a growing tendency to fall into the modes of thought, speech, and Hfe of the Greeks and Syrians, with whom the sons of Abraham were at that time brought in constant contact. Even the sacred name of Jehovah had fallen into the background. His country- men spoke of "God" or the "Creator" after the manner of the Greeks. (The name of God occurs twenty-seven times.) The author of Ecclesiastes himself never once uses "Jehovah," or even "Adonai," but always "Elohim" — "God" — a name com- monly applied to heathen gods as well. The religion of the day was not such as to awaken any enthu- siasm in the boy. Sad to say, even his mother, it would seem, left no memory of a true pattern of devout womanhood for him to reverence.* "I have found one man among a thousand; but in all that number a woman have I not found."t "The author says far too many hard things of women, not to have loved them much at some time. "J "I find more bitter than death the Roman whose heart is snares and whose hands are as bands." The religionists of his day called each other "Friend," "Brother," "Companion," claimed to be those of whom Malachi spoke, "who feared the Lord and spoke often one to another." *Dean Plumptre vii, 28. tRenan : Eccl., p. 27; also p. 89. JAlso vii, 26. AND OTHER PAPERS 131 Koheleth, even as a youth, saw through their h3^ocrisy, watched them going to the House of God (temple or synagogue), and heard their long and windy prayers, the very "sacrifice of fools." (Chap. vi:2): "Be not rash with thy mouth; be not hasty to utter words before God; for it is better to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fools." He saw how they made vows in time of peril or sickness, and then when danger had passed, came before the priest with frivo- lous excuses for non-fulfihnent. (Chap. v:4-6) : "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he is a fool whose heart is not steadfast." As Koheleth grew to years of manhood, he was called to take a larger part in the labors of the cornfield and vineyard; digging, building stone fences, chopping wood. (Chap. x:8-io) : For his wealthy father still held to the blessedness of toil. (The Jewish proverb, "Whoso teacheth not his sons to labor with their hands, teacheth them to be thieves," is much older than the date of Ecclesiastes.) Or take another: "Better skin a carcass for pay in the public streets, than Uve without working with thine hands, dependent on charity."* In later years when pleasure had brought satiety, we find Koheleth looking back regretfully to those days of hard and open air toil, and the refreshing sleep that nightfall brought. (Chap. v:i2.) "Sweet is the sleep of the husbandman, whether he eat httle or much; while abundance suffereth not the rich to sleep." When early manhood was reached (Uke the younger son in the Parable), he desired to go out into the great world, and see life for himself. There was no question whither he should bend his steps. Alexandria in Egypt was, for the Jew of that day, the place above all others in which to view the world-Hf e in greatest variety. Many thousands of Jews were already settled there. It was a city cosmopoHtan, above all others, and distinguished for learning. Alexandria took up the torch of learning from de- caying Greece, t It was not from Athens, but from Alexandria, that the Romans learned their civihzation. f *Talmud. tMahaflfy, "Greek Civilization," p. 282. JMahaffy, "Greek Civilization," p. 286. 132 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH A wealthy Jew, like Koheleth, coming to that city, was sure to be well received, and Koheleth sought and soon found admission to the life of the courts. Alert and watchful, he noted the way favor was won, and the seats of the mighty attained, and marked the rise and fall of court favorites. (Chap. x:6-7): "A great fool is Hfted to a high place, while the noble sit degraded. I have seen servants upon horses, and masters walking like servants upon the earth." The system of imiversal spying and espionage did not escape him. Words spoken in whispers were carried to the ears of the King. (Chap, x :2o) : " Revile not the King even in thy thoughts, nor a prince in thy bedchamber; lest the bird of the air carry the report, and the winged tribes teU the story." Experi- ences such as these could not fail of ill effect, and temptations of another kind were at hand to enforce and confirm the evil tendencies. UnUke Son of Sirach (author of Ecclesiasticus at 170 b. c), patriotism was not a religion with Koheleth. He was not proud of being a Jew. Having come into relations with Greeks and Romans, we are not surprised to find him ready to dissimulate his race, and anxious to a degree to make a fine figure in the high fife of his time.* We can best picture him as a man of exquisite tastes and re- fined manners; a veritable ancestor of a modern rich Parisian Jew of genius, who wandered from Judea to Egj^t before the times of the Maccabees.f His wealth enabled him to surround himself with a certain magnificence. Wine in abundance sparkled at his banquets; hired singers, men and women, entertained his guests with songs of boldness and revelry; the great demi-monde of Alexandria, famous for their fascinations, surrounded him. (Chap. xi:3): "I thought in my heart to cheer my body with pleasure, and to lay hold of folly till I should see what it is good for the sons of men to do under heaven." Like Goethe, he proposed to lend himself to pleasures of sense, while in thought to keep above them. "I made me gardens and parks. I bought me menserv- ants and maidservants, and had servants born in my house. *Renaii, Eccl., p. 45. fRenan, Eccl., p. 91, AND OTHER PAPERS 133 I got me men singers and women singers, and nothing that my eyes desired did I withhold from them." Tennyson's "Palace of Art," seems like an echo: "I built myself a lordly pleasure house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. I said, O Soul, make merry and carouse Dear Soul, for aU is well." Like the Prodigal Son in the Parable, he wasted his substance in riotous living. The tendency of such a life, as all experience shows, finds its end in the bitterness of a cynical satiety. Byron's " Childe Harold," Teimyson's "Vision of Sin," furnish counterparts of the temper of meditative scorn and unsatisfied desire that uttered itself in Koheleth's cry: "All is vanity, and feeding upon wind." (Chap. i:i4): "When I turned to look on all the works which my hands had wrought, and at the labor which it cost me; Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." It was in this frame of mind that Koheleth probably turned his steps for the first time to the great library* at Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy. Here were afforded ample resources for study and investigation.f Having grown weary of psalms and prophecies and Rabbin- ical lore, as perhaps not a few to-day have grown weary of Bible, prayer book, and hymnal, he turned to the writings of the Poets and Philosophers of Greece, and the priestly orders of Egypt and Buddhism, for comfort and counsel. Perhaps from Sophocles he learned to look on "not being" as better than any form of life (Chap. iv:2-3). "I accounted the dead who died long ago happier than the living who are still ahve; while happier than either is he who hath not been born, who hath not seen the evil on the earth." "Wherefore, I praise the dead that are already dead, more than the living who are yet alive." The favorite Greek maxim "M^ep dyav" (nothing in excess) *Over 700,000 volumes t Direct influence of Stoic and Epicurean has been debated, Chap, ix, Renan and others; but Terkel, 1847, Thomas Tyler, 1874, Plumptre, 1881, Pfleiderer and Haupt, affirm it. "The author of Koheleth was simply intoxicated with Hellen- ism." ' Cornell, p. 454: "In bis body lived two souls; in head a Greek, in heart a Jew." P.4SS. 134 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH he seems at this time to have made his own. (Chap. vii:i6-i7): "Be not righteous ovennuch, neither wise overmuch. Be not very wicked, nor yet very foolish, lest thou die before thy time." (Sentences that might have come from an eighteenth-century bishop.)* The doctriae of the cycles of aU phenomena, emphasized by the Stoics, impressed him deeply. Physical nature and human history were only repeating themselves; there was nothing new under the sun. In the words of a modern poet: "Into itself, out of itself, all that we see or know, Swings like a mighty pendulum, or a ceaseless ebb and flow." (Chap. i:5): "The sun riseth, and the sim goeth down, and hasteth toward the place where it will rise again." "The wind goeth toward the south, and veereth to the north. It whirleth round and round, and retumeth on its course." An echo of this sentiment is found in a recent articlef of the great naturalist and rival of Darwin, Dr. Alfred R. Wallace: "I have come to the con- clusion that there has been no advance, either in intellect or mor- als, from the days of the ancient Egyptians and Syrians, down to the present; nothing new imder the sun." In human history we meet the same (verses 9 and 10) . " What hath been will be. That which is done, is that which will be done again." "If there be anything of which it is said. Behold, this is new! — ^it hath been long ago in the ages before us." This thought gave him a deepened sense of the invariable and universal order, by which the intention of aU things is appointed, enabling him to view, with a measure of tranquillity, the strifes and turmoils of ambition, and lust for place and power. For (Chap. iii:i-8): "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens." He could turn, in conse- quence, with less perturbed vision to the study of human nature itself. Exceptional virtue and vice, viewed against the back- ground of universal order, which he now recognized, were essen- tially but forms of insanity. (Note by all means kindred pas- sages from Lecky's Map of Life, last two chapters, XVI and *Farrar, "Solomon and His Times," p. 184. AND OTHER PAPERS 135 XVII. No better epitome of the teaching and tone of Kohe- leth): "La vie est vaine; Un peu d 'amour, Un peu de haine, Et puis — ^bon jour. "La vie est breve, Un peu d'espoir, Un peu de rdve, Et puis — bon soir. Therefore he betook himself to extended study of "wisdom, and madness, and folly " in the great mental hospital of the world, and life around him. "I gave my heart to know wisdom, and madness, and folly." (Chap. i:i7.) This philosophic calm de- rived from Stoic teaching seemed for a time as much above the common Hfe of man as the sun is above the earth. (Chap. ii:i3) : "I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth dark- ness." But the passion or the fashion of Stoicism had its day and passed. (Chap, vii : 1 2) : " For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun." "In much wisdom is much grief. He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." (Chap. i:i8). The Stoics of Alexandria, it would seem, did not person- ally commend themselves to him, the earnest seeker. They talked well of the dignity of virtue, and the virtue of philosophic calm; they drew fine pictures of both, but when he came to know them close at hand, he found them vain, irritable, self-seeking, and not infrequently as sordid and sensual as the common run of men they affected to despise. Disappointed, disenchanted, we might say, Koheleth turned from the Stoics to the Epicureans, in his search after the "chief good." The system of Epicurus was at least less pretentious than the Stoic. It did not mock him with an ideal of unattained and unattainable perfection. All things had been compounded out of eternal atoms, and into the same all things would be resolved. (Chap. iii:2o) : "All go unto one place. All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Annihilation stripped death *"Map of Life," p. 330. 136 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of the terrors with which superstition had clothed it. Sheol and Gahenna with their darkness and misery were no longer to be feared. It fortified his purpose to make the most and the best of the only Life that is. (Chap, ix :io) : "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest." "A moment's halt, a momentary taste Of Being from the well amid the waste, And lo! the phantom caravan has reached The Nothing it set out from — Oh, make haste." * "And fear not lest Existence closing your Account and mine, should know the like no more; The Eternal Saki from that bowl has poured Millions of bubbles like us, and will pour."t Other Epicurean teachings confirmed the lessons of his own experience. All extremes were to be avoided. What the wise man should strive after was just the maximum of enjoyment that would not be followed by reprisals, of exhaustion, and dejection; not disdaining the pleasures of sense, but — " fi'rjBev ayav" — carrying nothing to excess. (Chap. iv:6): "Better is a handful with quietness, than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit." Acts of kindness and benevolence he now came to recognize as one of the surest sources of satisfaction . (Chap . xi : i ) : " Cast thy bread upon the waters; give a portion to seven, also to eight." Into this new form of hf e Koheleth seems to have entered with en- thusiasm. It made him feel that life after all was worth living. (Chap. x:6-y) : "Sow thy seed in the morning, and in the eve- ning withhold not thy hand; and the Kght shall be truly sweet to thee, and pleasant to thine eyes to behold the sun." He began to find a secure if quiet pleasure in visiting the sor- rowing, the fatherless, and the widow in their afiBictions. (Chap. viii:2-4) : "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than the house of feasting. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sad- ness of the countenance the heart is made better." *Omar, xlviii. txlvi. AND OTHER PAPERS 137 The teachings of the Epicureans seemed at last to point the way to the "chief good," the "summum bonum" of hfe. His satisfaction and rehef might at this stage find expression in the glowing terms of a kindred soul, Lucretius, a century later. "E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen."* But at about this stage in his career, it would seem, he was led to take part in the discussions then so prominent and popular in the great Alexandrian Museum.f An august body of philos- ophers and Htterateurs, in part elected and in part appointed by royal favor, composed the museiun society. They dined at pub- He expense, and held their discussions in its great auditorium. All schools of thought were represented in this metaphysical society. To Alexandria flocked philosophers from all parts of the world. At one time not less than 14,000 students were assembled there.} Atheists who had been banished from Athens, devotees from the Ganges, monotheistic Jews, even followers of Aristippus from dis- tant C3T:ene.§ There was some clear and candid argument, but sophistical reasoning, anxious only for victory, mainly character- ized the discussions. To one of his temper, earnest and truth- seeking on the whole, the result could only be confusing and disap- poiQting. One truth at least was definitely pressed home upon him, that here again in this parhament of the learned, as in the world without, " the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding." (Chap. ix:ii.) (Horse-racing was one of the chief diversions, noted for unfairness and bribery of the jockies.) In the war of words, the charlatan and sophist out-talked the true and thoughtful man. "Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about; but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went." ** *Book III, line one, "De Rerum Natura." t Fullest Account of Alexandrian Museum in English, Quarterly Review, Vol. LXVr, written by Rev. Wm. Sewell. {Draper, Int. Dev.,'p. 187. §Id. Draper. **Omar, 138 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Above all, the confusion and turmoil of debate upon the favorite theme of the day, the immortality of the soul, but made the problem for him darker than before. (Chap, iii :2 1) : "Who knoweth whether the spirit of man goeth upward, or whether the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth? " seems to be an echo of the state of mind in which the parliament of these phi- losophers left him. (From Pyramid Tests, so-called.) "Death tears a man away from his house, and throws him upon the hills. Never will he return again to behold the sim." * But now we approach the end. The powers of human nature have their term, and this profound explorer of the problems of life and time must perforce cease from further experiments. The shadows of the "evil days," of which he must say, "I have no pleasure in them," were rapidly drawing down upon him. (Chap. xii:i .) The early hfe of revelry and pleasure had sapped his strength. The strain of study, the excitement of prolonged de- bates, the restless and incessant eagerness of search into all the deep and dark things of the world and hfe, which characterized his later years, were now working their reprisals. The slow decay of premature old age, perhaps of advancing paralysis, as Tyler or Plumptre suggests, now confronts him. f (Chap. xii:3-7}: "The keepers of the house began to trem- ble, the strong men to bow themselves." Sight was failing; "those that look out of the windows are darkened." The ear grew dull of hearing; "the doors are shut on the street." He could no longer hsten with dehght as of old to "the voice of the daughters of music." Sleep was broken, his nights restless — "rising up at the sound of a bird." Even the "note of the grass- hopper" was a burden. Gray hairs grew plentiful "like the white of the almond tree when it flourishes" — the signal that "desire had failed." The remainder of his life was probably one long struggle with disease, and yet those days of evil wrought their good. As the bodily power grew weaker, the ancient faith, the heritage of his people, so long ignored, and supplanted by what he thought a larger wisdom, secretly and silently renewed its life and strength. *Steindorf, "Religion of Ancient Egypt," p. 135 t Voltaire, "Dictionary of Philosophy," IV, p. 210, calls this section of Chapter zii "one of the most beautiful in the Jewish Books." AND OTHER PAPERS 139 A voice within him seemed to speak in even clearer tones, and with a prophet's emphasis, those words which occur again and again in the book: " Fear thou God "— " Return to God." It was not, indeed, that cry of the prodigal, "I wiU arise and go to my Father" — for the thought of the Divine Fatherhood as a living reality, here and now, was as yet far below the spiritual horizon. Rather the old familiar thought of his people, that God was his Creator, the Giver of Life, and breath, and all things; and that in spite of all the darkness that appals, the contradictions that oppress, the shadows that betray, it was at once the joy and the duty of man to trust in Him. One may find Koheleth at times skeptical, materialistic, fatalistic, and above aU pessimistic, but never an atheist. He never really lost his hold on God.* Cornell says, " Old Testament piety nowhere enjoys a greater triumph than in Ecclesiastes."t "Koheleth's teachings to the Christian were somewhat chilling and disappointing, but it had no doubt a function to perform, in clearing away outworn conceptions before a new, larger, truer, and more inspiring faith could have its birth. "J It would seem most probable that it was at this stage of his experience that he set himself to put in written form the record of his manifold experiments with life, and the final conclusion he had reached in the long battle with its problems. The general purpose of his book, that which gives it whatever formal unity, or approach to formal unity, it has, would seem to be the dominant desire to fix and deepen in the hearts of any who should care to read his lines the same true fear of God, the same trust in Him, in which his own soul had at last found its comfort and stay. The close of the book was most probably all but coincident with the close of his mortal Ufe. He waited, if not with the full assurance of faith, for the accent occasionally falters up to the last, yet with a resigned trustfulness for the hour "when the silver cord should be loosed, and the golden bowl be broken; and the few mourners go about the streets." "And his dust return to the earth as it was, and his spirit to God who gave it." (Chap. *Renan, Eccl., p. 20. tBarton, Eccl., p 23. JBarton, Eccl., p. 50 I40 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH xii, 7.) "Return to God." That was his last word, facing the unknown beyond; in a sense his final solution of the dark problem of life. Some later hand or hands added the closing verses from the eighth to the end of the last chapter (excepting the thirteenth, which would seem to have formed the original ending). "Hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." (Thir- teenth verse.) We have, then, in Ecclesiastes, not merely a moral and phil- osophical dialogue, but a Ufe record, one whose every sentence vibrates with the note of reality. Not merely the picture of the struggle, the fall, the recovery of an imaginary child of Israel, drawn for us by the hand, as it were, of some mere spectator or onlooker as regards the experiences he portrays, some philosophic and moralizing Rabbi, but a life record, we repeat — ^an auto- biography of one who set himself resolutely and profoimdly to experiment with life, and who records for all time with incom- parable genius, sincerity, and power, the doubts, the fears, the perplexities, the final hope and trust, of a human life lived long ago. Browning's words in "Saul" are a fine and just epitome of Koheleth and his testament, if we might place them as his grave epitaph: "I have gone the whole round of creation; I saw and I spake; and I spake as I saw. I reported as man may of God's work." Looking steadily at the facts of Hfe, and the world we live in, setting forth the results arrived at untroubled by any thoughts of the necessity of apology or justification, we are not surprised to find occasional striking parallels in thought and judgment, in tone and expression, in other great writers, those of other days and our own as well, souls who have also looked fearlessly on life and the world of man — to note only a few who will readily occur to us: Shakespeare in many of his sonnets — ^in "Henry V," in "Ham- let," "The Tempest," and especially "Timon of Athens" (if that be Shakespeare's) — affords striking parallelisms. Tennyson also in many parts of "In Memoriam"; but especially in the AND OTHER PAPERS 141 "Two Voices," "The Palace of Art," and the "Vision of Sin." These last three poems are indeed most impressive commentaries of the stages of Koheleth's experience. Coincidences could be noted on many a page of Emerson also, both in his essays and his poems. Take but a single illustration: (Chap. ix:2-3): "No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them." "All things come alike to all; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not." "As is the right- eous, so is the wicked." " Nature," says Emerson, in his chanting phrase, "does not cosset nor pamper us. Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end. It is no use to try to white- wash its huge, mixed instrumentalities, or to dress up that terrific benefactor in the clean shirt and white neck-cloth of the student of divinity." Omar Khayyam's Quatrains might be quoted apropos of almost every paragraph. The recurring ideas and the forms of hterary expression are indeed alike almost to the point of identity, but the tone, in great part, is utterly different. Omar, with cyni- cal smile, with bitter and humorous jest, not infrequently gives one the impression of a profound genius, simply diverting himself with speculative problems of Deity, Destiny, Matter and Spirit, Good and Evil; while Koheleth makes us feel, at every stage of the intense debate, the stern and passionate earnestness that inspired his search into the mysteries of hf e and death. Koheleth could never have entertained the flippant mood which dictated the lines: "Some for the glories of this world, and some Sigh for the prophet's Paradise to come; Oh, take the cash and let the credit go, Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum." Or again: "Alike for those who for to-day prepare. And those that after some to-morrow stare, A Muezzin from the tower of darkness cries. Fools! your reward is neither here nor there." To adventure a brief judgment in conclusion, it would seem two great purposes stand out fairly clear to all who come to a 142 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH study of the book, without theological prepossession or precon- ceived theory, as to what Ecclesiastes ought to teach. The one purpose is Negative: to overthrow the traditional and popular doctrine of retribution, viz. : that material rewards and punish- ments are always the consequences here and now, of good and bad conduct, and are proportionate to moral desert. The second is Positive: to enforce the great conviction that to "fear God and keep His commandments" — in other words, a life of reverence, and a life of righteousness — ^is its own reward, independent of any compensations here or hereafter. In a recent sermon (Sunday, December 13, 1908) before Yale, by Dr. Lyman Abbott, we catch somewhat of the same emphasis and accent on the duties of reverence and righteousness, as the true "eclaircissement" of the problem and purpose of man's life, to which, however, the speaker's faith (not his argument, as he confesses) would add the guarantee of perpetuity, eternal life. " If a man die, shall he Uve again? " "No," says Doctor Abbott, "the evidence would have to be very strong to make me believe in a new life. What I think is, that if a man has the real Hfe, he does not die. Frankly, I am not at all sure that some men may not die, but the man who spends his life in usefulness and loving service cannot die." The conclusion, as Koheleth leaves it, however, is unqualified by any definite future outlook. It may seem in truth a stern doctrine, but the real question for him, for every man, is: Is it true, or how near the truth, or have we a better? "Thou maketh thine appeal to me; I bring to Life, I bring to Death, The spirit doth but mean the breath; I know no more."* The old doctrine of the invariability of retribution here and now, of the agreement of fortune and merit in this Uf e, finds with men to-day, theoretically at least, little or no standing ground. We recognize instead, the invariability of natural laws. Diso- bedience to the same, whether through ignorance or wilful intent, is equally piuiished. Laws of the world, we have come to learn, *Tennyson, "In Memoriam." AND OTHER PAPERS 143 vindicate their supremacy, not by word and blow, but by the blow without the word. (Huxley.) But how about the second great conviction that Koheleth enforces? A life of reverence and righteousness has its own re- ward. We must confess that not a few to-day seek excuse for religious and moral indifference in the plea, and further think their plea meritorious beyond debate, that if they had a clearer and more assured proof of Immortahty, they would perhaps feel it a duty to accept Christianity, and to try to pattern life after its Founder. Yet this acute and profound thinker, this man of long ago, who sounded aj^l the depths and heights of life, afl&rms as his last word, as the result of his broad and all-embracing sur- vey and experience, that such excuse is no excuse. That a life of reverence and righteousness, irrespective of Immortality, is the one thing most worthy to command a rational soul's endeavor and a rational soul's devotion. SERMONS BACCALAUREATE SERMON (Delivered by Doctor Converse, on Sunday evening, June 12, 1904, at Commencement of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y.) "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth." — St. Matthew, vi:io. *' W'ESUS came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the King- I dom of God." So runs the record in the first chapter of •-F the earliest gospel, St. Mark. As He began, so He continued; the "Kingdom of God" was his habitual theme. The expression occurs (not counting du- plicates) more than a himdred times in the synoptics. What did he mean by it? AVhat was it? Where was it? Strange, indeed, it seems, that a subject which Christ had so much at heart, about which He talked and taught with ever-growing emphasis down to the very last, explaining it, enforcing it with such variety of illustration and appeal — strange, indeed, that such a subject should not have been made clear and should not have been kept clear ever afterward in the minds of His followers! Yet the history of Christianity, its divisions and perversions, is largely the history of the varied interpretations put upon this term — the "Kingdom of God." An early and dominant misconception of Christ's ideal as to what is the Kingdom of God took its rise when "Christianity, passing from the land of SjTrian peasants," came into the hands of the Greek Fathers — the Philosophers and Apologists. Shifting, as they soon did, in accordance with their predominant intel- lectual and philosophical bent, " the centre of gravity of Chris- tianity from the Sermon on the Mount to a formal creed," the Kingdom of God was by them identified with belief in a set of authorized doctrines; changing thereby both the nature of faith from a moral affection to an intellectual assent, and the object of faith from a personal Christ to a set of propositions. A second misconception gained prevalence when Christianity passed on 147 148 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH from the Greeks into the hands of the Latin Fathers and Leaders of the West. They, with their Roman genius and regard for organization, were prompt to proclaim and enforce the dogma that the Kingdom of God was "one with the visible church." Anticipating, however, and underlying both these perversions as to what is the Kingdom of God, there was developing another — a misconception even more sinister and far-reaching in its effects — constituting, in fact, the hving root out of which both the former drew most largely their sustenance and vigor: we mean the fundamental misconception as to where the Kingdom of God is, or is to be? Where in the mind and intent of Christ was to be its sphere of reaUzation? The general teaching of our Lord — the Sermon on the Mount, the Parables, the petition of the Universal Prayer, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth," would seem sufficient to place beyond all peradventure of debate the ideal and intention of the Master. The Kingdom of God was not simply or chiefly in the hereafter but here — not something to be waited for in the heavens but something to be worked for on earth. "In the thought of Jesus (says Professor Cone) the temporal character and theatre of the Kingdom of God was a continuation of that of the Prophets which preceded Him; it was the realization in human society of the highest moral and spiritual ideals. Jesus was no dreamer brooding over the solution in a celestial future of the problems of hfe and destiny, but a practical Reformer who would overcome wrong, selfishness, and sin upon Earth by the heavenly powers of truth, love, and hohness." Such imdoubtedly was the understanding and conviction that fiUed the minds and hearts of the first generation of Christians. How then could confusion arise? May not the answer be sum- marized as follows: The first Christians, connecting, as they mistakenly did, the realization of the Kingdom of God in this world with the speedy and visible return of Christ, were foredoomed to disappointment. That early dream of an immediate and bodily reappearance of their Lord fading out of the minds of the Apostles and disciples, they felt themselves in consequence compelled — reluctantly no doubt at first, but soon universally — to transfer the scene and the hope of a Kingdom of God from this world to the next. AND OTHER PAPERS 149 This radical misconception as to the sphere of the Kingdom that Christ had in mind stands out in history not only as the earliest but as the most persistent, vigorous, and unquestioned down to the present day. To this, we believe, may be traced, in the main, many of the past perversions and much of the present ineffectiveness of Christianity. I. The Kingdom of God a Kingdom Beyond the Clouds Let us consider some of the more prominent baneful effects both upon the individual Hfe of the Christian and upon the cor- porate life of the Church that have arisen, as we conceive, by reason of identifjdng the "Kingdom of God" with the "realm of the blessed dead." In the Individual Life. — This misconception of the Christ ideal as to the sphere of the Kingdom of God, more perhaps than any other influence, prepared, invited, and made possible the early in- vasion of that most miserable — and from the standpoint of Jesus ' teaching and example — most unchristian of delusions — ^Asceti- cism. (a) Asceticism. — ^As the Kingdom of God was fixed beyond the grave, as only a ghostly fraction of man apparently survived the grave, men came readily to think that by despising and neglecting the perishable body, by cutting themselves off from social and family ties, by abandoning the honest labors and joy of hfe to sigh and fast in poverty and selfish isolation, they were doing a service well-pleasing to God and were best preparing for that ghostly Kingdom beyond. The delusion that men grew more pious as they made themselves more miserable rapidly spread and became through the following centuries all but universal. Wretched and reactionary feelings of gloom, discomfort, and selfish depression became the sign and finally the substitute for the ReUgion of the Kingdom of God — the free and genial and jo5^ul Christianity of Christ. When one recalls the unmeasured wrong and wreck of noble things in the ages past which this perversion wrought in the name of Rehgion, we can palliate, if we cannot approve, the savage ex- travagance, the "berserker rage" with which an impassioned and resolute iconoclast — Uke the late philosopher Nietzsche— wreaks himself upon the folly, the cowardice, the perverse femininity of ISO THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the Ascetic ideal. In his case, alas, as in that of so many others, the Religion of Asceticism is confounded with the Religion of Christ. This delusion, let us remind ourselves, h9.s not vanished en- tirely even in our own day. We have consigned, indeed, to the Umbo of outgrown futilities the greater part of the complexities and perplexities of Mediaeval Theology — but the Ascetic ideal of mediaeval saintship stiU in good part holds its own. We are witnessing to-day in the midst of the Protestant world a startling recrudescence of this type. Though by no means dominant as yet, its sinuous and steady advance must be recog- nized. There can be no doubt that it is being encouraged and admired by rapidly increasing numbers. Witness the revival within the Protestant Episcopal Church here and in England of the so-called "ReUgious Orders" of the middle ages: Bands of Protestant Clergy, a few pecuhar folk with a gift for "subjective, sentimental, introspective piety," going about hooded and draped, aping in their attire and celebate isolation, in their devices of penance and ritual, the monkery of the past. These in the minds of a growing many are still the saints par excellence; while the real saints — the Christian men and women of sanity and force, whose piety is evidenced in the practical rather than in the pic- turesque, the Fathers and Mothers, the Pastors and Doctors and Teachers, the Lawyers and Artists and Merchants, the Mechanics and Laborers who are bearing the God-appointed burdens of real life and fighting the battles of real righteousness in the great busy, on-going world — these are relegated to a secondary place. Are we looking for saints — saints after the Christ pattern and not the mediaeval travesty of the same? Confine not the search then to Nunnery or Convent or to Monastery such as our very eyes behold rising to-day on the banks of the Hudson — ^but rather turn to the Christian homes high or humble, to the busy marts of Hfe, where Christian men and women with courage and faith and unselfish devotion are carrying on the world's great necessary work, doing thereby immeasurably more to transfigure and turn this present world into what Christ meant by a "King- dom of God " than all the Ascetics and all the Recluses a thousand times multipHed. Saints there are beyond question in the ranks of these Professionals, saints of a measure and after a kind, but AND OTHER PAPERS 151 awakened Christian common sense to-day challenges not only the superiority but the sanity of their type; the veTy least in the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of the great common life of man) is greater than they. (b) Individualism. — Along with Asceticism, and as particu- larly characteristic of these later times, we charge the growth and dominance of a narrow Individualism in Christian aim and spirit to this same fundamental misconception of the Christ ideal. The Kingdom of God being projected beyond the clouds, therefore "seeking the Kingdom of God" came readily to be identified with gaining a personal passport to Heaven, abso- lutely reversing both the spirit and the letter of our Lord's imi- versal prayer, substituting for "Thy Kingdom come, Thy wiU be done on earth," this other — "Take us to Thy Kingdom in another world, where Thy will may at last be done." Christ's grand conception of the Kingdom of God as a Perfected World, of salvation as including not only all men, but all of man, was nar- rowed down to the particular and private industry of saving the individual soul; this, too, in face of Christ's express warning that "he who would save his soul (or life) shall lose it." This narrow Individualism, converting Christianity into little more than a method of escape, a device of individual insurance — this nar- row Individuahsm up to within a generation was reflected and emphasized all but universally in the preaching and teaching of the so-caUed EvangeHcal pulpit and press. The broad and all-embracing gospel of the Kingdom of God (as has been well pointed out) was reduced to a program of two propositions: I St. Intensify the conviction of individual guilt. 2d. Induce assurance of individual pardon and future reward. When this had been accomphshed in any given case by what- ever discipline of terrors, entreaties, and assurances the moral condition of the subject (in the judgment of the operator) seemed to require, he was set aside as a finished piece of workmanship. The great and glorious gospel of the Kingdom of God was con- sidered to have been really preached to him and to have been effectively realized in him! In the Church. — Let us note next some of the effects of this misconception in the life and work of organized Christianity — the Church. 152 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH (a) The conception of devotion narrowed down to Public Worship. Having transferred the Kingdom of God to another world, the church came inevitably to be conceived of as an Institution organized primarily and chiefly for public worship and sacerdotal functions. What else was there to do? Some works of practical beneficence must of course be included, but they wiU naturally be regarded as of secondary and incidental importance. The main business, the really religious business of the church first and last is Public Worship, the transaction of religious forms. This view, still so prevalent even in our own day, is certainly on the face of it, to say the least, unhistorical. Neither Moses nor Christ by teaching or example gave any sanction to the concep- tion that the primary business of the church was the conduct of public worship. " It is certain (says Canon Freemantle) that our Lord said nothing to encourage his disciples to hold assemblies for that special purpose. Not a word in the Gospels can be quoted to that effect." On the contrary, so far from pubHc wor- ship and the preaching which invariably accompanies it (at least in our Western Church; in the Greek or Eastern Church we be- heve only one sermon and that not to exceed ten minutes is recognized or required throughout the year) — so far from public worship and attendance thereon being the one thing or even the chief thing which a Christian church or a Christian man must first find time for and observe before all other things, relegating to secondary place such minor matters as common duties and kindly ofi&ces for feUowmen — the teaching and example of Christ point to the very reverse. What other meaning can we give that startling challenge of His to the similar religionism of His day. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift." What means this but that the duties we are pleased to call human take precedence of obligation in God's sight of those duties we are pleased to call religious, that the needs of our brother man, the offense of our brother man, must first be met and must first be placated before any acceptable approach to God is possible. Let me simimarize a passage in point from Dean Farrar : "When we hear a string of notices given out about AND OTHER PAPERS 153 endless services and sacraments, many of us are prone to think a great deal must be doing in that church. Yet all this ecclesias- tical activity (if the weightier matters of judgment, mercy, and practical beneficence are wanting or are slighted) will be deemed (we have our Lord's assurance) as nothing more than strenuous idleness." Never was there manifested, let me remind you, a more minute, more conscientious, and persevering industry in the transaction of religious observances than in the Temple of Jeru- salem at the time of Christ. Priest and Pharisee, Sadducee and people thronged the busy courts, tithes of mint and anise and cummin, blood of bulls and goats were offered with incessant regularity. Yet said Christ, "in vain do ye worship." Pro- fessing to busy themselves about their dues to God, they ignored or denied that "which came first, their duties to man. "If a man say to his father or mother, that wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is corban, that is to say, given to God, ye approve it," says Christ, and "ye no longer suffer him to do aught fot his father or mother, making void the word of God by your tradition." Therefore, as Christ from the shoulder of Ohvet looked across upon that busy temple scene, "while some spake of the goodly stones and offerings that adorned it," His only comment was: "As for these things the days will come in which there shall not be left here one stone upon another." Public Wo'rship, "wotship in spirit and in truth," is certainly an important element ih the church's life and work, but it is just as certainly not th.6 whole of it or even the most imperative part of it here and now. "Worship (says Bishop Westcott) is a very small fragment of devotion. For Christianity is not a sum of isolated observances, but the hallowing of all human interests and occupations alike." Drummond emphasizes the same truth in language still more terse: "Christianity is a reUgion in- deed, yet it is a religion which holds that the worship of God is mainly the service of man." Were the Kingdom of God in fact but "a somewhat some- where" to be looked for only beyond the clouds, did God expect and require of us to make nothing more of this present wonderful world of His than simply to abide in it, bear with it, until we get through with it, then conceivably psahn and hymn, public as- semblies for prayer and preaching might be the one best way to 154 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH fill up the waiting time. But if that petition, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth," be something more than pass- ing irony, if we really mean in substance what we pray for in form, then the church's primary and characteristic mission is not fulfilled in assembling for worship, but in going forth for work. She must enlarge, she must universalize her catalogue of sanctities, she must regard nothing that in any way makes for human good as "common or unclean." The world itself, the whole world, is the subject of redemption, and the church as chief agent for its realization is commissioned not only to sing for it and to pray for it, but to enter into it and to work for it in any and every effective way. "Preaching and public prayer (says Canon Freemantle) are good for those who can attend upon them. But they will never of themselves convince the world. It is action and example, a full life fully lived out, that has power over mankind." (b) Sectarianism. — If the Kingdom of God is not here but hereafter, not a kingdom "to come" but a kingdom "to go to," then logic would prophesy what history but confirms, that the church would be soon led to regard as her chief and proper care not the mending of this world but the making sure of the next. The church organizations, one and all of every name, would come naturally to be regarded as so many arks or ferryboats whose proper occupation was not to aid in making God's will triumph- ant and imiversal here and now, but to land their passengers safe on the other shore. We see then how the majestic ideal of Christ could come to be travestied as we behold it to-day in sectarian Christendom. What a spectacle ! The various churches founded in the one i^ame and called to be laborers in His vineyard of this present world, turning themselves into colonization societies, competing for patronage like so many lines of ocean steamers, each with its outfit of agents and advocates severally vociferating, "take this line," "the only safe and sure line," "only by this line can you be guaranteed secure and comfortable passage to the isles of the blest!" This rivalry and debate, having their root in the colonizing conception of Christianity, are naturally interminable so long as that conception is dominant. As a matter of fact, no reports of arrival ever come from that other side, and the very impos- AND OTHER PAPERS 155 sibility of conclusive proof one way or another as to the com- peting claims and claimants renders the sectarian rivalry all the more bitter, persistent, and vociferous. Transfer the interest and enthusiasm from the hereafter to the here. Recall the churches to the ideal of Christ. Let them wake to the realization that their true concern is to bring about a Kingdom of God here on earth, then the essential test, the determining test of the "truest church" and the "safest church," will be seen to consist not in any set or sum of doctrines or historic orders or guarantees of future weal in another world, but in the measure of the spirit of Christ that is hers, the spirit of love, service, and sacrifice, the spirit that evidences itself in "labors more abundant" that make for the help, rescue, better- ment, and brotherhood of man here and now, in this world of to- day. Let this be the conviction and the program of Christian men and women of our day, and the profane spirit of rivalry and colonizing competition which shames and disfigures our common Christianity will vanish away as the malarial mists pass and fade before the rising sun. Sectarianism will die its natural death. 11. The Kingdom of God a Perfected World (a) The Kingdom of God then, we repeat, which Christ had in mind in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Parables, in the Universal Prayer, was not a far-off, ghostly domain, but this present, actual world of men and women. Take this world as it is, fill all hearts with the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, inspire all the relations of labor and life with the spirit of love, service, and sacrifice, and behold the Kingdom of God is here! "It was the Social idea of a Kiagdom of God realized in a renewed Earth that secured to Christianity from the very first its absolute superiority to the individualistic faith of the various Pagan mysteries."* This original and grand conception of Christ is pressing to its recognition in our day with signs of increasing urgency. "The time is at hand (says the Bishop of Derry) when Christianity must be tested by her social effectiveness in this world," and not by any guarantees she claims to possess or provide respecting a *Pfleiderer, "Early Conceptions of Christianity," p. 146. 156 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH world to come. "The moment has come (says Bishop Gore) for the church to put social morality, Christian living, in the fore- front of its effort. At present we are making 'much too much' of the development of the outward exhibition of worship. We trust too much to church building and organizing of 'plant.' We try too much to 'get people to come to church.' We want, on the other hand, to 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,' to let it be known what Christian living means." The church must wake, and there are potent signs that she is waking, from her "dogmatic slumbers," her narrow pietism of the past, and her devotion to "other-worldliness." (b) Modern life has gone through and is going through im- mense changes, and the church has not kept pace with it. She has busied herself too exclusively in the past with individual and family ethics; she must now make her voice and counsel heard upon the larger questions that stir and surge in the great spheres of labor and industry, commerce and government. What sincere, united, and searching word has she said or has she to say to the predatory warfare and land-grabbing of pro- fessedly Christian states to-day? On the contrary, what ver- satiUty of invention on the part of both pulpit and rehgious press is shown in framing excuses for these conspiracies of selfish ag- grandizement and plunder. The disguised Mohammedanism, the unconfessed "faith of the sword," which animates so largely our reUgious literature of all kinds to-day (our missionary literature being by no means the least of sinners in this respect), is to not a few reflective minds one of the most sinister and alarm- ing features of our time. What has the church to say about the gigantic concentrations of capital, the colossal individual fortunes of to-day? "Jesus saith, looking round about upon his disciples. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God!" What church repeats these words to-day save in a whisper — or if read aloud they must be followed by rapid and anxious explanation until all is explained away. The robber fortunes of antiquity, the greatest private fortunes of old, sink to a modest competence when compared with many in our own land to-day. Croesus, the famous Lydian King, placed in Wall Street to-day, instead of rejoicing in a fellowship of financial equals, would feel more like AND OTHER PAPERS 157 "passing round the hat." Never before has the great gulf fixed between riches and poverty been so wide and so deep. Never before has the contrast between the economic conditions of irre- sponsible financial power, which the few may attain, and the economic conditions of anxious servitude, which the many must submit to, been so great as it is to-day. An ex-Commissioner of Labor, indeed, has recently told us that the poverty of the "wage-world" to-day is after all not real but relative — the outcome of comparison with the great for- tunes of the few. Just as gazing at the sun causes seeming dark spots in the field of view when we turn our eyes elsewhere, so looking at the great estates of a Rockefeller, a Carnegie, a Mor- gan causes the condition of the many to seem poverty-stricken; but it is all only relative and seeming. It would be amusing, were it not otherwise too painful, to observe the avidity with which not a few, and they recognized as religious leaders, seize upon and commend such and such-Hke' flippant attempts at pal- liation and apology. Doctrine of this kind wears a familiar face. Behold "Christian Science" commonplace masquerading as economic wisdom ! We have at last the "mind cure " for poverty. The author (if serious) deserves surely to rank, be it said, as the Mother Eddy of the economic world. Then there is the subject of Competition. Who is there to question the moraUty or necessity of this universally recognized principle of business Ufe? What frank, clear word dares the church or cares the church to say regarding this system of organ- ized warfare between man and his fellow. Since the gospel of competition was first formally preached by Adam Smith — ^his book well named (as Toynbee said) the "Wealth of Nations" and not the " WeKare of Man" — since Adam Smith's day competition has become a kind of commercial divinity. Mendelssohn the musician declared there were two subjects too sacred for debate, "ReUgion and Thorough-Bass." Many, if not most even, of our religious writers seem incUned to complete the trinity of in- violate themes by including Competition. Let the better Christian consciousness of the church speak bravely to this point, and let her speak before it is too late. Let her challenge contradiction to the charge that competition, in its spirit and outcome (we speak not of individuals, but of the iS8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH system; individuals, the richest and strongest, are themselves still in the toils of the universal system), that unrestrained com- petition, as it rules and ruins in the economic world to-day, is the very reverse of the principles of the Kingdom of God, that it is a disgrace to Christian civilization, even to venerable Barbar- ism, that it corresponds in fact to the stage of Cannibalism in the moral history of man. Gentlemen oe the Class of 1904: Appreciating very deeply the honor and responsibility of addressing you at this important hour, the hour that marks your transition from the academic to the larger Hfe, I have desired above all things that the word spoken should be direct and practical, some truth which by reason of its broad and human quaUty, its call to present and strenuous endeavor, might appeal all the more readUy to the interest, the imagination, the con- science and the strength of your young manhood. Of many subjects suggested none seemed more appropriate (none at least upon which I could speak with greater sincerity of reasoned conviction) than the one I have chosen. To im- press upon you that real reUgion, reUgion as Christ conceived it, is the present business of everyone, that its first work, its great work, is in the world which we see and in this life which we hve. To impress upon you that what Christ aimed at, what God waits for, what Christianity was primarily set to accomplish, was a Kingdom of God here upon earth — a perfected world. The strength and clearness, young gentlemen, with which this great truth is taking possession of the minds and hearts of really thoughtful Christians to-day amounts to a "rediscovery of the Kingdom of God." It signals a final return, let us trust, to the Christianity of Christ. The fundamental revolution wrought by Christ in the religious conception of the world and life is most pointedly seen, may I remind you, in His condemnation both by teaching and example of that old and profane distinction between the secular and the rehgious, between the kingdom of common Hfe and the Kingdom of God. He illustrated by His hfe and conduct, He ordained by His teaching and command, that the principle of Permeation must take the place of Separation as the regulative rule of Christian life in relation to the world. That AND OTHER PAPERS 159 early legend of St. Peter's flight from Rome because of its ungod- liness and that he might lead elsewhere, as he thought, a more pious life, bodies forth the same great truth. Scarcely has he passed the city Hmits when he meets the Lord face to face jour- neying thitherward. To Peter's surprised question, "Quo vadis, Domine, quo vadis," the reply in substance was: "Since you, Peter, desert your proper task in Rome — to fight its evils, not to fly from them — I must return to take up your abandoned work." Not to flee from the world, then, as an Augustine, a Dante, a Bunyan would teach us, but to enter into it, to purify it, elevate it, transfigure it into a Kingdom of God: that is the ideal and demand of Christ. Christianity is not a matter of doctrines or a mode of worship, much less a form of ecclesiastical organization, but a life, as Harnack finely says, "Eternal life in the midst of time, under the eye and by the strength of God." And it is a life all are called equally to Uve. This broad and vital conception of the Elingdom of God should deepen and quicken in each of you, young gentlemen, the sense of responsibihty for your share in its realization. You cannot delegate that share, you cannot deputize clergy or priest or hooded friar to do your part of the work for the Kingdom of God. The Son of Man did not commission a few to carry on this work as proxies for others. "The Son of Man is as a man going into a far country who gave authority to his servants and to every man his work." The call then to labor for the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth — this great work, this robust, manly work — ^is not a call to "narrowness and gloom and cir- cumscription," but to fulness and manifoldness and harmony in the development of all your powers of manhood, body, soul, and spirit, and their consecration to the service of God by and through the service of man. The good and great God, the Father God, is not a despot to dehght in the abject postures and genu- flections and oriental prostrations of cringing subjects, but a Father who loves to see His sons go forth to do His AAdll in the world, in the native and noble attitude of courage, erectness, and cheer. His word comes to each of you to-day as it came to Ezekiel of old: "Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak with thee." i6o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH With others whose lives are largely in the past, who, as Landor said, "have warmed both hands at the fire of life and must soon depart," I cannot but feel a touch of kindly envy as I look into your faces to-night. The enchantment of youth and hope is still upon you. The age that opens before you, by reason of its clearer light, its larger prospect, the broader, richer spirit of humanity that is making itself felt, is an age of unparalleled opportunity for a life of high endeavor. I congratulate you, indeed, young gentlemen, that you are entering upon the theatre of active Ufa at such a time. A great, silent, momentous revolution in the conception of God's relation to man and society, God's presence and working in the world, is realizing itself in the minds and hearts of men to-day with increasing celerity and power. The old "Carpenter Theory" of a world completed at once and God a far-off compla- cent or indifferent spectator looking down upon it and watching it spin, is gone for good. All is changed or is changing by the great truth of evolution. God is ever in His world; God has at no time left His world. The stern and patient ministry of so- called "profane science," let us confess, has done more than organized Christianity to recall the world to this true and primi- tive conception. The world was never made, but the world is still in mak- ing. God never rested on the seventh day or any other day; rather "Ever fresh the broad creation, A divine improvisation, From the heart of God proceeds." When the Jews "sought to slay Jesus because He had done these things on the Sabbath day," He rebuked their narrow Sabbatism (founded on a mistaken metaphor) with the words, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." God is busy to-day and every day as of old, "laying the world's incessant plan." For ages all emphasis was put upon the Divine transcendence — God out of and above the world; now the complementary and equally important truth of the Divine Immanence — God ever in His world — is coming to its proper and devout recognition. The Incarnation is being viewed in its true cosmical significance, AND OTHER PAPERS i6i not as the surprise or sudden descent of a remote divine visitor, but as the supreme concentration and disclosure of that Presence "That lives through all Ufa, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent," that universal Presence that is "never far from any one of us" —yea "in whom we live and move and have our being." There- fore enter into your world tod work, young gentlemen, realizing that God is with you in the whole of life; that all its honest labor and service and enjo)maent is a divine vocation. Do not imagine gazing skyward is the sole or peculiar religious attitude. As Carlyle finely says, " God is not only there but here or nowhere, in that life-breath of thine, in that act and thought of thine as well." " Our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ." For the many these words signify no more than a pious expecta- tion whose fulfilment must await transition to a world beyond. On the contrary, when first uttered they expressed and they cer- tified a living, human experience of common men in the flesh. And you, if you will, may claim and enjoy that same "Divine Comradeship " to-day and every day. The " Great Companion " is not dead, as Clifford the Mathematician and his fellow-apostles of despair to-day sigh and complain. No, the " Great Compan- ion" is not dead, nor has he deserted even for a while the world that He loves. "Lo I am with you alway" is not the farewell of a departing but the salutation of an ever-present Friend. "Speak with Him then, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit may meet, Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands or feet." [Sermon preached in St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N. Y., Sunday, September 12, 191 5*]: In the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, at the first and second verses, it is written: "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, "And was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the fight." I presume the interpretation of no single event in our Lord's life is a better witness to the great truth that God is ever leading His faithful servants and devout students of His word to a fuller and deeper and truer appreciation of the significance, the univer- sal import, of aU the incidents of the hfe of Christ. I think one special witness to this great truth is the growing significance which the church is coming to attach to the great event of the transfiguration. You wotdd perhaps be surprised to find among the older literature that older commentates and theologians seem to be able to make but very little of the transfiguration. Some, it would seem, could view it as little more than a sort of premature removal of the veil that hides the future world; others have gone further and have pointed out that the event was one to confirm the faith of the few chief, chosen ones, and by and through them to assure and confirm the faith of those to whom they should speak. But the great fundamental truth was that Christ came to this world not only to reveal God to man, but to reveal man to him- self; that, in other words, the essential features of Christ's life and teaching bring before us the Divine ideal and the original Divine program which God had appointed for all men in the world. Then when, with this great truth in mind, we approach the event of the transfiguration and ask, "What is its meaning?" we can gain very little light, it is true, from the past. Because, in- *The last sermon preached by Doctor Converse, one week before his death, September 20, 1915. 