w:*^.

The Enla
Of Life

FREDERICK LYNCH

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

EDWIN OVIATT, Y '96

THE ENLARGEMENT OF LIFE

BY
FREDERICK LYNCH

' We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
iJbe "Knickerbocker press
1903

Copyright, 1903
BY
FREDERICK LYNCH
_ I
Published, September, 1903
Kb 5*6 S

<H'

0
IT

ttbc ftntcfterbocftet (press, Hew BorS

TO MY
FATHER AND MOTHER

FOREWORD
THE aim of all preaching is to bring eternal
satisfactions to human needs. This little
book is sent forth with the hope that it may
here and there meet the need of some heart
and answer the questions of some mind. It is
to be judged only on this basis. It is not a
book of essays, neither does it make any pre
tension to be literature. It is printed simply
for the same reason it was preached — to convey
a message. If the message meets your need,
thank God for it; if not, give the book away.
It may thus find its right owner. The choice
of the sermons has been decided by time and
place. They are, with two exceptions, ser
mons preached during the summer of 1902 in
"The Old Church on the Hill." It was the
expressed desire of many who heard them, to
possess them. Hence this choice. But one
sermon is as good as another if it only convey
some measure of the unseen and eternal Spirit
for the enlargement of our human life. Let

vi Foreword
me add only this, that the first two sermons
should be read together. One is the comple
ment of the other.
Lenox, Massachusetts,
November, 1902.

CONTENTS

The Growing of a Soul .
First Earthly Things, then Heavenly
Missing the Prize of Life .
Inviting the Best Things
The Secret of Transformation
Needs and Satisfactions .
The Humanness of God
Believing the Best Things
The Unknown Years of Jesus' Life — A
Study in Unconscious Influence
Paul at Athens : Shall Sons of God
Worship Idols ? .
Our Double Immortality
A Christmas Sermon

PAGE 3
2137Si678197
"3 129
161175

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect." — Matt, v : 6.

THE GROWING OF A SOUL
THE latter half of the century just gone has
revolutionized our attitude toward the
processes of nature. Newly discovered laws
have upset old theories and fresh light has dis
persed some mists that lay between us and the
truth. Thus, in the physical world, we used
to think that the body was called into being in
a moment in its beautiful perfection and the
breath of life breathed into it at some certain
point of time. We now know that the perfect
physical life is the outcome of long periods of
development, and that the force that assumed
this final form was a resident force in the first
germ of life. It was life seeking expression in
perfect form and it fashioned this body gradu
ally to its uses. Physical perfection lay poten
tially in the first cell of creation.
We have also recognized this truth in our
theories of education. No longer do we think
that mind power is something added from
without. Power lies in the mind from the

4 The Enlargement of Life
beginning. Education is the process of un
folding and expanding and perfecting this
germ of power, stimulating it to action by
the touch of personality, and feeding it with
knowledge. We add from outside to draw
on to perfection that which is native to the
mind. It is the growing feeling, already a certainty
in the minds of many close observers of spirit
ual processes, that the religious life is also a
development from within rather than some
thing added from without. Now we must re
member right at the beginning that this does
not imply that the resident spiritual force of
life has power of itself alone to attain perfec
tion. All life, expanding by resident forces,
must be fed from outside sources. The flower
is the fulfilment of the life within the seed ; but
the seed expands in beauty at the touch of
shower and sunshine and takes into itself the
rich juices of the earth. The perfect soul is the
completion of the spark of divinity brought
with us at our birth; but it finds its glory as
it is breathed upon by the unseen forces of
the spirit world. But the point is this, that
the spiritual life is something developed from
within rather than something miraculously
dropped into our being from without.
I sometimes think we have no more charac-

The Growing of a Soul 5
teristic word of Jesus than the verse that
prefaces this sermon. After instructing His
disciples in the many duties of the kingdom He
moves on to the great thought that the end
of life is to live as sons of God, and ends the
passage with these words : "Be ye perfect even
as your heavenly Father is perfect." That is,
they have divine capacity within them; ap
proach to God-like personality is possible ; the
beginnings of perfection, its seeds, are already
there ; the whole aim of their life was to press on
to this perfection, to fashion the rudimentary
spark of spirit into a soul bearing the likeness
of God. This is the fundamental attitude of
Jesus toward the human soul. He follows it
up by continually pointing His disciples to the
divine forces that will feed the soul within, and
lead them to the wells of eternal life. His
own life is the eternal and beautiful explication
of this truth. Born with the divine image in
His heart His whole life is but the unfolding
of His soul into the likeness of God. Through
the experiences of life, says the writer of He
brews, was He made perfect. But Jesus' life
is the revelation of humanity. By the path He
walked shall we all walk to perfection. This is
His own teaching. This is the only point of
view that can keep Him in our humanity. To
this truth the disciples responded, and ever,

6 The Enlargement of Life
after He said, "Be ye perfect," they make
the growing of their souls the aim of life.
As we saw at the outset, this conception of
the religious life conforms to the latest revealed
truth of nature. For that matter, the surprise
of the ages must be the wonderful harmony
between Jesus' teaching and the order of na
ture. He seemed to have that kinship with
nature, that closeness to her soul, that insight
into her processes, that He had into the nature
and processes of the spiritual world. The last
word of nature is : The aim and end of creation
is the perfection of life from its first crude be
ginnings. The teaching of Jesus is, in this
verse : The aim of life is to grow a perfect soul
out of the spark of divinity within the breast.
So, then, to get down now to the practical
phase of this momentous principle, the religious
life is the fulfilment of one's own nature in
truest, largest ways. It is the unfolding, under
the spiritual influences of heaven, of that seed
of divine life that God has implanted in the
heart of every man. It is the culture, under
the presence of God, of all the God-like quali
ties of our being. It is the divine within us
responding to the divine in God, reaching out
and striving to fulfil itself in the beauty of His
perfect life, deep answering unto deep. It is
the spiritual energy from within welling up,

The Growing of a Soul 7
and realizing itself in all lovely thoughts and
deeds, in purity of heart, high aspirings, and
service of mankind.
It follows from this that the religious life is
the natural life for us all— that is, it is the life
for which we were intended. We belong to
the order of nature only for a moment. Our
abiding place is in the spiritual order. The
animal is in the physical order and the animal
life is for him the natural life. But we belong
to the spiritual order and the spiritual life is our
natural life, the order into which and for which
we were born. God has placed us in the divine
order with Himself, and to fulfil the divine
within us is to live our natural life. God has
made us in His image ; to live as those bearing
His impress on their brows is the natural life.
To fulfil our divine natures, by the helps He
gives us, is the program of our being. We can
degrade the divinity that is in us, we can bury
it under mire, we can repress it and deaden it
by impurities. We can let it lie dormant while
the animal within us rages and exults. But do
not call the latter state the natural life. It is
natural for animals, but unnatural for sons of
God. We belong to the heavenly order since
the Lord of heaven is our Father. Even the
first faint dawnings of spiritual life are the sign
of our adoption into a new realm of nature —

8 The Enlargement of Life
the spiritual realm. The natural life is the life
of the kingdom into which we have been born.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God."
So, also, to be religious is to be most a man,
not least. It is not the adding of something
to manhood, but the perfecting of the manhood
wherewith we were born. It is not the posses
sion of some special gift that has been withheld
from other men, but the putting ourselves
under those heavenly influences which they,
perhaps, have neglected, and so bringing to
completion the manhood that is in us.
The man who follows out the highest in
stincts of his being is the religious man. The
man who has fallen before God and said, "Help
me, O God, to be my best self, help me to
make the most of myself," is on the road to
divinity. The only divinity we know is per
fect humanity. Jesus is divine, not because
He is of some strange order of creation, but
because He is a perfect man. In the gospels
He is most divine when He is most human.
The Christian is the man who has developed
the divine soul within him toward the perfec
tion he sees in Christ, and who has followed
Him to the fountains that inspire the soul.
The religious man is the man who recognizes
the spark of the God-nature in himself, and is
true to it, expands it, nurtures it in high ways,

The Growing of a Soul 9
takes all help, strives to be just the truest,
manliest man he can be. And when he is
most a man, then is he most a child of God.
When he is most human, then is he most
divine. The time has come when we ought to stop
using the word human in a deprecatory way.
The perfect human, what is it but the divine.
The perfect human is a fulfilled character, but
what is a fulfilled character but the image of
God, therefore divine. We speak of our poor
human loves, whereas a perfect human love
is the divinest thing God gives us. Nothing
truly human is mean or low. Everything
truly human reaches out into the divine.
So, too, we may say here, that the religious
life is not a new personality, but the surrender
of the old to God, to be shaped by Him into
beauty. It is not the acquisition of new graces,
but the finding and culturing of graces God
put in us at our birth, — graces belonging to the
very constitution of man. To fulfil them along
the lines of their true nature is the solution of
life. So, also, to be religious one has not got
to get a new kind of love into his heart. There
is but one kind of love. It is in fulfilment or
degradation of this inherently divine quality
that the question lies. All true human love
already bears on it the impress of the divine, and

io The Enlargement of Life
may move over into its realm. All true, pure
love is the expression of God in humanity, and
the more truly human it is, the more divine.
The birth of divine love begins with many a
man on the day his heart first goes out in some
pure, noble, human love. Love is the same in
kind in God and man, in heaven and in earth.
The difference is in its development and the
use we make of it. Christian love is the
natural, God-given impulses of the heart puri
fied, exalted, sanctified, bedewed with God.
This is true of all high qualities we call relig
ious — heroism, courage, sacrifice, faith. They
are born in all men. They exist potentially in
every child, because he is offspring of God's
Spirit. To grow them into heroic, Christ-like,
divine proportions is the task of manhood.
The heroism the mother shows who dies for
her child, or the soldier displays who dies for
his country, moves toward the heroism Jesus
showed on Calvary.
" Wherever through the ages rise
The altars of self-sacrifice,
Where love its arms has opened wide,
Or man for man has calmly died,
I see the same white wings outspread
That hovered o'er the Master's head."
All high qualities are the same wherever found.

The Growing of a Soul 1 1
They may vary in degree of expression, but
in the least there is the capacity for the great
est. In the love of the child for its parent
there is the promise of the love of the saint for
God. This is the place to say a word about the re
ligious training of children. Some years ago
Horace Bushnell published a book called Chris
tian Nurture, in which he took the ground that
a child should be reared with the understand
ing that it was a religious being, born into a
religious world. It brought down upon his
head the anathemas of the religious world.
The universally accepted theory of the time
was that a child was to be let alone religiously
until it was fifteen or sixteen, and to grow up
considering itself alien to the religious life.
Then, under the stimulus of stated forces, it
was to come under a conviction of sin, and
receive religion as something new to its life,
an objective reality imparted from without,
perfect and complete. Bushnell with his deep
insight into natural processes saw that this con
tradicted all the laws and processes of nature,
and raised his voice in protest. "There could
not be," he said, "a more baleful implication
given to a child, than that he is to reject God
and all holy principle till he has come to a
mature age. . . . The child is to grow up

1 2 The Enlargement of Life
a Christian and never know himself as being
otherwise." This was his fundamental propo
sition, and resting on this he goes on to show
the naturalness of his theory. He was right,
and the method of to-day is the method of
Christian nurture.
The lesson for parents, then, is this : If chil
dren are born with the religious capacity of
children of God, and if God intends them for
the highest human life, then the whole care of
parents and teachers ought to be to see that
that religious life find fitting, harmonious ex
pression, and that it be fostered and developed
in all beautiful and natural ways. To neglect
this is to neglect the child itself, for its soul
life, its spirit life, is its personality, its real self,
its enduring life. To say that a child should
grow up to maturity untaught religiously, be
cause you are afraid that when it reaches man
hood it may prefer other things, as is often
said, is just as sensible as to say that you will
not feed the body nor care for the muscles and
figure of your child, because when it reaches
maturity it may want to choose to be flabby
and misshapen and round-shouldered. If the
religious life were something added from with
out, or belief in an elaborate creed, it might be
different. But the religious life is not this ; it
is completion of our nature ; it is the achieve-

The Growing of a Soul 13
ment of our destiny; it is the conformity to
our true nature ; it is the perfection of the soul,
as the aim of the physical life is the perfection
of the body ; it is the growing of our character ;
the reaching out of aspirations toward the God
from whom we came ; it is the opening of the
life to Him who is our source of strength and
joy and peace.
What responsibilities rest upon us as parents !
God has given us, as it were, a little seed of
divinity. Its natural fulfilment is an exquisite
tree of life. We are to see that it is shielded
from blasts and canker, that the sunlight of
God's love shines upon it ; that it is nourished
on God's truth, and is gently trained to seek
first the kingdom of God in its own soul-per
fection. "Soul-culture" is, I think, going to
be the coming word of personal religion. No
longer are parents going to leave children to
grow up with no direction given to their spirit
ual nature, to make them in maturity have to
begin their own soul-training with a bent and
gnarled soul. For these early years are the
impressionable years. Neglect them, and the
animal gets sixteen years' start of the soul, and
the soul is weak and untrained to battle. Only
the other day I heard a poor, struggling Chris
tian reproaching his parents for having neg
lected his religious culture, and leaving him to

14 The Enlargement of Life
start the battle, on a sudden conversion, with
an undeveloped soul. Oh, fathers and mothers,
live for the development of all that is lovely
and true and highest in your children! The
germ of the divine life is in their hearts, the
beginning of the God-image is in their breasts.
Make the purpose of your life the growing of
that divine into the perfect divinity, the shap
ing of that plastic soul into the beauty God has
revealed to you, until they reach the age that
in their own endeavors they can reach out
toward that God-like perfection commanded
by the Christ.
I do not want to leave this subject without
saying one more word. There is a large class
of men who, while having never made any
religious profession, and having never thought
much about religious things, yet possess many
estimable qualities and are perhaps peculiarly
excellent in some one virtue. Now what I
want to say is that all real goodness in this
world — all heroism, courage, true love — is so
much manifestation of God in human life.
Every lofty thought, or high aspiration, or
beautiful deed is an effluence of some divine
quality within the heart. Every manifestation
of goodness comes from some inner spiritual
source. The least radiance of goodness in any
man's life is sign that somewhere within there

The Growing of a Soul 15
is a lamp of life. So all goodness, all love, all
heroism is religious, and belongs to God. The
message for men who thus manifest some of
the qualities of the divine life is this : Recog
nize whatever fine qualities you have, justice,
integrity, courage, kindness, as so much of
God-life in you, so much radiance of divinity,
and, rejoicing in this revelation of capacity,
bend your efforts to the further discovery of
your soul-life and to fostering its fulfilment
toward perfection. Recognize these finer quali
ties of your being as the natural flowering of
your souls and try and bring all other qualities
up to their high levels. Morality is beautiful,
but it does not go back to sources. Morality,
good conduct, is the fruit of the soul. The
great thing is the culture of the soul. To you
who have morality I will say what Jesus said
to a just man: "Thou art not far from the
kingdom of God." The very fact of your
morality is witness that you have something
far diviner in you. Morality never springs
from low natures. There is always a hidden
source of spirituality behind it. Uncover that
fountain, open it to the rains of heaven, let
it flow freely in all directions, and become a
religious man.
It all comes to this, that if the religious life
is the fulfilment of the soul by the help God

1 6 The Enlargement of Life
gives, the great task of life is soul-culture,
character-growing. The man who has not
achieved a perfected character, a soul in the
divine image has missed his destiny ; but to
miss one's destiny is the sole tragedy of life.
To be meant for physical perfection and by
accident to remain a dwarf, is sad and pitiable.
To be meant for spiritual beauty and by neglect
turn out soulless, is not only sad but sinful.
This then is life : God puts us here as children
and says, "Render back to Me perfect men" ;
God gives us a bit of mind-stuff and says:
" Render back to Me a resourceful, powerful
intellect"; God puts us here with a spark of
the divine life, having in it the capacity to be
great and Godlike, and says: "Render back
to Me this life, this soul, all glorious and
beautiful, harmonious, pure, benignant, ful
filled in My image."
He gives us all resources wherewith to grow
these souls. If this chapter seems to have
neglected these, the next chapter will restore
the harmony. For there we shall consider the
developing and saving and redemptive forces
of life. Sufficient to say here, that God freely
bestows all powers needed for the shaping of
the soul into its true destiny- — the sunlight of
His presence ; waters of life flowing from His
throne; enlarging truth; His Spirit without

The Growing of a Soul 1 7
calling to the spirit within with awakening
power; the Christ to lead us and save us from
the world to our true selves. All these powers
are given that the soul within us may find
beautiful expression in God's image.
Press on then from day to day. Make your
character diviner, your soul-life deeper. In
crease in spirit beauty. Make yourselves per
fect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

' ' There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews : The same came to Jesus by night, and said
unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from
God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, ex
cept God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ;
and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not
that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so
is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered
and said unto him, How can these things be ? Jesus answered
and said unto him, Art thou a Master of Israel, and knowest
not these things ? Verily, verily, I say unto thee : We speak
that we do know, and testify that we have seen ; 'and ye re
ceive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and
ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly
things ? " — John iii : 1-12.

