The Bible's Message to Modern Life

Jesus' Principles of Living

BY
CHARLES FOSTER KENT, Ph.D., Litt.D.
Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University
AND
JEREMIAH WHIPPLE JENKS, Ph.D., LL.D.
Research Professor of Government and Public Administration
in New York University

Nbw York
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1920

Copyright, 1920
By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

CONTENTS

Introduction .

Chapter I. Jesus' Interpretation op His Task.

1. The Religious Needs of the Men of Jesus' Day. 2. Their Physical and
Moral Needs. 3. The Way in Which John the Baptist Tried to Meet
These Needs. 4. Jesus' Appreciation of These Vital Needs. 5. Jesus'
Consciousness of a Call to Serve. 6. The Temptations Which Confronted
Jesus.
Chapter II. Jesus' Methods op Work  10
1. Jesus' Adaption of His Methods to Different Situations and Individuals.
2. His Appeal to Human Interest. 3. His Acts of Healing. 4. Personal
Friendship and Discipleship. 5. Preaching and Teaching. 6. Personal
Example and Social Method.
Chapter III. God and Man  22
1. The Fatherhood of God. 2. Co-operation Between God and Man.
3. Sin. 4. The Essentials of Worship. 5. Faith and Prayer. 6. The
Eternal Life.
Chapter IV. Truthfulness and Sincerity  37
1. Jesus' Frank Recognition of His Own Limitations and Superiority.
2. The Fundamental Signincance of Motives. 3. Simplicity and Direct
ness. 4. Integrity in Business. 5. Honesty in Politics. 6. Sincerity
in the Religious Life.
Chapter V. Personal Responsibility  47
1. The Infinite Worth of the Individual. 2. The Responsibility of the
/' Individual. 3. Independence of Judgment. 4. Tolerance. 5. The
Necessity of Preparation for, Responsibility. 6. Practical Application
of the Golden Rule.
Chapter VI. The Value and Use op Wealth  60
1. The Standard by Which Jesus Measured Wealth. 2. The Perils of
Wealth. 3. The Acquisition of Wealth. 4. The Trusteeship of Wealth.
5. Practical Christian Charity. 6. Control of Wealth by the State.
Chapter VII. Recreation and the Christian Use op the
Sabbath  74
1. Jesus' Appreciation of Recreation. 2. The Psychological Basis of
Recreation. 3. The Attitude of the Church toward Play and Recreation.
4. The Regulation and Direction of Popular Amusements. 5. Jesus'
Interpretation of the Sabbath. 6. The Effective Christian Use of the
Sabbath.
Chapter VIII. The Family and Beloved Community  87
1. Jesus' Recognition of the Importance of the Family. 2. The Duties
of Husbands and Wives. 3. The Obligations of Parents and Children.
4. Masters and Servants. 5. The Rehabilitation of the Home. 6. The
Beloved Community. iii

iv Contents
Chapter IX. The Citizen and the Statu  102
1. Jesus' Conception of the Citizen's Duties. 2. The Authority and
Obligations of Rulers. 3. Ethical Standards of Government. 4. The
Doctrine of Non-Resentment. 6. The Obligations of State to State. 0.
The Christian Program for World Peace.
Chapter X. The Rule op God  114
I. Current Jewish Ideas of the Rule of God. 2. Jesus' Interpretation
of the Rule of God. 3. The Growth of the Rule of God. 4. Conditions
of Participation in the Rule of God. 5. The Individual's Part in this
Rule. 6. The Role of God and the State.
Chapter XI. The Way to Happiness and Success  125
1. Jesus' Appreciation of Happiness. 2. The Mental Attitudes Essential
to Happiness. 3. The Attitude toward Society Essential for Happiness.
4. The Joy of Co-operating with God. 5. Community Happiness and
Success. 0. National Happiness and Success.
Chapter XII. The Universality op Jesus' Principles op Life 137
1. Jesus, the Real Discoverer of the Individual. 2. The World's Greatest
Social Psychologist. . 3. The Supreme Interpreter of God. 4. The Com
plete Harmoniser of Man with God. 5. The Founder of Complete
Democracy. 0. The Eternal Cosmopolitan.

INTRODUCTION.
_ The world to-day is passing through a great economic,
social, and religious revolution of which the Great War was
but the prelude. Men are changing their views on many
vital questions with a rapidity that often appalls. s Many
established institutions are being revised or discarded. The
immovable conservatism and the calm assurance of the pre
war period are gone. Men and nations are well aware that they
are faring forth on uncharted seas. These facts explain why
they are turning to the teachings of Jesus with new interest
and eagerness. Statesmen, leaders in industry, and scientists
are proclaiming their deep conviction that his principles of
living alone can guide the individual and society through the
social, political, and industrial storms that are raging on every
side and teach them how to give to community and state a
stable yet progressive development, in the promotion of which
each man can find real happiness and worthy self-expression.
Jesus worked and taught with these ends ever in view.
He aimed to do a practical work. The political and social
conditions of the Roman world during the first Christian
century were strikingly like those of to-day. Humanity felt
its unity and at the same time was dissatisfied with its inherited
ideas and institutions. A yearning for social justice, for brother
hood, and for spiritual satisfaction filled the hearts of men.
In satisfying the longings of his own day by laying down
principles of Hving that are universal, Jesus met in a unique
way the similar needs of the present age. His teachings are so
many-sided that no one interpreter can do them full justice.
The aim in this volume has been to interpret the teachings
of Jesus frankly, simply, and constructively in the light of
modern conditions, and to make clear the trail that Jesus blazed
by which each man may find the larger life in union and co-opera
tion with the eternal Source of all hfe. Above all, the endeavor
throughout has been to formulate the vital questions that now
confront the citizens of every country and to help them in the
light of Jesus' principles of hving to think them through and
to reach a true and practical solution.

vi Introduction
This volume is intended for the general reader as well as
for college and adult classes. It may be used for a rapid twelve-
week survey of Jesus' practical philosophy of life, but can best
be studied more leisurely, with pauses for detailed investigation
and discussion at the points where the mterests of the class
focus. It is also suggested that, as a background for the study,
the members of the class read the continuous older record of
Jesus' life and work as it is presented in the modern translation
found in pages 1-61 of the Shorter Bible — The New Testament,
from which the Bibhcal passages in the present volume are
quoted. Books of Reference.
The books of reference here suggested have been carefully
selected in order that each student may have for his individual
use a practical working library. The writers do not indorse
all the views expressed in the books, but they will be found
suggestive and helpful. The following should be at hand for
constant reference:
Kent, C. F., The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus.
Contains the leading social teachings of the prophets and sages
and of Jesus and Paul arranged in chronological order and
interpreted in the hght both of their original setting and of
modern social conditions. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
Cooley, C. H., Social Organisation. An excellent work
giving the fundamental principles of social organization, which
will form a valuable basis for judging the scientific worth of
Jesus' teachings. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
Follett, M. P., The New State. A suggestive work which
breaks away from the old forms of political organization and
makes suggestions for practical work that will serve as a valuable
means of stimulating thought. Very helpful, but not always
to be accepted without question as the final judgment on the
topics discussed. Longmans, Green & Company, New York.
For further parallel study the following books are suggested:
Glover, T. R., The Jesus of History. A fresh, vivid study
of the personality and work of the Founder of Christianity.
Association Press, New York.
Kent, C. F., The Life and Teachings of Jesus (Vol. V of
The Historical Bible.) Like the other volumes of this series it
contains a modern translation of the oldest records, arranged

Introduction vii
in chronological order, with the historical, geographical and
archaeological notes required for their clear understanding.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
Jenks, J. W., Governmental Action for Social Welfare. The
Macmillan Company, New York.
Ross, G. A. J., The Universality of Jesus. A broad and
stimulating presentation of the significance of the work and
teachings of Jesus in their larger world relations. F. H. Revell
Co., New York.
Fosdick, H. E., The Meaning of Prayer. A thoughtful,
constructive, and inspiring discussion of the various aspects of
this vital subject. Association Press, New York.
Edwards, R. H., Popular Amusements. A careful study ^of
the different forms of popular amusement in order to deter
mine the best ways in which to develop the values and eliminate
the evils inherent in each. Association Press, New York.
Hartshorne, H., Childhood and Character. An original and
constructive presentation of the characteristics of boys and
girls and of the practical ways in which parents and teachers
may co-operate in their development. Pilgrim Press, Boston.
Hilty, Karl, Happiness. A sane and satisfactory discussion
of this theme by this eminent Swiss jurist. The Macmillan
Company, New York.
Jenks, J. W., Principles of Politics. A discussion which
dwells upon the motives of pohtical action and the impelling
forces that guide the various departments of government. The
Columbia University Press, New York.

CHAPTER I.
JESUS' INTERPRETATION OF HIS TASK.
ParaUel Readings.
Kent, Historical Bible, Vol. V, The Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp.
62-69. . ,
Glover, The Jesus of History, pp. 63-72.
Cooley, Social Organisation, pp. 3-50.
Follett, The Nets State, pp. 3-15.
At this time Jesus exclaimed, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that though thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
learned, thou hast revealed them to those who are untaught; yes, Father,
for such has been thy gracious purpose. Everything has been revealed to
me by my Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does
any one know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son will
reveal him." — Mali. 11: 25-27 .
At sight of the crowds, harassed and scattered like sheep without a
shepherd, lie was filled with pity. . . . — -Matt. 9:36.
And after he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was hungry.
Then the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become bread." But he answered, "It is written,
'Man is not to live on bread alone,
But on every word that comes from God.' "
Then the devil took him to the holy city and, setting him on the
pinnacle of the Temple, said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down; for it is written,
'He will give his angels charge of you,
And on their hands they will bear you up.
Lest you strike your foot against a stone. "
Jesus said to him, "It is also written,
'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' "
Once more the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, "All these
things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus
said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
'You shall worship the Lord your God,
And him only shall you serve.' " — Matt. ,£: 2-10. (Shorter Bible
translation.) I.
The Religious Needs of the Men of Jestjs' Day.
To understand and appreciate the work and teachings of
Jesus it is necessary to appreciate the needs of the men and
women to whom he spoke. Throughout all history men's
1

2 Jesus' Principles of Living
faith regarding God and his relation to them has been powerfully
influenced by their own political life and organization. With
the exceptibn of one brief period, supreme temporal authority
during six centuries had been represented for the Jews by the
mighty monarchies of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
Potentates far removed from their subjects ruled through
agents the civilized world. It was during this period that the
Jews lost the simple faith of earlier days which recognized the
divine principle and purpose in every event of their Jives, and
began to think of God as a far away potentate, jealous of his
prerogatives, who must be obeyed and constantly served by
ceremonial acts and formal gifts. This form of rehgion
satisfied many types of mind but tended to destroy the
spirituality and originality of its devotees. For the ordinary
man it had become a mere formal routine. Prayer too was
highly conventionalized and lacked personal inspiration.
Public prayers were long and repetitious. The Judaism of
Jesus' day lacked aspiration and spirituality.
Behef in their pre-eminence as the chosen people led many
Jews to regard the rest of the world with scorn, as heathen
beyond the pale of Jehovah's care. This sense of national
self-sufficiency was felt in even a higher degree by the individual
religious leaders. Those who could satisfy the rigorous demands
of the ceremonial law were self-satisfied, and therefore lacked
that hunger and thirst for righteousness which is essential for
rehgious development. On the other hand the majority of the
common people felt themselves the "lost sheep of the house of
Israel." Thus in their rehgious hfe the Jews were divided into
two classes; one spiritually self-satisfied, the other discontented
and crushed by a pathetic consciousness of isolation. Both
alike needed some one to show them how they might enter into
vital touch with God. They also needed worthy ambitions to
lift them out of the sordid, lifeless routine of daily hfe and
ritual, and a re-affirmation of the teaching of the earlier prophets
that man was not made for rehgion, but religion for man. They
needed to be told with authority that rehgion is not merely a
body of beliefs or a round of ceremonial acts, but that it is
Something personal and active expressed through individual
motives and character and deeds. They needed to realize*
that genuine rehgion binds man to God and to his fellow men,
enables him to meet the highest moral and social obligations,

Jesus' Interpretation of His Task 3
satisfies his spiritual and aesthetic aspirations, and infinitely
enlarges and enriches life.
How would you define theology? Why were our Puritan
forefathers so deeply interested in theology? Why in the minds
of many men of to-day is there such a strong reaction against
theological thought and teaching? What are the vital rehgious
interests of this generation? How do these interests find
expression? II.
Their Physical and Moral Needs.
Even more obvious and appeahng than the rehgious were
the physical and social needs of the men of Jesus' day. Asiatic
countries had always been burdened by the sodden mass of
those who were mentally and physicaUy diseased. Hospitals
and asylums were unknown. The demented wandered at
large among the people. The blind and lame held out their
pathetic hands at every turn for public charity. The dependent
were the victi)ms of precarious and pauperizing charity. The
numbers of those physically or economically unfit had been
increased in Jesus' day by cruel wars and the grinding burden
of taxes imposed by the Romans and their unprincipled tools,
the Herods. The pubhc prisons were pest-holes in which the
innocent as well as the guilty were treated worse than beasts.
Judaism had as yet developed httle community spirit.
In this respect the ancient Greek cities were far in the lead.
The Jews too were the victims of their own party spirit. The
dissensions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees had brought
upon their nation the heavy yoke of Rome, and these dissensions
were still dissipatirig the national strength. Patriotism chiefly
took the form of intense, sullen hatred of Rome. Hatred and
a burning sense of injustice are not sufficient to bind a people
together and to inspire them to effective and noble achievement.
On the social side the education of the average Jewish
youth was defective. The great social principles of the earlier
prophets and lawgivers were largely neglected. Class feeling
was intense. The exploitation of dependent classes was not
confined to the Romans. The high priestly party that controlled
the temple and conducted its ritual was even more culpable

4 Jesus' Principles of Ltvtng
in this regard than the despised tax-gatherers. The hands of
even the learned rehgious teachers, the Pharisees, were not free
from the taint of unjust extortion. Many interests which
enlarge and enrich life, such as recreation, art, and popular
music, were placed under the ban. As a result many a Jew
satisfied his cravings for variety and pleasure in ways that
were destructive to himself and to society. The ghastly effects
of social immorality were evident on every side. What they
needed, therefore, was healing of body and soul and a clear
knowledge of the fundamental laws of life. They needed
wholesome recreation and an acquaintance with the conditions
under which genuine happiness could be secured. They also
needed community and national organization and practical
ideals for which to hve and strive. They needed constructive
leadership that would help them to forget their race hatreds
and class prejudices in the service of the community and
humanity. .

What do we mean by public spirit? What perils are
inherent in a selfish nationalism? Cf., Germany or the Balkan
States before the Great War. What qualities are essential to a
wholesome national spirit? How does national hate affect the
relations of nations for good or ill? How do class hatreds
affect the development of genuine national patriotism?
III.
The Way in Which John the Baptist Tried to
Meet These Needs.
Three great prophetic souls stood forth about the begin
ning of the Christian era and vahantly combatted the evils
inherent in Judaism. They were Hillel, John the Baptist, and
Jesus. Of these Hillel was the pioneer and John the Baptist
the immediate forerunner of Jesus. John was keenly alive to
the more obvious rehgious and social needs of his age and
devoted himself to meeting them with superb zeal and enthu
siasm. Although reared a priest, he violently repudiated the
dominating ceremonialism. Intimate knowledge had clearly
revealed to him its evils. He frankly and fully adopted the
principles and methods of the earher social prophets of his

Jesus' Interpretation of His Task 5
race. Boldly he declared that the axe was already laid at the
roots of the tree and that the downfall of Judaism was certain
unless fundamental reforms were speedily instituted. '
Like the great prophet Ezekiel, John the Baptist employed
striking and dramatic methods in order to win a popular hearing.
He adopted the life of an ascetic as a protest against the super
ficial luxury and licentiousness that prevailed throughout many
classes in Palestine. He hved on the borders of the Judean
desert and by the fiery vigor of his preaching and the intensity
of his personality and convictions drew all classes to him. His
message was primarily one of repentance, and he symbolised
the rejection of the old life of sin and dehverance from its
baneful habits by the priestly symbol of baptism through
immersion. John beheved and frankly taught that a new era
was about to dawn and that a prophetic teacher far more
potent and spiritual than he was soon to appear, but he him
self worked primarily for social and moral reform. His method
was positive as well as negative. He not only protested against
the cruelty and tyranny of the military class, but he influenced
many of them to be content with their wages and to protect
rather than pillage the people. He sought to right economic
wrongs by influencing those who had, to share their possessions
with those who lacked. Thus John not only echoed the teach
ings of Amos, Isaiah, and Hillel, but also anticipated in part
those of Jesus. He taught that repentance to be genuine must
change the life of the individual and bear fruits.
John the Baptist laid the foundation for a new social
order both by bis preaching and by training a group of morally
and socially minded citizens. He organized his followers into
a brotherhood which embodied and illustrated the moral and
social principles which he proclaimed. He fully merited Jesus'
statement that among the prophets of the older order he stood
pre-eminent.

What were the reasons for John's popularity as a preacher?
Why did not the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem openly oppose
his work? What would be the effect should John the Baptist
appear with a similar message and method in one of our great
American cities?

6 Jesus' Principles of Living
IV.
Jesus' Appreciation of These Vital Needs.
For more than a quarter of a century Jesus lived in Nazareth
in close and sympathetic touch with the people of Galilee.
His frequent visits to Jerusalem had given him a clear appre
ciation of the universal needs of mankind. Many of these
needs he had doubtless recognized in his own experience. In
the laboratory of his own life he alone had learned how they
might be fully satisfied. John the Baptist appealed to him,
because that intrepid son of the South had awakened him to a
full realization of the same needs. Jesus was drawn to John
because he was boldly and unselfishly endeavoring to free the
people from their narrow prejudices and beliefs and from the
consequences of their own wrong acts and habits which had
enmeshed them. John's sturdy personality, his intrepid spirit,
and his bold methods, all commanded Jesus' admiration.
He recognized too, as had John, that the message and the
methods of the Baptist would never completely satisfy the
deepest cravings of the human soul. John was the "voice of
one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the ways of the
Lord. ' " The very incompleteness of John's message and method
were a challenge to Jesus to carry on to complete fulfillment the
work of this noble prophet, as well as that of those who had
preceded him. Jesus saw clearly that some one must simplify
and spiritualize the popular conception of God and of man's
relation to him, thus breaking the bondage and revealing the
superficiality of mere ceremonialism and giving to each man
an^opportunity to express himself in service to his fellow men.
He realized that, before the Jews could be free, some great
teacher must help them to conquer their intense class prejudices
and hatreds and to substitute for their narrow nationalism an
appreciation and love for God and humanity.
What characteristics did Jesus and John share in common?
What personal qualities did Jesus possess that John lacked?
What larger opportunities to appreciate man's deeper needs
did Jesus have than John? What men and women of this
generation have shown themselves most appreciative of these
deeper needs of mankind? Are they always found in the
churches?

Jesus' Interpretation of His Task 7
V.
Jesus' Consciousness of a Call to Serve.
Men will long continue to discuss* whether Jesus' call was
natural or supernatural. Many will find in his training, in his
unique experiences, and in the recognition of the needs of
mankind, sufficient to explain that consciousness of a divine
mission which appears in many of his sayings. The answer to
the question turns in part upon our conception of the per
sonality of Jesus. The materialism of the pre-war period
shrank from admitting the existence of anything beyond that
which could be seen and interpreted in the light of scientific
investigation and human experience. Recently our vision of
life and of the universe has been greatly expanded and we
are more ready to recognize the existence of unseen facts and
forces. The Bibhcal writers clearly beheved in Jesus' pre-
existence. His teachings reveal a wider vision of the totality
of hfe than that vouchsafed to ordinary men. Is it not possible
that his consciousness of a unique call to serve mankind was
also because he saw not merely a small arc but the whole or
a large part of hfe and of the universe? Latent in his con
sciousness may there not have been memories of a previous
existence or at least experiences which alone satisfactorily
explain that absolute conviction and calm certainty with which
he answered the stupendous questions which perplex the mind
of man? Certainly the attitude of open-mindedness toward
these possibihties is alone truly scientific.
It is not entirely clear when the definite consciousness of
his mission came to him. The earliest gospel narrative implies
that it was when he joined John the Baptist beside the Jordan.
Mark also states that the message which identified him as the
Son of God and proclaimed the divine approval was directed
not to the people but to Jesus himself. Even though the
consciousness of a call to a great task had gradually dawned
upon him, the baptism marks a great decision which trans
formed the builder of Nazareth into the Builder of men. From
that time on his entire time and energies are devoted to this
larger task. The Son of God has become the son and servant
of men. The problems which henceforth concern him are
problems of method rather than of mission. Jesus' conception
of that mission is perhaps best revealed in the oldest records,

8 Jesus' PrinciMiES of Living
in his memorable words uttered evidently under great emotion,
when the disciples returned with the report that their missions
had been successful. "I praise thee, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise
and the learned, and that thou hast revealed them to those
who are untaught; yes, Father, for such has been thy gracious
purpose. Everything has been revealed to me by my Father,
and no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one
know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son
will reveal him." (Matt. 11: 25-27.)
Why does not the fact that Jesus'went to John represent a
confession of sin? What were Jesus' motives in so doing? What
evidence is there that Jesus worked with John the Baptist
until the latter was imprisoned by Herod Antipas? If Jesus
had been a modern western teacher, how would he have
described his experience when baptized by John? In how far is
the experience of every man who feels the call to an avocation,
as well as a vocation, parallel to that of Jesus?
VI.
The Temptations which Confronted Jesus.
The story of Jesus' temptations has many points of con
tact with the familiar account of Isaiah's decision as recorded
in the sixth chapter of his prophecy. In such passages we, with
our western literalism, are always in danger of not grasping the
essential truths which were intuitively revealed to the mind
of the Oriental. We prefer abstract statement, but the Oriental
can best understand the symbol.
The three types of temptation in the gospel story are
closely related. Each is abundantly exemplified in the record
of Jesus' ministry. Unlike John the Baptist, Jesus was fond
of friends and social life and intercourse. To fulfill the strenu
ous mission to which he felt himself called and to meet the
crying and varied needs of humanity, he recognized that he
must largely turn his back upon wealth and its pleasures,
upon the joys of the home, the fireside, the banquet, and of
those quiet friendships which he in common with all men
both craved and appreciated. Should he use his time and
his gifts in securing and enjoying these more personal
pleasures or should he devote himself wholly and completely

Jesus' Interpretation of His Task 9
to his diviner task? This, like all of the temptations which
came to Jesus, was common to every normal son of man.
The temptation to cast himself down from the pinnacle
of the temple, and thus to satisfy the demands of the people
who were continually asking him for some miraculous sign,
was distinctly the type of temptation which comes to a man
with lofty and worthy ambitions, who in his eagerness to
accomplish his work is tempted to use methods which might
perhaps in the popular mind be justified by the end, but are
exaggerated and sensational. When the learned Pharisees
came to Jesus and presented this temptation in definite form,
he met it with the answer that like Jonah he would not appeal
to their eyes but simply to their moral consciousness. Through
out his ministry Jesus refused to, use sensational methods in
order to accomplish his mission. In all his work and teaching
he refused to accept the fallacious doctrine, sometimes adopted
even by his so-called followers, that "the end justifies the
means." Not as the national Messiah of popular hopes, not
by miraculous signs, but by planting in the minds of men moral,
social, and spiritual principles, did the Son of God accomplish
his divine mission among men.
The last temptation was still more insidious. It was the
temptation of a strong soul to accomplish his work by means
of compromise. It is the temptation which comes to every
man to-day who undertakes a worthy task. Sometimes the
devil comes in the guise of vested interests; sometimes his
argument is loyalty to family or party; he has even been known
to wear garments sacerdotal. More than ease and wealth, —
fame, success, popularity, even the exercise of personal power
of rule seemed to await Jesus at certain points in his ministry
if he would but ignore or condone the hypocrisy of the Pharisees
and the underhanded graft of the priests, and join in their
struggle for power, thus winning immunity from their secret
intrigues and their open opposition and gaining their aid to
promote powerful leadership, if not against Rome, at least to
advance his people's temporal power. Not without a struggle
and yet firmly, Jesus rejected these insidious temptations, and
his words and deeds reveal his clear conviction, even from the
beginning of his ministry, of the greatness, breadth and
importance of his mission, a mission to conquer the hearts and
souls of men, not to dominate their temporal interests.

10 Jesus' Principles of Living
If Jesus had been speaking to a group of modern psycholo
gists and philosophers, how would he probably have described the
temptations? What forms do these three types of temptations
assume in the life of the ordinary man to-day? In how far are
they the types of temptation pecuhar to those devoted to reh
gious and social work? In what way may the modern church
to-day be yielding to the same temptations? Why was it nec
essary that Jesus overcome these temptations in order to ac
complish) his mission? How far does the same principle apply to
the church of to-day? Subjects for Further Study.
(1) How far have the different types of theology advanced and how
far retarded the religious development of mankind? Cite historical
examples. (2) In what respects were the social needs of Jesus' day similar to
those in America to-day?
(3) Give, with the aid of the meager gospel records and in the light
of the political, religious, and social conditions in the Palestine of his day,
an imaginary sketch of the psychological development of John the Baptist
in the period preceding his public ministry.
(4) How far did tae teachings of John the Baptist anticipate those of
Jesus? (5) What was the origin of John's symbol of baptism? Cf., Hast.
Dictionary of Christ and the Gospel, I, pp. 863, 864; Encyc. Biblica., I, pp. 471,
472. (6) Compare Jesus' experience during his baptism and temptation
with those of Isaiah as recorded in Isaiah 6.
(7) Compare the different interpretations of the account of Jesus'
temptations presented in Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospel, II, pp. 465-
470; Holtzmann, Life of Jesus, pp. 144-154; Ross, The Universality of
Jesus, pp. 57-67; and Jenks, Social Significance of the Teachings of Jesus, p.
27.

CHAPTER II.
JESUS' METHODS OF WORK.
ParaUel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 186-197.
Follett, The New State, pp. 19-59.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 51-65.
As Jesus was passing along t ie shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw
Simon and Andrew his brother casting their nets into the sea, for they

Jesus' Methods of Work II
were fishermen. Jesus said to them, " Come with me, and I will make
you fishers of men." Thereupon they left their nets and followed him.
And going a httle farther on, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, with John
his brother, who were in their boat mending their nets. He called them
at once, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men,
and went with him. — Mark 1: 16-20.
And Jesus appointed twelve to accompany him and to go out to
preach, with authority to cast out evil spirits. — Mark S: 1£.
Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am kind
and sympathetic, and you will find peace for your souls, for my yoke is
easy and my; burden light. — Matt- 11: 28-30. (Shorter Bible translation).

Jesus' Adaptation of His Methods to Different
Situations and Individuals.
Jesus was bound by no rigid rules, and yet a marvellous
method is revealed in all his works. It was so simple, so direct,
and so natural that it never obtruded. For this reason it is
difficult to define. Its chief characteristic is its perfect adapta
tion to every changing situation. At first he began his public
work with John the Baptist, and allied himself with his disciples
and adopted John's method of preaching. Even after he
returned to Galilee he continued for a time to proclaim John's
ringing message: "The time has come; the rule of God is at
hand. Repent." (Mark 1:15). But to John's austere message
Jesus added, as he took up his -Galilean work, the joyful,
positive note: "Beheve in the good news." Henceforth Jesus
abandoned John's method of compelling people to come to
him; instead he went to them. Wherever they were found
ready to listen, he spoke to them. Sometimes it was in the
synagogue, where he as a traveling preacher was asked to
interpret the Prophets. Some of his most effective teaching
was done at banquets where he ate and talked and feasted with
the host and the other guests. When the supercilious Pharisees
and Sadducees plied him with captious questions, he not only
parried them but improved the opportunity to drive home
some of his most vital teachings. Thus, for example, when
the Pharisees asked him whether they should pay tribute to
Caesar, convinced that whatever answer he made he would be
convicted of disloyalty either to Judaism or to Rome, he not

12 Jesus' Principles of Living
only escaped the trap set for him but also laid down the broad
principle: "Pay to Caesar the things which are Caesar's and
to God the things which are God's." A greedy man's request
that Jesus act as arbiter in his behalf gave the Master Teacher
an opportunity to present one of his most important teachings
regarding the value and limitations of wealth (Luke 12: 13-21).
The pathetic case of a woman convicted of adultery enabled
Jesus to shake the smug self-satisfaction of the conventional
rehgious leader of his race, and to teach the poor victim of her
own sins certain fundamental laws of life (John 8: 1-11). Even
the events that gathered about Jesus' trial and crucifixion
were made by him the means whereby he emphasized the
essential principles of hfe and death in a way never to be
misunderstood or forgotten by mankind. Life on its many sides
presented no situation which he was not able to utilize in
accomplishing his mission.
Jesus showed equal skill in adapting his method to each
individual. With the learned Pharisees and scribes he discussed
the intellectual and moral problems with which they were
chiefly concerned. With the common people and with his
followers he talked of current events; as for example, the fall
of the tower of Siloam; and thus established a natural point of
contact before he led them on to the consideration of the great
truths which he was eager to fix in their minds. In this personal,
direct way Jesus appears to have adapted his teachings to all
classes: learned scholars, royal stewards, Roman centurions,
farmers, fishermen, and even to the despised tax-gatherers
and women of the street. Every human contact became
an open door through which he entered their minds and
hearts.

How far did Paul imitate his Master in adapting himself
to all men? Compare his own testimony in I Corinthians 9:
19-22- How far is the Christian church to-day in this respect
following the example of its founder? Why has it often failed
to reach the poor and manual laboring classes to which Jesus
especiaUy appealed? How would the life of the ordinary
Christian be transformed, if, like Paul, he utilized every
personal contact as an opportunity for practical helpful
ness?

Jesus' Methods of Work 13
II.
His Appeal to Human Interest.
Jesus was not content simply to utihze the opportunity
which came to him through chance contacts; he won a permanent
place in the hearts of those he wished to reach. He knew the
subjects in which all men were interested and constantly used
them in gaining their attention and confidence. The familiar
story of the Prodigal Son is an excellent illustration of his
remarkable skill in reaching all classes and interests. Youth
finds in the clear-cut picture of the Prodigal the dramatization
of its problems and temptations. The experiences and feehngs
of the father in the story arrest and hold the attention of every
parent or guardian of youth.
We of the West have difficulty in fully appreciating the
deep interest with which his Jewish audience listened to the
story of the Good Samaritan. Priests, Levites, merchants,
and every man, woman and child who had traveled the danger
ous road down to Jericho felt a personal interest in the thrilling
story as it rapidly unfolded. Jesus' boldness in making a
Samaritan, the despised foe of every Jew, its hero piqued their
curiosity and fixed their attention.
The evidence is clear that Jesus spared no effort to arouse
the interest of all the different classes in his audiences. In the
story of the man who found the treasure hidden in the field,
he stirred the keen interest of every farmer and landholder
who, hke the citizens of Palestine to-day, never turned the soil
without hoping to uncover a treasure hidden or left there by
the countless thousands who in the generations past had lived
or fought over this much debated territory. To hold the
attention of the women he told the companion story of the
woman who lost one of the precious coins belonging to her
marriage dowry, of her frenzied search for it, and of her uncon
trolled joy when it was discovered. Thus the teaching which
he wished to convey was fixed forever in the mind of every
woman in his audience. In the same way he hkened the growth
of the Rule of God to that of a mustard seed and in so doing
held the attention of the men in his audience, while to the
women the corresponding figure of the leaven placed in a
measure of meal made its indelible impression.
Jesus also developed in highest measure the rare gift of

14 Jesus' Principles of Living
putting himself in the other man's place. In imagination we
can see him sitting beside Peter and Andrew, the fishermen,
discussing the problems and prospects of their strenuous life,
until they felt the warmth of his individual interest and the
charm of his personahty. Rapidly the suspicion with which
they naturally regarded a stranger melted away until almost
unconsciously they asked him to be their guest, and Jesus was
taken henceforth into their homes and hearts. Possibly it was
in the crowded marketplace that Jesus met Simon, the fiery
Zealot who was burning with zeal to unsheathe the sword and
avenge the cruel wrongs of his race by slaying the mercenaries
of hated Rome. In the light of Jesus' utterances elsewhere
we may be sure that he shared and probably voiced Simon's
hot indignation over Roman cruelties and indignities; and yet
we can hear him saying to Simon: "Violence never righted a
social wrong. Follow me and I will show you a better way to
free our race from the odious bondage."
How was it that Jesus first appealed to Judas Iscariot,
the shrewd, crafty, successful business man whose interest
clearly lay in the field of finance? Did Jesus begin by commend
ing him for bis able use of his natural gifts? Jesus, hke Judas,
was well acquainted with practical business affairs. Probably
to Judas, as to many another business man, he presented the
practical as well as alluring possibility of storing up his treasure
in the Bank of Heaven where it would be free from all risks
and available not only in this hfe but throughout eternity.
The gospel records make it clear that Jesus always fixed upon
the interest that was uppermost in each man's mind and made
that the guide to his higher development and achievement.
What subjects to-day are of primary human interest to
boys and girls from twelve to sixteen years of age? Select
three men or women from your acquaintance and try to deter
mine the primary interest of each. How can these interests in
each case be made the guide to higher social and spiritual
efficiency? With the same aim, analyze your own major
interests. III.
His Acts of Healing.
Modern Protestant Christianity has been accustomed to
pass over lightly Jesus' acts of heahng; and yet these acts are

Jesus' Methods of Work 15
related in the oldest gospel and are supported by many of the
best authenticated records. The New Testament writings
give the impression that these acts of heahng occupied a large
part of the time of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus definitely
asserts that they were not mere signs or credentials. When
the scribes and Pharisees demanded that he show them a
miraculous sign, he declared that the present generation was
evil and unfaithful, lacking in honesty and confidence in others,
and so demanded a sign. He added that he would give them
no sign except that of the prophet Jonah, who preached the
truth so effectively to the guilty men of Nineveh that they
repented of their crimes (Matt. 12: 38, 39, 41).
It is evident that Jesus' acts of healing were spontaneous
expressions of his love and sympathy for his fellow men. He
healed because he possessed the power and saw a need that
nothing else could at that time meet. He healed that he might
establish points of contact and a basis for the genuine friend
ships which he was seeking to form with all classes of men.
A deeper reason still is that he saw the necessity of laying the
proper physical and mental foundation on which to build or
rebuild character. He frankly proclaimed that one of his
aims was to enable men to live the full and abounding hfe.
To realize that aim it was important that every man should
have perfect health and happiness. Jesus had found this
perfect physical and spiritual health in his own experience,
and he was not content until he had transmitted it to others.
With that practical directness and superb sanity which charac
terizes all of his thinking, he realized that men must be well if
they were to be best fitted for the arduous and divine task to
which he was calling them. The first step, therefore, in making
men whole was to remove all physical encumbrances, and this
Jesus did with a simplicity and directness that won their
hearts as well as their admiration.