162 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 163 deed, as a separate feast it was not, even in the Eastern Church, recognized before the eighth century, and as a feast to be com- memorated it was not made authoritative and universal in the Latin or Western Church before the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury. We know that even now in the Enghsh prayer book the transfiguration ranks as what is called a "black-letter day." And in our own prayer book it was not until 1892 that a special serv- ice was provided in commemoration of this great event, with its Collect and its Gospel and Epistle and Communion service. So that when we ask the question, "What did this great event mean for Christ, more than simply to assure and confirm the faith of those who witnessed it? what was its meaning for Him?" I think we may say the true and original answer is that the trans- figuration was for Christ the term or close of His probation. His moral probation in this world as an individual man. For we must remember that Christianity demanded that Christ should be a real man, just as much as that He should be the Son of God. And to Jesus Christ, I say, the transfiguration marked the close of His probation here as an individual man, as one who had been sent to work out under the Divine program the very tasks which rest upon each and every one born into this world, every free and every rational spirit. If we look at the life of Christ from this pokit of view, it readily divides itself into three great divi- sions. There is the period of preparation, from His birth to the temptation; there is the period of probation, from the temptation to the transfiguration; and there is the period of what we may call the consummation, the latter months of His Ufe, including the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. Now the transfiguration marks, then, what may be called the close of Christ's individual probation. He had won His way as God had determined that all men should win their way originally, before sin entered the world, through temptation and moral prog- ress to holiness; it was intended that man should make his way from innocency to holiness. Christ had done that. He had won His victory. He had become the great, perfect example and pat- tern of the Divine ideal of man, morally, spiritually, and physically. And now at this supreme moment there opened before Him two ways. He had won eternal glory and happiness by right, by right of His perfection. His moral perfection; by right of His i64 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH triumph over all of life's temptations and trials, and it was His right, then, to pass into eternal glory and happiness. That was one way. And undoubtedly the overture was made to Him as a victor . . . but He did not take that choice. He chose the other way, the way of the grave and the gate of death. Had He gone at once by transformation into the eternal world. He would have gone simply, we may say, with the crown of individual glory; He would have left all His brethren in this world, so to speak, unhelped. But He would not choose that. He chose, I say, the way of the grave and the gate of death. He chose to enter Heaven not only as the great pattern and example of what God meant Him to be, perfect manhood, but He chose the way that should make his great sacrifice most efficacious, that should en- able Him to open the portals of Heaven to all believers. It was a supreme moment, and I think the more we dwell upon it the more we come to recognize the deep significance, the pro- found import of this event, which marked the supreme choice in Christ's life. His work was behind Him; He could look up with perfect vision and say, "I have won it by right; it is mine." And in that condition He could, of course, have entered into the eternal world; not by death, because, as Saint Paul tells us, "by man came death." Yes, you say, but animals die; for thousands of years before man entered into the question they had known death. But let us distingidsh. If by death we mean, as we should mean, the separation, the sundering of the rational, per- sonal, self-conscious spirit from the material body, then death did enter by man's sin. And now Christ could have passed into the other world, not by sinful ingress, not by the way that man's sin had brought upon him, the way of the grave, but by a pain- less and glorious transformation that undoubtedly was the Di- vine ideal and original program for every man. Of course, we realize that men must pass out from this world; we know that the world could not possibly contain them all; there would soon not be even standing room. But not by the grave and the gate of death was Christ's transformation illus- trated; it was the prelude not to that painful transformation of death, but a painless and glorious passing into the eternal world. So at this supreme moment Christ makes His choice; He re- fuses the crown of individual glory; He turns His back upon the AND OTHER PAPERS 165 glories of the eternal world. He says, "I will descend from the mount of transfiguration, and by the pathway to the grave, by my death upon the cross, I will win the pardon of mankind, and I will open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." So that when Moses and Elias greeted Him there on the moun- tain ... He realized all that should be hereafter, and He spoke of His work that should be accomplished at Jerusalem. He might have said to Moses and Elias, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; henceforth there is open for me the eternal glories and the transformation, the transition, into the world beyond." But instead, He directs His gaze downward toward the cross, and He says, "No; I will not enter Heaven simply as the pattern and example of manhood, the fulfilbnent of the original Divine ideal for mankind of moral perfection, but I will enter it as the redeemer of the lost, as the conqueror of sin and evil in the world, as one who brought his brethren back again to the Father's house." Of course, these thoughts might be enlarged upon, my friends, but, if you will pardon my speaking of it to-day, notwithstanding that the feast of the transfiguration passed last month, but while our prayer book has provided a special service for this event, I feel I am not unwarranted in sajdng it has been unfortunate in the time selected. It has been set in August, the time of the year when throughout the country a great many parishioners are away, and in many cases the clergy are also away. It could as well have been put in September or October, because the event took place only about six months before the crucifixion. And undoubtedly the attention and interest of people who are devout and earnest would be greatly deepened and concentrated by commemorating the event at some time when they are worship- ping with fuU churches. We take it, then, that the great fundamental revelation which the transfiguration makes, put into general terms, is that the essential features of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ present to us, in all its incidents, the Divine ideal, the original program for every man. There would have been for us in the transfigura- tion a prelude to our transformation from the material body to the spiritual body without passing through the grave and the gate of death. BRIEF SERMONS BY DOCTOR CONVERSE* [May i8, 1913.] "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, 'We know thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.' " — St. John iii:i, 2. We celebrate to-day the last of the five greater festivals, but the festival for to-day, unlike the four preceding festivals, does not commemorate an event, a transaction, a place in time, as the other preceding four do; but it commemorates a great eternal truth. Not something, I say, that has taken place in time, but a great truth, a fact that has extended down from all time: the Triune personality of the one God. Now it might perhaps seem strange to some that the Gospel selected for this great festival should be the record of our Lord's interview with Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. Perhaps it might be suggested, why did not the church select, say, the last chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, where Christ says, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," or why did not the church select some portion from the fourteenth, fifteenth, or sixteenth chapters of the Gospel of St. John, the record of those last discussions of our Blessed Lord, where so much is said of the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I think the answer is that the church was divinely directed in making the selection she did, in selecting this interview with Nicodemus, because with no other person, on no other occasion, have we a record where our Lord stated so distinctly the whole primary agencies of our salvation; nowhere else did He set forth the co-operative labors of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost so definitely, so explicitly, as he did in this interview. So it seems it is especially appropriate as the Gospel for to-day. ♦Delivered in St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N. Y., during the period May 18, 1913 to Sept. 12, 1915. 166 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH 167 Let us look briefly at the points in question, then. How our Lord set forth explicitly and definitely the Divine program, the labors of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the work of man's redemption. We have, for instance, in the third verse, our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus: "Except a man be bom again, he caimot see the Kingdom of God." Think for a moment how startling that must have been to Nicodemus, one of rank and wealth, one of the three rulers of the Jews, to be told that he must be born again before he could even see the Kingdom of God. He supposed that to be his by birth, by his race, and heritage; that was his as the emperor of the kingdom. But our Lord unfolds a great truth to him. Not by birth, not by religious privilege through the conventional observance of religious forms and cus- toms, but only in one way, could he become a member of the Kingdom, and that by a new birth of the spirit. St. Paul teaches the same truth in the fifth of Romans: "Except a man have the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." He may have other things, religious observances and ceremonials, rectitude, a marked repu- tation among his fellows, but unless he has the Spirit of Christ, St. Paul says, he is none of His. This is the truth that our Lord brought home to Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews: you must be bom again. The Kingdom of God cannot be gained by any privileges of the fathers of the race, or nationality. The Kingdom of God is the kingdom of the spirit — the spirit of love, and power and righteousness, which comes from God and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. If we pass to the fourteenth verse, we find the work of the Son set forth: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." You recall in the second verse how Nicodemus recognizes Christ as a teacher: "We know thou art a teacher come from God." He no doubt thought he was paying goodly respect to Christ. Christ was a teacher; but He was infinitely more than that. Not simply a teacher of the law, but a godly exemplar, as we may say. Moses taught the high ideals of the Christians of the past, but Christ came to be a sacrifice for the sins of the people; He came to pay for the sins of the world by the sacrifice of himself. He came to give his Ufe a ransom for many. Even though a Pharisee, and it must have been very puzzling 1 68 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH to him, Nicodemus undoubtedly realized the reality of the sacri- fice for the world's sins. How different it was from all that Nic- odemus was familiar with. There was no ceremony . . . there was a cross . . . there was no officiating priest, simply the soldiers of the Roman guard . . . only the wild cry, "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children." And in all the shadows, in all the examples of pagan sacrifice, we shall find none so rich in meaning, so fuU of love, as that sacrifice that looked so unlike a sacrifice. It was a fuU and sufficient sacrifice, satis- faction for the sins of the whole world. Our Master brings home to Nicodemus the truth that he is facing something more than a teacher — one who is to be a great sacrifice for sin, for the sins of the whole world. If we pass to the sixteenth verse in this interview, we find there the work of the Father. There he sets it forth definitely: " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso- ever beheveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting Hfe." What does this teach us, my friends? That the work of Christ in the spirit was not the purchase price laid down to buy back a lapsed love, a lost love, on the part of the Father. It was the Father's love that prompted the sacrifice, the beginning and end of the whole scheme of redemption, the expression of the universal and eternal love of the Father. St. Paul says, ' ' God commendeth his love toward us ' ' — How? It seem s all the richer and stranger : "In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" — the gift of God. In the past theology had presented the case too much as if the Father were a grim, severe, unyielding emperor or chief justice of the universe, who to them meant anything but love; and it was not imtil Christ came, through his own human nature, that he roused from his lethargy of sleep. We know only that he saw it should be in reahty, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole human race. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beheveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The work of the Father, then, I say, is that of the originator, the inspirer, of the whole scheme of man's redemp- tion, and his salvation, here and hereafter. God's great sacrifice, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave his AND OTHER PAPERS 169 only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins, that whosoever be- lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [May 25, 1913.] "Every man has his proper gift from God, one after this manner, another after that." — I Corinthians mv.y. Every man has his proper gift from God, one after this manner, another after that. It is a commonplace of science to-day that there are no repetitions in physical nature. Not only is one star different from another in glory, but there are no two flakes of snow alike, no two leaves upon the tree, no two blades of grass in the field, no two grains of sand upon the seashore, are repeti- tions one of the other. The Divine idea of creation seems to be to have the most infinite variety in individuals. Now it is so in the moral sphere. No two persons are really alike. The fundamental parts of our nature are perhaps the same, but in combination of quality, in quahty and degree of aptitude, in fine- ness and harmony of the moral nature, there is no repetition. Each one of us stands as something particular and distinct, a member of the Divine purpose. Now this is a very important truth, a truth that has a most important and practical bearing, and I ask you this morning to dwell briefly upon the bearing of this truth as respects our growth in goodness, and our work, our life work in the world. The fact, I say, that we are not repetitions one of the other, shows that God means something by you and by me. He has something for us to do; not simply to be echoes one of the other, but something individual, the carrying out of the Divine plan and purpose, in the conduct of the moral world. I say this is a very important truth as regards our growth in goodness. Goodness, real goodness, must be self-won. Of course you and I can obtain direction and example from the counsel of the elders, from the teachings of the wise we may gather in- spiration and help; but no man, and no body of men, can relieve you and me, they cannot share in the responsibility for our moral I70 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH choices and our moral actions. He who would not recognize these things can never fulfil the Divine purpose. Such a man may have many of the requisites of good conduct, but he is not making real progress in goodness; he is simply marking time, not marching. In this matter of developing in goodness there is no possibility of division of labor. We are so prone to shirk our secular affairs. I can practically hand over my health to my doctor and say, "Look after me, keep me in good health"; I can hand over my business affairs, for their legal arrangement, to my lawyer, and say, "Please take care of these things for me"; but we cannot hand over the matter of making ourselves good men to any one. Seeing the duty and doing it, in recognizing the Divine require- ments in all duty, and trying your best to fulfil them, no man can relieve you of that responsibility. There is no division of labor here. You and I have a distinct and separate work, so far as growth in goodness is concerned, and we must carry it on to the the end, each man for himself. It is that region or territory that knows no division. Your own consciousness was given into your keeping, something you are responsible for. You are your own first problem. Find out the quaUties and dispositions which need cultivation, and concerning those which need, perhaps, to be torn out by the roots. It is your work and it is my work. Again see the importance of this great truth: the realization that we have an individual work in the world. We are, then, as I say, not repetitions one of the other. God has made you and me different from all others; and therefore there is provided for us a field and a work to do. The fact that we have an individuality points to that great obligation, that we must find out and as truly follow up our real duty in hfe. The program of life reminds me of the score of a great opera or oratorio; you not only play your part, but you must first find your part and then play it; and it is hardly an exag- geration to say that one half of your duty is finding out what your duty is. I recall an incident in the life of Carlyle, when he was intro- duced to a young man who said, "I have read everything you have written, and would ask one question. What ought I to do in life?" Carlyle lowered his great brows and said, "Young AND OTHER PAPERS 171 man, that is the very thing God Almighty sent you into the world to find out for yourself. You are the one to discover it. Dis- cover it and then do it." In that parable of the talents, where one man had five talents, another two, and yet another one, besides other great lessons, there is the great lesson of universal service. Have you ever re- flected why is it that it was the man with only the one talent, instead of the man with five or two talents, who comes short? How much more dramatic, how impressive it might have been, if the one with the five talents had come short of his duty. I tMnk. there is a great lesson for us just there. If we are people of command and power, if we have perhaps great means or wealth, if we have position which is influential, we need to feel the pres- sure from without, the duties which wUl be required of us. But if we are a one-talent man, how easy it is for us to excuse ourselves. How easy it is for us to say, "What does it matter, whether I give or not? My powers are so limited, it will not count for so very much." How easy it is for Society to excuse him also. It looks upon him and says, "Poor man, he caimot do much, even if he tries. We had better let him alone." My friends, there is no human being on the face of the earth into whose care God has not commended some part of the great on-going work of this world, to the bringing aboutof the Kingdom of God. We may not be able to do anything conspicuous, but if we honestly and earnestly endeavor to do something in this world for God, and carry it out, you are just as much an object of necessity in the eyes of the great God, the Father of us all, as though you were doing something that resounded through the world. As God looks down on the labors, on the common life of the world, no doubt He sees what we often fail to see. He can see through the deepest desires, and of motives the greatest array. One may be conspicuous in good works for the church and in Society, and yet deep in his heart there may be a selfish motive; simply a round in the ladder that he may rise higher and higher in power and estimation and respect. Again, it may be the housewife, going about her lowly duties, fulfilling them, recognizing, perhaps in a dim way, that the low- liest of these duties shines somewhat with the lustre of the Divine 172 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMON\\^EALTH nature. He who recognizes that God has a work for him to do, and honestly and earnestly seeks to do that work, he is fulfilling the Divine purpose; he is turning his work into a Divine fulfil- ment. As we so strive to learn our duty, no matter how humble or complex their requirements, if we are working in that spirit, we shall realize in ourselves the truth of these words : "I am the Light of the world, and they that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of Life." [June 15, 1913.] "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not and ye shall not be judged." — Si. Luke in:j6, 57. The Gospel for to-day is a fragment of our Lord's great Sermon on the Mount. He had passed the night in prayer on the moun- tain, and had come down and was surrounded by his disciples. He had previously warned them against the debasement of relig- ion by zeal for human applause — "Do not your ahns before men" — He had warned them, I say, against debasing religion by their zeal for applause and present gain; but now He passed to something deeper and more searching. He here sets forth that there is something which besets religion, even in the case of those who may be proof against the temptation of rehgious vanity and ostentation, and mere material greed. It is the temptation of uncharitable judgment — "Judge not and ye shall not be judged." Now we are aware that our Lord often speaks in what might be called an unqualified maimer; that is. He addresses His words in a way that is starthng and arrests the attention, but what follows explains the sense in which the words are to be taken. Where He says, "Judge not," of course, we are not to understand that we must not discriminate as regards truth and justice and honesty of action. We know that on another occasion our Lord makes this very appeal, where he says, "Why for your own selves did ye not judge?" There is, then, a proper field of judgment. It is the field of AND OTHER PAPERS 173 spoken or published opinions or utterances, in utterances, actions, and deeds; and he is very far from the ideal and true Christian who refuses to commit himself, no matter how urgent may be the appeal for his cause and his help. Such a man may take as his motto the language of Cain, "I am not my brother's keeper," but such a man certainly does not prove the type of Christian which Christ would have. In this field of actions and utterances, of pubUshed opinions, of conduct, utterances and deeds, each and every moral agent must make up his mind regarding them. That is a large part of the burden which rests upon him, given by Providence when he came into the world. He must make up his mind with regard to the truth and honesty of those actions, of those utterances; but the temptation that besets us is to go beyond the actions and the utterances, the words and deeds, and supply the motives, the aims, and the personal qualities which we think must necessarily lie behind those actions and those utterances. This is the tempta- tion, then, which is justly characterized as uncharitable judgment. It is the temptation to usurp for ourselves what belongs to God alone. What we think the character of a man, the attempt to fix the scale of his worth, or moral worth, and to condemn the motive of this man or that man — that is not our business, and we all know it. Even our Lord, during His human life, expressly and definitely and emphatically condemned judgment in this sense. He said, "If a man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not. I came not into the world to judge the world, but to save the world." Certainly the disciple is not above his master in this respect, the servant is not above his lord in this respect. This, then, is the truth which Jesus brings home. This tend- ency to go beyond the proper sphere of our judgment, and supply the motives and principles and personal quahties which we think He behind the man, and condemn a man or woman in a manifold way, simply judging from what our expectations place behind those actions. And let me say that this is really what irritates, what prevents us from coming into relationship with men to help and uplift and benefit them. It is not so much that our judgment upon the actions is wrong; that does not irritate so much as does this im- 174 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH plying of motives of hypocrisy, of insincerity and selfishness, that shuts upon us the doors of the heart, we may say, of people whom we might help. Now our Lord not only emphasizes this dangerous tendency toward uncharitable judgment, but He gives us a very striking, a very searching method of subduing and conquering, we may say eradicating, this tendency from our hearts and minds. Of course, there are precepts, as we pray in the Collect for Whit- sunday, that we may have a right judgment in all things, and as we pray also in the Collect that God would pour into our hearts the most excellent gift of charity; but in addition to that, our Lord lays down this precept: "Judge yourself" — "Pluck out the beam out of thine own eye" — cease this uncharitable judgment of others. Li other words, if we seek honestly and sincerely to find the justice of others' intentions, in the measure of our own self-scrutiny and self-judgment, we shall find in just proportion as our self-judgment is sincere and searching, just in that propor- tion has our character become purer and nobler and better; and less and less there will be the tendency toward harsh judgment, this condemnation of our brother, this tendency to supply mo- tives, which we think are motives, which dominate our brother. My dear friends, when we give searching scrutiny to our own words and deeds, it is these very faults and failings which we are so irresistibly prompt to find in others which self-scrutiny will show. These are the very quaUties which characterize our ac- tions and conducts and utterances and personaUties. A brilliant French satirist once said: "The very reason that makes the vanity and pride of other people so unbearable to some people will be found to be just the fact that such vanity and pride wounds their own vanity and pride." Self-scrutiny, then, I say, self-judgment, the resolute and honest attempt to get the beam out of our own eyes, will save us from the harsh and heartless condemnation of others. Our Lord goes a step further, however, and this we should also remember, "And then thou shalt see clearly." Why? "To pluck out the moat that is in thy brother's eye." There is an impUcation here. Our judgment of our brother does not end in itself. It carries with it the obUgation to seek honestly and AND OTHER PAPERS 175 eamestiy the uplifting and betterment of our brother. We are to pull the moat out of our own eyes not simply for our own vision, but in order that we may see the more clearly to pull the moat out of our brother's eye; in other words, that we may see more definitely and clearly to help and better our brother. The man who says, "I have trouble enough to take care of myself," is the very man who never can take care of himself. The man who uses the words of Cain as a dominant life motto is the man who never can be in any true sense his own keeper. We can only keep ourselves on a high level of Christian life as our sjmipathy and help goes out in the way of giving help to others. " No man liveth unto himself." I wonder how often we read those words without recognizing that no man liveth unto himself. He cannot if he would; he should not if he could. This self-scrutiny, this self-judgment, this drawing the beam out of our own eyes, will stimulate our sympathy and quicken our perceptions, so that we will be all the better able to plan the real betterment of our brother. There is a final word, my friends. Let us remember that the spirit and temper of our services, no matter what they may be, the spirit and temper of our services and our words, will be greater in God's sight than those services themselves. [June 29, 1913.] "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? " — St. Matthew, xvi.-ij. It is certainly a most interesting field of study to collect and to ponder on the various names that are applied to our Lord in Holy Scripture. We shall find, as we study them, that practi- cally the whole realm of nature has been used to describe this Jesus of Nazareth. ' ' The Lion of the Tribe of Judah,"— there is the animal kingdom; "The Rose of Sharon,"— there is the vege- table kingdom, and the "Rock of Ages," the mmeral kingdom. But interesting as it is to consider the long hst of names applied- to our Lord, the interest is greatly deepened when we come to 176 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH consider our Lord's epithet, the favorite name which He used himself in speaking of himself. He gives it here where He asks, "Whom do men say that I" — here he applies the favorite name — "the Son of Man, am?" More than fifty times in the Gospels our Lord uses this title, the Son of Man, and perhaps not many have observed that no one else ever used that title, with the one exception of St. Stephen, in his moment of martyrdom, when he cried, " Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man stand- ing on the right hand of God." Let me ask you to look with me briefly at some of the implica- tions of this title, this favorite name which Christ chose and used repeatedly for himself. The very first thought that comes to us is that we have here in this title, "The Son of Man," a definite impHcation of Christ's divinity, his absolute divinity. "The Son of Man" — how unmeaning would be that title, what insufferable egotism there would be in that title if used by any one who was nothing more than a man. Just imagine those words coming from the mouth of Paul, or James, or John, or Peter, whose mar- tyrdom we commemorate to-day . . . but Jesus could say it, because He was infinitely more than a man. He was indeed a real and true man; it was as necessary for Him to represent hu- manity and carry it through all the stress and trials of human Hfe; He was a genuine, a real, a true man, a son of man; but He was the Son of God. We should remember also that this question was asked during the second year of His ministry. His teachings had been prac- tically rejected in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and GaHlee; and so He had retired to the slopes of that great landmark, Mt. Hermon. He had retired there, as we see from what follows, not simply for retirement or seclusion, but to found His Church; and here He uses the confession of St. Peter, speaking as the mouthpiece for the rest of the disciples, to bring home to them the great truth that not simply on theory, or doctrine, but on a Uving personality, was His Church to rest. When Peter said, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the hving God," he was describing the very founda- tion upon which the whole structure of humanity rests — not upon doctrine or idea or teaching, but upon a living person- ality. It is true there have been perversions of this confession of St. AND OTHER PAPERS 177 Peter. One. of the most prevalent is the misconstruction of the words of Christ where He said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church," as if it were the personality of Peter. It was not upon the personality of Peter, or his power of transmission of the faculties or qualities which he possessed, but upon the truth which he uttered, "Thou art the Son of the Living God," and those to the contrary had better read a Httle further, to the twenty- third verse, where the Son of Man says, " Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man." Our Lord, then, I say, could use this term, "The Son of Man," without any impropriety, because while He was a son of man, He was also the Son of God. I recall a beautiful and impressive incident, or rather practice, on the part of a Roman Pope. In his early days he had been a fisherman, and when he rose to the highest ecclesiastical position in the world, the Pope of the Roman church, in his exalted posi- tion he never forgot his early history. In his private room he had the old fishnet fastened upon the wall, and no matter what the pressure of duty might be, or the demands of the church, every day found him upon his knees before that net in his private room, saying to himself, "I, John, the Fisherman, I, John, the Fisher- man." That is beautifid; that is impressive. Why was it beauti- ful or impressive? We can imagine any ordinary fisherman along the Adriatic or the Mediterranean standing before his net and say- ing, "I, Thomas, the fisherman, I, John, the fisherman," but would it not be absurd? It was because of the exalted position, the fact that back of it stood the great office, that makes it beauti- ful and impressive on the part of the Pope. It is so with our Lord. When He refers to Himself as the " Son of Man" its significance has power, because back of it was the great truth that Peter had declared, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." But I think the title has also another implication of exceeding interest, my friends, for us, and that is that this title impUes and emphasizes the universality of Christ's manhood. He was not simply a man, as we speak of a man, not simply one of the sons of men, but He was Man absolute. His manhood was universal. 178 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH It was not colored or quaMed or limited by the ideas or institu- tions, the customs and teachings of the time in which He Hved, or the race from which He sprung. He was the Universal Man. He was the contemporary of all ages. He was the Timeless Man. See how strikingly this is proven. Take, for instance, the rec- ords of some other great religious founders, Confucius, or Buddha, or Mohammed, and how far-off, how foreign they seem. We have to make continual excuses for them, and say, "Yes, that was due to the pressure of circumstances and moral ideals that surrounded them in their time"; but not so with Jesus Christ. What critic of the Church of Christianity to-day ever thinks of qualifying his judgment of Jesus Christ from these considerations? The divinity of Jesus Christ precluded the possibility of consideration of the time, the circumstances, and the moral ideas that pre- vailed in His age. It is the expression of the universality of Christ's manhood. And this, my dear friends, is the secret of His sjnnpathy, His sympathy with the Pubhcans, with the Magdalen, with the rulers of the synagogue, with the children, and with the nameless poor. Each and all of them that turned to Him with an open heart found in Him not simply a friend standing far-off to pity them; they found a s)anpathetic interpreter, they found in Him a com- passionate sympathizer. I need not dwell longer upon the universality of Christ's man- hood, but just let me add in closing, my friends, that it seems to me that no candid criticism, that makes any pretense to candor and completeness, and refuses to accept the universality of Christ's manhood, can offer anything that would stand a mo- ment's investigation as to why this momentous fact that took place centuries ago, namely, that one man, and only one man, in the whole course of human history, stands forth as the type of universal manhood; and that all other men are, as it were, but fragments of humanity, they are but faint reflections, broken lights, if you please, with the one true Son of the Living God. The only answer is that this Christ stands forth as the Son of Man, and was at the same time the Son of the Living God;and in the fullness of his divinity he could say, as no man before or since could say, without impropriety, without insufferable pride, AND OTHER PAPERS 179 without the sacrilege of blasphemy, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." [July 27, 1913.] "And Balak said unto him: ' Come, I pray thee, with me into another place from whence thou mayest see them. Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from thence'." — Numbers xxiii.-ij. Observe that the lesson, both for last Sunday and for this Sun- day, directs our attention to one of the most remarkable men of whom we have record in the Old Testament — Balaam, the great Assyrian prophet, undoubtedly, we may safely say, the foremost man in many respects of his time. He was a theologian ; he was a prophet of Jehovah, a man of far-reaching vision, and yet, as we read in this book, he was a man without moral sense. The great lesson we are to draw from this chapter is that we have here brought before us, under very impressive circumstances, not simply the case of a man consciously going wrong — something worse than that — the case of a man who has in some way per- suaded himself that his course is right, or at least under the cir- cumstances, it is permissible. You turn to the New Testament and find in the Epistle of St. John, the Second Book of Revela- tions, an imquaMed condemnation of the man, of his character, and his acts; and yet, as we read the story in these chapters, we might be impressed first with the apparent, we might almost say ostentatious, piety of the man. He wiU do nothing without know- ing what is God's wiU. The question, then, for us, is, how did this man come to get himself into such a twisted condition of moral sense and moral conscience that he actually went on supposing that in some way he could deflect the Command and reach the conclusion, the result which his friend, the King of Moab, wished him to reach? The King of Moab sent an embassy to Balaam, the great Ass3rrian prophet, to come and pronounce a curse upon these people, the Children of Israel. He feared the purpose of these people, and wanted this prophet of Jehovah, for Balaam was not a pagan prophet, but a true prophet of God, to come and i8o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH curse them for him. So he sends to Balaam, and Balaam will do nothing until he first inquires what is God's will. One of the first lessons that we may draw is the peril of hesi- tating in matters of clear duty. When Balaam makes his appeal to God, and God answered, "Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt not curse these people, for they are blessed, they are my people," it was at his moral peril that he left as an open question such a direct command from the Almighty; and yet we know that he did so. His hesitation in a matter of clear duty was the begin- ning of the wreck of his character. Dallying and delaying, my friends, to bring it right home to us, from an open conviction of duty, is dangerous, it is dishonesty itself. An insidious way in which we bring about this hesitation in matters of clear convic- tion of duty is that we are prone to divert attention from the character of the act itself and fix it upon the consequences, although recognizing that this course of action is black and is dishonorable to a Christian man or woman. It is that we turn the attention far-off, as though we say that by doing this wrong .thing or that wrong thing thus and so can be accomphshed, and while we do not put it into just those words, we are very apt to think that in some way those circumstances can alter or change the moral quaUty of the deed. We cannot do it. Hesitating in matters of conscience, taking time to find out in many cases just what we are to do, what is our duty, is taking time to explain away that duty. Of course, there are cases of conscience where there are no absolute lines of duty, where the moral sense is puz- zled, but those are rare; and such was not the case here. When Balaam was thus directed, "Thou shalt not go with the men, thou shalt not curse the people," that should have been sufficient. He did send the first embassy away; but they came again with a larger present, "a more honorable embassy," and again urged him to come. "Come and do the King's bidding, and he will make you a great man of great station and power. Come " — -Now what did he do? The temptation was great, and instead of just simply saying, "No, I gave you my answer, and that is ab- solutely the end of the matter. This thing must not be done," what did he actually do? With a great pretense of piety and resignation, he said, "You know I can do nothing directly against the word of the Lord. Say to your King that I will again appeal AND OTHER PAPERS i8i to God, and see whether this thing cannot possibly be done." So^ he makes his second appeal, and then a third appeal, and all this time weakening his moral strength, lessening his power of resisting temptation, by dallying and delaying in a case, a clear- cut case, of duty. Well, I think we can draw another lesson, not only the danger of hesitating in matters of conscience, but in the conclusion which he reached, is an illustration, and to my mind a very striking one, of another insidious way in which we practise seK- deception. When Balak found that Balaam could not curse the people, he said in his rude simplicity, "The whole camp of the people is here. He sees the great army of the Israehtes before him, and to pronounce a curse on so great a number of people I suppose is startling to him. I will take him to a high place on the top of the mountain, where he can only see a little part of the northern end of the camp. It will not appear so startling so, though he looked out over the whole plain." So he goes and again makes his appeal to Balaam: "Thou shalt not see the whole of the people, thou shalt see but the utmost part of them." I think we have here, my friends, another illustration of the in- sidious way in which we may practise deception of ourselves, to bring ourselves to do an act which revolts us. When the truth is brought to us in all its hideousness and expanse, there is a revulsion, we are repulsed, we cannot do it. But if we can get into some position where we see only a comer, as it were, some- times, and very frequently indeed, people will do such an act. Of course, a man of the intelligence, of the intellectual power of Balaam, foxmd dif&culty in accepting such rude simplicity; that just by changing his position from a free view over the plain in the high places of Baal, he would get a view of only a corner of the great multitude of the people. Of course, Balaam could smile at that, how nonsensical it was; yet in Balaam's mind there was working practically the same thought. It is not so stated in the record, but I imagine him sajdng, "Of course, a mere change of position cannot alter it, but let us look at it in the name of civilization. These are a mighty people, the mountains are full of them, and the Moabites are in danger of being overthrown. In the name of civilization, then, something ought to be done to stop these invaders. I will look at it in that way," and that i82 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH against the testimony of the Lord that these people were blessed. And he undoubtedly realized that it would benefit no one; but he could not please God without difl&culty. And so, my friends, we often find ourselves entrapped. We think by taking a different position with the world, we will look at the thing in a different manner, we will not see the broad expanse of the hideousness of the deed, we will only see a comer of it; and so we act just as Balaam did. There is a deep, practical, moral lesson for us in this. There is yet another lesson for us in the record of this remark- able man, only we need to pass to the thirty-first chapter to see the conclusion of Balaam's self-deception. While he might not as a prophet pronounce the curse himself, yet he might ask an adviser, he would get a counsellor to tell the people how they might act so as to bring the curse upon themselves. And that is what he did. He could say, "I can do nothing more. I cannot take the responsibiHty for the act, contrary to the Divine decla- ration; as a prophet I cannot do it; I cannot take the responsi- bility; but I might shift it on you. I might suggest a way in which, undoubtedly, if the people will act upon it, they will bring upon themselves all the curses that their enemies could wish. Get the people to intermarry with the Jews and the Moabites and the Amorites, and out of that wiU come idolatry, of that you may be sure, and they wiU so bring upon themselves the curse you are asking for." So the prophet did not actually curse the people; but how ter- rible were the results of this suggestion. The people did inter- marry, and afterward there was a great battle in which Balak himself was slain, but the King was not reaUy responsible. My dear friends, how important it is that this lesson should be brought home to us. If you plan a certain thing, you may think the responsibility many times removed from you for the actual deed; but just the same weight of responsibility rests upon you as if you did the deed yourself. This has been brought to me very forcibly in reading some of the accounts of property owners in New York City. I remember a case many years ago where the friend of a prominent man came to him and said, "Are you aware that one or two of your houses are being used for infamous purposes? You know you receive big rent for those AND OTHER PAPERS 183 houses, you must know of it. Do you not feel responsible?" The man repUed, "No, I feel no responsibility whatever. I rent those houses to those men, and the responsibility rests entirely upon them for whatever use they make of them." And so he tried to shift the responsibiUty, just like Balaam, who would not personally go contrary to the Divine command, but he would shift the responsibility onto the King; he would whisper to him a means whereby the curse could be acccompUshed. In conclusion let me suggest one more thought, the most im- portant of the record — that prompt obedience to clear conviction of duty is the only rule, the only principle, that has the safety of God on its side. Just as sure as the voice of Conscience has spoken clearly, and we delay and wait while we look at the matter from another point, the voice of Conscience will not again speak so loudly. Con- science never speaks so loudly, so clearly, so imperatively, as she does the first time. [September 21, 1913.] "For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work." — St. Mark xiii:j4. The circumstances give a peculiar dignity and solemnity to these words of our Lord. They were uttered at the close of the last day he spent within the temple precincts. He had left the temple, descended from the heights, and crossing the valley of the Citron ascended the opposite Mountain of Olivet, somewhere perhaps near the southern slope of the shoulder of that great mountain. He paused, and looking back over the City, he pre- dicted its destruction: "There shall not be one stone left upon another"; and with Divine vision of seeing the long lapse of years that should come to pass before his second coming, in the guise of this great parable he sets forth the universal duty resting upon all who hear the Gospel. "The Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who gave authority to his servants and to every man his work. ' ' Of course, i84 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the very first question which arises is, What in general may be said to be this work? I think we can make a simple yet compre- hensive answer from the teaching and example of our Blessed Master, by saying, the one great work, that which sums up what the churches are meant for, which sums up all the Bible is meant for, which sums up all that the collective energies of men directed along the line of the Gospel work stands for, namely, the realiza- tion of the Kingdom of God here upon earth. Not simply the Kingdom of God beyond the clouds, but here upon earth. And it is in just that way our Lord gives authority to his servants, that is, a commission. I wonder how many of us think of that; each one of us bears a commission, given to every man as his work. One interpretation of this would be entirely and utterly dif- ferent from the spirit of our Master's word, and from the sense in which he would have us think of this commission. It is not sim- ply given to bishops and ministers and priests, or to rulers, states- men, etc., but each and every one of us, no matter who we are, no matter what our lot in life may be, you and I bear a commis- sion from the Father to help in this gireat work for which the Son of Man gave his life, namely, the realization of the Kingdom of God upon earth. And what can we do to make the Kingdom of God here upon earth? Let me say, briefly, if men but had the Spirit of Christ to inspire aU the relations of labor and hfe, namely, the spirit of love and service and sacrifice, then the Kingdom of God is here upon earth. I say, then, no matter who we are, no matter how simple or complex our lives, we bear a commission from God. And it is exceedingly important that we should realize that God not only conducts the mighty march of nature and nations, but that, as the Master teaches, he notes the fall of each sparrow, and has numbered the hairs of our heads. God's interest is not in classes but in individuals. If I am in possession of power and influence, if I can rule men, that is by Divine commission. Am I poor, and sick, and neglected and no one interested in me, do I feel I am born into the world with but few poor weapons to fight the great battle of life? I may know I am here by author- ity of the Father, a Divine commission. Jesus Christ himself has said that he shares with every creature the Divine commission AND OTHER PAPERS 185 of God, the salvation of the world, the bringing about and reali- zation of the Kingdom, of God upon earth. Now it is, I say, highly important that we should realize that for each and every one of us, no matter how lowly, how poor, or how limited our power or small our sphere, there is a work to do; and that it is utterly impossible for us to delegate our share of this work. We cannot deputize bishops or priests or friars or an active evangelist to do our work for us. There is something, somewhere, for you, and God expects you to do it; alid in a sense no other can take your place. Something, it may be some very infinitesimal part of God's work in the reclamation of the world and bringing the world into fellowship with God. We should set ourselves diligently to find out what it is, and do it. This commission, then, I say, is for every man. It is his work. To my mind, the fundamental revolution which our Blessed Master introduces in the conception of religion and of life and of the Kingdom of God is shown in His sweeping condemnation of that old-time notion that religion and common Ufe can be sepa- rated; that the practices and duties of religious life and our common Ufe are distinctly different; that to live a secular Hfe, without regard to ideals or motives, is to have no respect for God or for His purposes in the world as being something entirely separate. We have read the record of our Lord's condemnation of this Phariseeism, of how He condemned the religious rulers of those times, although they were not necessarily wicked or wrongdoers, or that they conducted obscene practices, or anything of that sort, but that they were engrossed and possessed with this old- time fatal delusion that they could separate religious duties as one thing, and common life and common duties and put them aside as another thing. The whole life of man is given of God for His service, and we should therefore recognize that every duty, no matter how lowly or inconspicuous, shines with the dignity and lustre of the Divine commission, the Divine command, if we will only see it aright. If we turn to the pages of the Gospel which describe our Lord's practices with the Pharisees, and bring before us the beliefs and ideals of those times, the ordinary reader might say that Jerusa- lem must have been very irreligious to persecute such a person. i86 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH As a matter of fact, it was intensely religious at that time. From profane history we know that never, indeed, in the history of the Holy City had there been such ceremony, such devotion, such strictness to the observance and transaction of rehgious forms as there were at that time. We have only to read to learn how the people came constantly with precious gifts for their offerings, always coming and coming with their religious offerings. But we also find that in their intense devotion to their rehgious du- ties they were neglecting the common duties of common Ufe: justice and mercy and truth and helpfulness between man and man. And they were righteously incensed when our Lord con- demned it. It seems to me we have no more striking illustration than on that occasion where he says to a worshipper: "You are going to worship at the temple; I see you have with you a gift to lay upon the altar. Hold on, lay not your gift upon the altar, but go and make your peace with your brother, who has some- what against you. Not until you have done that can any peace offering that you may bring be received as acceptable to God." There were a great many religious forms and conceptions of God, and the people practised them and called them religious duties; and left all the rest as an open field for whosoever desired to assert and claim the real prizes of life. Phariseeism meant separation, and we know how that idea persisted even after Christ's time. Men supposed that to be rehgious one must fly from the world to the caves in the mountains and practise some sort of austere and monastic hfe, as if that were the only way to be rehgious. Jesus Christ did not go into the wilderness away from the world. He mingled with the people. He was seen again and again in the company of pubhcans and sinners. I understand there is shortly to be shown in this city what I presume, at least I have heard from parties who have seen it, to be a wonderful illustration of that striking work entitled, "Quo Vadis." I am reminded by this old story of Christ's condemna- tion of trying to run a dividing Une into our hves, making one part rehgious and the rest something entirely separate. As many of you are aware, it is a very old legend of Christ at Rome. It is said that St. Peter when at Rome, if he ever was there, felt that the city was so bad, and he was surrounded with so AND OTHER PAPERS 187 much of the vile and evil of common life, that in order to be re- ligious, really religious, he would have to go off into the wilder- ness and become a kind of hermit. So he sets his face against the city and turns away, and as he approaches the foot-hiUs there meets him one whose countenance he immediately recog- nizes, and who says, "Quo Vadis? Quo Vadis? Where are you going? Where are you going?" And Peter answered and told Him; and the Master answered him, saying, "I am going back to Rome to take up the work you have abandoned, which you are sUghting. I am going to take up your burden. You are running away from the evil in the city, instead of striving with might and main to do your part as a Christian man to make the city better. Quo Vadis? Quo Vadis? " It is, then, I say, the motive with which we set about our earthly work which really determines whether we are religious or not. Undoubtedly, as God looks down upon the labors of the world, there must be some that He recognizes working in the true religious spirit, in the fields, at the anvil, or the woman at her housework, more than the many who are gathered and as- sembled in the solemn temples for worship, who come there for no real purpose or because they are conscious of the world's need of the realization of the Kingdom of God upon earth; but because it is respectable, it is fashionable. It is, I say, the motive that we put into our work. And it is this, let me say, recalUng that this is the festival of St. Matthew, the Collector of Customs, the office that was not only despised of every man but had the most intense