19

FIRST EARTHLY THINGS, THEN
HEAVENLY
WE shall always be sorry that more of the
conversations of Jesus with strangers
have not been recorded. For in these familiar
talks He said some of His greatest and most
far-reaching things. Here in this informal
conversation with Nicodemus he uttered the
foundation truth of religion, namely, the di
vine spirit of God reaching down and lifting
men up into the kingdom of heaven. That
is the beginning and end of religion. This
conversation is especially interesting because
it is with a scholar, and Jesus had very little
contact with the educated men of Israel. Nico
demus was a learned lawyer and was very much
interested in religious questions, particularly
their intellectual and political aspects. He
had, doubtless, as the chief desire of his life,
the restoration of the kingdom in Israel.
Stirred by his prophetic books, he was eagerly
watching for signs of its approach. John

22 The Enlargement of Life
Baptist's preaching that it was near may have
awakened in him renewed expectancy. Any
how he eagerly follows Jesus and becomes
intensely excited over His deeds and words.
As soon as night comes, when he can find
Jesus alone, he seeks Him, and then ensues
one of the most interesting conversations ever
held. Of course we have only a fragment
of their talk. Perhaps they talked long into
the night. But we have enough of outline to
reconstruct it.
Nicodemus says to Jesus that he has heard
Him preach, and although much interested
could not understand His teaching; but he
was very much impressed by His miracles and
knows that He must have come from God and
that God is with Him, otherwise He could not
do those wonderful things. Then Nicodemus
must have told Jesus that He was just the man
to take hold of the Jewish people and gather
Israel about Him and establish the kingdom,
set the church on its old foundations, and bring
back the departed glory of Zion.
Then Jesus must have spent a long time in
disabusing Nicodemus' mind of this false idea
of the kingdom, showing him its real nature —
how it was an inward kingdom, independent of
states or churches, strength or weakness, riches
or poverty ; how it was a state of being, a dis-

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 23
position, a communion with God, the eternal
life on earth.
Nicodemus listens absorbingly, but at last
exclaims: "It is beautiful, wonderful, but I
cannot understand, I cannot see it."
Then Jesus utters the one great secret of all
spiritual living : ' ' Except a man be born anew,
born from above, he cannot see the kingdom
of God."
But all this was utterly outside Nicodemus'
experience and he vaguely shakes his head and
says: "How can an old man be born again? "
Then Jesus repeats and explains: "Except
a man be touched and awakened from above
by the Spirit of God he cannot find the way
into the kingdom. That which is born of flesh
is flesh and can comprehend only fleshly things,
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit and can
comprehend the things of the Spirit. Just as
the wind roams over the earth doing its mys
terious work and man can only wonder and
have no power over it, so the Spirit of God
touches the hearts of men in the same mysteri
ous way and works its holy wonders in them."
But Nicodemus had neglected his spiritual
nature and this is all foreign language to him.
And Jesus is surprised and somewhat impatient
and exclaims: " Art thou a teacher of religion
in Israel and know not the simple beginnings of

24 The Enlargement of Life
religion? If you have not believed and lived
the simple earthly principles of cultivating the
spiritual life and common virtues, which you
have heard Me teach, how can you understand
and believe if I tell you heavenly things!"
Then Jesus goes on to explain His own relation
to the kingdom. And late in the night Nicode
mus goes home to ponder these things, and he
ponders them to his redemption as we shall see.
There are two great truths of universal im
port in this conversation. The first is this:
The way to enter the kingdom of God is not
so much by effort as by response to the Spirit
of God. There are two kingdoms, a kingdom
of the flesh and a kingdom of the spirit; a
kingdom of the animal and a kingdom of the
soul. Every man is born with power to re
spond to the impact of these two kingdoms.
Foods, air, water, all kinds of natural powers,
beat in upon him from the world and develop
his body, if he will let them. Likewise, says
Jesus, divine forces beat in as winds upon
man's soul to quicken his soul-life, if he will
let them. Man is meant to keep both sides of
his nature open to these double influences from
birth, and let his life be developed in proper
harmony. It was not many years ago when
men said that during the first fifteen or twenty
years of a man's life, during childhood and

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 25
youth, let him be responsive to the fleshly in
fluences only; then suddenly bring the spirit
ual influences upon him with tremendous force
and let them pry open his heart and take it so as
by force. This was the false idea that Bushnell
fought so hard. It was contrary to nature.
His contemporaries accused him of not believ
ing this truth, that a man is born into the
kingdom from above. Bushnell answered, in
substance, that he believed it with his whole
heart, even more than they did.
"Only," he said, "it ought to be contempo
raneous with physical development. You immedi
ately put the child under fleshly influences, and he
is gradually adjusted to the natural kingdom; so,
also, put him under spiritual influences, and let
them lift him up into the kingdom of God."
And Bushnell was right. To-day we are try
ing to rear children so that they shall be simul
taneously fed from both kingdoms. In the
normal life these two processes proceed side
by side — the body fed from earth, the soul
nourished from heaven.
But how many men respond only to the im
pacts of earth and belong only to the earthly
kingdom ! How many men pass over into old
age hardly feeling one quickening, regenerating
touch of those breezes that sweep the earth

26 The Enlargement of Life
from the spirit world! They are not always
nor necessarily bad men, but they have nothing
higher born within them than earthly forces can
generate. They have felt the impact of the
earth and air, of work and comradeship, and
have sometimes risen high from earthly impel-
lings. Nicodemus was just this type of man.
He had been born, as is every man, with power
to respond to the two kingdoms, the seen and
the unseen, the human and the divine. Jesus
saw at a glance that he had lived entirely in the
seen world and been shaped by its forces only.
His idea of the kingdom was material. He
was interested in miracles and theology, all
the concrete, earthly sides of religion. His
ideals never rose beyond prudence. His as
pirations never soared above the earth or beat
against the sky. His nature had not throbbed
and bounded to anything intenser than the
thrills of earth. Now, to Nicodemus, and to
us all, Jesus says that just as a man is adjusted
to the natural world, and born into the power
of the fleshly kingdom, not alone by efforts of
his own, but by submitting himself to the im
pact of the world forces, so a man is born into
the kingdom of God by humbly opening his
heart to the incoming of the Divine Spirit and
letting it shape him into harmony with the
things of heaven.

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 27
There is a divine, heavenly, spirit force in
this world. It is just as real as earthly forces.
It is more real, for it rules them and is above
them. It is the Spirit of God Himself. It
is God operative, energizing, redeeming men.
It is the soul of the universe, everywhere pres
ent. It is here, beating against the human
heart as the ground beats against the feet, or
the winds against one's cheek. To get into
this kingdom one who has lived only in the
fleshly kingdom must open wide the windows
of his heart, make the heart clean, pure, and
inviting, pray, live a life conducive to the
Spirit's entrance, cherish the Spirit when it
comes, make the chief end of life to keep
responsive to its touches, and thus let himself
be born, regenerated, quickened from above.
With the Spirit's entrance new, heavenly pow
ers will pulsate through our frames. The veins
will swell with refreshing currents. New vis
ions will flash upon us far surpassing earthly
landscapes. New truths will fall into the mind
far beyond man's finding. Ideals will spring
up that burn like stars. Purposes will grow to
find their consummation in other worlds. For
with the Spirit comes the consciousness of im
mortality. The kingdom of God is an eternal
kingdom. To be born of it is to become one
with its eternity. Peace will come, for peace

28 The Enlargement of Life
is the gift of God. Life will bring forth new
virtues, new beauties, new heroisms, new pow
ers to love and suffer. We will live by new
laws and diviner motives, lean on new arms,
live with new friends, have our life in God.
' ' Like an exotic plant in a temperate zone, the
soul without God bears only leaves." With
God it bears heavenly fruits and takes His like
ness upon itself.
This, then, is the way into the kingdom. Un
aided, man may go far; but for entrance into
the full-orbed glory, we must be born into it
by the touch of the Divine Spirit from above.
To be born from above ! How we all need it,
¦ — need to be made over even every day, need
cleansing, regenerating, lifting into higher life !
How we need to be born again in our purposes !
How we need to have our loves exalted and
purified, our emotions deepened and sanctified,
our interests expanded, our hearts cleansed,
our sins washed away by the Spirit's cleansing
presence! How we need enlargement of life,
our lives transformed and transfigured by the
glory of God's abiding presence. How can we
be long content to live in the small kingdom
of the earth when the other kingdom with its
glories lies just above us and stoops down to
lift us up, when we yield? We belong to the
kingdom of God by nature. We have strayed

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 29
from it, kept ourselves from its blessed fields.
But it is ours if we will. "Come," said Jesus,
"come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. ' '
Let us now look at the other, and closely
allied truth, which Jesus emphasized in this
conversation. It has to do with the compre
hension of religious truth. He gives here a
helpful and universally true motto, a natural
and unfailing way of approach to truth : ' ' First
earthly things, then heavenly." Nicodemus
had been seriously trying to comprehend the
new doctrines Jesus taught. He was a good
man and really wanted to understand these
doctrines, but they were too transcendent for
him. We to-day cannot realize how transcen
dent Jesus' teachings were to an Israelite. Jesus
sees Nicodemus' trouble and says: "Nicode
mus, you cannot understand these heavenly
things until you have fulfilled their earthly re
quirements." That is, according to Jesus, it
is not by cold, abstract processes of reasoning
that Nicodemus could get insight into the
higher spiritual laws, but by a process of living.
He could not understand heavenly things until
he was filled with an enthusiasm for God-like
life. It is a great truth. Earthly virtues are the

30 The Enlargement of Life
paths over into heavenly truths. The virtues
come first. We walk over into the meaning of
the doctrines of the kingdom by obeying its
laws. "He that doeth the will of God shall
learn of the doctrines." If we want to under
stand the lofty things Jesus taught we must
walk with Him in lowly ways of love and duty.
Forget your mental troubles and live in His
spirit and the truths He taught will grow lumin
ous. Sometimes the way to seek spiritual truth
is not to seek it, but by holy living prepare
yourself to let it break in upon you of its own
will. It will come when the heart is ready.
None of the disciples understood Jesus' teach
ing during the first few months they followed
Him. Instead of explaining His doctrines He
said: "You will hear when you have ears to
hear," and set them to living His command
ments. After a while the deep meaning and
mystery of the truth came — silently, unsought,
as the dawn comes. Children first learn to
speak the language ; by and by, with the years,
the meaning comes. If we live the Sermon on
the Mount by and by we can understand the
last chapters of John. First the natural, then
the spiritual; first doing, then knowing; first
life, then its meaning ; first earth, then heaven.
Or we can put this same truth another way.
Spiritual vision depends on spiritual manhood.

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 31
Moral enthusiasms must precede heavenly
mysteries. There is a beautiful verse in the
Revelation which, in speaking of the heavenly
music the poet heard in his vision, says: "But
no man could learn that song excepting them
which had been redeemed from the earth."
Which is only another way of saying that only
the pure in heart can hear heavenly voices or
see God. If we wish to see heavenly things
we must cultivate the eye of the soul — make it
single, pure. Spiritual truths are revealed to
the spiritual man. God is spirit, and they who
would know Him must know Him in spirit and
in truth.
Who knows but that if we to-day would
make our hearts as pure as were the hearts of
prophets and disciples of old, we might not
have such visions again of God in His world?
I myself have an unfaltering conviction that if
God's voice is not heard to-day as distinctly
and gloriously as it was heard by the writers of
the Bible, it is not because God is not trying
to say just as great and as important things to
us, but because we are not religiously sensitive
enough to hear. I see no reason why Bibles
should not be written to-day if men would only
make themselves as spiritually sensitive to
God's presence as men were in the older days.
God is not dead, neither does He speak to one

32 The Enlargement of Life
time and neglect another. If we see Him not
to-day it is not because He is not here, but be
cause our vision is clouded. May it not be
that when we have passed through this period
of materialism in which now we rush and strive
and turn again to the things of the soul and
reach out for the higher life, new prophets
shall arise and new books of God be written,
and new psalms be sung, and there be open
vision again of God's presence here on earth?
Or, to put it in still another way, one must
enter into the spirit of a thing before he can
understand it. The reason Nicodemus could
not comprehend what Jesus said about the
kingdom was because he had no sympathy
with it. So Jesus says to him : "It is vain for
me to try and explain the divine mysteries of
my kingdom, Nicodemus, while you have no
sympathy with the kingdom itself." This is
the heart of the matter. We cannot compre
hend the beauties of divine things until we
enter into oneness with their purpose. We see
the meaning of things according to the spirit
that animates our searching. The artist looks
at the landscape and sees a thousand beauties
hid to common eyes. To enjoy music we have
to know its laws and make for ourselves poetic
natures. In all things we have to bring our
selves up to the level of that which we would

Earthly Things, Then Heavenly 33
comprehend. The universe is full of the re-
vealings of God. No man would dare hint at
the thousands of even natural forces as yet
unfelt and unseen— unfelt because we have not
yet developed ourselves enough to feel. When
we develop our mental sensitiveness up to a
certain point a new world of stars bursts in
upon it or a Roentgen ray. One of the zests
of living is the consciousness that as we grow
in mental receptiveness new and wonderful
things out of the unseen world will flood our
minds. So, too, as we learn to love spiritual
things, and become possessed with a great en
thusiasm for the kingdom of God, and go out
into life looking and longing for God, and make
our souls sensitive to divine and holy things,
there shall grow up within us an abiding sense
of the nearness of the blessed spirit presence,
and secret mysteries of heaven shall begin to
unroll their meaning before our eyes, and
streams of power and plenty begin to roll in
upon us out of unseen worlds, and all the earth
begin to glow with the glorious presence of
the Lord. First the trained and sympathetic
heart, then the revelation. "First earthly
things, then heavenly."
In leaving this beautiful incident of Jesus
and Nicodemus talking by night, remember
that we are fortunate enough to know that
3

34 The Enlargement of Life
Nicodemus followed these rules we have been
studying, and that they brought him into the
kingdom. For, two years later, when the
Jews would sentence Jesus without trial, we
find Nicodemus pleading His cause; and, at
the last, we find him, in his great devotion,
doing honor to the dead body of the Lord, for,
says John :
' ' There came also Nicodemus (which at the first
came to Jesus by night) and brought a mixture of
myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in
linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the
Jews is when they bury. ' '

' ' And when he was gone forth into the way, there came
one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Mas
ter, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? And
Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good ? There is
none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the com
mandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not
steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy
father and mother. And he answered and said unto him,
Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then
Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing
thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven . and
come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at
that saying, and went away grieved : for he had great
possessions." — Mark x : 17-22.