When and why did the heahng ministry largely disappear
from the Christian church? What did Jesus mean when he
declared that his followers would do greater works than he?
In what ways do the physical and mental conditions of the
individual affect his moral and spiritual state? To what extent
is the converse true? How far is the claim of Christian Science

16 Jesus' Principles of Living
that sickness and suffering have no rightful place in God's
universe valid? How can we heal the whole man as Jesus did?
What Christian agencies in our modern civilization are working
effectively to this end? IV.
Personal Friendship and Discipleship.
It has been truly said, "Jesus had genius for friendship."
The foundation of that gift was a keen and sympathetic under
standing of the interests and motives not merely of men as a
class but of each individual whom he made his friend. Its
inspiration was a genuine interest in people and an intense
desire to help each man to realize his highest possibilities.
This task was made easy and natural by Jesus' genuine and
spontaneous desire to make and to have friends and to be of
greatest service. There is abundant evidence that he enjoyed
friends, that he sought and needed their companionship, that
certain men like Peter and John stood in a peculiarly close
relationship to him. None, however, were outside the pale
of his friendship, unless they themselves raised an insuperable
barrier. In this respect Jesus has been recognized as a supreme
democrat. He held his friends to him by the closest possible bond.
He addressed the disciples affectionately as "children" (Mark
10: 24) and "httle children" (John 13: 33). At all times he
showed the most thoughtful consideration for their happiness
and comfort. Thus, Mark 6 : 31 records ^hat when so many
were coming and going that his weary disciples could not find
time even to eat, he said to them, "Come by yourselves to
some quiet place and rest a while."
Jesus also held his friends by receiving gratefully from
them whatever they had to give. Above all he taught them how
to work together for a great and common cause. This was the
secret of Jesus' power to win and hold his followers. Each man
wishes instinotively to be a creator. The desire to make, to
build, to achieve is a dominant characteristic of childhood
and youth which in the later, maturing years becomes
established and specialized. Jesus saw the latent possibilities in
every man. More than that, he enabled individuals to see these
possibilities, and then he so guided and trained them that they
were able to fulfill their tasks in hfe. To his disciples he declared :

Jesus' Methods of Work 17
"You are the, salt of the earth. You are the hght of the
world." Strange words to address to untutored fishermen and
laboring men, but the event amply proved the truth of his
statement. After friendship and teaching had prepared the
way, Jesus said, on one never-to-be-forgotten occasion to Peter
and Andrew, " I will make you fishers of men." Both the East
and the West rise up to-day to bear testimony to the truth of
these words.
The Gospel of Mark suggests the way in wliich he trans
formed the crooked, despised tax-gatherer, Levi, from a col
lector of money into a collector of human souls (2: 13-17).
Contemporary Judaism treated the tax-collectors as dogs.
Their testimony was not accepted in the pubhc courts and no
agreement made with them was binding. Since they had alhed
themselves with the hated Romans and had put their hands
into the pockets of their fellow men, they and their families
were looked upon as renegades. No self-respecting Jew was
supposed to associate with them. Jesus won the devotion of
Levi, the son of Alpheus, by pubhcly inviting himself to become
his guest. Jesus and his disciples found themselves in a strange
company made up chiefly of tax-collectors and outcasts. The
scribes and Pharisees were horrified at the sight, but Jesus
accomphshed his double purpose. He thereby proclaimed by
acts as well as words that he came to heal those who were sick
both in soul and body, and to turn those sick of sin from their
past and to inspire them to find that fullness of life which was
their divine inheritance. At the same time, in making Levi his
host Jesus evoked those nobler qualities latent within him.
Jesus is ndeed the supreme illustration of Lowell's immortal
words: "Be noble! and the nobleness that hes
In other men, sleeping but never dead-, ^
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own."
It is significant that Jesus said little to men about the
state of their souls. His sympathetic friendship or his words
of encouragement revealed to them their potentiahties, set
before them a glorious task, and then guided them in achieving
it. In so doing they broke with their sinful habits and their
disreputable past. Levi, better known in the gospel narratives
by his other name, Matthew, is such a transformed man. To

18 Jesus' Principles of Living
each of his followers Jesus gave the largest opportunity for a
normal and natural self-development and self-expression. At
the same time he demanded the complete loyalty and enthu
siasm which he himself threw into all his work.

Among what classes did Jesus find it impossible to win
many friends? What are the chief barriers to-day that keep
men from becoming close friends? In what ways has the
Great War promoted friendship between nations and individ
uals? How true is the proverb, "To win a friend you must
be one"? If the church has in the past made a mistake in
putting large emphasis on the state of a man's soul, and not
enough on his failure to do the task to which he is divinely
fitted, how can this mistake be corrected? Why and how does
working together for a great cause develop friendship?

Preaching and Teaching.
Jesus was preeminently a teacher. He came from a race
that had always given a prominent place to its teachers. With
him preaching was only a net thrown out to draw men into
the closer relationship of disciples. The so-called "Sermon on
the Mount" was really a talk with the disciples as they sat
together on the hillside above Capernaum. There is httle
exhortation in the records of Jesus' work. He taught men to
know the truth, because he knew that the truth would make
them free. His great endeavor was to open men's minds and
teach them how to think. One of the severest charges that he
brought against the crowds to which he spoke was that they
were unable to interpret the signs of the time and to form
right judgments (Luke 12: 56, 57). He constantly asked his
disciples questions that made them think constructively.
"What do you think that I am?" is typical of the large, incisive
questions that he launched at them.
Jesus was constantly striving to induct his disciples into
his spirit and method and point of view. To that end he encour
aged them to ask questions. With him a question had the right
of way. He always held himself at their disposal and welcomed
their criticism, which they appear to have given freely (Matt.

Jesus' Methods of Work 19
13: 10, 15: 15). He even used paradoxes in order to provoke
questions, as well as to drive home an important teaching.
Frequently he left it with the disciples to formulate the prin
ciples illustrated by his concrete teachings; but whenever that
was beyond their power, he gathered up his teaching in one
broad, comprehensive statement. Simple, direct and positive
are the statements of the great principles of life which have
come down from him who spoke from the abundance of his
heart. Little wonder that men marvelled at his words and that
"the people all hung upon him, listening" (Luke 19: 48).
Make a hst of Jesus' recorded questions and note their
aim in each case. What questions did his disciples ask him?
What advantage has the parable or short story over the direct
form of teaching? What do you regard as the greatest of
Jesus' short stories? What is the relative value of preaching
and teaching to-day? VI.
Personal Example and Social Method.
-" Jesus illustrated the principle that goodness, if it be of the
natural, spontaneous type, is contagious. Men, women, and
children of all classes were drawn to him by his charm, and as
they associated with him were gradually and unconsciously
transformed. As Saint Augustine has said, "One loving spirit
sets another on fire." We all, like children, irresistibly
imitate that which we admire. With most people imitation
and association are the most effective means of transforming
character. Emerson has voiced the same great principle: "I am
a part of all with which I associate." Jesus fully appreciated
the value of this method. His disciples were his apprentices.
When he sent them forth two by two, it was to test the result
of his methods. His joy when he found the test successful
was unrestrained. Jesus also beheved in system. His plan was so natural
and practical that it has largely escaped the attention even of
the most careful New Testament scholars. He was not content
merely with proclaiming principles but was intent upon demon
strating their vahdity. This fact explains why he, a peasant
from the upland town of Nazareth, went to the great city of

20 Jesus' Principles op Living
Capernaum and there did the major part of his work. It is
evident that he chose this city because it was the center from
which radiated the ancient international highways to Egypt
on the south, to Phoenicia on the west, to Damascus and Syria
on the north, and even to distant Rome and Babylonia. Jesus'
great apostle Paul, in focusing his work on the strategic centers
of the Roman Empire, developed no new pohcy but was simply
following that already established by bis Master.
Jesus chose Capernaum because it was also a great and
representative community containing all types of men and
women, and above all "the lost sheep of the house of Israel,"
those sick in body and soul who needed his help and appealed
to his sympathy. The greater Capernaum with its suburbs,
Chorazin and Bethsaida, was an ideal community in which to
work out his social plan. That plan was evidently to train a
group of individuals through friendship, through teaching,
through inspiration and common work, to qualify as members
in that brotherhood which Jesus sought to establish in the heart
of the great city that, like leaven, it might in time permeate
and transform the entire population. To this end he carefully
selected his disciples from a great variety of classes, and with
them as a nucleus built up what Professor Royce has felicitously
called "the beloved community." Each individual was respon
sible for a task adapted to his pecuhar ability. Love, co-opera
tion, and good-will bound them closely together. In the face of
want and opposition and misunderstanding, they lived a joyous
life. The joy of that hfe sorely troubled the long-faced Phari
sees. They bitterly complained that Jesus' followers never
fasted. He frankly admitted the charge and likened their hfe
together to a marriage feast, which in oriental hfe still repre
sents the highest form of social recreation and happiness.
Jesus hoped that the greater Capernaum would prove the
corner-stone in that new society which he was laboring to
create. This hope is revealed in his closing words as he
left that great city, driven forth by the envious Pharisees and
the treacherous suspicions of Herod Antipas, "O Capernaum!
had the'marvellous deeds performed in you been done in Sodom,
it would have remained standing until this day."
Jesus also labored in the hope that the social principles
proclaimed and embodied in the life of the beloved community
at Capernaum would spread throughout the bounds of Judaism.

Jesus' Methods of Work 21
This hope is clearly expressed in his pathetic address to Jerusa
lem, as he approached it for the last time: "0 Jerusalem,
Jerusalem! how often did I long to gather your children to
gether as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, but you
were not willing!" (Luke 13: 34). Jesus' attitude toward the
representatives of the greater heathen world that lay outside
Judaism and the activity of his later followers leave no doubt
that his social plan embraced all mankind.
To-day the world is gaining a new appreciation of the
breadth and practical character of that social plan. It begins
with the training of the individual citizen. It is first developed
in a definite neighborhood or community. It expands from the
community centers until it permeates and transforms the
nation. It does not reach its natural bound until it has brought
together in one great harmonious family all the races of man
kind. It rests squarely on the innate needs and characteristics
of the individual and of society. It is practical and yet com
prehensive. It depends not merely upon the leadership of the
few but upon the co-operation of all. It develops the whole
man and a perfect society. Jesus' method, therefore, alone
meets in full measure the fundamental needs of the individual
and of humanity.

If unconscious imitation is still one of the most effective
means of extending Christianity, why have not Jesus' prin
ciples of living won universal acceptance? If America as a
nation should not only nominally but actually adopt Jesus'
principles of hving, what would be the effect on the other
nations of the world? What would be the effect if all the
nominal Christians in your community should take this step?
To what extent is Jesus' community plan applicable to your
community? Subjects for Further Study.
(1) Compare the teaching methods of Jesus with those of Socrates.
(Encyclopmdia Britannica, XXV, pp. 331-338; Graves, History of Educa
tion before the Middle Ages, pp. 180-184.)
(2) How far did Jesus anticipate the fundamental principles of modern
education? (3) What examples of humor are found in the records of Jesus' teach
ings? (Leonard, The Poet of Galilee.)

22 Jesus' Principles of Living
(4) Is the auest of souls the chief task of the Christian church or is it
to help each individual to attain the highest possible development of hi
personality and his social efficiency? How far are the individual churches
realizing their historic task?
(5) What principles have been illustrated by the work of the Emman
uel Church at Boston and by the healing ministry of James Moore Hickson?
(Hickson, The Healing of Christ in his Church; The Revival of the Gifts of
Healing.) (6) To what do you attribute the phenomenal growth of the Christian
Science movement and the devotion of its followers?
(7) What indications are there that physical and psychological laws
and forces exist, but as yet only partially discovered, which, when fully
known, will make clear the processes underlying Jesus' acts of healing?
(8) How far does the modern church realize the standards of a beloved
community established by Jesus?

CHAPTER III.
GOD AND MAN.
Parallel Readings.
Glover, The Jesus of History, pp. 87-113.
Kent, Historical Bible, Vol. V., pp. 134-155.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 66-103.
Follett, The New State, pp.. 60-92, 189-203.
I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine upright men who have no need to repent. — Luke
16: 7.
Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door
will be opened to you; for every one who asks receives, and he who seeks
finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.
What man is there among you, who if hi&son asks him for a loaf, will
give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? Then, if
you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask
him. — Malt. 7:7-11.
And why be anxious about what you wear? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow! they neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, not
even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these. Now if
God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive to-day but to-morrow is
thrown into the oven, is it not far more certain that he will clothe you,
0 men of little faith? — Matt. 6: 28-30.
No man can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the
other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot
worship God and wealth. — Matt. 6:24.
Two men went up to the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the
other a tax-gatherer.
The Pharisee stood up in front and prayed by himself as follows: "I

God and Man 23
thank thee, O God, that I am not like other men — thieves, rogues, adul
terers, or even like this tax-gatherer. Twice a week I fast ; on all my income
I pay tithes."
But the tax-gatherer stood far back and would not even lift his eyes
to heaven, but kept beating his breast and saying, "O God, have mercy
on me, a sinner!" I tell you that this man -rather than the_.other went
home free from sin; for he who assumes honors for himself will be humilia
ted, but he who does not put himself forward will be honored. — Luke 18:
10-U. (Shorter Bible translation.)

The Fatherhood of God.
It is significant that Jesus does not attempt to define God
or to describe his character in detail. He presents no developed
system of theology. His direct statements regarding God in
the three oldest gospels are confined to four: "No one is good
except the one: God" (Mark 10: 18); "Everything is possible
with God" (Mark 10: 27); "God is the God not of the dead
but of the hving" (Mark 12: 27). Again in emphasizing the
primary importance of loving God, Jesus reaffirrned the funda
mental tenet in Israel's faith: "Our God is one God" (Mark 12:
29). In each case these statements are precipitated by ques
tions addressed to Jesus and are simply incidental to the dis
cussion of subjects that have no direct theological import.
They clearly reveal, however, his own fundamental convictions.
As has already been noted, in one striking passage in
Matthew (11: 27, 28) he declares his own consciousness of a
unique knowledge of God. "Everything has been revealed to
me by the Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son and him to whom the Son will reveal him." This
unique feature in Jesus' personality is reiterated in the Gospel
of John: "He whom God has sent speaks the message of God.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard" (3: 34, 32). The
author of that Gospel thoroughly beheved and plainly taught
that the key that unlocks the mystery was Jesus' pre-existence
and the memories derived from his larger vision of the universe.
(3: 31-35; 8: 42, 58). Through the intervening centuries a
majority of his followers have held to the belief in his pre-
existence. Jesus did not impose his own convictions regarding God
on his followers. He sought rather to open their eyes so that
each should see for himself the evidence of God in the world,

24 Jesus' Principles of Living
and thus build his faith on realities. In two memorable pas
sages he calls their attention to this evidence (Matt. 6: 25-32;
10: 28-30): "Consider how the birds of the air neither sow nor
reap, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Not one sparrow
falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. As for
you, the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Jesus, with the scientific mind that observed facts closely,
evidently saw, through the seen and experienced, that which
is unseen and eternal. Like the author of the story of creation
in the first chapter of Genesis, he recognized that the purpose
revealed in nature and in hfe was good. With his larger and
clearer knowledge of the universe, the facts that in our narrow
vision apparently challenge the justice and goodness of that
purpose did not disturb him. He declared that the growing
tares could not prevent the ultimate harvest. Men might stay
for a time the reahzation of that good purpose, but not only
was it good in itself, but to the open-minded it revealed him
who alone is absolutely good. Thus from the contemplation
of the realities of life Jesus led men back to the ultimate reahty
which is God. *
!¦¦ The vivid consciousness of a kindly purpose back of all
the phenomena of the natural world and extending throughout
the universe and eternity was clearly the foundation of the
rehgion that Jesus taught and is the corner stone of all real
religion. That belief he made clear and vivid to his followers
by describing God as the Father. That term, so rich in its
human associations, suggested far more than the work of
creation: it suggested, as Jesus made clear by a variety of
homely illustrations, constant and intelligent provision for the
needs of all created things whether they be the lilies of the
field or a king on his throne.
It suggests too by the clearest logic that love, not mere
force, rules the universe. This is the central truth powerfully
set forth in the story of the Prodigal Son. The irrepressible
love of the father toward his guilt-stained son almost shocks
those who have sat at the feet of the Puritans. Our conven
tional belief in divine justice leads us unconsciously to sym
pathize with the plaint of the older brother. The joyous
spontaneity of the father's reception of the prodigal, the
absence of a single word of reproach or warning, and the hilarity
of the merry feast at which the sinner is reinstated in his home

God and Man 23
seem to us, as they did to the Pharisees, unbecoming to the
God of our theologies. Like Jonah of old, we are tempted to
reproach God because he forgives sinners so readily and loves
all his creatures with a love so, spontaneous and overwhelming
that there is no place for reproaches and judicial punishments.
But this was the quality in God wliich Jesus always stressed
and exemplified in his own hfe and work. He sternly rebuked
the leaders of the Jewish faith because by their conventional
theology they loaded men with burdens too heavy to bear and
shut in men's faces the door that opened to the Democracy of
God; but for sinners he had only compassion and brotherly
love. Jesus left men to discover by what means and through
what forces, laws, agencies and agents the Father provides for
man's every need and even for the sparrow when it falls to
earth. To discover all these and the real character of God is
the alluring quest, not merely of this short hfe, but of eternity.
Jesus simply sent men forth on this quest and indicated the
conditions necessary for success. Chief among these was
purity of heart: characters unsullied by impure thoughts and
motives, minds free from prejudice and bias. "Happy are the
pure in heart for they shall see God," not through systems of
abstract theology, but through nature and the infinite ways'
in which God is revealed to the man of unsullied vision.
Which do you think had a truer idea of God, Calvin or a
North American Indian devoted to the worship of the Great
Spirit? Give the reasons for your conclusion. What reasons
are there for thinking that with the larger vision that comes
when we leave behind our physical limitations we shall at
once have a complete knowledge of God? What relation
does scientific investigation in the field of nature hold to
rehgion? Why is the dogmatic method even more dangerous
in the field of religion than of natural science?
II.
Co-operation Between God and Man.
Jesus was eager to have men view life from the divine
rather than from the merely human point of view. When his
disciples protested against his facing death at Jerusalem, he

26 Jesus' Principles of Living
declared, "You do not think the thoughts of God but of men."
He was disappointed at their selfishness and lack of vision
because he saw that God could not reahze his good purpose in the
world without men's intelhgent co-operation. In the story of
the Prodigal he dramatized the fact that the father was help
less in his effort to rear a worthy son until the son returned
ready and eager to co-operate.
Like all inspired teachers Jesus knew that the freedom
of the human will was one of the fundamental laws of
the universe. This truth is not the least of those taught in
this marvellous parable of the Prodigal. Even more impressive
and astonishing than the forgiving love of the father is his
fortitude in giving his son his share of the inheritance and in
letting him go forth to a foreign land where he knew that his
son would be exposed to powerful temptations. But the
picture is true to reality. If we were making the laws of the
universe most of us would probably give, especially to youth,
far less freedom to make moral decisions than they now possess.
But making decisions and bearing responsibihty are the best,
if not the only methods of training and strengthening the will,
while freedom of the will is the only basis for intelligent and
whole-hearted co-operation. We have every reason to beheve
that even the sin-stained but penitent prodigal on his return
was able and eager to contribute far more to the welfare of
his father's household than if he had been compelled to remain
at home. Want of sympathy, of love, of friendship and of appre
ciation, as well as of food, had created in his famished soul a
hunger and thirst for righteousness and a desire to co-operate
with his father.
In one of the two greatest beatitudes Jesus describes
those who are worthy to be called the sons of God. The term
"Sons of God" arrests attention for it is the counterpart of
Jesus' distinctive word " Father." The sons of God, he declares,
are the peacemakers. Our current Enghsh translation almost
completely fails to bring out the rich meaning of the original
Aramaic. The word translated "peace" means welfare, com
pleteness, prosperity, harmony. The sons of God are hke God
himself, creators of harmony, well-being, completeness in their
own hves, in those of their fellows, in the family, in the com
munity, in business, and in all the world. They are the ones
who, by attempting through the imagination to make real to

God and Man 27
themselves the purpose of God, think the thoughts of God,
are guided by them and carry them into execution. Jesus
conceived of rehgion as a recognition of God's good purpose
and active co-operation in realizing it in the hfe of the individual,
in society, and in the universe. It was more than a behef. It
was a mental and moral attitudel It was not only an attitude;
it meant enthusiastic, tireless activity.
In the hght of these teachings regarding the co-opera
tive relation between God and man, we can understand anew
what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples: "You are the
light of the world; you are the salt of the earth;" and also his
enthusiasm in training men that they might fully qualify as
sons of God. His message of good news was far more than a
promise of pardon to guilty sinners. It was a ringing call to
action, a summons to every man, however humble and weak
he be, to assert his divine sonship and co-operate with the
eternal Father in creating a perfect society and a perfect
humanity. As a by-product every man who responds to this
call saves his own soul: "He who loses his life in my cause
shall gain it!"
What was the force of the Semitic idiom "son of" as used
in the Old and New Testaments; e.g., "sons of the prophets"
or "sons of the goldsmith"? What tasks were left to men to
perform in realizing what we beheve to be the overruling,
divine purpose in the Great War? What in developing a
well-rounded individual character? Under what conditions is
co-operation the most effective means of developing respect and
love and loyalty toward those with whom we co-operate?

III.
Sin.
In Jesus' practical philosophy of hfe sin was not only
deliberate wrongdoing but also the failure of the individual to
co-operate in the reahzation of the good purpose revealed in
the world. It was the failure to seek first the rule of God in
every relation of hfe. The priest and the Levite who passed
by on the other side were arrant sinners simply because they
failed to lend a hand when there was work to be done. The

28 Jesus' Principles of Living
despised Samaritan qualified as a son of God because he quietly
improved an opportunity to bring health and heahng to a
needy fellow man. In the memorable passage in Matthew 25:
31-46 in which, under the figure of a final judgment scene,
Jesus describes the supreme test of loyalty, he stresses the fact
that men are called to co-operate with God not in some spectacu
lar, mysterious way, but in the commonplace daily relationships.
Those who give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, or
clothing to the naked receive the divine approval. Those who
neglect to do so are the sinners, even though they bear the
label of sons. Even the man with one talent was classed
with the social outcasts simply because he had failed to use it.
Sin, according to Jesus, was also a failure so to develop
the individual man that his spirit would rule his body and
control his physical passions and lower impulses (Matt. 5:
27, 28). To quahfy for efficient co-operation by gaining and
keeping control of self is therefore the first responsibility of
youth. Most individuals begin by letting the physical impulses
rule the spirit. Like the poor prodigal they only learn
in the painful and terribly expensive school of experience
the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach in a far simpler
and better way. He also taught that the rule of the spirit
over the physical impulses must be achieved at any cost.
" If your hand or foot cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it
away, for it is better for you to begin at once to hve the eternal
hfe than to retain your two hands and two feet and be cast
into the eternal fire" (Matt. 18: 8). If Jesus were speaking
in the technical language of to-day he would perhaps say,
instead of " cast into the eternal fire," " Be forced to attend the
harsh school of experience where you will be compelled to learn
the painful lesson of consequences."
In his simple but searching analysis of sin, Jesus also
recognized that in the maturer years the old physical selfishness
assumed more respectable forms, such as the quest of wealth
or power; but he laid it bare: "A man cannot serve both God
and wealth" whether he be a despised tax-gatherer or a sleek,
self-satisfied Pharisee, or a grafting high priest. He denounced
these traitorous misleaders of their race most rigorously,
because public opinion and their own consciences had failed
to do it for them. In so doing he performed for them the
greatest possible service. He turned hopefully to lie tax-

God and Man 29
gatherers and the outcasts because they were already self-
condemned and under the deep shadow of pubhc disapproval,
and therefore ready to listen to the new principles of hving
that he propounded. Looking at life not from the harsh,
mechanical point of view of Jewish theology but "thinking the
thoughts of God," he told them of a love that followed them
even though they had wandered far in strange lands, a love
that would welcome them when once they had learned the
folly of sin and loathed it and were ready to do their part in
carrying out the divine purpose in their lives and in the hfe
of humanity. Above all he told them of the supreme joy in
heaven over one sinner that had learned the bitter lesson of
consequences and stood reaidy to serve rather than oppose
the reahzation of God's good purpose.
In the teachings of Jesus, sin and its grim consequence to
the sinner, to humanity, and to the Source of all hfe are hideous
realities. But that is not all. He taught that sin could be
forgiven and the lost saved by self-conquest and gaining the
will to co-operate in God's work for humanity. As has been
said, the lost were the detached, those who by their own sins
or the sins of society had either broken all connections or had
never established them with their fellow men and had no sense
of co-operation with their divine Father. In saving the lost,
as for example in the case of Levi the tax-gatherer, Jesus by
his friendship and his wholesome teaching broke down the
barriers that separated them, introduced them to a community
of men who were seeking first the Rule of God, and then taught
them by skillful apprenticeship how they too could co-operate
with God.
Who in Jesus' eyes were the chief sinners in the Jewish
community? In what respects did his judgment on this point
differ from that of the majority of his Jewish contemporaries?
What was the reason for the different judgments? Why are
there the same differences in judgment to-day? What crimes
are most severely punished by modern law? What classes of
arrant sinners, according to Jesus' standards, still escape the
condemnation both of law and public Opinion? In what respects
could our modern methods of dealing with criminals be con
formed more closely to Jesus' ways of saving sinners? What
place did Jesus give to the social consequences of sin?

30 Jesus' Principles of Living
rv.
The Essentials of Worship.
The greater part of the time and the rehgious zeal of the
Jews of Jesus' day was devoted to acts of worship. With this
formal interpretation of religion he had no sympathy. Nowhere
is it recorded that he brought sacrifices to the temple. The
Pharisees condemned him because he did not teach his followers
to observe the ceremonial regulations laid down in the later
Jewish law. He rephed that externals made no difference;
what was vital was the inner spirit and motive. In general,
Jesus appears to have silently ignored the entire Jewish cere
monial system without condemning that which doubtless
proved helpful to some.
He did, however, warn his followers against the evils of
certain ostentatious forms of worship. Acts of charity stand
first in his hst as valid ways by wliich the individual can express
his gratitude and loyalty to God. But, as he taught, if these
are performed with a view to winning men's rather than God's
approval, they have no value as worship, for worship is a
personal relation between the individual and God. So too he
condemned fasting in pubhc; in fact he apparently had httle
sympathy with the institution itself, for it stressed the sad
interpretation of rehgion. The fasting which he recommended
was no real fasting in the popular sense of the word, but that
happy, joyous expression of rehgion that characterized all of
his teaching. "As at a wedding feast, with happy hearts,
express not in pubhc but in private your gratitude and loyalty
to your heavenly Father."
There was no doubt in Jesus' mind of the value of real
worship. Reverence, faith, love, gratitude and loyalty, which
are the emotions that enter into true worship, are necessary
if the soul of the individual is to grow; and these emotions,
which are the incentives to right action, develop by exer
cise. The value of the different forms of worship depends
upon the way in which they affect each individual. The
essentials, therefore, are (1) that they shall be joyous, (2) that
they shall be natural and sincere, and (3) that they bring the
individual into close personal relation to God. By his own
example, as well as by his teachings, Jesus taught the importance
of going apart from the distractions of daily hfe. He usually

God and Man 31
went out on the hillsides or mountain tops where undisturbed
he could come into closest touch with God's spirit and purpose
as revealed in the life of the flowers and birds and all the beauties
of nature. But he declared that the chief essential is purity of
heart, for only those who are free from prejudice and the con
sciousness of doing wrong and of being out of accord with his
good purpose, are able to see him in nature, in human history,
in the hves of men. Above all only as God is sought in the
inner chamber, the soul of the individual, can man truly worship
him. When in these various ways the individual gains a clear
vision of God the ultimate reahty, he can but worship.
How do you explain the absence in Jesus' teachings of
any detailed directions regarding public worship? Were the
forms of pubhc services in the early Christian Church of Jewish
or Christian origin? In what sense, if at all, is the prominence
now given to pubhc worship in the Christian Church a rever
sion to the Pharisaic usage that Jesus condemned? How far
is the modern church adapted to the type of worship that
Jesus commended? Where else do you feel most naturally and
strongly the spirit of worship? Why do people attend church?
Why do many not attend church? How can the worship of
the modern church be still further reorganized so as to reahze
the essentials stressed by Jesus?

Faith and Prater.
The ordinary experiences of hfe prove that successful
co-operation is impossible without confidence and mutual
understanding. If this rule holds good in the case of individuals
who share common characteristics, in a far greater degree does
it apply to beings so widely different as God and man. One of
Jesus' first aims was to help men to know God intimately, to
think the same thoughts as God, and to trust him. In teaching
the lesson of faith he appealed to logic based on reahty. You
can see with your own eyes the lilies and the birds and note
their serene joy and confidence based on experience. Thus
the natural world proclaims the wisdom and goodness of the
great Source of all. Little indeed is the faith and defective the
logic of those who do not, like the birds and flowers, trust

32 Jesus' Principles of Living
and in turn find the confidence and serenity essential to effec
tive co-operation.
With Jesus, prayer was not so much a means of securing
certain definite things, as a way in which the individual
could bring his feelings and thoughts and purposes into close,
harmonious relation to the feehngs and thoughts and purposes
of God. This is the dominant aim throughout the wonderful
prayer that he taught his disciples: "Our Father" reminded
them of all that Jesus had taught them about God's fatherly
care and of the bond of love and gratitude that bound them to
the great Source of all. "May thy name be revered" inspired
reverence in every praying heart. "May thy rule be estab
lished" kindled the flame of loyalty and stirred to action.
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" not only defined
God's rule but emphasized the unity of earth and heaven, of
the present and eternity, and was equivalent to an oath of
unending fealty to ihe Eternal. "Give us to-day the food we
need" is not so much a petition as it is a declaration of con- <
fidence in God's goodness and wisdom in providing whatever
things are necessary for his children. "Forgive us our wrong
doings as we have forgiven those who have wronged us" is a
prayer that God will remove all barriers separating him from
his children. It is also a solemn promise that they will remove
all barriers separating them from their fellow men, thus creating
harmony in the mind of those who pray and the consciousness
of friendship with God and with all their fellows. "Help us to
resist temptation and deliver us from evil" completes the bond
between God and men, and unites them in unceasing opposition
to all that hinders the reahzation of his good purpose.
In Jesus' discussion of prayer as a form of worship he
emphasized the same aim. He characterized the long pubhc
prayers of the Pharisees not as real prayers but as pubhc
displays. In the light of his searching analysis they were
shown to be no more rehgious than the pubhc games in the
stadium. Prayer, he declared, is, like all other forms of worship,
a personal relation between the individual and God. If it is to
be effective men must forget themselves and the approval or
disapproval of their fellow men. The man who would truly
pray must enter the inner sanctuary of his own soul and lose
himself through absorption in a purpose; there he will find
God and the true answer to the prayer that voices that purpose.