hatred in Christ's time, that appealed most to our Lord in the selection of his dis- ciples. I cannot persuade myseK that Christ selected Matthew as a random selection or choice. Personally, I have no doubt that if we but knew, Christ recognized in this man, who was faithfully performing his most obnoxious duty not because he wanted to but because of a power that was beyond him, the attribute that characterized him ever after. The Roman nation had conquered his nation, and he was but following our Lord's own command, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Csesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." I believe we have in Matthew one who had reahzed in some measure the great truth that Ufe, all of life, may be made the i88 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Kingdom of God if we work with the desire to please God and fulfil His service in the world. If we but make this great truth ours then, my dear fi^ends, what dignity and courage, what security and power it will give you and me in whatever circumstances in life our lot is cast. There are the common duties of every-day Hfe and there are dis- tinct churchly duties, as we call them. Let us see that we put some quality of dignity, some motive and desire of service and pleasing God into whatever we do. I have no doubt that that great teacher of Christian character, St. Paul, while he was weaving black tents to support himself on his missionary tour, thought he was doing God's service, that he was fulfilling the Divine commission of the Father just as much as when he stood on Mars Hill and proclaimed the everlasting truths of the religion of God. [October 12, 1913.] "Jesus said unto him, 'Go thy way; thy son liveth.' And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him. Thy son liveth; and himself be- lieved and his whole house." — St. John i>i:so, 53. This Gospel record which we have of the nobleman's appeal to Christ in behalf of his dying son presents not only an illustration of the promptness of the compassion of our Blessed Lord for hu- man suffering and His divine power to heal, but it also brings us a lesson in the procedure of the nobleman himself, a spiritual prin- ciple of importance to each and every one of us. We might put this principle into these words: We have here an illustration of the way by which we may pass from a hearsay beUef in Christ and Christ's teachings to a per- sonal conviction of the reality and the truth of that teaching. Or, in other words, we have here illustrated the transition from a AND OTHER PAPERS 189 mere traditional faith to a personal faith. Undoubtedly we all would be anxious to ask the question: "What is the method, is there any method illustrated by which we may make this transi- tion from the mere religion of custom to one of conviction and personal faith?" I think this is brought out very strikingly in the conduct of this nobleman. Two features at once present themselves to us in his procedure: his obedience, prompt, unquestioning; and his inquiry which followed his obedience; his investigation, his en- deavor to see whether he could remove, as it were, all possibility of doubt of his son's recovery. First, then, we have here illustrated, I say, the first step in the method of passing from mere traditional to personal conviction of faith by obedience. Jesus said unto him, "Thy son Uveth, go thy way; and he believed the word of the Lord, and went his way." Now I have no doubt that there was no little disappointment, chagrin, I may say, in the mind of this man, for we must remem- ber tiiat he was a man of station and rank, a nobleman, one of Herod's ofi&cers. When he heard that Jesus, the Miracle Worker, was again at Cana, he started on the long journey from the bed- side of his son, over twenty miles, in order to appeal to the Mas- ter to come to the rescue of his son, now at the very point of death. He was undoubtedly attended by a train of servants, and there was probably in his mind this thought: "After we see this Teacher of Cana, He will turn about and go down with us, and the people all along the way will recognize Him as the great teacher and worker of miracles." But how different: instead of going down, as was then the custom, to lay hands upon those that were to be healed, He simply says to him, "Thy son Uveth." In other words, his immediate departure was an act of obedience which straightway strengthened his faith and made it more and more personal. He did not pause to debate about it; he did not say, "Now, Lord, you placed your fingers upon the eyes of that blind beggar down there; you worked that miracle by being pres- ent at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, and now you simply tell me to go back this long journey. Cannot you come along, can- not you come with us and stand by the bedside of my son and speak there the words that shall again cause the currents of life and vigor to flow through his frame?" I90 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH "Thy son liveth, go thy way; and the man believed the word of the Lord and went his way." Now this brings home to us a great truth: that this prompt obedience is something that we each and all need if we would pass from a mere traditional faith. We are resting on actual facts, traditional faith, but to make it personal, to make an investigation of the reaUty of Christ's teachings, there must be something more than mere following of custom. There must be obedience, and for the purpose of following the will of Christ. People sometimes say, "If Christ were here to-day, and gave me a distinct command, I would follow it." My friends. He has given you a distinct command. You ask what is the will of Christ? The performance of com- mon duty in a devout spirit is the will of Christ. Repentance is the will of Christ; prayer, and purity, and honesty, and helpful- ness, the serving of God by the service of mankind. That is the will of Christ. And these are the things that should commend themselves directly and at once to every man's conscience. I know there are a great many points upon which we may be in doubt; there is a great deal of doctrine and nonsense in which we flounder helplessly and are lost. But there are many steps in our spiritual development in which we may stand firm, and among such are repentance and prayer and purity and truthfulness and justice and kindliness and helpfulness to others. It is obedience, then, I say, this acting promptly, doing as for the service of God what conscience and reason tell us to be right and to be God's wiU. And this is the preparation of the inner man for the introduction into the soul of that spiritual convic- tion which alone claims Christ as the Divine teacher and healer. It is our obedience, in other words, that brings the crown to our personal faith. In the second lesson for to-day we have this same truth en- forced by the Master himself: "If a man will do the will of God" — what then? — "he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Not he that can discover the win of God, or wiU do it, but he that willeth to do the will of God, shall know the doctrine, whether I speak of God or whether I speak simply as a man might speak without any knowledge beyond my human nature. AND OTHER PAPERS 191 You observe the nobleman did not only obey, but there was a second feature which presents a very important lesson. When he turned to go back over the long journey after Christ's decla- ration or statement that his son should live, he met his servants on the way. They had been hastening over the twenty miles from Capernaum to bring him the glad tidings that his son had recovered from the deadly fever. And it is significant that he did not wait to give them the customary greeting or go through the general formalities, but said at once, when they told him that his son had recovered, "At what hour was it that he began to amend? At what hour was it that you saw that the fever left him?" And they answered at once, "Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him." Wonder after wonder. His investiga- tion had brought out the great fact that at the very hour at which Christ had said, Thy son liveth, the fever had left the young frame and the forces of nature were again asserting themselves in tri- umph, and his son restored to his natural condition. Now there is a great lesson for us. It is not enough to obey. It is not enough to put ourselves into a position where we can rest upon mere facts and be disciples and followers of Christ. We are to seek, as this man did, we are to study and find out, to prove our faith by honest and earnest in- vestigation and study. The Christian of to-day needs to study, to know the teaching of the Master, and the divineness of Chris- tianity. "Search the Scriptures." There never will come a day when there will be an injunction of more practical worth than this, which is almost beyond comparison. Search the Scriptures; find out and know what is the will of Christ. If to the study of the Gospel we bring heart and mind and join in the fellowship of the great character there revealed, we shall know what is Christ's will, and be able to give a reason for our faith. But these two should go hand in hand, let me say in conclusion. We find some who are obedient, but who are not inquiring, they simply take what is given them without questioning as to the will of God. And, on the other hand, there are those who are fully learned in the Scriptures; they are always searching and investi- gating and inquiring, and inquiring and investigating, and yet never f ulfillin g the distinct command, the dictates of reason and conscience, which they know to be the Divine will. They are 192 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH simply standing; they are not marching. They are only marking time. And so they fail, while still inquiring into this and into that, and always overlooking the great practical truths which they know to be Christ's will. They are like a man about to take a journey, say from here to New York City, and he says, "Well, I don't want to start on the journey until I can see the end." And so he strains his gaze, going from hilltop to hilltop, tryuig to see all the way to New York City before he starts. What would you say to such a man? Would you not say, "You will see a part of the way only as you go along; you cannot take steps in advance of yourself. You can only go as far as you can definitely see." And this is also a great Christian truth. If we give ourselves entirely over to questioning, and do not definitely hear the command and seek to fulfil it, our industry will simply end in a wavering and indefinite scepticism. On the other hand, if you are simply resting content with what others tell you, and do not seek to justify it in the inner courts of your conscience and reason by bringing reason and conscience to bear upon the teachings at first hand, then I would say, beware: you are on a pretty straight road to a narrow and unprejudiced bigotry. [October 26, 1913.] "Then again called they the man that was blind and said unto him, Give God the praise. We know this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." — St. John ix:24, 25. The record of this miracle of the healing of the blind man, so graphic and so detailed, perhaps twice the length of the record of any of Christ's miracles, comprising indeed the whole of the ninth chapter of St. John's Gospel, affords us a number of very precious and very important lessons. I think the chief among them is the portrayal it gives us in the most dramatic way of the steps of spiritual progress in the apprehension of Christ as here illustrated in the case of this bHnd man. These steps or stages are indicated, I take it, by the terms in which the blind man, the AND OTHER PAPERS 193 former blind man, speaks of the great Healer. At first, to his friends, relatives, and neighbors, he speaks of Christ as "A man called Jesus," in the eleventh verse. In the seventeenth verse we find him rising to a higher plane; when confronted and ques- tioned by the Pharisees, he answers boldly, "He is a prophet." But after the cure, after Christ had opened his eyes, we find him uttering the words, "Lord, I beUeve." And he worshipped Him. We have here, then, a parable within a miracle; a parable setting forth the stages of spiritual progress in the apprehension of Jesus Christ. I might take as a separate text these words which I have quoted, first from the eleventh verse: A man called Jesus. I take it, this represents to us, translated into the terms of to-day, the stage of hearsay, moral or traditional faith in Chris- tianity. It is the common religion of custom and surroundings, the estabhshed ideal of the common education in which we grow up. This undoubtedly is a very good stage to begin with, but it is just as certainly a very bad stage to stop at. How many cases do we find of those who have grown up between the years of six and twenty, surrounded by rehgious influences, taking Christianity for granted, because their parents are desirous of it, and because it is generally regarded by the community as of so great importance. But just transfer the young man to some other surroundings where the circumstances are different, where there are few who confessedly and outwardly give their adhesion to Christianity, and how often we find him faUing away. Such a faith then, the faith that is the outcome simply of circumstances and environment, our lot in life, a fortunate lot in a Christian community, is after all at the sport of circumstances. Change of customs, change of surroundings, change in the professions of those about us, may sweep it away. We have one parallel of this, in our Lord's parable of the sower, in which we have repre- sented the seed f alUng by the wayside where any transient fowl of the air may happen upon it and pick it up and bear it away. And it is so in the case of those whose religion has got no deeper hold on them than the custom in which they have grown up. They are ready to speak favorably of Christ, they are ready to attend at least occasionally upon the services, though how much of heart they put into the service is another thing; but still they do not desire to be recognized as opposers of Christianity. After 194 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH all, I say, a mere change of surroundings and circumstances, like the fowls of the air that pick up the seed on the surface and take it away, and then this young man and in some cases this young woman, slips away from the faith of early youth and becomes lax in the discharge of reHgious obligations, and finally loses all interest in it. And this one thing has impressed me very much. We have a second stage which I think is a still higher one, presented in the words of the seventeenth verse : He is a prophet. That is, I think we have here that stage of faith which is the result of examination, the actual grasp of the argument on the external evidences of Christianity. This undoubtedly is a better and firmer stage. It will stand the strain of Pharisaical opposition better than the first which I have mentioned; and yet it is not the deep root. If I am a Christian only because of the seeming reasonableness of the external evidences; if I am a Christian only because so far as I kr;ow the great wisdom of the world is on its side, I am at the mercy of a more dexterous controversionalist, one of broader learning, one better able to marshal the evidences against these external evidences of Christianity; and for this reason I am very likely to be swept off my feet by that more skilful controversy. But the last stage contains the supreme and most important lesson I think that we are to draw from the record of this miracle, that faith is not simply hearsay, or theoretical or traditional grasp of the external evidences of Christianity, but the evidence within. This man had it. He was examined and cross-examined by those clever, dexterous, Pharisaical officials, and he could not answer their queries. Probably he said, "Frankly, I am all at sea; you are all around me, I cannot answer your controversial queries. But this one thing I know, and you cannot get around it, and I cannot get around it, and that is, that whereas I was bhnd, now I see." And how did he get it? There is a great, practical lesson for us all. He got it in the one way, the only way in which any honest and earnest conviction can be gotten. He got it, not simply by expressing admiration of Christ and his teachings, not by arguing about the commands and teachings and claims of Christ; but he got it by obedience. Christ said, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam." And he went, and washed and came seeing. There, I say, is a lesson for us all. AND OTHER PAPERS 195 Would we attain this stage? Would we reach that degree of personal conviction which no outward change of circumstances or conditions can alter? We can get it in only one way: by the serious, honest, and earnest endeavor to live the one life which Christ would have us live, regardless of doctrine or creed. It is true, there are doctrines and creeds, and they have their places. But that which gives real power, real energy, which carries us through the combat of Hfe, must be of the heart. We must not only believe Christ's teachings and Christ's claims, but we must live them, in so far as we are able. If we honestly and earnestly seek to know Christ's wiU, and do it, we shall sooner or later realize this deep and personal conviction of Jesus Christ. "He that keepeth these sayings of mine, and doeth my will, his faith shall be founded upon a rock." My dear friends, I think these are very important truths to us all. Some men, when they find their faith growing weak or shaken, think they must go on some sort of a crusade into the historical evidences of Christianity. That is all right in its place, but if he puts too much emphasis upon them instead of taking up the simple commands and directions of Christ and tr3dng to translate them into his own life, to make it one of prayer and purity, that man takes a most perilous course. He may, by a long and circuitous way, come again into a stronger and firmer faith; but the short cut, the practical way, the way that never fails, is the man who seeks honestly and earnestly to live the life at all times, in all places, in accordance with the Master's direc- tions. We should never think that Christianity, according to the Master himself, is chiefly a way of thinking; it is a way of living. His call is always, "Follow me, follow me." Not simply spend your time in investigation; that has its place; not simply spend your time in imaginative emotionalism over the great truths of Christianity and Christ's teachings; that is all right and has its place, but still it cannot take the place of honest en- deavor to follow as He would have us follow, to live as He would have us live. He that believeth on the Son of God in this deep and true sense shall be aware within himself of the truth and reality of Jesus Christ, 196 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH [November 23, 1913-] "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain alone." — St. John vi:ij. The murder of John the Baptist and the return of the twelve disciples from their prolonged missionary tour throughout GaUilee impelled our Lord to seek rest and solitude on the farther side of the lake Tiberias. He there sought to be alone with the twelve, but the eager multitude had in some way got word as to where they were going, and anticipated them by passing around the northern end of the lake, running over the land, and actually reaching the designated place before the Master and His disciples were there. So when He looked out upon the great multitude that had gathered, for it was at the time in which the roads were filled with the caravans of those making their way to the great Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem, He was moved to compassion. He laid His hands upon the blind. He healed the sick that were brought to Him there; and toward the close of the day He pro- vided for the great multitude by the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. I think there are several circumstances, my friends, which, as it were, intensify our interest in this miracle of the feeding of the five thousand; for it is the only one of our Lord's miracles which is recorded by all of the Evangelists. It is the only one of our Lord's miracles which St. John selects to report in common with the three others; and I might add that it is the only one fully repeated in our yearly service. We have the same Gospel study for the fourth Sunday in mid-Lent; and I might also say that the same repetition is found as far back as the eleventh century. So, in the minds of those who have studied the Church and its observ- ances, possibly there would seem to be the persuasion that this miracle must stand for a great deal, and perhaps would ask the question, "What is the motive, the reason for it?" I think we may possibly approach it in this way: In the first place, we see that the occasion was very different from that which took place in the fall of the year at the other end of the lake. This miracle was performed in the spring of the year AND OTHER PAPERS 197 at the northern end of the lake, and the feeding of the four thou- sand, some months later, was at the southern end. So there is a difference in the time of year, in the place, in the number, and in some otiier minor quaUties; but above all I think there is the difference in the motive, or design, of the miracle. Now, this miracle was not performed to meet the necessities of the occasion. Those gathered about Him had been there only a few hours, during the larger part of the day, and most of them undoubtedly could have returned to their homes to get supplies to meet their cravings for food and drink. So, then, it was not the case of the feeding of the four thousand, who had been three days with our Lord without food, and He had compassion upon them, and said, "If I send them away, they will faint." So it was not, then, I say, to meet the immediate necessities of hunger on the part of those who had gathered there. I think if we study the conditions and circumstances carefully, we shall be ready to say that this miracle was not meant chiefly to meet the physical needs, but it was meant to teach and to test— in fact, you have but to read the Gospel carefully to find that from this time on there is a marked change in our Lord's teaching and His procedure. For instance. He seems no longer anxious to gather about Him the great multitude; He forsakes the popular Galilee and seeks rather the retired places, and gives Himself especially to the more intimate teaching of His immediate followers, the twelve, and those who were associated with them. There was a distinct change, a marked change, I say, in His teaching. Throughout all the previous time He had spoken always of the Kingdom of God, saying very little about HimseK, of His personality. His mission. Now there comes a change. Jesus sets forth Himself as the centre of aU, the One Supreme Being, attachment with whom, vital union with whom, is the secret of eternal Kfe. This miracle is still more brought out in the hght of the great discourse which our Lord pronounced the following day. Right across the lake, in Capernaum in the synagogue there, He makes His first annunciation, clear and distinct, of this great change, that He Himself was the beginning and the middle and the end of faith and of love, so that, we may say, this miracle and that great discourse across the lake in the sjmagogue at Capernaum were the expansion, the outgrowth, of the great truth which He de- 198 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH signed to bring home to them: "I am the Bread of Life; he that Cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that beUeveth on me shall never thirst." My dear friends, let me pause to say that we cannot read these words familiarly and with any degree of attention without a shudder, unless we recognize that He who spoke them was more than man, was the Eternal Son of God, coming to earth and tak- ing upon Himself our nature in addition to His own Divine nature that He might work out the rescue and the redemption of man- kind. " I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Now, I say, this great miracle here was somewhat of an intro- ductory nature. We have the employing of the loaves for the Bread of Life, and it was a miracle which awakened immense enthusiasm, increased it rather, for there was immense enthusi- asm already. We know that the whole country before this time was ringing with the name and fame of Jesus Christ, teacher and prophet — "Surely this was a great prophet." People from every town and hamlet were following Him; the roads and b3rways were filled with them. Every lip was uttering the name of Jesus of Nazareth: what a wonderful teacher He was; how He could heal the sick; no prophet before him ever approached Him in this power of health giving and rescue and betterment. Well, all this immense enthusiasm was a good thing, provided that the motive or spirit which prompted it was the right one. But this miracle had a deeper sense, a greater consequence, than to merely arouse enthusiasm. When the people saw Christ heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, or raise the dead, it was all over in a moment or so. They were simply spectators, on- lookers, but in this great miracle they were every one participa- tors; they all partook of the food Christ developed or provided from the little store of five barley loaves. The enthusiasm was so greatly increased that it brought out, undoubtedly, just what our Lord designed it should: it brought out the real meaning that was back of the enthusiasm; and it perhaps included the great majority, the great mass, of the rude peasantry that were gathered about Him. They would take Him by force and make Him a king. It was by the intensity of the enthusiasm which was awakened that the real motive of the general mass was disclosed, undoubt- AND OTHER PAPERS 199 edly just what our Lord wished. He was not deceived by the enthusiasm, however; He was not deceived by the demonstra- tions of the great multitude who would "take Him by force and make Him a king." He was anxious to bring out the true motive of these who were following Him, the real reason for this enthu- siasm. He wanted to find out if they really sought the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It was an open poHtical secret that the people were striving for the hberty and power of their nation as a free nation upon the earth at that time under the con- trol of the Roman dominion, and when Christ performed this wonderful miracle of the loaves and fishes they exclaimed among themselves: "Here is the very man we want; here is the man who will rule our nation and free us from the tyranny of the Romans." The enthusiasm was so great that it spread to the Uttle band of disciples, and we read that when Christ detected it He brought them right down to the lake shore, where He put them into the boats and sent them away lest they, too, should be contaminated by this political enthusiasm that was so evident on this occa- sion. The sermon the following day at Capernaum had something of a more intimate feeling. We read there when they heard His words, "I am the Bread of Life, " that many of them turned away and followed Him no more. "He that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that beheveth on me shall never thirst." They said one to another, "That is a hard saying. Who can beheve it? " And many of them turned away and followed Him no more. It was better that they should realize that they could not truly follow the Christ if they followed Him only for the mo- tive they had just displayed. It was far better that this distinc- tion should be made. I suppose some might say, taking this miracle in connection with the sermon at Capernaum the following day, that it was a rather sad ending, a mournful conclusion to a great occasion. But it was Christ's way of taking advantage of circumstances, and now that He knew that their enthusiasm was not for the King- dom of God and His righteousness, or the desire that His kingdom should be estabhshed on earth, it was far better that such enthu- siasm should come to an end. My dear friends, is there not a practical lesson here for each 200 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH and every one of us? Why do we profess Christ? Why do we call ourselves professors and followers of Christ? Is it because we sincerely and devoutly and earnestly wish to be guided at all times by His spirit? Is it because we seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as above and before all? Or is it simply because of custom, is it simply from a desire to be recognized as respectable, for the sake of our reputation — is our motive mere material advancement? Just take this question home, these words of Christ to each and every professor and follower of Christ: Do you love Me for my own sake? Do you follow Me for my spirit's sake, or is it simply for the mere outward advan- tages which would come to you as a professor of Christianity? [December 28, 1913.] "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His son." — Galatians, iv:^. When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his son. This remarkable expression, the "fulness of time" implies not only that the time had been set in Divine Providence, but that in fact all previous history had been at once a preparation and a prophecy for it, making it the fulness of time. Indeed, if we take our stand at the cradle of Christ and look back over the world's past, we see two definite streams of history slowly con- verging until they combine at the manger of Bethlehem — the history of the Jews on the one hand, and the history of the Gen- tiles on the other hand. Each had a definite and imperative part to perform under the Divine Providence. Let us look briefly at these two elements. It was the mission of the Jews, under Divine guidance, to pre- pare Christianity for man. Now it is all important that we should recognize that Christianity, the religion of Christ, is not simply a rehgion of art or culture or knowledge — the pagans had that kind of a religion — ^but it is essentially the religion of moral and spiritual redemption. And the necessity made it and marked it as a religion of the kind that must depend upon the AND OTHER PAPERS 201 Divine nature and must be founded upon the two essential and fundamental attributes of the Divine character: God's holiness and God's loving mercy. Now if the Jews, as the instrument of Divine Providence, were to prepare Christianity for man, some way there must be to impress upon them in deep and abiding form these two great facts of the Divine nature: the Divine hoU- ness and the Divine loving mercy toward man. We know very well that holiness made no part of the attributes which were as- signed to the gods of the pagan religions. There was a kind of free fellowship, but that they were holy and that they never transgressed any of the laws of the moral being was something utterly apart from the teachings and definitions of the pagan reUgions. How, then, was this to be impressed upon the Jews? We see how elaborately God set to work to bring home to the Jewish people these facts, first that God was holy, that not with unclean hearts or unclean hands could they approach Him. Of course, in a rude state, the Jewish people were somewhat on a plane much above the masses — a kind of enlightened paganism. It was necessary that this great truth should be brought home to them in an external and symboHcal way, and so we find God choosing the Jewish people as a holy people unto Himself. This is the first indication of separation from the world; and out of that holy people was selected a tribe which should furnish those who should be ministers in the true worship of the Holy God — the second instance of separation and teaching and impressing holiness upon the people. Then out of that tribe has been se- lected a family who should furnish a continuous priesthood, who should appear immediately in the presence of God to discharge the holy ofiices of the sanctuary of God. And then out of that was made another separation, impressing still more deeply upon the people the fact that God must be approached with clean hands and holy hearts. One man was selected to be the high priest, and he could only enter into the holy of holies once throughout the whole year. So in this external and symbolical way we see God working and impressing on the hearts and minds of the Jewish people the first evidences of the religion which they were to prepare for the world, impressed by Divine holiness. And so it grew and grew until this deeper symbolism gave place in the person of our 202 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH blessed Master to the infinitely perfect holiness and goodness of the man Christ Jesus. Then again: That was one element of the religion which the Jews were chosen to prepare for the world, the hoUness of God; but we see there was a second element, just as wonderful and just as important, and that was the loving mercy of God. To bring home to the hearts of the Jews that God was not a mere supreme justice, sitting aloft on His throne above the universe, seeking to spy out the weaknesses of men to punish them, but that He was a father whose heart was filled with passionate love and mercy for all His children, the waj^ward and those who were striving to be good, alike — how was this to be brought home to the Jews? Well, it was done by promises, it was done by teaching and setting forth the great truths of the fatherhood of God, in the fulness of which Christ would come to impress in a still deeper measure upon the hearts and minds of the Jews that God was a loving God, that forgiveness and mercy and helpfulness and compassion were the essential attributes of His character. And so we find that under the discipline and guidance of God this second truth grew and grew to the time when we have in Scripture the revela- tion of that great truth, the Gospel of loving mercy. Turn to the third chapter of Genesis, and there you read the first note of that Gospel: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. And it grew and grew until it came to its consummation in the declaration of the Master himself, recorded for us also in the third chapter of St. John's Gospel, where he says that " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever beUeveth on Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life." Of course, my dear friends, I have but touched upon the main points of this great argument, but I pass now to bring to you very briefly the mission of the Gentile world. We are perhaps some- times inclined to think that the whole of Christianity, the whole preparation for the coming of Christ, was due to the Jews. But the Gentile world had just as definite and just as important a part as did the Jews. If it was the mission of the Jews to pre- pare Christianity for man, it was the mission of the Gentile world to prepare man for Christianity. Thus was begun and deepened in man a sense of his moral and spiritual helplessness without the AND OTHER PAPERS 203 aid of Divine grace, without the help of some great power from the throne on high. Now of course time was necessary, in order that this sense of moral and spiritual helplessness might be de- veloped in man. Or, in other words, it was important that men should be allowed to go on during the ages, alone, trying their very best, in order that they might despair of their best and turn their faces and hearts for deliverance to God, who was ready with His patient and loving mercy to supplement their weakness, and to show by the gift of His own son the great truth that God is always a loving God; just as the sun sends forth his rays, so the great heart of God sends out His love for mankind. There was, therefore, we see, this preparation and this prophecy for setting the "fulness of time." Now I know it is sometimes asked, "Does not the church lay her chief emphasis upon Christ's miracles?" I think not. "Does she not lay her chief emphasis upon His teaching?" I think not. "Does she not lay her chief emphasis upon His divinity and His supreme character?" I think we may say, even there, perhaps not. But she points with unshakable certi- tude of conviction to the great fact that in Jesus Christ there was one who literally moulded all previous history, before His coming, that of the Jews as well as the Gentiles. Great characters have arisen in the world whose lives have largely moulded succeeding history; but here is a case, absolutely without parallel, of one coming into the world who had moulded all previous history — preparing thereby the "fulness of time." We should think of these familiar things at this glorious and blessed season; we should remember that Christianity stands or falls by this Birthday; that there was born in the "fulness of time" the eternal Son of God, and that Christianity is not simply one of the many religions that have been worked out and fought for and died for, recognizing this great truth that there was in the "fulness of time" a Divine preparation throughout all the preceding years for the coming of Christ. We often point to the miracles as the greatest proof of Christ's Divinity. The miracles perhaps may prove one thing, but they cannot be absolute proof, except for one thing, namely, the dec- laration, "He could work a miracle"— the miracle itself proves that. The teaching of Christ, taken by itself, is to all minds the 204 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH greatest proof of His Divinity. No matter how wonderful, every man can comprehend and appreciate that. We consider Christ's miracles and His teaching and we say, "Here is the great character, here is the supreme virtue, the approved ideal of Christ, that is unique." Well, in a great sense, a deep sense, we may say it is. But what is absolutely true and entirely with- out parallel in any individual life is that the character of Jesus Christ is holy and will never be surpassed. And we must remem- ber that we cannot be absolute judges of character. We can only judge of what appears to be. I am reminded of the rebuke of our Lord when the rich man rushed up and said, " Good Mas- ter" — "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God." There is the danger of judging without having first- hand and definite knowledge. We may judge of conduct, but who can know the inner secrets of character? This great truth, then, of the preparation of the world — the mission of the Jews and the Gentiles, is something which the Church emphasizes to-day, and states with unshakable certitude of conviction to those who admit the Divinity of Him to whom the church has consecrated her life and her work and her worship. [January ii, 1914.] "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, Behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusa- lem, saying. Where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him." — St. Matthew ii:i, 2. I endeavored last Sunday to emphasize three characteristics of this group of venerable men, who made theiir long journey from the east to Jerusalem; the mystery that invested them, their name, their number, their nationahty being a mystery; their disinterestedness; unknown, they stopped to ask for no favors, no position of rank or place in this new kingdom that was to be established. I also endeavored to emphasize the strength of their faith, that no difiiculties could alter, that no exigencies could AND OTHER PAPERS 205 deter from their long journey, and when they reached Jerusalem no disappointments could efface their belief. Now to-day I wish briefly to draw attention to what I might call a very practically important lesson embedded in this record of the wise men coming to Christ. If we ask what were the condi- tions, or how was it that they were brought to the cradle of Christ, we read in the record that it was the leading of the star, and not by some other strange and unexpected signal or sign from the earth. Now we must remember that these Magi or wise men in the east were astronomers and astrologers; their life business, their particular calling, was to read the skies, to study the stars. Therefore God in His Providence sets for them the signal star in the sky, and it was by it that they were led. It was through the pursuit of their daily occupation, their proper business in hfe, that they were brought to see the revelation of the star that should lead them to the manger of the new-born king. I have said the devout and faithful fulfillment of their daily occupation, the study of the heavens, watching the skies, study- ing the stars, gave these wise men the knowledge that led them to the manger of Bethlehem. By their faithful study of the stars they received the knowledge that they sought in the most im- pressive way. A famous French astronomer once said, "I have watched the skies for forty years, and I have never seen a trace of God, or a sign of His presence." But these men pursued their daily vocation in a different spirit, so that I insist they were faithful and devout men. For instance, to know the will of God, they were on the watch, on the alert, for any Divine manifesta- tion that should lead them to better knowledge and greater truth. So I would emphasize, right in the line of their common daily occupation they met with that manifestation that did lead them to the Christ they sought. How beautifully and how instructively this same thought is illustrated again and again in Scripture. There is Moses, who received the sign of the burning bush. Why not a star? Be- cause it was not his business to look at the skies; it was not his vocation to be a watcher of the stars; he was a shepherd, his particular business was on the ground, and therefore God sets the signal of the burning bush. It was right in the Une of his common daily duty. So it was in the case of David, tending and 2o6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH guarding the sheep when Samuel anointed him to be the king of Israel. We find it again in the case of EHsha, plowing in the fields, attending to his work, when the mantle of Ehjah was cast upon him, being a signal that he himself was to step into the prophet's place and should proceed in the line of the prophets of the Old Testament. Again, in the New Testament we find the same thought. On that Christmas night the shepherds were not doing strange things. They were not holding a special prayer meeting. They were only watching their flocks, attending to their business, we are told; but they were on the watch, on the alert to discharge their daily common duties faithfully and de- voutly, when there came that glorious overture of the heavenly angels. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will to men, for unto you is born in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And so with the disciples. One after another, we find that they were selected while doing their common daily duties, while they were fulfilUng the just obligations which rested upon them in accordance with their occupation in hfe. The fishermen are casting their nets when the call comes, Follow me; James and John are mending their nets when they hear the call, Follow Me. And so with Matthew at the receipt of custom, always at his place, always faithful, when he hears the words, Rise and fol- low Me. And there are other instances that I might quote to illustrate, I might say to bring home the truth of that beau- tiful old saying that "Christ most commonly catches men in the craft" — ^by the star for the astronomer, by the nets for the fisher- men. We have, then, in this record, my friends, a great practical truth, that the path of daily, common duty is the way to meet with God. The path of our common, everyday duty is the way to meet with God. God no more manifests Himself to us by vis- ible evidences, that is true; no more does He set signal stars in the sky, or appear in the burning bush. But God meets with us to-day just as really as of old. He meets with us by the incoming of His spirit, giving grace and life and guidance and helping us into closer and better fellowship with our Heavenly Father. The pathway of daily duty, I say, is the one great way whereby we are sure, if we discharge those duties devoutly as a piece of serv- AND OTHER PAPERS 207 ice for God, we shall meet with Him. We may do our duty out of a desire to win public respect; but if we do even the common- place, humblest duties with the desire to please God, sajong, I will make of this little everyday duty, or discharge this obliga- tion, as a piece of Divine service, just as we work and hve in that spirit, we shall come, by the way of our common duty, into fellow- ship with Christ. This is one thought that I think we all need to strive to bring home more and more to ourselves. When we are awakened out of our lethargy, when we are awak- ened to a knowledge of Christ, for instance, how prone we are to think, "Well, I must go and do some strange thing, some wonder- ful thing; I must have some strange experience for God." The fisherman thinks he must become an astronomer, the astronomer thinks he must become a shepherd, and the shepherd thinks he must become a fisherman, in order that he may hear the call or receive the signal. Now it is not so. It is just by keeping on with the old obligations and the duties which God, who has placed us in life, has given us, doing them faithfully, devoutly, as a piece of Divine service. And this is the way, my friends, that we see the star or the burning bush or hear the call. Come closer to Me, come into fellowship with Me, follow Me. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life. It is, then, I say, a most impressive thought that we have here, one that each and every one can take home. We do not need, as I have said, to do some strange thing or to have some unusual experience. It is not so much whether we do some strange thing; it is not so much whether we are tending flocks or casting nets or studying the stars, that we come nearer to the Christ. It is by doing the old thing, the commonest things, in the new spirit, with the desire of serving God, that we are brought closer to him. So then, my dear friends, we may go forth into life through- out this year, performing the daily cares of life in a humble mood and a willing spirit, and find that all along the pathway the Divine goodness, if I may so express it, is in ambush ready to surprise us with His blessing and the benefactions of Hfe and the guidance of His spirit. All along life's pathway, not simply in the wild and newly discovered retreats of Christ, but in the com- monest things, the humblest duties, the teacher at her desk, the 2o8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH preacher at his work, the housewife in her busy cares; all these are places where we may find that Light and Guidance that shall be to us just what this star was to the wise men in the East, faithfully and devoutly fulfilling their daily task, when there flashed upon their vision the star in the sky that should lead them to the cradle of the Christ. [January i8, 1914. "For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." — St. Luke, ii:ii, 12 In the light of the great event of the Epiphany season, three groups of men stand out in strong relief, irradiating, made con- spicuous in the light of this great event. These groups are, first, we may say, the shepherds at Bethlehem, second the Magi from the countries of the East, and third the rehgious authorities at Jerusalem itself. These three groups, we may say, severally played their parts at this great time of the manifestation of the Christ. But there is for us when we study the record a very profound and practical lesson. There is a lesson to be drawn of imiversal importance from the circumstances of these three groups of men in their relation to the Christ-child. I might state that great practical lesson thus: It is evident as we study the record here that God in His Providence apportioned the measure of His guidance and of His grace to these men in finding the Christ in accordance with their faithful use of their natural abilities, their opportunities, and their privileges. God apportioned the measure of His guidance and of His grace in the finding of Christ, in accordance with the faithfulness, the devout faithfulness, with which they exercised their natural abihties and improved their opportunities and their religious privileges. To glance first at the shepherds: we see that they were unlet- tered men; but little had been taught them and little, we may say, was required of them in finding the Christ. Their unlettered AND OTHER P^APERS 209 condition, their lowly opportunities, prohibited them from any- thing like close inquiry or intelligent investigation. They might have heard, perhaps, by prophecies, of the coming of the Christ, but they had neither the time nor the ability to follow them out with investigation and inquiry. So we find that expUcit and definite information was given these shepherds, these lowly, humble men. The angel with articuMe voice declared to them the fact of the birth of Christ. Not only did the angel declare the time and the place, in the City of David, in Bethlehem, but the angel went further even and declared unto them the sign by which they could identify the child: "And this shall be a sign imto you, Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." We see, then, in this case, how God met the lowly condition of these men. There was but one virtue and one requirement made of them, and that was obedience. And their obedience was prompt and unhesitating. We read that they went in haste and they found the Christ and worshipped Him as the Christ. Now I think we have here the explanation of some cases that seem to puzzle often. We find here the illustration of the fact that lowly and devout and humble people though they are, the ignorant may often find the true road to the Christ, while those whom the world calls more fortunate may faU. Now this is not putting a premium upon ignorance; but it is to emphasize this truth that the finding of Christ is ever more and more and always a matter more of the open heart and the willing mind than it is of culture or education or position or rehgious privileges. Sometimes we find doubts expressed as to the comparisons here emphasized. I read some time ago an article that seemed ready to discourage the opinion that anything was required of these men in their conversion. It said, It is to be doubted if those ignorant barbarians could really have learned more of the Christ than those in Jerusalem, in accordance with the prophe- cies. I may say the same 'might be true of these shepherds. But God gave them guidance that the Magi and those in Jerusa- lem knew nothing of. And so, in secret ways, in accordance with the Divine purpose, those whom God in His Divine Provi- dence places in such circumstances that the world calls unfavor- able and dire, often with meagre instruction and education, 2IO THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH may more surely find the way to Christ than those who sit aloft in places of ease. Not because of their circumstances in life, not because they are poor or ignorant, but because they are humbly and devoutly obedient, with doors of the heart open to God's spirit. They have not much so far as the facts and details of the history of Christianity are concerned; but if to God's spirit the doors of the heart are open,. He will come in to you and sup with you. Well, if we pass to the second class, that of the Magi, there is a great contrast here. The Magi were men of learning and train- ing. They had leisure for investigation and inquiry, and God required it of them. For them there was no very exphcit infor- mation given; there was set the signal star in the sky, in accord- ance with the ancient prophecy, "there shall arise a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre out of Israel" — but they were required to use their powers, their God-given natural abilities, their reason- ing faculties, their judgment, in applying and furthering their information in finding the Christ. They had to make a long and perilous journey in order to reach the city where they expected He would be born. Finding the Christ-child was not born there, they did not falter or allow this new information to delay or dis- courage them; and when they reached Jerusalem they did not allow the still more powerful force of the utter increduhty of those in high religious places there to dampen their ardor or to make them doubt. They pressed on, employing the powers that were given them, engaging the guidance and Ught that had been vouch- safed them, until they at last found the Christ, the reward for their devout and patient and faithful inquiry. If we pass to the last class or group of the three, we still have a marked contrast, and, sad to say, in quite another direction. The rehgious leaders in Jerusalem at the time of th^s great event, the birth of the Christ, knew well that the world expected a Saviour; it had been foretold by the prophets and preparation made for the coming of the Messiah. Indeed, these religious leaders had in their very hands the sacred oracles, and they knew them well. They could point to the very place, here in Micah, where we are told He was to be born, and they could almost state the time when He was to be born. They could give His lineage from the prophecy of Isaiah, and while they could give AND OTHER PAPERS 211 this information to others, they took no steps themselves in finding the Christ-child. They declared the sacred truths to others, but they made no attempt, they took no steps themselves, to find the Christ. Their pride, their self-righteousness, their self-confidence, blinded them. They knew the letter of the Scripture, but they were blind to its spiritual significance. And so they failed to find the Christ. They even failed to make an attempt to find the Christ. The wise men in the East could say, "Yes, He was to be born at this time; here it is in Micah, and in Daniel; it is about this time that He is to be born, of the lineage of David; here the prophet Isaiah tells us, and we are to take the information and go and seek Him." And we know how they went and found Him. But those at Jerusalem, content in their pride and self-righteousness, while they could point the way to others, took no steps and made no efforts themselves. My dear friends, we should bear in mind that these three types of men in their relation to the Christ-child are not extreme types, they are not external t3T3es. Every community, every age, presents their counterpart. There are those who, by their prompt obedience, like the shepherds, those who, by their patient and persistent efforts and inquiry, like the Magi, find the Christ, to their comfort and their salvation. And there are others, hke the leaders in Jerusalem, who never find the Christ — blinded by their pride, by their indifference, by their neglect. [February i, 1914.] "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end tlicreof are the ways of death." — Proverbs xiv:z2. There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And in the sixteenth chapter, at the twenty-fifth verse, the very same words are repeated. I think this emphasizes their importance. It is the only absolute repeti- tion that I am aware of in Scripture that is not connected with some detail of historic event. The language of the inspired writer suggests, as you will see at once, the metaphor in which the genius of all ages has delighted 212 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH to depict the way of life: Life a journey, a Pilgrim's Progress. And to each one of us there opens two courses. There is the nar- row way where Duty stands, stem, instant, imperative, saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it." There is another, a broad, inviting way where Pleasure stands — ^pleasure of passion, of appetite, perhaps of profit. And Pleasure says, ' ' This is the way ; walk ye in it." There is one event that comes alike to all, as is the righteous, so is the wicked: the voices that say, "Come this way." Pleasure, with her purple Hp and jewelled wrist, beckon- ing to that broad and inviting way, says. "Do not let yourself be guided or prompted by what you may hear of the dangers of the way; come on." I think there are two kinds of travellers. There is, first, the impulsive, reckless traveller, heedless in his way, who starts off at the beckoning call of Pleasure at right angles with the true and right way, the path of duty; but he does not deceive himself. He knows he is doing wrong, but passions insurgent and dominant seem to force him on, and on he goes, as it were, at right angles from the true course of duty, and very soon finds himself lost in the marshes, the morasses of sin, and he reaUzes this, and there is hope for him, from the very fact that he had been brought to such extremes of experience. And he says, "I will leave this path; I will turn and go and seek the right way." But there is another traveller whose case is much more serious. He is calm, he is calculating, he is collected. He does not start off at right angles, by any means. It is by slow and almost imperceptible divergences from the true path of duty that he sets out; and he sets about deceiving himself. He says, "A step a little bit to the right or the left, what harm can there be in that? " And so he argues with himself, and his path keeps diverging more and more. He is not carried away with passion perhaps; he is one probably who is carried away with desire of some important gain; but on he goes, deceiving himself, until at last, though he has wandered far away from the true course, he is still saying to himself, still believing in a sense, "This is the right way; I have not really left it; I am guarding myself against these swamps, these marshes, these morasses; I am walking on pretty fair ground. What is the harm in this? " Now I have alluded to these two cases, because they are very AND OTHER PAPERS 213 striking types or symbols of the two kinds of moral and spiritual declension. There is, first, the impulsive, heedless, reckless man, who is carried away by the potency of his passions, and he is led on and on until, it may be, he ends in some terrible crime that brings him, as it were, to a recognition of the very conditions which he has made himself. Now we have a type of the first kind in David. It was not by slow and almost imperceptible degrees that he began to go wrong. But there was hope for him, because he did not deceive himself. The despair with which he cries, "Against thee and thee only, have I sinned," shows that he had kept faith in God, deep in his heart, notwithstanding his wilful procedure and his abrupt departure from the teaching which he had followed in his youth. We have another illustration or type of this impulsive kind of traveller, and that is the great St. Augustine. Reared by a pious mother, in his earliest years devout and obedient, but he starts off abruptly under the stress of a temptation, at right angles to the true course; but he did not deceive himself. I doubt if there was ever a moment when he was saying to himself, "Well, I guess this is all right; there is no harm in this; it makes no difference." He knew he was doing wrong and he did not deceive himself. There is the other type of moral declension, and that is the man who is not recognized as a passionate man; he is not a man whose passionate nature forces him from the true course. He is calm, he is collected, he is calculating, but he nevertheless deceives himself by the very way in which his moral and spiritual downfall is more or less brought about, namely, by his false, indefinite, and partial view of duty. He refuses to see aright, to take the right view of anything that he sets about doing. I say this juggling with conscience, this trying to get at some angle where we can see the thing in a different light, is wrong. Duty is too