35

MISSING THE PRIZE OF LIFE
TO miss the prize of life ! Is there sadness
comparable to that? To reach out for
fine things and have the hand just fall short of
the grasp ; to run the race with pain and long
exertions and then fall just short of the line ;
to toil long years for success and have it elude
us just at the last moment; to prepare one's
self for some useful work, and be smitten help
less at the threshold of ambition ; to have come
into our lives the promise of a beautiful love,
and lose it as we gain it — this is the sadness of
life. This is the story of this rich young man.
He is a lovable youth. Jesus looking upon him
loved him — loved him both because of his na
tive guilelessness and because of the fair prom
ise of his youth. But the whole sadness of the
story is the failure of the promise. He was
just on the point of having the prize of life in
his hands — and then loses it forever. The
story is very striking. Jesus always had two
37

38 The Enlargement of Life
audiences, one made up of His disciples,
the other constituted of curious visitors who
came and went, hovering around the edge of
the circle. But sometimes there were among
these some who were peculiarly impressed by
Him and His words, and afterwards sought
Him out to talk further about the kingdom.
Nicodemus was one of these. This young
ruler was another. He had been listening
with deepening interest to Jesus' talk about
the kingdom of God. When He began to speak
of eternal life the young man was strangely
moved. It was something of which he had
heard little, but something for which he panted.
Stirred, as never before, he breaks through the
ranks of disciples and says: "Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit this eternal
life?" Jesus is surprised at this impetuous outbreak
from this unexpected source and gently rebukes
the young man for calling Him "good" or
"perfect," then, answering his question, says:
"You know the commandments, not to lie, nor
steal, nor kill, to honor your parents —if you
keep these they lead you toward eternal life."
Then the young man says: "All these have
I kept from my youth up, but they do not
bring me that life and peace of which you
speak. I lack something. What is it? "

Missing the Prize of Life 39
Jesus saw at once what it was that stood be
tween this young man and the kingdom. And
because He loves him so, and would save him
to the prize of life, plainly tells him that it is
his wealth that is standing between him and
the kingdom. So He puts him to the one test
that can save him can he meet it. "Go, rid
yourself of your wealth," He says, "then come
and take up My cross, My work, and live with
Me in lowly service and you shall find eternal
life." How plainly one can see the young man
standing there, stunned by this answer, waver
ing between two choices, knowing that Jesus
has read his heart, tempted to yield all and
offer himself to Jesus, then pictures of the
pleasures he must yield — drawn this way and
that ! Ah, it is the crucial moment of life, the
great opportunity — will he take it? For a mo
ment it looks as if he would. But, alas, he
falters. The sacrifice is too great. He just
misses the prize of life. He goes away sor
rowful. To miss the prize of life ! To let something
come between our souls and eternal life ; to let
some earthly treasure shut us out from heaven ;
to let some passing fascination cut us off from
the true beauty of the soul; to let some
treacherous riches hold us back from the true

40 The Enlargement of Life
wealth of life; to let some clinging pleasure
keep us from the fulfilment of our lives ; to let
some cherished possession shut us from the
kingdom — ah, well might any one go away
sorrowing !
As we saw a moment ago, the thing keeping
this young man out of the kingdom was not an
immoral life, but an inordinate and misplaced
affection. His money stood between him and
eternal life. Jesus tells him plainly that to get
into the kingdom he must brush it aside. Now
there is no condemnation of wealth here. It
is simply that in the case of this particular
young man, it was wealth that stood between
him and the prize of life. Wealth may be a
door into the kingdom of heaven, as much as
anything else. I know not a few rich men who
are opening the doors of heaven with their
money. Would that all rich men might see
what a means of eternal life they have in their
riches ! But in the case of this young man it
stood right between him and God, like a big,
unscalable wall. Jesus sees that the only sal
vation for the young man is to take his affection
completely off it and turn it toward higher
things. So, like a surgeon, he cuts quick and
deep. Well, it is an eternal truth. We all
need the lesson as much as did the young man.
We must all make some great renunciation be-

Missing the Prize of Life 41
fore we can enter the kingdom. The first thing
for any of us seeking eternal life to do is to
brush away anything that stands between the
soul and God. If we are loving anything more
than God there is no chance yet for eternal
life. If we are more wrapped up in earthly in
terests than in the things of the higher life, we
are a long way from the kingdom.
I suppose that could we look into the hearts
of men we should find that more men were
kept apart from God by some secret, deeply
cherished idol than by open and flagrant acts
of immorality. Often, too, they are men in
whom all other qualities are fine and lovable,
as with this young ruler. But the pity is that
this one evil quality negatives and poisons all
the life. You remember Launcelot's moan, in
The Holy Grail :
" In me lived a sin
So strange, of such a kind, that all of pure,
Noble, and knightly in me twined and clung
Round that one sin, until the wholesome flower
And poisonous grew together, each as each,
Not to be plucked asunder."
How many men I have known like Launcelot
— noble, magnanimous, generous — who were
keeping themselves clear out of the kingdom
by just one weakness, one lust, one appetite,

42 The Enlargement of Life
one coveted possession from which they could
not tear themselves, until the evil thing pois
oned the virtues ! The good qualities strive
for the kingdom, but the one evil blocks the
door and keeps out a hundred virtues. We
must fling away those things that block our
way. In the case of this young man it hap
pened to be money. With another of us it is
some unlawful affection. We may keep all the
commandments in the Pentateuch, but until
we get rid of that unlawful love, there is no
eternal life for us. With another it is pleas
ure. Pleasure is given, as is wealth, as a means
to the kingdom. But when we find it absorb
ing more of our minds than do serious things,
when we find ourselves thinking more of it
than we do of culture, giving more of our time
to it than to good books, when it comes be
tween us and our duties, we are erecting a
very, very impenetrable barrier between our
selves and eternal life. Many people seem to
think that heaven is a sort of perpetual lawn-
party for people who have not lied nor killed
nor stolen their neighbors' chattels. Heaven
is no such place. Heaven is the place which
the soul makes for itself by serious, unremitting
attention to the development of all the finer,
deeper, larger, eternal qualities of its being.
Anything that comes between it and this ful-

Missing the Prize of Life 43
filment must be brushed aside with a sweep.
It matters not what, it must go. If it is occu
pation, change it, no matter at what sacrifice.
If it is lust of office, if it is the pride of life,
inordinate ambition — what are these to the
eternal life, to the prize of life! Each one
knows the wall between himself and God. Let
us not deceive ourselves by keeping the com
mandments, and at the same time cherishing
that forbidden treasure. Let us be sick, let
us have pain, let us be poor, let us have sor
row, let us have seeming failure, let us lose
wealth and success itself — but oh, let us not
permit anything to stand year after year be
tween the soul and God, let us not let anything,
no matter how much loved and cherished, cut
us off from the prize of life. For if a man
lose eternal life, what has he left?
Another striking truth brought out in the
words of Jesus to this young man is that the
good may sometimes stand between us and
the best. Morality is good. It is one of the
best things in the world. It is one of the loftiest
ends of living. But as Jesus shows us here, it
may come between a man and something bet--
ter — the eternal life here and now, oneness
with God. This young man was of scrupulous
morality. He had kept all the commandments
— and Jesus praised him. To another man

44 The Enlargement of Life
who had said that he had kept the law, Jesus
said: "Thou art not far from the kingdom of
God." So, He would have said to this young
ruler: "Thou art not far from the kingdom of
God. Only one step more is necessary. Give
yourself to God and His service." That is,
this young man needed to add to his morality
the sense of God, an enthusiasm for service, a
spirit of willing sacrifice, a passionate devotion
to God's kingdom. This was just where the
religion of Jesus surpassed the law of Israel.
Israel said: "Keep the commandments. Do
God's will." Jesus said: "Keep the com
mandments. Do God's will; but more, let
God possess you and out of that well of power
and spirit serve your fellow-men." It is the
difference between morality and religion. Re
ligion does not despise morality. It praises it
and says: "Go farther. Become transfused
with God and made over by a holy passion, a
divine enthusiasm."
So Jesus would say to-day to the men who
are keeping the proprieties: " Excellent men.
Would that all men were as good as you ! You
are on the threshold of My kingdom. Add
now to all this a consecration to God and men.
Learn to sacrifice. Try to see that this is God's
world and that He is here. Get as the chief
interest of your life a share in the creative and

Missing the Prize of Life 4 5
redemptive work of the world. Not only keep
the commandments, but learn to love, to love
godliness, to love your brothers and to serve
them. Take up your cross and follow Me.
Seek eternal life here and now."
You see the danger. Eternal life here and
now is the prize of life. The sense of God
throbbing in one's veins. Morality can come
between us and the divine exultation possible
to the soul. The trouble is that while moral
ity, in the sense of good conduct, is of surpass
ing worth, yet it does not offer full scope for
the divine possibilities and capacities of man
hood. It stops short of man's promise. There
is above and beyond morality a kingdom of
spiritual life possible for men. There is a
divine life fed from heavenly sources. There
is communion and friendship with God, the
Father of souls. There is within us that which
opens and buds and finds its full fruition only
at the touch of unseen forces. For this life we
are meant. It reaches down to lift us up. It
calls for us to enter into the fulness of its
power. Let a man find it and he is born again.
It transmutes our base natures into gold. It
fills out the smallness of our being. It makes
our souls to leap and sing. It sustains us
through all life's trials. It quickens far-reach
ing ambitions and holy aspirations. It awakens

4-6 The Enlargement of Life
in us a sense of immortality. It is God in us,
shaping us into His likeness. This is what
Jesus meant by eternal life. This was his king
dom. He added little to the morality of the
Old Testament. But He opened this great
kingdom of spiritual reality above and beyond
morality, and urged moral men to seek it for
the sake of their own fulfilment, and asked
them to rise and be workers in it, creators, with
Him, of the new heaven He was building on
the old earth. Let us not be satisfied with
anything short of the best and highest. Let
us not suffer even the good to come between
us and the prize of life.
To miss the prize of life ! Yes, that is the
saddest thing. How interesting it would be if
we could follow up the life of this young man
after this conversation ! In the case of Nico
demus we find two short references, but enough
to show us that as a result of his talk with Jesus
by night he chose the prize of life. He became
a disciple. But of this young man we have no
mention. He is dismissed with these sad
words: "He went away sorrowful." But can
any one doubt but that he missed the prize of
life? And can any one doubt but that his
whole after-life was full of regrets? Can any
one doubt but that again and again through
his life he bemoaned that lost opportunity?

Missing the Prize of Life 47
For conscience gives no rest to a man of his
serious disposition. The scene has been called
by an artist "The Great Refusal." But great
refusals are followed by great regrets.
This then is our last word. Do not fill life
with regrets over lost prizes. Regrets make
up so much of the sadness of life. How often
when you converse with an old man, you will
hear him say: "Ah, if I could only live life
over again, how differently I would live it,"
or, "If I had only known when I was young,
and have chosen the better path," or, "If I
had only been wise enough in youth to have
sacrificed the lesser for the greater, how differ
ent life would have been ! " And so, the very
air about us is full of sighs and regrets over
lost opportunities. If you want happiness,
choose eternal life, and keep regrets out of life.
And if perchance a young man be reading
these pages, let me say to him that no man
ever yet found happiness by choosing the lesser
thing. Do not poison your later years with
regrets, vain longings to live life over again.
The way to live life over again is to live it
right the first time. Lost opportunities are
hard to find again. Many men would give all
they possess to get some prize they missed in
youth. Thousands would give fortunes to
blot out the memory of wrong choices. A

48 The Enlargement of Life
great man said, not long before he died: "I
have tasted about all earth offers, and I want to
bear testimony that only the things pertaining
to the higher life have yielded any real or
lasting satisfaction." "Youth is a blunder;
manhood a struggle; old age a regret," said
Disraeli. Old age is a regret only when youth
is a blunder. Choose eternal life in youth and
old age will have no regrets. It will be peace
ful in beautiful memories, strong in ripened
powers, glad in the promise of eternal life.
This is the prize of life.

' ' Rejoice in the Lord alway : and again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is
at hand. Be careful for nothing ; but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things." — Philip-
pians iv: 4-8.

49

INVITING THE BEST THINGS
SOME one once wrote a great author asking
what was the secret of a true life and the
author answered in this striking phrase : "In-
viting into it the best things." This seems
also to have been a thought frequently in Paul's
mind. Most of his letters are written to men
and women beginning the Christian life. They
were much on his heart and he was always
thinking of things that might help them to live
their new life. He knows the tendency of their
minds to dwell on common and degrading
things. He knows, too, the power of lofty
thoughts upon the mind. So he writes and
not only requests them to invite into their
minds the best thoughts, but commands them
to think on whatsoever things are true, honest,
just, pure, lovely, and of good report.
Here we are placed in a world of infinite
things. We are facing an unknown future full
of many good and many evil things. A great
many of these things will play upon our lives
51

52 The Enlargement of Life
to determine them in ways over which we have
no control and of which we are practically un
conscious at the time. On the other hand, by
far the larger part of our character will be de
termined by the things we consciously invite
into it to be its guests. Our life is in our own
hands more than it is either in nature's or
environments'. The elusive influences that
beat against us from the world, strong as they
are, are not so potent as the positive influ
ences we can invite into ourselves, from earth
and heaven. This being true, it is a good
thing now and then to stop and ask ourselves
the question: "What shall we invite into our
lives in these coming days?"
Of course the first answer is directly sug
gested by our text. "We will invite the best
thoughts." There are thoughts that ennoble
and thoughts that debase. There are thoughts
that inspire to lofty action and thoughts that
take the courage from the veins. There are
thoughts that put iron into the will and make
it forceful, there are thoughts that weaken its
fibre and dissipate its forces. There are
thoughts that are fragrant and lovely as fields
of flowers, there are thoughts that are loath
some and dank with malaria. There are
thoughts that expand the heart and mind,
there are others that dwarf it and dry it up.