God and Man 33
On the basis of his own experience Jesus had unbounded
faith in prayer when the object of the petition is in keeping
with God's good purpose. No worthy petition shall be refused;
no quest for truth shall be in vain; no door in God's boundless
universe shall be closed to a son of God who asks with faith.
To strengthen the faith of his disciples he assured them, with
all the power of his own personal experience and deep convic
tion, that love far greater than that of a human father lies
back of the power to give. Mere repetitions of their petitions
are useless, for the Eternal is well aware of their wants! What
is essential is concentration of thought and determination to
be heard. This at least is the natural interpretati'on of the
parable of the importunate widow whose persistency won her
point. Beyond this one suggestion Jesus did not discuss the
psychology of prayer, or if he did, his words fell on dull ears
and found no record in the Gospels.
To secure results faith is much more important than a
knowledge of the ways in which our persistent prayers react
upon the Source of all and in turn are answered. Jesus knew that
his own prayers were answered, both in the physical and spiritual
realm, although it is true the Gospels frankly tell us of one
conditioned petition which was not answered: "If it is thy
will" (Mark 14: 36). Not only his early apostles but his
followers throughout the ages, who have prayed the loyal
prayer of faith, have had the definite consciousness that their
petitions have been heard. This fact rests on as solid and
broad a basis of observation and experience as any law in the
natural world. Jesus' teachings regarding prayer have stood
the crucial tests. They must, however, be taken as a whole.
There are petitions which no loyal son of God can ask. There
are others, hke Jesus' agonized request in the Garden of Gethsem-
ane, which can be asked only conditionally, for no co-worker
with God would persistently ask for that which is not in accord
with the good purpose to which he is pledged. Within these
broad bounds it is evident that there is avast range of physical
and mental and spiritual gifts for which men have but to ask
with faith and concentration and determination in order to
receive. The promise, "knock and it shall be opened to you,"
undoubtedly applies to the unseen as well as the seen. Because
we do not to-day understand the psychology of prayer and the

34 Jesus' Principles of Living
unseen spiritual laws that are only dimly suggested by the
physical is no reason why exact knowledge may not in time
take the place of our profound ignorance. Gradually the fact
is dawning upon us that thoughts are as real forces as gravity or
dynamite. The thoughts of God, of which Jesus said so much,
we may well beheve are infinitely more potent. It is possible
that Jesus' earnest desire that his followers should think the
thoughts of God was that their thoughts might reinforce those
of God and that these reinforced thoughts had in the language
of the Master power to move mountains.
In the age just past we had in our thinking largely reduced
the universe to a material mechanism. Is it possible that we
were looking simply at the form and that reahty is a complex
of spiritual forces and agents which, if we but knew, makes
prayer and its answer far simpler than the faith which leads
us, for example, to go to a telephone receiver and ask and
receive the aid of a friend living thousands of miles away? At
least, in the new age just dawning we have already become so
scientific that we are willing to investigate and wait for the
psychological and scientific explanation of the basis of Jesus'
teachings regarding prayer. Most of us are also ready to accept
those teachings as a practical working basis, even though we
are as yet unable to trace the subtle connections between the
cause and_ the effect.
What is the object and value of the long prayers in the
public services of most of our Christian churches? In what
ways may they become a menace to true worship? What are
the values and perils of definite habits of prayer, such as daily
family prayers and giving thanks before meals? What are
some of the objects for which no Christian should pray? What
are some of the valid subjects of prayer? What examples of
Beemingly definite answers to prayer have you had in your own
experience? VI.
The Eternal Life.
Jesus was so completely a son of reality that he did not
spend any time or effort in proving such realities as God, sin,
and immortality. They were even more real than the disciples

God and Man 35
whom he gathered about him. His own firm belief in eternal
life for the individual was precipitated. by a captious question
raised by the conservative Sadducees who still cherished the
old Semitic skepticism about individual immortality (Mark 12:
18-27). Their immediate object was to make Jesus ridiculous
and so to weaken his influence with the common people. The
question itself was ridiculous: "A woman six times widowed
married in succession seven brothers; when they all rise from the
dead whose wife will she be? " The words "rise from the dead "
were probably said mockingly, for they echo the current, and
to the Sadducees hostile, Pharisaic doctrine of a physical
resurrection. Jesus in his incisive answer quietly rejected
both the childish belief of the Pharisees and the negative
attitude of the Sadducees. In effect he said: " In the life after
death men do not go on marrying, for they do not take with
them their physical bodies but, like the angels, have spiritual
bodies. But in regard to the whole question of hfe after death,
have you Sadducees never read how God said to Moses: 'I
am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.' That was said long after the patriarchs had left this
world. I tell you, God is not the God of those who are dead
but of the patriarchs who are still hving. You are greatly in
error." In all his teachings Jesus emphasized the fact that the
individual commenced to live the eternal hfe the moment that
he began to acknowledge the rule of God. Eternal life is, as is
taught in the Gospel of John (6: 27), something to be attained
through following the guidance of Jesus. In his thought the
barrier between this hfe and that beyond is so thin that he
ignores it in his teachings regarding the Rule of God, for in that
divine democracy are included all the living and "those who
have fallen asleep" that are devoted to realizing God's good
purpose in the universe. In the full hght of Jesus' teachings
his early followers never spoke of their friends as dead; death
was but a short and peaceful sleep with a glad awakening.
The best authenticated records of Jesus' own activity in
the days following his resurrection also state simply and clearly,
as though it were the most natural event in all his thrilling hfe
history, that he repeatedly passed the barriers of death and
appeared and talked with his disciples. Paul, his most highly
educated and gifted follower, beheved with all his heart not

36 Jesus' Principles of Living
only that Jesus appeared to him on his memorable journey to
Damascus, but that the spirit of his Master guided him in all
his work and prompted his greatest teachings.
Jesus' philosophy of life definitely teaches that God is not
limited by the material and temporal and that love and
friendship and the spiritual hfe of the individual simply begin
in this world and go on expanding and developing eternally
in the unexplored realm that lies beyond man's last sleep
on earth.

How far does Paul in I Corinthians 15 correctly interpret
what appears to be Jesus' teaching regarding the life of the
individual after death? How far do these teachings agree with
the findings of modern science? Are the suggestions of Jesus and
Paul regarding life after physical death similar in any respects
to the communications claimed to be received in recent days
from those who have died? Cf., Lodge, Raymond; Cameron,
Seven Purposes; King, The Abolishing of Death; Hyslop, Contact
with the Other World. How probable is it that scientific research
will in the future throw hght on the life beyond death? Are
the leaders in the modern revival of interest in the other hfe
theologians or scientists, and what is the significance of that
fact? Subjects for Further Study.
(1) Trace the growth of the behef in God's fatherhood in the Old
Testament. (2) In what respects is the modern Juvenile Court a long advance
toward Jesus' way of saving the lost? (Flexner, The Juvenile Court; Elliott,
The Juvenile Court.)
(3) What is the derivation and meaning of the English word worship?
Define your own conception of worship.
(4) What are the modern scientific theories regarding the psychology
of prayer? (Strong, The Psychology of Prayer; Fosdick, The Meaning of
Prayer.) (5) What is the Christian Science theory of prayer as used in heahng
the sick? >
(6) Compare Plato's teaching regarding personal immortality with
that of Jesus.
(7) What are the modern scientific theories regarding ether and
matter? (Sir1 Joseph John Thomson, Corpuscular Theory of Matter; Lodge,
Mind, Matter and Ether, in Hibbert Journal, January, 1919.)

Truthfulness and Sincerity 37
CHAPTER IV.
TRUTHFULNESS AND SINCERITY.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 198-211.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 107-134.
Follett, The New State, pp. 93-133.
I have spoken not on my own authority, but the Father who sent me
has commanded me what to say and what to speak, and I know that his
command means eternal life. Therefore whatever I speak, I speak as
the Father has bidden me. John 12: 49, SO.
Earth and sky will pass away but my words will not pass away. But
no man knows the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son,
but only the Father. Mark 13: 31, 32.
He who has seen me has seen the Father; then how can you say,
"Let us see the Father"? Do you not beheve that I am in the Fathpr
and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not on my
own authority, but the Father who is always in me does his own work.
Believe me, I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else beheve me
because of the work itself. John 14: 9-11.
You have heard that it has been said, ' ' You shall not commit adultery.','
But I tell you, one who looks with impure intention at a woman has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. Matt. 5: 27, 28.
You have heard how the men of old were told, "You must not swear
falsely, but what you have vowed to the Lord, you shall pay." But I tell
you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor
by earth, for it is the footstool under his feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is
the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, of which you
cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your affirmation be simply,
"Yes" and your denial, "No." Anything beyond that is of evil origin.
Matt. 5: 33-37.
Take care that you do not perform your good deeds before men in
order to be seen by them; otherwise you receive no reward from your
Father in heaven. Matt. 6: 1. (Shorter Bible translation.)

Jesus' Frank Recognition of His Own Limitations and
Superiority.
Jesus' own appreciation of the significance of his life and
teachings to humanity is found in his frequent injunction,
"Follow me.1" He clearly intended that human beings should
attempt to apply his teachings practically in everyday life and
to get the spirit of those teachings from his own personal life
and life work. So much emphasis has been laid at times on the
divinity of Jesus that people knowing their own weaknesses

38 Jesus' Principles of Living
have felt it impossible to follow him, and in consequence have
failed to make the effort. They have assumed that Jesus was
in all respects infinite in power, knowledge, and wisdom. Jesus,
however, clearly felt and taught that it is possible for human
beings by proper effort to attain so much of the divine spirit
that they can effectively follow him. On the other hand, he
himself called attention repeatedly to his own limitations. But
speaking from the human point of view, he showed that it was
possible for him as a man to interpret the spirit of God, to
understand God's will and to follow it. Although he knew
how imperfect were the most developed of his disciples, he
beheved that it was possible for other men, like himself, to
understand and follow God's will. "Be perfect even as your
Fattier in heaven is perfect" is one of his ringing injunctions.
"Greater deeds shall you do than I have done" has too often
been ignored or minimized.
In speaking with the young ruler, who had come to him as
one who was perfect, he disclaimed perfection saying, "Why
do you call me good? No one is good except one only, God."
Jesus here reveals an earnest desire to obliterate the distinction
that even then his followers were beginning to make between
his personality and possibihties and those of the other sons of
men. In all that he says and does the teaching aim is dominant.
At every point there is also a careful adaptation of his methods
to the needs of the people with whom he is deahng. As has
already been noted, in accordance with "the ordinary principles
of good judgment tiiat would be followed by any sensible man
in planning a great campaign for social work, he first selects
Capernaum as the chief place of his activities, with the definite
hope of transferring that work later to Jerusalem. We also
recognize a very human feeling of disappointment at the appar
ent slowness with which the Jews and the other residents of
Capernaum and Jerusalem accepted his teachings, and the
sorrow in his heart when he realized the inevitable fate that
would overtake these cities because they had rejected the great
opportunity offered them.
And yet with these limitations to his control over the
freedom of human beings, we find no sign of doubt in the
absolute truth of his teachings and in the certainty of their
ultimate triumph. So great was this confidence that he left
no word written by his own hand. He always spoke with

Truthfulness and Sincerity 39
absolute positiveness. He knew that he was interpreting God's
spirit. Others recognized the fact that he felt himself to be the
interpreter of God to men. "He spoke as one having authority
and not' as the scribes."
In his interpretation of the ancient law he did not quibble
over minor technicalities; but instead he sought for the real
spirit of the teachings and placed his own interpretation on the
meaning of the law with the same boldness and positiveness
as did the great prophets of old. On many occasions, especially
toward the close of his ministry, he even went further than
that and claimed his intimate sonship or unity with God.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father except through me. The words I speak to you I speak
on my own authority, and the Father who is always in me does
the work. Beheve me, I am in the Father and he is in me, or
else beheve me because of the work itself." Likewise when he
stood before the high priests and they questioned him, "Are
you the Messiah? Tell us if you are. Are you then the Son
of God? " He rephed, " It is as you say, I am. " But with this
assumption of divinity he in no way separated himself from
humanity, but claimed all men as brothers. He imphed that
they also are sons of God, for any man who has attained so
much of the divine spirit that his life has been transformed
demonstrates thereby his kinship with God.
What evidence do you find in the New Testament that
Jesus modified the plan of his hfe work after the beginning of
his ministry? How far is such modification a proof of human
wisdom? Why is it not evidence of a lack of divine inspiration?

II.
The Fundamental Significance of Motives.
It is a commonplacfr of the law that the essence of crime
lies in the intent. A man may kill another by accident. No
crime has been committed. There was no wrong intent. A
man committing a felony may kill another with no intent to
kill, but as an unexpected accompaniment of the serious crime.
He has committed manslaughter, but not murder. This
fundamental fact in law Jesus makes of prime significance in

40 Jesus' Principles op Living
all the acts of everyday hfe. No other great teacher has
recognized so fully the fact that a man's acts are determined
and should be judged by motives. Whatever the question
under discussion, we see Jesus with a marvellous keenness of
insight searching always for the underlying motives of action.
In his interpretation of the ancient law the same spirit is con
tinually found. What was the purpose of the law? Why was
the law so framed? On this underlying reason he bases his
interpretation of each law.
Is the question one of Sabbath keeping; he at once asks,
What is the purpose of the Sabbath? He finds that "the
Sabbath was made for man," and that fact is the key to his
interpretation of the law. It is therefore lawful to do good on
the Sabbath day. Is the question one of sexual relations; he
tells you that "one who looks with impure intention at a
woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Is the question one of prayer; it is not the Pharisee's long prayers
that count but the humble tax-gatherer's lowly spirit of petition
when beating on his breast he cries, "0 God, have mercy on
me, a sinner." Is the question one of charity; it is not the
ostentatious gift of the rich man but the genuine sacrifice of
the poor widow who gives her last two mites that is acceptable
in the sight of God. This keenness of insight for the heart of
questions, this search for the underlying motives was so
eminently characteristic of him in distinction from all other
teachers, that he has been rightly characterized as the Spirit of
Truth. The real significance of this in its apphcation to our every
day life is often not realized so fully as it should be; and yet,
especially in these later days, in the establishment of our
children's courts and in the frequent practice of suspension
of sentence in case of crimes committed, where the evil intention
is not clearly apparent, we see the reflection of this spirit of
Jesus. It would be difficult to-day for any judge to impose a
heavy sentence upon a mother who stole with the evident
purpose of feeding a suffering child. Children whose misde
meanors are committed primarily with no serious intent to
injure others, but in a mere spirit of mischief or perhaps through
ignorance, are taught their lesson by showing them the social
wrong actually done and by giving them a warning for the
future and a suspension of sentence for the time being.

Truthfulness and Sincerity 41
It is important for us to keep clearly in mind in our judg
ment of others this sharp line of distinction between crime and
sin. Crime is a violation of man's law, the law of the state.
Sin is a violation of God's law; that is, the physical, mental
and moral law inherent in nature, which may or may not be
embodied in human law. Man's law also considers motive and
intent but often judges the motive simply by the act. God's
law invariably is interpreted by the conscience of the doer,
who has sought out and judged the facts antecedent to his act.
Hence guilt is absolutely dependent upon the motive. In
order that society may be protected, it may well be that people
who have wronged society, but with no evil intent, must be
restrained or even punished. In our judgment of others it is
imperative that we always keep clearly in mind the fundamental
significance of the motives that inspire their acts.

What in your judgment is the criterion of good and evil?
What determines the right or wrong of any specific act? Under
what circumstances may a man do evil without sin and sin in
doing good? III.
Simplicity and Directness.
Jesus' teaching regarding directness and sincerity in speech
is even more emphatic than that of the ancient law on the
question of swearing. The ancient law decreed, "Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Clearly the idea
of the Hebrew code was to prevent a violation of the spirit of
reverence toward Jehovah on the one hand and on the other
to prevent the evil that is done to society whenever any one
bears false witness in the settlement of controversies. Jesus'
teaching was more fundamental. All kinds of oaths were
condemned. "Let your affirmation be simply, 'Yes,' your
denial simply, 'No'; anything beyond that is of evil origin."
We are altogether too careless regarding the common
exaggeration and false implications of our speech. Frequently,
by the exaggerated use of strong adjectives or adverbs, false
impressions are given. Newspaper articles are written which,

42 Jesus' Principles of Living
though containing no absolutely false statements, may yet
through the suggestion of evil motives by the use of adjectives
and adverbs give a completely inaccurate impression. It
would be difficult to prove anything wrong in the statement
of facts. The article itself would not sustain an action for
libel, and yet the insinuations regarding some man's character
may be such that his reputation will be ruined.
Of equal importance is the necessity of a good command
of language if one is to make the best impression upon an
audience or upon refined people. A harsh tone and the use of
slang, not to speak of oaths, however picturesque they may
be, always make a bad impression when serious business is
under way. The habit breeds carelessness about accuracy in the
meaning of words and prevents the growth of one's vocabulary.
Wendell Phillips, the great orator of the last generation, from
boyhood up forbade himself the use of slang for that express
reason, and the result showed his wisdom.
Another evil which is condemned in this statement of
Jesus is the lack of discrimination and thus of power to tell
the exact truth. The frequent use of vivid words such as are
often employed in slang and in the common oaths of the un
trained and uneducated develop this evil. A person who
characterizes almost every act or thought by some common
slang of the day soon finds himself so impoverished in speech
that he cannot express with accuracy different shades of mean
ing. This is perhaps the chief evil of the frequent use of slang
and possibly even the chief evil of common swearing. Very
frequently the ignorant, profane man has no seriously evil
intent, but lacking a proper vocabulary, he uses oaths to express
a great variety of meanings. Besides vulgarity or sin in speech,
he lacks accuracy in statement and discriminating force; and
this, as Jesus so clearly implies, is evil in its effect upon him
and upon society. It shows sheer vulgar stupidity.

What is a lie? When is a lie justifiable? What reasons
are there for thinking that a lie is the greatest wrong against
society? Under what circumstances is a lie socially worse than
murder? How many really great men have the habit of swear
ing? Or lying? In what ways, if any, are a loud voice and
oaths a help or a hindrance in enforcing discipline? Why?

Truthfulness and Sincerity 43
IV.
Integrity in Business.
Accuracy is absolutely essential in ordinary business hfe.
Lack of discrimination in speech frequently breeds lack of
discrimination in thought. From mere slovenliness of thought
men do not see clearly the condition of their own business.
Probably no less than seventy-five per cent of all failures are
due to the fact that the business man, through carelessness in
account keeping, does not really understand the condition of
his business until it is too late. One of the greatest improve
ments in the science of business is the growth of the practice
of cost accountancy, which enables a man to know exactly
what the various processes cost him, and in that way he is
able at any moment to determine his standing.
Honesty in business, accuracy of statement in advertising,
and absolute trustworthiness have raised the quality of the
product that the business man manufactures. Honest sales
give a reputation that leads far toward success. In practically
every country where there are numerous dealers, some one
firm will be found to stand out for absolute trustworthiness.
Others will attempt to palm off unsalable or imperfect goods
on customers whom they have secured by advertising special
bargains. In the long run the trustworthy merchant is the
one who succeeds. In the end sharp practice never pays. Of
late years the value of the good will in business that is built
up by trustworthy practice has become of great importance in
law and in financiering. A change in the spirit of the manage
ment of a business which forfeits its reputation for sincerity
and honorable deahng often causes serious loss. Of almost
equal importance is the increasing" recognition in law and
business of the actual value of certain brands of goods? of which
the reputation has been established by the absolute mainte
nance of quality.
Certain makes of watches are standard, each in its place.
Certain brands of silver or tea or breakfast foods or soaps are
well known the world over, and people are often ready to pay
a httle higher price in order to be absolutely certain of the
quality of the goods purchased. This is a very practical recogni
tion of the value of truth and sincerity in every branch of life
and shows the great business value of this simple Christian
teaching.

44 Jesus' Principles op Living
Why would you not trust a man who is honest simply
because honesty is the best business pohcy? What are the
disadvantages as well as the advantages of our pure food laws?
How far can people be made good or honest by legislation?
V.
Honesty in Politics.
Much has been said of late years of the evils of the boss
system in politics. It is an .interesting fact, nevertheless, that
no one of the political leaders who have attained real power
has been long successful unless he has kept faith, at any rate
with his followers. It may well be that his policies have been
injurious or misleading to the opposite party or to the public
at large, jbut with his followers he must keep his word or
failure is sure and usually swift.
There can be no doubt that even a great statesman hke
Bismarck, who did not hesitate to deceive foreign nations, was
faithful to his king. Even brutality does not make political
enemies more surely than does treachery and falsehood.
No one doubts the ability of Benedict Arnold. Some
writers even uphold his motives; but the stigmas of treachery
and treason ruined his life and have blasted his reputation for
all time. Without the confidence of the public, no government can
persist if it interferes seriously with the hfe of the common
people. The characteristics that have been most frequently
cited as typical of the greatness of Washington and of Lincoln
are their complete trustworthiness and their soundness of
judgment which came from their seeing with absolute accuracy
into the motives of not only their followers but also of their
enemies. These are simply illustrations in the field of pubhc
activity of the advantage of absolute truth and explain the
emphasis upon the significance of motives which underlies the
teachings of Jesus.
Whenever dishonorable business customs are widely spread
in any country, the government usually is affected thereby,
and the financial credit as well as the political reputation of
the nation suffers. The thriftlessness and lack of faith and
trustworthiness in financial matters of the Government of
Egypt were the chief causes of its loss by the Turkish Empire

Truthfulness and Sincerity 45
and its dominance by the British. The condition of Mexico is
largely due to the same cause. Neither do the politicians
trust one another nor can they win the confidence of foreigners
on account of their treachery.
How vital therefore becomes the accuracy of the press in
statements of fact and opinion in a free country! Many of the
extreme views held by citizens are due to the fact that they
are misinformed by their newspapers regarding the motives
and the acts of their fellow citizens and of the government.
One of the great evils of many foreign governments has been the
subsidizing of the press so as to convey wrong impressions
and lying information to the people. It is a common device
of autocratic governments. It has been at times also a device
of unpatriotic partisans or self-seeking propagandists in free
countries. Every government and every citizen should be
scrupulous regarding the accuracy of information given to the
pubhc. Name nations that have acquired a world reputation for
honesty in international dealings. Give illustrations of either
governments or people that have been considered untrust
worthy. What are the evil effects, both economic and political,
of such a reputation? What practical measures should be
taken by governments and private citizens to give accurate
information to the public? What kinds of propaganda are
justifiable and beneficial? VI.
Sincerity in the Religious Life.
It has been frequently assumed that from its nature
religion must be true and sincere. In many instances, never
theless, mainly through carelessness in practice and slovenhness
in methods of thought and act, the rehgious spirit and vision
are dimmed. A wise preacher of thirty years ago when
asked to name the chief drawback to the calling of the ministry
replied, "The difficulty of keeping with absolute sincerity the
spirit of reverence for rehgious things." He added that when
one's business was to speak continually about religious things,
they were likely to become commonplace. In consequence, a
preacher himself was conscious at times of placing an emphasis
upon his words that was beyond his real feeling, in order that

46 Jesus' Principles op Living
he might arouse within his hearers religious emotions that were
keener than his own. A preacher is therefore continually
tempted to indulge in an exaggeration which is almost hypocrisy.
Few persons who are not careful students of human nature
will have thought of this danger in the rehgious hfe, and yet
there is a reahty in the danger that men should heed. How
often for example in prayer meetings and in the prayers and
talks of laymen, as well as preachers, do we hear used the words
of the psalmist or of the great rehgious prophets in relations
which make it evident that those words are merely carelessly
used quotations instead of an expression of real feeling. Doubt
less the ancient poets with their imaginative natures and under
the stress of the great evils or the great joys in which they were
hving actually felt as their words express, but when we with
commonplace minds on an ordinary occasion quote those
expressions as representative of our feehngs, a moment's
thought will show that those words are false. Usually the
intent is not to deceive. Usually it is merely poverty of thought
and language which leads us to routine use of these expressions.
Are we not training ourselves in habits of inaccuracy? Are we
not dulling what should be our vivid feehngs of sincere rehgious
desires into mere routine by thus using words that are quite
different from Jesus' simple, direct "Yes" and "No"? Is not
this the essence of what is popularly characterized as "cant"?
We need to recognize that in the worship of God we may
well distinguish between the emotional and the intellectual
forms of worship and worship expressed in service. Doubtless
among the more ignorant, too great stress has been laid upon
emotional expression. It has often been sincerely beheved and
taught that in worship the emotions were in themselves the
essential thing. Again, by some of our great rehgious teachers,
especiaUy those of two or three generations ago, too much
emphasis was placed upon mere intellectual behef and upon
the finely spun reasoning over the logical meanings of certain
passages of scripture. Both the emotions and the reason
have their places — and important places — in our rehgious
hfe, but after all Jesus in his teachings dwells mainly upon
service to humanity. This service consists chiefly in acts of*
sincerity in connection with our daily tasks. If the spirit of
truth hves in our words and in our daily work, it will usually
be found that therein we are rendering our best service to

Personal Responsibility 47
others. No one should underestimate the value of service
rendered professionally in the forms of either individual teach
ing or pubhc preaching; but it is nevertheless true that the
larger part of our hves must be practically given to earning
our hving in association with our families and with the people
with whom we come in contact in our daily occupations. If
the Christian spirit of truth, sincerity, and helpfulness shines
through all our dealings with others, they also will be inspired
with the spirit of Jesus.
What measures can be taken to obviate the danger that
the practice of family worship may degenerate into mere
routine, so that the effect will be to deaden the true rehgious
spirit? For what reason is the popular reaction against cant
wholesome? How can we avoid cant? How great is the
danger to-day that in our fear of cant, we will refrain from the
open expression of our deepest rehgious feehngs?
Subjects for Further Study. '
(1) The influence of motive on individual behavior in the light of
modern psychology. (James, Psychology; Bagley, Behavior.)
(2) What are the psychological causes of profanity? (Patrick, The
Psychology of Relaxation, pp. 145-171.) What are the chief reasons why
swearing is harmful?
(3) Trace the growth of the movement toward absolute truthful
ness and sincerity in business advertising. Cf . the work of the Association
of Advertising Clubs and Rotary Clubs.
(4) Study the controversy between President Wilson and the United
States Senate over the League of Nations. Avoid partisan sources and
study both sides critically. Note how widely people equally sincere may
differ in judgment on policies. Put your conclusions in writing.
(5) What are the advantages and the disadvantages of the ritualistic
types of worship? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the
non-ritualistic types of worship?

CHAPTER V.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, Historical Bible, pp. 176-188.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 135-176.
Follett, The New State, pp. 137-161.

48 Jesus' Principles op Living
Why look critically at the speck in your brother's eye and fail to see
the splinter in your own? Can you say to your brother, "Let me take
the speck out of your eye/'^while there is a splinter in your own? You
hypocrite, first take the splinter out of your own eye; then you will see
clearly how to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Matt. 7: 8-5.
It is inevitable that temptation should come; but woe to the man
through whom it comes! It would be better for him to be flung into the
sea with a millstone about his neck than that he cause one of these httle
ones to fall! Luke 17: 1, 2.
Give to him who asks of you, and turn away from no one who wishes
to borrow from you.
You have heard the saying, "You shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who nate you, and pray for those who persecute
you, that you may become sons of your Father in heaven; for he causes
his sun to rise on the bad and good alike, and sends rain on both those
who do right and those who do wrong. For if you love only those who
love you, what reward have you earned? Do not even the tax-gatherers
as much? And if you show courtesy only to your friends, what more
are you doing than others? Do not even the heathen as much? You
must therefore become perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matt. 5: 42-48.
Therefore, whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, do even
so to them; this is the summing up of the law and the prophets. Matt.
7:12. (Shorter Bible translation.)

The Infinite Worth op the Individual.
The world war has brought into common use the word
democracy, and men are seeking to apply democratic principles
to every phase of human life. In a pblitical sense President
Wilson declared that the chief aim of the Great War was to
make the world safe for democracy. Jn the business field we
are hearing much from different types of reformers of an
industrial democracy.
In all these applications of the word there is the common
thought that the people, "just folks," are to be seriously
considered and that they should have an active part themselves
in determining their own rights and in directing their own
affairs. The fundamental principle in Jesus' plan for a social
democracy is that each individual is of infinite worth and that
society should provide for his fullest and highest development.

Personal Responsibility 49
Jesus taught that the consciousness on the part of the individual
of his own worth and personal responsibility springs from the
thought that God himself recognizes the value of the individual.
"As for you, the very hairs of your head are numbered."
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin; yet I say to you, that even Solomon in
all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which exists to-day and to-morrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you
of httle faith?" To his humble, uneducated disciples Jesus
declared: "You are the salt of the earth. You are the hght of
the world." Throughout his entire teachings he makes it clear
that in the sight of God each man's worth hes within himself
and is not at all dependent upon worldly rank or power. It is
not even dependent upon intellectual strength or wisdom, but
rather upon his essential manhood and upon his moral upright
ness and devotion to the noblest social ideals.
Jesus saw the potential worth of each individual. Levi,
the grafting tax-gatherer, and the pitiable women of the streets
were, as he found them, of httle value to themselves or to
society. In fact they were doubtless doing more harm than
good; but Jesus gave them a vision of what they might be and
do and then taught them how to demonstrate their worth.
Measured thus by the standards of potential worth, each son
or daughter of man, however physically, mentally or morally
degraded he may be, is potentially a princely son or daughter
of God and therefore is regarded and treated by Jesus with
the noblest consideration. This attitude toward all mankind
is the corner stone of any true democracy. It is the conviction
of this which gave birth to democracy and underlies all demo
cratic effort. The welfare, happiness and social opportunity
of the individual is the final object of democratic organiza
tion.

What are the dangers and what are the benefits of the
individual's recognition of the worth of his soul in the sight
of God? What more is needed to form a democracy of a high
type than individuals of a high type? What do you understand
by the expressions "social mind" and "community purpose"
in their relation to the thought and action of individuals?

50 Jesus' Principles of Living
II.
The Responsibility op the Individual.
If the individual has worth, people will expect him to
assume the responsibihty for all his acts. With value naturally
goes responsibihty. Jesus himself followed this principle which
he had been the first to recognize for all men. Nowhere in his
teachings do we find any intimation that he himself would
evade the responsibihty of any of his acts or of his teachings
by following blindly the judgment or the doctrines of any
teacher of his own time or the teachings of the ancient Law or
the Prophets. On the contrary, carefully as he had studied
their teachings, he always assumed the responsibihty of thinking
them through and interpreting them in the hght of his own
experience and reason.
The people of his own day recognized the difference in this
respect between his work and that of other teachers. "He
taught as one having authority and not as the scribes." He
himself was in the habit of saying, "It has been said of old
time," and then following his quotation with the words," But I
say to you." By such a method he did not attempt to under
mine the authority of the ancient teachings, but rather to
emphasize the fact that true as those teachings are, they must
be interpreted in the hght of the new conditions of his (fey and
that it is not wise nor right for any individual to follow blindly
the teachings of another. He must make his own decisions in
the hght of his own experience. Jesus said, " I came not to
destroy but to fulfill," but the law cannot be intelligently or
truly fulfilled except by interpreting it and applying it to
contemporary conditions. "For the letter kills, but the spirit
gives life." It is in the spirit of the law that its truth consists.
Jesus nowhere intimates that any of his disciples can evade
personal responsibihty for their acts. He nowhere suggests
that they should thoughtlessly rely upon the teachings of the
priests or of other leaders or even on himself. When they
follow him they must also accept his principles and assume
personal responsibility. He left few or no specific teachings
about the details of great social problems such as slavery,
temperance, and industrial organizations. They must, of
course, be worked out in the light of conditions existing at the
time, and individuals must take the responsibihty of dealing
with them as they arise.

Personal Responsibility 51
What is the moral effect of forcing a man against his will
to obey rules or laws that he dislikes and in which he does not
beheve? How would such forced action eventually affect his
acts and his character?
Give some illustrations of acts that are morally right in
one country but morally wrong in another country. Can you
state any conditions under which a private citizen should take
the responsibility of interpreting a law of his country contrary
to the decisions of the higher courts?

III.
Independence of Judgment.
Independence of judgment is a necessity if man is to
assume responsibility. On all the insistent problems of his
day Jesus formed his own definite opinions, and when asked,
frankly stated them, even though his statement aroused the
bitter antagonism of the rehgious leaders of Judaism. He
beheved that Rome had performed a real service to the world
and plainly said that the peoples who had profited by it
should make a corresponding return, even though to pay trib
ute to Rome was regarded as treason by the majority of the
Jews of the day. In the same way, by act as well as by
word, he revealed his own independent judgment regarding
the significance of the Sabbath, although it aroused the hot
indignation of the Pharisees (cf. p. 82, 84). He also took direct
issue with the orthodox Jewish doctrine regarding the hfe of
the individual after death (cf. p. 35). Thus before his fol
lowers he set the example of independent judgment on all
rehgious as well as secular questions. He also refused to
subject his disciples to the onerous and meaningless ceremonial
laws upon which the Pharisees strenuously insisted (Mark
7: 1-16). More than that, Jesus repeatedly encouraged and even
compelled his disciples to form independent judgments. During
the last period of retirement with them, he first asked them
what men thought about him; then he put the momentous
question to them directly: "Who do you think that I am?"
All their previous training had beep to prepare them for this
crisis, and when Peter's reply indicated that he was capable of

52 Jesus' Principles of Living
forming a judgment independent of the orthodox rehgious
leaders of his day, the Master's enthusiasm was unbounded.
In all his endeavors to save man and to develop perfect
manhood Jesus did not aim, as did the other teachers of his day,
to lay down detailed laws which they were blindly to obey, but
he tried to lead them to perceive and accept certain broad princi
ples which they could apply to each specific question that arose.
Even obedience to Jesus' commands calls for independent
judgment of the highest order. "You shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free" reveals Jesus' method as a
teacher. Whenever his followers in later ages have abandoned
his method and emphasized not the spirit but the letter that
Mils, not only the church but the individual has suffered. To
all his disciples Jesus first said, "Follow me"; then "Go."
Give other illustrations of Jesus' independence of judgment;
of his effort to develop independent judgment on the part of
his disciples. By what tests can you distinguish independence
of judgment from obstinacy or narrow-mindedness? What is
the difference between independent judgment and dogmatism?