impera- tive, too imposing and insistent, when the way is plain before us and we turn to this side and that side, trying to find some other way out of it. Just as when I hold my hand flat before you, so, you can see it very plainly, but if I turn it a little to one side, you will see only a slight line there. Just so in the moral and spiritual sphere, when a man sets about perverting his moral sense, distorting his moral and spiritual vision so that he cannot see the whole thing but only the part that seems right to him. 214 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH My thoughts have lately been turned to this subject, I confess, by the startling revelations in connection with the State contracts with which the papers have recently been filled. Among all those men that have gone wrong, I doubt if there was one who would deliberately have stolen five cents; but when you call it graft — why do we not call it stealing? — ^when you caU it graft, how easy it is for a man of active powers and intellectual ability to say, "Well, something is due to eminent ability, something is due to organizing ability." And so he argues with himself: "I am not really stealing from the State; I am simply earning this money in a way that few people can earn it." Such a man does not particularly consider whether he is going wrong or that he is starting off at right angles. He eases his conscience by consider- ing that it is only regulating the adjustment of matters. And so he argues with himself, until he can perpetrate an act of down- right, premeditated, admitted dishonesty. I think we have an illustration of this in the destruction of Jerusalem. When the leaders of the mob of soldiers there, after firing the great part of the city, came to the temple, no man among them dared set fire to the temple; when some ingenius one among them said, "I'll tell you what we wiU do. We will not put the torch to the temple itself, but we will create a great fire in this adjoining structure, and perhaps it will reach the temple." And so they did, and that was exactly the way the temple was destroyed. It is so in the moral world. How often men do just that very thing. They say to themselves, "We will not do this thing directly, but we will look at it from that angle or this, and per- haps it will not seem so very wrong." Now I think, my friends, nothing is more important for us than to bear this in mind. It is not only or chiefly by direct and acknowledged wrongdoing that many of us go wrong. It is by little degrees, a slow process, by in some way providing our- selves with an excuse for what we do; trying to change our posi- tion until we can see the thing in a different light. We start out, perhaps, with no real intention of wrongdoing, and we go on dis- torting our moral sense, changing our viewpoint, as it were, until we can find an excuse for almost anything. And let me say that no amount of education or ability is any AND OTHER PAPERS 215 guarantee against this self-deception. Such a person may be comparatively a giant intellectually, but if a giant resolves on suicide, it is a giant's hand that strikes the blow. Let us also remember that our material sense often confiscates our moral sense. Our moral principles should parallel the pow- ers of our passions. Each one of us, my friends, when we come into the world, is equipped with a certain store of ability for moral discrimination, for moral action; but if we are not on our guard we will lose that power, and when it is gone nothing can restore it. There is, then, in the one case, the man who goes wrong from force of passion, and is brought sharply to see the error of his ways; and, in the other case, the man who argues with himself, stilling the voice of Conscience, insidiously deceiving himself. I would liken the first to a man with a broken arm. There is hope for him, a skiKul surgeon may reset that arm. But the one who is deliberately deceiving himself is like a man with a palsied arm. Where is the surgeon that can heal that arm? Just so it is in moral and spiritual matters. The man who deliberately sets about deceiving himself, perverting his moral sense, unconcerned with the things that are right and true, is the man who will go on until at last the light in him has become darkness; his way has come to seem to him the right way. But I do not say even his case is hopeless. So long as I am a minister of the Gospel, I shall insist upon the great truth that no man is beyond the pale of pardon and recovery; to believe other- wise would ,be the last profanity. The door of mercy is ever braced back by the cross of Christ, and His call comes to each and every one: "Come unto me. He that foUoweth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." [February 15, 1914.] "And when much people were gathered together and were come to Him out of every city. He spoke by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed." — St. Luke, mn:4, 5. It was a memorable day, my friends, when this parable was uttered. It was right, we may say, at the height of the great 2i6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Galilean revival; the whole land was ringing with the name and fame of this wonderful teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. The shepherd on the hillside, the boatman on the lake, the laborer in the vineyard, were talking about Him, repeating one to another the wonderful words they had heard Him say or that had been reported to them. It was a memorable day, because it was marked by two memorable events; and the events, we may say, constituted a distinct turning-point in the public ministry of our Blessed Master. The first event took place in the morning. A vast multitude, and it was a picturesque multitude with their gay particolored clothes, had gathered on the sloping land reach- ing back from the seashore. Jesus was in a boat anchored a short distance from the shore, and as He looked out over the masses gathered there. He saw those who had been His private enemies, though they had once sought to win Him to their side, the Pharisees and the Scribes, who had come down from Jerusa- lem. And so He called them before Him, as we read in St. Mark, He called them before Him, and the occasion was their charge that He had in the morning cast out devils and had healed a man who was dumb and blind from his birth; their charge that He had cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Our Lord gathered them there, those who had made the charge, in front of the multitude where every eye was fixed on them, and said to them first an argument, direct and levelled to common sense: "If Satan cast out Satan, how can his kingdom stand?" And then further, an argument that touched the point of their pride: "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? What is the power which you believe in and of which you are so proud? " In other words, here was the first public and abrupt break with the Pharisees on the part of Christ. Up to this time He had held back, He had patiently and in a genial and generous manner borne with their pride and their persecutions. But now the crisis had arrived that should admit of no misunderstanding as to what Christ's judgment in regard to them was. It was, I say, a public and abrupt break with the Pharisees. In the afternoon the occasion of this great assembly was marked by another event — a change of His method of address toward the multitude. First the break with the Pharisees, sec- AND OTHER PAPERS 217 ond His change of method of address toward the multitude. We speak of parables: perhaps very few of us but have thought of Christ as speaking in parables all through His whole ministry, but as a matter of fact, we have no record of any parable before nearly the middle of the second year of His public ministry; and this parable of the sower is the first parable, the inaugural par- able, we may call it, that stood as the change of His method of address to the people. Before He had spoken in all simplicity, directly, like the Sermon on the Mount, spoken so that men had gone away, "Yes, we understand all that"— now there comes the change; He begins to speak to them in parables. As He stood there in the boat He uttered one parable, and a second parable, and a third parable, and a fourth parable, and a fifth parable, undoubtedly to the great disappointment and confusion of the great throng gathered there. They were longing to hear more of those sayings, such as, "Blessed are the poor" — "Blessed are the meek" — " Blessed are they that suffer imder persecution for right- eousness' sake" — and so forth. Instead of that they hear a parable: "A sower went forth to sow." And undoubtedly a great many, discomfited by this, turned away and followed no more after Him. And why was this? It was because, my friends, Jesus was not deceived by the rampant enthusiasm that filled the land. He knew what was in the hearts of men, and He knew how very much of the spirit that animated the great crowds that followed Him from town to town was simply emotionalism, simply the satisfaction of morbid curiosity, and in the case of the Pharisees and Scribes the desire to win this wonderful teacher and leader over to their side. So He uttered this parable of the sower; and in the multitude gathered before Him there were undoubtedly representatives of all the classes of heart soil which He set forth in His parable. I can touch upon them but briefly. There was first, the seed that fell by the wayside — the wayside hearer. The seed did not sLak into the hard beaten paths, for there was not force enough, as it fell from the hand of the sower, to carry it below the surface; and the seed that fell on these hard beaten paths was picked up by the fowls of the air and carried away. It did not sink into the ground and did not begin to grow. Here we have, in the moral and spiritual sphere, my friends, the 2i8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH type of what we may say is the notional or merely literal hearer of the Word of God. He hears the command, " Come unto Me; take up your cross and follow Me." And if he be of a speculative turn of mind, his thoughts perhaps run off on this or that argu- ment of Christianity. It may be that he has thoughts of follow- ing Christ and obedience to Him; it may be that he begins to spend time over what he calls certifying the evidences of Chris- tianity; or perhaps he gets puzzled in the difi&culties of the Old Testament — anything, indeed, that would seize and take away this direct command of the Master to follow Him and endeavor to shape character after the pattern that He has given us. Or it may be some measure of worldly gain. You remember on one occasion, when our Lord was preaching and talking to His dis- ciples on the most solemn of subjects, telling them of the dangers and the suffering they would have to endure, and the persecutions that would be theirs. "They wiU bring you before judges and magistrates." There was the word, "magistrates." As soon as a certain man in the crowd heard that word, as soon as the seed had fallen, he turned at once to the Master and said, "Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." The mere suggestion of the word was enough to turn his thoughts to his own worldly gain, the desired acquirement of what was doubtless his natural right. In the second place, we have the stony ground hearers. The translation here does not give us a right conception of just the kind of soil that is meant, whether it is simply a slight mixture — which would make very good soil — or whether it means shallow soil resting on a great sheet of stone. A large part of the soil of Palestine is covered with a fine sheet of Umestone, in many places but a foot or so below the surface of the soil. And the seed falls there; and unlike the first kind, it is not picked up at once, but sinks into the soil and grows rapidly, stimu- lated, as it were, under the circumstances, by the Umestone beneath it. But it soon withers away, because it lacks depth and moisture. Now here we have another type of those who fail to hold to the teaching of Christ; we may say the emotional type, the tj^pe that is pictured in the young man who at first was very desirous to follow Christ; he knew the Scripture and he had kept the com- AND OTHER PAPERS 219 mandments. He said, "Master, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest." How many of us, as we have read Christ's answer, have been startled by its apparent harshness, especially as we read right afterward where two others made excuses and He accepted them. To the young man He said, "That sounds well. You win follow Me wheresoever I go? I tell you, foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head." There was the type before Him, and it was well that the truth should be brought home to him And the young man turned away sorrowing. There are the three tj^ies; in the first kind, we may say, the seed goes no deeper than just a temporary passing thought. In the second kind, it sinks down deep enough to spring up — the emo- tional type, as we have had it in many a great revival. I remem- ber years ago talking with the leader of one of the great revivals in another city, and he said, "Just look at this town. Eight years ago we had the most wonderful revival here. Meetings kept up absolutely all night long; other delegates coming to re- lieve those in charge, working from ten to twelve, from twelve to two, and so on throughout the whole night. And now look at this town. It is just like a prairie after a great fire has swept over it. You can hardly get enough people together to attend any kind of a religious meeting." The ground is baked, blackened, and hardened. We have a type of that in the second class. And there is the third class. We have so many of this kind. The seed goes deeper than the surface, deeper than mere emotion; it gets a slight hold at least in this thorny ground. Of course, the seed was not sown among the thorns, but the seed of the thorns lay secretly in the soil waiting to be stimulated into growth. And the seed comes up and among the seed are the thorns also; and soon their more rapid growth has choked it and prevented it from coming to perfection. We have a case of this in the moral and spiritual sphere of the man who has been awakened and aroused, whose will has been set at work. Christianity, or Christ, we may say, has the mastery for a time at least. He is first choice; but, alas, the great trouble is that He is not always the supreme choice. 2 20 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Just as every circle can have but one centre, so you and I can have but one centre, and that must be either God or self. There is the case of those who are carried away with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things, that press upon the will and sooner or later cause a divergence from the will of Christ and the way of right- eousness. So we have three kinds of soil, and only one kind of good soil, and that is those who, in good and honest hearts, receive the word and keep it. Let us not overlook that word, "keep it." Let us dwell upon it, think over it seriously. How often we read the Scripture we are so famihar with, and fail to bring home to ourselves the real meaning of the great words of Christ. We should dwell upon them and give the mind and heart a chance to comprehend them, until we are able to realize them. The price of realization of spiritual truth is always and only one thing: the practice of it. If we would make real to ourselves the truths which Christ has laid down and the things which He has given us, we must study them closely and earnestly set about doing them. Christ does not ask us to take part in any mere pleasurable en- tertainment. His call is always for doing. It is not the fleeting emotion or passive feelings, but downright and actual exercise of our will, singleness of purpose, I may say, that affords the good and honest soil for the seed. Where is the man whose will is divided, whose energy is frittered away? He is a man who is filled with the lusts of other things, the pride and deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world. If you have received the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. There is the point, I say, the price of the realiza- tion in the mind and heart of spiritual truth is always and every- where the honest practice of it. You say the way is difl&cult, and that you have doubts. But I know there are some spiritual points, things you learned long ago, where your feet stand firm — things you know definitely to be right and the will of Christ. Do them. Do not stand like the traveller and say, "Well, I don't think I can take another step farther until I can see the end of the journey." The Hght is before you for the next step. Take it, and the next; and the light will grow and the path will become more and more luminous as you go along. AND OTHER PAPERS 221 Receive the seed in good and honest hearts; keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. [March 1, 1914.] "Remember therefore how thou has received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." — Revelation iii:^. These words were addressed to the Church at Sardis, situated on the golden sanded banks of the Pacpolus. We must remem- ber, in the first place, that there was no charge of immoralities or of prevailing heresy against this church, such as we find recorded against the churches at Ephesus and Thyatira. But something else was the matter: spiritual deterioration, religious decline. "Thou hast a name that thou livest" — appearances were all right — "and thou art dead." I wish, then, to speak this morning briefly on this very point, namely, religious declension, spiritual deterioration. Now there are many forms of moral and spiritual danger that are fit- ful and intermittent, but this form of spiritual danger, religious declension, spiritual deterioration, is ever with us. There is one great law that we all ought to keep in mind in the moral and spiritual life, and that law is incessant progression or necessarily incessant regression. We hear a man say of himself or another, "Well, he is holding his own, I guess." No, he is not. He is either going forward or he is going backward, in moral and spir- itual matters. Outward circumstances may show no difference, but his inner life is being changed. And this form of declension, or spiritual deterioration, my friends, is exceedingly difficult for us individually to recognize. Of course, in the case of exorbi- tant instances of conduct, when a man by some sudden passion of jealousy or anger is forced into some action and the whole community unites in condemnation of the deed, that man is aware that he has done something by which he has forfeited the respect of the community. But we are not speaking of anything of that kind. Such a man has not a name to live, he has lost it by his very act; but there is such a thing as having a name 222 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH to live and yet be spiritually dead, as was the Church at Sardis. I say it is difficult for us to recognize this declension, this de- terioration, first because of the slowness with which such a change takes place in us. It is like the changes in Nature ; when dayhght passes into night there are no reverberations of the heavens, no thunder claps saying, "Now the day is done" — there is no sharp line of division. When the foliage changes on the trees we do not wake up and find suddenly that the trees are changed in color and are dressed in different colors. It is slowly, gradually, by a process, not by what we might call a sudden catastrophe. And just so it is with our spiritual deterioration, with our religious declension. It takes place slowly. We may quote here the words of the Master in that searching parable of His: "We have only to sleep and an enemy wiU sow the tares." We do not need to go forth boldly, doing that which should not be done; just sit still, be content and indifferent to real progress and effort, and an enemy wiU sow the tares, and there will spring up within the heart that which shall be detrimental to the true spiritual Kfe. Then another thing, and that is the facility with which this change may take place within us in the way of the breaking down of our spiritual aspirations and our moral nature. I say the facility of it; the fact is that our motives may grow worldly, our desires may no longer tend toward spiritual things, our ideals become earthly. The whole inner man may change, and there- fore there is no point, no fixed point, by which we can detect the downward motion. I have heard an aeronaut say that the most surprising thing about a journey in. the air is that if you just shut your eyes when up in a balloon you have not the faintest sense of motion. You may be rushing along at forty, fifty, seventy miles an hour, but you have no sense of motion whatever. Why? Because you are going with the motion. If you are in some con- veyance on the ground, driving a horse or a motor, you may shut your eyes and yet you are conscious of the motion, because there is stationary air about you, against which you are flowing. You have a fixed standard by which you can judge, you can know that you are really in motion. But when you are moving with the air, with the current, as in a balloon, you may Ught a match, a taper, and hold it before you, but there is not a quiver of the flame, AND OTHER PAPERS 223 there is not a motion in the flame to show you that you yourself are moving. And just so it is in spiritual matters. When the whole interior of a man is gradually decUning and deteriorating, he has no fixed point by which he can judge that he is descending. He has a name to live. He has a name to Hve; the community respects him, they point to his propriety of conduct, they point to his liberality, it may be, and to various other virtues and quaUties which they have long respected in him. He may be the same man still. Just so Samson thought after he had given away his secret of the strength given him by the Divine Nature. He arose and said, "I will go out, the same as any other time, and shake myself; and he wist not that the Spirit of the Lord was departed from him. To the outward eye there was the same magnificent mold of limb and loin; there was the same splendid muscle showing his extraordinary strength, but it was not there. The Spirit of the Lord had left him, although he was apparently the same man to outward observation. And just so it may be with us in our moral and spiritual nature. Just so it may be of the individual, and so it may be of the collec- tive hfe of the church. Unless there is actual progress, imless there is a going forward, we need not ask a second question. There is absolutely no such thing as standing stUl in moral and spiritual matters. The moral nature knows no state of rest. It tends to worse or better, as better tends to best. When a man has by the grace of God, by the mtervention of God's Providence, been awakened to the reahty of the condition in which he is, what is the counsel to give him? Of course, the first word to such a one is, turn to Christ. That is always the advice to the awakened person who would become a son of God, to carry out as well as he can in his own life the pattern of the hfe of Christ. But after all, may there not be a readier, a more effective way than this general advice? I think there is, right here in the words of the text: " Remember how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent." Now the second awakening, that is, the awakening to the reah- zation of spiritual decHne and deterioration, is far more perilous than the first awakening. The devil has two devices, first for the unconverted; he will keep them, if possible, from ever think- 224 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH ing of their sins; that is, by passion, imagination, emotion, desire, or anything to keep them from thinking about how they have been breaking the laws of God and offending their Heavenly Father. That is for the unconverted; but he has another device which is contrary to that for the one who has formally confessed Christ and been recognized as a follower. He will use the most strenuous endeavors to keep him from thinking of anything but his sins; that is, he will keep him thinking at all times about his sins, until he feels, "Is it possible that I ever did them? I have confessed Christ and want to be known as his servant and follower. Is there any hope for me? " And the devil says, "No hope, no hope. Just look how black, how dark, how dreadful your conduct has been." The advice then is. Remember how thou hast received and heard. But what do we mean? In your earlier religious experience, perhaps at the very beginning, you learned these words, written among those that shall never pass away, and they went right to your heart of hearts: "Whoso- ever cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." Hold fast to it. Let nothing sweep away the conviction. No matter what you or I have been, there is always the open gate of mercy, always the outstretched hand of Christ, and He says to us to-day, just as really as He spake when upon earth: "Because I have loved thee once, I will love thee forever." He has loved us once, and He will love us unto the end. Hold fast to whatever point of goodness God's grace has placed in your character. You have riot been absolutely and thor- oughly bad, without any qualifying circumstances. There are some good points. Hold fast to them and seek to get others. We often find, when a man who has a good standing in a com- munity loses his reputation, how strongly the evil spirit urges him to fling character after it. Reputation gone, fhng character after it. But not so. We raise our eyes and our hearts to Him whom we have followed afar off, and say, "Lord Jesus, thou hast loved me once, thou wilt love me to the end. I come unto thee, I believe in thee, I have trust in thy perfect love and forgive- ness." If we so believe, and hold fast and repent, the blessing wiU descend upon us, and we shall begin again a new life, we shall go forward and not be simply marking time or falling backward. We shall go on through the race, reaping more and more of the AND OTHER PAPERS 225 fruits of that life which comes of having the love of Christ in our soul. [March 8, 1914.] "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be hfted up." — St. John iii:i4. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Our Lord's interview with Nico- demus, when we come to study it carefully, reveals itself as indeed one of the most momentous events in His public hfe. Nowhere else throughout the New Testament is there given us so complete and consecutive an account of the plan and the primary agencies of the great work of the rescue and redemption of man. And in the fourteenth verse our Lord passes on to select an incident in the history of the Jewish people. He selects it and emphasizes it as a kind of pattern or parable of the conditions and the prin- ciples which obtain in the Christian Hfe, and indeed in the life of every day. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be hfted up." I wish, then, very briefly to call your attention to this event in the history of the Israehtes, as a kind of parable of the condi- tions which are the dominant ones to-day, and must be to the end of time. On account of the blasphemy and the rebelUon of the Israehtes, we know that they were afficted, even while they were in the desert travels, with the presence of poisonous or fiery serpents, as they were called, probably from the extraordinary violence of their sting. And they besought Moses that he would pray to God that they might be dehvered from these pests, and doubt- less they had great confidence that God would hear their request, and would either drive the serpents away or reheve them in some way; because they had ample evidence in previous times where Moses had prayed for relief from the plagues — he had even prayed for Pharaoh, that he and his kingdom might be reheved of the plague of fhes, and locusts, and darkness, and so forth; and the prayer was answered. And they undoubtedly expected in this case that it would be answered also. Undoubtedly, we may say. 2 26 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Moses was disappointed; he doubtless had expected that his prayer would have been answered, as his previous prayers had been answered, favorably, in accordance with the petitions. But the serpents remained among them, and he was virtually told that the serpents would not be removed, and they would be sub- ject to their attack, as before. "But go thou, and erect upon a lofty pole a brazen serpent, that whosoever, be he man or woman, boy or girl, or little child, that gazeth upon the serpent, he shall Uve." Now I suppose the question arises in a great many minds: Why is it that we should live under the conditions that we do? Why is it that if we are called as Christians the Ufe of the world cannot be made more easy and that we may not be subject to the violence and onslaughts of temptations which often overcome us, and alas, cause our hope and our faith to grow weaker and weaker as we fail in resistance? It might be said. Is it some great plan on the part of God? Or is it simply indifference on the part of God? How are we to think of Him? Simply as a great spectator, on His throne aloft, looking down with indifferent eye to see how the children of men carry on their welfare? Certainly not, certainly not. Now Scripture reveals to us that on account of the very nature of our moral make-up, God has given us, has invested you and me with the danger and the honor and the resource of the power of choice. We are here in this world, and this life itself is neces- sarily a probation; that is, we are to be tried and we are to be trained to become the sons of God. In other words, we are here, first to choose our destiny, and to be fitted for it. Let us look briefly at this. In the first place, to choose our destiny. We must be tried. Now trial, to be real, of course must have its opposites: to find out whether we really love goodness for itself, and honesty, and pur- ity and truthfulness. And the consequences of failure to love them and failure to follow them and practise them and realize them in hfe, my friends, I say the consequences must not be in- stantaneous and inevitable. Let us suppose a case or two. Say that God requires of us truthfulness, that we should choose to be truthful, choose to be faithful to our promises and obligations. Now suppose that every time an untruth passed a man's lips he AND OTHER PAPERS 227 should be deprived of speech for a day or a week or a month. Suppose that every time he yields to passion he should be tor- tured with pains racking his body for days or for weeks. Would there be any choosing there? Certainly not. Men would speak the truth, and they would guard against any exorbitances in the way of yielding to passion, because of the imminence and terrible- ness of the punishments that would follow instantly upon trans- gression. But that is not the kind of obedience that God wants. "Son, give me thy heart." I wonder how many of us have thought of that. If God wants your reason, He takes it by evidence; if He wants your judgment. He takes it by evidence. But He has to say, "Give me thy heart." He cannot take the heart. A man must come to Him; and there comes in our power, the mys- terious power that He has given us of making ourselves and our works either over on His side, or on the side of self. "Son, give me thy heart." So, I say, the consequences of failure to obey God's laws must not be instanttoeous and so inevitable that they would actually destroy all reality of choice. You have read in that wonderful book of Ecclesiastes such sentences as these: "No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them." "As is he that sacrificeth, so is he that sacrificeth not." "As is he that sweareth, so is he that uttereth no oath." And we say. That is strange, what is the meaning of that? There is set before us in that wonderful book, we may say, a picture, an abstract of the conditions of life, under which we are to be tried. There must be real choice. If a man comes to the parting of the ways, where there is nothing but a precipice on one side and a road leading the other way, we could hardly say he is choosing his way, if there is nothing but death there, and here is a road. But when, hke Hercules, he comes to the parting of the ways, where he must choose one way or the other, both ways must be inviting; and he will have to choose that path which he will follow. And not only that, but we see the necessity of tempta- tions and moral trials remaining, for they are the poisonous serpents which remain yet. God does not take them away; in fact, we may say, looking at the circumstances of the Israelites, God might have done one of two things: He might have marched 228 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH them off where they would be out of the region of the serpents, or He might have rendered the serpents powerless, destroyed the power of the poisonous sting of their venom, exterminated them. Instead of that, He orders the brazen serpent placed. Just so it is with the trials and temptations of our moral life. God does not, in the first place, when a person becomes a Chris- tian, march him off to a region where there are no temptations. How that dream has haunted men; they have supposed that by clothing themselves in sackcloth, and stealing off into the wilder- ness for solitude, they would escape from temptations. They might as well attempt to escape from their own shadow in the sunlight. So they went into the wilderness, into the caves of the mountains, into cells by the sea, only to find the temptations of solitude even more subtle than those of common life. There is no escape from temptation. The underworld cannot be tempted; but we can be tempted, that we may have this power of choosing whether we will be over on the Lord's side or on the side of self. But just as God did not destroy the venomous power of the serpents, neither does He for you and me destroy the power of temptation, of sorrow and trouble in its manifold forms, of despair and disaster. He does not rob them of their sting for us, He does not rob them of their reality for us; for we must remem- ber that the real blessing that the Gospel holds out is not a method of escape from the temptations and trials of moral life. The real blessing, I say, that the Gospel holds out, is not to provide a means of escape from the temptations of moral life, whatever be their shape and form. But we are given enough of grace and strength to bear them and to bear them triumphaiitly. And lastly, let me say, we have here in this figure the very es- sence of the Gospel; looking upon that brazen serpent in the wilderness. Nothing was said about how long they must look, or the posture in which they must look, whether on the knees or standing; only one thing: let the eye be fixed upon the fiery ser- pent. And so with our faith in Jesus Christ. It is the vision of Him, "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" — there is the secret that will enable us to endure the trials and the training, for we have got to be trained as well as tried. You know our physical muscle will grow only under strain, and just so with our moral muscle. In other words, being good AND OTHER PAPERS 229 must not be too easy if we are to grow in moral power. It is with us as with the trees of the forest. Go into a secluded valley where the trees are sheltered from the winds. It is a quiet, lovely little place, and the trees are beautiful, but what about the wood? The trees there have never been called upon to exercise any great force to protect themselves from the storms, their roots did not sink deep into the earth, consequently the wood is soft and flabby. But what about the tree standing on the mountainside, that has been battling with the tempests of heaven for its very life? Its great roots have reached deep into the earth and taken a firm and deep hold in the soil and spread out for a great distance, that it might not be blown over and uprooted by the storms of heaven. The tree in the valley was secluded and sheltered, its roots did not sink deep into the earth; it did not need such roots. But the tree that had to fight for its hfe needed a firm foundation, it depended upon its great roots to hold it up in the battle with the tempest. And that is the tree that furnishes the firm, fine wood. And just so it is in the moral struggle of Ufe. We cannot go through life sheltered from the storms if we would gain any real strength. "We are called unto Him as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." I was talking a short time ago with a good Christian, and this was the trouble: Why does not God make it more evident to those that are trying to follow Him and serve Him in this world, that He loves them? Why does He allow the sting of poverty to strike them so, and trouble and disaster to overtake them, just as those who are indifferent to the call of the Master? The answer is, that these things are not brought about because of the indifference of God, but because He is infinitely more anxious than you are, in order that you may grow in grace and strength. He will give you grace and strength, but He will not take the trials and temptations away. I say the vision and the faith in Christ: that is the secret that will enable us to come through all our trials with new strength. And we shall realize that we shall not walk in darkness, as the Master himself says, in those words which shall never pass away: "Whosoever"— that includes all— "Whosoever believeth on 230 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Me and foUoweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." [Marchi$, 1914.] "Then saith the evil spirit, I will return into my house from whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished." — St. Matthew xii:44. After the expulsion of the evil spirit from the man that was dumb, and after our Lord's most conclusive answer to the carping and scurrilous criticisms of the Scribes who had come down from Jerusalem, charging Him with being simply an emissary of the prince of demons or devils — after this, I say, our Lord, it would appear, turned and addressed the man himself from whom the evil spirit had been expelled. This is not directly indicated, but I think a careful study of the record as given us will show that in all probability these words, from which the text is taken, were addressed, not to the Scribes, not to the general crowd of on- lookers, but to the man himself, whom He had delivered from the evil spirit. This address is not recorded by St. Mark, but it is recorded by the other two Evangelists, St. Matthew and St. Luke. Undoubtedly, I might say, the Scribes and Pharisees and the people gathered around thought the matter had ended by the expulsion of the evil spirit from the man. But this discourse, this address of our Lord's shows that, to His mind, the work had just begun; and in the most striking way, by His parable of the house from which the evil spirit had been expelled, He impresses upon this man the peril and the jeopardy of the empty house of the heart. Under the figure of the empty house, I say, our Lord brings out most impressively the danger of the empty heart, from which the evil spirit has been expelled but which has no powerful and continuous guardian to prevent the return of that spirit. For just as surely as the house of the heart is left untenanted and unguarded, there will be an invasion of evil spirits. Now, my friends, there is nothing, we may say, that has been borne in upon us with greater power of confirmation than this AND OTHER PAPERS 231 truth— the futility of merely the striking out of bad habits, and putting nothing in the heart that shall furnish a power and an energy against their return, and the love of faith and good works. The pathway of life is strewn, fairly strewn, with the wrecks of those who, seeking not to be overcome with evil, have failed to replace it with good. Now we see that in case this is so, the evil spirit is sure to return. You can recall, I can recall, cases of apparent reformation where the evil spirit has come back, and men have again sunk back into vicious courses or taken up with evil habits which they had but temporarily laid aside. We find again and again that the same spirit returns. Some years ago I knew the case of one who at a meeting had had his thoughts di- rected toward his own condition and deserts; and he broke off his evil habits, to all appearances, and in fact it was so: he gave up this and gave up that. And the people said, "Isn't it aston- ishing what a reformation we have here in this case? " But alas, he went no further; for the house of his heart was empty, and it was only a matter of tune until the evil spirits had returned again. Sometimes it is not always the spirit of the same evil — "the man returned, and bringing seven more spirits wickeder than himself." And this, I think, is perhaps the more important case of the two. In the case of the man or woman who goes wrong openly and defiantly, resorting again to the old courses of evil conduct and evil habits, while the world looks on and says, "What a pity" — in their very pity that is exercised toward him there is something of hope that the man may be restored again, and may recognize his need in the way of a stout and continuous guardian to keep the house of his heart. But in this other case, where more subtle spirits enter, where there is not again the same spirit that tenanted the heart, there is not again the yielding to the onsets of imperious passions that carried him away. The man has become visibly improved, to all appearances he is changed for the better. He is cautious, he thinks now of his reputation. But alas, his heart becomes invaded with these new and subtler spirits, which are reaUy the spirits of selfishness, the pride of self-righteousness, pride of position, and it may be of reputation and power. These things are the spirits that fill the heart, and just as surely as they do and society looks on approvingly and says, "There is nothing the matter with that man; just look what good habits he has; 232 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH he is respected; he is a man at whom the community can point its finger and say, There is the type of a good man," there is very little whatever in the way of doubt in the pubhc opinion to help him recognize the real emptiness of his heart, where these spirits are busy, the spirits of selfishness, of pride, of self-right- eousness. And these do what? They absolutely shut the door of the heart, and brace it back, against the invasion of the Christ spirit: the spirit of humility, of love for Christ, and the fear and love of God. Well, what is needed then? We see at once from this address of our Lord's that what is needed for every man is something more than to have evil and wrong habits expelled from the heart; that is but the beginning. There is needed above all things that the house of the heart shall have a constant and powerful guardian able to repeU all manner of invasion, with insight that shall detect these subtler forms of evil spirits and say, "Back; there is no place for you here. The house of my heart is given to one who wiU guard it and keep it." I say we need to recognize this want of a guardian. What shall the guardian be? Some very high-minded men of the past, and some even of to-day, say that moral knowledge should be the guardian. But what a commentary upon that is the history of some of the greatest men, some of those possessed of the widest knowledge: there was Balaam, there was Solomon, and, turning to the pagan world, there was Seneca; men who stood in the very forefront of the knowledge of their day, whose wide sweep of learning took in practically the entire knowledge of their times; men who could lay down the most beautiful precepts, "This is the way, and that is the way," they pointed out, and yet they could disgrace some of the noblest Hnes ever written by some of the meanest lives ever lived. And there are others who lay the stress of defense upon the mind. We are told definitely and distinctly by St. Paul that it is not there. "With the heart man beUeveth unto righteousness," says St. Paul. So it is not merely a conviction that springs from placid reasoning. It is a deeper source that furnishes the guard- ian and defense. There must be the heart called into play; there must be something in the way of a passionate power that will prevent these invasions. AND OTHER PAPERS 233 Another may say, "Well, perhaps the old philosophers were wrong, and the philosophers of to-day are wrong, in attributing too much to reason and knowledge. They should have empha- sized conscience. Let men be instructed carefully in the matters of right and wrong. Train conscience for the defense, for you can make it so that it will respond instantly to the onsets of evil." Now that sounds very well, and yet, conscience is not execu- tive. Conscience does nothing. Conscience is Hke our Legisla- ture : it passes the law, but there must be some one else to execute that law. In other words, it does not confer the power to keep out evil and do the good; it simply demands that you have that power. And yet, how difl&cult it is to realize this. The sensitive conscience, we hear a great deal about that; it has its value. But if we attempt to make it the guardian we shall fail. A sensitive conscience, distress of conscience, is no more the signal of moral health and strength than the pains that shoot their fiery warnings through the frame are indications of physical health. There must be something back of conscience; and this brings us to the great Gospel truth: that the only constant and powerful guardian of the house of the heart is the love of Jesus Christ. If I were asked to state briefly, in one hne or two, what I consider the great secret of Christianity as the conquering religion of the world, I would say, the fact that for the first time in the world's history it became possible for the heart of man to love absolute, perfect goodness, embodied in the person — the person of the Blessed Master. We cannot love goodness in the abstract; we may per- haps admire it, but to awaken any real love it must be embodied. And in Jesus Christ all love and all goodness are embodied. It is the love of Jesus Christ in the heart, then, I say, that can make the heart proof against any and all invasions of the evil spirits that are waiting and eager to force themselves in. The house of the heart must not be left untenanted and unguarded. It must not be left to become empty though swept and garnished, as the one I have pictured. But unless there is a stout, determined, and constant guardian there, it is only a question of time when either the first spirits of evil or more subtle spirits will return and possess the tenantless house of the heart. You will doubtless recall how Christ uttered that awful denunciation, as He stood there before 234 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the people, and pointing His finger at their venerable religious leaders, hurled at them: "I tell you, the publicans and harlots will enter into the King- dom of God before you men, who bar the doors of your hearts against the access of the spirit of Christ, by your pride and your self-righteousness." Think of it, my friends. No, there is no other recipe for you and for me, than just a direct and downright love of the Master. If we have His love in our hearts we have a guardian that will keep out and prevent a reinvasion of all these spirits of evil. [March 22, 1914.] "He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they say, Five loaves, and two fishes." — St. Mark vi:j8. There are several circumstances, my friends, which naturally enhance or heighten our interest, and our sense of the importance of the parable which is set as the Gospel for to-day. In the first place, it is the only miracle recorded by all four Evangelists; it is the only miracle which St. John selects to report in common with St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke; and I have before called your attention to the fact that it is the only Gospel fully repeated in our Liturgical service during the year. But there is another peculiarity, and that is that this miracle was not wrought to meet the immediate need of hunger, as was the feeding of the five thou- sand in the latter part of the year. This great company had only been gathered a few hours and hunger was not pressing; and also, they were within easy reach of Bethsaida, where supplies could be obtained. We are warranted, I think, in saying that it was a miracle wrought not so much as a Gospel of Divine power, to meet the needs of those about Christ, but it was a miracle wrought to symbolize or to set forth some parable or lesson. Indeed, we shall find briefly that this miracle marks a great turning-point, or change in our Lord's conduct, in his ministry, and in the matter of his teaching. Let us ask, then, what is the lesson He wishes us to draw from AND OTHER PAPERS 235 this miracle? We are not left to conjecture or to draw our own opinion ; our Lord himself draws the lesson. But He did not draw it on this day; the enthusiasm of the multitude was so great — "they would take Him and make Him a king" — that he put His disciples into the boat and crossed the lake, that He might escape the mad multitude about Him. But the next day, in the syna- gogue at Capernaum, He took as His text this great miracle He had performed, and His sermon there may be said to be an expan- sion of the great miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. In that wonderful sermon we find our Lord sums up the main object He had in mind, in these words: "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." This, then, I say, was the great truth that our Lord symboUzed on this occasion; and I have said it marks a turning-point, or change, in our Lord's cdnduct, his ministry, in the matter or sub- stance of His teaching. If you read the previous record of His life, you will find that He went about followed by great companies of men; but now He seems to seek a place of silence. He deserts the popular towns of Galilee, He even forgets the Feast of the Passover, and devotes Himself to the immediate band of disciples and apostles with Him, in order that He might bring them into closer fellowship, to deepen their understanding and affection for Him, as that was the great purpose of His work here on earth. So we find, then, this marked distinction. Before this we would look where great crowds were gathered for the Christ; but now we must go and seek Him in seclusion, with the little band of disciples about Him. And there, undisturbed by the rampant enthusiasm of the multitudes. He could teach as He could not in the midst of the tumult and uproar of the thousands that followed Him, who, thinking that by taking Christ and making Him king, they could receive political independence and cast off the yoke of Rome. But of more importance still, we note a change after this mira- cle in the substance, the matter, of our Lord's teaching. You read the previous record and you will find that the most fre- quently recurring expression is the "Kingdom of God." Here- after we find it repeated very seldom. How important it was that this first lesson should be brought home to them, that the Kingdom of God is not the "bread of life"— the Scriptures and 236 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Moses and the Prophets are not the "bread of life." "I am the Bread of Life." And, my friends, we may smn up the whole lesson of this Gospel in these words of the Master: "Come unto Me." "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." Faith in Him, and personal affection for Him; that is the secret, and that is the source of the spiritual hf e which He came to kindle in man's heart. But there is a second lesson, no less important, and one no doubt which has a more practical bearing for each and every one of us; and that is in His question, "How many loaves have ye?" How strange, we say, that He who had such power to change a few loaves and fishes into that which should supply the five or ten thousand, should ask this question, "How many loaves have ye?" And let us remember, that question did not die away; it has not died away. It is" repeated in ages after, and it is in the heart of every Christian. In other words, Christ limits Himself to making use of the actual supply in the possession of the dis- ciples. They say, "Five loaves and two fishes." That is enough. He has the power to expand it until it shall be abun- dant to feed the multitude. We have here, then, a parable of the method of Divine pro- cedure. Of course, God saves man; we say that with emphasis. But let us remember, my friends, He saves men always and ever)rwhere, by and through man. Christ calls us to co-part- nership with him, and as St. Paul puts it. How shall ye believe when ye have not heard, and how shall ye hear without a preacher? What is the meaning of this co-partnership? It is the restora- tion of the world to fellowship with Christ, and the rescue of the world from the bondage of sin. And it is to be brought about by the spirit of Christ in His fellows and through them working to the reclamation of the world. "How many loaves have ye?" Ages have passed since these words were uttered, but they are repeated to every generation, to every age there is addressed this question, "How many loaves have ye?" How much faith in Him? How much love for God and man, and zeal to bring man to the faith and love of Him? How much of this have ye, my fellows? AND OTHER PAPERS 237 Unless we have some measure of these spiritual loaves and fishes, this faith and this love, the generations of the world, the great multitudes must go away hungry. This is the plan: God saving man, through the spiritually inspired ministry of man. [April I, 1914.] "Come unto me." -St. Matthew xi:28. "Come unto me." Wonderful words, as that great church father, St. Augustine, exclaims: "Wonderful words. I have never read their like," he says, " in the books of any other religion, or heard them reported from the lips of any other religious founder." " Come unto me." Wonderful words. Wonderful _in their depth and in their apprehensiveness; just as the little drop of dew on the grass blade enfolds within itself and reflects the whole starry arch of the heavens above, we may say these words embody the entire Christianity of Christ. They are the very epitome of the Gospel. Theologians may pass, criticism may shift its ground, beliefs and faiths may change, ecclesiasticism may look with favor upon the customs and orders of the interests that it emphasizes, but these words remain un- changed. They may pass into sermon and psalm, they may pass into story and history, into parable, doctrine, and law; but they will never pass away. "Come unto me." Wonderful words. We have here in this declaration, my dear friends, first the supreme source of comfort and solace for the weary and the heavy laden. They embody and disclose for us the great dis- tinctive characteristic fact of Christianity, for the support of rea- son and for the inspiration of faith. They embody and disclose for us the secret source and the power of practical righteousness. Passing to the present and more famiHar significance of these words in their consolitary teaching, I would ask you briefly this evening to consider with me the points I have mentioned. We have said that in these wojds we have a distinct declaration 238 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of the great characteristic or distinctive fact of Christianity. Indeed, " Come unto me " is the Gospel in essence. These words embody the great distinctive truth that Jesus Christ is not only the founder of Christianity — -there have been other founders — He is not only the founder of Christianity, but He is the founda- tion of Christianity as well. His teachings and His deeds derive their vital import and their final authority from the one great fact of the incarnation God manifests in the flesh. Now, I say, we have here the distinctive fact of Christianity, and it were well to dwell upon that for a moment: Sometimes we hear a person speak of "Christianity and Christ." There is no warrant for that. Christ is Christianity. We may speak of Mohammed and Mohammedanism; we may speak of Buddha and Buddhism; we may speak of Confucius and Confucianism; but we cannot with propriety and with truth speak in that way of Christ and Christianity. For Christ al- ways is Christianity. All through the ages, go over the list or roU of them, all other reUgions have been founded and depend on an idea. But Christianity is founded upon a fact, the great fact of the incarnation God manifests in the flesh. And if we had before us here to-night the authorized s}mabols of ail the great religions of the world, and I were asked to write on the document of Christianity a superscription that should state at once its dis- tinctive feature, its distinctive characteristic, that which sepa- rates it from all other reUgions which the world has known, I would, without halt or hesitation, write these words: "Come unto me." We hear it said to-day that it is enough justification to say that we hold fast to faith in Christ because the idea has given us a clearer vision of the truth. But that is only a difference of degree, chiefly an assumptive difference. We do not hold fast to the Christian faith to-day because of the compassion, of the ready helpfulness of Christ; Buddha had that, in measure. We do not hold fast to the Christian faith to-day because Christ taught the true God; Mohammed did that — " the one and only true God" — so that in these respects, we may say, there is chiefly a difference of degree. But when we hear that man who says these words in reality : " Come unto me " — there is a difference in kind. Because He alone could say these words, "Come unto me" and verify AND OTHER PAPERS 239 the invitation as a power of life and righteousness. He only could say, "Come unto me." He alone could say, without impropriety of pride, without the sacrilege of blasphemy: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. He and I are one." This is the first and great truth, I say, that these words bring home to us, the entire difference between our blessed Master and His religion from that of all others in the world in their relation- ship to both. Will you bear an illustration? You go out on a summer morning and you find, waving from the branches of some little bush, a complete spider web. The spider has woven it and some rude hand has destroyed the spider. But the web is there, complete in all its portions, independent of the very existence of the spider, the insect that fashioned it. Now that might represent to us, I think, very fairly, the relation- ship between the founders of other religions and the religions they founded, like Mohammed and the Koran. But do we wish an illustration that shall bring home completely and entirely the whole structure of Christianity, we may say, indeed, the per- sonahty of Jesus Christ? Suppose we take the prism and the spectrum. Take a piece of prismatic glass in your hands and allow the sun's rays to fall upon it, and watch the play of the spec- trum; note the indigo, the green, the blue, the red, the orange, the yellow. Now take away the prism, and what becomes of the spectrum? It vanishes at once. Just so with all the distinctive principles of Christianity: they vanish at once if we take away the Divine personaUty of Jesus Christ. But let me pass to the second thought that I have suggested: that we have here not only the revelation of the distinctive and great characteristic feature of Christianity in the personality of Jesus Christ, but we have here also the source and the secret and the power of practical righteousness. We all know life is a com- bat. We know how the dream has haunted men for ages, that in some way they might run off somewhere, into cells by the sea, into caves of the mountains, to get away from temptation; but alas, they could only vary the kind of temptation. There was no escape from temptation itself. And so what we need is power, power of will, power of heart, to enable us to fight successfully and victoriously. Well, how shall the transformation be brought about, we ask? 240 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH By the mere knowledge or admiration of goodness, without the passion or desire to achieve it? Suppose we approach this by another question: Why is it, we ask, that men go wrong and fail of righteousness? I think a partial answer, and I confess a very partial answer, is that \-ery often they do not know what is the good and the true. And they take the wrong road, and they fall through ignorance, for they may not see clearly the way of righteousness — just as those great ships crashed together in the Atlantic. Undoubtedly there are things of that kind; but just as undoubtedly and unfor- tunately, a great number of men go wrong, not for want of knowl- edge of the right and the true and the good, but for want of power, power of will and power of heart to do the good that they know and to follow the righteousness that they recognize. Well, how shall they get it? How shall this transformation be brought about? Some would say more knowledge. We know the futility of that; that was the dream of the old philos- ophers and of many of to-day as well. The dictates of prudence, the judgments of reason, even the commands of conscience, these, none of these are executive. They are simply legislative. They lay down the law, but they do not give the power to fulfil the law. They are like the head Hght of a locomotive: it throws light upon the way, but it does not, and it cannot, draw the train. To get this power, then, there must be awakened in the heart not simply an admiration of goodness, but a love for it, a passion for it. Now, my friends, we cannot love goodness in the abstract. We may admire it, we may define it, we may defend it valiantly; but goodness must be embodied in the person in order to waken a real love and passion for it. Now right here we come upon a great characteristic secret, I might call it, that has counted for the innumerable triumphs of Christianity through the ages past and to-day: there is provided a way whereby the mere admira- tion of goodness, the mere knowledge of it and the truth, may be lifted up and transformed into a passion for the good and for the true. And this is done in the person of the Master. In loving Him we love all goodness. All goodness was embodied in Him, and for the first time in the world's history the heart of man could reverence a human personality, and in loving Him could love all by His goodness. AND OTHER PAPERS 241 Do we see the practical conclusion to be drawn from this? I think I might state it in this way: When we love Jesus Christ, then all duty and all endeavor, all the stress and trials that we go through are not simply things that we do from the commands of conscience, or the judgments of reason, or the dictates of prudence. They are so many modes of showing the passion that is within us, our love for the great Master; so many modes of showing the love that we bear Him. For these dictates, these judgments, let me repeat, even these imperatives of conscience have no motive power of themselves. They have to be backed and enforced by such great sentiments as will create personal reverence, personal love, before they can become effective and triumphant powers. And this Christianity provides in the per- son of the great Master. Take Him to your hearts and you will have the power of vic- tory. In the teaching of the apostles, what is virtue? Do not run off into ethical distinctions; St. Paul tells us, " Put on Christ." And so it is, this Christian hfe, Christ dwelUng in our hearts by faith. In a word, the whole Christian career is a discipleship, personal imitation; taking His love as an example, following His steps. And if we follow Him we shall verify it in our own per- sonal experience; we shall have that evidence and that power that no man can give another, but that every man can get for himself. We shall verify in our own experience the truth of His great promise: "He that foUoweth Me shaE not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." [April 5, 1914-] "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well, for so I am." — St. John xiii.