Inviting the Best Things 53
There are thoughts that are pure with the
purity of heaven, there are others that smell of
their origin in foul nests in the heart.
Our lives are going to be largely determined
by our choice from all these thoughts. We
have not even begun to see yet, in our study
of human life, the power of thought over life —
even over the physical life. The thought we
think will make us like itself. Impure thoughts
will not only breed foul natures, but corre
sponding bodies. Degrading thoughts not only
degenerate the character, but lower the vitality
of the body. On the other hand, every good
thought we think lifts us up into its own world.
Pure thoughts are tonics to heart and body.
Beautiful thoughts make beautiful beings.
Our thoughts become an environment created
by our will, and the environment shapes us to
itself. Forceful, vigorous thoughts put tone
and precision into the whole of life. A man
walks more firmly, acts more decisively, sees
more clearly the large issues of his life. Lofty
thoughts expand the mind and let in God's
truth and open life to the heavenly influences
that hover over our heads.
One of the causes for the low physical and
moral vitality of our time is the commonness
of the thoughts that possess the average mind.
Fence in for a moment the first fifty people

54 The Enlargement of Life
that pass you on the street and look into their
minds. How many would you find at that
moment thinking a thought above the com
mon-place? How many whose minds naturally
followed channels of worthy, elevating, enrich
ing thought? And yet, as we said, the life will
rise no higher than the character of the thoughts
we think.
All this is sad because it is so easy to train
the mind to dwell in lofty, healthy realms. It
is purely a matter of habit, as is everything
else. Let a man begin to force himself to
think each day a few good, vigorous thoughts,
and by and by the mind will naturally, in idle
moments of reverie even, run to wholesome
themes. I know a man who began by starting
the day with a fine thought from some good
book. He dwelt on it on his way to his office.
He returned to it at leisure moments. He
kept up the practice. Now his mind naturally
follows in the roads he built with his will.
His character has grown large and vigorous
with the growth of the habit. It always fol
lows. How many idle moments we allow to
go to waste that might unconsciously be min
istering to us had we formed this habit ! I
know two farmers. One has marked features
and singular personality, and when he speaks
always says things worth saying. If I find him

Inviting the Best Things 55
at some mechanical labor, I am sure to find
him thinking out some great thought of God
or nature. Hence the sort of man he is. The
other man lets his mind run on all day in idle
reverie over silly or common things. Hence
his vapid face and unimpressive presence. It
is a religious duty to invite the best thoughts.
Pure thoughts make us pure. Hopeful
thoughts make us strong and healthy. Great
thoughts lift us toward greatness. Thoughts
of God make us God-like. To think Jesus'
great thoughts after Him lifts us into the king
dom of heaven.
This is the place to say just a word about
the sources of our thoughts. They are three.
The commonest source is books. Young men
and women, you are going out into a world
teeming with books. You will find the choice
bewildering. You will find that the books
most widely read and most commonly dis
cussed are books of little meaning, of slight
insight into the deeps of life, reflecting only its
surface experiences, and containing few of the
thoughts that quicken manhood or arouse
noble ambitions. You want to begin right at
the threshold of life and learn to read and love
the books of power. Form the habit of read
ing the books that inform the mind with lofty
thoughts and soon these will be your delight

56 The Enlargement of Life
of life. Every thought that passes through
your mind leaves its contribution of good or
evil. Read those books that enrich and broaden
experience. Read the books that give vision.
Read the books that thrill the soul and not the
senses. Read the books that make you think
better thoughts, take right views of life, and
that open the gates of beauty and of chivalry.
Another source of thoughts is conversation.
I would like to spend the rest of the time
thinking of this. I can only mention its im
portance. But perhaps the greatest waste of
the world is in its conversation. How we talk
and talk together hour after hour, then separate
no whit the richer for our talk! How men
spend hours together flitting over the shallows
of life when each one has a rich store of experi
ence, unknown to the other, whereon to draw !
I would like to see a company of young men
and women arise determined to revolutionize
conversation, determined to make it mean
something, to make it a power in life, a con
tribution to the soul's resources. Form the
habit of drawing out the best from those with
whom you talk. Form the habit of giving the
best you have in your conversations. Let us
elevate conversation to an art — not an art for
art's sake, but an art for life's sake.
And remember that the source of many of

Inviting the Best Things 57
your thoughts is in yourself. The imagination
is a well of thoughts. But the imagination
will draw upon the capital wherewith you have
stored your mind. Fill the mind with the
finest, purest, strongest thoughts of books and
men and then when it begins to build up its
own great structures it will use the blocks and
stones you have provided, and if your heart be
pure, out of these it will build a fair and lofty
structure. Returning now to our original question, let
us ask and answer it again : ' ' What shall I in
vite into my life as I enter the years? " Well,
if we are intent on the best things we will
invite the best feelings. Life offers as wide
a range of feelings as of thoughts. There is
generousness or selfishness. There is hopeful
ness or despair. There is bravery or fearful
ness. There is courage or timidity. There is
firmness or waveringness. There is magna
nimity or closeness. There is forgiveness or
revenge. There is joyousness or sadness.
There is love or hatred. There is power or
weakness. Out of all these and many others
can you take your choice.
"Choice?" I hear some one say. "Ah,
but these things are not matters of choice!
Would to God they were ! They come of them
selves. They take the kingdom of the heart

58 The Enlargement of Life
by force. They are spontaneous things. They
are a part of our temperament over which we
have no power. Some of us are born of gloomy
cast of mind. We are pessimistic by nature.
We are creatures of moods. We cannot en
tirely master them. They are a part of our
natures. Some of us are born cowards. Can
a leopard change his spots? No. We cannot
create our feelings. They create us. " All of
which is the greatest error into which the
human race has fallen. And a shallow inter
pretation of evolution and heredity has had a
tendency more firmly to intrench the falsehood
in men's minds. But we are not creatures of
our moods unless we will. We need not be
slaves of base and debilitating frames of mind.
We need not submit passively to the feelings
that unnerve us and sap our joy and usefulness
and peace. We can invite to rule us what
masters we wish. We can invite the feelings
that exalt and strengthen and glorify. We
can cultivate our dispositions and make them
lift us and not depress. We can enthrone in
our heart as rulers the diviner impulses of the
soul. Religious experience is but the history
of this process. A leopard cannot change his
spots. But we are not leopards and can change
our spots, by the grace of God. This is the
whole of Jesus' gospel. He brought men under

Inviting the Best Things 59
the dominion of an entirely new range of emo
tions. The path is open forever. I cannot
believe that God ever intended that any single
one of His children must remain a slave to
anything that shuts him off from His presence.
And this is what these lower feelings do. If
He is a Christian God He has given every son
of man the power and means to invite into His
heart the best and noblest feelings. This is
why Paul can command his disciples to rejoice.
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say,
Rejoice." It is a sane command.
And so much hangs upon the choice ! It is
the most momentous thing in life ! For joy or
sorrow, satisfaction or regret, await its issue.
Success or failure is determined here. For no
man can make life a real success who is the
creature of his moods. The keen, upward-
glancing, far-seeing eye or the downcast gaze
follows upon the choice. Whether we shall see
the beauty of the world or only its emptiness
depends upon the choice. Whether we shall
live a glad, free, rich, abounding, growing life
or a life of despondency, dejection, listlessness,
and stagnation shall be determined by this
choice. You know it. You know it as well as I.
You have seen the man who insisted on feeling
generous feelings toward his fellow-men grow

60 The Enlargement of Life
generous day by day, and expand in largeness
and in beauty of heart and soul, filling the
world with the aroma of his life. And you
have seen the man who let mean and selfish
thoughts possess his life grow hard and narrow
and cynical and miss the prize of life. You
have seen the man who invited forgiveness into
his heart glow with large and exuberant and
kindly manhood, and you have seen the man
cherishing feelings of revenge and hatred wither
and all the fountains of his being dry up day
by day. You have seen the hopeful and optim
istic man go gladly to his task and do great
work for his fellow-men. And you have seen
the despondent and despairing man drag out a
wearied existence with palsied force. But,
young men, we were meant for life, not death ;
for force, not impotence ; for power, not power-
lessness; for joy, not sorrow; for movement,
not stagnation ; for large, glad, free fulfilment
of our lives in beauty and strength. All beau
tiful thoughts and feelings are given us for this
purpose. They are gifts of God to make us
God-like. Invite them into your heart to be
its kings and rulers. Never let the enemy get
even one foot through the door. Insist on
letting in only whom you will.
Now let me mention just one more thing.
So much of our power and true success, so

Inviting the Best Things 61
much of our joy and satisfaction, is going to
depend upon the attitude we take toward
things, that we want to enter manhood with a
religion that will be a well-spring within our
hearts, inspiring, unfailing, large enough to
meet all the demands of this life and the next,
large enough to encompass all the issues of
life and death. Here you are a young man,
just reaching that age when you want to in
vite into your heart a philosophy of life, a
religion. What shall it be? Let me try and
tell you.
It ought to be a religion that thrills with
power and inspires to manly action, rather than
a religion that palsies effort and discourages
enthusiasm. It ought to be a religion of sun
shine, joy, and altruism, such as Jesus held,
rather than a religion of pessimism which says
God's curse rests upon this present world.
This is God's world as much as any world we
shall ever see. It ought to be a positive re
ligion, a religion of force and of affirmation on
the great verities of life, not a faith of denials
and of emphasis on passing things. It is better
to hold one great, life-giving truth in magnifi
cent positiveness than to hold half a dozen
debatable articles of faith. It ought to be a
religion that offers ideals worthy of one's
highest manhood, not a religion content with

62 The Enlargement of Life
small achievements ; a religion that offers eter
nal scope for manhood and is not bound by
mortal bounds. It ought to be a religion
whose sympathies are broad and universal, not
narrow or confined; a religion social in its
workings, a race religion, not an individual's
creed. The religion that has for its end the
saving of one's own soul alone, and not the
saving of one's brothers' souls, is not the re
ligion for our day. But why not say it all in
one word, — the religion for a young man to in
vite into his life is the religion held and taught
by Jesus : not the things men have said about
Him, but the things He lived and believed and
taught and handed on to His disciples and to
us. And this is the religion of Jesus adapted
to our day : A belief in a God immanent in His
world as a soul possesses a body and tran
scends it; a childlike trust in this heavenly
Father as the source of life and peace ; a belief
that God reveals Himself to the hearts of all
true men, modern as well as ancient; that He
spoke to holy men of old, but speaks also to
all holy men to-day ; a belief that God revealed
Himself in Hebrew history, but just as strong
a belief that He reveals Himself in our own
history, had we but eyes to see ; a belief that
this is God's world and not the devil's, and
that God is in it, by His Spirit, to move it

Inviting the Best Things 63
to the fulfilment of His kingdom ; a belief in a
God who forgives sin and gives another chance
for life ; a belief that all men are brothers be
cause they are all children of God ; a belief in
the pure life and the life of love as the only life
worth living ; a belief that fulness of life comes
only from the touch of unseen power and that
Jesus has opened the way and is the way to its
sources; a belief in the immortality of the
human soul, based on the character of God,
and the soul's inherent worth.
This is the religion for the young man intent
on noble living and high achievement to pos
sess. Let us invite the best things.

" And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, be
hold, there was a man named Zaccheus, which was the chief
among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see
Jesus, who he was ; and could not for the press, because he
was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into
¦a. sycamore tree to see him : for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw
him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come
down ; for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made
haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when
they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to
be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zaccheus stood,
and said unto the Lord ; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods
I give to the poor ; and if I have taken anything from any
man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus
said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forso-
much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost." — Luke xix :
i-io.

65

THE SECRET OF TRANSFORMATION
ONE thing about this man Zaccheus is not
mentioned in the story, but is implied in
it : he was possessed of a great unrest and re
morse. We must remember this if we would
see the deep import of the story. He had
been a bad man, and he knew it. He kept up
his evil practices; but his conscience lashed
him night and day. He was full of a great
remorse for his sins; but he was not able to
escape them. If somebody in Jericho, some
good, noble man had gone and offered him his
sympathy, he might have escaped them long
before this, but the good people all avoided
him. He had to wait until Jesus came.
Now while in this terrible condition, hating
his sins and yet not able to break away from
them, — and how well we all know that purga
tory, — he hears of the wonderful things this new
prophet, Jesus, is doing, — freeing men from
bonds, forgiving sins, healing diseases, — and he
becomes intensely interested. Very likely he
67

68 The Enlargement of Life
has met men who have witnessed these things,
and it awakens in Zaccheus a faint ray of hope
that this man may help him. So one day
when he hears that Jesus is approaching Jericho
he determines at least to see this wonderful
man. Now it is altogether likely that Jesus has also
heard all about Zaccheus, for Zaccheus was the
chief man in Jericho. He was the richest man.
He collected the taxes for the Roman govern
ment, with the privilege of keeping all he could
extort, over a certain sum. He was notorious
in all those regions for grinding down the poor.
We may be sure that Jesus heard the whole
history of Zaccheus from the villagers as He
approached Jericho, with no diminution of the
facts in the telling. And curiously enough, all
this story about Zaccheus, instead of awaken
ing disgust in Jesus, aroused interest and a de
sire to meet the man. The people could not
understand this, but the disciples, travelling
with Jesus, understood it well enough.
Now comes an eventful meeting, the greatest
meeting that comes in experience, a saviour
meets a sinner, a great satisfaction comes to a
great need. Zaccheus ran out with the crowd
to see the new teacher. Being small of stature,
he climbed up into a tree. When Jesus came
to the place He looked up and saw him, and

The Secret of Transformation 69
recognizing him at once, from the descriptions
He had heard, said to him, "Zaccheus, make
haste and come down, for I want to stop with
you while I am in Jericho." For a moment
Zaccheus could not believe his own ears. Then
a great pride swelled his heart that this great,
good, lovable man should have singled him out.
So he hurried down and received Jesus joy
fully. Then the crowd began muttering and
murmuring and the men shook their heads
ominously. "He has passed all us good and
respectable people and chosen to take dinner
with the worst sinner in town. There is some
thing queer about it." Ah, how little they
understood Jesus ! At the dinner there ensued
a long conversation, of which we have only
three sentences preserved, but they are rich
with meaning.
Before we look at these sentences look just
for a moment at a very significant word in this
story. He received him "joyfully." There
is often so much in a word. Just as in the
conversation with the rich young man we find
in the expression that Jesus, beholding him,
"loved him," the whole biography of the
young man, so here in this one sentence, "He
received him joyfully," there is a great light
thrown on the character of Jesus. Indeed,
there is no description of the character of Jesus