IV.
Tolerance.
If an individual demands independence of judgment.
for himself, and assumes the responsibihty for his acts, he
must of course grant that same independence of judgment to
others even though their judgment, as will frequently happen,
differs from his own. To be consistent he must be tolerant of
others. This toleration is another of the fundamental principles
of democracy. Only those who can recognize, without bitter
ness of feeling and without a desire to coerce others, their
differences in judgment, are fully qualified to be citizens in a
real democracy. The spirit of tolerance is necessary for the
satisfactory working out of the rule of the majority.
This spirit of tolerance Jesus likewise exhibited in a marked
degree. There was no lack of clearness or of vigor in his own
decisions. There is no lack of clearness in the conditions which
he lays down for those who would become his followers, but in

Personal Responsibility 53
stating those conditions he is simply building upon psycholog
ical and social facts. He is stating psychological, mental, and
moral laws which actually work in society. Those rules enforce
themselves through the processes of nature's laws. No coercion,
physical or mental, can affect their action, and Jesus makes no
effort to coerce. Nowhere in his teachings do we find any
instances of any desire to coerce or of any feehng of hostihty
toward others on account of differences of opinion.
Vigorous in denunciation he is at times. Perhaps nowhere
in hterature can we find a more striking example of scathing
denunciation than in his onslaught upon the scribes and Phari
sees. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You
shut in men's faces the door to the rule of Heaven; for you
neither enter yourselves nor let those enter who wish to come
in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
scour sea and land to gain a single convert, and when you
succeed, you make him twice as great a son of hell as yourselves.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay
to the temple the tenth part of the produce of your mint, anise,
and cummin, and have neglected the weightier requirements of
the law : justice, mercy, fidelity. Blind guides, who strain out the
gnat and swallow the camel ! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and the
plate, and then fill them with your extortion and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee! first make clean the inside of the cup, that the
outside as well may become clean. Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs,
beautiful without, but within full of dead men's bones and
utter filth. So you yourselves appear upright, and within are
filled with hypocrisy and sin." (Matt. 23: 13-15, 23-28; Shorter
Bible translation.)
These denunciations are not because of differences of
opinion but because of the hypocrisy, treachery and selfishness
of the men to whom they are addressed. Even when he goes
beyond mere denunciation and utters words of scorn and con
tempt that must have stung worse than the blows of the whip
with which he drove the desecrators of his Father's house from
the temple, he is not intolerant of differences of opinion. He is
condemning actual violators of the law and grasping usurers.
Consider on the other hand the readiness with which he dis
cusses frankly and directly questions of rehgion with Simon the

54 Jesus' Principles of Living
Zealot or Levi the tax-collector. The way in which he sums
up the commandments into his new commandment, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself, " shows the greatest breadth
of view in individual interpretation of the law, so long as the
spirit of the individual is right and his attitude toward others
unselfish. Keeping fully in mind the customs of his day, note
also his attitude toward the woman taken in adultery. His
attitude toward her accusers, who, he strongly intimates, are
probably hypocrites and insincere, is most condemnatory; but
toward the woman, whom he doubtless believes repentant and
sincere, he is tolerant. "Did no man condemn you?" "No
man, Lord." "Neither do I condemn you; go your way;
henceforth sin no more." So long as the present purpose is
pure and right, no former act, however contrary to one's own
views, merits the bitterness of condemnation, even though it
must be disapproved for the sake of others and of society.
Even when he heard that another was casting out demons
by the use of his name, he showed no sign of jealousy but
welcomed the good deed, saying that if one did a good deed in
his name he would not be able quickly to speak evil regarding
him. The great Teacher was modest, thoughtful, tolerant in all
his ways, and apparently, hke Socrates, ready to discuss his
views with others. As a teaching principle, the freedom of
discussion is essential to the best work. People grow intel
lectually not so much by the passive acceptance of truths given
them as by the creative thinking out of principles and decisions
from facts and ideas laid before them in discussion or through
questions. When in a discussion of a pohtical question with a group
of men as well informed on such questions as yourself, you
find yourself in the minority, why do you not accept the judg
ment of the majority and admit that you are wrong? Why
ought you carefully to review your grounds of judgment before
denouncing your opponents? Why did Jesus not admit himself
in the wrong when he found himself alone against a city full of
opponents? Why is success in changing the views of many opponents
not a sufficient proof of the soundness of a man's judgment on
a controversial question? How can one be sure of one's
judgment? What is the safe test?

Personal Responsibility ' 55

The Necessity op Preparation for Responsibility.
If a man is to think and judge independently and bear his
own responsibihty, he must not make hasty judgments. This
is essential both for his own sake and for that of others whom
his acts affect. In any society, especially if the form of govern
ment is democratic, the persons upon whom rests the respon
sibihty of guiding the affairs of others should make careful
preparation and know the probable consequences of their acts.
We need better trained legislators and executives and even
judges. Jesus recognized this principle far more than is ordinarily
thought. Too often we have assumed that Jesus was so imbued
in some miraculous way with the spirit of God that he had no
need of preparation for his life work. The records, however,
teach quite the contrary. We know from the account given of
his discussion with the elders in the temple when he was twelve
years of age, that even as a child he possessed a maturity of
knowledge and of judgment that deeply impressed even the
wisest men of his day; yet in spite of this remarkable intel
lectual capacity, or perhaps because of this unusual maturity,
Jesus himself (fid not venture to undertake pubhc teaching or to
appear as a leader of the people until he had spent fully twenty
years in work and study.
The exact nature of his preparation we do not know, but
it is evident that he studied thoroughly the Law and the
Prophets. He had probably the advantages of listening to the
teaching of Hillel, the wisest of the progressive commentators
of his day. He had worked as a carpenter, and in all likelihood
as master carpenter he had been an employer of labor. Through
these various associations he normally acquired a thorough
knowledge of human nature, and from the records of his hfe
and his teachings we see how profound his knowledge had
become. In the account given of the temptations, we get the best
bint of his habit of self-analysis in connection with his prepara
tion for his own hfe work. Evidently in determining his hfe
plans he had to face and reject the normal, urgent temptations
of all strong men to devote himself to acquiring wealth, to the
pursuit of fame and popularity, and especially the strong

56 Jesus' Principles of Living
temptation to dominate other people and become a political
leader, as many of his followers later desired and urged. It is
evident that he might easily have attained a prominent, if not
even a dominant position in any one of these directions had he
determined so to shape his life. It is, however, also evident
that, with his power of analyzing human nature and social
conditions, he saw clearly that the attainment of any one of
these ends would be absolutely fatal to the success of his real
life work, that of putting into active working effect in society
his few but profound principles of living, which would in the
process of time so regenerate individuals that there would be
brought about a reorganized society of such a type that it
might well be called the Rule of God.
If Jesus had been a man of great wealth, how would he
have been handicapped in his work of regeneration? What
were his reasons for urging those cured by him to tell no one
about it?
If he had become a powerful king ruling Palestine or even
the Roman Empire, how would that position have affected the
establishment of his moral and spiritual leadership of humanity?

VI.
Practical Application of the Golden Rule.
Jesus summed up the practical social application of his
principles of living in the Golden Rule. " Whatever you wish
that men should do to you, do even so to them." The law of
love, in its negative form at least, had been formulated by
many different social rehgious teachers. Confucius, for example,
had summed it up in "Do not unto others that which you do
not wish them to do to you," and the same idea is found likewise
in the teachings of the greater prophets. Buddha in his teach
ings had laid great emphasis upon the principle of service.
Even at the present time in Burma and other countries where
Buddhism flourishes, we often see bridges, temples, and gifts
of various kinds presented to the public in order that the giver,
to use the Buddhistic expression, "may acquire merit."
Jesus then, in the enunciation of the law of love, simply
made more positive, more emphatic the same doctrine that

Personal Responsibility 57
others in other lands had promulgated even earlier than he.
Though it is probable that the greatest single contribution to
social and pohtical philosophy that Jesus made is found, as
has been indicated, in the principle of personal responsibility,
yet we should not forget that that principle loses its chief
social significance unless the individual is inspired by the spirit
of service. There must be co-operation among men in all the
relations of hfe, if the best results are to be attained.
Is this rule of love practical? How is it apphcable in
everyday affairs? Until within the last few years many busi
ness men were in the habit of saying that this rule, while
ideahstically beautiful, could not be employed in business.
Many statesmen at the present day think that it is not apphcable
in governmental affairs, especially in international dealings.
There is, however, at present a large and rapidly growing
group of both publicists and business men who beheve that this
rule is not only apphcable, but is the only sound principle to
apply in both pubhc and private hfe. Doubtless an individual
will at times lose in material things, for a short period at least,
by attempting to hve up strictly to this principle of devotion
to the welfare of others, and yet in the end, as has been noted,
it is apphcable in both politics and business.
A few years ago, the conscientious mayor of Toledo,
because he attempted to apply this principle in his adminis
tration of the city's business, was called "Golden Rule Jones."
Some of the leading business men considered him unpractical,
even fanatical, but most believed him honest and sincere and
the majority thought his administration good and sound. Its
influence on the city government has been felt ever since.
In business, too, it is rapidly becoming axiomatic that
service to clients and customers is essential to success. "The
customer is always right" is considered a sound business
principle, even though often abused by the customer. Practic
ally all of our great business houses have adopted it.
Even more striking perhaps is the attempt, especially
since the experiences of the World War, to work out this spirit
by co-operation in industry, particularly between workmen
and employers. This spirit is a necessary corollary to the
principle of individual responsibihty if the best results are to
be attained in any field. Each man while bearing his respon
sibihty should devote his work and himself to the welfare of

58 Jesus' Principles of Living
the community. In industry, when this spirit obtains, work
men and employers work together in harmony and it is easy
and normal for the workmen to share in the responsibihties of
management in matters that affect them and their work.
This co-operation — working together — differs, of course,
in form from that industrial co-operation in which the workmen
furnish also the capital.
Too often, especially in bygone days, Christian teachers
have placed an overemphasis upon charity in the sense of
gifts to beggars, whom they have assumed to be needy. While
Jesus sought to inspire a spirit of kindness and helpfulness,
we have no reason to think that he encouraged indiscriminate
giving. He knew the need of those whom he healed and other
wise blessed. Throughout his hfe and throughout his teachings
there runs a spirit of sanity and of good judgment which would
forbid any act that would encourage fraud. Moreover, the
great emphasis that he does place upon giving applies rather
to the effect upon the giver than upon the recipient. It is the
spirit of love for one's fellow men that he stresses.
In all things, therefore, in the duty and the happiness
that we should have in promoting the welfare of others, we
should not forget that the responsibihty rests upon us to employ
our property and ourselves in whatever way will serve best the
interests of the community. And the responsibihty rests upon
us to make a careful study of the situation so that our services
may not be rendered amiss. This imposes upon every one then
the duty of studying his own capacities, his own resources, and
the ways in wliich he can best serve others. Some may work
best in giving, others in teaching or preaching, others in manag
ing a business in a keen but conscientious way, others in main
taining order in the community as pohce or in upholding the
cause of justice and righteousness by bearing arms in warfare.
The question is of the reahty of the service rather than of its
form, and the individual can no more escape the responsibihty
of selecting the type of service which he can best render than
he can escape the responsibihty of guiding his personal hfe in
other ways. Often for fear that he may be charged with self-
seeking, a strong man hesitates to run for a political office or
to push himself into a position of prominence; but leadership
is one of the rare gifts and one should not shirk the respon
sibihty of leadership whether the opportunity is due to natural

Personal Responsibility 59
qualities, to wealth, social prestige or other causes, any more
than he should hesitate to assume less prominent responsibili
ties.

Why is a conscious recognition of one's own powers, even
if they be superior to those of most other men, compatible with
humility? Name as many great men as possible — scientists,
business men, statesmen — who are boastful in manner and
spirit. Name others who are modest. How often is a man
whose eyes are open to opportunities for service likely to see
social tasks confronting him that are beyond his power to
complete? Distinguish the spirit of independence in judgment
from that of vain self-sufficiency. Show the way in which the
principle of individual responsibihty can be successfully apphed
throughout a large business from the superintendent through
all the grades of workmen to the lowest.

Subjects for Further Study.
(1) Cite passages in the New Testament which support the thesis
that Jesus held each man responsible in the sight of God for all his acts.
(2) Compare Jesus' attitude and that of the ordinary police official
toward the women of the street.
(3) Cite New Testament passages giving Jesus' conception of the
dignity and possibilities of men.
(4) Give some example of industrial co-operation in which the capital
is owned by the workmen.
(5) The dean of a Southern college recently remarked, "I have found
men who are bigoted almost universally morally unreliable. When they
are present, I always look out for my pocket-book, whether they be students
or clergymen. I am inclined to think that the reason is that this class
substitute orthodoxy for rehgion." How far are his conclusions
correct? (6) What are the teachings of modern psychology regarding the
relations of men's motives and their acts? Compare these teachings with
those of Jesus. Cf. Psychologies of James, Dewey, Angell.
(7) Work out a plan by which a contractor who is building a house
can place responsibihty upon each of his workmen: masons, carpenters,
painters, plumbers, and unskilled workmen, without relaxing discipline or
disorganizing his working force. If possible, provide for paying each in
proportion to the service rendered.
(8) Compare the views of Jesus regarding resistance to the evils of
society with those of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Goosevelt and
Wilson.

60 Jesus' Principles of Living
CHAPTER tl.
THti VALUE AND USE OF WEALTH.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 225-240.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 177-216.
Follett, The New State, pp. 162-185.
Once when Jesus was journeying on the highway, a man ran up and
knelt before hjm and asked, "Good Master, what must I do that I may
inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No
one is good except one only: God. You know the commandments: 'Do
not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false
witness. Do not defraud. Honor thy father and mother.' " He said to
him, "Master, I have kept all these commands from my youth." Looking
upon him, Jesus loved him and said, "One thing you lack; go, sell all that
you have and give the proceeds to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven. Then come with me." But at this his countenance fell, and he
went away in sorrow, for he had great possessions.
•*:¦•- Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it
is for those who have wealth to come under the rule of God!" They were
amazed at his words, but again he said, "Children, how difficult it is for
those who trust in wealth to come under the rule of God. It is easier for
a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to come under
the rule of God." And they were so astonished that they exclaimed,
"Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it
is impossible, but not with God, for with God everything is possible."
Mark 10: 17-27.
Once as Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury of the temple, he
watched the manner in which the people put in their money. Many rich
men were putting in large sums, but a poor woman came and dropped in
two small coins amounting to less than a penny. He called his disciples
and said to them, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all
the rest who have put their money into the treasury, for they have con
tributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has contributed
all that she owns, her very subsistence. Mark 12: 41-44-
He who is faithful to the smaller trust is faithful also to the larger,
and he who is dishonest in the smaller is dishonest also in the larger trust.
If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who
will intrust to you the true riches? If you have not been faithful in what
belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? Luke 16: 10-12.
(Shorter Bible translation.) I.
The Standard by Which Jesus Measured Wealth.
It is significant that at least for three-fourths of his hfe
Jesus was an active business man; hence his deep interest in
economic questions. His occupation alhed him primarily with

The Value and Use op Wealth 61
the laboring class. **The Greek word ordinarily translated
carpenter, means more exactly builder or constructor. Since
most of the buildings were of stone, the work in wood included
simply doors, shelves, floors, beams, and stairs. Probably
Joseph and his sons constructed walls as well as the woodwork
in the Nazareth buildings. Jesus himself reveals in his parables
an intimate interest in all such occupations. Consider for
example the parable of the two houses, one built on the sand,
the other on the rocks. He shares with his disciples their
interest in the foundations of the temple at Jerusalem.
Further evidence strongly suggests that Jesus was not
only a manual laborer but also a master builder. The con
versation in Luke 14:30, in which he urges the importance of
considering the cost before beginning to build, reveals the
practical experience of a man accustomed to advise those who
wished to build. Many of his parables suggest the point of view
of the employer of labor, as for example, that of the two sons
who worked for their father, or the parable of the talents, and
above all that of the vineyard keeper who employed laborers
for different periods and insisted upon paying them the same
wage. Jesus also appreciated the argument of the centurion
who was accustomed to issue commands and to have those
commands obeyed. Jesus' instructions to his disciples as he
sent them away on a missionary tour reflect the point of view
of a man experienced in organizing men and in directing their
activities. All this accumulative evidence indicates that Jesus
was a master builder and that he approached the problems
connected with wealth from the point of view both of the
employer and the employee. With his broad social spirit he
made his measure .of value the ultimate effect of wealth ;(who-
ever was its owner) upon the community. {
It has often been assumed that Jesus condemned the
accumulation of wealth, that he beheved that men should hve
in poverty, and that the mere possession of wealth was in itself
wrong. There is nothing, however, in either his teachings or
in his hfe that justifies such a conclusion. He looked at wealth
with the same cool judgment with wliich he surveyed all human
affairs, noting its perils and its benefits. We find him associat
ing freely with the wealthy as well as with the poor, and in no
case do we find any condemnation of wealth as such.
It is true that he very frequently expressed sympathy for

62 Jesus' Principles op Living
the poor. That is of course natural. We ourselves note the
suffering of the poor much more frequently and more easily
than the sufferings of the rich. We find it easier to alleviate the
sufferings of the poor than to lighten the burdens of the rich,
so that it is natural that Jesus' sympathetic relations with the
poor should be more frequently mentioned. Nevertheless, we
find that as he associated with the rich, he spoke to them with
the same frankness as to the poor, and that apparently he
dealt with them likewise on terms of equahty.
In his discussions regarding wealth he clearly had in mind
chiefly its effect upon the individual and through him upon
society. What danger would the possession of wealth have for
the development of character of the individual? What were its
temptations? What were the advantages to the individual?
Inasmuch as he beheved that it was the duty of the individual
to devote himself and his possessions to the welfare of society
as a whole, his conclusions regarding the value and perils of
wealth were substantially the same as those of the wisest
social reformers of to-day.

From the practical point of view of efficiency, what prin
ciples are embodied in Jesus' directions to his disciples in
Luke 10: 3-11? Why do not wealthy people consider tiieir
wealth a burden or a handicap to success? Are the rich more
or are they less envious of others than are the poor, and why?

II.
The Perils of Wealth.
While Jesus did not condemn wealth, he evidently agreed
with the other moralist who declared that the love of wealth is
the root of all evil. He fully reahzed that the possession of
wealth, surrounding a man with temptations, might turn his
attention away from social duties to selfish hving. - There is
danger that wealth instead of being used merely as a means to
promote the welfare of society will become in a man's mind
an end in itself, that instead of developing a spirit of generos
ity it will promote a spirit of stinginess and selfishness. We
find him strongly emphasizing, therefore, the dangers of

The Value and Use of Wealth 63
wealth. While he did not say it was impossible for a rich
man to retain his wealth and still be a good man, he did say
that "it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than
for a rich man to come under the rule of God." Wealth at
times becomes a man's master; it should always be his
servant. The keenness of his judgment of human nature and the
searching way in which he tested and attempted to cure its
weaknesses are shown most clearly in the story of the rich man
who asked him the way to inherit eternal hfe. Evidently the
man was one of high moral character. All the commandments
he had kept from his youth up. A clean-living man of integrity,
he made a good impression upon Jesus. Nevertheless he was
apparently something of a prig and disposed to estimate him
self more highly than was justified by the facts. Jesus, therefore,
pricked the bubble of bis self-conceit and proposed to him a
great adventure: "Sell all that you have and give the proceeds
to the poor!" Jesus had clearly read the man's character
aright. It was the love of wealth that was hindering him
rather than anything else, for he was unable to meet this
test of unselfishness. Refusing to give up his wealth, he went
away sorrowing. His moral fiber had been sapped by his wealth-
generated love of ease and power till he could no longer make
the heroic sacrifice needed to fulfill the high mission to which
Jesus called him. This very real peril is involved in the posses
sion of wealth.
The dangers to the individual from the possession of
wealth extend likewise to social classes. With no need of exer
tion or self-denial in order to secure a hving or the comforts of
hfe, the wealthy are much more hkely than the poor to devote
themselves to certain amusements which bring no benefit to
society and to five merely for the pursuit of pleasure instead of
for service. Jesus did not comdemn the joyousness of hving, but
his emphasis was placed upon service; and when the pleasures
of life are merely selfish, instead of social, they merit condemna
tion. A very considerable proportion of life's- pleasures, when
sought merely for personal enjoyment, are obtained by pander
ing to anti-social appetites which harm instead of improve
-society. It is surrender to the temptations of wealth rather than its
control which Jesus condemns. Akin to this is the complacent

64 Jesus' Principles of Living
self-satisfaction seen at times in those whose wealth enables
them to satisfy their wants and to accomplish results without
severe personal effort. They are apt to become conceited and
unsympathetic, as did Dives in Jesus' parable of the rich man
and Lazarus. Inherited wealth sometimes bhnds its pos
sessor's eyes to the real heroism and magnificent effort dis
played by the poor to accomplish worthy ends. In their
blindness the rich thus become hard and unjust.
The perils of wealth may also be felt by a whole nation or
people through the ambitions and consequent evil actions of
their rulers. It is a commonplace that a very considerable
proportion of the wars of history have been caused by selfish
economic desires. A country with great natural resources that
are useful from the military viewpoint is hkely to be overrun
and sacked by military rulers of other countries seeking wealth
through plunder. The love of wealth, therefore, becomes not
merely a temptation which may ruin individual character, but
it may be a chief influence for the promotion of militarism and
the pohtical and social evils that accompany the war spirit.
Inasmuch as wealth is in itself a source of power, inasmuch as it
tempts individuals as well as rulers to acquire the means of
exercising power, it constitutes thus internationally another
peril. It seems clear now that one of the several motives
underlying the promotion of the economic development of
Germany during the last century was the desire that the spirit
of overlordship might attain its satisfaction. The development
of the economic resources of a country, when turned toward
the increase of the comforts and of the intellectual and moral
welfare of the individuals in the community, can have only
good results; but the same development, when used for the
promotion of unworthy claims such as the assertion of power
over others and the oppression of the weak, merits only
condemnation.

Explain why the desire of France to control the iron mines
of southwest Germany (the Saar valley) after the war is not a
fair illustration of the temptation that wealth offers?
Explain the desire of Japan to control the great iron and
coal mines of China. Give facts and reasons for your con
clusions.

The Value and Use of Wealth 65
III.
The Acquisition of Wealth.
Connected with the ambitious lust for the possession of
wealth there have arisen many questions wliich require careful
thought for their solution and which have seriously puzzled
well-intentioned, thinking people. At various periods of history
there have arisen pohtical and social parties whose principles
had to do with the accumulation and distribution of wealth.
For example, the French and German communists of the middle
of the nineteenth century, recognizing many of the evils tiiat
came from the unequal distribution of wealth, reached the
conclusion that all wealth should be held in common and that
private property, in distinction from the property of the com
munity, should be condemned. With a vivid conception of the
evils tiiat come at times from private possession of great wealth,
Proudhon declared that "property is theft." In somewhat
extreme terms the socialists of every school advocate the owner
ship of all the means of production in a community by the
State, to be administered through the Government.
In their misinterpretation of the spirit of the New Testa
ment, some of these extreme theorists have spoken of Jesus as
a communist, or even as the first of the Socialists. In some of
the experiments in communism that have been attempted on
a small scale there has been at first much of the unselfish spirit
of Jesus. They have generally failed, however, because in
time the normal nature of men reasserted itself and normal
inequalities in ability and leadership brought about a return to
the custom of private property holding. We may conceive of a
co-operative commonwealth in which there would be freely
chosen government officials changing readily at the people's
will and unselfishly performing their tasks, while the individual
citizens still felt their personal responsibihties and acted
accordingly. Such a conception is as old as Plato at least, and\probably
much older. The ,most successful attempts at the Socialistic
state, in which the Government has owned the productive
property and managed industry and the people, have been
despotic hke ancient Sparta. While, for a time, perhaps,
successful from the military viewpoint, they have eventually
failed to develop individual personality among the people.

66 Jesus' Principles of Living
Indeed in the hght of history as well as of psychology, the
whole idea of the control and the direction of the activities
of a community by the Government, whether in connection
with wealth or otherwise, is directly contrary to the spirit
of the teachings of Jesus, for the control of the activities
of society by a government is in direct opposition to the
self-development of the mass of citizens. It tends as a
matter of experience to lessen the responsibihties and therefore
the development of the average man in society instead of
increasing them. Jesus, on the other hand, as we have seen,
continually emphasized the importance of the individual and
the development of the individual's will and intellect through
placing upon him the responsibihty for his own decisions and
acts. The extreme reformer of to-day, going beyond the teachings
of Jesus, often condemns the accumulation of great fortunes
and advocates that the government by means of taxation or
sometimes by direct prohibition hmit strictly the amount of
wealth that shall be accumulated by any individual. Doubt
less the acquisition of wealth should be placed under strict
limitations as to the methods employed, in order to guard against
the dangers of improper use. However, if wealth is properly
used and. if proper means are employed in its acquisition, it
may become one of the chief sources of benefit both to indi
viduals and to the community. All measures of pubhc control
should be scrutinized and apphed with due consideration for
the common interests of both the individual and of society.
Care should be taken not to check individual initiative nor
to prevent the proper development of individual ambition.
The hmit of the power of the individual to accumulate
wealth or to employ it wisely can hardly be measured by rule.
It has often been asserted that no man can really earn during
his hfetime a million dollars and that therefore the ownership
of that amount of wealth in itself is proof of evil-doing. Such
a view overlooks the enormous importance of organization as a
means of accomplishment, and also the inestimable value of
good judgment and administrative ability in all types of social
work. In military affairs it is readily conceded that a military
genius like Napoleon or Field Marshal Foch may contribute
more toward the winning of a great battle or of a war than

The Value and Use of Wealth 67
hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual men who
serve as the units of battle. The same fact is equally true in
business administration. A very large percentage of waste in
business comes from lack of organization, and a business leader
who knows how to organize a business employing many thou
sands of men, so that the waste of energy is reduced to the
minimum and each man's strength employed to the best advan
tage, ' may be the means of producing more wealth than
thousands of individuals whose work is merely routine. It
frequently is true that, under the modern methods of business
organization, the difference between a highly profitable business
and a bankrupt business is entirely dependent upon the manag
ing skill of an individual. Therefore, it is entirely impossible
to place any hmit upon the amount of wealth that may really
be produced by any individual. It may well run high into the
millions. Doubtless the economic welfare of a community should
be measured by the standard of hving of the masses rather
than by the wealth of the few. And here thrift becomes vital.
It is an undeniable fact that the result of the sudden great
increase during the World War in the wages of many workers
was not a real improvement in their standards of hving but
instead, the added wealth developed a carelessness and lazi
ness in their work wliich lessened greatly their efficiency, and
it encouraged an extravagance in their expenditures which
weakened instead of strengthened their moral fiber. The
same effects were traceable among the rich.
The development of thrift among all classes is absolutely
essential if increased wealth is to produce good rather than
evil results. Concentration in business organization on a
large scale is necessary to insure the best and cheapest produc
tion which is the needed prehminary to the highest social
welfare. This large concentration can be brought about only
by the organized use of wealth in the hands of a relatively
few men, or better, by the concentration of the smaller
holdings of wealth from the savings of the many invested in
great corporations or in co-operative enterprises.
In, proportion to the productivity and thrift of each, men
acquire not only wealth but the power to gain more wealth
and influence and in consequence to improve hving conditions.
"To him who has shall be given." If men are not diligent and

68 Jesus' Principles op Living
thrifty, wealth in their hands does not aid their fellows but
often injures society. It is thus seen that the problems of
wealth are primarily moral, and the penetrating insight of
Jesus into these problems touches the very heart of the social
and economic questions of the day. Ambitious and sympathe
tic reformers need Jesus' calm observance of facts regarding the
use of money and time, as well as his sympathy and kindly
spirit. To fix the hmit of profits solely on moral grounds with
only the pubhc good in view is hard, probably impossible. Much
depends upon the use made of the surplus. If it is given* largely
to the employers, most of it will be reinvested in business and
will tend to increase the demand for labor with higher wages,
and by increasing the supply of goods to reduce prices and the
cost of hving. If given to thrifty workmen, the result will be
quite similar; if to spendthrifts, either employers or work
men, much of it will be wasted. If it is wasted in ways that
are injurious to individuals or to society, as in debauchery,
by drink or lewd hving, positive damage worse than waste
results. If the pubhc service rendered by a business is great
and worth its cost to the consumer, it may well be that society
will be most benefited by large profits so reinvested as to
extend the service as rapidly as possible. TlnV might well be
better for the pubhc than an abnormal increase in wages and
salaries which would tend to demoralize other industries not
in a position to follow, or than a reduction in price to the pubhc
which would check the rapid development of the business.
Of course, the welfare of the mass of the community is the
goal; the means to attain this are multiform and complex.

What reasons, if any, are there for thinking that waste is less
characteristic of the wealthy than of the poor? Why cannot
ten men working separately, with one thousand dollars of
capital each, produce ordinarily as much in business as one
man with ten thousand dollars capital? Try to prove whether
or how or why it is harmful for the United States that eighty-
five per cent of the wealth is held by approximately fifteen per
cent of its population. From the value to society, what limit,
if any, should be. fixed to the amount of wealth that should be
held by one individual? Or by any group of individuals? To

The Value and Use op Wealth 69
what extent would it be better and to what extent would it be
possible to give to manual workers a larger wage in order
that they might contribute more to public enterprises? How
can this change be brought about except through the increased
productivity and thrift of the wage-earners?
IV.
The Trusteeship op Wealth. ,
It has become a commonplace of the later days that a
wealthy man is a "trustee" of his wealth, which is to be used
in the end for the benefit of the community. This principle
clearly represents the Christian point of view. Even among
the early Hebrews it is evident that this idea was the basis of
their economic institutions. The oldest son became the head
of the ancient family because the responsibihty rested upon
him of using his wealth for the benefit of the entire family or
clan. As Jesus in his life and teachings expanded the idea of a
family so as to include humanity as a whole, so this conception
of the trusteeship of wealth for the benefit of an individual
family is extended in the spirit of Jesus to the idea of a trustee
ship for the benefit of the community.
We see some of the modern problems touched upon
indirectly by Jesus in certain of his teachings. In the parable
of the master of the vineyard who, hiring men from the morning
until near the close of day, sent them each into his vineyard
to work, but at the close of the day paid them all the same
amount regardless of the hours they had labored, we see two
ideas that are apparently apphcable at the present time. In
the first place, it is asserted with vigor and emphasis that the
employer must assume the responsibihty of controlling his
own business. In the second place it plainly teaches that the
employer and the community must keep in mind the respon
sibihty of providing labor for those willing to work. The vine
yard owner in the parable was not concerned solely about
securing laborers. When able-bodied men were standing idle
simply, as they asserted, because they had no work, he took
them into his employ. In giving those who had worked only
an hour a wage equal to that of the regular laborers, he seemed
to recognize the fact that a certain amount was necessary for
the comfort of each individual, and that even though certain

70 Jesus' Principles op Living
men's labor had not been so productive as others', it was wise
and just to give them enough to satisfy their pressing needs.
Into the economic problem he also injected that brotherly love
without which no difficult industrial question can ever be justly
and satisfactorily settled. It may be questioned how far the
principle of the minimum wage was in the mind of Jesus, yet
there is at least a strong imphcation that the idea of a living
wage was present. However this may be, the thought of the
trusteeship of wealth, and its wise use under all social conditions,
runs throughout his teachings, for he viewed all industrial
problems equally from the point of view of the employer and
the employee, and aimed to influence each to guard the other's
interests as they did their own.
Jesus condemned so vigorously the hypocrisy of the Phari
sees who made long prayers but devoured widow's houses, and
his sense of reahty and the fitness of things was so keen while
his sympathy with the poor and suffering was so deep, that he
doubtless intended to emphasize the obhgation of the rich to
use their wealth so far as was possible in caring for the ills and
wants of the worthy poor. Indeed it seems to-day as if this
were. almost the sole dependable source of some of our greatest
benefactions for education, scientific research and discovery,
medical and sanitary rehef on a world-wide scale.
Why is a wealthy man still under moral obhgation to
contribute to charity even if he pays taxes to support the poor?
In what sense do you interpret Jesus' teaching, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive"? Explain why an able business
man probably benefits the community more by employing the
bulk of his wealth in business than by giving it away. How far
is the demand that laborers shall receive just wages met by
paying them in proportion to the quantity and quality of the
services they render as shown by their productivity? What
hmits should be placed upon this principle?
V.
Practical Christian Charity.
It is evident that Jesus measured the true value of
wealth to the individual primarily by the spirit and pur
pose of the owner. In the incident of the contributions to

The Value and Use of Wealth 71
the temple treasury, when many rich men were giving a
large amount of money and a poor widow came and
dropped in two small coins amounting to less than a penny,,
he assured his disciples that this poor woman had given more
than all the rest who had put their money into the treasury.
It was because they had contributed out of their surplus but
she out of her poverty had contributed all that she owned, her
very means of subsistence. She had thus given with sacrifice
out of spiritual passion, in the spirit of true charity; she had
strikingly exemplified from the viewpoint of the individual one
use that should be made of wealth, however large or small the
amount. The same idea is brought out in his injunction that we
should not lay up our treasures on earth where moth and rust
may corrupt and where thieves may break through and steal,
but rather should lay up our treasures in heaven. This teaching
penetrates deeply into the heart of things; it represents the
judgment of individuals by their motives, which as we have
seen is the only true basis of judgment of the individual.
Another point of view, however, of a very practical nature,
showing his keenness of insight into the ways in wliich business
is often conducted, is found in the parable of the steward of the
rich man who had been accused of faithlessness in his steward
ship. When called to account, he settled with his debtors by
relieving them of most of their obhgations, in order that he
might thus win their friendship even though at the expense of
his master. The master, however, recognized the shrewdness
of his unfaithful steward and commended his sagacity. Jesus
turned the illustration to good account by saying that men
should make friends for themselves by so using the wealth of
this world that when it fails they may secure entrance and a
welcome into their eternal home. Here again Jesus is calling
attention not to the steward's crooked dealing, but to his
foresight and to the spirit as well as the way in which Christian
charity should be administered, if the individual himself is to
reap the benefit of his generosity.
There has often been ironical criticism of the practical
work of our charity organization societies and of persons who
attempt to protect themselves against fraud by a careful
inquiry into the character and needs of beggars and others
soliciting aid. It has often been assumed that this is contrary

72 Jesus' Principles of Living
to the spirit of Jesus' teachings, inasmuch as he said, "Give
to him who asks of you," when in the sermon on the mount
he was urging men to conquer their evil desires and weaknesses
and to attain self-control and the spirit of public service. There
is, however, nothing in the spirit of Jesus' teachings that sug
gests such a condemnation of common sense in the dispensing
of charity. To pauperize or to encourage deceit in one's
fellow men is not a worthy gift either to them or to society.
Throughout Jesus' life he seems to have been the embodiment
of justice and common sense, and nowhere in literature can we
find more bitter condemnation of hypocrisy and deceit than
in the words of Jesus. Indeed his approval of the spirit of
truth and his abhorrence of lying is basic in his character and
in his hfe, and may always be assumed where not specifically
expressed in his teachings.
What are the leading features of a minimum wage law?
Why is it not kind to the individual nor beneficial to the com
munity to give alms to a fraudulent beggar? Explain the
difference in the results upon society if Mr. Carnegie, instead
of having given largely to the public libraries and to funds
for scientific research, had devoted his wealth to reducing
the cost of all household commodities manufactured from
steel? How could he, as a practical matter, have so reduced
prices of household commodities? VI.
Control of Wealth by the State.
Much has been said by certain writers of the attitude that
Jesus would probably have taken toward the doctrines of
communism, anarchism, and socialism. For this discussion,
communism means the ownership of wealth in common by the
whole community; anarchism means the absence of govern
mental control, and the administration of affairs, including
government and business, by voluntary groups of individuals;
socialism means the ownership and management of capital in
every community by society acting through the organized
government. Of course, the form of political organization
must vary with the type of civilization and the needs of the
time, and no form is therefore to be considered final or ideal.
The essential thing is that the citizens possess the spirit of

The Value and Use of Wealth 73
Jesus' teachings. In our days and with our civilization a real
democracy seems to fit best his teachings. \
As we have seen, Jesus was a strong individualist, believing
perhaps as much if not more than any other of the great teachers
that society^ is an organization of independent thinking and
acting individuals. There is nothing in his teachings to con
tradict the view of Aristotle regarding private property. Aris
totle beheved that the individual would have little interest in
wealth that he did not own, and that, considering human nature
as it is, the principle of private property is a practical incentive
to proper activity and vigor in the production and administra
tion of wealth.
Jesus doubtless recognized this fundamental fact; but he
added to the individualistic spirit of the ancient wise men the
thought that the individual should possess public spirit. While
he should devote himself and his wealth to the good of others,
this act should be voluntary. To secure the greatest advantage
for himself and for society, the pubhc use of his wealth should
be on his own initiative and not under the compulsion of the
government or of other individuals. Jesus clearly recognized
the fact, as do the best thinkers of to-day, that there is no moral
value to the individual in acts done contrary to his will under
the compulsion of others, including the state, since human
motive is the determining element in character. The individual
must determine his charity and must decide the nature and the
amount of pubhc service that he will render if he is to get the
greatest benefit. When all or a large part of the individuals
in a country devote themselves to the public service, we have
a state approaching the highest ideal.
This statement in no sense implies that individuals should
not be put under the control of government. Indeed under
present conditions, with large accumulations of wealth admin
istered by relatively few people and these often selfish, it becomes
essential that they should be put under some measure of control.
Doubtless, not merely the teachings of Jesus but the experience
of history from his time to the present, show that the best
work and the most successful administration of both govern
ment and the organizations for the production of wealth, can
be secured through the stimulus of individual initiative and
the making of decisions by individuals. We may repeat,
nevertheless, that those individuals and their decisions may

74 Jesus' Principles of Living
well be under a measure of control. The control emphasized
by Jesus is the control of the will of God or the direction of
a man's acts by an educated conscience. There is nothing,
however, in his teachings to imply that there should not also
be the control of law and of the government. Indeed there
is the strongest imphcation that individuals should submit
themselves to the law and that, as Paul later stated, each
individual should be subject to the higher powers of the state
and of the government. Each individual should, for his own
sake as well as for that of the state, wilhngly put himself
under this control and thus direct his affairs in harmony with
others for the pubhc good.
In the administration of pubhc charity, why would you
prefer voluntary to paid workers, or how -would you arrange
work for both? Why do more cities own and manage their
water works than their street railroads or their electric lighting
plants? What does the parable of the talents suggest
regarding Jesus' attitude toward the private ownership of
wealth? Subjects for Further Study.
. (1) Look up carefully the work of the Rockefeller Endowment for
Medical Research and that of the Carnegie Institute for Scientific Research
at Washington and decide whether private endowments or government
appropriations prove more effective in such work. Give full reasons for
your opinion.
(2) Distinguish carefully between socialism and social reform, between
anarchism and nihilism, between syndicalism and trade unionism.
(3) What would be the effect upon business and the welfare of society
if all our wealthy citizens gave all their income above their necessary
hving expenses to pubhc charities? /
(4) Discuss the plan by wliich John Leitch in his "Man-to-Man''
proposes to apply the Golden Rule to modern industry.