-ij. "Why makest thou us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." This was the cry of the Pharisees, of the Scribes, of the priests, and of the people: "Tell us plainly." But for three full years, during the whole of our Lord's public ministry, He had resolutely 242 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH refused to make a public declaration of His kingship. But now, in this last week of His life, the time has arrived to make this claim; and so, with due formaUty of circumstance, He presents Himself to the chiefs of the Jewish people, to the people them- selves, to their scholars and religious leaders He presents Himself, not only as the greatest of benefactors, not only as a prophet of Divine truth; but as the Messiah, as the true King, the rightful and lawful king of men's hearts and minds and consciences. To-day, then. Palm Sunday, was the great crisis in the history of the Jewish people. It was the final scene in the long drama which they had been called upon to enact in the redemption of mankind. It was the final test. They were ready to receive Christ as a compassionate helper; they were at least measurably ready to receive Christ as a very engaging teacher; but here comes the test. Will they acknowledge Him as the absolute and su- preme ruler of men's hearts and consciences and wills; the Di- vine Messiah? My dear friends, it is important for us to remember that this test came not only to the Jewish people, but it comes to every man and every woman to-day. And so the church on this great test day, this great Palm Sunday, this day on which Christ pub- licly and formally proclaimed His absolute kingship over man- kind, the church to-day presents Christ not only as a compas- sionate benefactor, as the great moraHst, as the supreme leader, not only as the profoundest of all theologians; but she presents Him as the King, as one who has the Divine authority to claim absolute allegiance from every heart and every will. Now to-day, my friends, it is important that we should realize this, because we hear to-day, and read to-day, a great deal of advice in the way of "back to the Jesus of the Gospels"; "back to the Christianity of Christ." And undoubtedly the vast and patient industry of learned scholars has enabled you and me to- day to picture, to imagine the conditions, the physical conditions and circumstances and the details of our Lord's earthly life, so that that earthly life is perhaps far more present and significant to us to-day than it was a thousand years ago to those who had not the results of this patient scholarship. But let us not forget "back to the Jesus of the Gospels" — "back to the Christianity of Christ." Let us not forget that it is not enough to know Jesus AND OTHER PAPERS 243 as, for instance, the theologians of Nazareth knew Him ; it is not enough to know Jesus as the Pharisees, the Scribes, the publicans, and the priests knew Him; it is not enough to know Him as Laz- arus and Mary and Martha knew Him; as Peter and James and John knew Him, before His resurrection from the dead, when they declared Him to be the Son of God. We must know Him better yet, we must know Him in this great claim that He makes to-day, to be the great King, the true Ruler of the spiritual realm of all mankind. Now I say it is important, because you will find quite a number to-day who are ready to admire, and to express their admiration in the most appropriate language, for Christ as the benefactor. They love to dwell upon His infinite patience; they love to dwell upon His compassionate interest in and love for the poor and the lowly and the outcast, making Himself one of them, seeking a life of poverty and privation, Uving a life of the same kind Him- self. Well, a man may have that, but if he stops there he is simply a high kind of philanthropist; he is not a real follower and disciple of Christ. Again, we find many to-day who are ready to praise, and do most eloquently set forth the marvellous teaching of Christ as a moralist. They point to how He took the chaos of a world of principles and unffied them into the great principles of life. They point to how He taught men that not only in special acts which they call religious Hfe, but in all their lives they might carry every single duty of the day, every little problem of the hour up and up until they make it a part of Divine service itself, giving a dignity and a majesty to even the minutest details of Ufe. I might quote here several great authorities who stand apart from a full con- fession of Christ in their most laudatory terms, who are ready to give their praise and are ready to receive Christ as the great mor- alist, as He who set forth the great principle of Ufe that should include all our duty and should inspire all our labors. , But should they stop there? Let us take Him as a great theologian. What, as a matter of fact, has been the result of man's unending speculation regarding the nature and purpose of the Divine plan? I think it no exag- geration to say that when men set about speculating on God's plan and purpose, alone and unaided by the presence of the Spirit 244 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH and power of Christ, the chances are they will end in one or the other of two alternatives: either despair or indifference. Men have talked and have thought about God, and at last they have said: "Well, there may be a God, but one thing is sure: that everything in this world before us is just like the swing of a mighty pendulum." "Into itseK, out of itself; all that we see or know Swings like a mighty pendulum, or a ceaseless ebb and flow." Or on the point of despair, men have come to think of God, as the result of their unaided speculation, as though He were a mere ofl&cial of the universe, from whose dwelling on high He looks down and sees the struggles of mankind without any care or com- passion for them, seeing them swept by the thousands in the temptest or the hurricane, or seeing them carried by the tens of thousands and overcome by the black waves of sin, or seeing them in their battles with various temptations in their individual lives; viewing it all with the careless eyes of a spectator. But Christ taught us oh, how different! He taught us the great truth of the Fatherhood of God, and therefore the universal brotherhood of man. Let us not forget that. I fancy Him putting His hand on the shoulder of one of His disciples: "Ye are brethren, and children of God." And this statement bears application to all mankind. If we all are the children of God, then we all are brethren one of an- other. And that teaching of St. John was like a veritable echo of the teaching of the Master Himself: "If any man say he love God, or if any man love not his brother, whom He has seen, how can he" — in the name of common sense, we may add — "how can he love God, whom he has not seen?" You will remember how our Lord swept away once and forever that immortal view of religious narrowness, insincerity, and selfishness, on that memo- rable occasion when He taught those about Him in the temple: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother has aught against thee, leave there thy gift upon the altar and first go and be reconciled with thy brother." Duty to man put before duty to God. Now, my friends, it is certainly something to accept Christ as AND OTHER PAPERS ' 245 a compassionate benefactor; it is certainly something to receive Christ as a supreme moralist, as the profoundest of theologians, who has taught us the real nature of the Father and of His un- changing and unconditioned and universal love for all men ever3rwhere. But we must not stop there; we have not yet come to Palm Sunday's great significance. Christ must be accepted for more than that. He must be accepted as the absolute King, the Divine King of men's hearts and minds and wills. Only, then, as we strive to realize in heart and in life, my friends, this great truth, that Jesus is more than a friend. He is more than an instructor: Jesus is the true and veritable King by Divine right. And unless and only as we yield absolute allegiance to Him as our King, do we become His true followers. His real disciples. [April 12, 1914.] It is written : " Christ is risen." In the name of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, and who to-day is risen again to be the light of all men, in His name I extend to you one and all the greetings of this glad, great day. To all communicants present, to all non-communicants present; to aU parishioners present, to all parishioners absent; to the old and to the young; to one and all, I say, I extend the greetings of this glad, great day. The greetings of Him who has loved us with an everlasting love, whose love goes forth to all men everywhere, just as the sunlight faUs on the world. We should dwell upon this, I think, to-day, because this is the great day of the Christian year. It is the day, we may say, which gives significance to all other days throughout the Christian year. For we commemorate to-day, my friends, the most mo- mentous event, miracle, if you please to call it — the most mo- mentous event in the history of the world. We commemorate to-day an event: the resurrection from the dead, the conquering of death by Jesus Christ. We commemorate to-day the event which gives significance and credibility and power to all the other reported miracles of the Gospel. Jndeed, we can only 246 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH grasp their meaning, their significance aright as we hold fast to the great truth of to-day: that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that, being risen from the dead, He dieth no more; that the man Christ Jesus has conquered death, and verified that wonder- ful saying: "For as by man came death"— not by an angel— "for as by man came death, so"— not simply by a Divinity— "so by man came the resurrection from the dead." We need to recognize, my friends, that this is really the basis of our Christian faith and our Christian hope. You turn to St. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, and see how fearlessly he puts it; there is no equivocation or uncertainty in the accent with which he pronoimces these words: "If Christ be not risen, our preaching is vain." The Greek word here translated "vain" means "without foundation" — "baseless" — "has no meaning." If Christ be not risen, our preaching is indeed vain, our faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Observe that he does not base the real fabric of Christiaiuty upon the immaculate conception, for as a matter of fact we know that is incapable of historic proof. He does not base it upon the Crucifixion; for, apart from the great event of to-day, apart from the great significance and un- derlying truth of to-day, viz., that the eternal Son of God con- quered death, Jesus' crucifixion was but one of a myriad of in- stances of good men who have given their lives for the truth. Nor does he base it upon the immortality of the soul: something more than that. Something more than that; because the doc- trine of the immortality of the soul is not exclusively the discovery and support of Christianity. I think it very idle and unwise for persons to-day to attempt to dispute the fact or to attempt to ig- nore the prophecies and conceptions of the world apart from Chris- tianity with regard to the reality of the future life. As a matter of fact, we know that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was a commonplace among the greater and better philosophers even before Christ's time. It is not upon that alone, it is not sim- ply to the immortality of the soul that the church bears her great witness to-day. It is a broader truth ; it is the immortality of the man. For the body as well as the soul came out of the grave; He took not simply an eternal, immortal soul, but He took with Him an immortal body as well. AND OTHER PAPERS 247 Now, I say, I think we ought to bear this in mind. Let us grasp it firmly and hold it fixedly, in the midst of the cries and debates that we hear to-day; let us hold fast to the great truth that to-day we celebrate the immortality of the entire manhood. The rising of Christ signifies for us not simply the survival of the soul, but the survival of the entire man. St. Paul bases it, not upon the thought of the resurrection; he says: "Thou art not the body that shall be. . . . God giveth it a new body, as it hath pleased Him." I cannot stop to dwell this morning upon the fact, interesting as it is, that to-day Science and the Church are coming right together on this great point. I do not mean to say that leading scientists are willing to say, "Yes, there is an eternal Ufe" — ^but I do say, without fear of contradiction, that every reputable scientist wiU say that if there is an eternal life for man, it must include not only his soul, but a body as well. In the view of science, man is not simply a soul, but is a soul wholly embodied; the body with the soul. So to-day, my friends, standing by the empty sepulchre, with all pity of entreaty for the indifferent and the defiant; with all compassion of encouragement for the doubting and hesitating; with tender sympathy for the bereaved, we bid you, in the word of the Sacred Book: Lift up your hearts; recognize in Jesus Christ not simply a friend and a brother, not simply a person whom to know is respectable and good, but One whose heart goes out toward all men and all women everywhere. In the embrace of the infinite arm of His love there is none left out. To-day we rejoice that we are sons of the one Father, that we are brothers, all of us, of the one Christ. So to-day, standing by the empty sepulchre, the church wit- nesses this great truth: that the entire manhood has received eternal life, body and soul; and that the promise of eternal life is not simply a promise, eternal Kfe is not simply a prophecy, eternal life is not simply a hope; but in the words of Jesus Christ: "He that believeth on Me" — just think of that, my friends — "He that believeth on Me" — do you think I am going to say. Will have eternal life? Listen: "He that believeth on Me, HATH eternal life." 248 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Eternal life, in the midst of time, under the eye and by the strength of God. [May lo, 1914.] "If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come." — Job. xiv:i4. If a man die, shall he live again? That certainly is a question, we may say, of universal interest; and yet when we come to re- gard it, at least at first view, it seems quite a remarkable question to ask, "If a man die, shall he Uve again?" It is a much more remarkable question than to ask, "Is there a God?" because everjrwhere in the empire of the universe the very fact of the existence of the natural world is in itself, we may say, sufficient to prompt that question, "Is there a God?" But to the ordi- nary view, in spite of the fact that death seems so final, the fact that death seems the end of everything — Nature herself, as we look abroad upon her, seems to make her answer. No, No — yet in spite of these facts, I say, in spite of the fact that Nature seems simply to bear proof of mortaUty, in spite of the fact that human experience knows nothing more as regards death than mortality, yet, as a matter of fact, we know that humanity has always argued, with an incessant, persistent longing and desire, for a life after death. Therefore, we find in every age of which we have any record that men have never brought themselves to look upon death as simply the end. For there is a something, a solemnity, a fearsomeness, that seems to invest the very thought and the very fact of death. Now, what a contrast this is to the death of any creature of the underworld. You take any animal, wild or domestic: some day there comes over that animal a sense of failing strength, a feehng of excessive feebleness and drowsiness. Perhaps it won- ders why it feels so sleepy early in the day; but there is no other thought, and it Hes down to rest and passes into the realm of death, with no premonition that when the morning wakens it will not awaken with it. But how different it is, I say. We have only to consult the history of mankind of any period of which we have any record AND OTHER PAPERS 249 whatever, to find that there is this almost fierce, inextinguishable longing and desire for a life after death. Even the savage, in his rudest and most elementary forms of imagination and pictur- ing, has his "happy hunting grounds." Now in a recent conversation there was brought up the ques- tion: Do you not think that the advance of science and the pro- foundest philosophy of the day has practically forced us, if we will but admit it, to give "No" as the answer to Job's question? Or, do you not think that most thinking people are ready to take their chances, as it were, from their own observation, that he who cherishes a longing for a future life has failed to recognize the fullness and to improve the opportunities that are afforded in this Ufe? I shall only be able to make a very brief argument, for the subject of the future Ufe is far too vast to be presented, even par- tially, in one discourse. But I would select this morning for our meditation, in answer to just such a negation as we have here, I would select simply two points. I would show that the moral and rational nature of man makes it probable that there is a life after death, and that the Gospel as declared by Jesus Christ, for him who accepts it, raises the probable belief to the pitch of certi- tude. There is an absolute which must underlie all argument, and that is the rationality of the universe. Or, in other words, there is a Divine and reasoning order permeating the whole uni- verse, and thereby the intention of all things is particularly appointed. Or, in other words again, the nature of any creature, man or beast below him, is the destiny of such a creature, and is prophesied by his very make-up, by his physical make-up. Now, no one doubts this as regards the physical organization. There is the fish in the sea; we see at once its destiny is prophesied from its very physical make-up, that it is for the water. You take the bird with its wings; there, we see, we have the prophecy of a double empire for that creature from its physical organization. It can easily maintain itself both on the earth with its feet and in the free air with its wings. Now the very same principle appUes, I say, that the nature of any being in a deep sense constitutes and prophesies its destiny. We see this is true when we come to observe the spiritual nature of man, for when we study man's spiritual nature, we discover there are in him faculties, senti- 2SO THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH ments, and ideals which prophesy a larger and a more enduring life than that which seems to end with the grave.. It is a well- known fact that all the creatures below man complete, perfect, or round out their development in this world. Take the beast, or the flower of the field: eternity itself, we may say, could add nothing in the way of furthering its perfection. But how differ- ent with the mind of a man. The more he knows, the more he knows there is to know; and his very hunger grows with each bit he acquires. How different, again, from the physical body. It demands nourishment, we supply it; but with our minds there is an incessant craving for more knowledge and more knowledge and more knowledge. And this is not something exceptional; for it is the very make-up, we may say, of every man. So we have here, in accordance with the rationality of the universe, a distinct craving which does not meet its full fruition here in this life. And if the mind of man must be fully satisfied with its outlook, its knowledge, its yearnings, its ideals that appear to end with the grave, we may stand and say at once, with the certitude of conviction, that the God who created man and framed his mind did not act rationally to provide such a destiny as that. If you should see a man building a house, with the windows left out, with no roof, and perhaps only a few boards here and there, and then start another house and build it in the same way, and then another, and never finishing any of the many houses he began, why, you would say such a man is not acting rationally. Just so, we may say, with him who would claim that this life of ours fulfils the whole of destiny for man; for such a statement is contradicting the rationality of the universe, and at the same time proclaiming, just as in the case of the man who left his houses unfinished, that the very presiding Deity of the uni- verse, the creator and framer of man's mind, with its ideals, its sentiments, its desire for perfection, is not acting rationally. So, then, in accordance with the great truth of the rationality of the universe, there is a distinct order providing, requiring man to go on perfecting himself. We see this is a great argument for the life after death. And more than that: for when we con- sider man's moral nature, there comes in another part of the great argument. Now, my friends, there is one imperative, one duty, that lies below all other duty, and that is the duty of perfecting AND OTHER PAPERS 251 our spiritual nature. When Christ said, "Be ye also perfect," that was not the poetry of pious aspiration merely; it was the setting forth of the universal and inevitable law of the perpetual imperative that presages the moral nature of man, so that he must go on and on to perfection. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Of course, this cannot be accomplished within the circuit of time. It can only be accomplished by a perpetual and endless process, so that eternity itself must provide room wherein man can go on and on perfecting his love, the love of his heart, the powers of his mind, the strength of his will for overcoming evil and carr3ring out that which is good and that which is righteous. I pass to the last stage. I have said that man's moral and rational nature makes necessary the reality of the future Ufe; indeed, it becomes one great probability. And more than that, for we find that the moral nature of man makes it a necessity also; for not only do we find that it is a moral law that man should go on nearing and ever nearing perfection, but the moral nature of man demands it. Some people have said that it seems a little strange that a cer- tain book should have been included in the Bible. It was the last book to be given a place in the Canonical Old Testament. It is the boldest book, in its utterances, in the whole Bible. But for my part I rejoice in this Book of Ecclesiastes; for it sets be- fore us without doubt or uncertainty in its utterances the real facts that confront us in life. Take such a passage as this: "All things come alike to all. As is the righteous, so is the wicked. As is he that sweareth, so is he that feareth an oath." You may find the picturing bold in some of its utterances, but Ecclesiastes lays bare the great fact of the existence of a govern- ing Providence in this world; and that book was put in the Bible, I sincerely believe, just to bri;ng forcibly before us the great truth that this life is not all, that the program of Divine Providence cannot be circumscribed within the hmits of time and the grave, that it must reach out into eternity before the great plan is complete. Therefore, I say, man's moral nature demands that there should be a hereafter, that there should be provision made, an adjustment 252 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of the Divine procedure for these things which cannot be circum- scribed within the limits of time, but must take in eternity itself. So much, we may say, of the argument may be adduced from the rationality of the universe and from the moral nature of man. But we have something else, and to my mind it is by far the great- est of all arguments. That is the Gospel, the great central truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what is it? It is above all, and before all, the great declaration that this Gospel is the call of a loving Father, a call not restricted to this person or that person, but going out toward aU men, as the light of the sun floods the earth. Now can you imagine God making a world and creating man, and can you imagine God saying, "I shall love him for a little while, while this mortal life lasts?" Oh, we know that caimot be. . . . We know that when God calls us, He calls us to a true destiny that shall not endure for a while, during these few mortal years, but in the Hfe that shall grow and expand throughout eternity itself. What a wonderful thought. . . . And just as when one speaks of motion, one necessarily implies space, so when one speaks of Ufe, the higher Hfe, the Ufe of God in Christ, he implies thereby, just as motion implies space, so such a life impUes eternity. We see, then, that not only the moral and rational nature of man makes probable, but our very make-up makes probable the existence of our souls in another Hfe, and that the conviction of the Providence of God in righteousness and truth makes moraUy necessary that there should be that after-Hfe. But above aU and before aU, I assert, that love which Christ taught, coming down from the Father and going out from our hearts to Him, that itself is the greatest of all proofs that Hfe does not end with the grave. [May 24, 19 14.] "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." — St. Luke xxiv:^!. The thoughtful and reflecting reader of the Gospel record of the ascension cannot but be deeply impressed with our Lord's AND OTHER PAPERS 253 thoughtfulness, His positive tenderness toward His disciples, as evidenced by the way in which He suppresses all manifestations of His glory and of His majesty during those last hours of com- panionship. The very circumstances, in the time, in the place of the ascension, the very manner of His intercourse with them, all approach as nearly as possible the simple level of human fel- lowship and affection. There were no heavenly apparitions to distract or affright the little band; He was there standing amid them, as their friend and their fellow. In His last words there was nothing to render them, as it were, removed from Him, as He was about to assimie the glory that was to be His eternally. Beautifully, I say, and tenderly, he suppresses all manifestations of His majesty and simply disappears from them in the act of blessing them. Now when we reflect, my friends, that He who departed thus, He who had absolute command of all the circumstances and the details of His departure, might have commanded a fiery chariot, like that which in ages past had taken Elijah, to be the mode of His departure; He might have been accompanied with files of gleaming angels, which would have filled aU those about Him with awe. But how different: quietly, gently. He disappears from them in the act of blessing and of benediction. I have spoken of the time; that also is very characteristic of this intervention of our Lord's to keep the disciples close to Him in human fellowship until actually removed from them. The place, as we will learn from the Scripture record, was in that wild spot' on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, in the plain of Bethany. He might have selected Jerusalem, He might have chosen some one of those great positions where the people would assemble by the thousands to behold His glory and His triumph. Instead, He went with His disciples to this wild and lonely spot, not far from the village of Bethany; and a most fitting place it was. There were no spectators, only the little company of followers about Eim. His ascension took place from the eastern slope of the Moimt of Olives; and right down at the foot of the western slope was the grim Gethsemane. The same mountain that had witnessed the depth of His agony in Gethsemane should also witness the glory and the triumph of His ascension Also, the time of His ascension. He did not choose the glamour 254 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of midday, when there might have been thousands passing nearby on the road to the city, nor yet some hour when crowds would naturally have gathered there; but He chooses this silent hour. Tradition places the ascension just about daybreak. In imagi- nation, my friends, I love to try to picture that scene. There is Christ on the eastern slope of the mountain, with the little band about Him; and right across the vaUey there is the great city that had rejected Him, the city of Jerusalem ... the glimmer of lights about the temple; the stilhiess through the city streets, and about the tower of Antonio. And perhaps the ear could catch, through the stiUness, the clanking of the soldiers in their armor. And the daybreak grew on the mountain, and about the tower of Antonio. . . . Pilate was sleeping, doubt- less; Caiaphus was sleeping, doubtless; Herod was sleeping, doubtless; and the final scene of the greatest drama in all the course of time was enacted while the world was wrapped in slumber. But no word escaped the Blessed Master of reproach or denunciation. He did not say, "Now is my hour of triumph, and those who have been my enemies may now behold me in my glory." There was no thought of Pilate, who was afraid to do the right thing; the awful tragedy of the cross, the howling, jeering mob, intent upon His life; Herod and his terrible soldiers, aU seemed to be forgotten. His only thought and His last word is that of forgiveness and compassion. No word of reproach was uttered, and in this last moment He extends His hands in bene- diction and opens His lips only to bless. There is a slow move- ment, a motion upward . . . there is a gradual lessening of His form from the vision of the disciples; until at last the clouds open and receive Him from their sight. Is it not a beautiful thought, my dear friends, that He who could have commanded all the circumstances of His departure should have chosen this attitude of benediction and of blessing, so that mortal vision should see for the last time the great Saviour of mankind, not as some one extending his hands in condemnation or reproach, but as a loving friend, extending his hands in bene- diction? And I love to think that as the Master rose from the earth, the shadow of His hands in blessing first covered only the little band about Him, and as He rose higher and higher, the shadow of those hands extended over the earth, grew and covered AND OTHER PAPERS 255 the whole earth. There is a beautiful thought: He came not only to die for the salvation of the world . . . but that He might gather all in the embrace of His love and His forgiveness. And those hands are extended still, my friends. I have often thought that this ought to be caUed the Gospel of the Ascension; those outstretched hands of Christ in His departure from this earth. We should always, each and every one of us, keep that picture in mind, keep that vision in our heart of hearts: the de- parting Saviour. Notwithstanding all that He had suffered of agony and sorrow and humility. He vanishes and passes from this world in the act of blessing, and that is the attitude He shows to human hearts throughout the ages. He says to all men every- where, whether they have formally confessed Christ or not, "I entreat you, look up, behold the ascending Saviour, and realize that the benediction of those hands is for you, if you will but open your hearts and receive it." The blessing that He confers is not a reward or recompense; but indeed it is freely given to all who are willing to have His blessing rest upon them. A beautiful thought, I say, the Gospel of the Ascension; the universality of Christ's love and forgiveness and compassion. And so I say to each and every one, "Lift up your hearts." Conscience may accuse; friends may fail; fortune may pass away; and the world forsake you; but keep in your hearts the vision of the ascending Christ. There is a friend, an efficient helper, the great need of those who are discouraged and disillusioned; and I beseech you, and aU men, I beseech you, lift up your hearts, and behold the vision of Him who left the world in the act of blessing and benediction. [May 31, 1914.] "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father .give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." — St. Luke xi.-ij. Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsunday are the first four of the greater festivals of the year. Now imdoubtedly, re- garded in themselves as definite events, they are of equal impor- tance; Christmas, celebrating the birth; Easter, the resurrection; 256 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH and Ascension, ascending to the glory that was His before the world began. But as respects ourselves, my friends, undoubtedly the great event we commemorate to-day is more spiritually im- portant; because the event which we commemorate to-day, the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, makes vitally signifi- cant all the work of the Redeemer for us. It is indeed the crowning consummation of the Divine program of redemption. Apart from this, we may say, all the work of Christ stands away from us. It is the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit that brings that work home to us, His teachings. His miracles, and makes them a part of our Uves. Briefly, then, let ine say, we commemorate to-day God's greatest gift in His scheme of redemption for man, and that it was most necessary for the efficacy of our Blessed Lord's work as the Redeemer of mankind. Now I think we may confess, my friends, that we are very apt to think of the event celebrated on Whitsunday as something more remote, something removed and apart from us, more so than the event of the birth of Christ, or His resurrection from the grave, or His ascension, even; we are apt to think that perhaps it is less practically important, or less closely related to us than these other events. We should bear in mind that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the descent and indwelUng of the Holy Spirit, that is the vital bond of connection between the whole work of Christ and the hearts and souls of men. It is the descent and indwelHng of the Holy Spirit that makes efficacious the teaching and the miracles and all the work of Jesus Christ, that makes us one body with Him. We read these words that occur so often in the New Testament, that "our Hves are hid with Christ in God, " without realizing that, in a general sense, it is on just that contention, we may say, that our redemption by the sacrifice of Christ really depends. It makes His sacrffice not something remote and apart from us, but something in us. He becomes one with us and we one with Him. Just as the life of the body makes all the members of the body one, just so the life of the Spirit, that is the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in us, makes us one with him, and, as St. Paul says, "Christ, the head of the body; this church. His body." It is most essential, then, for bringing home to us and making real Christ's great redemptive work. But in addition to that, AND OTHER PAPERS 257 An Autobiography By EDWARD LIVINGSTON TRUDEAU, M. D. Founder of Saranac and Pioneer in the Open Air Treatment of Tuberculosis we may say, the great event we commemorate to-day, the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is absolutely essential for us if we would lead a Christian Ufe. Now it is not truth, it is not ideals, it is not teaching, it is not merely example, that can make „. ...,^,«,„. , .^„. ^-* *!-"*- <-+i-efore us most They were ey were with eard His dec- were they in '■ Spirit upon . in the case of lining, he had 3, he had been Lster Himself, s of that mar- Lguration, and truth and the ,s a man who t night of His mething more may say, the should mould St. Peter, and ARECXDRD of forty years of struggle against tuberculosis and of the founding of a great Sanitarium which began for the first time the open-air treatment on a scientific plan. The story of this man, himself afflicted with the dread scourge, is a document of intense interest, full of human kindness and devotion to a great cause; delightful in its humor and contact with the world of ideas. There is no atmosphere of the sick room to be found in this volume and little of the doctor's office. Instead, one gets pictures of a boyhood in France, of early youth in New York, of the young Dr. Trudeau and the physical breakdown that directed his thoughts to out-door life, and of his removal to Paul Smith's in the heart of the Adirondacks. There are delightful chapters on guides and hunting and here for the first time the Doctor's own account of his distinguished friend and patient, Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a big book because it holds the heart and soul of a big man and thousands of people who know of Dr. Trudeau only as the genius of Saranac will find in this story of one man's achievement and zest for life an inspiration that will never fail. Many intimate and interesting illustrations. Net $2.00 ilize this: that ew Testament lat we are per- a program of no matter how ; is a power of ithing of small Christmas and ;s those events ; events for us, part of our life that this great )le;itisobtain- DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 2s8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH able for each and every soul that will honestly and earnestly desire it. Is not that a wonderful statement? We would not dare to make it were it not that we know it to be the explicit declaration of our Lord Himself. "He that seeketh findeth; he that asketh receiveth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Wonderful words, this declaration, and when it is given us so strikingly in the text, there is an argument: "If this be true, this is much more true." So we read, "If ye then, being evU, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." Now we know, my friends, that all the blessings of life are gifts of God. We know that we may pray for them ; we know that we may constantly ask for them and work for them, and always hoping. . . . And yet, it may be, we ofttimes fail of attain- ment, most probably because, in our individual condition, the granting of our prayer woidd not be best for us. But we are al- ways safe, we are always sure, in asking for this gift, this great gift of the Holy Spirit. We are always safe, I say, because it is the great design of God that all should have the gift of the in- dwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are sure, because of the words of the text: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." [November i, 1914.] "Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." — St. John iv:j8. To-day we commemorate the Festival of All Saints. Uncer- tainty, it must be admitted, exists with regard to the time, the place, and the circumstances of the first institution of this great festival. Ecclesiastical antiquaries have ever debated about these points, but there is one feature of this great festival that is beyond debate; there can be no possibiUty of debate with regard to the importance, the beauty, and justice of this great festival. AND OTHER PAPERS 259 For this festival commemorates all who have lived a faithful life, all who have fought the good fight of faith. We have many names registered in our calendar: Saint Thomas, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and many others throughout the year, but in this great festival we especially commemorate the nameless dead, that great innumerable company who lived and loved and la- bored and passed to their rest generations gone by. And in our own time there have been many whose names, in most cases, are secrets with God, who have left the fruits of their works as a blessing for us. In this great spiritual festival, then, in the spiritual sphere, we may say, the church actually anticipates the great doctrine of conservation of energy in the physical world. We know that scientists teach us to-day that absolutely no degree of energy, no matter how minute or insignificant, is lost in nature. Not only the giant energies of the earthquake, of the volcano, of the great fires and floods, not only do great deeds make their mark on the face of nature, so to speak, but the dropping of the leaves, a spar- row's fall, the waving of an infant's hand, every one of these is just as truly and as surely registered f orevermore on the physical make-up, the storehouse of the universe. And just so in the spiritual sphere: not only the great names and the familiar names of the apostles and the prophets, the martyrs and the great re- ligious leaders whose names reverberate throughout the ages; not only these have left us something, not only do we enjoy some- what from their lives and their labors, but there has not been an inconspicuous and quiet servant of God who has spoken a kind word, who has lent a helping hand, that has not been counted; there is no degree of sympathy or fairness or courage in humanity that has been overlooked. The noble patience of fortitude, the noble passion of justice, these, as well as faith and hope and charity, these are — what? They go to make up the light and the life and the temperature of this world in which we five to-day; we caimot conceive of what a condition this world would have been in had there been only those lives for God whose names we know. It is the great army, the great nameless army of the saints of God that has contributed perhaps the greater portion of the good that goes to make up, as I have said, the light and the life and the spiritual temperature of the world to-day. 26o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH It strikes me that there is a beautiful analogy between this and the physical world. Science tells us that fully three fourths of the light and the heat which make life possible for this earth come from the nameless stars, and a great many of them actually undiscovered by the naked eye. Not only the great stars whose names we know, not only the great sun that floods with light what we call our day; but if that were all, this earth would not be habitable. It is these nameless and numberless stars that create that temperature, along with the sun, that make life here possible. And just so it is, my friends, in the moral and religious sphere in this world. Just hke those unknown and nameless stars that give their light and their heat to make the earth habi- table, so it is with the thousands and hundreds of thousands of those who have fought the good fight of faith, who have been faithful to Christ, and passed to their reward; they have labored, and we have entered into their labors. I love to think of this festival also as the festival of the living Christ. To-day we bring home to our hearts especially the great truth that the Blessed Lord and Saviour that we love and trust is not only the one who was dead and risen again long ago, but that He is the living Christ to-day. For we know that Christ lives in His saints, in the Hves of those who foUow and serve Him and who seek to do His will, that is Christ in them. So this festival, as it has been beautifully called, is the Festival of the Fifth Gospel. There are the four Gospels, bound up, and no man can add thereto, or take therefrom, in the sacred Word of God; but there is just as really a fifth Gospel, that has been cen- turies in the writing and is not completed yet and will not be until the last of God's creatures is redeemed and gathered home. Be- cause the hves of the saints, the record that we have of them, is the record of the life of Christ dwelling in the hearts of His saints. That is what St. Paul says, "Nevertheless, I live" — then he corrects himself — "yet not I, but Christ hveth in me." So to-day, throughout the world, the living Christ is doing His work by and through His living saints; through the lips of the faithful He is speaking just as reaUy as when He spoke His words of benediction and comfort. To-day by the hands of the faith- ful He is extending help and courage; He is clothing the naked and feeding the hungry, just as really as in the ages past. He is AND OTHER PAPERS 261 going about by their feet on His errands of mercy and benefac- tion just as really as in the days long, long gone by. The Christ, not only of the past, but the Christ who lives to-day, who lives for those who trust m Him and seek to follow Him. Christ is our light and our life. We live, yet not we, but Christ liveth in us. [November 8, 1914.] "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the man- ner of some." — Hebrews x:2^. "Whosoever shaU confess me before men, him will I also confess before i6y Father." — St. Matthew x:32. That Jesus Christ came to earth to teach the truth with regard to the character and purposes of God the Father, and with regard to the duties and destinies of man, and to illustrate that teaching by His own life and labors, is a fact so clear that no candid mind can dispute its presence and its teaching in the Gospel record. But there is another truth equally clear in the record, which men, whether they doubt or dispute it or not, must either accept or ignore. And that great truth equally revealed, I say, is that Christ came to earth not only to teach the truth to men individ- ually and to call them to live and labor in His cause, but that He came to found a great commonwealth, a great society, a great brotherhood, that should embody His spirit and carry onHis work. Now, I say, that is the second truth, that it was an essential part of God's plan, of Christ's plan, that there should be made the Kingdom of God upon earth, that the church which He should found should be the means and the instrumentality through which His blessing should come to men. Now there are a great many who are ready to acknowledge Christ as a great teacher and as a great exemplar; we could not find more striking commenda- tion of His character and example than we have in some men who are classed not only as unbelievers but as practically atheists. But whatever changes of belief or skepticism the future may develop, one thing is certain: the character of Jesus Christ will never be surpassed. 262 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH But I want to insist this morning upon this second truth, that Christ came not only as a teacher individually to men, but that He came to found a society by and through which He should find a special channel for His grace and for the furtherance of His kingdom here in this world. Now let me note that here is a contrast in Christ's teaching with that of others. There were rehgious reformers and founders before Christ; there were moral and religious philosophers before Christ; but they never, in any instance, made it a point to seek to establish a society, a com- munity, by and through which the special furtherance of their work should be carried on. But Christ did. And we see how his- tory has justified the Master's choice; because while there have been many agencies and all sorts of religious societies established in the world, it is certainly perfectly within reason and beyond de- bate to say that no institution in the world has so labored and acted so effectively toward the rescue and the help of men, re- deeming them from sin and from shame and from the misery of defeat, as has this church, this commonwealth, this great society which Christ established. Why, then, does not everybody take part in this society? Alas, we know they do not; and we know that in every community there are scores of men and women who practically make the teaching of Christ and His example in very large measure the normal standard of their private lives, and yet they refuse to pubUcly confess Him, they refuse to publicly be- come members of the great commonwealth that He has estab- hshed, and to recognize Him as the King of that commonwealth. He is not only the teacher and exemplar, but He is the Kling of a kingdom here in this world. I wish I could press that home; be- cause I think it is within the experience of every rector. We meet so many who are men and women of reputable, admirable Hves, and although they go to church occasionally, they do not seem to realize that this is Christ's plan, that it was not only to address men individually, but in the great kingdom, the com- monwealth by and through which, as the special channel of His grace, the work of the world's redemption and uplift should be carried on. Now when we approach a person of this kind, who has been apart from the church, we get an answer somewhat like this: "Well, in my private life, in my conduct, in the principles which AND OTHER PAPERS 263 preside over my life, I think I cling pretty close to the teaching of Jesus Christ, since I recognize him as the Master, and in my conduct and individual life appear to be a real Christian. If I cannot be known by my life as a Christian, then I do not wish to be known as a Christian simply by the label of some church mem- bership. I am a Christian because my Hfe declares it; I do not have to go out and shout it. I say to any person, read my life, look at my conduct, show me where I depart from the spirit and the teaching of Jesus Christ, and I will be willing, perhaps, to come to a different conclusion. But you must show me that first." Well, we might say to such a one, "My dear friend, suppose that you could get along without the church; suppose that you could carry on your life and your conduct in a small way apart from the plan which Christ has laid down, are you thinking of your brother? No man is saved solely for himself; every man is saved that he may help to save some other person." And so we have here the great community spirit. I would say to such a man, " Do not take upon yourself the language of Cain and say, Am I my brother's keeper? I have all I can do to take care of myself. Not so; you cannot take care of yourself unless you are in some soUd, some real and sincere measure helping to take care of some less fortunate brother than yourself." But sometimes another excuse is made. Here is one, for in- stance, who will say, " No, I do not attend church. I think I may say that I am willing to profess Christ, but I do not care to go into a church and profess Christ in the maimer they require. I am content with the simple profession of Christ, but they have their conditions of membership. They take not only the facts of the Gospel alone, but they add their own theories about those facts, and they combine them into conditions of acceptance into the church." Now in this, my friends, there has undoubtedly been an error on the part of the church. I think all the churches. Episcopal, Baptist, the Methodist, the Roman Catholic, all of them have in the past, and some indeed in the present, largely made this mis- take of putting their theories about the Gospel facts along with those facts into the conditions of membership. Now this should not be; but of all the churches, I think I am free to say that ours 264 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH has sinned the least in this respect. How many of us have recognized that in order to enter into the full privileges of the Episcopal Church there has been only the condition of belief, the question, "Do you believe all the articles of the Christian faith as contained in the Apostles' Creed? " That is the only question the Bishop dare ask you, for ours is a constitutional church and he cannot go beyond the order of the Prayer Book, any more than I can. Our church only requires the simple assent to and belief in the great facts as stated in the shortest, briefest, and clearest of the Creeds, the Apostles' Creed. Again, we find still other excuses, for instance: "Well, I do not see that I would gain much by entering into the formal member- ship of the church. A man I know has criticised some of the members of a certain church, and it doesn't seem to me that they have been greatly benefited." And again we might answer, "My dear friend, you cannot judge your case by another man's case. It is your duty and my duty to fulfill the Lord's command to adopt the plan which He Himself has laid down, and to wait for the invasion of Christ's spirit to enable us to lead the proper life that we should lead." Of course I might give many other excuses that people some- times give for not becoming members of the church. For Christ not only wishes inner faith; that is all right as far as it goes, but He wishes also the outward and public profession of that faith. He not only wishes downright and personal allegiance to Him, but He wants that allegiance to be publicly avowed, so that it may be known to others. So the call, the command, comes to each and every one, for the rehgion of Jesus Christ is not a specialized profession. We know there are a great many other professions in Hfe that we do not have to trouble ourselves about, where we can leave our affairs in the care of others. I may say to my lawyer, "Look after this business for me"; and to my doctor, "Take care of my personal health, my bodily health." But you and I cannot make any such disposition of our spiritual welfare. We have to go into the church and do the work of the commonwealth of the church. We caimot delegate that to another. Well, then, we may say to those who stand apart from the church, "Suppose the church is not what it ought to be; suppose AND OTHER PAPERS 265 you complain that it has fallen into the care of narrow-minded men, men milliners, if you please, theological doctrinaires. My friend, the responsibility rests upon you in a deep sense, just as reaUy as upon those in the church, that you should come into the church and give your help to Christ's plan for the redemption and rescue of the world. Do not simply stand outside and make criticism of those who are within the church. If it is not what it ought to be, come in, I say, and by your fellowship, by your sound heart, and by your high-minded judgment of what Hfe ought to be, come in, and help make it what it ought to be. You need the church and the church needs you, and indeed needs all who win come, with kindly hearts and with open hearts and receive Christ's message of grace and power." Let us realize that we are not simply to so live and conduct ourselves in the moral life that we will escape any penalties of the future; but we must so live and labor in this hfe that all shall do their measure and their share in helping to Uf t this world into the Kingdom of God. My friends, I am pleased to see so many here to-day, and I hope that this will be simply the beginning of better things, so far as church membership is concerned. I know it is practically impossible for all to be at church every day. But I wish we could realize this second great truth, as I have said, that Christ was not only a teacher, but the foimder of a society, the Kingdom of God and His Church, and that He expects and desires and commands that those who would serve Him acceptably should do His work effectively in this world; come within the church and make it known, thereby confessing Him before men, that He Himself, in that last great day, may publicly confess them before the Father in Heaven. [November 15, 1914-] "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of myseK." — St. John mi:!