7© The Enlargement of Life
in the Gospels. We find it through His words
and deeds and not a little from the resultant
effects of the touch of His life upon other lives.
Here we have a good instance of this very
thing. This man Zaccheus had had hundreds
speak to him, but not one had ever stirred a
note of joy in him. But Jesus does not
speak a dozen words before his heart begins
to leap and bound with joy. There runs
through his veins a premonition of deliverance
and he runs to meet it. I said that here was
a most interesting light on Jesus' character.
This same thing happened whenever Jesus met
a man. No one came in contact with Him
without immediately beginning to feel delicious
sensations of joy and hope and release. The
Gospels are full of incidents. His presence
brought sunlight. His words quickened new
hopes. His look brought peace. His touch
gave health and strength.
What was the secret of this? There is no
more interesting question to be asked. And
after we have tried answer after answer, we
always come back to the only cause large
enough for the effect — it was the God in Him.
The Divine Spirit flooded His life, and His face
shone with the glory. His words had their
origin beyond this world. The peace and
strength of the Infinite flowed through His

The Secret of Transformation 71
touch. Through His eyes shone the divine
light of unseen worlds.
My friends, any man who will let God fill his
life will produce some of the effects of God.
Just as a man goes to the university and fills
himself with knowledge and then, ever after,
the power of the university works through him,
so let a man fill his soul with the power of God,
as Jesus did, night by night, and ever after he
will work and love and minister out of that
well of eternal life. This is the secret of all
high, lasting influence. It is said of John
Wesley that the reason the great crowds in the
open fields were so transported by his preach
ing was because his words seemed to come
from beyond himself, and men, as it were,
actually heard God Himself pleading with
them and offering them life. That was just
what they did hear. The preacher was the
mouthpiece of the Eternal. Every man who
will lend himself to God may live God's life on
earth and speak God's words. If you want
large, powerful, transforming influence, let the
power of God flow through your life. That is
the secret. Hear God's words and you will
speak them. Let His peace possess you and
your presence will give peace. Be strong in
His strength and the strength will leap into
other lives. Know the joy and exultancy of

72 The Enlargement of Life
the Divine Spirit in your hearts and all famish
ing men will receive you joyfully. Become
one with God, and you shall be God-like as
was Jesus and produce God-like effects.
There is another very striking line recorded
here: "And when they saw it, they all mur
mured." When Jesus told Zaccheus that He
wished to abide at his house, He did not sur
prise Zaccheus more than He did the crowd. It
is easy to see what had been the attitude of the
village toward Zaccheus. They had despised
him. They passed him on the streets without
recognition. They never invited him to their
houses or went to his. They pointed him out
to their children as a bad man and warned them
against following his example. They would
not sit in the same pew with him in church.
They never received his wife into their so
ciety. They would not let their children play
with his children. This all soured Zaccheus
and made him more self-centred than ever.
Now see the difference in Jesus' attitude.
He extended His best greeting to him at first
meeting and went to dine with him. It was
all because of the totally different point of
view. Jesus asked Himself not "What is Zac
cheus' character?" but "Can I do him good?"
not "What is his social standing? " but "Can
I help him? " not "What are his habits? " but

The Secret of Transformation 73
"Can I give him a new set of habits? " not "Is
he selfish? " but "Can I make him generous? "
not "Is he base?" but "Can I make him
noble?" not "What has been his past?" but
"Can I start him on an upright future? " not
"Is he a sinner?" but "Can I make him a
Christian ? ' '
See how utterly opposite the two points of
view. Yes, and how utterly opposite in effect
the two attitudes ! There is no denying that
the people's attitude toward Zaccheus was per
fectly natural, but notice that the people never
did him any good. And there is no denying
that Jesus' attitude was very uncommon, and
to some extraordinary, but notice that it saved
Zaccheus. Now Jesus has here given us the whole secret
of the salvation of bad men. The bad people
will be made good when the good people make
friends with them to save them. Tracts will
not save them. Sermons will not, for only
good people go to hear sermons. Telling them
over and over that they are bad will not help
them. They already know that well enough.
Zaccheus knew he was leading a bad life. What
he needed was not knowledge, but a friend.
Spurning and snubbing bad men only drive
them to worse living. But let a good man,
instead of shunning a bad man, treat him as

74 The Enlargement of Life
though he had some faith in him, and be
friendly toward him, and in eight cases out of
ten it will make the bad man better. It is the
only way. I do not know that I ever treated
a bad man in a friendly manner without his
trying to make himself worthier of my friend
ship. The secret of saving men is to love
them. See the effect this proffer of friendship had
upon Zaccheus. He probably had not had a
kindly greeting for months. No one had
shown the least interest in him or his troubles.
But Jesus had not been at Zaccheus' house
half an hour before Zaccheus got up from the
table and said : " I have been an extortioner and
a deceiver. I have lied and I have made false
tax returns. I have robbed the poor. I have
been selfish and greedy. But I declare right
here and now, before all present, that I am
going to give half my fortune to the poor, and
wherever I have taken anything unjustly I am
going to give back four times as much. I have
been a bad man, worse than I meant to be,
and I ask forgiveness."
Can you not see Jesus, with a beautiful,
tender look on His face, rise from the table and
lovingly put one hand on Zaccheus' shoulder
and take his right hand in His, while all those
present are trying to swallow big lumps in their

The Secret of Transformation 75
throats, and can you not hear Jesus say : "Zac
cheus, this day has salvation come to this
house. You are indeed a true child of Abra
ham." That is the effect the friendship of Jesus had
upon a sinful man. It is illustrated again and
again in Jesus' experience with evil men and
unfortunate women. His friendship made
them all desirous to change their mode of life.
Many of them did rise to be worthy of His
companionship. It has been the one real
method of salvation ever since. "Salvation
by Fellowship" is the principle left us by
Jesus. It is the only principle for to-day.
We could find hundreds of illustrations from
experience and from literature, which is simply
the transcription of experience.
Silas Marner is won back to his manhood,
after all else has failed, by the love of a pure
child. Jean Valjean, in Les Miser ables, is
finally saved by the first friendship that had
ever been offered him, trying, against fearful
odds, to make his life worthy the trust and
esteem of the good bishop. It is a perfect re
production of Zaccheus and Jesus. John, in
The Minister s Wooing, writes Mary that be
cause she out of all his acquaintances still
believed there was good in him, and trusted
him, he had left his old life behind him forever

76 The Enlargement of Life
and was trying to make himself worthy of her
great trust. And so we could go on, but we
come back to what has been said, — the secret of
salvation is not censure, but interest in them
we would help. The world shall be redeemed
not by exclusiveness but inclusiveness. The
best way to raise the standard of life in some
one you know is to go and be a friend to him.
The chances are that your interest in him will
work some reformation. He will certainly be
more of a man while you are with him. He
will not sink quite so low again when you leave
him. The eternal truth is, that it is love that
saves always and everywhere. It is love that
melts hard and stony hearts. It is love
that shames men out of their vileness into man
hood. It is love that transmutes base things
into gold. It is love that purifies, redeems,
and sanctifies.
Perhaps we say : "Yes, this is true; but how
can one treat bad people as Jesus did Zac
cheus? " He cannot unless he is first grounded
in a right motive. It all depends upon our
conception of life's purpose. For what are we
here, primarily? The answer to that question
will solve this problem, and many others. If
we are here for our own comfort only, we can
never think much of the unfortunate. For it
costs to save. If we are here for pleasure and

The Secret of Transformation 77
delight alone, we cannot make sacrificial efforts.
If we think congenial society the only end of
life, of course we will not concern ourselves
with those outside our circle. But it was not
thus with Jesus. He, of course, sought some
delight in life. He had His own circle of con
genial friends and no doubt loved to withdraw
with John to the home of Mary and talk on
high themes. But these were not the chief
delights of life. His life motive was — well,
see what it was as He gives it in conversation
with Zaccheus. When Zaccheus says to Jesus :
"I do not see why you should have spoken to
me, or have shown me so much honor, me, a
man lost to everything good," Jesus answers,
"The Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost. ' '
There is the secret. Just so soon as we can
make that one of our motives, just so soon as
one can say, "I will live at least partly for
others less fortunate than myself," there will
be no trouble in his taking some interest in
those lives outside his own circle and giving
his friendship on a basis of need. And I must
confess that I cannot help feeling that any dis
ciple of Jesus who does not include this motive
with others is, at best, only on the threshold of
discipleship. He lacks the one motive Jesus
most decidedly emphasized. Fill out His many

78 The Enlargement of Life
sentences beginning with ' ' I am come, " and see
how they always end outside Himself.
Now, whether we have studied this lesson to
any advantage or not will depend entirely upon
ourselves. If each one of us can leave it say
ing : " I know some people who can be brought
nearer to God and their true selves by my
friendship. They cannot be reached in any
other way. I am going to forget pride and
comfort and society for once and see if I can
help those people." I say, if each one of us
can say that, he has got Jesus' meaning here.
If each one of us can say: "I am going to
make at least part of my purpose in living, to
make this world a little better and happier
place for others, to bring all the joy I can into
others' lives who need it much, to sympathize
with some one outside my own social circle,
and try and enter into his life a little, to try
and see if I cannot, by friendly interest, help
this man I have shunned ; I will try and say, ' I
am come, at least partly, to seek and save some
one who is lost to the higher life' " — if each
one of us can say that, he has got the exact
point of this beautiful story.

"And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying,
Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down
from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose
and went ; and behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of
great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read
Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go
near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither
to him and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said,
Understandest thou what thou readest ? And he said, How
can I, except some man should guide me ? And he desired
of Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place
of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a
sheep to the slaughter ; and like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth : in his humiliation his
judgment was taken away : and who shall declare his genera
tion ? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch
answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh
the prophet this ? of himself, or of some other man ? Then
Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture,
and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their
way, they came unto a certain water : and the eunuch said,
See, here is water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized ?
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou
mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to
stand still : and they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch ; and he baptized him. And when
they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord
caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more : and
he went on his way rejoicing." — Acts viii : 26-39.

79

NEEDS AND SATISFACTIONS
SOMETIMES it is good to turn from the
study of abstract truth to some of those
actual incidents that bring us closely in touch
with real life. For often one little incident
reaches out into vast worlds of truth and prin
ciple. Our separated acts are expressions of
eternal laws. The thousand events of life relate
themselves to a few great principles of duty.
There is no event of history which is not con
tinually transpiring in all essential meanings, if
not in form. Sometimes the best way to inter
pret the present-day experiences is to turn to
some typal event that has made its mark on
the world's imagination, and where the relation
to divine things is easily seen. If we can hear
the divine voice in the call of Paul it helps us
to hear that voice in the call of every man to
life. If it is easy to see Providence in the
preparation of Peter for service, it will be easy
to see Him in our own life. Also, if we can
find that the well-known events of Bible times
6

82 The Enlargement of Life
relate themselves to one central purpose of
God, it will be easy to feel that the various
experiences of our own life take their place in
the eternal order — indeed, one cannot believe
otherwise, unless he believe, as some men seem
to believe, that God went to sleep at the death
of the last apostle.
For this reason I wish to take for our half-
hour's study together one of the most dramatic
stories in "The Acts of the Apostles." There
is not a more vivid bit of historical writing in
existence. The author of this book has a fine
gift of making a great picture stand out before
us in a few suggestive words. In thirteen
verses we have here a scene full of suggestive
ness and beauty. If one were to trace all that
led up to it, and consider the story itself and
its lessons, and its consequences, he could
write a book. All we can do in our half-hour
is just to look at four lessons out of many.
But they are suggestive. We need barely re
call the story. Philip is preaching in some
little village west of Jerusalem. This Ethio
pian treasurer is driving from Jerusalem toward
the south, bound for Egypt. A vision puts it
into the heart of Philip to go to the southeast
until he strikes this road. Utterly ignorant of
his mission, he goes. Here he finds this treas
urer reading aloud, in his chariot, some words

Needs and Satisfactions 83
which he does not understand. Philip sees
now why he was sent. He interprets the
words to him, wins a powerful, influential
officer to Christ, and sends him on his way re
joicing. Was there ever a story more full of
meaning? Look at this Ethiopian a minute. He was
doubtless a Jew. In early youth he had gone
into Africa with merchants and had remained
there. After a while his business ability and
his integrity came to the notice of the Queen
Candace, and she made him her treasurer.
But he still kept his Jewish faith and period
ically went up to Jerusalem to worship. It
was when returning from one of these visits
that Philip met him. Now the important
thing is that he was a religious man, and was
often found storing his mind with old truth and
seeking new truth. The story brings out the
fact that he was dissatisfied with his present
knowledge and was intensely eager to know
more. He had read the fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah over and over and could not understand
it. He was beginning to feel as Paul did, that
there must be something beyond the Old Test
ament ; that it was an unfinished book. I have
not the slightest doubt but that he had been
anxiously looking for something more. Now,
it is to just this sort of man that God sends the

84 The Enlargement of Life
something more. It is always to the humble
man that God sends more knowledge. To the
man who says, "I have enough," no Philips
ever come. To the man who says, "I know it
all," there come no heavenly messengers.
But to the man who in quietness and humility
is continually saying, "O God, my mind is
empty compared with Thy great fulness," God
sends Philips with new truth. It is always
to the dissatisfied man that truth comes
— dissatisfied in the sense of not being con
tent while there is any illuminating truth
not yet known. The reason new religious
truth comes so slowly to-day is largely because
of this contentedness of our minds. We none
of us have got very much truth, but we seem
satisfied with what we have. We show no
eagerness to read the prophets of old nor the
prophets of to-day. We do not know the truth
that is in the Bible ; we do not know the truth
God revealed through His prophets this last
year. We are satisfied with a little and so
shut ourselves off from the more. But here
was a man who knew all there was in the books
at hand and yet was poring over those chap
ters that called for more. His whole attitude
toward Philip showed that he was dissatisfied
— looking for more. To that man God always
sends the more.