CHAPTER VII.
RECREATION AND THE CHRISTIAN USE OF THE
SABBATH.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 212-219.
Edwards, Popular Amusements.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 217-247.
Follett, The New State, pp. 189-203.

Recreation and the Christian Use op the Sabbath 73
Once when John's disciples and the Pharisees were observing a fast,
people came to Jesus and said, "Why do the disciples of John and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples not fast." Jesus said to
them, "Can guests fast at a wedding while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But
the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then
they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshninken cloth on an old coat;
otherwise the patch breaks away from it, the new from the old, and the
tear is made worse. No man pours new wme into old wine-skins; otherwise
the new wine bursts the skins, and both the wine and the wine-skins are
lost. Instead new wine is poured into fresh wine-skins." Mark 2: 18-22.
"To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in
the market-place, who call to their playmates and say:
'We played the pipes for you but you would not dance,
We cried but you would not lament.'
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and men said, 'He is possessed
by an evil spirit!' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and men
say, 'He is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and out
casts!' But Wisdom is vindicated by its works." Matt. 11: 16-19.
One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grain fields; and his
disciples, as they made their way through, began to pull off the heads of
the grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Sir, why are they doing things
that on the Sabbath are unlawful." He said to them, "Have you never
read what David did when he and his followers were in need and hungry,
how he went into the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and
ate the consecrated bread which only the priests are allowed to eat, and
gave it also to those with him?" And he said to him, "The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; so that the Son of Man is
master even of -the Sabbath." Mark 2: 23-28. (Shorter Bible translation.)

Jesus' Appreciation op Recreation.
The early Mark narrative makes it perfectly clear that
Jesus appreciated and enjoyed all wholesome forms of recrea
tion. His hfe with his disciples illustrates this fact. One of the
chief charges that the long-faced Pharisees brought against
him was that his disciples never fasted as did the followers of
John the Baptist. In reply to the charge, Jesus admitted its
truth and explained the reason. The figure of a marriage feast,
by which he described his hfe with his followers, represented the
highest form of social joy and recreation known to the world
of his day. It was the one week in the hfe of the bride and
groom when they were relieved of the ordinary cares and drudg
ery and when they and their guests were free to give themselves
up wholly to feasting and to the simple sports that enlivened
the grim monotony of their rather sordid existence. Singing,

76 Jesus' Principles of Living
dancing, feasting and simple dramatic representation character
ized these oriental wedding feasts in which all members of the
community shared. In face of the surprise and contemptuous
disapproval of the Pharisees, Jesus freely accepted many invita
tions to banquets which were showered upon him. The indica
tions are clear that he was a welcomed guest on such occasions.
Some of his most significant work was done as he participated
in the festivities of a banquet. That sparkling yet kindly
humor which bubbles forth so often in his recorded teachings
must have enriched and enlivened these feasts where men forgot
for the moment their hot pursuit of wealth and personal ambi
tions and played whole-heartedly with their fellows.
Feasts and banquets figure prominently in the short stories
or parables that Jesus told to illustrate his teachings. Even
the touching story of the prodigal ends with a great feast.
In his friendships, in his work, in his recreation Jesus found
genuine joy and happiness, and was eager that his fellows
should do the same. His reference to the game played by the
children on the streets indicates that he was familiar with it
and suggests that as a boy he was fond of the sports with which
the children relieved the tedium of the monotonous life at
Nazareth. One of the reasons why children came rushing to his arms
was probably because they recognized that he sympathized
with them in their love of play. Not until dogmatism and
asceticism in the fourth and following centuries laid their
chilling hands on Christianity did it lose the spontaneity which
characterized it as it came fresh from the stamp of Jesus' own
personality. ¦How many references to banquets or feasts are there in
the Gospels? What did Jesus mean by refusing to put new
wine in old wine-skins? What examples of humor are there in
Jesus' recorded teachings? . H-
The Psychological Basis of Recreation.
In giving recreation a large place in the beloved community
that Jesus established in the Greater Capernaum, he built
squarely on the foundation laid in human nature by God

Recreation and the Christian Use of the Sabbath 77
himself. Man cannot live by work alone. His body and mind
require relaxation and re-creation if they are to continue to do
their part effectively. The more strenuous the task and the
more advanced the civilization, the more imperative the need
for periods of relaxation.
Modern psychology teaches us that recreation means
release from tension and the reversion to instinctive forms of
activity to which we and our ancestors for countless ages have
been accustomed. It is recreative chiefly because it means
temporary release from the killing pace which our strenuous
civilization sets for us and the doing of those things which are
pleasurable, largely because they are natural and familiar;
they therefore call for httle or no mental effort. Thus the
business or professional man, compelled by his occupation to
sit upright in stiff chairs and to use his brain almost incessantly
at the expense of his body, finds keen delight and perfect
recreation in a game of golf, for it enables him suddenly and
completely to shake off all these chafing restrictions and revert
to his primitive instincts. Like a boy he swings a club and
scrambles up and down hills and through woods and ravines in
pursuit of a small object at wliich he frequently hits sometimes
with great vigor and sometimes with gently measured taps,
as did his ancestors countless centuries ago.
Recreation with many still consists in eating. Nothing
dehghts and recreates them more than to smell the reek of the
roasting meat and to satisfy to the full their voracious appetites
as did their forbears in the old stone age. Others find their
chief recreation in gratifying the lower animal passions even
though at infinite peril and loss to themselves and society.
We have succeeded fairly well in the era just past in
teaching people how to think and work effectively, but we
have not taught the great majority how to play. It is not in
doing our tasks but in our hours of recreation that we as a
people fall below our accepted moral standards. It is in the
use of their leisure time, in their recreations, that many — both
young and old — barter their spiritual birthright for a pitiable
mess of pottage. The physical and moral wreckage that hes
in the wake of the public dance hall, the popular amusement
places, and the low theatre is appalhng. One of the chief
problems of the twentieth century is to provide clean, even
beneficial, types and places of amusement and to teach young

78 Jesus' Principles op Living
and old how to play and to find real recreation that will not
cost them their most valuable possessions.
What forms of recreation appeal to you as the most attrac
tive? As the most rewarding? What forms are most popular
among the young people of your community? How does the
element of competition contribute to recreation? Why are
the social forms of recreation as a rule better than the more
individualistic? Why are many sports like base ball and boat
racing accompanied by gambling on the part of many?

III.
The Attitude op the Church toward Play and Recreation.
The strength of the early Hebrew rehgion was that, hke
Jesus, it frankly recognized the need which each individual
felt for recreation, and provided for it. Moses demanded of the
autocratic Pharaoh : " Let my people go, that they may keep a
feast with dancing to me in the desert." This was the surprising
demand about which centered the titanic struggle that resulted
in the birth of the Hebrew nation. Throughout all this early
history the three annual festivals of the Hebrews were occa-
sions at which old and young, rich and poor, took food and
drink and amidst music and song and glad rejoicing feasted
at their sanctuaries, and with the consciousness of Jehovah's
approval found recreation of body, mind, and soul. These
annual festivals were the most joyous events in their hves.
Attendance upon them was not a burden but their supreme
joy. The same happy spirit rings through the liturgical
psalms of the Psalter. From the first, rehgion and recreation
were closely wedded, and whenever they are separated both
suffer. The hfe of the early Christian communities was equally
joyous. Even the evening supper which they celebrated
together in remembrance of the days when Jesus was with
them in the body was often so hilarious that certain of the
Church Fathers were shocked. It was not until the alien
motive of asceticism and monasticism during the third and
following centuries transformed its life that Christianity lost
its joyousness. Most of the popular forms of amusement and

Recreation and the Christian Use of'the Sabbath 79
recreation were abandoned by the church, and the Puritans in
their zeal to stress the ethical principles of Christianity com
pleted the divorce between rehgion and recreation. Banished
from the church, many forms of amusement lost their fine
recreative character and in part merited the condemnations
that were uttered against them by the religious leaders. Even
music was excluded from certain Protestant churches, and the
people were given only a small part in the ritual. Rehgion was
presented as a stern duty rather than a joyous privilege, with
the deplorable but inevitable result that a majority of the
young people, forced to look elsewhere for their recreation,
aside from their helpful athletic sports, are found too frequently
at the dance halls, low theatres and even less desirable places
of popular amusement rather than in the churches. As a
result of its early mistakes, the attitude of the church toward
many forms of popular amusement is still negative rather than
positive and constructive. Thus modern organized Christianity
has lost much of that joyousness and appeal to the innate need
for recreation which was one of the chief charms of the good
news that Jesus proclaimed to the hungering and lost of his day.
How far do you approve of the remark of a Congregational
deacon who said he voted to introduce dancing in the parish
house of his church because, "If we do not let our young
people dance under Christian auspices they will dance in the
pubhc hall across the way, where I know the devil pre
sides"? What practical efforts are different churches making
to unite again rehgion and recreation? How far can and
should the churches in their pubhc services meet the craving
of each individual for genuine recreation?

IV.
The Regulation and Direction op Popular
Amusements.
The regulation of popular amusements is undoubtedly one
of the most vital and insistent as well as difficult problems
before humanity to-day. Detailed surveys have shown that
often as high as ninety per cent of the dehnquent girls arraigned
before our police courts took the first plunge into vice in connec-

80 Jesus' Principles of Living
tion with commercialized amusement resorts. The play
impulse is instinctive, universal, and perfectly natural, but if
wrongly directed it destroys the physical, mental and spiritual
hfe of the individual with a rapidity and completeness that are
appalling. Because the desire for amusement is so strong and
so universal and in itself so normal and innocent, it offers a
powerful temptation to the unprincipled exploiter. Such
exploitation is easy, largely because the church and organized
society have failed to recognize the vahdity of that desire and
have left to the most unprincipled members of society the task
of satisfying it. The result is that to-day many if not most of
the popular forms of amusement are highly commercialized
and are managed simply with a view to rolling up the box-office
receipts and not to giving the pubhc wholesome recreation.
Not only do these private corporations take millions of dollars
from their patrons, but too often they lower their ideals and
lure them on to commit crime against society. As Jane Addams
has said on the basis of her wide observation and experience:
"The Anglo-Saxon city has turned over the provision for
pubhc recreation to the most evil-minded and the most un
scrupulous members of the community" (Spirit of Youth, p. 7).
In certain social strata in our congested city life the popular
forms of amusement are crimes. Experience too has shown that
when sin and vice are commercialized they tend to become
shameless and impudent. In the careful Kansas City survey
of commercialized amusements (which did not include saloons,
medical museums, social clubs and cabarets), thirty-two per
cent were found to be unquestionably bad and only one attained
the standard of eighty-four per cent good.
Against those who thus exploit the innate love of play
and recreation and against those who through neglect permit
these wrongs to exist, Jesus' words of warning still apply:
"It is inevitable that temptation should come, but woe to the
man through whom it comes; it would be better for him to be
flung into the sea with a millstone about his neck than that he
cause one of these httle ones to fall!"
The followers of Jesus are under solemn obligation to
fight courageously, systematically and persistently all who
exploit those who have little wisdom or little experience or little
moral strength. Scientific investigation and experience have
indicated many practical ways to help. As a rule the exact facts

Recreation and the Christian Use of the Sabbath 81
can be ascertained only through the systematic investigations
of skilled experts, working quietly under the direction of wise
Christian citizens. Repeated investigations are necessary.
Sensational publicity usually hurts more than it helps this
reform. In most cities the results of such investigations can
be used most effectively in personal interviews with the managers
of the commercialized amusements or as a guide to legislative
and police control. Organized and intelhgent Christian citizen
ship can in most communities accomphsh much in correcting
the more flagrant evils. If a municipal hcense is required for
each form of commercialized amusement, the pubhc holds in its
hands the power to repress what is obnoxious and to raise the
standard of the rest. The problem resolves itself into (1) the
education of pubhc opinion, (2) the election of rehahle officials,
and (3) the co-operation of the Christian citizens to see that
worthy standards are maintained and apphed.
In dealing with the problems connected with the theatre,
the methods and practical co-operation of the Drama League
of America, the Catholic Theatre Movement, and similar
organizations are well worthy of careful consideration. Such
organizations suggest lists of desirable plays or assist in forming
local study courses and children's dramatic clubs that contribute
directly toward educating pubhc opinion, and they are prefer
able to any official censorship which is inevitably personal and
often ignorant. Experience is also demonstrating that the
evils of the pubhc dance hall can be largely eliminated if a
trained supervisor, preferably some woman who has had
practical experience as a teacher or mother, is always present
and is given authority and the support of the police.
The church too is beginning to awaken to its obhgation
to furnish wholesome and attractive recreation adapted to the
needs and interests of different ages. The Boy Scouts, the
Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls, educational motion pictures,
amateur dramatics, and especially the presentation of Bibhcal
subjects, are only a few of the many movements that are finding
hearty welcome and support in many modern churches. If
these forms of popular amusement are made in each case an
opportunity for the larger self-expression of youth, and the
leadership is placed, as far as is practicable, in the hands of the
young people themselves, these movements will go far to counter
act the baneful influence of the vicious commercialized forms

82 Jesus' Principles of Living
of amusement and to develop noble Christian manhood and
womanhood. The church can also do much to promote clean athletics.
Betting, gambling, and professionalism can best be combated
through frank and open discussion. They are doomed as soon
as they are condemned by the ruling pubhc opinion in a com
munity. It is even more important to democratize athletics,
so that not a few skilled athletes but hundreds and thousands
in amateur teams can have the physical and moral inspiration
of regular and active participation in wholesome sports.
What are the aims of the Drama League of America?
What are the educational and recreational values and the
dangers in the modern motion picture exhibitions? Why is
gambhng a pernicious form of amusement? How can our
pubhc parks be further utilized so as to meet the demand for
popular amusement? V.
Jesus' Interpretation of the Sabbath.
There is no evidence that Jesus ever brought a sacrifice to
the temple or followed the minute directions of the Jewish
ceremonial law; on the other hand he raised no protest against
any ceremonial form that was of value to his fellow men. When,
however, an institution became a hindrance rather than an aid
to man's development, he refused to let his followers be bound
by it. His protest usually first found expression through his
quiet refusal to observe it rather than through pubhc utterance.
Thus, for example, he did not encourage his disciples to observe
the onerous Pharisaic regulations regarding ceremonial ablu
tions before meals. When the Pharisees charged him with
disregarding this law, he admitted the charge and clearly stated
his reason (Mark 7: 1-16).
In the same way and with dehberate purpose he broke
the heavy bonds which the Old Testament priestly editors and
the later scribes had laid upon the Sabbath, but nowhere is it
recorded that he criticized those who conscientiously followed
the minute rules which the Pharisees had formulated to guard
its sanctity. The extreme emphasis on the Sabbath as an
institution was in part the result of the pecuhar conditions

Recreation and the Christian Use of the Sabbath 83
growing out of the Babylonian exile, which to the Jews of the
dispersion still presented the vital problem of preserving their
racial unity and rehgious faith in the face of overwhelming
temptations. Removed far from the temple, they ceased per
force to observe the majority of their ceremonial rites. Circum
cision and the Sabbath were practically the only distinctive
institutions that could be maintained apart from the temple.
Hence Judaism clung to them as a drowning man to a plank
and made their punctilious observance the supreme test of
loyalty to their race and to their God.
It therefore required great courage on the part of Jesus to
break with the formal regulations that had gathered about the
Sabbath. He did so dehberately and with a lofty purpose, but
by act rather than word. As a survival of ancient communism,
Jewish law permitted every man to help himself to the grain
growing in the fields, provided he ate it on the spot, but the
law explicitly forbade him to do the work involved in this act
on the Sabbath. Jesus allowed his disciples to help themselves
to the grain on the Sabbath, because they needed food and
because it was the normal, reasonable thing for them to do.
He was undoubtedly well aware that this act would at once
call forth a protest from the Pharisees, as it did. He first
defended it, quite in the spirit of the scribal teachers of his
day, by citing the example of David who, when he and his
followers needed food, took and ate of the showbread which
according to the ceremonial law was to be eaten only by the
priests. Then having precipitated the whole issue between the
ceremonial and the vital, spiritual interpretation of rehgion,
he laid down the only sound philosophical basis for the inter
pretation and observation of the ancient institution: "The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
This revolutionary statement was only a corollary of the
larger principle that Jesus repeatedly set forth: Forms and
institutions are never ends in themselves, but valuable simply
as they promote man's development; only in this way are they
significant in the sight of God. In the hght of this luminous
principle the minute Pharisaic regulations that impeded man's
free and full 'development were a crime against God as well as
man. It was inevitable that Jesus should attack them, for
his mission was to enable men to know the truth that the truth
might make them free, Far from abrogating the institution

84 Jesus' Principles op Living
of the Sabbath, he interpreted it, as had the great Hebrew
prophets before him, as God's good gift to man to be used to
promote the physical and mental, as well as the social and
rehgious welfare of each individual. It mattered httle what
ancient priests and scribes had said about it; the vital question
was, how could it be made to yield the most to toihng, heavily
laden men who possessed divine potentialities?
-
What were some of the minute regulations which the later
Jewish lawgivers had imposed on the Sabbath? What was their
motive in so doing? Why did they fail to attain their objects?
¦What is the difference between their method and that of Jesus?
VI.
The Effective Christian Use of the Sabbath.
Unfortunately in interpreting the Sabbath the Protestant
church in the past has followed more closely the teachings of
the ancient priests and Pharisees than those of Jesus. He sought
to sweep away with one stroke the prohibitions which had
already made it a day of repression rather than of joy and
re-creation. Lest there should be any misunderstanding, he
fortified his teaching by his own example. The early records
tell us that apparently on this day he redoubled his acts of
mercy and healing. To the criticisms of the Pharisees he
rephed: "Is it right on the Sabbath day to do good or to do
harm, to save a life or to kill? " The question is full of sug
gestion: their interpretation of the day was doing harm and
killing, even as the same interpretation has since that day done
countless harm and killed the faith of many in Christian homes
and communities where the teachings not of Jesus but of the
Pharisees have been thoroughly followed.
With few exceptions the attitude of the churches to-day
toward the still burning questions of how to use this day of
rest is negative, hke that of the Pharisees, and not positive hke
that of Jesus. Has not the time come to formulate the Christian
ideal of the Sabbath? That ideal must be based squarely on
the needs and possibilities of man. Scientific experimentation
has demonstrated conclusively that continuous work without
relaxation is wise neither from the economic nor from the
physical point of view. The experiences of the Great War,

Recreation and the Christian Use of the Sabbath 85
especially in Great Britain where the tests were scientifically
made, prove this point beyond doubt. When, in order to
increase the output of the munition factories, the working
hours were made to include seven days in the week and often
from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, it was found that within
a very short time the total output of the factories decreased
instead of increased. A careful investigation by the committee
appointed to study the conditions soon led to the conclusion
that from the point of view of output alone it was essential
that men and women work not more than six days continuously.
In order that the machinery might be kept at its highest effi
ciency, in many cases the resl^Sabbath of the munition factories
was a revolving one. The day of the week that was reserved
was immaterial so far as the individual worker was concerned,
but experience taught that the principle of one day's rest in
seven had to be as carefully foUowed as that of restricting the
number of working hours in each day so that abundant time for
sleep and recreation was furnished. One of the primary uses
of the Sabbath, therefore, must ever be to offer an opportunity
for physical and mental rest and recreation to all who toil.
(Bulletin, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 221,
"Hours, Fatigue and Health in British Munition Factories.")
Experience, as well as the great Interpreter of life, teaches
that "man does not live by bread alone." It is an obvious fact
that, even though many do not recognize it, all need moral,
social and spiritual re-creation. The day of rest from physical
and mental work is a vast open door of opportunity through
which each man may enter into a larger life. It may be through
meditation, through worship, through intellectual inspiration,
through service, through contact with nature, or through the
many other ways in which man may enter into closer and more
intelligent and loving companionship and co-operation with
his fellow man and the Source of all life and love. Fortunately
there are as many ways as there are individuals. We may
guide but not compel our fellow men to take one or the other
of these ways. The Gospel narratives indicate that Jesus on
the Sabbath sometimes took his disciples into the synagogue,
sometimes into active social service among the poor and needy,
and sometimes, even in the face of the protests of the religious
authorities of the day, out into the fields where they were left
free to follow their normal inchnations. Where he went and

86 Jesus' Principles of Living
found joy and recreation, they went too. In developing the
higher uses of the Sabbath, he did not give men advice; he
gave himself. It is obvious that if parents and teachers are to
lead their children in this noble quest, they too must give them
selves. They must also find joy and happiness in it, for these
are contagious and irresistible.
To some of us who were brought up at the feet of the Puri
tans it seems a crime to laugh and be happy on the Sabbath.
Jesus taught that not to do so was the supreme crime. In the
light of Jesus' interpretation of the Sabbath purely from the
point of view of its service to the individual, we must evaluate
anew each element in the Sunday program of our churches.
Are the pews filled simply through force of habit or the com
pulsion of community conscience, or are they empty because
the people who might fill them do not find in the services the
re-creation and inspiration they need? Is the Church School
rearing happy, efficient Christian citizens? As the foundation
of the life of the church and community, are there Christian
homes which are developing the rich possibilities of the Sabbath
to the full? Does the day of cessation from ordinary labor
mean for each class and individual in the community rich
opportunities for recreation and growth improved in proportion
as each is able? These are the questions that must be answered
constructively, if we are to have a Christian Sabbath.
Our best modern psychology teaches that recreation and
rehgion are closely related. Real recreation gives to the individ
ual temporary relaxation and happiness through experiences
and emotions that are passing; real rehgion gives him abiding
peace and happiness through beliefs, experiences and emotions
that reach out into eternity. But the highest forms of recreation,
such as music or art or constructive work or social service merge
into religion. This close unity perhaps throws new hght on the
place of recreation in the Sabbath program — especially for the
young. Recreation is the natural path leading on to the higher
forms of activity and feeling that merge into religion. Viewed
in the hght of man's needs and of Jesus' example the Christian
Sabbath is that which gives to each individual not only rest
but physical, mental, social, and spiritual re-creation. The
realization of this ideal in the home, the church, and the com
munity is one of the vital tasks which the followers of the
great Teacher are called to-day to perform.

The Family and Beloved Community. 87
How large a part and what part of each Sabbath should
parents devote to their children? What are the reasons urged
for the opening of motion pictures and other popular amuse
ment places on Sunday? How far are these reasons sound?
What are the churches in your community doing to attract
and re-create the classes in harmony with Jesus' teachings
regarding the Sabbath? How can the masses be led to seek
the higher forms of social and spiritual re-creation?
Subjects for Further Study.
(1) For what reason did the Pharisees charge Jesus with being a
drunkard and a glutton?
(2) How would our Puritan forefathers have regarded Jesus' attitude
toward popular amusements?
(3) What is the modern psychological attitude toward play and
recreation? (Patrick, The Psychology of Relaxation.)
(4) What is the scientific* estimate of the physical and moral effects
of dancing? (Moxcey, Girlhood and Character, pp. 230-233.)
(5) What is the history and what are tiie aims and methods of the
Boy Scout movement? . (Richardson and Loomis, The Boy Scout Movement
Applied by the Church.)
(6) Why are the immoral effects of the melodrama, farce, and vaude
ville far greater than the regular drama? (Edwards, Popular Amusements.)
(7) What significant facts have been brought out by recreation
surveys such as have been carried through in Detroit, Michigan, and
Providence, Rhode Island?
(8) Prepare a program for the use of the Sabbath in your home, in
your church, and in your community that will accord with Jesus' inter
pretation of the significance of the day.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE FAMILY AND BELOVED COMMUNITY.
ParaUel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 241-251.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 248-283.
Follett, The New State, pp. 204-226.
Certain Pharisees came to Jesus and to test him asked, "Has a man
the right to divorce his wife?" He answered, "What did Moses command
you? They said, "Moses permitted a man to draw up a notice of separa
tion and so to divorce her." Jesus said to them, "It is because you are
hard-hearted that he wrote you that command; but from the beginning
of creation God made male and female. For this reason a man shall leave
his father and mother and live with his wife, and the man and wife shall

88 Jesus' Principles op Living
become one, so that they are no, longer two but one. What therefore
God has joined together let no man separate."
When he went into the house his disciples asked him again concerning
this, and he said to them, "Any man who divorces his wife and marries
another woman commits adultery against her; and if a woman divorces
her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." Mark
10: 2-12. Jesus went into a house and the crowd gathered again so that it was
impossible even to eat a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set
out to get hold of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." Standing
outside, his mother and his brothers sent word to him to come out to them.
He was in the midst of a seated throng when some one said to him, "Here
are your mother and your brothers and sisters outside hunting for you."
He answered, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" Then looking
around at those lyho sat in a circle about him, he said, "Here are my mother
and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister
and mother." Mark 3: 19b-21, 81-35. (Shorter Bible translation.)

I. !
Jesus' Recognition op the Importance op the Family.
The foundation and strength of the Jewish society was the
family. The ancient Hebrew commonwealth was based on
the local and national popular assemblies, which consisted of the
elders or representatives of each family. These popular assem
blies not only decided all important community and national
questions and elected their leaders, but were also the schools
in which citizens, were trained. The welfare of society, as well
as of the individual, depended, therefore, upon the stability of
the family. To the family Israel's lawgivers and those practical
teachers, the wise men or sages, had entrusted the education of
the individual during his earlier years. By legislation and*
exhortation they had sought to strengthen and guard its hfe.
Jesus evidently accepted these fundamental natural and
social principles and emphasized the importance of the family
even more than they. He saw that the family is rooted in the
very nature of hfe and that in the family the social citizen must
be trained; and therefore he aimed to preserve its integrity.
From the beginning to the end the development of human
personality is bound up with the family. He recognized too
that the foundation of the family is the marriage bond between
the parents and that marriage is not a mere human convention,
but a sacred relation. With his marvelous insight into realities,
the natural bond of children must have seemed to him of even

The Family and Beloved Community 89
greater importance than the legal bond. Though among the
Jews wives were selected by the parents, it is still possible that
he recognized the influence of personal -attraction, love, that in
our day is looked upon as the right basis of marriage, and that it
was through love rather than mere legal form that God joined
together man and wife. Marriage, he declares, is one of the
goals of the divine purpose revealed in the natural world
from the beginning, for, since human beings would cease to
exist without it, man and woman are so created that they
naturally enter into this sacred relation and are bound together
by the closest bond known to society — that of parenthood.
In Jewish law and custom parenthood was the consumma
tion of marriage. It is by this act of creation that man and wife
are joined together by God. Jesus declared that no one had the
right to sever this bond. Nature's divine law transcended
even human law. On this point he did not hesitate to take
issue with the authority of Moses, even though it was paramount
in the Jewish world of his day. It was one of the few questions
on which he laid down an absolute law. The ruling was so
revolutionary and in the judgment of his disciples so extreme
that they later questioned him privately; but he only reasserted
his profound conviction. He declared that divorce with a view
to remarriage was one of the most heinous crimes that man or
woman could commit against society. Despite the customs of
his day, with his keen insight he might well condemn marriage
for wealth or social prestige or any motive but the God-given
one of love, though his words touch only the negative side, that
of divorce. In Matthew, infidelity alone is recognized as a
valid basis for divorce. In the light of contemporary Jewish
law the adulterer was a criminal subject to the death penalty,
so that Jesus probably recognized this exception, although in
the oldest record (in Mark) it was not stated.
It is profoundly significant that he who was the supreme
champion of individual liberty and development and divinely
charitable toward the sinner was adamant on this point. In no
more striking way could he have stressed the paramount
importance of the family to the individual and to society, and
yet it seems clear from his whole attitude toward life that
reahty rather than formal law was in his mind. There are many
real divorces — husband and wife hving separate hves under
the same roof — among legally married couples. There are

90 Jesus' Principles op Living
many whose hearts are wedded, whom God has called to union,
but whom desires for wealth or fame or other opposing circum
stances have held apart. In ignoring these facts concerning
marriage modern Christian civihzation has suffered its greatest
losses. Homes dismembered by divorce, often because of
wrong marriage, have bred our worst criminals. And yet lax
divorce laws have often not brought happiness or development
to the many who have resorted to them. Often their motives
have not been good, but evil. It is fair to say that our present
practice has proved a tragic failure. Even though in individual
cases the application of Jesus' rule undoubtedly means self-
denial and suffering, is it possible that in the end insistence on
the true marriage or none means greater happiness and develop
ment for the individual as well as for society?
The practical significance of this ruling regarding divorce
is obvious; but deeper still lies the real problem of marriage.
What does Jesus mean when he speaks of those whom God has
joined together? The usual reply is, " Those who in the presence
of the civil or rehgious authorities have assumed the obligations
of marriage." But the marriage conventions of Jesus' day,
even more than with us, brought many together in this relation
who felt no real affection and in some cases only repulsion
toward each other. Did he who went to the heart of every
question regard these as joined together by God? When he
explained that the Mosaic divorce laws were due to the fact.
that they were hard-hearted, was he not referring to the false
ambitions and the greed of parents as well as of the contracting
parties and to the other base motives which often have separated
those who truly love each other or have led to the law marriage of
those who clearly were never "joined by God"? These are the
marriages which fill our divorce courts. Where true love is the
bond, there is no need for divorce laws. Was not the vital aim
in Jesus' teachings on this subject to change men's hard-
heartedness and so prevent the evil at its fountain source?
In any case the conclusions to be drawn from Jesus' words
are intensely practical. Marriage is not only a divine institution,
but each marriage can and should be a divine relationship if
men and. women will not harden their hearts but keep them
responsive to the promptings of pure love. All the forces of
society should be regulated with the one aim of bringing into
the marriage relation those whom God has joined together.