^. Undoubtedly, nothing can be of higher moment to each and every one than the attainment of a solid assurance, a living con- 266 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH viction, of the truth of Christ's claims and Christ's teachings, and therefore this clear deliverance of our Lord as to the one sure way in which that conviction may be reached is certainly a deliverance that is precious and important. Our Lord here sets before us a practical rule, something that is not only to be thought about, to bring home to us this conviction, but something that is to be done; and I wish to call attention this morning briefly to three assumptions which underlie this practical rule which He has given us. " If any man willeth to do the will of God, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." The first assumption here, which must readily suggest itself to every one, is that our Lord here assumes that every one has a be- lief in the existence of God, however dim and indeterminate that belief may be with regard to the character and requirements of God. Christ assumes that every one has a belief in Gk»d. He does not assume that every one has a belief in Himself, for in the fourteenth chapter of this same Gospel, He makes the distinction, in His declaration, "Ye believe in God — you cannot help it, however far you may be away from following in a practical way what should be the real consequences of that belief, you cannot escape the belief itself — ye believe in God" — then comes the requirement — "beheve also in Me." So that the rule here laid down is not one to bring us to a belief in the existence of God simply as the creator, the framer of all things and the upholder of all things, but it is a plan whereby we; are to be brought to a recog- nition of the truth and of the claims and the teachings of Jesus Christ as the authorized revealer of God, not simply as the crea- tor, but as the Heavenly Father, as the God of forgiveness and the God of love. So I say the first assumption that imderlies this rule is that every one beheves in God. But, it may be asked by some one, does not that leave out a very important factor? How about the atheist, who is ready to assert with great emphasis that he has studied the problem, and that there is no great Oversoul, no great God; so far as he can see, it is simply a case of "Into itself, out of itself, all that we see or know Swings like a mighty pendulum, or a ceaseless ebb and flow." AND OTHER PAPERS 267 Now Christ, in His assumption here, has not forgotten the atheist, for we must recognize, my friends, that rational, practical atheism, logical atheism, is simply impossible. The man who sets out to frame an argument against the existence of God must do what? He must first of all assume the existence of a God, in order that he can have any degree whatever of guarantee for the reaJity of his premises, and the reaUty of the rationaUty of the process by which he reasons. I think the observation of a for- eign writer is very much in point right here, that the man who attempts logically to deny the existence of God is like the man who sets forth to argue against the existence of the atmosphere. He maintains there is no such thing as atmosphere, although science may lead us to think there is, but he asserts with absolute positiveness that there is no such thing; and at the same time his possibility of speaking is due to the fact that he is breathing that atmosphere. And just so with the atheist. This is the assumption, I say, that every man has within him, however dim and indistinct, the knowledge of the reahty of the great creator and framer of all things, the upholder of all things. That is the first assumption. The second assumption which underlies this practical rule He has given us for attaining the conviction of the reahty of His teaching and His claims, the second is that He assumes that every man has a beUef in some things that he recognizes to be in hne with Christ's wiU and as expressing God's will. He has distinct names for them: right, truthfulness, a forgiving spirit, unselfish- ness, justice, mercy; these things he recognizes and as being in line with the Divine will and as expressing that will. Therefore, the man who will set himself to work to realize these things in his life and conduct, that man is in Hne with the way in which Christ says the result will come which will make him a firm be- liever, a real believer in Christ's teachings and in His claims. Now we recognize these things — you see we are beginning very low down. Christ does not assume that a man can go forth and .say to men, "You must beheve the claims and teachings of Jesus Christ to be the wiU of God, and begin that way and then become a Christian." For such reasoning as that is like walking around in a circle with a very narrow diameter, inasmuch as it is simply asking a man to be a Christian first in order that he may become a 268 THE HERITAGE OF THE COAIMONWEALTH Christian afterward. For the loyal belief and faith in Christ as the teacher, and His claims as the authorized revealer of the character and requirements of God, that is to be a Christian. So Christ leaves that out. It is simply to take hold of those things which any man and every man recognizes to be in line with the Divine will and expressing the Divine will. Let him set about with devoutness, then, to do all duty as the wiU of God, and he shall reap his reward. And the third assumption is this very thing, that there is a particular way, a particular process, whereby men are to come to this full conviction, this sure belief in Christ's teachings and claims, and that is, as He lays it down, by doing the wiU of God. Now the first question that comes to mind is, why should there be, or how can there be, this special relationship between Christ's teachings and this practical doing of the will of God? The an- swer is, that the whole of Christ's teaching, all His teaching, re- volves around two distinct centres: man's guilt, and therefore his need of forgiveness; that is one; and the other centre is man's weakness, and his need of power, his need of Divine grace, of spiritual help. Around these two centres, I say, all the doctrine of Christ, all His teachings and His claims, may be gathered. Well now, if that is the nature of Christianity, then we see why this practical rule is given us for all to come to the realization of this. For as soon as a man attempts to do the will of God, the first thing awakened in him and deepened in him is this very thing, his sense of guilt. He can no more put it aside when he sets resolutely out to fulfill every duty and every obligation as the will of God. Heretofore he has fulfilled his obligations from a sense of necessity, perhaps, or out of deference to social respect, but when he sets about doing it as a piece of God's requirements and His wiU, then he is sure to deepen his sense of guilt. He recognizes that he can no longer say to himself, as in the past, "This sense of guilt is nothing more than the personal reflex of my own judgment and that of society, and it can be wiped away simply by my own power." He recognizes that thjs sense of guilt is deeply embedded in his very soul and that nothing short of the authentic voice of Him who made his soul can relieve him of the sense of guilt. I read somewhere of a poor demented man who was found rubbing the blue veins in a slab of marble; he said AND OTHER PAPERS 269 he wanted it all white and was determined to get the blue veins out; and so he rubbed and rubbed. We may take that as a par- able for the man who thinks he can make up for his shortcomings, or rub out his sins, with culture. Oh, how that word "culture" has been flung abroad ! How culture has resulted in international warfare! Culture, in itself, is no guarantee either of righteous- ness or of belief in Christ. It must be supplemented by some- thing quite different. So I say, we find here this sense of guilt deepened in a man so that he feels he must take the words of the Psalmist to his lips, "Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned." The guilt, Uke the blue veins in the marble, is deep down in the very structure of his heart and his mind, and only the authentic voice of Christ, speaking as the eternal Son of God, can clear the soul of that sense of guilt. But when a man begins this discipline of doing all duty de- voutly, in seeking to do every duty as a part of the wiU of God, another effect comes in: the deepening of his sense of moral weak- ness, and therefore his need of spiritual help, spiritual power, spiritual grace. Now, my dear friends, I wish I could reveal to every one here, who has striven to hve after a high ideal, that just in proportion as he has been assiduous in his labors to realize that ideal, just in that proportion has the sense of personal weak- ness, or personal inability to achieve that ideal, filled the heart and the mind. That is the tragic fact, I say, that just in propor- tion as we are devout in our endeavors to realize our high ideals comes the strengthening of this sense of weakness; and there is no escape. We turn to Him who came to give us help, who came to give us light and power; for He came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. So we see how practical this rule is; levelled to every tmder- standing. Say to the man in the street, "Would you attain to a solid conviction of Christ's claims and teachings? Then set about, in accordance with His own declaration, to fulfill this practical rule: do all duty as the Divine will. And sure as you set about that, you will find, when you open the pages of the Gospel, that these things which have been strong within you, the need of grace and the need of spiritual power, you will find there provision laid down for you, offered to you in the Gospel and in 270 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the declaration of Christ as recorded therein." Let no one be afraid to come because his efforts have been feeble; for I have read you the text in our revised version. Not simply he who "will" do the will of God, but he who "willeth" to do the will of God. If your heart is honestly and earnestly set in that way, then your reward is sure to come at last; and you will find that no other words so fitly describe the result which you find in open- ing the Gospel and these doctrines and teachings that at first seemed afar off, come right home to you, with your deepened sense of guilt and your need of forgiveness, your deepened sense of weakness and your need of help and power, than the words of the inspired writer: " To whom else can I go? Thou alone hast eternal life." [November 22, 19 14.] "But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefuUy use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is ia Heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." — St. Matthew v:44, 45. "Love your enemies." Undoubtedly this is recognized as the one injimction in the Sermon on the Mount most difficult of ful- fillment. Love your enemies. The temptation is of course on the part of many to regard it as a kind of counsel of perfection that has its bearing and its address largely, if n.ot solely, to one who lives apart from the world, one who is isolated from the trials and temptations of hf e, and can spend his time in fasting and prayer. On the other hand, there is the temptatioa to minimize the com- mand, to interpret it to mean nothing more than that simply we must be careful not to be vengeful and not be too prompt in wreaking reprisals on those who have don.e or said that which is injurious to us. Now I think that in the minds of a great many, this seems really an impossible command, impossible of realization in man as we find him to-day; but I think the difficulty, while not dissipated AND OTHER PAPERS 271 entirely, is greatly relieved, if we note the distinction, the fimda- mental distinction, between liking and loving. Love your ene- mies; not like them, but love them. Now we find, in looking closely at these two words, "liking " and " loving," that so far from being confused one with the other, we may say they are almost opposites. If I were asked for a figure to illustrate, I should say for " liking " we find its counterpart in the centripetal force in the physical world, that which draws everything toward itself as the centre; and the coimterpart of "love" is found in the centrifugal force of the physical world, that which is outgoing, that which expands itself, which is other than itself. In other words, we must be careful to recognize that love is not simply a great liking; for, in a deep sense, we may love, actually love, those whom we do not like; for liking depends upon affinity. We like those who fit in with our moods and dispositions, who are like us; and we like them. But love is like the radiant light and heat from the sun itself, going forth and spreading itself upon all. Love seeks not simply its own satisfaction, but the good, the satisfaction of others. Liking — and I am speaking in no harsh criticism of it — liking seeks our own good and our own satisfac- tion, whereas a loving spirit is outgoing, looks beyond self and seeks the good of others, the betterment and the help that may be given to our brother. Well, now, our Blessed Lord undoubtedly recognized that this command or injunction to possess and preserve a loving spirit was a very difficult one; He recognized that men would, by every device possible, seek to explain and explain and explain until they explained it away, and therefore, contrary to His general custom. He goes on to give an explicit illustration of what He means. He goes on to show that this loving spirit which He commands to have its birth and its growth in each and every heart is not to be simply a passing inner spirit, hidden away some- where in our psychical being, but that it is to be a hving spirit, actively manifesting itself in every reahn of human relationship, in words, in deeds, in thoughts. Consider then, briefly, the first injunction, "Bless them that curse you." I think that we are not to confine the words " curse you" simply to one who is exercising himself in profanity, dis- tinctly recognized, but that it applies to those who express them- 272 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH selves in terms that amount, we may say, to a curse upon us, who desire, in the words that they express, to cover us, it may be, with infamy and do us harm in that way. Now we are to bless, says the Master, those who curse us. We are not to be content with saying, "Well, if my enemy apologizes for his cursing and foregoes his infamous speeches against me, then I will set about and try and forgive him." Something more than that is re- quired. We are to bless, not bless his wrongdoing, but bless him. That is, we are to seek and find, if possible, something in the man that we can commend, and commend it. And while the spirit of hate speaks in hate, in curses, it may be, the spirit of love thinks in words of kindness. This can be done; this has been done. While bitter words have been uttered against them, cases that come within the range of my own experience, where persons have had reported to them the unkind speeches, curses, if you choose to call them, of others, yet while they talked with me they deUberately sought the points and the qualities and the characteristics of the person that they could speak weU of. Ah, my friends, how much is this great injunction in need of being recognized to-day. Open our papers and read the bitter expressions, one after another, in the case of the great nations now at war; the Englishman hating the German for bringing on this terrible crisis, the German hating the Eng- lish, and expressing it in all bitterness, as being the real and original source of this great and terrible war. Let us realize, then, if we must speak, where we speak we are not to commend any exorbitances of conduct, nor bless any actual and downright wrongdoing, but neither are we to employ our experience to condemn and condenm and condemn, to illustrate and to emphasize the shortcomings of our enemies. Let us at least see if we cannot find, if we must speak, something that we can commend, be it the industry, the intellectual judgments, the marvellous organizations of the nations and the armies; let us see if we cannot, in this sense, seek out something that we can com- mend, even in those who are really speaking against us. Well, but, says some one, my enemies do not curse me, but I tell you their enmity is all the more bitter because it is silent. What shall I do? "Do good to them that hate you." Now a loving spirit is inventive, and just as you may find out qualities AND OTHER PAPERS 273 and characteristics which you can fitly and honestly commend in those who are speaking unkindly of you, just so you may, with a loving spirit, find out some way of doing some little deed, in prac- tising some art of kindness, of securing an arrangement that shall make for the advance of the interests of those whom we have been told and perhaps know in our own consciences are really haters of us. We are doing good to them that hate us. Well, is that all? One says, That does not fit my case. There are enemies that I have sought in vain to come into some kind of friendly relationship with, but they shun me, they keep away from me. They do not curse me, they do not give vent to any expressions of downright hatred against me, but they Just ignore me, keep away from me. What shall I do? Is there any part in this accomplishment of a loving spirit that will meet my case? Yes. "Pray for them that despitefuUy use you and persecute you." I think of all the three cases, this is the most difficult. You and I may speak kindly words of one who has visited curses upon us; you and I may actually do a kindly deed for those who have treated us unkindly and made exhibitions of their hatred for us ; but you and I cannot take the name of one who is seeking to injure us or who has injured us, when we are before the throne of grace in prayer to God. We may have done a kindly deed and spoken a kindly word, with no sincerity, and did not discover it in our own cases, but when we kneel before the throne of God, in the searching Hght of that throne, and take the name of one who is persecuting us and doing us harm, and ask a blessing and the development of a better nature and a better heart in him, ah, then we shall see whether we are in downright sincerity or not. Disclosure is sure, deception is no longer possible. And our Blessed Lord, you observe, here gives us the great motive for this. Taking all I have said, one might question. Well, what is the motive? And we might answer, the motive would be, in the first place, your own self-satisfaction, which would be greater and deeper than if you had not yielded to such a motive as this. Cer- tainly that should be a source of satisfaction, if such were the motive. Well, suppose the real motive were in order to make our social relationships smoother? Some people go through life always hitting against the jagged points, because of this lack of a loving spirit. They are zdways ready and prepared to resent 274 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH every observation, even about the weather, as though it were a personal reflection on themselves. No, it is not simply to smooth the pathway of our social relationships that this loving spirit is to be sought for and by the grace of God developed within us, but in order that we may be the children of our Heavenly Father. Who would dare to write those words unless they had been ut- tered by the great Master Himself? For a loving spirit is the very essence of the Divine likeness: that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven, who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust. [November 29, 1914.] "And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." — St. Mark xiii:j^. "Ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." — I Corinthians i.7. The most casual reader of the Scripture, my friends, must recognize at once that the second coming of our Lord is an event which, in the Scripture itself, is surrounded with mingled light and darkness. The event is fixed, as regards the surety of its happening; but the time is left absolutely indeterminate. Now skepticism, curiosity, and even piety at times may rebel at least, we may say moderately, against this condition. The desire to know definitely about an event so great as this is one that natur- ally fills the mind and the heart. We want to know whether it be near or whether it be far. Now I think we may ask on this, the opening Simday of the Advent season, when throughout this season we commemorate and celebrate the second coming of our Blessed Lord, we may ask, What spiritual qualities and graces could we imagine our Lord to determine and to decide to cultivate and perfect in us by leaving tlys great matter of His second coming, as to the exact time, entirely indeterminate? There must be a good reason in our Lord's mind why such an event as His second coming, when the whole order of the world as we know it now will imdergo an AND OTHER PAPERS 275 utter change, should be left thus indeterminately. We would like to know, what then? Can we discover in ourselves, even, some reasons or any reason for this indeterminateness in Scrip- ture? I think, my dear friends, that devout reflection will show us that this indeterminateness as to the exact time of our Lord's return to earth to take His kingdom and all the world's kingdoms into the Kingdom of God to be ruled by Himself, I think we shall recognize, I say, that this very discipline of indeterminateness is calculated to cultivate and develop and strengthen such virtues as patience, as hope, as humility. I will restrict my remarks this morning to the last two I have mentioned, that this discipline of indeterminateness as revealed to us in Scripture with regard to the exact time of our Lord's second coming is calcxilated to deepen in us the spirit of devout humility. Now we know how definitely our Lord has taught us that humiUty is the fundamental virtue, that it is indeed the whole pathway, the only pathway, to exaltation. "Unless ye become as httle children, ye shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Or, as Saint Peter puts it, " Be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble." I think the most imperious, the most persistent, the most powerful form of pride against which our Christian faith has to contend is the pride of intellect, the pride of knowledge. Indeed, we know that the pride of intellect may survive practically all other forms of pride — it may survive pride of family, pride of riches, pride of power; and the lesson comes home to us to-day with exceeding force, because perhaps never in all the history of the world, in- deed, never in the history of the world, have the elements that make up intellectual pride been so widespread as they are to-day. From the very permanence, the very universaKty of the deduc- tions which we can make from a knowledge of nature and a knowledge of history, men seem to look out upon the future and say, "We know from the past what will be." Now this spirit of pride stands perhaps more in the way of the advance of Christ's kingdom to-day than possibly any other quaUty that is mani- fested in our human nature. A man who has loose habits or practices that he knows are against the will of God may be roused by a direct appeal showing him what he is about. But when you approach one fortified in his intellectual pride, he turns 276 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH upon you the cold eye of the observer and says, "Well, if you care to believe that, why you are perfectly welcome to believe it. But I, with my knowledge of nature, my knowledge of science and history, am fortified against these exorbitances and these extravagances." Now could anything be calculated better to cast down and out this pride of knowledge and humiliate it than this absolute indeterminateness with regard to the greatest event that can possibly take place in this world of ours? Nothing, we may say, can approach it in importance; and yet, whatever be the advance of knowledge, however wide be the sweep of human attainment, we know that men will never be able to predict this event, and say, "Yes, it will be to-morrow, or next week or in a hundred years." It is to come as a surprise. The day of the Lord will not be a day that can be figured out by the deductions of our crude knowledge. And this very indeterminateness of the Scripture is one of the weapons against this subtle intellectual pride. Think of it: the greatest and most momentous event in human history can absolutely afford no means of knowing when it wiU take place, when the whole order of this world as we now know it will be changed at the second advent of Christ. Now if you will turn the pages of the Gospel and the Epistles of the Apostles you will find again and again where our Blessed Master recognizes and emphasizes watchfulness, the outlook for His coming, as not only a duty, but as a distinct duty. We are not only to pray, but we are to watch as well as pray, as empha- sized in that parable from which the words of our text are taken, where He says, "The Son of Man is as a man going into a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch." This brings out the great truth that this spirit of watchfulness and expectancy — the cherishing of Christ's advent in the spirit of hu- mility, of patience, and of loving watching and waiting for the great event of Christ's second coming — ^is not just a duty peculiar to some. We know there are peculiar duties, such as those of the priest and of those in high positions, but here is a duty incumbent upon all. And we see how strikingly its universality is brought out in this parable. Christ had been speaking to the Uttle group of disciples nearby and outside was the larger crowd; and as He looked out over it, possibly the thought occurred to Him, "When AND OTHER PAPERS 277 I used those words, 'Commanded the porter to watch,' these peo- ple may have thought the parable applied only to my Uttle im- mediate band of disciples." So He corrects that impression by saying, "And what I say unto you, I say unto all (the great crowd gathered about Me here), I say unto all, Watch." Now rationalism says this world order will end of a sudden, which is irrational, which is absurd. Of course this world, like every other world, like the great moon in the skies, will certainly become a dead world when all these forces that keep up Hfe have been used up, when these coal beds have been exhausted, and when every form of life, man and the creatures below him, has become destroyed, dissipated, dissolved into solid elements; when there is no more atmosphere, no more substance. When the earth reaches that stage or approaches that stage, then all life, that of man and all creatures, must come to an end. Now that would be rational, that would be conceivable, that would be justi- fied, we may say, from the standpoint of high reasoning. But such is not the view of Scripture. The day of Christ's coming will not be when men are saying, "Well, all further advance, all further on-going in the order of the world, are absolutely impossi- ble. All substances for the support of life are about exhausted, the end is near, and I suppose Christ is coming now." Not so. The picture is that Christ will come "Hke a thief in the night," while the plowman is in the fields, while the sailor is on the sea, the merchant at his desk, the priest at the altar. When He comes, it will be a surprise. It will break in upon the order and on-going of the world. It will not be at a time when every power and all experience have been used up, as it were; on the contrary, it will come right in the midst of things. That is the picture that is brought before us in Scripture. And let me add just a closing word: The importance of this frame of mind, of cultivating and cherishing this habit of outlook and expectancy for the event that may be to-morrow or in a hun- dred years or ten thousand years, we find that Christ not only laid it down as a distinct duty, but as absolutely following His teachings. Saint Peter and Saint Paul emphasize it again and again, that the cultivation and perfection of this spirit, this temper of mind, is the very secret of holy Uving. We have Saint Peter telling us that we should see to it that we in all holy conversation 278 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH and godliness look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of the Lord. We have Saint Paul teUing us to live soberly, live righteously, in this world, " looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," and then adding, in these words that compose our text, showing that the spirit and temper is the very greatest consum- mation, we may say, of the higher spiritual life: "Ye come behind in no gift, and the witness is that ye are waiting for the coming of the Lord." It is evident then, my dear friends, that our Blessed Lord would dwell in our hearts, in our faith, in our hope, as far off and yet near, in proportion as we make real to ourselves, and near, His second coming, which, though fixed at no definite date, is possible at any. [December 6, 1914.] "For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." — Romans 001:4. Both the Collect and the Epistle, as you will have noted, point us to-day to the Holy Scriptures as the supreme and divinely authoritative source of spiritual guidance and spiritual strength. To-day we know for a long time past has received the name of "Bible Sunday." I wish, this morning, to call your attention to just one point in coimection with the study of the Bible. Let me say, however, as preliminary, that there are three great principles that we ought to keep in mind as we study, as we dwell upon the Scriptures, in accordance with the CoUect for the day, "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." And the first great principle or truth to bear in mind is that while we speak of the Bible as a book, it is not a book; it is a divine library of books, it is inspired hterature, reach- ing through many ages, written in different times, with different purposes, by different men, and, let us add, with different degrees of spiritual enhghtenment. It is the Word of God. It is only, we may say, in the western world that it is spoken of as a book. The Jews have always spoken of the Scriptures as the "law," the AND OTHER PAPERS 279 "sacred writings of the prophets." And also, it was not until, I think, the thirteenth century that the single term came into use of speaking of the Bible as a book in our western world. It is, then, let us bear in mind, an inspired Uterature, as I have said, extending through many ages. The second great principle which should be borne in mind is that it is a record of a progressive revelation; that it is indeed, we may say, the history of God's spiritual education of a race, start- ing from the stage of prinaitive Semetic-barbarism, and rising up and up until it reaches its fullness in the manifestation of the perfect character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is progressive; we should bear that in mind. Every verse of the Old Testament, every book, is to be read in the light of the fuller revelation as given by the Son of God made man. But lastly, the Bible is, above all, a practical book. I think we can remember these three great principles. It is not simply a book, it is a divine library. It is the record of a progressive, ascending revelation. And it is above all a practical literature, a practical book or books. Its ultimate aim is not simply to give knowledge, even religious knowledge. Its great aim is conduct and righteousness of life. I wish, this morning, to draw your attention briefly to this last point: the Bible as a practical book. I have on other occa- sions spoken considering the other two points. Let us dwell this morning upon the thought that the Bible is above all and be- fore all a practical book. Now by that we mean that the ulti- mate aim of the Scripture is not knowledge, but conduct; not learning, but hfe. The Scripture is not only to be beheved, but it is to be lived. It is only as we put these teachings into practice, as we endeavor earnestly and devoutly to carry out in Ufe and conduct the principles and teachings there laid down, that we really achieve the true aim, the true purpose for which the Scrip- tures were given us. The Scriptures imdoubtedly contain truth and contain doctrine, but let me remind you that doctrine simply as doctrine is never an end in itself. It is given us not simply to enrich our store of knowledge about the Divine character and about the end and destiny of man. It does that. But in addi- tion to that, it is intended to be a constant, expanding, unceasing inspiration to carry out its teachings in conduct and in life. 28o THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Now we may illustrate this particularly, I think. Let us take especially the New Testament. St. Paul is acknowledged on all hands to be a preacher and a teacher of doctrine. Just run care- fully through his epistles, however, and see how he never allows mere doctrine to become his ultimate aim, the final outcome, no matter how glorious or how grand may be the theory he is arguing for. There will always be a practical admonition, directed, as his argument closes, to the issue in conduct and life. Now per- haps his Epistle to the Romans is the most distinctly doctrinal or argumentative of his epistles, and it pursues the argument through some sixteen chapters. But as we come near the close, we find this practical good, after all the wonderful argument and imagery that he has employed to bring out and enforce his teach- ing — we find his main theme to be the sonship of believers and their justification by faith in Christ as the Son of God. It is a glorious and blessed doctrine, but he does not rest with simply setting forth the statement of the doctrine addressed to us as believers of that doctrine. He does more. He makes a conclu- sion: "I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice to God. That is your rea- sonable, " or, better translated, "that is your spiritual sacrifice." That is the real outcome, the practical outcome of the beUef in this great doctrine of our sonship and of our justification by faith. That practical outcome is to be the consecration of Hfe to the will of God and a life of righteousness. Or, if we take, for instance, the Epistle to the Corinthians, that is argumentative from beginning to end. Confine ourselves es- pecially to the fifteenth chapter, so familiar to us from its use in the burial service. There St. Paul has as his main theme the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting, and we know how strikingly and how forcibly he expresses the argument there. Does he end there? By no means. There comes the practical conclusion that we are to be earnest and honest and incessant in our endeavor to realize the righteousness of God in our conduct and in our life. Or, take the Epistle to the Ephesians. There is a subject that would be formally doctrinal, far removed from any practical bearing upon life. The main theme of the Epistie to the Ephesi- ans is the incarnation; but after St. Paul has explained and ex- AND OTHER PAPERS 281 panded that, and enforced it, he draws the conclusion that we are to be like-minded as Christ was, who came to this earth not to be ministered unto, but to minister. In other words, the practical outcome of this great doctrine, if we but grasp its true purport, so far as our lives are concerned, is the downright and genuine serv- ice of God by and through the service of man. He came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, to send out His word of comfort and hope, to extend His hand in benediction and blessing, to upUf t the feeble, to strengthen those who falter, and to assure them of the love of God extended over them in all their exigencies. Now there are two, I think, readily recognized benefits to be derived from a firm grasp of this truth of the practical character of God's word in the Holy Scriptures. And the first is that, if it is grasped rightly, it certainly will rouse us from spiritual indo- lence; it will certainly rouse us from mere emotional admiration of the truths there given us, of the characters there drawn. And we imdoubtedly need to be on our guard in this respect, for there is an emotionaUsm that passes to-day under the name of reUgion which has its root and growth in the imagination. People give themselves over to this slumberous delusion, as it were; they love to give play to their emotions. There is plenty in the Scriptures to awaken them, I admit. But there must be something more: there must be a carrying out in life and conduct of the great truths there laid down. This great teaching of the Scriptures is above all a practical outcome, for it has its bearing first and foremost upon the life that we live, the conduct that is ours; that, I say, is calculated to rouse us from spiritual indolence or mere emotional admiration. It is not enough to know the truth, it is not enough to revere the truth, it isnot enough to defend the truth, however valiantly. We have the Master's own words: "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." Not he who knows the truth, nor he who admires it or defends it; but he who strives earnestly and honestly to carry it out in conduct and in fife. And there is another benefit from properly grasping this prin- ciple of the practical character of God's word. It has its ultimate aim, its practical outcome, its bearing on our life, the duties and obUgations here in life, and it is that nothing can take the place of this true use of the Scripture. Now if we grasp this clearly and 282 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH keep it in mind, my friends, it is like an impenetrable armor in which we may clothe ourselves, and which we will find will throw ofE the hostile arrows of merely speculative criticism of the Scrip- ture. We know how much of this is going on in our world to-day ; men picking at the Old Testament and the New Testament, try- ing to find something that will serve as compensation for the mys- teries of the Old Testament and the miracles of the New Testa- ment, forgetting all the time that the only true use, the only pertinent test of the Scripture of the New Book must be that which is practical. We want to know what is the real truth? Then, as Coleridge says, "There is but one way: try it." Take these teachings, take this absolute love and mercy and forgiveness of God, and strive to realize them. Take the Master's teaching: "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." If we take the Master's word, and put it into practice, endeavor to carry it out in life, then we shall verify in our own experience the reahty of their worth and their truthfulness. And there is no alternative, there is no other way in which the worth of the Scripture can be properly judged. If it is a practical book, it must be judged not simply as a piece of Uterature, but by the results which will follow from carrying out in our own life these teachings, these precepts, these commands. We see, then, my dear friends, that merely reading the Bible, ever so devoutly, speaking in high praise of the Bible, will not make a man righteous. That will not make a man fulfill the Divine purpose in his life and conduct. We do not make that mis- take in other spheres. If a man gave himself ever so assiduously to reading a book on music, studying it on his knees, if you please, would that make him a musician? No, you say; what he learns there must be carried out in order to become a real musician. A man might study geography ever so faithfully, until he had all the boundaries of the states, all the natural features of the world at his command; would that make him a land-owner? No. He must go out and do some real work, he must win the means whereby he can actually purchase the land. And just so with the Scriptures. Merely reading them will not make you righteous; it is in doing the things, trying ever so patiently, and, it may be, with many conflicts and failings. But if we earnestly set our hearts and minds to do the will of God as revealed in the Scripture AND OTHER PAPERS 283 we shall have the blessed result: "Be ye doers of the Word." Let us keep those words in mind, as we open the Scriptures: "Be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." [December 13, 1914.] "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stew- ards of the mysteries of God." — I Corinthians iv.i. You remember that last Simday the church brought before us, as a study peculiarly appropriate for meditation during the Advent season, she brought before us the Scriptures of God, the Holy Bible. To-day she brings before us another important matter, second only, we may say, to the Bible itself, namely, the Christian minister. And what is it? Now without doubt there have been a variety of faulty or undue estimates, we may say, of the ministry. The first, founded on the view of the church which takes the church to be in chief simply a serviceable, a very serviceable institution for the pro- motion of social order, and therefore the minister is looked upon from that point of view as a high kind of moral police; and there are not a few who, while they refuse to confess Christ personally, are willing to accord a patronizing approbation of the minister as a part of that institution which works so well for social good. Well, there is another very faulty or undue estimate, and it is upon the part of those who look upon the minister as an enter- tainer, as one who is to provide something that will touch the imagination and will quicken the thoughts, one who will be ready to take up each and every question that engrosses attention on the part of the people in the day which he speaks. They look to the church very largely as a sort of bureau of literary entertain- ment where they go to have that told them which will comfort them and in a measure enlighten them, and, it may be, produce gratification and feed the personal complacency. But the true view is that the minister is something more than a moral police, more than a literary entertainer: he is a minister of Christ, a steward of the mysteries of God. And that should never be forgotten. Now there is, on the other hand, an undue or exaggerated esti- 284 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH mate of the man himself, and that leads of necessity to division and to party spirit. That was the great trouble with the church to which St. Paul addressed this letter, the Corinthian church. There was a "Paul" party, there was an "Apollos" party, there was even a "Christ" party. Now if we ask, how does this party spirit, rivalry, arise? I think, in a great measure, it arises in this way: Each and every minister and steward of the mysteries of God is naturally inclined to emphasize and to present some especial part or portion of the universal truth more effectively than others. It is his truth, as it were, it comes home to him, and he emphasizes it and explains it more effectively and forcibly than he does other portions of the truth. Now this draws to him kindred spirits, for he has, as it were, smoothed away some of their difficulties, and he expresses and explains in good part their feelings. And they, in their enthusiasm, would make him the special leader or head of their party; and the minister of God has to be perpetually on his guard lest he be lured away from the true purpose of the ministry. He begins with the truth, but the enthusiasm of the followers who like that truth may, perhaps, turn his head, and soon for him it becomes the only truth; and last of all, unless he is greatly on his guard, it wiU become for him the whole truth. Now, I say, this was the case in Corinth. These various par- ties undoubtedly arose in this way: Paul addressed them in a way that captured the interest and assent of some; Apollos, others, for he was a great orator. And there were those who with- drew from both leaders and professed that they were the estab- lished Christians, the "Christ" party. Then came the words of St. Paul: "I would not dare to be a leader of a party in the Church of Christ. Who is Paul, I say, and who is Apollos, but ministers by and through whom ye believe? " Not only is there, then, the danger of an undue estimate of the minister, the man, in this respect, but there is also the danger of an exaggerated estimate of the office itself. And this, I take it, is the exaggerated view of the ministerial office, making it a priesthood, a mediatorship. This has been the source, un- doubtedly, of the most permanent divisions in the church and the most positive rivalry in the church. Now if we ask, how does AND OTHER PAPERS 285 this view, confounding the ministry with the sacrificing priest- hood, arise, I think the answer is : if we look to the eastern world, we find the appointment to the priesthood is based upon superior- ity of blood or birth; only those of noble blood can enter the priesthood. If we look to the western world and take the view provided there, the minister of Christ is regarded throughout the great Roman Church as the sacrificing priest, as practically a mediator, as the one through whom and by whom alone, we may say, direct access can be had to God; it is through him and by the acceptance of the propitiation which he offers that the way is opened, so to speak, for the heart and soul of man to reach the feet of the great Redeemer and the Father God. But the true view, and that which our church emphasizes on this day, is quite different. You observe that she selects and emphasizes in the service to-day, in the Collect, in the Epistle, in the Gospel, in the second morning lesson, she selects, as the ideal pattern for the minister of Christ, not the priest, but the prophet, not Aaron, but a John the Baptist, who was a prophet and not a priest. Now there is not only a difference, but there is a striking con- trast between these two views. The business of the priest of the eastern or the western world for that matter is one thing: it is his business to reconcile God to man. It is the business of the minister of Christ, the steward of the mysteries of God, to do something quite different: to reconcile man to God. The heart of God goes out to all men everywhere at all times. In that beautiful parable of the prodigal son, to which we cannot refer too frequently, no mediator there is needed in the way of an officious priest, nor to make way for that son's return. The father has been watching for him; his heart. has gone out daily toward that son. And when at last he comes, in repentant spirit, before he can speak the penitent words which he has prepared, the father hastens to him and embraces him and makes him feel that he is again his son. Now, so it is with the Christian minister. The Christian minister is not a mediator. There is but one mediator, and He is in Heaven. In fact, we are told, if He were upon earth. He would not be a priest at all. Read those verses in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest." And we know that not once in the 286 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH whole of the New Testament is the special word which signifies the sacrificing priest, the propitiating priest, never once is it appUed to the Christian minister individually. It occurs once, in the first Epistle of St. Peter, but see how it is used there, speak- ing of the whole body of behevers: "Ye are the spiritual house; ye are a holy priesthood. Ye are a holy priesthood to offer spir- itual sacrifices to God." Only in this one case, then, we see, is the old idea which obtained through all the pagan world and down through the Jewish history to the time of Christ, only this once is this idea appHed to Christian behevers. And then it is a collective noun; it is a collective term, not chosen for any man or body of men individually, but spoken of the whole body of be- lievers. "Ye are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spir- itual sacrifice to God." Now we know, undoubtedly, that even in the Old Testament the prophet was higher than the priest. Moses, the Prophet, created Aaron, the great Priest. So, my dear friends, this would seem an argument against these varying views, that which re- duces the minister, the clergyman, to nothing more than a literary entertainer or one who has to do with the special social problems that come up. I do not say they have not their place in his teach- ing, but to insist that he has nothing else, nothing higher, no mysteries of God to deliver to the people, is to reduce his position and his profession as a minister of Christ to a level fathoms be- low, infinitely below, that which was ordained that it should be. Not the priest, then, but the prophet, is the type and the great teacher. His business it is to seek at all times to prepare the way, make ready the way for the Lord, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. That is his great com- mission, and in the fulfillment of that he is doing the work which Christ surely designed him to do. [December 20, 1914.] "Jesus saith imto him, ' Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have beheved.' " — St. John xx.sg. To-morrow being the Feast-day of St. Thomas the Apostle, I thought it well that we should direct our attention to-day to that AND OTHER PAPERS 287 apostolic character and draw from it, I think, some important lessons for our personal welfare and personal conduct. Let me say in the beginning that St. Thomas was the type of the doubt- ing, despondent character. That was his temperament. By temperament we mean those quaUties and that disposition with which we are born. Now, neither you nor I can in any way be responsible for our birth temperament; but we are responsible for gaining the mastery over that temperament and for guiding it and conducting it so that it shall conduct us to the best issues. That was Thomas' failure, but I will not stop to dwell upon that, but simply say that he allowed his natural temperament of doubt and despondency to darken a large part of his Ufa, and therefore diminish his energy. Take the first instance which refers to him, where our Lord is about to return to Lazarus after word is brought to Him that he is dead and He tells His disciples that He wOI go back into Judea. Then said some of the disciples, "Why, I wonder if He remembers that they have declared they will kill Him if He returns." And Thomas spoke up, sadly, '.'Well, let us go also, that we may die with Him." Always looking at the worst; despondent and doubting. You will remember that Thomas was not present with the other disciples when Christ appeared after the resurrection, and when they reported to him that they had seen Christ, he said, "Well, I carmot beUeve it; I won't beheve until I see Him, yea, until I put my fingers upon the print of the nails and upon the spear thrust; I will not otherwise believe." Of course, his triumpTi was great when he did have that demonstration. It is true he made a confession possibly higher than that of any of the dis- ciples during our Lord's natural Mfe upon earth, as Thomas said, "My Lord and my God." And Christ, looking at him, said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. But blessed are they that have not seen, and that will not see at all, that believe in Me and in My resurrection and all that it carries with it." I wish, then, this morning to look briefly at the meaning of our Lord's benediction here, we may say, of St. Thomas, and this declaration made to him. First, if we look at it negatively, we may be perfectly sure that our Lord, in saying, " Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have beUeved," does not mean to ex- 288 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH alt mere credulity, He does not mean, those who believe without seeing or those who believe without care, without inquiry, with- out examination. By no means. To take such interpretation of it would contradict the whole spirit and teaching of the Blessed Master. He puts no premium upon blind obedience and cre- dulity. He came to men, looking them fairly in the face, address- ing them fairly, giving them in His hfe and in His teachings the greatest of all arguments for believing in the reaUty of that teach- ing and aU the great truths which He revealed. In these words, then, Christ is not putting a premium upon those who accept, at least professedly. Christian teaching, with- out any care, without any inquiry. By no means. This was intended: that there is something higher, something stronger, something more permanent, than any kind of evidence that can be drawn just from the senses. There is and must be in every Christian an internal evidence, something peace-giving and more permanent than any testimony of the senses can give. Because the external evidence of the senses which may create a belief may also uncreate it; simply by reason of a change in circum- stances, of the on-going of things about us in life. Here, it is true, we see good going down and evil rising triumphant, and some may say, "Well, here is the evidence of the senses. You talk of a good God, a merciful Saviour: look at this! " Well, our Saviour did not intend to put a premium, I say, upon that unquestioning, unthinking, imcaring, I might say, condition of soul that says, "I will accept Christianity because so many take it; it appears to be the best statement of the truth or the facts that we can get." He who has the real faith upon which Christ has placed a premium is the one who sees the great truths shining in their own Hght; it is he who recognizes the truths which Christ proclaims, however outer circumstances might enhance, in a measure, the facihty of receiving them. And even Christ Him- self, seeing Him here upon earth, could not add to or take away that faith which comes of the inner behef , in the spirit, the faith that is born of love and obedience, that creates that external and antecedent probability with regard to those truths in the true Christian and servant of Christ. Nor again, does Christ mean here to put a premium upon or to say that the faith which comes from sight is of a higher kind AND OTHER PAPERS 289 than the faith which comes from the internal evidence. Our Lord here means a higher kind of faith than comes of the testi- mony of the senses. In the case of the doubter, as Thomas, our Lord does not mean that he is more blessed, that his faith is richer, stronger, higher, than that of those who have never doubted. Far from it. Just as He told Thomas, though he was a bom doubter, yet actually in the last climax of his experience he made a declaration of faith that was higher, more embracing, fuUer than that made by any of the disciples during our Lord's hfe upon earth, "My Lord and my God," his faith was no more blessed than the faith that has no doubts, a genuine faith. We know not a few there are whose religious Uves are like a voyage over summer seas: the calm waves, the balmy breezes fiUing the sails and carrying the vessel smoothly to its port. And there are others who must ever battle with the tempest; there are those over whose souls sweep with fury and thunder the tempests of doubt and despair; and it is only by downright, persistent effort, by prayer, by seeking to know the Master's mind and by endeav- oring to carry out in life and conduct what they discover to be His mind, that the true faith is born. That is what He meant to emphasize here: that it is not the mere superficial, offhand confession or profession of belief in Him and in the great truths which He revealed, His resurrection and all that it carries with it. It is not a premium upon that. Well, what did He mean, then? Here we come upon a very interesting and most important fact. Our Lord here undoubt- edly meant those who in after times were to believe in Him; for though the words were related to the past, they apply to the pres- ent and the future; they apply to us and will apply to all the ages to come until Christ's last advent is here. They apply, I say, to all times and all places. The evidences of Christianity, let us re- member, will never be an absolute, external demonstration. What our Lord meant here, then, was that the kind of faith which comes and is the fruit of, not the mere testimony of, the senses, not of any simply external argument or demonstration, but the faith that is rooted and grounded on the spiritual condi- tion within. There is the kind of faith which our Lord places His last blessing upon. Now if we look at the facts just for the moment, it is a truth. 