Needs and Satisfactions 85
So the eagerness of this ruler is the strik
ing thing. His almost greedy acceptance of
Philip's offer shows he was eager for light,
looking for truth, keeping all his faculties alert,
his mind fallow, so that no new truth should
escape him, no new light find anything but re
sponse. It is always to the seeking, eager man
that the spirit speaks its first words. It is to
the man who has appropriated what God has
given and is listening, that the angels of illu
mination come. If we only had more eagerness
to-day what new truth might come to us, what
answers to perplexing questions, what clear
ing up of mysteries ! I hardly dare say what I
sometimes believe might happen, if we all of
us would take to ourselves what truth we have,
and then turn with eager, wistful yearning into
the future, and in every way, by pure life and
unbiased minds and strong wills, put ourselves
in touch with the unseen universe, knocking at
every gate of heaven. But might it not be,
aye, is it not probable, since God yearns to
give to the man that yearns to know, that out
of that unseen world there would come new
voices with wonderful revelation, and that there
would new forces, as yet undreamed of, play
upon us, new power for earthly needs, and
that there would be some visions of that
future world reflected back upon this world to

86 The Enlargement of Life
give us hope and cheer, and that we should
find that world nearer than we thought and the
angels near at hand in time of need, and that
God would give us new light upon the won
ders of our being and our destiny, and, best of
all, that there would be given new visions of
His own blessed face?
Now let us leave the ruler a minute and go
back to Philip. Philip had been more favored
than the ruler. He had advanced farther in
the kingdom of truth. The desire of his life
was to give this truth to others. This is always
the mark of a real truth-seeker. He wants to
pass the truth on that others may be freed with
him. Truth is always in the nature of a com
mand. Philip was preaching this new truth
when he heard a voice say, "Leave at once
and hasten to the road that runs from Jeru
salem to Egypt." When Philip was convinced
that this vision was from God he promptly
obeyed and found the consummation of his
life. For the conversion of this ruler meant
more impulse to the kingdom of God than all
his previous work. The ruler was a man of
influence and hundreds would follow where
he led. Had Philip been disobedient to the
vision he would have missed the great oppor
tunity of his life. He obeyed, and when he
reached the road he found the task was more

Needs and Satisfactions 87
far-reaching than he had ever dreamed. The
New Testament is full of just such instances —
men obeying the divine leading and finding
that it led them to greater consequences than
they had ever dared dream of. Never disobey
the voice of God in the soul. When it calls
you to go, go. You whom that voice has
been calling to a higher life, and in whom it
will not be stilled, obey if you want to find
your true selves and your real life. You young
men and women, when that voice calls you to
do something for God, to do some work worth
doing, to assume some hard place in life, to
take some manly stand, I beg of you, turn not
deaf ears to the voice, for it points you to
manhood. Be assured that in that obedience
you shall find just the thing God has for you
to do, and that you shall find, as Philip did,
the crown of life. The men who obey the
visions are the men who get the tasks that
exalt and glorify.
It will be interesting right here to look at
these phenomena of visions for a moment, and
see what they really are. The Old Testament
is full of them. To Abraham comes a vision
telling him to settle Canaan, and henceforth
almost every movement recorded in the history
of Israel is the result of a vision prompting
some one. The same thing is true in the New

88 The Enlargement of Life
Testament. They begin in the first chapters
of the Gospels and "The Revelation" is a book
of visions. Sometimes God speaks directly.
Sometimes angels are sent. Sometimes the
voices are heard in dreams. Sometimes they
seem the silent moving of the spirit upon the
heart. The visions do not stop with Bible
times, but go right on. The Church Fathers
and the saints have them. Augustine is con
verted by a vision. Luther's movements were
determined by a voice. John Fox was directed
by visions. Brainerd speaks what a voice
speaks to him. For that matter, I suppose we
should find, if we could but know, that almost
every great servant of man heard some voice
within compelling him to his course. Now all
one can say in the face of all these varied forms
of vision is, that in whatever way the vision
came, it was the voice of God. God was speak
ing to men. God impelled them to certain high
lines of action. God revealed courses of life to
them. God whispered new truth to them, and
stirred them to divine depths of feeling.
But are these visions ended? No, indeed.
Do they come to men to-day? Certainly they
come to-day as much as ever they did. Why
should they not come? God is the same God,
and has the same power of speaking and has
the same interest in the welfare of His children.

Needs and Satisfactions 89
Man is of the same spiritual constitution, with
the same capacity to hear God, the same power
of response to the divine touch. God's spirit
is all around the spirit of man. Why should it
not touch the soul of man to lead it, guide it,
give it truth, inspire to noble deeds? It was
the one prophecy Jesus reiterated with em
phasis. The spirit of God would speak to the
soul of man.
But let us consult our own experience. Have
we not all of us heard in our heart some voice
of God telling us what to do and what not to
do? Was voice of any angel that spoke to
Philip stronger than the voice we heard that
day? Perhaps we called it conscience. Well,
it does not matter what we called it. The
question is, did we not hear a voice with au
thority in its tone impelling us to some right
way? Of course we have heard it, and it was
our vision. Did we never have a premonition
come over us as a flash, and after a long time
of perplexity find things as clear as day? Did
we never hear a voice warning us against some
course of life, and after we had heeded it see
that we had been saved from some sad down
fall? And did we never feel impelled to go at
once and do a service to some one, and we
went and found we were greatly needed ? Who
sent us? Well, who sent Philip?

90 The Enlargement of Life
Did we never have an hour in our life — in
church — in the forest — under the stars — while
hearing music — by the sea — no matter where —
when we seemed lifted above the low levels of
our common life on to some mount of exalta
tion, and for a while we felt ourselves as we
might be in God's presence, and life lay below
us clear and luminous and beautiful, and our
nerves thrilled with the greatness of our being,
and heaven did not seem very far from earth?
I say, have we not all had such hours? And
was it anything but a God-given vision? Pity
the soul that has never known such hours.
Did we never, in our youth, on some day of
exaltation, see, as in a picture, what our life
might be,' — its possibilities, its opportunities, its
power, its purity, the heights to which it might
rise, its manliness? And was it not the realest
experience of life? Yes, yes — to all of us the
vision comes again and again, the voice speaks.
Let us not be disobedient when it comes.
When God speaks, let us listen. These special
hours of exaltation are signs of the soul's con
tinued possibilities.
We have kept the great lesson for the end.
One man leaves Jerusalem with a great need.
The other man leaves the Western village with
just the satisfaction for that need. And God
brings the satisfaction and the need together

Needs and Satisfactions 91
at just the right time. The Ethiopian ruler
had a momentous question troubling him. God
sends Philip with the answer. This is but one
instance of an eternal habit of God, bringing
satisfactions and needs together. And is not
this the true providence of God ? For surely
there was no accident in this meeting. And
the Bible is full of just such incidents where
there is no accident. All the prophets were
sent to answer some particular need. Remem
ber what striking instances there are in "The
Acts of the Apostles," instances similar to this
of Philip and the eunuch. Peter sleeping under
the stars hears a voice saying, "Behold, three
men seek thee." He goes and finds another
ruler, waiting just as was the eunuch, for the
new truth, and the question and answer are
brought together. Paul, as he sleeps by the
Greek sea, hears a voice asking, "Come over
into Macedonia and help us." He goes and
again the satisfaction and the need are brought
together. I am convinced that God, at the
right time, will send answers to our doubts
and wants and questions. He sends in many
ways. Oftener than we think He sends by
human hands, as in this case of Philip. Often
He answers our prayers through human lips.
You remember Tom Brown at Oxford, hearing
just in time, in the college chapel, the voice

92 The Enlargement of Life
that saves him. Men pray to be delivered
from doubt and God sends some man to speak
or puts some book into their hands as He did
into Neesima's. Men pray to be delivered from
temptation and God sends some strong arm for
them to lean upon. Men pray to be made
brave and strong for some hard course of life
and duty and God sends some friend to be a
stay and inspiration through the years. No
one knows how often God thus saves us from
our doubts and fears by human hands. No
one knows how often, just at the right time,
God sends some Philip to lead us out into the
way of life.
And were there time I should like to show
how the very fact of a great need in one's heart
is a sort of indication of the existence some
where of the satisfaction. Any scientist will
tell you how in nature the wants always find
their satisfaction ; that capacity brings an en
vironment as much as environment develops
capacity. To quote one of these scientists :
" If a fish is created there is always water wherein
to swim, there is always air for the flying birds. All
the way through nature there is a well-balanced law
of demand and supply, of need and satisfaction.
Constitutional wants . . . have always been
provided for, and met in the constitution of the
world."

Needs and Satisfactions 93
But are not our spiritual needs just as much
constitutional wants as are our physical needs?
And if God has been true to the needs of
animals, shall He be false to human hearts? It
wrongs God even to ask such a question. Be
lieve me, if the human soul is always crying
for God, never satisfied without Him, that very
cry is proof that somewhere there is the God to
answer. Nothing is an accident that answers
to a deep-seated need of the soul. Nor is
there, in my mind, any doubt of immortality
if this be true. The law holds good to-day,
why should it fail to-morrow? To all great
yearnings of the soul God has so far on sent
great satisfactions, why should He not answer
and fulfil this last great cry of all? Take, then,
from this story this truth, that where there is a
true heart's desire God will send a Philip with
the answer.

" But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping : and
as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head,
and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She
saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and
I know not where they have laid him. And when she had
thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus stand
ing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She,
supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou
have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and
I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She
turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni ; which is to
say, Master." — Johnxx: n-17.

95

THE HUMANNESS OF GOD
"Mary"— Johnxx: 16
IT is not often that a whole system of religion
is found in one word, but it is so here. In
this one word "Mary," as uttered by Jesus, we
have suggestions of three greatest and dearest
Christian truths.
Mary was one of those women to whom much
had been forgiven, so that she loved much.
Every day had she been at the sepulchre
weeping. On Sunday morning she comes be
fore the day breaks that alone she may weep for
her Lord. She finds the stone rolled away.
Frightened, she brings the disciples. They,
having satisfied themselves that Jesus has been
taken away, return home. But Mary remains
by the sepulchre weeping. Turning towards
the garden, through the morning haze she
dimly sees a man standing, whom she takes to
be the gardener. He says: "Woman, why
weepest thou? Whom seekest thou ? " Mary
97

98 The Enlargement of Life
cries out: "Oh, if thou have borne him hence,
tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will
take him away." Then with a beautiful smile
the man utters just one word — "Mary.'*
Mary's heart gives a great leap of joy and
recognition and she throws herself at His feet
crying "Master."
We are not the least interested here in ex
plaining this story nor in smoothing out its
difficulties. We may think of it as a miracle
or as a perfectly natural event — as best satisfies
our minds. For my part, I accept the main
details of the story without any thought of
miracle. The resurrection from the dead is in
the order of nature and Jesus' rising from the
dead is the visible manifestation of a law of life
for us all. This law of eternal life I feel in my
own members and I see it written in other
lives. There are lives which, as I look at
them, I see are now immortal. I look for the
resurrection of Jesus, when I know His life,
just as I look for the fruit when I know the
tree. Immortality was stamped upon His life.
And while I believe more convincingly in my
own immortality because Jesus rose from the
dead, I believe even more strongly that He
lived on beyond the grave because I feel im
mortality to be the law of all our lives. But
leaving all this, our interest now centres around

The Humanness of God 99
this conversation of Jesus and Mary. Indeed,
around only one word of it — "Mary." But in
that word what vistas of divine truth !
There is a doctrine of the nature of God in
it. How can that be? In this wise: One of
the great contributions of Jesus to the world
was a new idea of God. And this new thought
of God's nature He gave not more by His
words than by His life. Indeed, His words
were but the radiance of His life, and this
revelation of God which He made was new in
one of the two most important contents in the
doctrine of God, namely, that God was per
sonal and near and in immediate contact with
His world. Men had believed in gods before
Jesus came. But they were so often imper
sonal, or if personal they were so far away,
enthroned, like Zeus on high Olympus laughing
at the perplexities of men. The idea of God
lacked warmth and humanness — there was little
point of contact between God and man. The
gods occasionally visited the earth or sent
special envoys to interfere in its affairs; but
the world was not the dear home of a spirit,
named ' ' Father. ' ' In fear and trembling men
offered prayers and sacrifice to deities power
ful, fearful, and unapproachable.
Now into a world holding these conceptions
of God is born Jesus. For thirty years He lends

ioo The Enlargement of Life
Himself to the things of the spirit. For thirty
years He makes the one object of His living
the filling of His life with God, the growing of
His soul into God's likeness, the apprehension
of the will of God for Himself, for men, and
for the kingdoms of the world. Or, if we want
to put it the other way about, God, seeking the
most religiously sensitive soul in which visibly
to dwell, that men may see and know and love
His humanness and character, chooses Jesus to
be His God-filled Son. It is only saying the
same thing in another way, for God always in
carnates Himself in the heart that is purest,
with all its windows open heavenward, and
striving for oneness with Him. With such ful
ness of God in Him as human nature could
contain Jesus went to men and said: "God is
not unapproachable, He is not unknowable,
He is not impersonal. Neither does He dwell
far off from men. He is the one source and
fount of personality. He is near you. He is
everywhere. He makes Himself known through
your own hearts. In every experience He is
present. In your loves and losses, joys and
sorrows, He abides. He is spirit, of like spirit
as yourselves, although infinite. He is inter
ested in every man that lives. He gave you
spiritual being and His eye of love watches you
to the end. He condescends to live with you

The Humanness of God 101
and be a friend, a solace, a strength, a hope, an
inspiration. With Him you can walk and talk.
You can confide in Him and lean on Him.
You can speak to Him, saying 'Father.' You
can fill your life with Him. His home is the
heart of man. I have made myself one with
Him. Whoever has seen Me has seen the
Father." And by this last word Jesus simply
meant that the nature of God was manifested
in His own personality. God was person in
Him. God filled His life. God walked the
earth in Him. He walks the earth to-day in
all Christ-like hearts. But when we have seen
Jesus we know the nature of God, for Jesus is
its radiance.
Now, right here is where our text sheds a
great light. Mary had been a Jew. She had
worshipped a distant Jehovah, in a temple.
But therein she found no comfort and in her
days of degradation she knew no near nor
friendly God. One day she came under the
love and forgiveness of Jesus and in Him she
found her first real glimpse of God. She knew
that God must at least be as near and real to
her as was His Son. So, when this risen Lord,
coming upon her in the garden, in the hush of
morning, says, in the old loved voice, "Mary,"
it is as if God Himself had called her by name.
Never again could you make Mary believe that

102 The Enlargement of Life
God was less real, less near, less interested in
her than was Jesus in the garden.
Now here is a beautiful truth for our hearts.
In the words of the prophet, God calleth each
one of us by name. God is not "a stream of
tendency." He is not merely " a force that
makes for righteousness." He is not even a
great creator alone, interested in the fulfilment
of inexorable laws. Neither is He a vague, air
like investment of the world, an impersonal
substance pervading space. But He is Christ
like, personal, soul of our soul. He cannot
be less personal, less near, than His created
sons. He cannot be less interested in men
than was Jesus. So, looking at Jesus who said
"Mary," I know the nature of God — that He
is One who seeks me out and "calls me by
name." So, also, the character of God is flashed upon
us as Jesus speaks this word. And this means
as much to us as it does to know that God is
personal and near. For we cannot love God
until we know He is worthy of our love ; and
there is no glad response of the heart of man to
the touch of God unless that touch is Love.
Now, with the utterance of that one word,
"Mary," the whole heart and life of Jesus
flowed into Mary's soul. Love, tenderness,
pity, yearning, forgiveness — everything beauti-

The Humanness of God 103
ful was in it. In reading the verse aloud you
feel this. The whole Gospel was in the word.
The heart of God touched Mary's heart through
the word of Jesus.
For here was the man who was the highest
manifestation of God Mary had ever known.
He was as God to her. He is God-like to us,
two thousand years after. Here He was speak
ing in these accents to Mary, and she, even if
she had never before known what was the heart
of God toward her, now knew forever that it
was yearning and that God's character was love.
God ever after was to her what Jesus was that
Easter morning.
The truth for us here is this, that if Jesus is
our completest incarnation of God, then God's
character, whatever more we may find it in
other worlds, can never be less Christ-like, less
beautiful, less lovely than the character of
Jesus. Or we can put it in this way: since
Jesus is of our humanity and is at the same
time the manifestation of God in highest human
terms, God can never be less than human, what
ever else He may be, and whatever trait is not
at least human cannot be God-like. Who can
worship an inhuman God after knowing the
human Christ?
Now great consequences follow from this
truth. Thus to life : If I want to know how