The Family and Beloved Community 91
But as Jesus added in reply to the questions of his disciples, if
men have hardened their hearts and the interests of many are
involved, the remedy even then may not be legal divorce, if that
would involve as it often does, grievous wrong to the innocent
children or parent. The interests of children and of society
must be preserved, even though when innocent mistakes, rather
than evil motives or hardness, have Jbrought men and women
into the false relationship of loveless marriage, and separation
or divorce seems the only remedy.
How far are the divorce conditions in America due to the
present behef in individualism? Why has the Protestant far
more than the Roman Cathohc Church failed to check legal
divorce? Does the position maintained by the Roman Catholic
Church protect the home? Among what classes are divorces
most common? II.
The Duties op Husbands and Wives.
Jesus' strenuous teachings regarding divorce did not stand
alone; they are only a part, although an exceedingly important
part, of his philosophy of living. They are a corollary of the
command to do to others as you would have them do to you.
The type of divorce that Jesus condemns is secured that the
one seeking it may remarry. It implies the motive of selfishness,
not of justice. In that act the individual in order to gratify a
personal desire or passion often ignores the rights and interests of
the one divorced, those of the children of the first marriage if
any, those of the friends and relatives, and the moral standards
of our present society, which disapprove whenever it separates
what God has joined together.
In a family where Jesus' principles of hving are applied,
divorce in order to remarry is practically impossible. The
initial love between husband and wife (and without that love
they would not marry) is constantly strengthened by acts of
tender consideration. Each is seeking to improve the thousand
opportunities that family life offers to do to the other what
each would have done to himself. Nothing binds individuals
more closely than doing a worthy task together, and hfe offers
no nobler task than that of parenthood. Marriage, as Jesus

92 Jesus' Principles of Living
interpreted life, is a venture that calls for a large amount of
self-sacrifice; but indeed self-sacrifice in behalf of a great cause
makes individuals one as no other force in the universe except
love. Paul, in the fourth chapter of I Thessalonians, has preserved
a characteristic teaching of his Master's that is not found in
the Gospels: "It is God's will that each one of you should
learn to five with his wife with a pure and noble intent and not
chiefly to gratify sexual passions, as do those who have no
knowledge of God." No passage perhaps reveals more clearly
Jesus' marvellous insight into human life. Here he guards his
followers against the end which has driven in desperation
countless thousands into our modern divorce courts. The
teaching illustrates the knightly attitude toward woman which
he sought to inspire in all his followers. Nowhere is this attitude
more necessary than in the vital and intimate relations of
married hfe. When it is present in every home, the revelations
of shameless selfishness, brutality, and bestiality that disgrace
our divorce courts will cease to besmirch our modern civiliza-
tion. Instead, from the Christian home throughout the world
will go forth youth well fitted to lay the foundations of that
new social order wliich Jesus described as the rule of God.
What grounds for divorce are most often presented in our
modem courts? In what ways can a wise Christian judge
prevent rash divorces? How can public opinion be aroused
and organized to combat this evil? What is the effect of family
worship toward the checking of divorces? What restrictions
should be placed upon marriage, so as to secure only those that
promise to be happy? What are the social dangers of restric
tions upon marriage? III.
The Obligations of Parents and Children.
Jesus lays down no detailed rules regarding the duties of
parents to their children, and yet a fine ideal of parenthood is
reflected in the Gospels. Its background is the home at
Nazareth where love and mutual confidence reigned. Jesus
assumes that every true parent will not only provide for his
children the necessities of life but that he will use his wisest

k I

The Family and Beloved Community 93
judgment in giving what is best for them even though it be
not what they ask. The Golden Rule with its many-sided
applications ulumines the duties of parents. Knowledge,
sympathy, and long and intimate acquamtance enable them to
understand their children, to enter into their point of view, to
anticipate their needs and therefore to do for them what no
one else can do.
Parenthood, hke marriage, is a venture that to be a success
requires a large capital of self-denial and devotion. Supremely
blest is the child that comes to the home desired and therefore
welcomed. It establishes a basis between the child and its
parents that nothing else can supply. It is the guarantee that
the child will hold the central place in the minds of the parents
and that they will not commit the fatal crime of turning entirely
over to nurses and governesses the moral and religious training
of the httle stranger whom they alone can make truly at home
in this new world into which he has entered.
Jesus set his face against the practices of his day and even-
the counsel of his disciples and gave httle children the first
place in the new type of society that he was seeking to estabhsh.
He did so, as he explained, because they are most eligible for
citizenship in that society where trust, teachable attitude, and
readiness to obey are the chief qualifications. No parent can
afford to ignore his examples. As faithful parents, they will
learn far more from their children than they themselves teach,
although one of the chief joys of parenthood is the interchange
of that deep philosophy of life which through broader experience
each parent has gained.
In his work with his disciples Jesus proved a strict yet
kindly disciplinarian. He beheved in developing right habits
of behavior and work as well as of thinking. In this respect
he set a most practical example to parents in dealing with their
children during the impressionable habit-fonning period.
Perhaps the greatest lesson that parents can teach their children
during this period is the law of consequences.
As the training of Jesus' disciples progressed, he took them
more and more into his confidence and made them his com
rades. This relationship between parents and children during
the adolescent period onward is the secret of successful parent
hood. The task then is to teach youth to walk wilhngly along
the path of wisdom and virtue. Stern commands and mere

94 Jesus' Principles op Living
punishment are now futile. The will to do right must be
within. The habit of right doing and thinking can best be
learned through happy comradeship with their earhest and
most beloved playmates, their parents. Wise and blessed
hideed is the parent who learns the divine art of not obtruding
his companionship upon sensitive and variable adolescence but
who never fails to respond to those calls for help, often diffi
cult to detect, that youth is constantly sending out while
crossing the dangerous bar that divides childhood from man
hood and womanhood.
To parents is entrusted the sacred task of imparting
to their children the divine mysteries and responsibilities of
sex. Sometimes the parent may select the fitting occasion.
More often it is determined by a sudden question or a crisis in
the hfe of the child. For that fateful moment every parent
should long before have made careful and thorough preparation.
When it arrives all other engagements may well be ignored,
for it presents one of the supreme issues of hfe and to-morrow
may be a lifetime too late. Usually in our overdeveloped
American life this great opportunity and responsibility comes
during childhood. It is far better if the child's curiosity regard
ing sex questions is satisfied in a clean, normal, reverential
way before reaching the stormy period of early adolescence.
As one wise parent prominent in the pubhc life of the nation
has recently said: "Our children must learn most of their
lessons in the school of experience; we parents can simply
teach them a few vital principles of life that are necessary to
save them from shipwreck."
The consciousness of the co-operation of the divine Father.
in this most important task of hfe should be even a greater
source of strength and assurance than it is to the ordinary
Christian parent. In speaking of children Jesus also declared
in a passage that we have perhaps too hastily relegated to the
realm of poetry: "I tell you that their angels always behold
the face of my Father in heaven" (Matt. 18: 11). In this
connection he laid down the principle that is at the foundation
of all the modern Christian movements that seek to conserve
children and to combat child labor and all that tends to rob
children of their divine birthright.
In the hght of the Old Testament teachings, which Jesus
simply aimed to supplement, it requires httle imagination to

The Family and Beloved Community" 95
picture what he would have taught in detail regarding the
duties of children to parents. The first twenty-five years of
his life also proclaim more loudly than words the joyous duty
of respect, consideration, appreciation, loyalty and co-operation.
In one significant passage he voices his own high ideal of the
duty of children to parents. It is in connection with his stern
rebuke of the hypocritical formalism of the Pharisees (Mark 7:
6-13), who taught their disciples that a vow and the demands of
the ceremonial worship took precedence over the filial obliga
tions. With hot indignation he turned upon them: "A fine
thing it is for you to set aside God's command that you may
keep your own tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father
and mother.' ' He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him
surely die.' But you say, 'If a man says to his father or his
mother, What I might have used to help you is consecrated to
God,' you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or
his mother. Thus you set aside the command of God by your
traditions which you have handed down."
What other obhgations in human hfe are more imperative
than parenthood? What place should play have in family
life? Did Jesus put duties to parents before duties to God,
or is such an antithesis impossible? How can children best
honor their parents? rv.
Masters and Servants.
In many homes, especially where there are numerous
children, the problem of domestic service is both vital and
sinister. A certain degree of mutual dependence which will
bind parents and children together by acts of helpfulness is
salutary, and should be, as it is in many Christian homes,
frankly recognized as a blessing. But there are definite limita
tions to the time and strength of the conscientious mother
which make additional assistance in the home imperative. As
a rule the higher the ideals of the parents for the children the
more imperative is the need.
Unfortunately the stigma of servility to a certain extent
still rests upon domestic service, and it has been hedged in by
certain limitations which have made the imphcation of bondage
in part a reahty. For these grave problems Jesus offers a
complete solution. It is as complete as it is revolutionary.

96 Jesus' -Principles of Living
Like many of his teachings, it anticipates the trend of modern
pubhc opinion. It breathes the spirit of the perfect democracy
of to-morrow rather than the incomplete democracy of to-day.
At the bottom of all his philosophy lies his profound apprecia
tion of the sanctity and potential value of each personality and
the most democratic principle ever uttered: "Whoever would
be great among you shall be your servant and whoever would
be first among you shall be servant of all." The far-reaching
effects of this principle when thoroughly applied in the home
are well worthy of careful consideration. It at once exalts the
despised word "servant" (derived from the Latin root meaning
to serve) to the preeminent place. In the society that he
founded, service is the only basis of honor and preeminence.
Measured by his standard, in the home of the idle rich (if there
are any such to-day) the humblest servant who faithfully
serves is obviously superior to his master if the master serves not
at all. Already the principles of Jesus have banished the institu
tion of slavery from the earth, and as soon as they are fully
accepted and applied will forever remove the stigma from domes
tic service and from all other useful work. We will then all become
servants in one capacity or another. The relative pre-eminence
of master and servant will depend simply upon the quantity,
quahty, and fidehty of their respective services to society.
A recent play by Charles Rann Kennedy, "The Servant in the
House," has marvelously dramatized this real truth.
When both mistress and servant are eager to serve each
otheif, the Christian spirit of co-operation will quickly dispel
all class antagonisms. Servants will be transformed. The
schedule, as well as the architecture, of many a Christian home
to-day is arranged so as to conserve the happiness and interests
of those who serve with their hands as well as those who serve
with their brains. If Jesus' principles of hving are thoroughly
applied, the domestic is the simplest of our industrial problems,
for the home offers the greatest opportunities for constructive
workmanship of the most enduring type, since it is far nobler
to develop human beings than machines.
Why do most manual laborers avoid domestic service?
What are the reasons, if any, why servants in the home should
have fewer hours for reereation than industrial employees?
What can be done to promote the social hfe of domestic helpers?

The Family and Beloved Community 97

The Rehabilitation of the Home.
The glory and strength of our pioneer days in America,
as well as in early Israel, was the home. The descendants of
those homes are to-day among the most efficient leaders in our
modern civilization; but we cannot expect that they alone will
be able to meet the rigorous demands of the new age. The
new leaders must be bred in modern homes. The preservation
or rehabilitation of the home is therefore in many ways the
most vital need of our new civihzation.
The rehabilitation of the home is very generally necessary
because during the past century it has been subjected to many
disintegrating influences. These must be clearly understood
before they can be overcome or eliminated. Chief among
them are the insufficient and improper housing conditions
that have often resulted from our modern industrialism. Great
masses, on a low wage and ignorant of the principles
of domestic science, are often crowded together in the least
desirable residence sections of our manufacturing cities. In
many cases a large family lives in one or two squalid rooms in
a huge tenement house that opens from an equally crowded
street or alley. Under these conditions no real home can be
created. Children reared in such environment lack nearly
everything which a home should give them: proper shelter,
nutrition, parental care, opportunities for play and recreation,
and inspiration in forming right physical, mental and moral
habits. ,
Fortunately the fact is gradually dawning upon enlightened
employers and citizens that society, as well as individuals, is
in part responsible for these conditions. Improved tenement
laws, the movement for better housing, instruction in domestic
economics, the popular demand that all manual workers receive
a wage adequate for fit support, and similar reforms not only
illustrate the way the good Samaritan would to-day go about
his task of proving himself a neighbor, but are also absolutely
essential if the modern home is to be rehabilitated.
Long hours of labor and especially of female and child
labor still further rob childhood of its divine rights. Efficient
parenthood calls for time, opportunity and the highest physical
and spiritual vigor. The demands for shorter hours of work

98 Jesus' Principles op Living
and for the restriction of female and child labor, both happily
meeting general recognition, are more than a plea for the individ
ual directly involved — they are the necessary step in the rehabil
itation of the home which is the corner-stone of our civihzation.
Among brain workers the peril of long hours of labor is
even more insidious. To the long business and professional
hours are added those spent in equally absorbing work for
civic, social and church organizations, with the result that the
ambitious and conscientious but misguided parents, for lack of
time and energy, make a tragic failure of their main task in
life. Unfortunately the parents who are sitting in committees
considering how they may save the children of the poor of
Russia or Armenia, while their own children grow up potential
criminals for lack of parental direction and companionship,
are not hmited to the comic papers. To them may well be
applied Jesus' stern denunciation of those who neglect to give
to the members of their own family what they vitally need, and
then excuse their crime with the plea that their wealth is con
secrated to God and must be turned over to some pubhc
institution (Mark 7: 6-13). When the home is given the place
in our modern thought that Jesus gave it, this popular but
specious type of sin will disappear, and we shall also have
fewer but more efficient social organizations.
Divorce and the social evil both strike blows at the home.
In a land where one out of every thirteen marriages results in
divorce, the number of ruined homes is appalling. It is obvious
that education in the meaning and responsibihties of marriage
must have a far larger place in our modern civihzation. The
public school, the church and the press must all be led to do
their part in this education which is essential to the rehabilita
tion of the home.
Even more insidious and deadly than divorce is the social
evil, for it strikes a blow not only at the purity of the home,
but at the physical, mental and moral health of the children,
who rightly occupy the center of the stage in Christian family
hfe. The time is ripe for a world-wide campaign for moral
sanitation and education which will check the ravages of this
evil, far more destructive than the bubonic plague, and will leave
the home free to develop in accord with God's good purpose.
The abohtion of the double standard for man and woman and
the humane care and the scientific methods now being adopted

The Family and Beloved Community 99
to reclaim the victims of not only their own weakness but also
of society's false standards, are some of the practical ways in
which Jesus' example and teachings are influencing modern life.
Another evil that is undermining the home is the tendency
of many parents to leave the rehgious as well as the intellectual
training of their children to church and state. Many are
unacquainted with that unique repository of social, ethical and
rehgious truth — the Bible. Many more, because of inherited
traditions or inertia, are unfamiliar with the modern methods
of studying and interpreting it, and so find themselves unable
to speak the language that their children have learned in pubhc
and church schools. They have also failed to avail themselves
of the practical results of the modern scientific study of child
hood and of the problems pecuhar to parenthood, so that when
they face their greatest responsibihty and opportunity they are
unable to qualify. Parenthood in the twentieth century is a
profession, not a mere incident, and the sooner this fact is
clearly recognized the sooner the home will be rehabilitated.
Parents have responsibihties that they can delegate to no
one else. Through the eyes of their own experience and charac
teristics they alone can fully understand the potential strength
and weakness of their children and teach them how to over
come the evil with the good. The parents occupy an absolutely
unique vantage point from which to establish the ideals, the
standards, the habits, and the characters of the highly impres
sionable guests who at their invitation have come to live in
. their home.
f- As in olden days, the parents are the high priests in the
home. They can neglect their task and thereby merit the
stinging censure that Jesus directed against the degenerate
high priests of his nation; but they cannot abdicate. No nurse
or teacher can help the child to recognize the good purpose in
the universe and to trust and co-operate with the Heavenly
Father as can the parent, if he is properly trained. The appre
ciation of the divine worthship, if but aroused, grows naturally
in the home into the habits of true, if not of formal worship.
The wise parent will, hke the ancients, link closely together
true worship and recreation and will dramatize in all the
rehgious life of the family the fact that Jesus' way of hving is
the way of joy and happiness.
If Jesus' principles are to gain universal acceptance, the

100 Jesus' Principles op Living
home must be rehabihtated, and it can be rehabihtated only as
his principles are simply and naturally taught and apphed in the
family. What can the public school contribute to rehabilitating
the home? What can the church do and through what agen
cies? How can we educate youth so that thefe will be a clear
appreciation of the significance and responsibihties of marriage?

VI.
The Beloved Community.
Jesus' entire social theory was rooted in the family. His
social program may be described in a word as a dehberate and
systematic endeavor to carry the ideals of the family into every
community and ultimately throughout the world, until all
mankind should recognize the obligations and share the joys
of common fatherhood and brotherhood. Supremely loyal
though Jesus was to all his filial obligations, it must be remem
bered that when he reached. full maturity, he turned ajdeaf ear
to the demand of his kinsmen that he return home, and hence
forth devoted himself wholly to the service of the larger brother
hood. Upon his disciples he placed the same obhgation. "Any
one who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy
of me, and any one who loves son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me. Any one who does not take up his cross
and follow where I lead is not worthy of me. He who finds
his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake shall
find it."Here Jesus was evidently using an oriental hyperbole
which still survives in the Near East, but he did so in order to
emphasize a most important truth. Loyalty to one's self is
natural to childhood. Even greed and selfishness are then
normal. As the child matures, however, he develops loyalty
to family, and this loyalty is a vast advance over selfishness.
But the law of hfe is, as Jesus dramatically declared, an ever-
widening circle of loyalties. The boy's intense loyalty to his
gang or the girl's to her set represents a widening circle which
in later youth expands into loyalty to the club or fraternity or
church. Larger loyalties embrace the lesser. The youth who

The Family and Beloved Community 101
is loyal to his church is not less but more loyal to himself and
to his family. But whenever the expression of this loyalty is
arrested, the individual ceases to develop and remains a child
or youth in social stature.
Jesus sought to lead his followers on to the full stature of
the perfect man and woman. Therefore he set before them the
ideal of the beloved community. It included aU who, like them
selves, were intent upon doing the will of God. These Jesus
implied were not only his but their brothers and sisters and
mothers. This beloved community was the larger family,
capable through their united efforts of unlimited expansion, to
which he directed their supreme devotion and loyalty. Jesus
sought to build up about each individual an eager, kindly,
fraternal group, ever growing until it included all members of
the local community. In this each found not only friendship,
sympathy and help but ample opportunity for self-expression
and growth through service. This was the only type of church
that Jesus ever founded. It was the family ideal expanded
until it included all members, of the local community who were
responsive to the feehngs of brotherhood and then expanded
again until it bound together, through common loyalties, all
men of all races who accepted Jesus' principles of living. Like
a mother bird, he longed to gather all of the scattered sons of
Abraham under his enfolding wings. The Gospel of John also
reminds us that the great Shepherd had sheep not of the Jewish
fold under his care.

Why did Jesus' strenuous demands upon his followers not
lead them to abandon or neglect their families? How far were
narrow national and racial loyalties responsible for the Great
War? In what way can modern churches approximate most
nearly to Jesus' ideal of the beloved community.
Subjects for Further Study.
(1) What work is being done in America to combat the divorce evil?
(2) How would you as a parent seek to make clear to your child the
facts of sex? (Cf . Richardson, Sex Culture Talk with Young Men.)
(3) What more can the church do to bring youth together under
conditions that will lead to happy rather than unfortunate marriages?
What are the chief causes of the declining birth rate in most modern
countries? What are the advantages and disadvantages of birth control?

102 Jesus' Principles op Living
(4) What are the best books to put in the hands of young and inex
perienced parents? (Cf . Forbush, Child Study and Child Training; Dawson,
The Child and His Religion; Moxcey, Girlhood and Character; Hartshorne,
Boyhood and Character; Elizabeth Grinnel, How John and I Brought Up
the Child; Lofthouse, Ethics and the Family; Jewett, The Next Generation.)
(5) Why do families decline and die out?
(6) Picture a day in the life of the beloved community that Jesus
established at Capernaum.

CHAPTER IX.
THE CITIZEN AND THE STATE.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 252-266.
Cooley, Scfcial Organization, pp. 284-309.
Follett, The New State, pp. 227-257.
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you whom'my
Father has commended, enter into possession of tne kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared
for me, I was in prison and you came to me." Matt. 25: 34-86.
"Truly, inasmuch as you have done it even to the least of these my
brothers, you have done it to me." Matt. 25: 40.
You know that those who are regarded as rulers in f oreign countries
lord it over their subjects, and their great men exercise authority over
them; but it is not so among you. Whoever wishes to be great among you
shall serve you, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be of ser
vice to all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to be of
service to others, and to give his life in order to gain freedom for many.
Mark 10: 42-45.
-¦" You have heard the saying, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
"tooth," yet I say to you, do not resent an injury; but to him who strikes
you on the right cheek turn the other also. If any one wishes to sue you
and to take away your coat, let him have your outer coat also. Whoever
forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who asks
of you, and turn away from no one who wishes to borrow from you. Matt.
5: 88-42. Therefore, whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, do even
so to them; this is the summing up of the law and the prophets. Matt.
7: 12. The high priests sent to Jesus some of the Pharisees and certain of
Herod's supporters to entangle him with questions. They came to him
and said, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful and fearless, for you
defer to no one but faithfully teach the way in which God wishes men to
live. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar, or is it not? Shall we pay or shall
we not pay?" But knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus replied, "Why do
you try to entrap me? Bring me a coin and let me see it." And when they

The Citizen and the State 103
brought him one, he asked, "Whose image and inscription are these?"
They saidto him, " Caesar's." Then to their astonishment Jesus said to
them, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs
to God." Matt. 22: 15-21 .
No sound tree bears rotten fruit; neither does a rotten tree bear
sound fruit; for each tree is known by its fruit. Figs are not gathered
from thorns, nor grapes picked from a bramble-bush. From the good
stored in his heart the good man brings forth goodness, but the evil man
from his evil store brings forth evil; for the mouth speaks that with which
the heart is filled. Luke 6: 48-45.
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless,
how shall it regain its strength? It is no longer fit for anything but to be
thrown out and trodden under foot.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
One does not hght a candle to put it under a basket but on a stand, where
it shall give hght to all in the house. So let your light shine before men
that they may see your good deeds and praise your heavenly Father.
Matt. 6: 13-16. (Shorter Bible translation.) I.
Jesus' Conception of the Citizen's Duties.
It has already been noted that Jesus developed his prin
ciple of service to the community from the viewpoint of the
individual. Considering the conditions under which he was
hving in Palestine and that his view of a redemption of humanity
was primarily not pohtical, he would naturally plan first to
redeem the hearts of individuals and then through these regener
ated, individuals make over society. Therefore, he would
in hke manner approach any subject of pohtical reformation
through the local community. He would then expect that
reformed local communities would gradually build over the
nation and that through the regenerated nations would come a
new world. It is evident, also, that under the conditions then
existing in Palestine, which was largely a self-governing Jewish
community under the lordship of Rome, it was unwise to
attempt to exert directly any pohtical influence, though his
teachings might indirectly have great pohtical effect.
The fundamental reason, however, for his method was
doubtless a psychological one. He believed it to be the only
sound method of rebuilding society, for in his mind the individ
ual is the social unit. It seems clear, nevertheless, that Jesus
had in mind also community betterment, and that he had
hoped and expected that by his work in Capernaum he would
succeed in making of that busy central city a type of community

104 Jesus' Principles Gp Living
which, might well serve as a model for others. He chose a small
group of disciples to be infused with his spirit and then by
their personal efforts he planned to plant his spirit in the,
hearts of others throughout different parts of Palestine.
Moreover, in his work of heahng and teaching, and through
his giving of charity and preaching brotherly love, he had
hoped to build up some social organizations that would affect
profoundly the hfe of the city. We may note from his
touching and eloquent picture of the Son of Man in his
glory judging the nations and separating the good from the
evil as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
his idea of social work. The rehgious man was to give food
and drink to thei hungry and thirsty, he was to welcome
the stranger, clothe the naked, care for and heal the sick, and
visit those in prison. We find here comprised the chief pubhc
works of charity and helpfulness even at the present time.
And when he went further than to enumerate in specific words
these duties, and, in order to interpret the spirit of his teachings,
added, "Inasmuch as you have done it even to the least of
these my brothers, you have done it to me," we see how truly
social was the entire spirit of his teachings and yet how the
range of his interest as thus depicted was hmited to the local
community. In other parts of his teachings we see that he expected
each worthy citizen not only to care for his individual brothers,
but to perform his duties to the pubhc by the payment of taxes
and the meeting of other pubhc obligations. He clearly recog
nized the need of government and of rulers and the obligations
that rest upon all citizens to give such rulers proper support.
Naturally, under the conditions in which he was hving, nothing
was said about the form of government, either democratic or
imperialistic. Pohtical agitation in the modern sense of the
word would be impracticable; but even worse than that, it
would at that time have absolutely ruined the fundamental
principles of Christianity as applied to the individual. If he
were to become the Messiah, he must be the Messiah not in the
old Jewish pohtical sense of that word but in the new sense of
establishing the rule of God in the hearts of individuals. The
Jewish people were anticipating the coming of a Messiah who
should be a temporal ruler and who should come with sword
and spear to cast off the yoke of Rome and establish a temporal

The Citizen and the State 105
kingdom. Any emphasis, therefore, upon the duty of the
citizens to take a part, however small, in pubhc affairs would
have served to awaken the military spirit of selfish aggression,
which he had determined, after full consideration, would be
absolutely contrary to his spirit of social service which must
begin in the hearts of individual citizens.
It seems evident from the account of the temptations
which he had endured at the time of reflection and planning
before he entered upon his life work, that he had been compelled
to discuss with himself and settle in advance this most funda
mental question of the nature of the new democracy of God
which he was to introduce. He plainly recognized that any
open pohtical act would force him into a position of pohtical
leadership wliich would be absolutely fatal to the establish
ment of the true democracy of God. In speaking of the duties
of men, therefore, he carefully avoided all reference to pubhc
pohtical duties, but laid great emphasis upon the duty of the
individual to his fellow men.
There is no reason, however, to beheve that pohtical
activity in our day is in any sense contrary to the spirit of
Jesus' teachings. Quite the reverse is true. If a man is to
render his complete duty to his fellows, it must be not only by
individual contact with those needing aid and by rendering
individual justice, but also by bringing influence to bear upon
the forms of social organization estabhshed in the community.
Jesus clearly recognized the need of adaptation of method
to time and place. It was therefore only practical for him to
establish the general principles of the rule of God on earth and
to leave to his followers in succeeding generations the task of
applying these principles to the circumstances and needs of
their times.
How far can a preacher take an active part in politics
without weakening his religious influence? Can a university
teacher of politics, in the long run, render greater service to the
pubhc by becoming a leader in party politics or by confining
his activities to non-partisan discussion of political principles
and party issues? Why?
How far is it wise for social workers such as those in social
settlements to engage in political contests? Give full reasons
with illustrative experiences, if possible.

106 Jesus' Principles op Living
II.
The Authority and Obligations op Rulers.
From the accounts given in the New Testament of the
efforts made by his enemies to entice Jesus into condemnation
of the local government authorities and repudiation of his
obhgations to them, we can see how practically wise as well as
politically sound were these principles that he had adopted.
We have perhaps nowhere else in history a wiser or shrewder
evasion of a difficult trap, combined with a direct statement of
a citizen's obhgations, than in his reply to the Pharisees and
certain of Herod's supporters, who attempted to ensnare him
into a repudiation of taxes. " Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar
or is it not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" * Seeing their
trick Jesus replied, "Why do you try to entrap me? Bring me
a coin and let me see it." Then showing them the image and
inscription on the coin he inquired, " Whose image and inscrip
tion are these?" When they replied "Caesar's," it gave him
his opportunity: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,"
and then he continued with his ethical and religious lesson,
"and to God what belongs to God."
Titian's marvellous picture of Jesus in this discussion over
taxes brings out more clearly than is found elsewhere in the
history of art Jesus' intellectual keenness and practical wisdom.
The real nature, however, of the obhgation of rulers in
the exercise of their authority he emphasized strongly in the
statement, which is backed up so well by his hfelong example,
"Whoever wishes to be great among you shall serve you, and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be of service to all."
* There has never been any better statement than this of what
has become at the present time the shibboleth of democratic
government: service to the people. Present pohtical rulers
often speak of themselves as servants of the people with more
or less of a hypocritical note in their accents. They hope to
hoodwink the people by apparently bowing to the dominating
influence that the teachings of Jesus have attained in the estab
lishment of democratic governments, while in reahty serving
their own selfish ends. They must conceal their real, selfish
purposes under the guise of pubhc service.
Why are not the great masses of our people really more

The Citizen and the State 107
competent to decide a complex pohtical problem, hke a tax
or banking law, than are the members of Congress, who get
the aid of scientific experts? What are the weak and the strong
points of the referendum in law making? Ought the people to
rule directly or through chosen representatives? Why?
III.
Ethical Standards of Government.
One of the most difficult questions that all teachers of
ethics and rehgion have had to meet from the beginning of
human history is the formation of ethical standards. What is
right? What is wrong? In all of the complicated affairs of
life, no questions are more difficult to answer. It is easy to say
that to do God's will is right, to violate God's teachings is
wrong, but in the application of these principles to the compli
cated affairs of life, many difficulties arise. What is God's
will in a specific case?
The old Jewish commandments that have formed the
basis of ethical judgments -in many countries are sometimes
contradictory when it comes to their practical application.
"Thou shalt not steal," is a definite command, but occasions
sometimes arise, when if the government or even private
individuals do not take property that legally belongs to others,
they leave individuals or communities to die of cold or starva
tion, and to do so is contrary to the spirit of the command,
"Thou shalt not kilL" Often under the trying emergencies of
the late war, when whole communities were starving and
children were dying hke flies, the only possible remedy for the
evil lay in the taking of property of others without their consent.
Extremists in literal interpretation believe that the injunction
'"Thou shalt not kill" is violated even when, under the authority
of the state, the hfe of a criminal is taken, in order to protect
society. The application of the injunction, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery" must vary greatly in countries where monogamy is
practised as compared with countries where polygamy is legal,
because legalized polygamy is not adultery in law even though
it is in spirit. So'it is in the practical application of many laws
and ethical teachings. Is there any way by which we can deter
mine under the varying conditions what is the absolute stand
ard of right?

108 Jesus' Principles op Living
Better than anywhere else, perhaps, we find the standard
fixed by Jesus in his method of interpreting the ancient Jewish
laws and in his principles of hving as shown throughout his hfe.
That which on the whole benefits humanity is right; that which
injures the community is wrong. We find this standard worked
out specifically in his interpretation of the Hebraic law regard
ing the keeping of the Sabbath and in his defence of David
for meeting his necessities and those of his followers by eating
the showbread that had been reserved for the sole use of the
priests. Throughout his hfe everywhere the one principle that
above all others he placed in the foreground as the test of
service to God and of the fulfillment of God's will is sendee to
one's fellow men. This is Jesus' ethical standard of govern
mental as well as of individual action. The Prussian doctrine
that the individual exists for the state is exactly reversed in
Jesus' conception of the democracy of God. The state exists
for the good of the citizens; and the citizen's obhgation to the
government arises because the government is the agent or
committee of the citizens to promote their own welfare. The
state is all of us organized politically to promote our own
welfare through our government made up of our officials, who
are our agents.
Show that kings hold their positions by the will of their
subjects. Under what conditions may a kingdom ever be a
better form of government than a repubhc?
What did Proudhon mean when he said, "Property is
theft"? Just why is private property right?
Define theft. Distinguish between justifiable killing,
manslaughter, murder.
Under what conditions, if ever, are the acts legally defined
as theft, adultery, murder, morally right? Distinguish clearly
between God's law and man's law; between sin and crime.

IV.
The Doctrine of Non-Resentment.
The spirit of devotion to the welfare of the community
is the key to the interpretation of many of the statements of
Jesus which have often puzzled good men to whom his teachings

The Citizen and the State 109
have seemed impracticable. The command, "Do not resent an
injury, but to him who strikes you on the right cheek turn the
other also," has seemed most unwise as a principle of general
application. So also the assertion, "Give to hi-m who asks of
you and turn away from no one who wishes to borrow from
you," has seemed likewise impossible. Viewed, however, in
the hght of social welfare and of the training of the individual,
these commands are not so difficult.
As the practical means of keeping one'svown spirit calm
and the master of circumstances, it is always unwise to lose
one's temper or permit it to become uncontrollable. The
injunction does not mean that one should not protect himself
against aggression which would be harmful to the community;
it means that one should in a reasonable spirit, without resent
ment, measure the significance of an angry blow and deal with
it accordingly. The spirit of revenge is to be overcome. It
may very well be, in fact as a matter of experience frequently,
if not usually, that the best way to quiet anger is not to be
angry in return, but to meet anger with cool self-control and
to remove the anger by removing any possible cause for it.
The interpretation in the same spirit of the injunction,
"Give liberally and loan freely," shows the wisdom of the advice
under many circumstances. One of the chief advantages, for
example, that has been claimed for the new federal reserve
law in our monetary system is that it provides a means for
extending credit in times of crisis much more liberally than
would otherwise be safe. Likewise in the extending of credit
or giving of charity in private cases, the man who gives skimp-
ingly under the pressure of pubhc opinion neither benefits
himself nor meets the spiritual need of the recipient. He retains
his own stingy spirit and humiliates unnecessarily and unwisely
the one to whom he gives; whereas, the man who gives whole
heartedly in time of need not only gets the happiness of the
truly generous, but awakens in the mind of the recipient a
feeling of gratitude that is beneficial both to him and to
the community. The only rational method of interpreting
special statements is to note the circumstances under wliich
they were uttered and to explain them in accordance with the
spirit of all of Jesus' teachings.
The chief passage on which has been based the so-called
doctrine of non-resistance is the sentence just quoted, "Do not

110 Jesus' Principles op Living
resent an injury," and perhaps the best illustration in the New
Testament of the true spirit of charity is the parable of the
good Samaritan. Jesus, himself, as we know, condemned in
unmeasured terms the hypocrisy, the stinginess, and the cruelty
of the scribes and Pharisees. Can there likewise be any doubt
as to the true spirit of the good Samaritan regarding the show
ing of mercy? If we may imagine that the good Samaritan had
appeared on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho a few minutes
earlier when the struggle was still going on between the robbers
and their victim, can we beheve that he would have stood
idly by without resenting or resisting the acts of the robbers?
We may imagine that the priest would have excused himself
by saying that it was not becoming for one of his profession to
mingle in a pubhc brawl and that he would have passed by
on the other side. So with the selfish Levite. But the good
Samaritan! In an instant he would have been in the midst of
the fight giving blows in return for those suffered, defending
the victim against the robbers; and even if he too had been
overcome and left beaten, half dead, by the wayside with his
fellow, we can imagine that his loyal pubhc spirit would not
have permitted him to regret his acts. Rather would he have
regretted only his failure to reheve his fellow sufferer; and these
two, in the fellowship of common suffering and of a common
nobihty of spirit, would not have repented of their resistance.
They would have regretted only that their resistance had not
been successful, and would have rejoiced that the evil was no
greater. And their feehngs would not have been contrary to the
spirit of Jesus' teachings.
Distinguish between resistance to a law and treason. What
do you understand by righteous indignation? Explain how a
man is justified — if he is — in obeying or in disobeying a law
of the state which he thinks unwise, as a bad tax law, or
wrong, as the fugitive slave act. V.
The Obligations of State to State.
There has been much blind abstract reasoning regarding
the doctrine of sovereignty in the state and regarding the nature
of the state. If we attempt to look at these questions simply

The Citizen and the State 111
and directly, in the light of our everyday experience, we shall
see the spirit of social and pohtical organization as it was
interpreted by Jesus.
We must consider the state as simply all of us organized
primarily for the business of government. In the organization
of all of us we have agreed by some means upon a committee
to carry out our joint will. This committee we call our govern
ment. The act of the state accordingly is the expression of the
will of the citizens of the state, our will; and this will can be
expressed in no other way than through the government. We
must recognize the fact that masses of men, even when well
organized, can act only slowly. It may be that for the time
being our committee men, who are our chosen representatives
in government, will misrepresent our views, and we must get
along until we can choose their successors before our will
can be fully expressed. In the end, however, if our state
is really an organization of the type that Jesus had in mind
when he was planning a democracy of God, it is certain that
the standard of pohtical morality and the standard of social
morality of any state will accord with the pohtical and social
morality of the mass of individuals of which it is composed.
The autocratic idea of the state differs materially from
the Christian idea of the state as represented in the spirit
of the teachings of Jesus. In the autocracy a few men do
the thinking and the planning for the entire community, while
the masses under their direction carry out the will of these few.
This plan from certain points of view has its advantages. In this
way promptness of action is assured so long as the masses are
obedient. In many cases greater efficiency of action is secured
within a brief period of time than would be possible in any
democracy. The result of the Great War, however, shows that in the
end where principles of right are at stake, when time has been
taken for the minds and hearts of the individual citizens to be
aroused and for their wills to reach a decision, the efficiency of
democracy is far greater than the more mechanical efficiency
of autocracy. With this conception of the state, we may see that in the
hght of the teachings of Jesus the obhgation of state to state
should be substantially that of individual to individual. That
would be the natural and inevitable meaning of carrying the

112 Jesus' Principles of Living
principles of Jesus into that realm. The welfare of the com
munity is the criterion of judgment of right and wrong for the
individual. The welfare first of the individual citizens should
be the criterion of judgment and the goal of action of the govern
ment of each separate state in its own internal affairs. In
external affairs the welfare of the nations at large, of the world
as a whole, should be the purpose of every state and its standard
for measuring the right and wrong of its action. This does not
mean that a state should not protect its own rights. Indeed, it
cannot well promote the welfare of humanity if it does not
maintain its own rights and strength. But the welfare of all
nations is the chief basis of international action for determining
questions of peace and war. No one can exaggerate the horrors
of war. And yet, looking ahead to the distant future and
considering the welfare of not any one nation but of the world at
large, we may easily see that a war that is not one of aggression,
but one fought to uphold the principles of justice, to overthrow
autocracy and to bring other nations of the world into the
commonwealth of God, may be a war conducted absolutely in
the spirit of the Prince of Peace.
In what way is the interest of the United States as a whole
promoted or lessened by the State of New York keeping in mind
primarily its own interest while considering always its duty to
the nation? Consider whether a man of unusual business
ability serves the community best by giving away all his prop
erty, or by conducting his business carefully, increasing produc
tion and then using a part of his income for building his business
and part for direct pubhc service.
How far did King Albert of Belgium carry out the prin
ciples given above in counseling resistance to Germany's
demands at the beginning of the World War?