290 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH my friends, that you and I cannot accept external facts, any fact, simply and solely from external evidence. There must be, in some degree, some experience or qualities as explaining the testimony with regard to those facts. I remember reading some time ago an interesting episode in the Kfe of a missionary in the South Seas. He had been telhng those whom he had been teach- ing about many facts and features of the country that he came from; and they accepted a good many of them, because they could parallel them in part by the conditions there in this island. But one day he said to the chief, who had become a very faithful attendant upon his teaching and preaching, "During a certain season of the year the waters in the rivers and lakes in my coun- try become so soUd that you can walk upon it, anybody can; more than that, great loaded wagons can pass over them." That was too much for the chief. Frozen water was something that had never come within his experience, and there was no ante- cedent probabihty in him that could justify him in believing in this testimony of the missionary. "So," the missionary said, "he shook his head and turned away, and it was several days before we came into consultation again, and I tried to induce him to accept these facts. But he said, 'It may be so; you have always been truthful and I suppose it is so. But you have no right, I think, to ask me to believe that until I have seen it.' " Now I take that as a sort of parable with regard to the great truths of the Gospel. It is by love and obedience to the Master, by dwelling upon His teachings, by stud)dng His character, by seeking in all our ways to please Him and to draw nearer and nearer to Him, that we do — what? We create within ourselves this antecedent probability that shaU have power to bring home to us these great truths of absolute forgiveness, the fairness of our adop- tion and reconciliation with God. They fit in with experience; they have their justification within, we may say, so that this internal antecedent probabihty becomes the very foundation of a towering monument of the true faith that may be in a man. So, I repeat, the evidences of the truth of Christianity will never be simply an external demonstration. There will always, down to the end of the ages, until Christ breaks through the AND OTHER PAPERS 291 stillness of the universe and reveals Himself in His last advent, there will always be a place for the benediction of those words: " Blessed are they that have not seen, that have not had simply external evidence and demonstration, but have beUeved, out of the fullness of the faith within them, created by love, by service, by obedience to the Master." [January 3, 19 15.] "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." — Philippians iii:ij, 14. I think it would be difficult to select any passage in the Bible so becoming as a motto for the new year: "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." It is highly evident that Saint Paul realized most profoundly the difficulties, the intensity of the conflict which is ever present in the living of the Christian life. Yet, search his epistles, and through every one of them you ffiid ringing the note of invincible cheer, of confident hopefulness. In the preceding chapter Saint Paul gives a bold and graphic outline of his own career, and then at the verses I have chosen as text, he pauses to give, we may say, the secret of his invincible cheerfulness and confident hopefulness in his Hving of the Chris- tian life; and we find that secret to be his firm and clear realiza- tion of the true mark or goal of the Christian life, and the method of attaining that goal. What, then, we ask, is the mark or goal? for we are to press, observe, toward the mark, not toward the prize. The external mark is a Christlike character and the prize is blessedness and the glory and the honor that come from the attainment of that character. But, it may be asked, how do you make out that the realiza- tion, that the true goal of life is a Christlike character, a char- acter after the pattern of Christ? How do you make out that 292 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH that can afford confidence and cheer and hope to him who seizes it and patiently and persistently pursues it? Well, there are a number of lines of arguments, my friends, but I would just present one here, and that is perhaps one that we do not realize as we should for the forming of the Christian character. The aiming to make our characters after the pattern of Christ is under God the one thing most absolutely in our own power. If a man sets as the mark or goal of Ufe wealth, honor, position, knowl- edge, technical skill, he is at the mercy of external circumstances. One night, or one day, may rob him of the fruits of the earnest and concentrated labor of years. I read some time ago of a yovmg surgeon who had finished his education in this country and then had been a year or two abroa.d and had come back with the very highest recommendations. He was a young man, marked with exceptional skill in surgery; he had breadth of knowledge, he had good nerves, and it was said, "The field is be- fore him; the mark, the goal for him is just ahead, and he will reap a full reward." But in a few weeks after he started upon his career, from some cause, blindness struck him and he became stone blind. Yes, the goal was indeed an admirable one, but we must remember that he was at the sport of external circum- stance. Now when we set ourselves to the mark, the realization in our- selves of the Christian character, we are sure of one thing: we are in a sense independent of all external circumstances. Disaster, the surprises of disappointment, why, instead of hinderiag in this work, they may be the very things that help us on. Not the prize, I say, but the mark, a Christlike character, is something we should ever keep in mind, realizing that we can achieve it, that nothing can stand between us and that, since we trust in God and walk in His faith and fear. Even the old pagan ruler, that remarkable emperor of the Romans, Mark Antonius, grasped a portion of this truth, when he said, "Whatever befalls, whatever confronts me, nothing really can prevent me from being a nobler man but myself." Independent of external circumstance. Saint Paul certainly grasped that truth; and what if he was persecuted, what if he was chased from city to city, what if many of those he trusted proved false to him? He realized that was mere outer circumstance AND OTHER PAPERS 293 which could not affect that deep-down determination, the reso- lution of his to be like the Master and to make all external circumstances, no matter what kind, whether the falseness of friends or persecution, working agencies for the realization of this. But, we say, what is the method by which we are to attain this? I think there is a very deep lesson for us here. As we read it, we are perhaps a little startled at the expression, "Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those that are before." We see the image brought before us here is that of a racer, who is running a race, his eye on the mark; the prize, the olive crown, is right before him and he is racing for it. And he stumbles and falls, but as he rises again quickly he does not turn to look at the spot and wonder why it was not smoothed out so that he would not have tripped; or pause to consider whether there are any more places like that. Up he boimds and presses forward toward the mark. That is the idea which Christ brings before us here. "Forgetting those things that are behind." In the ninth chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel we have the same thought in the words of the Master: "No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God." Forget the past then. If he is wise, of course the racer, as he stumbles and rises, will give a quick and determining glance to see just what it was that tripped him, making up his mind that hereafter he wiU be on the alert. But he does not pause there to see that things are made right, but on he races, that he may be first in the race and reach the mark and win the prize. The first thing, then, I say, is to forget the past. My dear friends, let us remember that Christ alone could give that com- mand. For the Apostle here is but following the Master's teach- ing, his authority is from the Master. "Forgetting those things that are behind." Forgetting our past failures, forgetting our past successes also; for we are not only to forget what we have failed to accomplish^ but let us also forget in a measure, deeply and truly, what we have accomplished. Old John Chrysostom gives a figure that would illustrate this. . . . "Christians 294 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH that are spending so much time recalKng what they have done, the good things they have accomphshed, and so forth, are hke the woman that had a box of wonderful pearls and she spent most of her time looking at them and counting them." Or a later inci- dent that I have read somewhere: a demented man in the South African diamond mines, after he had accumulated a handful or two of diamonds, spent his time in his little hut arranging them in circles and star formations, when he should have been out gath- ering up more diamonds. And just so with the Christian life. Forgetting our past fail- ures not only, but forgetting our past successes also, and striving earnestly and honestly with faith in God and beheving that He is ever ready to help us on to the attainment of the true character, the Christlike character. In other words, these words of the Apostle sound for each and every one of us a note of hope and cheer. We are saved by hope. Those are striking words, and yet they are words in God's Scrip- ture. We are saved by hope. A good many are apt to assume the rehgion of melancholy feehngs and grave countenances, scarcely confessing that their blood flows or that their appetite is more for bread than stones; and thinking that in this exhibition of a narrow character and interest they are fulfilling the Divine will. Not so. The call for you and for me to Christianity is not a call to narrowness and graveness and circumscription. We are called to exhibit how joyful, how cheerful, how glad, how confi- dent the Christian soldier, the follower of Christ is. Because he knows that Christ is always with him. His grace surroimds him just as the atmosphere surrounds the world. And we are cheered by the thought also that we are not alone. The great company of witnesses that surrounds us, they are watching each day our steps throughout this coming year; "the glorious company of the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, the fellowship of the proph- ets" — all these, we may believe, are waiting confidently to help us, with hope and cheer and confidence, from the temptations and trials and disappointments, it may be, and also the successes of this coming year. Forgetting the past failures, forgetting the past achievements, we move on and on, realizing that no matter what has been the past, Christ can forgive us, He can wipe it out; making true the AND OTHER PAPERS 295 words of the great Saint Augustine, the same thought that nearly all of our modern poets have sought to put into verse: " — of our failures we can frame A ladder, if we will but tread Beneath our feet each deed of shame." Or, as an English poet puts it: "I hold it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things." Let us then make this our motto : "Forgetting those things that are past and reaching forth to those that are before, let us press toward the mark." And the prize, the glory, and the honor and the blessedness of attaining that character will be given us at the hands of God. [January 10, 191 5.] "We have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him." — St. Matthew it: 2. There is probably no passage in the New Testament that more certainly arrests the interest and stirs the imagination and the emotion of even the casual reader than the event which is re- corded in this second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew — the coming of the Magi from the far east to the cradle of Christ. There are many elements which invest it with a pecuKar interest. There is tiie mystery which surrounds the men themselves — their names, their number, no one really knows; even their nationahty is uncertain. Like spirits they come, cast- ing no shadow before; Hke spirits they depart, into the stillness and the obscurity of the far east. Again, their absolute disin- terestedness—I think that adds very largely to the interest and fascination with which the story is read. These men had per- 296 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH formed a long and a dangerous journey, occupying many months, perhaps a year; from their far-distant eastern homes they had come — for what? Not to say, as some of the disciples did, "Lord, make us to sit at Thy right hand when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." They came simply to worship and to offer gifts. And they did that, departing again without any form of recom- pense or recognition in the way of earthly honor or earthly reward. But I think there is another element which adds to the interest with which we read this story, and that is that these men, these Magi, were the very first of the Gentile world to come to worship, and to recognize and to pay their tribute to the new-born Son of God, Jesus the Christ. Now undoubtedly in after years there were under God to be raised up those who, with equal patience and equal endeavor and faithfulness, sought for the Christ and were ready to serve Him when they had found Him. But these were the first, the very first. As imagination recalls or pictures for us the great army of believers, spreading from the very cradle of Christ, the great innumerable army, extending down to the present day, when we look at the leaders, those who are leading the advance, we must recognize these eastern Magi, these men who came first to the cradle of Christ. Last summer it was my privilege, stopping for a day or two at Cologne, to visit that great cathedral where the jewelled skulls, or what are supposed to be the skulls of these three men, are kept in the costly shrine. It happened, as I entered the cathedral, there was a special service at the shrine of these wise men of the east — there was a large number there, and as I stood in reverent attitude and took part in the service, at least that far, I could not help but think, "How striking, how spectacular this is! Here, in the twentieth century, a special service held at the shrine of these three men who came from their homes in the far east to be the very first, the file leaders of the great army of those who are the followers of Christ." Do we think of it, my friends, that every offertory that we take up may be said, in a sense, to be but a rep- etition, a prolongation, of that first offertory which was made by these wise men at the manger of Bethlehem? These men, these kings of the east, we may say, were our representatives and our ambassadors on that occasion. AND OTHER PAPERS 297 But apart from the poetry and the pathos of this event there is a very deep and practical lesson, a most important, every-day lesson, if you please so to call it, embedded in this record which I wish briefly to bring home to you to-day. We learn here the way in which God brings men to the Christ. Now let us look at that with a little care. These men, these wise men of the east, were astrologers; their business it was to be studying the skies, and therefore God meets them right in the line of their vocation, their line of business, studying the stars and the skies. For Moses, the shepherd, whose business was not on the sky but on the ground, there was the burning bush. And so we find all through Scripture this great truth brought home to us, that the line of approach with which the Heavenly Father meets with us is right in the line of our daily duties. As Saint Chrysostom so strikingly says, "Christ catches men by their craft." And all through Scripture such report extends, of where men have been Uf ted up to the higher life as God met them in the line of their every-day work. Moses is acting as a shepherd when the bush is set on fire and the signal, the invitation, given him to meet with the Lord. David is tending his flocks on the hillside when Samuel anoints him to be the King of Israel. And, turning to apostolic times, we find Peter and Andrew are mend- ing their nets, James and John are casting their nets, when the call, the command, comes to them, "Follow Me; come with Me; be My disciples and My apostles." Now I t hink this is a very important truth, because there is a tendency on the part of so many to suppose that something ex- ceptional, something out of the way, some strange device of Providence must take place before they can recognize and heed the invitation to come to Christ. Now, I say, if we grasp this great truth, that it is in doing our duty devoutly, recognizing every piece of duty, every form of obligation as being a part of the- service of God— if we go on through Ufe that way, we are sure to be met by the great Master with blessing and with comfort and with peace. We cannot, then, I say, expect that we are to be turned aside by something strange and unusual; and yet how many are wait- ing for some strange and wonderful experience that they think they must have before they can take up the service of Christ and 298 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH follow it. Not so. Just as Matthew continued to occupy the seat of customs, so the business man does not need to desert his business and become a recluse in order to be a true and faithful follower of Christ. The school teacher or the seamstress does not need to become a nun that she may be a true follower of Christ. Let every man do each daily duty, each and all, no matter how lowly and inconspicuous they are, do them as a piece of service for God; and he will have his reward in the Divine recognition. Do you not think, my friends, that this gives very striking significance to the whole of life? That you and I can really bring home to ourselves, make real to ourselves, that all along this coming year that we have entered upon the Divine goodness is, so to speak, in ambush ready to surprise us, as we do our duty faithfully, devoutly, with the benefaction of Christ, with strength and truth and Hght. "There is a light that hghteth every man that Cometh into the world," says the Master. That Light is the light of Duty; and if he follow it devoutly, it will shape itself into a star and lead him to the Christ. [January 17, 1915.] "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani- fested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him." — St. John ii; 11. Our very familiarity with the Gospel story I think not infre- quently disgviises from us the great importance, the singularity, we may say, of the importance of some of the episodes in the Gos- pel story. Now perhaps many of us read over the Gospel for to-day, being the account of Christ's attendance upon the mar- riage festivities at Cana in Galilee, and we recognize it as being perhaps just one of the many instances of Christ's gracious con- descension and of His kindly activity in meeting the wishes of those about Him. But I think if we consider it a little more deeply, if we take into account the setting, so to speak, of this episode, the time and the circumstances under which it took place, AND OTHER PAPERS 299 we must recognize that it was a very remarkable episode; that, in other words, it must stand for something very important in Christ's judgment and in the scheme of His teaching. We read in the very opening of this second chapter, "on the third day" this took place, Christ's presence at the marriage festivities. The third day from what? The third day from His forty days' seclusion and temptation in the wilderness. He goes straight from the fierce, ascetic ministry of John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan. He does not ascend a mountain and caU about Him the distressed and those who are mourning, and say, "Blessed are they that mourn; blessed are the poor" — and so forth; but He goes straight from the banks of the Jordan to a scene of great festivity at a marriage; He accepts the invitation and, accompanied by His three yoimg disciples. He attends the festivities there. Now, I say, this very fact, as we look quite carefully into this episode, certainly must have been rather confusing to the young disciples who followed Him; as we know that this action of Christ's, as were many that were to follow, were very confusing to the rigid,, ascetic Preacher on the banks of the Jordan, Saint John the Baptist, for he sent his emissaries to inquire, "Have I been mistaken? Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" It was a remarkable instance, because it was the very first public act of Christ as He entered upon His public ministry. Now we know how much interest is elicited, how much interest is directed toward the first actions and utterances of those who are entering upon a new and wider sphere of action and responsibility and duties. Great interest was concentrated on our President, upon his inauguration; great interest has been elicited now that Mr. Whitman has been elevated to the Governor's chair of this State to know just what he would say in his first utterance and what would be his first action. Because people take it there is something signal, something prophetic in these first actions when we enter upon a wider and higher sphere of activity and duties. And yet Christ's first action. His first public action immediately upon His return from the desert and the ministry of John the Baptist was to go right to the scene of festivity. Now a Jewish marriage of that age was not the quiet affair that many marriages 300 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH are to-day. It was a time of unusual activity and pleasurable festivity, lasting generally from two to six days. Everything was gathered there to heighten exhilaration and to contribute to the feelings of pleasure and delight of aU those who came. And Christ went to it. He did not simply go there while the vows were uttered, but He remained to the close. This must, I say, have been quite starthng to the yoimg disciples, quite equally startling to those who had hstened to the preaching of Saint John the Baptist and heard his wonderful declaration: "There Cometh one after me whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and imloose." They were prepared for some action on the part of Christ quite different from this, something in keep- ing with the old ideal of religion and religious Ufe. There was the ideal pre-eminently in Saint John the Baptist; he had cut himself off from all human relationships; he ate no pleasant food; he abode in the desert; he took up no responsibilities of a citizen's life; he was secluded and alone, pouring forth to the multitudes that gathered about him his fierce denunciation of sin and his warning that men should repent for the Kingdom of God was at hand. What, we may ask, was the significance? Can we disseminate as to what was the special object of Christ in acting thus? Now, I think, without any undue presumption, we may say that our Blessed Lord took this step not as one that was a matter of indif- ference. It was dehberate. His plan was formed from the be- ginning. It was not an action from which He was to be recov- ered and would contradict by conduct quite contrary at a later time; but as He began, so He ended, coming into life, into the whole of life. This, I say, was the marked characteristic of this event . . . upon our Lord's great mission to be the one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. There were, in addition to that, two great fimdamental truths which were the master truths of all Christ's teachings and aU His labors here upon earth. And the first great truth was that religion was for all men. It is hard for us to-day, my friends, to realize how exceptional, how striking, how startling, such a doc- trine must have been to the religionists of that day. They no more thought of making any one religion universal than they AND OTHER PAPERS 301 would have thought of making any one language universal. And yet Christ here presents one of the fundamental truths of allHis teaching, that He was come to put away the sins of the whole world; and that Christianity, the Christianity of Christ, is not an appeal to some men, some nations, but absolutely to all mankind, that they may be gathered again into the recognition and fellow- ship of the Heavenly Father. Then there was one other truth. Not only was Christianity to be a religion for all men, but it was to be a religion for all of man. And this was the truth which needed enforcing first: that Christianity was for aU of man. Exemplified, as it was, by our Blessed Lord, by the very character of His mission and the great sacrifice that was before Him, of which He spoke, saying, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I strong until it be accomplished?" He had to leave this propagation of His Gos- pel, this spreading of the great truth to all men, to the apostles and His disciples who should follow after. He gave them the com- mand: " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." But, I say, it is this very truth, that Christianity was for all of man, that needs to be brought home first, in order to make the other possible. In Christ's time the ideal, as we know, of what religious life meant was illustrated by that of Saint John the Baptist, the getting away from the world. In fact, we know that the Pharisees, the most powerful and important body there in Judea, were known as men separated, they were people who stood aside. None of the innocent joys, none of the innocent delights and pleasurable activities of the life of the world, could they take part in. Oh, no, they were too religious for that. The great scheme that Christ came to bring before men was not sep- aration from the world, not fleeing from the world; but permea- tion rather, into the world, mixing in the actual, busy life of the world. That was the spirit of Christ, with the love and service and faith and devotion which He bore and which all His follow- ers should carry on after Him. Not nmning off into the desert places and shutting the world out, but entering right into the midst of life; so that there may be this elevation, this inspiration, if you please, this renewal of men's hearts and minds, in contact with the spirit that is in them as the gift of Christ. Christianity for all of man. How strikingly is this illustrated 302 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH in our Lord's case here. I presume Saint John the Baptist could not have been bribed or forced, even at the peril of his life, to have attended such a scene of festivity as Christ did. For Christ recognized that not only sorrow must be met and com- forted, but joy and dehght and all the innocent manifestations of life; these are also a part of the whole Hfe of man which Chris- tianity has come to sanctify. In. other words, that man, the whole of man, and life, the whole of Hfe, is to be included within the rehgious sphere, and not a mere shce or portion of it, as had appeared under the old ideal which John the Baptist taught. And let no one think, my friends, that this makes Christianity an easy rehgion. If one is in search of an easy rehgion and life, then asceticism, that doctrine of Saint John the Baptist, is the easy way to escape from the stress and trials and temptations and obUgations of life. That is the easy way. But to carry out in love and patience the sense of the Divine vocation, right in the daily duties, the common obligations and the whole relationships of our daily life, and to keep this spirit of love and service and sacrifice for our fellows, as a vocation of God — that is hard. But by the grace of God, by the help of the great Master, you and I may do it. We have simply to open the doors of the heart, we have simply to make an appeal to Him from whom comes all power, and He will enable us, He will give us power, in this deep and wide and rich and full sense, to become the sons and daugh- ters of God. [January 24, 1915.] " Jesus saith unto them, ' Fill the water pots with water. ' And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, ' Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.' And they bear it." — St. John ii:y, 8. I attempted last Sunday morning, my friends, to call attention to the exceptional character, I might say, of Christ's first pubHc act, the first public act of His ministry; as He went not un- doubtedly as the great majority of those who were interested in His teaching and were following Him, He went not as they might AND OTHER PAPERS 303 have perhaps suggested or insisted, to some mountain apart and gathered about Him a band of attentive hearers, but He went direct from the banks of the Jordan, from the stern, ascetic min- istry of John the Baptist, to a festival, a marriage festivity, a scene of the very greatest hilarity in the Jewish practice. I said that we might naturally look for some deep lesson to be drawn from this act of our Lord's, and I tried to enforce the fact that this lesson was, we might say, briefly summed up in this: that the religion which He came to estabUsh in the world was not for a fraction of man, but for the whole of man; not for a part of man's Hfe and its obligations, but for the whole of Hfe. That the Christianity which Christ came to preach has not only relation- ship to tears and sorrows and disappointment, but that it takes in the joys of hfe. Life, the whole of life, was to be permeated and sanctified by the spirit which He introduced into the world. Now I wish to draw, before we leave, the teachings of this Epiphany season, as this is the last Simday in the Epiphany sea- son, I think we may draw a very instructive lesson upon the con- duct, the exemplary conduct of the servants on the occasion of this marriage feast at Galilee. They were obedient, to put it in a word, but that is not all; their obedience, as we study the record, we see was prompt obedience, exact obedience, complete obedience. Now let us look briefly at these three points. First, I say, their obedience was prompt — prompt and unquestioning. They heard the clear command, "Fill the water pots with water," and they filled them. Now it is very easy to recognize that there might have been quite a chance there for discussion and debate and hesitation and delay. These servants might have said, "Why, what is the meaning of this command? It is the business of the governor of the feast, recognized through aU the ages, it is his business to give orders here and to make up any deficiency in the marriage preparations. We should get our orders from him." But they did not. Or, again, there might have arisen in their minds question as to the fitness and the purpose of this command of the Lord. There might have been long debate and manifold speculation of this. They might have said, "Do you hear that command. Fill the water pots? All these six great stone jars with water, now that the feast is nearly over — what is 304 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the use of such an abundant supply? If we fill one jar with water, will not that be enough?" Or, was there a suspicion in their minds that this Jesus of Nazareth was about to introduce some new and strange rite among them of purification and baptism, picked up from John the Baptist by the Jordan? They might have debated over that and hesitated and delayed in fulfilling the command. But not so. They were prompt in their obedi- ence. They heard the command, they understood the command, and they obeyed it — ^without question, promptly. Now, I think, my friends, right here is a lesson that is very much needed to be pressed home to-day. How many there are, alas, who can never, in the words of the inspired writer, " come to a knowledge of the truth," because they question or disregard or ignore the very first principles of spiritual or reUgious Hfe, and that is prompt obedience to known duty. How many there are to-day who, of course, would not say anything directly disparag- ing of Christianity, but they put it off, they defer it. One says, "Well, I am very busy trying to find some reconciliation between science as we know it to-day and the scheme of nature and Christianity." Another has great trouble over the morality of the Old Testament or the miracles of the New. And another, in the name of acquiring sufficient knowledge of Christian evi- dences, puts off and puts off obeying plain, simple, and direct commands which he fully understands and recognizes; he puts them off until he becomes an archaeologist or an antiquary. Now it should be brought home to each and every one that no amount of strenuous industry, either of head or of hand, can be a substi- tute for simple obedience, simple and prompt obedience to that which they see and know to be right and in Hne with the Lord's command. Of course, there are many things which are not clear to us; but what is the real process, the true process, of getting a clear grasp of these truths which lie beyond our brief apprehen- sion at present? There is one way: "He that wiU do the will of God shall know of the doctrine." That is it. Knowledge is to follow doing, and not come before it. There is no profounder rule, no better rule, that we should keep in mind. A man sees here and there these simple commands which Christ has laid down: repent, believe. Now he cannot put these aside; he can- not say, "I want to see farther down the road before I take this AND OTHER PAPERS 305 step." Take that step. That is the first step; the light is be- fore you, and you will find it will grow and fill all the pathway. But if we dally and delay, contrary to the example of these serv- ants, we shall end nowhere; we shall find ourself marking time instead of marching. Well, again, another notable characteristic was that their obedience was exact. They did precisely what Christ asked, commanded them to do, and not something else. And yet again, here was opportunity for delay or for departure from the strict- ness of the command. They might have said, "Why, surely one jar will be enough. He has said fill the jars, but we know that will more than meet the requirements at this late hour of the feast. We will fill but one jar." Or, they might have said, if they had any hint from the injunctions of Mary the mother of Christ, that in some way wine was to be produced to make up the deficiency, " WeU, it is true He said fill the water pots with water; but nobody puts wine in stone jars, but wine skins. And if He intends to turn the water into wine, or bring about the change, whatever it may be, why wine skins are the proper receptacle for wine." But they did not. " He saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them." Now there is a lesson for us all here, my friends. How many there are who,, while it is true they will not make definite and out- ward objection to Christ's commands, yet think they can cir- cumvent them. For instance, a man will say, "WeU, I am going to be just as noble and honest and charitable as I conveniently can; I will lend a helping hand to others, I will try and lead a pure fife. But all that I will do without any further connection with any particular church." Now it is strange that in an age like this, when law is recognized everywhere and apotheosized everywhere, that a man should, that so many should come to the conclusion that reUgion is the one sphere where all things are at random, where there is no definitely appointed order. Now Christianity has an order; there is an order in things spiritual as well as in things natural. Christ estabUshed a church. He has laid down definite commands for repentance, for belief, for bap- tism, for communion. "Do this in remembrance of Me." And the man who thinks that he can make up for his neglect or dis- obedience with his attempted claims to be something else, we 3o6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH see how far his conduct is from that of the exact compliance on the part of these servants, who might have mustered up a great many excuses, in accordance with the customs of that time. And lastly, their obedience was, we may say, complete. They might have said, "Just filling one of these jars at the most will be sufficient," and partly filled them; but they "filled them to the brim." Their obedience was complete. Now let me say that while the moral lesson to be drawn from the obedience of these servants is directed mainly toward those without the church, here is a lesson that comes home directly to us who are within the church. "They filled them up to the brim." Their obedience was complete. They not only did partly what the Lord commanded them, but they did their ut- most to fulfill that command, filhng the jars to the brim. Well, now, I say, this is a lesson that comes home especially to us as church members. Duty is laid down for us not only in matter but in measure ; not only in kind but in degree. If you turn to the twelfth chapter of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans, you may see how strikingly this is set forth there. After giving a long hst of Christian virtues, he says that it is not only a kind of skeleton obedience, but it must be clothed upon with the emotion of the heart. "Give with simplicity; rule with dihgence; abhor that which is evil — cleave to that which is good" — not simply refrkin from that which is evil, but let the heart also give its protest: abhor it. Now is there not here a very important lesson for us? A great truth is here illustrated which, in the words of a very distinguished foreign writer, has been stated thus: "We may be sure that no virtue is or can be safe that is not enthusiastic; no heart pro- foundly pure that is not passionately on the side of good." So, in our service of the Master, it is not enough to approve, in the way of obedience. His commands; it is not enough to have a kind of asthenic admiration for His requirements and His teachings, but our whole heart must come into it. The skeleton of simple obedience must, I say, be clothed upon, roimded out, with devout and benevolent affections. And then we shall realize the truth of these sayings, and manifest to the world that beauty, moral and spiritual beauty, as well as strength, is in His sanctuary and in His service. AND OTHER PAPERS 307 [February 14, 1915.] "And Jesus said unto him, 'Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole.'" — Si. Luke omii:42. The portion of Scripture set as the Gospel for to-day gives us the record of our Lord's last journey to Jerusalem, and the record extends on through the following chapter. Our Lord had been in comparative seclusion with His little band of disciples in the uplands, and now He feels the time has come to make His last advent in the Holy City. So He crosses the Jordan, and on the way passes through Jericho, pausing there for a little while and then passing on, and makes His triumphal entry into Jerusa- lem. He comes to Jericho. And how striking a fact it is, my friends, that while Jericho was second to Jerusalem alone in point of commercial prosperity and prominence, as well as beauty, and while it was the home of the priests — it is calculated that at Christ's time there were over ten thousand priests and Levites who made their home at Jericho — yet the incident here records Christ's entering and passing through Jericho as the first time and the last time that He visited that great city. Now I think there are one or two incidents in connection with this visit to Jericho that point to two very practical and impor- tant lessons, and I wish briefly to bring them to your notice: Our Lord, as He approaches Jericho, meets the blind man close to the city borders, and as He goes on into the city and passes through the streets, He there meets another interesting character, that of the publican Zaccheus. Now is it not a striking fact that, entering this city which might weU be called the second Holy City, with its innumerable priests and Levites and their servitors of the temple, with its great beauty and wealth, that our Lord might have, we would think, selected there some conspicuous personage among the Levites or priests or the great business men of the city? But the matter of fact is that He selects as the di- rect, immediate objects of His mercy in this great city a poor sightless beggar and a rich social outcast. Now I think this points us, I say, to two very important lessons. The first lesson is the impartiality of the Divine procedure with respect to persons. "God is no respecter of persons." 3o8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Or, as it is otherwise translated, "God is no accepter of faces." Here in Jericho were men of command in things religious and with regard to the things of the law and the state; but it is not on these that, during the brief time He is there on His first and only visit to that city, that Christ sheds forth His mercy and His benefaction and blessing. It is not simply the fact that He se- lects the bUnd man and gives him the cure, restores his sight, simply because he happened along at the opportune time — but I wish to point out the fact that He does this right there in the city where apparently He has no time to stop and have communica- tions and discussions with the great leaders of the religious life of that day. He was no respecter of persons, neither poverty nor riches. And if we say, "Oh, yes, Christ had a particular lean- ing toward the poor blind man," on the other hand we must not forget the rich Zaccheus. He was drawn toward him; and if He says to the blind man, "Receive thy sight," likewise He says to Zaccheus, "This day does salvation come to thy house." The fact is to show the things which men strive for in this world, so eagerly, so incessantly, counting for nothing, we may say, as respects the winning of the Divine favor; that that favor goes right straight and direct to but one thing: to the honest and penitent heart. And the man who has that — ^he may be rich, he may be of high station, he may be fathoms below the common pubhc interest and respect, but if he has a heart that desires to know God, to serve God and love God — an honest, repentant heart — then the Divine mercy is sure to go out to him. But not only do we here read the great lesson of God's impar- tiahty with regard to persons, that He is no respecter of persons. How difl&cult that was for the religious leaders of Christ's day to realize! They said, in their contemptuous way, "Look at Him; the friend of pubUcans and sinners. Why, how shocking! It is the very impertinence of absurdity for a person claiming to be the delegate of the Most High in religious matters to consort with the low and the outcast and the despised. Why does He not seek out t>iOse of reputation, those who fear God and keep His commandments?" That was the great point of the quarrel between the reUgious leaders of the day and Christ. And they struggled, as we read in the record, very seriously, very persist- ently, to win Him over to their side; but He only said, "No; I AND OTHER PAPERS 309 will take no part in your masquerading, your mechanical religion. I am looking for hearts; I am not concerned with outer modes and circimistances that you set so much stress upon. I am look- ing for hearts; if any man will open the doors of his heart, I will come in unto him, no matter whether he be dressed in rags or in the finest clothing that money can purchase here in the world." But the second lesson, namely, the great lesson brought to us here in this incident, is that God has no hard-and-fast system of bringing men into the kingdom and to Christ. How strikingly is this illustrated, we may say, in the miracle here of the healing of the blind man. Five or six cases of the healing of the blind are given us in the Scripture record, and there is not a case of repetition among them ; they were all healed in a different manner. To cite one or two : There was the man bom blind in Jerusalem and Christ, after his appeal, sends him to the pool of Siloam — "Gk) wash." "And he went and washed and came seeing." And there was the blind man who also made his appeal to him in Bethsaida, and in this case how differently he is healed. Christ makes an ointment of clay and spittle and anoints him and touches him. And the man begins to see, as he expresses it, "men walking as trees." And He touches him again, after hav- ing led him aside from the other company, and then he "begins to see clearly." But in the case of this blind man Bartimaeus, how different — He does not touch him; He makes no ointment; He does not send him to the springs of Jericho to bathe and come seeing; He simply says to him, "Receive thy sight. Thy faith hath saved thee." Now here, my friends, is a very important lesson for us, and it is one of the most difl&cult lessons for Christians to grasp: that God is free in all His ministrations of mercy; that there is no definite, hard-and-fast program by which men are to be brought to the confession of Jesus Christ, and that He was a wealth of ministration. He brings one man to Him by his reason, who after prolonged investigation at last reaches the conclusion that Christianity, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the sure conclusion of solid reasoning of God and man and immortahty and the moral order of the world. With another man He does very differently. He is brought in by his moral sentiment for the beauty of Christ's character. He does not think much of the logical evidences 310 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH of Christianity, but he says, "A character like that, with its wealth of benefaction and kindness and love for all men — that character has won my heart, and I give that character my heart and my mind." Or another man He brings to the confession of the right quite differently. He is a man of peculiar nature, phlegmatic temperament, very difficult to rouse. AfHiction comes upon him; flames sweep away his property; death stalks in and takes from him those nearest and dearest to him. And at last he who was so indifferent to the calls and claims of Christ and religion has his heart softened by the ministry of these deep and searching affictions and is ready to cry out, "I beUeve. Help thou my unbelief!" My friends, if this truth could be realized, that we cannot make out any definite system or program for the Divine ministry, how much of the schism and the ruptures in the history of the church would have been obviated! Our own church has sinned deeply, no doubt. In 1 66 1, had the religious leaders of our church recog- nized this truth when the Presbyterians came back and said, "With these slight changes in your prayer-book, we will still be Presbyterian Episcopal" — ^but they said, rigid and stern, "We cannot make even the slightest change" — and the Methodists would never have split off from us; it was never the wish of John Wesley to break with the Episcopal Church — and if our leaders had grasped this truth, that there are men of various dispositions and that God applies his ministrations in their conversion in different ways — one man by his reason, another by his emotions, another by his moral tastes and sentiments — if they had realized at that time this great truth, the great Methodist Church, I am convinced, would stiU have been as Wesley intended it to be, a constituent part of the great Episcopal Church. This is the lesson to be derived from this last journey of our Blessed Lord: that God is no respecter of persons; that all condi- tions with Him are the same, so far as outer circumstances of life are concerned, if the heart is right. A man may be rich, or he may be the veriest outcast. In this very chapter from which our text is taken, a wealthy ruler comes to Christ and says, "What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And Christ said, "Keep the commandments." "All these have I kept from my youth up." "Yet one thing thou lackest," Christ answered. AND OTHER PAPERS 311 "sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come and follow Me." That was one process; and how many through the ages have supposed that it was the only real process. Poverty and the surroundings of poverty, surrendering riches and the posses- sions of the world, and raised up through the monastic orders, as being the one pathway wherein the favor of God and the Divine benefactions could be found. How different — there was the rich man, the rich social outcast; but not a word Uke that given to the rich ruler is given to him. The word that came to him was without any commands that he should sell all that he had and give to the poor: "Zaccheus, come down; this day salvation is come to thy house." God is free, and all His ministrations ; though menmay be bound. [February 21, 1915.] "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in Heaven." "Do not sound a trumpet before thee." "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." —St. Matthew vi:i, 2, 3. Our Blessed Lord, in the previous chapter of the record of this Gospel, the fifth chapter, had laid bare the narrowness and the shallowness and the utter inadequacy of the Jewish traditional- ism in the interpretation of the doctrines of the law. He had selected a nimiber of cases in which their teaching had been utterly inadequate and wrong, as the case of murder and adultery and divorce and revenge. In this chapter He passes to take up also the perversions in the teaching of the practices of the law, and He instances three cases as illustrating the inadequacy, the shallowness and the unspiritual character of the interpretation which Pharisaism or the leading Judaism of the day put upon these practices, and the three instances were all found in alms, in prayer and in fasting. Now these are not only three instances, but they are three all-inclusive instances that comprehend,^ we may say, in themselves, all possible moral and religious relation- ships between them and man. The ahns represent the moral relationship between man and himself, and so, we may say, go 312 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH above the others. Prayer of course represents our relationship to God; ahns our relationship to man. Now what was it that our Blessed Lord found fault with in these things? It was not be- cause their prayers were irreverent; it was not because they were given to vain repetitions, which was a charge distinctly brought by our Lord against the heathen, but it was not that; there was deference, there was all the outer form of reverence in their prayers. And again, take the alms: they were not niggardly; but something was certainly wrong. And the alms and the prayers and the fasting — as I -mentioned before, we find that our Lord's questioning or fault with them was not that they were done outwardly at least in an irreverent way, or in an unjust or unkind way; but there was something else that was wrong. He makes the charge definitely, that the trouble in all these cases, in their alms, in their prayers, was that they were actors, hypocrites. Now in classical Greek the term "hypocrites" simply meant "actors"; and it would have been no offense to a Greek of that age to be charged with being a hypocrite. But the interpretation in this case refers to the deepened sense of peril of acting in moral and reUgious matters and the consequent evil that comes from being an actor in morals or in religion. As a diversion acting may be simply something entertaining, at best; but in the sphere of morals and rehgion, acting is death, at best. Now our Blessed Lord saw that there was acting here, hypoc- risy, through all their practices. In other words, the supposed motive or sentiment which prompted them in all these religious practices was not a real one. That motive should have been a simple, sincere, and devout desire to please God and do His will; but if they did these things not with any such motive, but in order to curry favor with the people or increase their own sense of self-importance, then they were acting. Whatever their mo- tive was in these practices, no matter how well kept the outer form was, the motive was one not pleasing to God. "Take heed and beware, lest ye be hypocrites." Now what made them hypocrites? Not the failure of the outer form, but the failure to embody in the outer form the true spirit of a sincere and devout desire to please God and to serve Him. Our Lord gives two warnings here. In the first place he says, AND OTHER PAPERS 313 " Do not sound a trumpet before thee." Do not sound a trumpet before thee, in order that you may attract men, in order that you may attract the attention of those about you, so that people will say, "See how attentive he is, how exact he is in all his perform- ances of his religious duties. 1^ he not a most exemplary man? " But, you say, are we not told to "let our Ught so shine that men may see our good works? ' ' Certainly — ^but something is added — "that your Father in Heaven may be glorified." " Not that you may be glorified, not that your complacency or your reputation in the commimity may be enhanced, but that your Father in Heaven may be glorified. And indeed this is most significant, the moment we begin to put emphasis on something else than the desire to please God and to serve Him in all our rehgious prac- tices. How important it is to bear this is mind during this Len- ten season when we give ourselves over to helpful services and personal restriction and keeping of fasts. How important it is to realize that all these are but outward and will be unavailing before God unless there is a true motive, a desire to shape and develop our characters by these practices into the Divine likeness, into the fuUness of the perfect stature of man in Christ Jesus. Now of course when a man begins to put emphasis on the outer and fails to keep sight of the inner condition, a sincere and honest purpose, there is nothing tragic in the transition; but it is a sure and steady and secret degeneration, imtil at last, by so doing, throwiag emphasis upon that which is outward and failing to realize that the chief emphasis must always be on that which is within, he will find it the ready road to disbelief and finally apos- tasy. Our Lord Himself says — and oh, how much need there is that this be realized to-day — "How can ye believe, who receive only?" As I have said, this transition which comes from putting the emphasis upon the outward, of course is not abrupt, immediate, it is not sudden; it is slow, it is secret, and in good part, at least in the beginning, unconscious. But — "A little rift within the lute. Expanding, makes the music mute." The man who begins in that way will unconsciously go on and on until all his religious life becomes outward instead of inward. 314 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH He is keeping up practices and performances, but there is lacking the inner heart, the real and true motive which should be the de- sire to do God's will in aU things. And our Lord gives another warning. We are not only not to "sound a trumpet before us," that is, we are not to seek to win men's admiration or to make people realize how weU we are per- forming our duties and fulfilling our obligations; we are not only not to sound a trumpet before us, but we are not to let the left hand know what the right hand does. Now there is many a one who is superior to the first fault which our Lord names who falls a victim to the second. In the eighteenth chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel a parable is given by our Lord of the two men who went to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee prayed, "I thank thee, God, that I am not as other men are." Now we perhaps have thought that these words were uttered aloud. But no; they were spoken to himself. No word was said that would offend the ear of the publican kneeUng nearby praying, " God, be merci- ful to me a sinner." This man was a victim to such spiritual vanity and ostentation that he was going deeper and deeper into this second kind of degeneracy, namely, spiritual pride. As he looked piously up to heaven, doubtless his thought, put into words, was something like this: "I certainly have earned an unusual measure of Divine favor, by the strictness of my hfe and the fulfillment of all my duties here in the temple and else- where, and I can come before Him not simply as a petitioner, but as one who can present my claims for His favor. I have striven to fulfill His will, and therefore I am not as this publican here is. I have kept the fasts, I have given to the poor, and I have fulfilled the obligations that rest upon me as a member of God's chosen people." Now I say, this stage is more perilous than the other, even. Because here a man rests solely upon himself. He is conscious, as a matter of fact, that he has done things involving self-sacrifice in the way of work and labor for others . . . and the thought comes home to him, as he thinks complacently of himself, "I certainly may congratulate myself that I am becoming more and more a true member of the Church of God." This com- placency, I say, this self-pride, is a point that we should be on our guard against; not letting the left hand know what the right hand AND OTHER PAPERS 315 doeth. We may go to the other extreme of course, and think we are doing God a service when we charge against ourselves indiscriminately a great many accusations that are really not so. We do not need, as it were, to bow and bend ourselves and make false accusations against ourselves. That is not humiUty. True himiility, my friends, is the "head up" quality, not the "head down" quality. True humility comes from looking unto Jesus, beholding there the fullness of human perfection, and real- izing that no matter what we have done or what we have at- tempted to do or how much we have accomplished, realizing how infinitely short we come of the fullness of the stature of perfect goodness as illustrated in the great Master Himself. Looking unto Jesus. If you wish to have a humble spirit, that is the way to cultivate it: not saying hard things against ourselves, but keep- ing the eyes upraised, and realizing that we have ever before us in the Blessed Master the very fullness of aU perfection, of all that is goodness in human nature. And if we do so, if we keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, we will have then the true spirit of humiUty. It wiU be to us not simply saying hard things against ourselves, but realizing how infinitely we are removed from the fuUness of perfection as illustrated in Christ Jesus. As Saint Paul said, "I come no whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles," and imdoubtedly he was right; and he was also right when he said, " I am the chief of sirmers." These are the feelings which come to one who gazes upon the Lord Jesus, realizing the fuUness of His perfection and that we are to aim at that and in the course of eternity come to be developed into that. And there will be within us, as we gaze upon our fellows, just this second feeling, "I, with my advantages and the opportunities I have had, come so far short that I am indeed worthy to be classed amongthe chiefestof sinners, though I come no whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles." [March 21, 1915.] " ' Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.' " — St. John iv:ii. I presume there are few episodes in our Lord's earthly life which have a more attractive interest for the devout student of 3i6 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH the Gospel record than the meeting of our Lord with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well. It was in the very first year of His ministry, in the early spring, and doubtless the fields out there on the slopes were covered with the beautiful flowers so abundant in Palestine at that time of the year. Right near the well rose the great towering form of the mountain Gerizim, where Abraham had offered his son in sacrifice, or attempted to offer him. Now when we take up the words of the colloquy between our Lord and the woman, we cannot but observe at once the nimble- wittedness of the woman. When Christ began to address her with questions, casting her eye toward the great movmtain, she endeavored to interject into the conversation the everlasting theological debate as to whether Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim was reaUy the holy place of Palestine, where worship should be offered to God. Taken of course literally, her words stated sim- ply a physical fact. The weU of Jacob was deep. We can see it there to-day; it is one of the places of interest in Palestine that is absolutely beyond all peradventure of debate or doubt. Taken literally, I say, these words expressed simply a physical fact. "Thou hast nothing to draw with" — Christ stood there, empty- handed — " and the well is deep." He had, apparently, no means for drawing the water from the well. "Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." But taking these words in their spiritual significance, we find our Lord's mind glancing from the water there in the well to the living water which He alone could bring, making use, as He always did, of surfaces and physi- cal facts, so that they rebounded from the commonplaces of life up to the great eternal truths of the spiritual world. Let us ask, then, what these words, taken in a spiritual sense, what they im- ply and what they express. They imply that man everywhere is possessed by a restless, un- quenchable thirst, that the soul wants something which the world cannot give it. No matter how varied the experiments may be, the result is always the same — there is remaining still the un- quenchable thirst. We have not only the testimony of the Psalmist, "As the hart panteth for the waterbrook, so panteth my soul for Thee," but the widespread myths which are found practically in almost all nations — myths that bring before us the elixir of hfe and the fountain of youth — these testify to the fact AND OTHER PAPERS 317 that there is deep down in the heart a spiritual thirst which it cannot find the means iinaided in this world to satisfy. As a poet has expressed it, "These myths, this foimtain of youth, the rivers of life, these, I feel, are a part of the hunger and the thirst of the heart." Well, these words, then, I say, imply this imquenchable thirst of the spirit of man. But what do they express? They express the great truth that man cannot unaided reach the weU of living water which shall quench his thirst. Now men have said, "Yes, we can reach it. We have means. There is a thirst of the soul, yes, but we will try pleasure. Fill aU the spots of life with time- ful breath, and see if we cannot do away with this thirst — quench it and satisfy it." And so we know that men have in all ages sought, as devotees of pleasure, to quench this thirst. They have made life, so to speak, a great banquet, with the very spirit of revehy and festivity and hghts and music. And yet have found in each case that sooner or later Conscience stalks in, like the skeleton at the feast — the skeleton brought in at the Egyptian feasts in the midst of the banquet, in order that men might look upon it and see what would be the end of aU this revelry and riot- ous living. And when Conscience speaks, deep down in the heart of man, in the midst of these pleasures, perhaps satiated by them -—oh, how great the change is — the lights go out, the music ceases, the wine is turned to bitterness in the glass. And to every devo- tee of pleasure comes, sooner or later, the truth of these simple words of the woman of Samaria: "Thou hast nothing to draw with." You cannot reach that living stream which wiU quench this thirst of the soiil, by pleasure. " Oh, but," says one, "of course not. There is a higher means. There is penance, religious sacrifices and ceremonies." And, my friends, how horrible, not to say sublime, has been the earnestness and the energy with which men have sought to quench this thirst of the soul by so-called religious devices; not only by imphed sacrifices and ceremonies and ritual devices, but by innumerable tortures of the body also. And yet, through the history of all the world's religions, must be written the words, "Thou hast nothing to draw with." You cannot by implied sacrifices and penances and by personal tortures and bodily sufferings, you cannot in this way reach this living water. 