104 The Enlargement of Life
God feels toward men I look to see what was
Jesus' attitude. I see that Jesus loves men, so
nothing can ever make me believe that God
hates them. I see that Jesus pities men, so
nothing can ever convince me that God is hard
hearted. I see that Jesus enters into the woes
of men, and so I know God is not indifferent
to their burdens. I find that Jesus' chief joy
is in the gladness of the world, and that the
passion of His life is the rescuing of every
man to his true, glad, free, fulfilled life in
God, and I cannot believe God's joy and
delight is in any lesser thing. So, after hear
ing Jesus say "Mary," after following that
beautiful life up and down the years of love,
after seeing Christ-like men and women of all
ages reflecting God in their faces, I know for
ever the tenderness, the graciousness, the
beauty, the divineness, the humanness, the
Christ-likeness of God.
See also the meaning to theology: nothing
can be accepted as true about God, in our the
ology, which in any way jars with the revelation
of God in Jesus and Christ-like men. If the
ology proclaims some attribute of God which
shocks our human, Christian sensibilities, all
the logic of the schools cannot make us accept
it. It is false to the logic of fact and life. We
cannot believe any sentiment true of God which

The Humanness of God 105
Jesus and the most Christ-like parent would
not hold. How have such horrible doctrines
as infant damnation and arbitrary election
passed away forever? Not by reasoning of
theologians, but purely and solely by the
growth of humane sentiment in our hearts.
Men, believing that the revelation of God was
in Christ-like humanity, saw that these dogmas
did not harmonize with the character of the
Father thus revealed. They could not con
ceive of Jesus or a Christian mother condemn
ing a child to cruel existence; it would be
inhuman ; but what would be inhuman in Jesus
or the parent would be inhuman in God. This
is the test to which all doctrine must be brought
to-day. How will God treat us after death?
See how Jesus treated men before they died.
Can one believe in eternal punishment? Shut
your books and ask this question: "Would
Jesus, from what I know of Him, send the sin
ners that came to Him to eternal punishment?
Could He, being the man He was, do such
things?" Or ask, "Would the Christ-like
fathers and mothers stand by and see one of
their children suffer endless torment ? ' ' Well,
God cannot be less tender-hearted, less loving,
less willing to forgive, than Jesus or the parents
you know. A strange God He would be, more
cruel than His children. Knowing the great,

106 The Enlargement of Life
tender, forgiving heart of Jesus, and knowing
His sacrificial love, all the books in the world
could not make us believe the doctrine of eternal
punishment. Jesus left no power unused to
save the most sinful man. God will put forth
every effort of His divine power and love to
save every child somehow, some time, some
where. The Old Testament must also be brought to
the same test. If some passages in the Psalms
and prophets attribute words and sentiments
to God that jar against our most Christ-like in
tuitions, they must be brought to the measure
of Jesus. If somewhere God is represented as
taking delight in revenge, and as commanding
the cruel treatment of helpless men and chil
dren, look again at the highest incarnation of
the God-spirit and see how He treated His
enemies. If we find Him, in the Gospels, for
giving them and befriending them and suffering
before He will revenge, and teaching forgive
ness as the one thing that makes men perfect
as God is perfect, we cannot, for the sake of
God Himself, make God any less human, any
less Christ-like. Let us always beware how we
believe anything of God that is not Christian,
for when we do, we lower Him below the hum
blest Christ-like man. Goodness is goodness
in heaven and in earth. What is divine in

The Humanness of God 107
man is divine in God. The human here is the
human there. And, as Whittier says,
' ' Nothing can be good in Him which evil is in me. ' '
And now, in closing our study of this story,
see how we have in Jesus' utterance of this
word ' ' Mary ' ' a most welcome light thrown on
one of our chief anxieties concerning the im
mortal life. Immortality has always been one
of the absorbing themes of the human heart.
Sometimes other interests turn men from it for
a time, but back men come again, sooner or
later, to dwell upon its promise. For so much
of joy or sorrow, hope or despair, hangs upon
the answer. It seems to be an undying instinct
of our nature. It sometimes seems to be a
gradually growing sixth sense.
It has assumed many forms in men's minds.
In one school it has been an absorption into
the Infinite Being, in another a sort of living
sleep, in another a transmigration into other
forms, in much theology a sudden, supernatural
transformation into totally new being; among
the positivists of England a continued exist
ence of one's best qualities as high influence
here on earth. Of all these forms of immor
tality one is about as satisfactory as another,
and none of them can be called immortality,

108 The Enlargement of Life
and none of them are worthy of much worry.
What the human heart wants to know, is not
whether the grave is the end or not ; but does
individuality persist in that other life. What
we crave to know is, " Shall I be I, will he be
he, will she be she, will Jesus be Jesus, John
be John, Mary be Mary, will friend be friend,
mother be the same mother she was when she
left us here, and shall we run to meet each other
there with the glad recognition of here ? Shall
I go on over there the same person I was when
here I fell asleep, carrying over the soul capital
I have gathered here, carrying the strength and
character I have made my own here? Can I
go on with my life purpose there?" Or, "I
have had rich fellowship here with great souls
in books. Perhaps the dream of my life has
been to meet these great ones face to face —
these teachers and inspirers of my life. Will
Plato be Plato, Paul be Paul? Can I meet
them there and find them still speaking eternal
truths? Above all, will all those friends and
loved ones I have lost here, and greatly long to
see, be the same friends I loved here ? Shall I
recognize them and they me, and the years that
parted us drop out as though they had never
been?" These are the only questions of im
mortality that trouble the heart very much.
Now these were probably just the questions

The Humanness of God 109
that Mary was asking by the tomb that Easter
morning. Of all who had loved Jesus, and of
all who would give the world for one sound of
that hushed voice, Mary was chiefest. Should
she ever see her Lord again and know Him as
He was on earth, that was the question tearing
her poor heart. And now, behold, wonderful,
beautiful, the very first thing that happens
after Jesus has passed into that other world is
that He speaks with the old human voice of
earth, and says again the old, sweet, human
name, and as Mary turns He is the same dear
Lord, only glorified, and the same sweet smile
plays on the face, and Mary almost swoons for
joy. Now the thing that gave the joy was not the
fact of resurrection, but that it was the same
Jesus whom three days before she had helped
lay away, as she thought, forever. So let us
leave this story with this great joy in our hearts.
There is a real immortality. We shall be our
selves always, although, God grant that we be
our redeemed, glorified, exalted selves. The
young man cut off from life purpose here can
fulfil it there. The defeats of here can be ob
literated in successes there. Old men, dissatis
fied with this life, you can redeem the days over
there. Taking what we have gained here, we
can go on from glory unto glory.

i io The Enlargement of Life
And you who have loved and lost dear souls,
and are waiting, believe me, you shall see them
and know them over there and be known of
them and hear the old loved voices attuned to
diviner tones. The broken threads shall be
gathered up, the severed loves renewed, and
great joy will be to us all in those heavenly
home-comings. And you who long as I do to
some time see this risen Jesus, He will be the
Jesus you have known and loved in the Gospels
and He will call you by name as He did Mary
and you will answer "Master."

" The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and
findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Now Philip
was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth
Nathanael, and ^aith unto him, We have found him, of whom
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip
saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile ! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest
thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that
Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou
art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus
answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I
saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou ? thou shalt see
greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the
Son of man." — John i: 43-51.

BELIEVING THE BEST THINGS
WE have in Nathanael one of the most
charming characters in the New Testa
ment. Jesus seems to have been peculiarly
drawn to him at first sight. He recognized in
him one of those frank, serious, receptive char
acters that are always delightful, and He wished
to win him to Himself.
There are two classes of sceptics. There is
one class which is arrogant and boastful in its
scepticism. It scorns all possibility of anything
existing which cannot be touched or seen. It
relegates all spiritual things to the limbo of
fancy and superstition and thus ends them. It
is satisfied with the darkness and makes no
effort to reach the light. The other class is
sincere and honest. It would find the light
even through agonizings. It admits that faith
is better than unbelief ; knowledge better than
ignorance; light sweeter than darkness. Na
thanael belonged to this latter class. He had
been disappointed in his search for truth. The
8 "3

114 The Enlargement of Life
Hebrew religion had not satisfied him. His
Messianic hopes had failed him. But, instead
of boasting of his agnosticism, or of taking a
cynical view of life, he kept his heart pure and
its windows open that the first ray of light that
should shine might shine for him.
He had been a truth-seeker all his life, and
when Jesus came was believing all he could.
If he could not accept the whole of the new
faith, of which he had heard something, he
accepted all he could, and ordered his life by
that. On one eventful day he comes face to
face with Jesus for the first time. They talk
together and look into each other's eyes. Each
is drawn to the other. At once Nathanael feels
that here is a new power, here is a man who
can answer the disturbing questions and fulfil
the yearnings of his heart. He does not know
much about Jesus. He does not altogether
understand Him. He cannot at all compre
hend the unique claims Jesus makes. But here
is the point : he sees that Jesus is the divinest
man he has yet found; and he knows that
Jesus' teachings satisfy him, and carry him
farther than any he has yet heard ; and he feels
that Jesus has called out the best within him ;
so he genuinely and eagerly believes in Jesus
just as far as he can. He acknowledges Him
the best that has yet come to him, and yields

Believing the Best Things 115
himself in expectation of greater light to dawn
as the acquaintance deepens.
And this right and beautiful confidence be
comes his salvation. For Jesus turns to him,
and, very much moved by this rare and trustful
attitude, says: "Because you have believed in
me so far as you could understand, you shall
some day know me as I am. Because you
have believed what truth you have seen, verily
I say unto you, you shall see greater things.
Because you have believed the best earthly
things, you shall see heavenly things." And
all this came to pass. Starting with what he
could believe, he moved over into the great
truth. Attaching himself to Jesus, not wholly
understanding Him, but feeling He was the
best explanation of life he had yet found, he
finds Him at last the perfect satisfaction. For
tradition tells us that Nathanael the doubter
became Bartholomew the apostle.
Now there is in all this a very timely sug
gestion for us all. For we all of us have our
times of doubt. The glass of faith gets blurred.
And the suggestion is this : Let us always be
lieve the best we know, even though we do not
fully understand. For therein lies the path to
the understanding. It is a question of attitude.
The attitude that leads to faith is that which
says: "I will believe the best; I will believe

116 The Enlargement of Life
that which satisfies my highest need ; I will be
lieve that which gives me power to live ; I will
believe that which produces the highest type
of life ; I will believe that which seems best to
satisfy the heart of man and meet its needs."
It is not a new idea. Plato held it and
hinted that if one could prove neither immor
tality nor death he ought to try to believe in
immortality, because it produced the highest
type of life and best answered to the prompt
ings of the soul. Jesus taught it again and
again. When some Jews came to Him and
said they could not understand His doctrine,
He told them that if they would take it for
granted for a little while and live it, then they
would understand and believe. Paul taught
it to the Athenians. Literature has been full
of the doctrine that when a truth seemed to
meet the universal needs of men the presump
tion, at least, was that there was something of
worth in it, although a man here and there
might not wholly understand. It is the basis
of Kant's practical philosophy. Miss Cobbe,
in her autobiography, tells, in most strik
ing form, how by this process she passed from
doubt to faith, and Frederick W. Robertson
has told the same story in almost the same
words. Newman Smyth has very beautifully
developed the same idea in Personal Creeds,

Believing the Best Things 117
and the latest expression of it is in William
James's The Will to Believe. All of these
teachers take the ground that there are certain
great spiritual truths the experience of the
race has practically demonstrated as necessary
to man's true being. Therefore if one does not
wholly comprehend them he ought to believe
them because they are the best he knows, and
by that process he will pass over into an assur
ance of that truth. This was practically the
process of Nathanael, who is a classic instance
of our truth.
I want to take this thought over into the
spiritual world and consider it in the light of
two or three great verities before which we
often stand in doubt, and which to some of us
are hard to grasp in any real sense.
Take first the belief in spiritual realities them
selves. It comes very hard to some people to
believe in these. In these days when the
natural world seems to be leaping forward for
supremacy with such strides, and cotton and
steel and machinery and money seem kings, it
is still harder for some people to believe that
back of all this clamor lie the great spiritual
verities of life, calm, eternal, patient, with the
issues of life and death, this world and the
next in their hands ; rulers of earth and heaven,
long after material things are sunk to rest. It

118 The Enlargement of Life
comes hard by nature for some of us to believe
in anything except the things we see and
handle and touch. The earth is matter — it is
made up of rock and earth and wood and flesh.
We can see no spiritual force in it. Our life is
flesh and bone and nerve and brain-matter ; but
we can see no mind, no soul transcending the
body. Thought and feeling to us are purely
physical things. Thoughts arise from brain
stimulation. Feelings come from excitation of
the nerves. Now this is a type of very many
good and earnest men, who want to believe in
unseen things but by temperament can trust
only what they can see with physical eyes.
Now how can our truth help us here? Well, it
can help us in this way : We are very desirous
to see and believe. We stop and think, and
although we cannot see these spiritual things,
yet we find that the great majority of people
do find these things very real indeed. We find
that love and faith and assurance of Providence
and unseen things and conversation with a
Father of spirits is the realest thing of past
ages and our own. We see millions of people
inspired, sustained, and comforted by these
things ; we see men living the hopeful, triumph
ant life we wish we could live, by these very
beliefs. We see that these great spiritual veri
ties lie at the basis of all the great forward

Believing the Best Things 119
movements of the world; that they have in
spired its best thought, and have been back of
the heroic sacrifices of the ages. We see to
day that civilization moves on higher, vaster
planes, with nobler manners, purer laws, where
faith in spiritual verities prevails. We feel it
in our own lives. We cannot believe in these
things, yet we feel a fearful lack of something
in our lives, we feel ourselves at the mercy of
blind forces. If there is no soul or mind in us,
then we are the subject of brain and nerve and
bones. This poor body is our king. We must
vanish out of the great gladness of life and
effort at the behest of a severed artery. We
stand before pitiless nature weak, defenceless,
despairing. Now suppose in the face of all
this indisputable fact we say: "If we cannot
believe by nature, yet since life calls for these
things, since we ourselves need them, since
they are the best we know, we will try to be
lieve all we can of them, for a time at least."
Suppose we thus try to believe, I say, and
order our thought and feeling on the basis of
these things, — living as though there were
spiritual facts back of life, a spirit of power to
which we can link weak spirit, — I assure you
that few, few of us indeed will live long with
out a glad, abiding consciousness of spiritual
things. He knows a country best who goes and