VI.
The Christian Program For World Peace.
Throughout all history there have been advocates of a
world peace, and numerous have been the plans for its attain
ment through a league of nations. In the days of ancient
Greece we find the Amphictyonic Council. Even the execrated

The Citizen and the State 113
Congress of Vienna thought that it evolved a plan for a world
peace. The great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant,
formulated his plan for a league to prevent wars, and numerous
other like attempts have been made.
During the Great War men's minds had been filled and
inspired with the hope that a repetition of its horrors might be
prevented for all time. The attempt has again been made to
form a league of nations to attain this end. Many men with
hopeful vision have thought that the field of a nation's activi
ties is too narrow for their plans and that it is now possible to
usher in a regime of cosmopolitanism. Some men apparently
already feel that the thought of citizenship in a state is too
narrow and that one should think of himself primarily as a
citizen of the world state. Others think such views are unprac
tical and even wrong.
In what way does Jesus' marvellous insight into human
nature throw hght upon this question? What suggestions do
his principles of society give for the solution of this most
difficult problem?
As we have seen, the unit of thinking is the individual
and the unit of action in the community is primarily the
individual man. As the community is bettered by the building
over of the natures of the individuals, eventually a nation
may become a new and better type of nation. So likewise in
accordance with the spirit of Jesus' teachings the great world
federation of states must be built up step by step. As each ¦
nation, through its individual members expressing their will
through its government, accepts and acts in the spirit of Jesus
in its effort to promote the welfare of other nations and of the
world, there gradually will be built up associations of nations,
democratic in form and in the spirit of the democracy of God.
As this spirit gradually transforms nation after nation, there
will slowly arise the world state that will be in reality the
democracy of God on earth.
When we consider the character of the acts of the different
nations during the past decade, when we consider the spirit
with which the representatives of the governments of different
nations conducted themselves at the Peace Conference, is
it possible to hope that as yet we have attained to this best
world state? In the light of the same conclusions, is it too
much to hope that there is already in existence in at least

114 Jesus' Principles op Living
some of the nations enough of the unselfish spirit of Jesus to
enable them to form a league of nations that shall be the begin
ning of this world state? If we follow the teachings of Jesus,
is it as yet too early for individuals to attempt to act in a
cosmopolitan way? With a vision of universal brotherhood,
they must look forward to an all-embracing democracy. All
great social movements require time, since they involve the
changing of the minds and hearts and wills of the many; but
gradually though slowly, through the growth of this league
of democracies there will arise the world state, a universal
brotherhood which Jesus characterized as the democracy of God.
It cannot be forgotten, however, as a principle both of
growth and of permanent activity, that the democracy of God
is within you; it is and must forever remain in the hearts of
individual citizens.

When the United States buys a ship from Brazil, what
individuals act? What does each one do? How much personal
discretion does he exercise? In how far is this method in accord
ance with Jesus' methods? Which official affects most your
personal interests, the tax assessor, the governor of your state,
or the Secretary of State of the United States?
Subjects for Further Study.
(1) Compare the views of Aristotle regarding private property with
those of Proudhon.
(2) Examine carefully the New Testament teachings regarding duties
of rulers and duties to rulers.
(3) Compare the pohtical power of the President of the United States
with that of the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
(4) Compare the Paris Conference's draft of the League of Nations
with Immanuel Kant's Plan for Perpetual Peace; with the plans of the
Congress of Vienna.

CHAPTER X.
THE RULE OF GOD.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 267-280.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 313-355.
Follett, The New State, pp. 258-295,

The Rule op God 115
Asked by the Pharisees when the rule of God would come, Jesus
answered, "The rule of God will not come in visible form, nor will people
say, 'Look, it is here,' or, 'It is there'; for the rule of God is within you."
Luke 17: 20, 21.
To his disciples he gave this illustration: "The rule of Heaven is like
a grain of mustard-seed which a man sows in his field. It is the smallest
of all seeds, jret it grows up to be the largest of plants and becomes a tree,
so that the wild birds come and perch on its branches." — Matt. 13: 31, 82.
And again he said, "To what shall I liken the rule of God? It is like
yeast which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until the whole
had risen." Matt. 13: 33.
He said also, "It is with the rule of God as with a man who sows seed
in the ground, and sleeps by night and rises by day, while the seed sprouts
and grows up, he knows not how. The ground bears crops of itself, first a
blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear." Mark 4- 26-28. (Shorter
Bible translation.)

Current Jewish Ideas of the Rule op God.
Among all the nations of antiquity the Hebrews were the
first to develop a thoroughly democratic theory of government.
From the days when their forefathers broke away from the
grinding pohtical and industrial despotism of Egypt, their
history was one long struggle to maintain "the rule of the
people, by the people, for the people."
Against foreign invaders and conquerors and against their
own tyrannically minded rulers, such as Solomon and Ahab,
they stubbornly asserted their convictions, with the result that
they built up a commonwealth which was not a kingdom but
in every vital respect a democracy. The words translated in
our King James version of the Bible, "King" and "Kingdom,"
come from a root meaning to counsel. In original meaning and
as defined in the history of the Hebrew commonwealth, these
current translations are unjustified and misleading. "Democ
racy" is a far more exact modern equivalent of the Hebrew
and Aramaic words which we have hitherto unthinkingly
translated " Kingdom." All the ardent hopes that in the minds
of Jesus' contemporaries gathered about the popular slogan,
the rule or democracy of God, were a protest against the
prevailing despotism. It was a term redolent with memories
of struggle and self-sacrificing devotion. In Jewish circles it
still had unlimited power to arouse the passions of resentment
and hate, of loyalty and self-sacrifice. It was at the same time
a protest, an ideal and a social program. But the meaning was

116 Jesus' Principles op Living
not the same to all. In the diverse groups in Judaism it had
very different meanings.
To the hot-headed Zealots from whose ranks Jesus enlisted
one of his f oUowers, it represented their hopes of the re-establish
ment of a Jewish state akin to that founded by David at
Jerusalem in the early days. It meant the overthrow of the
autocratic Roman Empire, the subjugation of the heathen, and
the rule of mankind by the Jewish race. This interpretation
was not only material and narrowly nationalistic, but it imper
illed the very existence of the Jewish nation, as the tragic events
of 68 to 70 A.D. demonstrated; for then the Zealots gained the
ascendancy, and as a result the Jewish state went down
in ruin. To the educated Pharisees and the majority of the Jews
of Palestine who followed their rehgious leadership,* the rule
of God was interpreted more spiritually. It was to be instituted
not by fire and the sword but by miraculous means. As pre
dicted in Daniel 2: 44, the God of heaven was expected to
destroy the heathen kingdoms and to establish on an enduring
basis the universal rule of his chosen people. They beheved
that the pious dead would rise again to life, to join with the
righteous on earth in an era of peace and good will. Signs and
portents in the heavens were to herald the beginning of this
new age. The promised Messianic ruler was to be suddenly
revealed and establish his rule throughout the world.
The picture of God's just and merciful rule presented in
certain of the Psalms (2-9, 29, 47, 95-100), in which he alone
was exalted and in which all nations freely shared, was almost
forgotten by Jesus' contemporaries. Forgotten also, except
by certain inspired prophets hke Hillel and John the Baptist,
were the teachings of Isaiah and Jeremiah and the great prophet
who wrote Isaiah 40-55, that the divine purpose in human
history could be realized only by the patient, self-sacrificing
co-operation of his people; that justice and mercy were the only
foundation on which an enduring social order could be founded;
and that it was more important and more glorious to serve
than to rule. Like the Germans before the Great War, impelled
by their iridescent dream of Pan-Germanism, the vast majority
of the Jews of the first Christian century were following a
will-o'-the-wisp which was leading them far from the path of
duty and of progress.

The Rule op God 117
• How did the aspirations of the majority of the Jews in
Jesus' day differ from those of the Pan-Germanists in 1913?
How do you explain the growth of such unethical and selfish
national aspirations? Why is national self-seeking more
insidious and deadly than individual selfishness? What form
does this peril take in America? II.
Jesus' Interpretation of~the Rule of God.
From earliest yputh Jesus had been familiar with the
popular hopes of his race. ' In the book of Daniel and the latter
part of Zechariah he found them incorporated in the sacred
writings. The atmosphere of Palestine was so surcharged with
them that they have found a place even in the later records
of his teachings. What was his interpretation of the kinetic
phrase, rule or democracy of God? Widely different have been
the modern answers to this vital question. The brilhant
French savant, Renan, saw in Jesus simply the devoted fanatic
enraptured and lured on to his ruin by these impracticable
dreams. Conservative interpreters, who ignore the historical
analyses of the gospel records, find in him a remarkable com
bination of the apocalyptic dreamer and the practical social
and spiritual teacher. The critical historical student is intro
duced in the oldest gospel records to a practical rehgious leader
and organizer, who stood squarely on the reahties of hfe and
spent his short years and his life-blood in silently combating
the wrong popular interpretations of the prophetic ideal of the
rule of God by giving to it a deeper ethical, social and spiritual
meaning. He too divested it of all its narrow nationalistic
associations and made it a working program for every individual
and therefore for the human race.
Nowhere does Jesus attempt to define the rule of God.
The meaning and historic associations of the pregnant phrase
proclaimed to every thoughtful Jew its essential democracy.
Jesus did, however, by a large number of illustrations and
comparisons, make clear its real character, and this method
was far more effective than abstract definition. Its democracy
he illustrated by the story of the man who invited to his feast
not only the rich and cultured, but also the poor, the crippled,
the bhnd, the lame, and even the homeless outcasts that could

118 Jesus' Principles "op Living
be gathered along any oriental highway (Luke 14: la, l5b-24).
Thus with one sweeping statement he freed the old prophetic
ideal from all the race and class prejudice and privilege that
had gathered about it, and threw wide open the door to every
human being of every race and faith.
In the same incisive way he cleansed the ideal of the gross
materialism that had almost wholly obscured its real character.
In answer to a question asked by a Pharisee which betrayed his
material and temporal conception of it, Jesus declared' in
clearest terms: "The rule of God will not come in visible form,
nor will people say, 'Look, it is here,' or, 'It is there,' for the
rule of God is within you." Thus the spectacular Pharisaic
expectations of a final trumpet blast, of divided heavens, of
falling stars and of the bodies of the dead rising from the opened
graves were flung aside by this clear-eyed Son of Reahty. In
imagination one can hear the gasp of the questioning Pharisee.
Gonejkre all the dramatic trappings with which he had decked
and in the end concealed this divine plan. In the searchlight
of Jesus' interpretation it stood forth in its practical simplicity.
He taught that the rule of God is established here and now in
the heart of every man who recognizes God's good purpose
working out in all creation and who is ready to co-operate with
his divine Friend and Father in perfecting that purpose in his
own soul, in his family, in his community, and in the hfe of
humanity. How far is Jesus' teaching regarding what is popularly
called the "Kingdom of God" clearly understood by the
average Christian to-day? By those outside the church?
What are the reasons for the prevailing vagueness? To what
extent is the tendency to externalize and materialize the rule
of God still at work to-day? How does the meaning of "Thy
will be done" in the Lord's prayer differ from that of '"Thy
rule come?" III.
The Growth of the Rule of God.
It has already been noted that Jesus placed emphasis upon
the individual, his originality, his worth, his power to exercise
influence over others. In the parable of the mustard seeds and
of the leaven we find clearly depicted the method by which

The Rule of God 119
Jesus expected this rule to be extended. He himself was infused
with the spirit of God. He associated with himself his twelve
interested followers, believing that they through him would be
imbued with the same thought and the same spirit. Each of
them in turn would come into contact with other individuals
and fill them with the same thought and same spirit. Thus by
individual touch the thoughts and the spirit of God would
gradually, httle by httle, spread throughout the world until
the entire world would be filled. The parable of the leavened
bread in which the particles of yeast have each gradually
inoculated the others until the whole has been leavened is
perhaps the most accurate illustration of Jesus' process^ of
social reform. ,'
In ancient Greece, Socrates had much the same plan.
He spent his time in the market place giving forth his ideas by
precept, and by his keen questioning arousing in the minds,
especially of the young men, the ambition to think for them
selves and to work out the problems of life. Each one of them
Socrates felt would become a center of activity for the enlighten
ment of the people. __
Jesus' method of leaving his followers to apply the teachings
left them free to adopt any form of social action which does not
violate his principles. Of course, the methods of spreading
ideas and of exerting influence upon others will change with
the times. In the ancient days there was, relatively speaking,
httle traveling of individuals from place to place. In conse
quence, the spreading of ideas was much less rapid than now;
but even then Jesus sent his disciples throughout the neighbor
ing country in order that his ideas might be more rapidly
spread abroad; and his chief missionary follower, Paul, under
took great journeys throughout a large part of the Roman
world in order that all parts might learn the good news.
The cultivation of public opinion by sermons and discus
sions can be more thoroughly and rapidly followed up at the
present time through the press, through the use of moving
pictures, and through all the other methods of propaganda,
direct and indirect, that were carefully worked out by the
different governments at the time of the Great War. ,
We think of education primarily in connection with the
schools, and of course it is true that the best time for inculcating,
especially moral lessons and noble practices of life, is when

120 Jesus' Principles op Living
people are young. The lessons can then be more thoroughly
taught and children's minds are much less distracted by com
peting interests.
At the present time, however, the plans and the practice
of education are by no means limited to children. Every
pohtical campaign, every great social movement is an educa
tional process, and the growth of the democracy of God likewise
must be through such an educational process. Inasmuch as
the spirit of Jesus fills one with the desire of communicating
the glad tidings to others in order that they also may be bene
fited, each one who is truly Christian will feel the responsibihty
of undertaking to spread the good news by every means within
his. power. The responsibihty does not differ with a man's
trade or profession. Only the methods of approach will differ.
The responsibihty rests upon the merchant, the farmer, the
railroad man, as much as upon the preacher, the teacher, and
the editor. It is a question of employing to the best advantage
the means that are in one's possession to secure the rapid
growth of the democracy of God.
How can a shoemaker or a blacksmith preach the gospel
of Jesus to. his customers to the utmost of his ability? What
effect has the printing press had on the power of personal
appeal? What at present is the personal influence of the sales
man or of the orator or of the business organizer?

IV.
Conditions of Participation in the Rule of God.
Every association consisting of members has certain
conditions for admission to membership. Even an all-inclusive
organization hke the state has such conditions. A man must
be born ^within the territory, or after a period of residence he
must pass certain examinations or give proof of the possession
of certain qualifications before he is admitted to participate in
the privileges of citizenship or is held responsible for its duties.
For most associations having a specific purpose, whether the
purpose be pleasure or protection or profit or rehgion, people
are required to make declaration of their behef and to under
take certain responsibilities before they are admitted. Jesus,

The Rule op God , 121
Hkewise, in undertaking the conquest of the world by the
spreading of his ideas doubtless contemplated the organization
of a great society made up of his followers. Believing as he
did in the overwhelming power of ideas as affecting character,
he placed emphasis upon a change of heart, a regeneration
through beliefs, and laid httle stress upon the form of organiza
tion. The elaborate constitution of our rehgious organizations,
our churches, and the later developments brought about through
the advantages of organization to accomphsh results, have been
attended with the same dangers that accompany all organiza
tions for specific purposes, such as pohtical parties or temperance
societies or co-operative insurance companies or trade unions.
There is always a danger that the organization will be diverted
from being a means to promote certain ideas into becoming an
end in itself. The leaders, holding positions of influence and
often of profit, naturaUy wish to retain their control. Often,
too, strong individuals having certain views of their own will
graft their personal views upon the fundamental principles
for which the organization was made, and in consequence the
whole organization will be shunted on to new lines. The
Republican party and the Democratic party in our own country
have both retained their organization even when the funda
mental principles of their platforms have been modified, or at
times even reversed. So likewise in the churches we find that
certain denominations have emphasized forms of baptism or of
other cherished ordinances, or have placed supreme stress upon
a hierarchical organization. These things have sometimes
diverted the individual members from the real spirit with
which Jesus started the organization. His injunction was
simply, "FoUow me;" his thought, that each individual would
feel his spirit and would devote himself unselfishly in whatever >
way seemed to him best for the carrying out of God's will in
human society. NaturaUy there is no condemnation for an
individual who helps birild an organization to carry out Jesus'
ideas, but there is always danger that an organization wiU be
diverted from its principles, and it is the duty of its members
constantly to keep in mind the principles for which the organ
ization is built.
Jesus laid down for his disciples the conditions of absolute
devotion to the carrying out of his ideas. A man must be ready

122 Jesus' Principles of Living
to abandon father and mother, wife and chUdren, and he must
make whatever sacrifices of wealth or position or even fannly
duties that are necessary to the more imperative duty of carry
ing out God's will. That means he must invariably foUow his
own conscience; he must always do what at the moment he
beheves to be his duty. This primarily is the condition of
participation in the democracy of God.
Just what constitutes a " caU " to service of any kind?
In what ways may we determine God's wiU regarding our daily
duties? Or regarding our hfe work?
Explain and iUustrate the difficulties of applying moral
principles to a merchant's business.

V,
The Individual's Part in This Rule.
Jesus looked upon the individual as the basis of his organ
ization. There are various ways in which he may play his part.
He may work publicly in the special field of rehgion as a
preacher of the Gospel, as a teacher in the Sunday school, or
as an editor of a rehgious pubhcation, or as a pubhc lecturer on
moral and rehgious topics.
There is no reason, however, for believing that Jesus laid
emphasis upon the method of work. The chief emphasis is
placed upon the spirit in which a man works. AU of us have
individual gifts. No two are endowed ahke. One man has a
special faculty for bmlding and handling machinery, whereas
he would make a faUure at pubhc teaching. He may serve God
better and do more to promote the welfare of God's democracy
by bmlding and manufacturing machinery to further the work
and welfare of society than by attempting to preach. If a
man conducts his business as a banker absolutely in the spirit
of Jesus' teachings, he wiU do much to promote the health, the
welfare and the comfort, and to uphft the spirit of the com
munity. In aU probabUity he can do more for the welfare
of the community by following his own work most faith
fuUy and honestly than in any other way. Likewise a
lawyer in his separate field can probably accomphsh more for
society by securing the righteous interpretation of law and the

The Rule of God 123
promotion of justice than by attempting to preach. We should
do away with the idea that any one calling is sacred. We should
rather insist upon it that each individual should make his own
calling sacred through the spirit in which he follows it.
Do most men choose dehberately their hfe work or do they
drift into it? How is it possible to learn one's aptitude for a
calling without testing it by experience? Is it ever desirable to
change the plan of one's life work? Under what conditions?
Vi.
The Rule of God and the State.
A good citizen is the man who in his own field of personal
activity devotes himself — all that he has and all that he is —
to the welfare of the community. We shall have a true repubhc
in the sense in Wliich Jesus spoke of the democracy of God when
we have aU of the thinking citizens in any community filled
with pubhc spirit.
There has been and still is a belief on the part of some that
a change in our economic organization is necessary 'n order that
we may attain the best pohtical organization. It is argued that
so long as we have a wage system and some men work in the
service of others there can never be a true democracy. To
attain this ideal it has been proposed that the production of all
wealth be placed in the hands of the government and that
individuals selected for that purpose direct all of the business
affairs of a community. Thus it is thought there will be attained
hkewise a better type of pohtical order. Such a plan places
the great mass of the individuals in a community under the
absolute direction of a few leaders as regards not only their
pohtical but also their business activities. Inasmuch as such
a process has thus far in human history resulted only in the
tyranny of the few over the many, it is the direct opposite of
tlie one advocated by Jesus.
His teaching clearly implies that if to the individuals
in a community is given the proper spirit of self-development
for the pubhc good, any form of business organizations or any
form of pohtical organizations may exist and still give us the
democracy of God.
If under the wage system both employers and wage earners

124 Jesus' Principles op Living
are filled with the unselfish spirit of Jesus, and the present
evils in the wage system are remedied, we shall attain justice in
the industrial world just as completely as would be possible
under any system of socialism. If on the other hand in a
sociahstic state the rulers should not have the unselfish spirit
of Jesus, there Would be an economic tyranny worse than any
existing under the wage system. There is no reason to beheve,
as has been often claimed, that a change in the form of pohtical
organization would bring about so great a change in human
nature that better results would be attained by adopting such
a form of government. In fact the experience of humanity
from the days of Aristotle to date seems to prove that in spite
of the many evils that exist, the institution of private property
and of a form of government working as rapidly as possible
toward a democracy, even with its many difficulties, is the
surest way to progress toward the real democracy of God, even
though the progress is slow.
The nearest approach to a completely democratic organiza
tion in industry is found in voluntary co-operative societies,
where all the workers are stockholders and furnish aU the
capital. This is not socialism. The state does not own the
property, nor the government manage it.
The democracy of God is in no sense averse to proper
discipline. The best discipline comes from the promulgation
of the spirit of service, so that each individual gladly submits
himself to the direction of others whenever that is necessary
in order to attain the best results. A willing co-operation and
a glad subordination of one's self to the direction of others for
the pubhc good secures the best discipline.
i Every thoughtful man knows that great intelligence
and superior organizing skill are required for the best type
of organization in either business or politics. There is
no reason for believing that ignorance added to ignorance
will produce wisdom. The referendum of technical subjects
to a general vote of the untrained masses can never attain
the best results. On the other hand, the cultivation of the
spirit of righteousness and honesty in all classes of the com
munity, so that those who are not trained may select those
who are trained in each special field to do their work, wiU
secure the best results. No sensible man attempts to be his
own physician, to conduct his own lawsuits, to build bis own

The Way to Happiness and Success 125
steam-engine, or to manage his own factory, unless he is a man
trained in that special field. He engages experts to do such
work. So should it be in connection with government. We
should have a democratic government, conducted in the spirit
of Jesus in which the individual voters shall each select as tiieir
representatives the trained men in the special fields in which
work is required. This type of government is in accordance
with Jesus' plan of changing first the hearts of the citizens, and
then trusting the citizens with public spirit to work out the
best results for all.

Distinguish clearly between social reform and socialism.
Why cannot people take the same interest in an industry owned
and managed by the government as in one owned and managed
by themselves? Why are you not as interested in the work of
the post office as in your own business?
Subjects for Further Study. \^
(1) How far did the beliefs of the early Jewish Christians regarding
the second coming of Jesus preserve in a new setting the nationahstic
hopes of their race?
(2) In how far do these beliefs still obscure in many minds the social
and spiritual significance of Jesus' mission?
(3) Formulate a definition of the rule or democracy of God.
(4) Think out carefully the advantages and disadvantages of private
property. (5) Look up and report on some socialistic or communistic_experi-
ments.) *

CHAPTER XI.
THE WAY TO HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets and Jesus, pp. 220-224.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 356-392.
Follett, The New State, pp. 296-330.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Blessed are the receptive in spirit,
For they are under the rule of God.
Blessed are the modest.
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who mourn,

126 Jesus' Principles of Living
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted because of their righteousness,
For they are under the rule of God.
Blessed are you when you are reviled, persecuted, and falsely maligned
because of your loyalty to me;
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so the
prophets who preceded you were persecuted." Matt. 5: 2-12. (Shorter
Bible translation.)

Jesus' Appreciation op Happiness.
Jesus recognized that the desire for happiness is a dominant
motive in the mind of every man and that that desire is natural
and right. He himself felt it strongly, and his teachings regard
ing the way in which true happiness can be attained are based
on his own experience as well as on his keen and sympathetic
observation. So important did he deem this question that he
placed the answer to it at the very beginning of the memorable
talk on the hilltop with his disciples in which he laid down his
fundamental principles of hving (Matt. 5-7). These beatitudes
took the place of the stern "Thou-shalt-nots" of the Old
Testament law. This fact was a plain declaration that the
religion which he proclaimed was indeed "Good News," a
religion of joy and not of gloom.
.'•*¦ - Jesus condensed his teachings regarding happiness into
eight brief beatitudes. The beatitude is an especially attractive
and effective form of teaching, for it is undogmatic and pictur
esque. In reality each beatitude is an exclamation: "How
divinely happy are the reeeptive in spirit!" In the presence of
a sunset we all exclaim involuntarily, "How beautiful!" So in
the beatitude the teacher and the ones taught view life together
and formulate their common conclusions.
The Greek word interpreted "blessed" was used by the
classic writers to describe only the superlative happiness of the
gods. The original Hebrew and Aramaic word represented the

The Way to Happiness and Success 127
state of perfect happiness that came from going straight and
bang right: "How normal and happy are the modest!"
Most men in Jesus' day as in our day, too, even after these
many years, made the mistake of thinking that happiness can
be attained by direct pursuit. Youth too often learns by
pitiful experience the principle that Jesus was seeking to teach:
real happiness comes only as a result of fulfilling certain simple
but definite conditions. The supreme tragedy of human life is
that in the hot and direct pursuit of that which promised to
give happiness, countless milhons throughout the ages have
suffered physical, mental, and moral shipwreck. Moreover
they fail to distinguish between pleasure and happiness. Jesus
sought to prevent all this appalling human wreckage by showing
men the better, the only way to win happiness that is real and
enduring. . „
What is the difference between pleasure and happiness?
Is pleasure wrong in itself? Why did the Puritans condemn
practicaUy aU secular pleasures? How far does the happiness
of the individual depend upon wealth? Upon the possession
of health? What evidence is there that it is part of the eternal
purpose revealed in the universe that every individual should
be happy? II.
The Mental Attitudes Essential to Happiness
The first condition of perfect happiness is a receptive"
attitude. The poor or receptive in spirit are those Who are
ready to learn from every experience and every teacher and
above aU from the divine Teacher. They, therefore, are pre
eminently quafified to co-operate in establishing the rule of
God, and to them above all others belong the blessings that it
wiU bring to mankind. In fact, as a result of that attitude
they are already enjoying the blessings of that rule. The second
condition is modesty or humility. Unfortunately our English
words do not fully convey the strength and heroism suggested
by this beatitude. To curb one's natural tendency to be self-
assertive and to resent real or imagined slights requires the
highest strength and courage. He who is able to do so, at once
frees himself from those feehngs of envy and jealousy and

128 Jesus' Principles of Living
wounded pride that are the most insidious and mahgnant foes
of his happiness. Ordinarily men feel under obhgation to
repress the one who is ever urging his own rights and sounding
his own praises and to champion the cause of the one whose
abihty outruns his claims. Notwithstanding appearances, the
real honors in the end pass to the modest. As Jesus declared,
"The modest inherit the earth." The modest man learns
from his own mistakes and from the unenvied excellence of
others, and thus acquires power to attain for himself. It is
frequently the case that our best business men endeavor to
secure the services of lawyers who have beaten them in court
or of rivals who have surpassed them in competitive fields.
They are glad in their meekness to learn from any one. And
their modesty pays dividends. The very wealthy usually have
this sane, teachable spirit.
Not the least of the possessions of the modest is the at
mosphere of tranquillity and contentment which this modesty
creates and which is absolutely essential to happiness.
From the context it is evident that the happiness of those
who mourn is not because they mourn for the loss of friends or
material possessions but because their ideals for themselves
and for society are those of God himself and they lament their
own failure and that of others to reahze them. The sense of
forgiveness, of growth, and of progress alone comforts them.
Hence theirs is the feeling of harmony with God and man, the
joy of achievement, the consciousness of development, and
these are among the most fertile sources of real happiness.
Hunger and thirst are perhaps the most compelling forces
in the life of man. We of the western world, however, cannot
appreciate the full significance that Jesus' figure in the fourth
beatitude had for the men, women, and children hving in the
parched East and in a thickly populated land where raging
thirst and gnawing hunger were a frequent experience of the
majority. As in most of Jesus' beatitudes, his opening words,
"Happy are those who hunger and thirst," seemed a strange
paradox. He took pleasure in thus putting in startling contrast
the superficial thoughts of men and those of God as proclaimed
by fact and experience. They who hunger and thirst for the
right and to be right and that the right may prevail are supremely
happy. Theirs is a diviner happiness, when their hunger and
thirst are satisfied, than that of the famished man at a bountiful

The Way to Happiness and Success 129
banquet or that of a thrist-wracked desert wanderer as he at
last stoops down to drink from a cool, gushing spring.
An open and receptive mind, a modesty which is forgetful
of self and loses itself in the service of others, high ideals and
persistency in striving to attain them, and an impelhng desire
to know what is right and to see that the right always prevails
-r- these are the quahties that the business man demands in
him to whom he entrusts important interests. These are the
virtues that we desire to find in our friends, and these are the
mental attitudes that insure our happiness in this life and
through eternity.
What is the value of the paradox in teaching a new and
important truth? How does Jesus' life illustrate the strength
and heroic quahty of humility? Which is the more potent
source of unhappiness: the consciousness of being wronged or
that of having wronged another? Wliich of these beatitudes
have you found most productive of happiness? Have you
tested and found the truth of them aU? What ones have you
thus tested? III.
The Attitude toward Society Essential for Happiness.
No teacher in the history of humanity saw more clearly
than Jesus the tragic, deadly effects of sin; no one appreciated
as did he, the infinite mercy and love of God toward the victims
of sin. Slow-footed science is beginning to discover how potent
are the forces in nature that combat disease and the influences
at work in society to overcome the effects of the folly and
weakness of individuals and races. In the presence of modern
scientific discovery, we stand in awe before the forces that
make for health and sanity and progress. The forces that4
make for degeneration and destruction are present too, but
the theory of evolution is simply a formulation of the conviction,
based on the study of milhons of data, that the forces working
for life and progress in the physical world are ascendant. The
saine is true in the mental and moral realms. The struggle
between these antagonistic forces is the drama of eternity, a
drama of reahties that make up the history of the universe.
In the last four beatitudes Jesus was trying to make clear

130 Jesus' Principles op Living
to men the unending happiness that would be theirs if they
enhsted all their energies on the side of the eternal forces that
make for progress. He taught his disciples to pray, "Forgive
us our wrong-doing as we forgive those who wrong us." Mercy
is one of the attributes of God. Mercy begets mercy. To a
sensitive soul no pain is more intense than that which comes
from regret and remorse for wrong done to others. Regret and
remorse are the flames of the real heU in which every sinner
finds himself sooner or later. They are the deadly foes of all
happiness. Every rehgion has been compeUed by the crying
needs of suffering humanity to offer some way of escape.
Judaism suggested the insufficient palliatives of almsgiving and
sacrifice and ceremonial. Jesus quietly waived these aside and
proposed a more fundamental, in fact the only cure: hke God,
be merciful to aU men, and then the happiness you crave
wiU be yours, for you wiU learn the power of love to forgive.
You wUl be merciful to your penitent self as you are to others.
Your feUow men wiU gladly grant to you the mercy and for
giveness that you give to them, and at last you wiU understand
how completely your own sins and failures are forgiven by the
eternal heart of love. Then you wiU experience the deep
abiding happiness that comes to a soul freed from aU harshness
and hatred and fiUed with a sense of harmony with aU men and
with the infinite WUl that is working for perfection
The sixth beatitude is too axiomatic to require interpretation :
" Supremely normal and happy are the pure in heart, for they
shaU see God." The Aramaic word means both mind and heart.
The scientist who studies nature with unbiased mind sees
clearly certain of the infinite manifestations of God. The
open-minded inventor discovers certain principles^ hitherto
hidden and makes them useful for the service of mankind.
The joy of discovery is certainly one of the purest sources of
happiness known to men.
In the light of its Old Testament message, the phrase
"pure in heart" described especiaUy that freedom from prej
udice and from the shadow of sin and of those impure or
superficial thoughts or unbridled feelings that darken the
vision, confuse the judgment and make the great majority of
men wholly or partiaUy blind to the manifestations of God and
of his good purpose. These good purposes are evident at every
turn to the men who have eyes to see, and give them while here