3i8 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH There is one more way that has been tried; and it is a way that is perhaps the most popular in our day. It is culture — well- roimded culture, the expansion and discipline of the mind, the soul's powers and faculties. "We will scorn delights and hve laborious days." By the development and discipline of our powers of mind we will be able to satisfy this thirst of the soul. And we know how this "labor" has gone on and on; we know how permanent it is even to-day. Men are ready to say, "Well, if the personal God does not exist, at least the Divine exists, and it may be fovuid by the open mind, culture of the faculties of the mind; introduce the soul to the great treasures of art and science and philosophy and morahty; expand the mind in the midst of these treasures, and you will find they will quench this long pursuing thirst." But we know what has been the result. Men have foxmd that they might as well try to quench this bodily thirst by a painted foimtain on canva,s, or warm this body by a painted fire on canvas, as to quench this deep-down, irresistible thirst of the soul simply by culture and knowledge. But these words express something further. Not only is there nothing to draw with in the hand of unaided man, but "the well is deep." There, my dear friends, hes the real secret of universal failure. If the river of water that will quench this thirst were a brook by the roadside, we might drink as we pass by and go on our way refreshed; but, "the well is deep." Deep as the sin of man, and the justice of God; deep, so deep, that nothing can take away or quench this thirst less than the sacrifice of the life of our Blessed Lord. The cross of Jesus Christ — I speak it reverently — the cross of Jesus Christ, viewed spiritually, is the measure of the depth at which this living water flows. I have read of cases where the bodies of men have been found in northern Arizona along the course of that great canyon, and each story is plain, showing where men have tried this pathway, apparently believing it would lead them down to the great river; and back they came. Another tried this path, and back they came. And there was the great flowing river below them — ^if they could only reach it; but it was so deep down that they never reached it. And so they perished of thirst, looking at the great, flowing river below them. Just so it is in the spiritual sphere. No man can say that the AND OTHER PAPERS 319 atonement of Jesus Christ is simply an incident, a good man going to his death in the cause of religion. We have but to look out over history to see that the cross of Jesus Christ is really the centre of this world's spiritual development. No man can steal by it, or outflank it by ignoring it. It stands there, flanked on the right by priest and prophet and law-giver; flanked on the left also by poet and philosopher and moralist. It stands there; and men must confess that here is the great instance of the infinite remedy which alone can satisfy this thirst of the soul. "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." The irony of the misapplication of these words as applied to Christ is apparent at once. They are true, undeniably true; there were other agencies — ^priests and poets, philosophers, moralists, and reUgionists; to these they were applicable; but in Jesus Christ they fail, because He Himself had this living water which alone can quench the thirst, the deep-down thirst of man's soul. As He said on that last great day of the feast, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and driii," and as He previously said, "Whosoever beheveth in Me shall never thirst." The sacrifice of Jesus Christ brings about our forgiveness and reconciliation with God the Father; and brings about also the quenching of this spiritual thirst. For at the bottom of this spiritual thirst is nothing less than the consciousness of sin, the consciousness of separation from God the Father; and it is brought about, we know, by the life and the death of our Blessed Lord and Master. "He that believeth on Me shaU never thirst." [March 28, 1915.] "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusa- lem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salva- tion." — Zech. ix:g. The interest and the imagination are so naturally and so deeply engrossed by what we may reverently speak of as the picturesque- ness, and indeed the pathos, of the great scenes which we com- 320 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH memorate to-day, that in all probability a great many miss the really tragic character of this day. For it was a tragic day to the Jewish nation; it was a day of test, the final test and triumph; it was a day of breaking into segregations. It was not the cruci- fixion, it was not the destruction of Jerusalem forty years later, that set the date for the great dispersion of the race; but it was this Palm Sunday. For it was upon this day that our Blessed Lord for the first time and for the last time presented Himself to the chiefs of the Jewish nation and to the people as their right- ful and absolute Lord. The Pharisees and the Scribes had again and again said to Him, "If thou be the Christ, the Messiah, the absolute King, tell us so, tell us plainly." But He had refused; He had refused to prematurely disclose this last great claim. Indeed, all His previous public career had been, we may say, a progress toward the revelation of this great day when He pre- sented Himself fully and finally as the absolute spiritual king. Now I wish to look briefly at the preparation that our Lord made for this great day. He not only did not make this last supreme claim to be the absolute Lord of men's minds and hearts and consciences; He did not make that early in His career; He began as the priest of pity and benefaction. He went about do- ing good, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, raising the dead, comforting those that mourned. And He went about also fulfilling His second great claim, not only as priest, but as prophet. He revealed the truths of God which, in their fullness, had been hidden, we may say, from the beginning. It was He who revealed the reaUty of the Fatherhood of God: that He was not simply a great Emperor seated on high, looking down with careless eye, inspecting the doings of humanity, but that He was a Father whose heart throbbed at all times with an infinite and unquenchable love for mankind. So He went about as prophet. That sermon on the mount — ^how that gave the way to the hearts of many — "Blessed are the poor; blessed are the meek; blessed are they that mourn; blessed even are they that are persecuted." It was not until far on in His ministry, toward the latter years of His ministry, that His withering exposure and rebuke of the narrow and conceited and mechanical righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees aroused their mahgnity; their opposition had be- gun to be very open, it was true ; still it was not universal. There AND OTHER PAPERS 321 was one claim yet to be made which should arouse universal ire and enmity against Jesus Christ; for it was based directly upon all the beliefs and hopes and outlooks of the Jewish people: the coming of their King, their great Messiah. And when Jesus Christ presented Himself as their King, not only as prophet, as priest, but as the absolute king of men's minds and hearts and consciences, we know the answer which the rulers and the people made to that in Jerusalem: "Away with this man! Give us Barabbas! We have no king but Caesar! His blood be upon us and upon our children!" Now our Blessed Lord, I say, would not allow any enthusiasm on the part of the great multitudes to betray Him into a prema- ture disclosure of this last and greatest claim to be the eternal Son of God, the Messiah, the rightful and absolute spiritual king of man's hearts and minds and consciences. We know that after the feeding of the five thousand, when in their enthusiasm and eagerness they would take Him by force to make Him a king, He withdrew silently and quickly, and hid Himself. Again and again we find Him, when He had displayed his Divine powers, cautioning those who were about Hiin to see that they told no man. And on that memorable scene of the transfiguration, with Peter and James and John, on the mountain, when His body was glorified there in the transfiguration. He did not even trust them with that, but bade them, " See that ye tell no man." And why was this? Because our Blessed Lord knew that if this spiritual claim as the absolute spiritual king, the Messiah, if that were made, it would at once arouse the concentrated ire and malignity, the suppressed fury of pride on the part of the rulers of the nation, and would therefore frustrate all His works. So He held it back. They knew Him as priest, as prophet; but it was kept for this day to make the full and formal and final pre- sentation of Himself, to introduce His higher office as the very God of men's minds and hearts and consciences, their true spiritual king. So the Church, in commemoration of this great event, has called this Palm Simday. Now in the minds of some there may be possible a touch of irony in celebrating as a victor king one who suffered the ignominious death of the cross. The palm, we know, was the prize awarded solely to tie victor. There were sub- 322 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH sidiary crowns — crowns of olives, crowns of pine and laurel, which were given to those in the Olympic games that were not successful in winning the first prize; but to the actual victor in these tests, to him alone could come the palm. And the question is asked, "How can you, then, wave the palm to-day and claim Christ a victor king, after His ignominious death? " The answer is that Christ was not a victorious king, if you regard Him simply as a heroic, poUtical leader who sought to restore the ancient claims and the fallen fortunes of the Jewish nation. But that was not His project, nor His enterprise. He did not have the motives, nor the methods, nor the power for estabhshing a great worldly kingdom; but He did estabUsh a kingdom in the minds and hearts and consciences of men; and that kingdom is recognized to-day by millions upon milHons throughout the widest and best part of the world. My dear friends, there is nothing more striking in all history as we look back and see this slain Christ who claimed to be King and founded His kingdom not on fear or force, as most kingdoms are, but rather on the spectacle of love for mankind. For Christ is the most amazing spectacle that all history presents. Just think of it — for more than nineteen centuries Christ has moved philosophers and martyrs, and in all generations men have been only too eager to offer themselves to fulfill His commands. And to-day the history of that man who lived centuries ago is not simply a noble tradition; it is a living power in the hearts and minds of millions of the very best in the world. Christ is the victorious king, then, because of the victories He has achieved and of the love that He has awakened. And let me say in conclusion, my friends, that we hear a great deal to-day about "back to the Jesus of the Gospel — back to the Christianity of Christ"; we acknowledge of course the vast pa- tience and industry that has gathered an immense amount of information about the conditions and physical circumstances of Jesus' human life here upon earth, and that is well; for it brings home to us its truth. But we may not stop there; we cannot dis- miss or ignore the great claim of Palm Sunday simply in the name of Christ's prophecy or of Christ's priesthood. This claim, which was the turning point in the history of the Jewish nation, comes home to each and every one of us. I wonder how many of us have thought that every individual has a Palm Sunday — some AND OTHER PAPERS 323 time, somewhere, the claims of Christ come to you, in this most important of all forms: "Will you be My disciple? Will you acknowledge Me as the absolute king and ruler? I know you admire My teachings; I know you admire My benefactions and the motives with which I went about doing good, but do you recognize and will you strive in mind and heart to foUow Me as following the absolute king who should rule your spirit?" That is the meaning of Palm Sunday — Christ presenting Him- self in His last and highest of all claims, that of the absolute king whom one and all should accept. And if we follow Him, not simply as benefactor, not simply as the kindly priest, but as king, "He that foUoweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the very hght of Life." [April 4, 1915. Easter Sunday.] This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. There is no cloud upon the spiritual horizon of this day. There was a cloud in the far horizon of Christmas Day — a troubled line of suffering, of disaster and the crucifixion; a cloud of gathering dimensions at the Epiphany and the Transfiguration, until its dimensions and its darkness covered the whole earth upon Good Friday. But, thank God, there is no cloud upon this day, for "Christ once dead, dieth no more." In His name then, in the name of the Master Who loved us and gave HimseH for us, I extend a greeting to you to-day — to the aged, and the young, to the communicant, and the non- communicant, to the parishioners present, and the parishioners absent, and the stranger who shares with us to-day, let him not feel the heart of a stranger on this great, glad day. For this day brings home to us as no other day can, the great truth that we are aU children of one Father and brothers of one Christ; and this is Home Day for all of us. We commemorate to-day, my friends, the greatest event in history. 324 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH We commemorate to-day a miracle; and not only a miracle, but the miracle which guarantees all the other miracles of the Gospel record. For they can only be appreciated rightly, as to their reality and their significance, when read in the light of the Resurrection. Now this is Saint Paul's teaching. He says, " If Christ be not risen,"^ — -then what? — "our preaching is vain; your faith is vain; your hopes of Heaven are vain, and we are yet in our sins." He does not base Christianity upon several things which might suggest themselves. He bases the whole fabric of Christianity, which stooped down to deliver man from sin and restore him to fellowship with God, not upon the Miraculous Birth, for that is incapable of historical proof, not even upon the Crucifixion, for, apart from the Resur- rection, what is the Crucifixion? Simply one of the many mar- tyrdoms of men in the cause of Truth. Upon what, then? It is the Light of the Resurrection shining upon the Crucifixion that makes it the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God. He bases it, then, I say, upon the Resurrection of the Lord, which took place this day. He rose from the dead. And so the Church to-day, with accent of mishakable certitude, says to all upon this great, glad day, "This is Home Day, a day that should go deep in the heart of every one who hears the great proclamation of the Gospel." This is the day on which He rose from the dead, Who dieth no more, and Who could say, as no other could say: "He that believeth on Me hath eternal life." We speak of eternal Hfe as simply something to come. That was not Christ's view of it. Eternal life is in him who beheves honestly and devoutly in the Christ. Let one have faith in Him; let one take up His way of life, and try honestly and earnestly to live it, and he has, by the grace of God, eternal hfe in him. As one of the greatest German theologians said, so strikingly, "Eternal Kfe is a present possession." Eternal hfe. Not simply a hope, or an outlook, or an expecta- tion, but a present possession. AND OTHER PAPERS 325 Eternal life, in the midst of time, xmder the eye and by the strength of God. [April 25, 1915.] "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." — Epkesians iv:i4. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." — St. John xiv:2. A venerable divine, venerable both for his great age and for his varied attainments and wide influence, upon being asked, "What for you personally is the great and satisfjdng argument for hope and for belief in personal immortality and the future life?" answered promptly, "I can give you the great argument that comes home to my heart with special power, and it is this: Jesus so believed; Jesus was a believer in personal immortality, not only for Himself, but for all." And he said, "These words, *if it were not so, I would have told you,' are for me the very anchor of my hope, my belief, my conviction of the truth and the reality of personal immortality." Jesus so believed. " If it were not so, I would have told you," says Christ to His disciples. Jesus so believed. And this utter- ance of our Blessed Master, this revelation of the condition of His conviction and judgment and knowledge, was for him the argument of arguments for personal immortality in the life to come. It was not, then, on the part of our Blessed Master, as he ut- tered these words, simply an emotional declaration of hope, or of belief, or of trust. But they were the declaration of judgment, of conviction, of firm belief; more than that, of definite knowledge. Our Blessed Master did not say, "I hope and I trust and believe that there wiU be a personal immortality for each and every one of you, my disciples," But He says, and virtually His words conveyed this very thought, that He knew it to be the truth. "If it were not so, I would have told you." He was convinced of it Himself, He knew of it, just as He knew of the prevailing 326 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH presence of the Holy Spirit in His heart; just as He knew that He was at all times and everjrwhere speaking the Father's mind and doing His will. So He says to the little band about Him, "If it were not so, I would have told you. Are you anxious to know whether you are to disappear at the grave, or to be absorbed by some great Oversoul? I tell you, you will live your personal life, you will have your personal immortality in the world to come. If it were not so, I would have told you." Now the fact, I say, that Jesus Christ believed thus, was for this venerable and learned divine the great argument that came home to him, as he said, "I am not only familiar with it, but I have studied profoundly the great arguments pro and con, in favor of and against immortality, and after all these years I can put my finger upon the one testimony of the Gospels which comes home to my mind with prevailing power at all times, these very words: 'If it were not so, I would have told you.'" He felt, indeed, as aU who seriously study these words must feel, the in- consistency, the impossibility, of such a person as our Blessed Lord, as Jesus of Nazareth, a man of such perfect character, who walked at all times in the way of the Father's design and desire, who was filled at all times with His spirit, whose whole life was one unending service of love and faithful devotion to accomplish the Father's will on earth — that such a one, such a soul, should be allowed to live and to die under a delusion so radical, so far- reaching in its effects, would, I think, to put it mildly, afford to every thoughtful mind a straight pathway to atheism. That the soul of Jesus Christ, I say, could have lived and died under a delusion that there was to be a personal immortality, not only for Him, but for all men doing the Father's will as He had done it, sacrificing everything in order to carry on the work of furthering the Kingdom of God here on earth, would, I have no doubt, afford a straight and ready pathway to practical atheism for every thoughtful and reflective mind. Well, what argument have we to show that Jesus Christ did believe thus? Of course, we have this direct statement here. But, let us pause a moment. Jesus Christ undoubtedly had convictions and beliefs, my dear friends, which He did not dis- close at the time. And there were many of His views and His convictions which have to be gathered inferentially, that is, by AND OTHER PAPERS 327 comparison, by welding together the different recorded state- ments of the Gospels. For instance, Christ's interpretation of the Old Testament, especially His view with regard to the atone- ment, over which the theologians had debated so many ages: Was it for the elect few, or was it absolutely for all men and every man? Or, as regards His view of morality and religion: Did He recognize that there is a possibility of downright and real and vital morality existing apart from religion, or did He believe that they are really inseparable? Now, I say, we must have comparison, we must draw inferen- tially what was Christ's conviction and His belief on many of these topics. So many might be brought up, but let me just men- tion one : The delay or the speediness of His second coming. Here He gives no definite statement; it is only by comparison of this with that and that with this, that we are able to reach a view from which we may draw the truth with regard to His belief and His hope. He does not say, "I would under no circumstances have you go on living under a delusion; I would have you know the definite truth. If it were not so, I would have told you." When we look at these words, my friends, we see at once that they were not a mere emotional declaration. They were utter- ances of One who positively knew. They are utterances of knowledge, of absolute conviction; not merely of hope and trust and belief and expectation. They were Christ's way of bringing before us the great truth; for Christ knew that here was the one fundamental and underlying truth upon which He could base His whole system of the recovery of man to fellowship with God. Now there were many of Christ's beliefs which He did not explain, which He did not endeavor to make clear. There were delusions, indeed, under which the early Christians lived, one of them the marked delusion of Christ's speedy return. Not only the common Christians, but Saint Paul himself undoubtedly lived the greater part of his life expecting that at any moment the opening heavens would disclose the glory of the Lord, returning to claim His own. Now Christ did not say, "As to My speedy return or My delayed return, I will give you an exact statement." Nor did He say, " If it were not so, I would have told you." He let them go on under that delusion which, undoubtedly, had its beneficial effects at the time. 328 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH But in these words He brings clearly to the front the fact that He is expressing not a hope, not a trust, simply, but down- right, definite knowledge. In an age like this, we can turn the pages of the lives of niany who are living, so far as morality is concerned, holy, moral lives, possibly of the most upright characters, yet who tell us that it is time this dream of personal immortality should be given up. Indeed, I might quote the names of a number who have inter- national fame to-day, who tell us, yes, there is a possibility of absorption in some great Oversoul, as Hinduism teaches, but that we should cast aside entirely and forever this theory of a Uf e after death; the personal and individual life hereafter is nothing but a dream that must be laid aside. Now, instead of going into lengthy arguments, let us, just for our own comfort and in order to bring home this great truth, take this very verse. Here is the great Master Himself: Do you believe Him? If not, just realize what your refusal to take His word and His action as here set forth, means. The conclusion must be that if these words expressed nothing more than a hope, an outlook, an expectation of personal immortality, then we have the Master's own words, "I would hav6 told you, frankly and freely, of the uselessness of such an expectation." Nor can it be said that Christ, out of the compassion He had for the little band about Him, might have, as it were, concealed the real fact from them. He knew their spiritual weakness. He knew the small spiritual attainments they had made; and more than that. He knew the terrible trials and sufferings they would be called upon to bear, and in His infinite compassion He might have said, "Let them keep their delusion; it will inspire them and nerve them on and fill them with courage to meet all opposition, even death itself." No. He says, " If it were not the absolute truth, I would have told you." Think a moment, my dear friends: What the Ten Command- ments are to all law and to all morals, these ten words, " If it were not so, I would have told you," are to all Christians — hope and belief and conviction of personal immortality; indeed, the very foundation of it. If we deny these words, if we hesitate to confirm the truth of our Blessed Master's words here by our own faith, what are we AND OTHER PAPERS 329 doing? We are doing something more than just, as it were, putting aside the hope and the outlook for personal immortahty; what are we doing to Christ? We are enabHng men to say to- day that centuries ago they laid a man in the grave; a man who spoke finely, who hved fearlessly, who went about doing good — and then we must add that, if these words are not absolutely true, if what I say unto you is not the absolute truth, then they have laid away in the grave not simply the body of Jesus Christ but His honor, His truthfulness, His moral character, as well. [May 2, 1915.]' " For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." — I. Corinthians xv:2i. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrec- tion of the dead." Are we to understand that the Apostle Saint Paul intended that his words here, this declaration, should be taken Uterally? Or are they to be interpreted merely in a figu- rative, metaphorical sense? " By man came death; by man came also the resurrection of the dead." With regard to the first part of the paragraph, "By man came death," I presume that scientists would make that their special object of attack. And with regard to the second part of the paragraph, "By man came also the resurrection of the dead," imdoubtedly not a few of the theologians will maintain, with the scientists, that it must not be taken in a Hteral sense, but in a figurative, metaphorical sense. By man came death. Science tells us that death not only reigned from Adam to Moses, but that for Hmitless ages, myriads of ages before man appeared upon the earth, not only individuals that were created passed away, but that whole tj^jes passed away, so that their likeness, their resemblance, is not on earth to-day. As a poet has put it: "'From scarped cliff and quarried stone,' She cries, 'a thousand types are gone.' 'I care for nothing,' says Nature, 'aU must go.'" 330 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH But is there a sense in which we may take these words literally? I think, my dear friends, that the literal view is the true view. "By man came death." But in order to bring this before us briefly, we must look carefully at what we mean by death. We must distingmsh death on the one hand from mere disintegra- tion, dissolution, and, on the other hand, from annihilation. Death,' 'then, properly speaking, in its true meaning, is the separa- tion, the sundering of the rational, self-conscious, personal spirit from its physical organism. That is the true meaning of death. Well, now, if that be so, nothing below man, or the irrational and impersonal creatures, whether they be plants or animals, can die, in this deep and true sense. They can be disintegrated, they can be dissolved back into the earth; but they have no per- sonal, rational, self-conscious spirit to be separated from its bod- ily organism by death. On the other hand, nothing above man can die. The angels, it is true, may be annihilated; but they cannot die, in this strict and deep sense, since they have no physical organism from which their spiritual natures can be separated and sundered by death. So that, indeed, death in this deep and true sense is possible only for man. And as Saint Paul tells us, it is the consequence, it is the penalty for man's sin. Without sin there would not have been liis violent rupture, this sundering of the spiritual nature from its physical organism. There would have been something quite different. But some of the theologians — ^not all of them, by any means — are very ready to debate and explain and explain, until they explain away, we may say, this second part of Saint Paul's teach- ing, "By man came the resurrection of the dead." "Ah," says one, "was it not the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, that rose from the dead?" Just so. But if we look closely, we shall see that it was the humanity, the perfect man in Jesus Christ, which won the victory of the resurrection. For God to have conquered death would have been no triumph — ^He Who covld make and unmake at His will. But it was the perfect, sinless human nature of Jesus Christ which rose from the dead; and as Saint Peter said in his first ser- mon, "It was not possible that He should be holden of death." Not because He was the eternal Son of God, simply; but because AND OTHER PAPERS 331 He was the perfect, sinless, righteous Son of Man; it was the per- fect humanity, it was the perfect, righteous humanity of Jesus Christ, that triumphed over death and over the grave. This is the literal view, my friends. By man came death. As the penalty, the consequence, of his sin, came this sudden rupture, this violent sundering of the relationship between the spiritual and bodily natures. And it was the power of righteousness in Jesus Christ as the perfect man which was the reason why it was not possible that He should not "be holden of death." Death could have no glory in Him, no hold upon Him, as the sinless one, the perfect one. But, you say. He did die? Yes, He died. It was because He refused to become simply humanity's ideal, simply humanity's exemplar; it was because He wished to be something more, that He entered into the grave and gave Himself to death. He would be humanity's Redeemer; He would offer Himself upon the cross in order that Divine justice might be satisfied and in order that the Elingdom of Heaven should be opened to aU believers. But, it is asked, do you mean to say that, taking this literal view, man has been subject to death from the very beginning? Here again the scientist smiles and says, *' I can show you in a very few minutes that this world would not be large enough, there abso- lutely would not be standing room for the increasing myriads of the human race of all the centuries that have appeared upon the earth, unless there were some way devised to pass from this earth into another world." True; if you wish to believe that. What is the explanation in the light of this literal view? No explanation can be found that can shed any light upon the question but the fact that Jesus Christ was the eternal Son of God, and therefore had all power in Himself; in this way: You remember the transfiguration? What did it mean? The question is not so easily answered. It was a miracle, yes; but it was one miracle that met no absolute need; it was one that satis- fied no recognized want; it was one miracle that was not asked for. What did it mean? . To my mind, my dear friends, it was the supreme moment in the life of Jesus Christ. He had won the eternal Crown of Life, by a life of perfect sinlessness, and now there should be no death 332 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH for Him; death could have no power over Him; but He was, by a painless and glorious physical transfiguration, to be transformed, elevated into the other world. Not by the painful and violent rupture of death; but by a painless and glorious transformation of the transfiguration. But He chose otherwise. He chose to be not only humanity's ideal, humanity's exemplar, but also humanity's redeemer. He said, "No; there is the cross. I will descend from the mount of transfiguration, and during the next six months I will set My face steadily toward the cross, that I may suffer for mankind and bear all their sins in my own body upon the tree." I think these, my friends, are thoughts that may comfort us and strengthen us. I read some time ago an article by a very prominent writer who said, quoting these very words, "by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." "Can any intelligent clergyman read or preach these words without an effort to sup- press a smile? " Ah, such irony as that has no place here. By man came death. As the sin of Adam brought death into the world, so the per- fect righteousness of the humanity of Jesus Christ has opened the gates of the eternal world to all believers: satisfying the require- ments of Divine justice, and making it possible that God should be just and yet be justified in those who believe in His Son. [May 23, 1915.] "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." — Acts ii:i. Whitsunday, or Pentecost, signalizes the close of the great cycle of events which we commemorate in the Christian year. Some may say, " Trinity Sunday follows." It certainly does, and is one of the greater festivals; but it does not commemorate an event, a transaction. It might be called a theological festival; it commemorates an eternal truth. But Whitsunday is the last AND OTHER PAPERS 333 of the great festivals which closes the cycle of redemptive events which we commemorate in the Christian year. It marks, indeed, the close of the old dispensation, and the begiiming of the new. It is not Christmas, it is not even Easter, that marks the close of the old dispensation. Our Blessed Lord was made under the law — a very expressive term, that — He was made "under the law," and He continued under the law through- out all His earthly Hfe. AU the old order and law and institu- tions of the Old Testament continued intact until this day, Whit- sunday, until Pentecost. The gift, or the descent, of the Holy Spirit to dwell forever in the hearts of men is the crowning consummation of the Divine program for the redemption of man. It closes all, it finishes all, it completes all. It is the great final gift, and, we may say, is the gift that was most essential with regard to Christ's redemp- tive work. Doubtless there are not a few who are apt to think of the doc- trine of the Holy Spirit as something rather remote, something not directly intimate, so to speak, with us, with our on-going, as is the doctrine of the Son and also that of the Father. But let us recognize that it is the Holy Spirit, the gift and the descent of the Holy Spirit, which makes real and vital and efficacious all the other gifts of God. And we ask as to what was Christ's re- demptive work? Now I think that theologians in the past, and indeed some of the present day, have spoken of Christ's redemp- tive work, his suffering upon the cross, in a sort of external, legal way, as if Christ's suffering could be separated in pieces and a part flvmg to that person standing off there, with the remark, "That is for you." Now that is not the Scriptural theory. That is not the doctrine of Pentecost or Whitsunday. Christ is our sacrifice, and our lives are "hid with God in Christ." Just as the life of our body makes all the members one, just so the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is Christ's spirit, makes us one with Him. We are all one body, and Christ is the head of that body. Now, I say, it was the gift of the Holy Spirit that made real and vital and efficacious all of Christ's redemptive merit and power and grace and work and teaching for us. And, further, the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not only most neces- 334 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH sary to make real and vital to us Christ's work for us, but it is the one great means whereby we are to live the Christian life and, in fact, become Christians. It is not knowledge, or ideas, or truth, or even example that will make us Christians. Nothing short of the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit will make us Christians and enable us to achieve a Christlike hf e. What a striking illustration we have of the powerlessness of truth alone, and of example alone to complete a Christian char- acter in Saint Peter. There was a man who had companied with the Lord from the very first, there was a man who had heard the Lord's prayer from the Lord's own lips, there was a man who had been present at the transfiguration, when he saw that Body glori- fied; there was a man who had witnessed all the miracles and all the marvellous teaching. And yet, on the last day of our Lord's earthly life, that man, in the enjoyment of all these privileges, could deny his Master three times. But what a change was wrought after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended in power upon Saint Peter and made of him a new man, the great Christian champion. We should always bear in mind that Christianity is not simply a program of doctrine, or a code of precepts or moral maxims. It is something infinitely more. It is a new invasion of the Divine life and quality into human life and human hearts; taking possession of the soul of man and enabling him thereby to achieve a life after the model, the pattern, of Jesus Christ. And let me add just one more word: the gift, the descent of the Holy Spirit was not only the final and, we may say, the most precious gift of God, because it made all other gifts, I say, eflaca- cious for us personally; but it is the most assuredly attainable of all God's gifts. "He that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." It is the one great gift of God which we are always right in asking for, and which we are always sure of attaining if we ask in earnestness and with a true desire to have that gift. What a contrast, we may say, with the other gifts of life; for all blessings are gifts of God. Happiness and wealth and honor and power and influence and affection — these are all gifts of God. But we know that we may pray for them ever so earnestly, and work for them, and yet they may fail of attainment. Because if we could know all the circumstances, AND OTHER PAPERS 335 perhaps, we should recognize that for the individual working or praying for them, if we knew aU the facts at the time they have been denied, we should realize that it was best that they should not be granted. But in the case of the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is, I say, the one gift we are always assuredly right in asking for, and always sure of receiving if we do ask with an honest heart and an earnest desire. How beautifully, in the Gospel of Saint Luke, our Blessed Mas- ter brings home to us this great truth: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." [May 30, 1915.] "Hold fast the form of sound words in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus." — II. Timothy i.-ij. To-day we celebrate, we may say, a unique festival, the last to be appointed by the church, the last of the five greater festivals. And the point of contrast with the other great festivals that have gone before is that while the others celebrate events in time, transactions that took place on earth and m time, to-day we commemorate not an event, something that never came to pass or happened: we celebrate an eternal truth, the triune nature of the great God Who created us and all the worlds. In the other festivals, we may say, the church has her eyes, her gaze, directed earthward; but in this great festival to-day the church raises her eyes heavenward, and with all of holy mystery and yet with the assured certitude of perfect faith, says, "I beUeve in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." It is interesting to notice that our church has appointed one day, then, to commemorate a doctrine, the great fundamental doctrine out of which all theology springs and into which aU theology may be resolved. She commemorates a doctrine; she devotes one day to commemorate a doctrine, and, lastly, she devotes but one Sunday of the fifty-two to commemorate that doctrme. 336 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH Now I think we may readily draw from these two facts two very important lessons. The church appoints one day to fix the foun- dations of belief in what I have called the very underlying, the great fundamental fact on which aU true theology must be built : the triune nature of Gk)d. She dedicates to-day this service to that great truth. Now I think we may safely say that the appointment of Trinity Sunday is the church's protest, her sol- emn and universal protest against theological indifference. It is her way of insisting that since the revelation of the Divine nature has been made to man, man is just as accoiuitable for be- heving rightly so far forth with regard to the Divine nature, as he is for acting rightly toward his fellowmen. And yet how much we hear to the contrary of this to-day. The hnes of Pope might well be taken as a text for a good many of the expositions and discussions with regard to this great fact. He says: "For forms of faith let graceless zealots fight; His cannot be wrong whose life is in the right." But we should make a distinction between the faith and the belief. Faith is larger than belief, but belief is the essential part of the faith. And when the revelation is made that gives us the true idea with regard to the Divine nature, any careless and in- adequate conception of God so far forth is of the nature of wilful idolatry. For the true conception can be gained by honest study of that revelation in the Holy Scriptures. But I pass to the second important lesson, that the church dedicates but one Sunday to this orthodoxy of belief. For while it is fundamental it is not everything. "Hold fast the form of sound words." How? "In faith and in love." I have said that we should distinguish between faith and belief, for faith is much the larger word. Belief is the assent of the mind, we may say, to the truth of conviction; but faith is the outgoing of the whole mind entire; the will reposing on the Di- vine nature seeking to have His spirit and guidance mold and dedicate the whole of our lives. In times past we know what extreme emphasis was placed on some orthodoxy of belief. A man might be impatient, unchari- table, almost anything, but so long as he was supposed to hold AND OTHER PAPERS 337 definitely and directly to certain propositions in the creed, why he was accepted as a Christian. And to-day we have the other extreme, when people are saying they would like to have a " creed- less Christianity"; which is simply a contradiction ia terms. The very name "Christianity" shows that the Christian religion centres about an historical person, and that person was Jesus Christ. Then the natural and necessary questions arise: Who was He? What has He done for us? What is He doing for us now? The answers to those three questions constitute the creed of the church. The three facts which are the answers to them, I say, comprise the creed of the church. And he who stands shouting and ranting about a "creedless Christianity" is talking utter nonsense. He may have a moral code without Christianity; he may have theosophical speculation without Christianity; but he cannot have the Christian religion, based upon and centred about an historical person, without a belief in that person. And this fact alone constitutes all creed. Mark it is not theory of creed; it is simply a statement of the truth: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. What has been done for us? The making of our peace with God, and restoring us to fellowship with Him, by Jesus Christ. This and the others are the facts of the creed; and we should carefully distinguish between men's theological speculations which tiiey have endeavored in many cases to establish as facts and attach to the creed. The church, then, while she recognizes the importance of be- lief, recognizes also that faith is larger than belief. Belief in the fundamental truth of Christianity may be Ukened to the eye in the body. The body is larger than the eye ; a man is much more than the vision or his sight; there is the heart, the conviction, the will. And just so it is in the matter of faith. It is the outgoing of the whole mind, the entire mind of man. I sometimes think we have a striking analogy in the human body. There is the inner frame of bone, solid, substantial, articulate. But to make a hmnan body it must be clothed upon with flesh, with tissue and sinew. And just so with our ortho- doxy of belief. It must be clothed upon with faith and with love; and the love must be of the spirit of Christ. The three great 338 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH principles ruling His life should rule ours: Faith and love and service. [June 20, 1915.] "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." — Acts v:20. We have here given us in this twentieth verse a most pro- foundly important message. An angel deUvered that message, a Heavenly angel. It was addressed to the whole band of apostles, just delivered from prison, and through them to all the people; and the substance of that message, we may well say, is the very epitome of Christianity. " Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this Ufe." The emphasis, as you will recognize, falls on two words, "words," and "life." "The words of this Ufe." Christianity has indeed truths to proclaim. Christ was a teacher of truth as well as a master of life, and He taught the most important truths for man's welfare, both here and hereafter. He taught the truth concerning the essential nature of God, that God was not simply a judge, or a king, or an inspector, looking down with indifference upon the on-going of the world; but that He was a loving, Heav- enly Father, a loving Father to every man. Christ also taught the truth concerning the nature of man: that man was in very deed the Son of God, though his consciousness of that relationship had long been darkened and perverted and disrupted by sin, yet, as his body is the centre of sense-consciousness, as his soul is the centre of self-consciousness, so his spirit is the centre of God- consciousness. Christ came to reveal that great truth that we are in deed, not in metaphor alone, but in deed also, sons of God. And He came also, through the medium of these "words of life," to reveal the essential nature of our Heavenly Father. Indeed,in the Blessed Master we have revealed to us, just as far as the limits of hiunan character would permit, the essential character of God the Father. Jesus Christ presented Him in His character, in His counsels, and in His conduct of life, so that He could say with absolute assurance, absolute truthfulness; AND OTHER PAPERS 339 "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." The age-long questions, "What is God like?" Men have asked that question in all ages. Again, "How does He live?" Or, "How would He have men Uve in a world like this? " These all meet their answer in the life and teaching and conduct of Jesus Christ. So that, as I have quoted His own words : "He that hath seen Me — ^here upon this earth, among men — hath seen the Father." But, again, these "words of Ufe," emphasize the fact that Christianity is not only or even chiefly a proclamation of truths, precious and dear as they are, but it is above all a power of life. A power of life that, seated in the heart and well rooted, from thence energizes the whole man, his body, his soul, his spirit. Undoubtedly that is what Saint Paul meant, chiefly, when he uttered those startling words: "The Kingdom of God is not in words, but in power." Now this power of life is not, as you well know, simply ex- istence. It is moral character coming to its fruits in good works and in conduct of Ufe. And it is power that is wanting, often; for men know what is right, and yet how few keep continually doing what is right, more for lack of power than lack of knowledge. The only way to get this power is by personal striving to follow Christ. How His words come to our minds as we make that statement: " He that hath the Son hath Life. I am the way, the truth, and the Ught." And aU Christ's overtures and entreaties and pleadings and counsels, we may say, centre about those words which, when we think upon them and dwell upon them, enlarge in their meaning and in their thought for us: "Come unto Me." Now of course we know there have been many well-intentioned man-made religions that have taught men many moral truths and that have pointed, with wavering finger perhaps, to a world beyond. But when we compare them with Christianity, we find this one essential wanting: they lack the power of life. It is not the "words of this truth," or the "words of this proclama- tion," but the "words of this fife." And of the best of these religions it is no extravagance to say that they are like an attempt 340 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH to warm one perishing with cold by holding before him the picture of a fire painted upon canvas; or like an attempt to feed a hungry, famished man with a mere bill of fare. No matter how accurate, no matter how inviting or tempting the bill of fare may be, there is not power in it. Like the wounded Samaritan by the roadside : did he want instruction? Did he need a guide book put in his hand showing him the way to Jerusalem? Not at all. What he wanted was a kindly, loving power that should not only take him by the hand, but lift him up and bear him away and ease his suffering. And what the world needs is a power of Ufe. We recognize that this is an age of intellectual imrest. Most of you are imdoubtedly fully aware that we hear on all sides cries arising from intellectual difficulties, theological difficulties, scientific difficulties. But let us always bear in mind the one great fact that all of these, however searching they may be, lie only in the speculative sphere; whereas Christianity, the power of life, lies essentially in the practical sphere. And the only way to test it is to try it. Take Christ and follow Him. Follow Me, He says, not simply listen to Me, not simply admire Me, not simply defend Me, but take your steps after Me — follow Me. And if we do that, if we with sincere de- votion and desire seek to keep after the Master, seek to make ours the principles that ruled His life — love and faith and service, we shall then have within ourselves the greatest evidence, the most imshakable evidence and proof of the personal appKcation of this truth, and that evidence is the gift of Christ, this "power of life"; as He Himself said, "He that foUoweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of hfe." [July 25, 1915.] "But Jesus answered and said. Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto Him, We are able." — St. Matthew xx:22. Saint James the Apostle, whose memory and martyrdom we commemorate, in accordance with the church calendar, to-day, AND OTHER PAPERS 341 with his brother, Saint John, together with Saint Peter, were recognized as the leading spirits of the Apostolic band. Not only are their three names given first in the hst of Apostles, but in studjdng the Gospel record we find that on three memorable occasions they were separated from the rest of the Apostolic band and were commanded to stand in the immediate presence of Christ, to witness three most important events. Peter, James, and John were selected to witness the first miracle of restoring the dead to Hfe, in the case of Jairus' daughter. Peter, James, and John were selected to be with Christ on the occasion of that great miracle, the transfiguration. And, lastly, these three were selected to be with Him as companions in His last agony in the garden. We should be careful not to confound Saint James, whom we commemorate to-day, with the author of the Epistle in the New Testament. They were of very different mold. The author of the Epistle was a man characterized by calmness, by devotion, and by his administrative ability; and therefore he was readily chosen to be the first bishop or head of the Jerusalem church. But Saint James, whom we commemorate to-day, was a man of far different mold. He was bold, he was impetuous, he was one that was ready to call down fire from heaven upon those who had offered unkindness and want of hospitaHty to his Master, the Lord Jesus. And it was his boldness, his intrepidity, his de- • voted aggressiveness in the Master's cause undoubtedly that led to his being selected to be, not the first bishop, but the first martyr, of the Apostles. In the incident from which our text is selected to-day you will recall from the second lesson that was read how Salome, the mother of James and John, brought her two sons before Christ and asked Him that they might be chosen to sit, one upon His right hand, the other upon His left, in that great kingdom that was to be. And Jesus said unto them, turning, undoubtedly. His eyes upon the two young men rather than the mother : "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to be baptized with My baptism, and to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? " And they answered, "We are able." Now undoubtedly not a few timid, dry-as-dust theologians in the past as well as the present — dogmatic, unimaginative com- 342 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH mentators, have confessed that these words seem to them to bear a note of exaggeration, of a want of reahzation of the difficulties that were before them. They were words that should not have been uttered; they were words built on pride, we may say, and a sense of willingness and personal daring. We find the Master did not rebuke them. He said unto them, not, "Do not speak so," but: "Ye shall indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized." No, these words, "They say unto Him, We are able," so far. from being simply indicative of an unreasoning, unthinking bold- ness of spirit, seem to me to ring with the very resonance of faith and courage and hope. They speak for us indeed the very spirit that should animate the Christian soldier and servant of Christ, with which he is called to be filled at all times. I think we may recognize these words as setting before us both the expectation and the spirit that should fill the true sol- dier and true servant of Jesus Christ. I say the expectation. When we are called to be servants of Christ, when we give our public confession of faith in Him, when we are called, in other words, to be Christians, what is the expectation? Are we to expect that Christianity is a kind of method of escape whereby the burdens of life, its sorrows and trials, its disappointments and discomfitures, are to be taken away for us because we have named the name of Christ and confessed pubHcly allegiance to Him? There are not a few Christians who for many years make the great mistake of thinking, "Why am I called to undergo these trials? I have confessed Christ; I have made public confession of my faith in Him; I am a Christian, a member of the church. I do not see why no exception is made in my case, or why there should not be." The true blessing which Christ promises and which the Gospel promises, is not the removal of life's burdens and cares, but some- thing far better, namely, the gift of grace and strength to bear them aright. Nor is the expectation to be relieved of temptation or of the perplexities of duty. We should set it down that temptation is not an accident. Temptation, for a free being, is at once a law, a trial, and a privilege. Men may vary the kinds of temptation; they may flee into the wilderness or build cells by the sea, foolishly AND OTHER PAPERS 343 thinking they can escape temptation; but they only invite temp- tation of another kind. We are all created in the lowest plane of moral freedom; and the problem for each and every one is to make his way from innocency to holiness by and through tempta- tion and trial and moral progress. No, Christianity is not a method of escape from the burdens of life or from the temptations of life. Nor is it a method of escape from what frequently overtakes us: perplexities of judg- ment in the case of duty. Indeed, to do duty is only one half of the Christian discipline of life. The other half is to find out, seriously and honestly, what the duty of the hour is, and then do it after we discover it. I am reminded of an illustration, which I may have quoted before, but it comes readily to mind: A young man, undoubtedly seeking to make himself secure in Carlyle's favor, said to him, "I have read nearly everything you have written, and I have come to ask you a solemn question; and that is, what ought I to do? " Said Carlyle: "What ought you to do? Why, that is the very problem God Almighty sent you into the world to find out first yourself, and then do it." I have said the spirit. These boys said unto Him, "We are able." That voices for us, I say, the expectation and the spirit that should animate the true soldier of Christ. I think one great mark or characteristic, my friends, of the true Christian soldier is his cheerful courage. Not simply courage to do and dare, but cheerful courage. It is our duty as Christians not only to under- go the trials of life, not only the burdens and temptations of life as Christian soldiers, but we should be filled at all times with an invincible cheer in our moral warfare. Undoubtedly in the past infinite harm has been done to Chris- tianity by men confounding gloominess with goodness, melan- choly with piety. Men for ages went about with long-drawn, woe-begone, funereal gravities of countenance, under the delusion that by making themselves miserable before men they were mak- ing themselves more holy before God. That is not what we are called to be. We are called to be bold and vigorous and cheerful in our work and in our warfare. For life, from the cradle to the grave, is a warfare; and combat is the only condition of true victory. 344 THE HERITAGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH There should be the cheerful spirit. We are called to show how royal and cheerful and elevated a spirit the Christian soldier can maintain through all the trials and problems and discomfitures of life. Let us never forget it. Not enough that we should meet and overcome the problems that God has put before us, but let us with the resilient spirit of the Christian soldier be able to show what a great thing the possession of the grace of Christ is, to enable us to meet and master all the discomfitures of life. But I think the deepest note of those that I would point out in the spirit of the Christian soldier is faith. Faith in his Com- mander. He may have determination, he may have a vigorous will; but all will come to little unless there be above it all and beneath it all and through it all, a permanent and abiding faith in the greatness, in the love and forgiveness of the great Com- mander. After all, my friends, it is not so much armies, but the com- manders, that reap the great victories. Just as a great historian has said, it was not Carthage, but Hannibal; it was not Rome, but Cfesar, that won the victories of the world. And so Saint Paul says, "I can do all things, Christ strengthen- ing me." The victory, then, is not simply something for you and me to accompHsh alone. We are to work, indeed; we are ever to strive, to do and to dare; yet realizing that it is Christ, the great Com- mander, who will and must conquer through us. Then we can say at the close of life: "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course"; and not, alas, as must be said in the case of some: "Their course has finished them." THE END THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GASDEN CITY, NEW YORK