The Way to Happiness and Success 131
on earth a foretaste of the happiness which is in store for us
throughout eternity.
. Why does the merciful attitude necessitate more accurate
analysis of motives but no more leniency in the treatment of a
defiant criminal? Cite typical cases from the life of Jesus and
from modern life. Why are chUdren usually inclined to con
demn in others sins or faults which they overlook or excuse in
themselves? In how far is the Christian Science teaching that
the sins of the individual do not represent the real self correct?
Is social immorality increasing or decreasing in our Anglo-
Saxon nations? Cf. e.g., reports of draft boards. What meas
ures can and should the church take to combat this evU?
IV.
The Joy of Co-operating With God.
Into the seventh and eighth beatitudes Jesus put the
essence of his life experience. Whatever be his origin, his
supreme title to be called the Son of God hes in the fact that,
hke his divine Father, he was a creator of harmony and com
pleteness. The meaning of these pregnant Aramaic words has
already been discussed (p. 26). From chUdhood to old age
one of the chief sources of happiness is creation. The author,
the artist, the architect, the manual laborer, the devoted parent,
the statesman, and aU who rise above the mere struggle for
food and possessions find their great joy in constructive work.
"Constructive workmanship" is one of the most significant
watchwords of the present day. To make man's happiness
complete it is important (1) that the work be weU done, (2)
that it win recognition because it supplies a real need, and (3)
that it permanently enrich the life of humanity. The work
that Jesus sets before his' foUowers in the highest measure
meets these exacting requirements. He invites them to join
with God in buUding weU that which is not temporal but
eternal: developed manhood and womanhood, the perfect
home and community and society, and above all thus to secure
for themselves and for their fellows that complete happiness
which alone wiU make perfect the joy of God himself.
Were we not hving in an heroic age, Jesus' eighth beatitude
would seem too paradoxical to be true: "Supremely blest are

132 Jesus' Principles op Living \
those who are persecuted because they are doing right, for they
already share the joys of God's rule!" Lest it should not be
fuUy understood he expands it: "Suffering for a cause like
that which I present alhes you with the heroic order of the
prophets and insures to you unending happiness." The records
of the beloved community that rallied about Jesus and his
cause Ulustrate the joy that came to ordinary men and women
even in the midst of persecution and in part even because of per
secution. The j oy of sacrifice for a noble cause and for conscience'
sake was theirs. And there can be no truer joy. The history of
his f oUowers during the strenuous opening Christian centuries is
also replete with dramatic iUustrations. The blood-stained
battle fields of France Ulustrated the unspeakable happiness
that comes, through the sacrifice of comfort and possessions,
and life if need be, for a great cause. "It was aU one great and
glorious picnic," one coUege boy of twenty wrote to Ins mother
when the armistice was signed and he looked back on three
months spent in leading his company, almost without cessation, '
against shock and sheU, in the face of machine gun fire and the
more deadly perU of poisoned gas. Perhaps the greatest tragedy
in human life is never to have felt and responded to the call
to suffer in behaff of a great cause. Jesus worked and taught
and gave his hfe that he might deliver men from this tragedy
and give them this exquisite happiness of life. "Supremely
happy are you when you are reviled, persecuted, and falsely
maligned because of your loyalty to me" was said first to his
early foUowers and they knew it was true; but it contains an
eternal principle which our old, easy-going world was fast
forgetting before it was aroused by the strenuous demands of the
new age. If the ideals for which our finest youth have so gener
ously given their lives are to be preserved, even greater and
more universal loyalty and sacrifice are now demanded.
In his quiet way Jesus established new standards of value,
although he was ready to test them aU in the scales of individual
happiness. Instead of wealth and possessions, personal honors,
prestige and power, he set as goals for which to strive, open-
mindedness, modesty, a yearning for absolute truth, justice,
uprightness, the merciful spirit, purity of heart, creative power,
and a worthy cause for which to strive and sacrifice. "Strive
for these," he declared, "and you wUl attain them and as a
glorious by-product you will also win happiness that is both

The Way to Happiness and Success 133
satisfying and abiding." The proof of the truth of these
teachings is found in the laboratory of life.
What types of business would you call creative in the
sense of the seventh beatitude and what are not? In choosing
an occupation how far should one seek that which is creative?
What are some of the modern causes for which men can win
happiness through persecution? V.
Community Happiness and" Success.
In any community organized on the plans laid down by
Jesus we should find the citizens in close personal touch one
with the other, each attempting to render what constructive
service he can in order to promote the public welfare. Blessed
is the community that has a receptive spirit and is eager to
avail itself of the practical experience wrought out in other
communities. The results may be gained through agents sent
to study the work being done in other progressive communities
or through specialists.
The normal organization for the promotion of any pubhc
enterprise is first by voluntary groups *who meet to plan and
discuss, then under the influence of a group or of several groups,
the community either in a voluntary pubhc meeting or in its
official pubhc capacity takes up its specific problems and works
them out in the hght of knowledge won through careful study
and investigation. Following the example of the great community organizer,
one's thought naturally turns first in any community to the
saving of lives and the promotion of the physical welfare. The
citizens organize to secure good sanitation, a pure water supply,
a safe system of drainage, and whatever improvements are
necessary to prevent infections of any kind that promote
disease. Hospitals are built in accord with the plans that insure
the best care for the physically and mentally iU.
Next, careful attention is given to hving and working con
ditions. The whole community is interested in seeing that
proper arrangements are made for housing all classes in such
a way that comfort, good morals, and enjoyment are provided
for each and every individual.

134 Jesus' Principles op Living
In any democratic country, such as the United States,
and even more in the coming democracy of God, care should
be taken that the common citizen be trained in such a way
that not only is his own welfare promoted but also the safety
and welfare of the entire community. This means, of course,
school systems of the best type. Perhaps on no other pubhc
enterprise at the present time, even in the United States where
public education is so much discussed, is there manifested so
great a spirit of unwillingness to spend money as on schools in
order to secure the best teaching. While it is true that a very
large proportion of our municipal and state budgets are devoted
to education, every thoughtful student of the subject knows
that far too small a proportion of that budget is devoted to
the pay of teachers. Certainly if the principle of -Jesus is true
that minds and hearts are developed and changed by personal
influence and patient instruction, there could be no greater
mistake. Buildings are of slight account compared with the
personal influence of the teacher, and yet in many instances the
community is willing to pay those into whose charge the children
of the community are placed for their mental and moral train
ing, far less than it pays the men who build our houses and
make our roads and railroads. It is not strange, therefore, that
these communities fail to obtain the happiness which comes only
when citizens are trained to be open-minded, eager to know and
do what is right, pure in mind and heart and prepared to do
constructive work.
Education should include, of course, not merely the ordin
ary accomplishments of the arts of reading, writing, and arith
metic, but should include also the development of the artistic
spirit through the establishment of art galleries, the proper
training in nature study, the building of parks, the direction of
the architecture of our cities and especially the training in
morals in the broadest and best sense of that word. How far
this can make happiness and success, and whether it should be
promoted by governmental means or by the voluntary associa
tion of the citizens, are immaterial. The methods by which
these ends should be secured naturally vary in different com
munities. In some places the government will take the lead,
in others voluntary organization. The one thing that is essential
is that the individual members of the community through
joint counsel and common action secure the results, and that

The Way to Happiness and Success 135
not the few but the many experience the happiness of doing
this vital constructive work.

Is there danger of weakening the morale of a community
by giving free of charge to the citizens education, art, enter
tainment? What effect would free rides on street railways supported
by taxation have on the welfare of the community? May a
community have happiness in large degree without welfare, or
welfare without happiness? In what ways can each member of
a community be enabled and influenced to make his special
contribution to the weU-being and happiness of the whole?

VI.
National Happiness and Success,
The same principles that apply in smaller communities
apply in the wider field of the nation's activities. The methods,
however, must vary. In a smaU community, through town
meetings or the voluntary action of groups of individuals,
common action may be secured. In the broader field of the
nation the work must be done through representatives. These
representatives should be chosen with especial reference to the
attainment of the ends desired.
The field of activity of the nation is also different from that
of the local community. There must be, first, the protection
of the people as a whole against foreign aggression. The
direction of army and navy services are necessary, and the
control and management of diplomatic relations with other
countries must be in the hands of the national government.
In order that the health of the citizens may be protected,
the national government must establish rules and institutions
for enforcing quarantine regulations against the importing of
contagious diseases. Similar regulations will prevent the
importation of diseases that affect animals and plants. Often
it becomes necessary, in order to be certain of a proper food
supply and to assure the development of essential industries,
that regulations regarding the imports and exports of goods of
various kinds be made and administered. Likewise for the
protection of morals and for the building up of a citizenship of

136 Jesus' Principles op Living ,
the highest type, the representatives of the nation must provide
for the regulation of immigration and must through such
regulations prevent the bringing in of people whose teachings
and influence would be detrimental.
More certain than preventive measures of protection
against other nations, necessary as these are at times, are the
positive constructive pohcies that should be established to
promote in aU communities a more intimate knowledge of
foreign peoples and governments and the cultivation of inter
national good wiU. This is a task worthy of the best efforts of
highly trained diplomats and broad-minded citizens.
It is not possible, especiaUy in the present stage of human
knowledge and with the present relations existing among
nations, that the best results be attained, but exceUent begin
nings have been made in certain fields. Already in several
countries we find affiliated associations for labor legislation.
There are international university societies which seek to bring
together sociaUy the scholars of different countries when they
are visiting foreign lands. The Pan-American Society promotes
in all social and educational ways the union of the nations of
the American continent. The Pan-American Union and the
Pan-American Financial Conferences in similar manner seek
to secure joint action on pohtical and financial questions.
The exchange professorships and the numerous visiting com
mittees among nations aU lead strongly in the same direction.
Even more promising in many ways are the activities of our
great mission boards, of the Young Men's and Young Women's
Christian Associations, and other rehgious bodies in this inter
national field. The Interchurch World Movement is already
enlisted in this service and the outlook for the future brightens.
As yet, we must confess, only a promising beginning has been
made. With the right motives, however, on the part of the
citizens, with the proper desire to promote the pubhc welfare not
merely at home but also abroad, much can be done to improve
present conditions. The way to bappiness for human society as
weU as for the individual lies along the plain paths marked out by
Jesus. Receptivity, aspiration, modesty, zeal to know and do
what is right, consideration for others, freedom from prejudice
and immorality, constructive workmanship and readiness to
suffer for a righteous cause are international as well as in
dividual virtues,

The Universality of Jesus* Principles of Life 137

What can be done in our pubhc schools to cultivate friendly
mterest in foreign peoples? What is the effect of foreign missions
on mternational politics? What dangers should be recognized
and avoided in foreign mission work? What can be done to
develop a Christian sympathy and plans for united work that
wiU promote the permanent happiness of the human race?

Subjects for Further Study.
(1) How would you define happiness, and is it a worthy goal for which
to strive? Distinguish clearly the meanings of happiness, joy, enjoyment,
pleasure, fun, contentment. (Hilty, Happiness.)
(2) What would have been toe effect on Jesus' personal happiness
if he had yielded to the impulses revealed in the story of his temptation?
In what sense was his life on earth supremely happy, and what were the
the chief sources of his happiness?
(3) In what ways does modern science, and especially the results of
sociology, criminology, and psycho-analysis, tend to promote the merciful
attitude toward wrong-doers? i
(4) Why do sins of social immorality so completely blunt the religious
and moral sense of those who commit them?
(5) What sources of happiness does Dr. Richard Cabot suggest in his
volume, What Men Live For? What sources would you add?
(6) Analyze the influences which (1) tend to destroy your individual
happiness, and (2) tend to promote your happiness. Make a similar
analysis of the community in which you live. Make a similar analysis of
the present international situation.
(7) How far are mere misunderstandings sources of trouble and un-
happiness among individuals, communities, and nations?

CHAPTER XII.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF JESUS' PRINCIPLES OF LIFE.
ParaUel Readings.
Kent, Historical Bible, V, pp. 310-322.
Cooley, Social Organization, pp. 395-419.
Follett, The New State, pp. 333-373.
I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father
except through me. If you have learned to know me, you would have
known my Father also; from now on you know him and have seen him.
He who has seen me has seen the Father; then how can you say,
"Let us see the Father"? Do you not beheve that I am in the Father and
the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not on my own

138 Jesus' Principles op Living
authority, but the Father who is always in me does his own work. Beheve
me, I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else beheve me because
of the work itself. I say to you, he who beheves in me will do the work
which I do and still greater works than these, for I go to my Father. And
whatever you shall ask in my name I will do, that the Father may be
glorified through the Son. If you ask anything in my name I will do it.
If you love me you will keep my commands, and I shall ask the
Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive that Spirit, because it does
not see him nor know him; you know him, for he remains with you and
shall be within you.
I will not leave you bereaved; I am coming to you. In a little while
the world will see me no more; but you shall see me, because I live and
you shall live also. At that day you will understand that I am in my
Father and you in me and I in you. He who has my commands and obeys
them is the one who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.
He who does not love me does not obey my teachings. The message
which you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
I have told you all this while I am still with you; but the Helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled nor afraid. You
have heard me tell you that I go away and am coining back to you? If
you love me you will rejoice because I am going to the Father, for the
Father is greater than I. I have told you this now before it occurs, that
when it does occur you may beheve. John 14 : 6, 7, 9b — 21, 24-29.
I have said all this to you that you may have peace through union
with me. In the world you have affliction; but be courageous. I have
conquered the world. John 16 : 38.
Judge not that you may not be judged, for as you judge others you
will yourself be judged, and according to the measure with which you deal
out to others, it will be dealt out to you. Matt. 7: 1, 2. (Shorter Bible
translation.) I.
Jesus, the Real Discoverer of the Individual.
It is a fact not generally recognized that Jesus was the
first of the great social thinkers and creative buUders of society
to lay the foundations for the true democratic social state.
We do not think of Jesus ordinarily as a phUosopher; we think
of him rather as a man of action, basing his acts upon a few
simple articles of faith. A careful analysis of his works, however,
will show that his acts were determined by a profound phflos-
ophy based upon an intimate knowledge of human nature.
We have seen (Chapter V) that Jesus laid especial emphasis

The Universality of Jesus' Principles of Life 139
in his teaching upon individual responsibihty and the develop
ment to the utmost of personahty. The ancient fathers had no
such understanding of the significance and value of the individ
ual, although Socrates apparently had some glimmering of the
idea. In the ideal Repubhc of Plato, and even in the critical
teachings of the more practical Aristotle, there was indeed a
weU-worked-out plan for a democratic government; but the
great mass of the common people, even in the ideal common
wealths, were always to remain laborers, mere hewers of wood
and drawers of water, whose energies were to be expended
primarily in doing the manual and routine work necessary to
furnish leisure to the thinkers, the phUosophers, who were to
be the actual rulers and to make the plans for the work of
society. In the Athenian commonwealth probably ninety per
cent of the inhabitants were practically slaves. The ten per
cent who were educated by the State and who spent their time
in discussing pubhc affairs and phUosophy, perhaps to a greater
extent than any other people of history, had among themselves
doubtless a keen appreciation of the worth of the individual
citizen but not of the individual human being.
Even in the days of the ancient Hebrew commonwealth,
democratic as it was in conception, there stiU remained always
the behef that certain classes, especially the priests, were those
who were to interpret to the people the wiU of God and thereby
to furnish them chiefly their rules of action in life. The ordi
nary individuals did right in the view of the great teachers if they
foUowed tmtliinkingiy the precepts laid down for them by the
priestly rulers.
In consequence, the behef and teaching of Jesus that the
ordinary individual was of infinite worth in the sight of God
was to the Jewish teachers a revolutionary idea subversive of
not only the political order of the day but also of the existing
rehgious order.
To-day we are in a position both sociaUy and psychologi-
caUy to recognize the truth and practicability of Jesus' principle.
Many as are the mistakes that are made by even the best of the
modern democracies, and discouraging as is often the slowness
of the progress of popular rule, it seems to be a fairly weU
established fact that it is only through the development of the
great masses of the common people until they can recognize
the real social value of their acts, that there can be permanent

140 Jesus' Principles op Living
safety in any form of government. " The cure for the evils of
democracy is more democracy." That means, it is becoming
evident to the world that we must rely upon popular self-
government, and the only way to keep that form of government
from falling into either anarchy or despotism is through the
inteUectual and moral training of the individual. PracticaUy
aU pohtical and social thinkers of the present day beheve that
with such training democracy wiU be successful; without it,
there will be many faUures and much delay in the attainment of
the best, but nothing else than democracy is practicable or
possible. Jesus is primarily responsible for this behef of modern
times. In what respects is the obedience to law of a strong per
sonahty more commendable than the obedience of a weak man?
How far do individuals exist for the sake of society? How
far does society exist for the sake of its individual members?
II.
The World's Greatest Social Psychologist.
The principle of human worth is also psychologicaUy
sound both in political and in rehgious hfe. Unless the individual
voter can be made to feel that he personally is of some worth and
of true value to society, he will not be willing to take the time
and energy required to fit himself for the duties of citizenship.
If on the other hand he feels that he can accomplish things
worth while, he wiU be the more ready to assume responsibihty.
This principle is hkewise the true explanation in the field
of religion of the so-caUed miraculous conversions, when they
are real conversions, of the Salvation Army and of the old-time
revivalists. UsuaUy it wiU be noted that the persons having
this experience, and the ones who are most frequently cited as
wonderful examples of God's redeeming power, are those who
have been most degraded. Often they are men or women of
education who have come from the cultivated classes of society,
but who under the influence of strong drink or evil passions or
weak wills have fallen into depths of degradation. After a
debauch, coming from the gutter into a mission, almost hopeless
from degrading experiences that are the result of his own weak
ness, the sinner feels his utter worthlessness. Frequently he

The Universality op Jesus' Principles op Life 141
has contemplated suicide as the only way out of the depths.
Then he hears the message of the revivahst telling of the
infinite love of God and assuring him that God's personal love
for him. has been so great that he has sent his only begotten
S6n as a sacrifice for his redemption. Caught by the suggestion
of his own worth through God's love, he acquires courage and
confidence that with God's help he may recover his former
mental and moral status and may even go on to the performance
of duties that wiU be beneficial to others. The suggestion
continuaUy renewed gives him power and the man stands actually
redeemed from his own weakness, as long as the power of the
wholesome suggestion remains.
NaturaUy such an explanation of the marvellous experi
ence in no way derogates from the power of the Spirit of God
in working out this redemption. The fact is that the conver
sion and the resulting redemption are strictly in accord with the
ordinary well-understood laws of psychology, and that in
consequence we may understand better how such signal acts of
redemption may be made more frequent and more permanent.
To have seen clearly this possibility and to have acted, as
did Jesus, first of all the great teachers, shows his marveUous
insight into human nature and his supreme position as a social
philosopher. In the hght of the historical effects of his hfe and
teachings, which prove experimentally the accuracy of his
insight into the workings of the human mind and heart, it is
not too much to assert that he is the greatest social psychologist
of history. Why has Jesus not been counted among the great philoso
phers and psychologists by historical writers? What ground
is there for classifying rehgious leaders hke Confucius, Buddha,
and Mohammed, as philosophers and psychologists?

III.
The Supreme Interpreter op God.
Many have been the controversies over the doctrine of the
divinity of Jesus. Apparently of late years the issue is drawn
between those who speak of Jesus' miraculous birth in a physical
sense and those who look upon Jesus primarily as the spiritual

142 Jesus' Principles of Living
interpreter of God to men. Although from ancient times phi
losophers have speculated regarding the essential nature of all
things and have wondered regarding ultimate reahties, since
the days of Immanuel Kant, practically all thinking people
have recognized that men are conscious of phenomena — things
as they appear to human minds — and that they do not know
and are incapable of finding out just what is the ultimate reahty
that produces the effects upon our senses which make us con
scious of these phenomena. No one knows, or presumably
ever can know, just what is the nature of hfe, of hght,
of electricity, of gravitation, or of all the multiphcity of
material things that we see and touch and taste. We are
conscious of their appearances to us. Beyond that we know
absolutely nothing.
In the same way we grasp the idea of God. In different
countries, in different stages of civihzation, the conception of
God of necessity varies as people interpret the causes of natural
phenomena in different ways. Among primitive peoples the
beneficent and the destructive effects of natural phenomena such
as sunshine, wind, cold and heat, normally give rise, when
people seek for causes, to beliefs in some unknown beneficent
and maleficent beings that are called gods. Primitive peoples,
naturally judging these forces by their results, ascribe to them
human qualities: good-will, love, hatred, envy; and they
naturally in consequence attempt to please the unknown forces
or gods to whom they are grateful and to propitiate those whom
they fear.
No two nations or peoples have ever had identicaUy the
same conception of the gods or of the one supreme God. It is
not too much to say that inasmuch as no two individuals can
ever be quite identical in thought or f eeling, so no two individuals
can ever have quite the same conception of God. It often seems
that the great pathetic tragedy of hfe is that no one can ever
absolutely know the mind and heart of another; hence arise
misunderstandings and distrust, even at times among those
best loved. If we recognize fully the undeniable fact that there
must necessarily be great differences of opinion regarding God,
his nature, and our attitude and duties toward him, we shaU
see how necessary it is that great religious teachers should
arise at all stages of the world's history to shape the views of
humanity on these vital questions.

The Universality op Jesus' Principles op Life 143
AU Christian people of all denominations have accepted
as their own, Jesus' teachings regarding the nature of God.
God is to them a loving, beneficent intelligence, who looks
upon men as a father looks upon his children. This conception
of God comes to us from Jesus. While the ancient Jewish
prophets in many respects had a similar view, none of them
developed the conception as thoroughly as did Jesus. He has
thus become to aU Christians, and to humanity at large as
rapidly as they come into sympathetic touch with his views,
the supreme interpreter of God to man. We know God pri
marily, almost solely, through him. In him hved the spirit of
God. Only through the hfe of a human being on earth could
we learn the spirit of God in such a way that it could exert its
fuU influence upon us. He thus becomes to us all our God in
man and in him we see and learn God's nature and God's wiU.
It is literaUy and psychologically true that when we have seen
him we have seen the Father. We might take an additional
step and say that it is only through him that men have seen
the Father in the sense in which Jesus himself saw him. Men
in other times and in aU stages of civihzation have thought
that they have seen God, but they have not seen God as Jesus
saw him. And, as Paul said, it is this unknown God that Jesus
has interpreted to men.
In shaping the conduct of men, which would have the more
beneficent influence, a behef in the miraculous birth of Jesus
or a behef in his oneness of spirit with God? In what sense
may we properly speak of Socrates, Confucius, or Mohammed as
interpreters of God to men, or as divine in their natures? Are
their relations to the rehgious beliefs of their followers different
in kind or in degree from those of Jesus to his followers? ShaU
we say that they are not interpreters of God to men, or that
they are false interpreters, or that they are less accurate and
less worthy interpreters than Jesus? What are the grounds of
your judgment?
The Complete Harmonizer of Man with God.
If we beheve that Jesus possessed to the fuU the normal
attributes of humanity and that he likewise so possessed the
attributes of God that he could truly say, "I am in the Father
and the Father in me; when you have seen me, you have seen

144 Jesus' Principles of Living
the Father," is it not clear that we all, with our human frailties,
may likewise have in some degree a share in the divine attri
butes? In our Enghsh language the word God is derived from
the same Anglo-Saxon source as the word good. In consequence,
we normally think of goodness as the chief attribute of God,
though we also normaUy think of supreme knowledge and
power as his attributes. From observation of nature and from
philosophical speculation in aU stages of the world's history,
men have looked upon their Divinity as possessing to some
extent at least the attributes of power and of knowledge. In
many cases they have felt that the power was limited by some
other even greater power, such as Fate, and that the knowl
edge was so limited that even human beings, might deceive
the gods. It is from the Jews, primarily, that Christians have
derived the conception of the one God, maker of heaven and
earth, creator of nature's unchanging laws, and in consequence,
the all-knowing as weU as aU-powerful God. The earher
prophets did not represent Jehovah as supreme in goodness
toward the enemies of his chosen people or at times to the
Hebrews themselves. He might be cruel and revengeful.
Though some of the later prophets emphasized strongly the
beneficence and goodness of God, it has been primarily through
the life and teachings of Jesus that men have learned to know
and worship God as the supreme source of goodness, never
cruel, never vindictive, never imposing punishments upon his
human chfidren, only permitting them to suffer the natural
consequences of a violation of his unchanging laws. Endowed
as human beings are with intelligence, he has made them com
petent to search into these laws and to understand something
of their nature. As in the physical realm it is possible for men,
as they slowly learn the workings of nature's laws, so to adapt
themselves as to be benefited by them, so hkewise in the realm
of mind and soul we may place ourselves in harmony with the
divine laws and thus become better and happier men and women.
In this realm of the mind and spirit Jesus has been our great
teacher — one may almost say our only teacher — in bringing
about this harmony between the wUl of men and the wiU of
God. If we study the hfe of Jesus, with an understanding of
the relation of his life to God's wiU, we may through the influ
ence of his spirit so put ourselves into harmony with God's laws
and God's spirit as interpreted by Jesus, that we shall be regen-

The Universality of Jesus' Principles of Life 145
erated and gradually acquire more and more of the divine
attributes. The life of Jesus has made this seem possible. His
teachings and his hfe have shown the way. "I am the way,
the truth, and the life."

Does a thief best overcome his propensity to steal through
avoiding opportunities to steal, or strongly willing that he will
not steal when an opportunity offers, or through fixing his
attention upon the moral and social law wliich shows the evU
consequences of a dishonest life and the good consequences of
an honest life?
When a man tries to harmonize his actions with the moral
law as weU as with the physical laws of nature is this harmoniz
ing act a matter of wUl, or of knowledge, or of both? How
far is it possible to avoid the suffering arising from a violation
of nature's laws by fixing one's attention upon the moral and
spiritual nature of man and ignoring physical law? How do
you justify the sufferings of humanity through man's ignorance
of nature's laws; for example, the sufferings from smaU-pox
and cholera and yeUow fever, before men understood the nature
of these diseases?

The Founder of Complete Democracy.
A majority of the great teachers who preceded Jesus had
chiefly in mind the great value to mankind of having certain
select individuals of strong inteUect and character as the leaders
of men, whUe the great masses were to be foUowers. Jesus,
by recognizing the worth of the common man and the consequent
necessity of training him and of placing the responsibihty upon
him, was the first to proclaim and to institute complete democ
racy. This same principle of democracy apphes also in the
field of rehgion and of business. Democracy is not only a
form of government or pohtical organization; it is far more
than that : it is a means of social growth. It apparently provides
the only guarantee of stability in aU of the different fields of
human activity. Jesus became the founder of essential democ
racy because he best of aU understood human nature and saw
that even the poorest man, the man whose inteUect is common-

146 Jesus' Principles op Living
place, if he can be inspired with the proper spirit and with a
sense of duty toward God and of service to his feUow men,
becomes a real factor in society. In doing his duty he becomes
content to do his work; and he is freed from the spirit of revolt
so long as he is in a position to render his best service.
It has not been so fuUy recognized in the past as it is cer
tain to be in the future that this spirit of democracy is apphcable
also in business. In any business organization there are various
tasks to be performed. Each man must do his work in his own
department to the best advantage, if the co-ordinate work of
aU is to secure the best results. In the management of a
railroad we need not merely a board of directors, a chief engi
neer, locomotive engineers and firemen, but also conductors,
shop men and section hands. The work must be co-ordinated
by the comparatively few men at the head of the organization,
but if the work is to be successful, each man within his own
field must do his work weU. No man wUl do his work to the
best advantage unless he feels his responsibility. He cannot
be trained to the best advantage unless he is given the oppor
tunity of thinking out for himself the ways in which he can
best do his own work. Even a section hand has a choice as to
where and how he wiU use his shovel, pick and sledge. If he
feels that the choice is given him and if he can be rewarded in
proportion to the results obtained, he wiU accomplish more
and he wUl have a more willing spirit than if he works abso
lutely under orders. This placing of responsibihty upon each
workman in his own field of activity is not only in accordance
with the essential spirit of democracy which Jesus taught, but
it is also the most practical way of securing the best business
results. Even when working with automatic. machines much
depends upon the care, the attention, and the faithfulness of
the workman. Often without further direction a change in the
spirit of workmen has increased the output of an establishment
twenty-five per cent or fifty per cent or even more.
If taught to share responsibility and therefore to think
about their work, laborers will secure a business education
attainable in no other way. The continual habit of thinking
about their work also develops them intellectually and improves
their skill making them in consequence far more productive.
Again, with the consciousness of their own growth and with the
increased income that comes with their improvement in pro-

The Universality op Jesus' Principles op Life 147
ductive capacity, there normaUy comes a feeling of contentment
with their position.
We shaU, therefore, in the future, when the importance of
industrial democracy is fuUy recognized, hear much less of
unrest among working men. There wiU be fewer strikes; there
wiU be much greater stability in business and a vast increase
in production. The form of business organization, hke the
form of pohtical organization, is not so essential as is the proper
spirit on the part of the individuals concerned. The final and
lasting solution of labor difficulties and the attainment of real
industrial democracy wiU come only through a readjustment
that wiU develop the right spirit of individuals.
NormaUy, of course, with the increase in output that comes
from the improved spirit in workmen wiU go an increase in their
share of the product. Such an increase may come through
what is often caUed profit sharing, but which ought to be really
a share in the value of the increase of the total product
broughtfabout in part by their own better work.
The new spirit, too, will lead naturally, as experience in
many cases has already shown, \to a sharing with the workmen
of the responsibilities of management in those fields in which
they are concerned and fitted to direct, such as matters of
working conditions, safety, sanitation, hours of labor, wages.
With the right spirit on the part of employers and workmen,
such changes wiU readily come. Without such a spirit, these
methods wiU not succeed. The right spirit is the essential
condition and factor in success.

Why is slave labor industriaUy unprofitable? Are intel
ligence and a habit of thinking on the part of wage-earners
subversive or promotive of discipline and co-operation and
efficiency? Does thinking among workmen hinder or favor
team work ? VI.
The Eternal Cosmopolitan.
Emphasis should be placed upon the universality of these
principles of Jesus which are the result of his penetrating,
thorough insight into human nature. There has been criticism,

148 Jesus' Principles op Living,
and just criticism, of cosmopolitanism as compared with patriot
ism. No man is able to work most helpfuUy for the world
unless he demonstrates first his abihty to work weU for his
own people and his own nation. It is primarily through his
own nation that he can affect the welfare of other nations.
He who serves best his own country wUl serve best the world.
He can serve best the world if his principles of hving are laid so
deep in human nature that they satisfy all men in aU countries.
Human nature is much the same everywhere; nevertheless
we mustj recognize to the full the varied traits and customs of
different peoples and races. In some, owing to customs and
training, certain motives are relatively strong and others
relatively weak; but fundamentally all men are so alike that
they recognize the basic principles that Jesus taught.
There are no races of men who do not appreciate the doc
trine that the individual man, however poor, is of untold
value in the sight of God. There are no races of men who do
not reahze that truth and fair dealing are beneficial in the end,
although there are great differences among nations as regards
their trustworthiness in business affairs; some lay far greater
emphasis upon courtesy and good manners than upon strict
truthfulness in speech.
It is universaUy true that, as individuals have placed
upon them in the measure of their capacity to bear it, the
responsibility for their own work, this responsibihty becomes
a means of training them and a method by which they are
developed into stronger and better human beings. There are
no peoples who do not in the long run appreciate the spirit of
unselfishness, although there are few people of any race who
practice the spirit of unselfishness to so great a degree as would
be desirable. The rapid growth of the Christian rehgion throughout
the world among aU peoples and races proves beyond question
the universal soundness of its principles. That Jesus' basic
principles of hving, as presented to the non-Christian world,
have in many cases been overlooked or obscured by denomina
tional differences must be frankly admitted. When these
principles are presented in their simplicity and when due
emphasis is laid upon Jesus' teachings as a basis for living and
for the organization of human society, it is certain that his
rehgion wiU extend far more rapidly.

The Universality op Jesus' Principles of Life 149
The universality of Jesus' principles points not only to the
brotherhood of men in aU their different fields of activity in a
community, but to the brotherhood of men of aU countries.
Furthermore, the apphcation of these principles means the
training of nobler men. As men come to recognize more and
more the benefit of intimate relations one with another, and as
they graduaUy grow into nobler men, we shaU find the democ
racy of God extending fromi individual churches and local
communities to widely separated nations, until eventually
there wiU be ushered in the democracy of God throughout the
world, a democracy not merely of men such as now exist,
but ultimately a world democracy of more Godhke men.

To what extent should chUdren be made to bear respon
sibility? Why is the power of choice essential to the develop
ment of strong character? May a strong character be bad?
Is perpetual world peace more hkely to come through a
league of strong independent nations or through a powerful
world state dominating weak nations? What other alternative
can you suggest? Subjects for Further Study.
(I) Compare Jesus' view; of man's abihty to determine hia own
spiritual fate with that of William James.
(2) How would you fix the proper limits of community ownership
and management of wealth? In reaching your decision compare the views
of the Socialist, Morris Hillquit, and Professor Taussig.
(3) How far will the nature of the business organization of any society
affect its pohtical organization, and vice versa?
(4) What would be the effect on international relations if all people
were unselfish?
(5) In what measure is selfishness the cause of strife both between
individuals and nations?

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