1 20 The Enlargement of Life
lives in it, among its towns and peoples. He
believes in the beauty of music who brings him
self to learn its language and haunts its temples.
He believes in the tendency of nature toward
a redeemed world who forces himself to study
science and to live deep among earth's secrets.
He comes to believe in the spiritual supremacy
of life, the truth of spiritual facts and forces,
who wills himself to go out into their eternal
world. Few, few men have ever come back
from that country having once entered its sur
passing glory.
Or take it in the matter of believing in the
goodness of God. It is here that many of us
find difficulties to-day. We believe in God in
the sense that we believe that there is a first
cause back of the world. Common sense tells
us that something does not spring out of noth
ing. We believe there is law in the universe,
because it is everywhere evident, and we feel
that law must have its origin in intellect. There
is life everywhere, and life must have had some
origin in life. The day of belief that life may
have sprung from the lifeless has gone by. We
believe all this on the evidence of our senses
and experience ; but we cannot feel sure that
this force, this personality, is good, beneficent,
and loving. We cannot feel sure that its will
is good will towards men ; that its purposes are

Believing the Best Things 121
gracious; its character holy. In fact, things
often point the other way. The carnage of
the animal world, the suffering of the poor and
neglected among men, the ravages of sickness,
the universal pain, the blows, the sorrows, the
seemingly cruel losses, the defeats of youthful
ambitions and ideals — all these things make it
hard for us to believe that God is love.
Yet, on the other hand, while we cannot be
lieve, yet we know that if God is not love, men
are of all things most miserable. Life is but a
farce, an empty, hollow sort of existence, with
out rhyme or reason. The purest yearnings of
our heart are mocked ; our deepest needs must
forever be unsatisfied. We know that if God
be not love, there is no hope and eagerness in
living. We stand before the tyrant will of the
universe in quaking fear. We know that un
less we can feel that back of these seeming
cruelties and perplexities and sorrows there is
One whose will toward us is good will, One who
will bring order out of chaos and meaning out
of mystery, the burden will prove more than
we can bear. Suppose now, in the light of
these contradictions of experiences and feelings,
we say again : ' ' We will live as though we be
lieved in the goodness of God ; we will make
this principle the basis of life. Life is inex
plicable on any other basis. The goodness of

122 The Enlargement of Life
God alone saves it from a phantasm and a hor
rid dream." You know how many scientists
at first doubted the atomic theory. Then men
began to see that it was the first theory that
made possible a working hypothesis of the
world. Nature resolved herself into order on
this basis. Many men who could not believe
in its truth used it because there could be no
science without it. But, having used it, they
soon made it the basal fact of all science, where
it to-day holds sway. So let a man bring him
self to believe in the goodness of God, though
lacking proof, and so soon do all the contra
dictions of life resolve themselves into mean
ing, so fully are all the questionings of the soul
put to rest, so soon do all the dark things glow
with light, so soon do new hopes and powers
and aspirations leap into life along with quick
ening joys, that no man having once believed
can thereafter find elsewhere any faith or satis
faction for his heart.
And this truth may be very helpful to some
of us in approaching the belief in immortality.
There are many of us who do not easily see
the evidence for the continuation of life. This
world of sense means so much to us that we
cannot see beyond. Our life, our joys, our
everything, are so wrapt up with this body that
perishes that we cannot conceive of life apart

Believing the Best Things 123
from it. I am sure all of us occasionally feel
the strength of this. When we turn to the
world of nature we everywhere see death, we
do not see the second life. One of the most
pathetic things ever written is Mr. Huxley's
letter to Charles Kingsley on this point.
Kingsley wrote Huxley a letter of sympathy
on the death of Huxley's bright little boy, in
which he dwelt on the possibilities of the life
fulfilling itself in worlds we know not of. Mr.
Huxley answered with a letter published in the
late Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, in
which he confesses how above all things he
would like to believe that comforting truth,
but alas, many years' study of the processes of
nature had driven him to conclude that there
was no evidence for the belief. This is the
difficulty with many of us. There are so many
things which to our naturally cautious temper
ament point away from life towards death.
There is no proof.
But suppose, now, we who ask for proof set
the matter of demonstration to one side for a
moment and look at the other phase of the
idea. We find that human life everywhere
calls for immortality for completion. It is as
a broken reed if there be no years of flowering
beyond these years of stem and stalk. Love
calls for it, — unfulfilled love, broken love,

124 The Enlargement of Life
germinal love, — earthly love feeling heavenly
possibilities. Ambition and ideals too large for
earth demand heavenly room and time for ex
ercise of immortal power. The belief in God
calls for it. The idea of a heavenly Father of
earthly children makes those earthly children
heavenly. If we are made in the image of God,
we shall bear that image, and it is immortal.
God has implanted universal yearnings in hu
man hearts — yearnings as much a part of our
nature as the instinct of love or joy or power.
Not to answer the yearnings God Himself has
raised destroys His Godhead and mocks our
divinest dreams. The more spiritual men have
become, and the higher the type of manhood,
the deeper the conviction has imbedded itself
in human breasts. There is testimony which it
is hard to explain away that voices have floated
back to earth out of the immortal world — but
even though this historical evidence should
prove false, yet, on the basis of all this spiritual
evidence, on the basis of the deepest needs and
yearnings of our own souls, ought we not to
rise up and say: "It must be so. We have no
satisfying proof, but we will choose to believe
it, because it is the best we know. We will
begin and live as though we were immortal.
We will think and plan and live on the im
mortal basis and trust the immortality to re-

Believing the Best Things 125
veal itself to us and make us its own "? Thus
the immortal life begun here and now becomes
the evidence to us of the immortal life of
heaven. Living as those who are immortal,
we discover our true nature and begin to get
visions of that larger life of which no book can
convince us, for which there is no proof in
mortal terms, for immortality can be appre
hended only by those who are already living
the immortal life.
I have not laid stress in this sermon on obli
gations, my purpose rather being to point out
a way of approach. But a strong argument
could be made on the duty of believing the best
things. There are two philosophies of life to
day contending for the ear of the world. One
the philosophy that makes this a God-filled
world, life a divine thing moving with pur
poseful motion toward great consummations;
immortality the only belief that gives scope for
man's divine nature. The other a philosophy
that leaves the world Godless, the sport of fate
and blind purposes; life a thing to be borne
with stoicism, or despised ; death the universal
end of all living things — soul, if there be any,
as well as body. Now, if neither of these
philosophies is capable of being proved right,
is there not resting upon us the obligation at
least to choose that belief that produces the

1 26 The Enlargement of Life
best type of life and offers the most coherent
solution of the universe? I believe there is.
If a scientist should ask admission to one of
our universities to-day, to work therein, and
should say he could not believe the atomic
theory or the theory of evolution, he would be
told that he must at least use these theories as
his working basis, since no science is possible
without them. So, in regard to faith, it is our
duty to use certain doctrines, although they
cannot be proven, simply because no life is
possible without them. We may not prove
God is love, neither can we prove He is not.
But which belief produces the finest type of life,
gives most joy and meaning to life, inspires to
finer, more vigorous effort, best resolves the
discords of life into harmony? It looks as
though there was a moral obligation resting
upon us to choose of two doctrines, neither
being capable of proof, the one that offers the
rational and purposeful and satisfactory life.
And so we must believe, even where we can
not prove, the best things. We must will to
believe in that which sustains the divine life of
the world, and gives meaning and direction to
our own lives, until through the path of will
and of obedience to the best we know, we be
led on to that divine place where knowledge
supplants faith and we know as we are known.

" And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth.'
Matt, ii: 23.

127

THE UNKNOWN YEARS OF JESUS'
LIFE— A STUDY IN UNCON
SCIOUS INFLUENCE
THERE are a great many unique and strik
ing things connected with the biography
of Jesus. One is this, that He who has made
the deepest and most lasting impress upon
human life and thought, He who has kindled
its loftiest hopes and aspirations, should have
accomplished His great work in less than three
years. It would be interesting to study this.
I imagine we should find two prime causes;
one, a perfect and thorough preparation for
the work, the other, the intensity with which
the three years were lived. There is at least a
hint here for us all.
Another striking thing is this, that of the
thirty years that precede these three years of
public ministry we have practically no record.
All that we know of them we have to read back
into them. Of course we can tell a great deal
about them from the three years we know.
9 129

130 The Enlargement of Life
Manhood always throws light back on boy
hood. Thus, finding the man Jesus perfectly
one with God during the years we knew Him,
we know that during the thirty unknown years
He was seeking God, and opening His life to
Him in all possible ways; finding the man of
perfect divinity of character, we know that the
youth was spent pursuing all things that make
for perfect manhood ; finding Jesus in His pub
lic work basing His teaching on the Scriptures,
and finding Him filled with the zeal of the
prophets, we know that in the unknown years
He had so mastered the religious books of His
nation that they were part of His very being;
finding the Jesus of the Gospels with resource
and power to meet all unexpected trials and do
all new duties, we know that the Nazareth days
were filled with meditation over the great tasks
and problems of life. All these things we know
as well as if they had been written by pen of
Mark or Luke. And something else we know
just as positively, and that is that the life of
those thirty years was exerting an unconscious,
beautiful, abiding influence on all who came
within its radiance. Those obscure years were
years of ministry as well as of preparation.
They preached silently the propounded Gospel
of the public years. I am not sure that His
unconscious influence even over His disciples

Jesus' Unknown Years 131
was not as great as the conscious. They saw
the seriousness and purity and beauty of the
life. It was contagious. It shed a radiance
that illumined all. His ideals, His lofty spirit
of devotion to truth and God and men must
have fired their hearts. And do we not our
selves, after reading one of the Gospels, find
that it is not more the spoken words that thrill
us than the quiet peace and beauty of the life
itself. And have we not often felt that, could
we but have lived in the presence of that life,
purity would have been easy and holiness nat
ural? But here were thirty years in which no
public word was spoken, no Gospel preached,
no disciples taught, no propagation of a king
dom ; and yet, could we know those quiet years
of Nazareth, could some record suddenly be
found, could some door be opened into those
mysterious years, I believe that we should find
that quietly, in calmness, while working at His
bench, in all relations with His fellow-men, He
was preaching, by the beauty and serenity of
His life, a Gospel that sank deep into the hearts
of His companions. Neither will it seem rash
if we try here to reconstruct the Nazareth life
of Jesus, that we also may feel its silent power
and beauty and learn its lesson.
How easy it is to paint a picture of the home
life of Jesus during those thirty years ! There

132 The Enlargement of Life
is the child at His mother's knee hearing the
stories of the Old Testament. There is the
boy learning to read from these same stories, —
the only books He had. Once the silence is
broken and we hear of the boy of twelve visit
ing the temple and showing, so the record tells
us, intense interest in these stories of His boy
hood books. As a youth He helps Joseph in
his carpenter shop and serves there, with His
father, His apprenticeship. We can see the
young man working with His fellow-craftsmen,
day by day, making furniture and yokes for
cattle. We see this same young man at even
ing, the day's work done, sitting at the supper
table and talking over the small events of the
day. Then came the feeding of the cattle.
Then perhaps He wandered off into the garden,
and under the beautiful Syrian stars, pondered
the deep things that were beginning to rise
within Him and stir His soul, or perhaps He
spent the evening instructing His brothers in the
books of the law, perhaps reading them stories,
perhaps playing games with them, perhaps
making with His knife objects to amuse them in
their play. Then came the good-night to the
mother as perhaps He helped her fix things for
the morning. How easy it is to see it all — the
little stone house of two living-rooms, the ad
joining room with the cattle feeding, the happy

Jesus' Unknown Years 133
family with the beautiful youth, happiest of all,
in the midst, the yard full of new yokes and
wooden ploughs — over all the ineffable peace !
How easy it is to feel the atmosphere of the
home, its sweetness, its serenity, its gladness !
But above all, how easy it is to see that the
presence of this young man pervaded the whole
house and gave it tone and color ! There was
no preaching, there was perhaps little idea in
Jesus' mind at this time of His having been
called to a mission. He was just a young man
in the home as the brothers were young men.
But His life was preaching all the time. The
brothers were better men because He lived in
the house. Their philosophy of life was un
consciously moulded into His point of view.
They looked out on life through His eyes.
They caught some of His spiritual aspira
tion. They learned unselfishness from seeing it
in Him. They believed that religion produced
the highest type of life. They began to get a
new consciousness of God and a new sense of
His meaning to life, for they were feeling the
touch of God through this young man. Now
this is not conjecture. The Jesus of the
Gospels must, as a youth, have radiated His
home with light and love and joy. His mere
living the life we know He must have lived
must have produced such results.

134 The Enlargement of Life
Now this truth about the life of Jesus is in
teresting not merely as a study of His life, but
because it is universally true. The best preach
ing that is done in any home is done by the life
that is lived there. And no one can live a fine,
strong, unselfish life without preaching. Evil
is contagious but good is also contagious. One
bad inmate can pull down the whole home,
but do not forget that one strong, pure life in
the home can exalt it. I suppose that to a
great degree the attitude of men toward purity
and integrity is determined by the home-life
of childhood more than by any preaching or
teaching they may afterwards hear. Parent
hood is a great responsibility, and the parent
should be more careful about the unconscious
influence, if anything, than the conscious.
We may talk to the children half an hour a
day about goodness, but we are living before
them all the time. They will more surely
catch the spirit of our lives than they will
reproduce our physical traits and features.
If we are querulous and continually indulge
our tempers we shall make a home atmosphere
that will color the temperament of everybody
in the house. If we practise calmness and
sweetness and self-control, the children will
absorb that spirit for themselves. If the
parents talk gossip at the table the children

Jesus' Unknown Years 135
will grow up a cynical and fault-finding crew.
If, instead, the parents make it a practice to
talk of fine and worthy things, and to praise
the good deeds of men, the children will grow
up optimists and take generous attitudes to
ward their fellow-men. I think of young men
and women whose parents I also knew, where
I can see the parents' habits, moods, and atti
tudes toward life reproduced as in a mirror.
Teach the children fortitude, patience, and self-
control by living it before them ; make the
atmosphere of the home that which you wish
your children to dwell in all their lives. Live
for the finer, truer things of life, the things of
worth, and the children will unconsciously put
values on those same things. Their standards
of worth will not be half so much determined
by what you tell them of right values as by
the things you value most, esteem the high
est, seek the oftenest, most deeply cherish, and
most thoroughly enjoy. Children will catch
their ideals and aspirations from us. They will
formulate their religion from ours. They will
love what we love.
When Tissot's paintings illustrating the Life
of Christ were on exhibition, people were espe
cially impressed by one picture of Jesus planing
wood at the bench of the shop in Nazareth,
thus hallowing the toil of the hands forever.

136 The Enlargement of Life
There was no halo about His head. It was
merely a strong, pure-faced, clear-eyed young
man, working with other men to earn His daily
bread. Now, of one thing we may be sure, that
none of the dozens of men who worked with
Jesus ever thought of Him as supernaturally
endowed, or as being a genius. Not one of
them ever dreamed that their fellow-workman
had been called to be a founder of a new world
or the teacher of the ages and Lord of men's
hearts and wills. No — to them He was merely
Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, fellow-workman
with themselves. But, on the other hand, we
may be sure that every one of them felt the
moral power and earnestness of this young
man. His honesty and high-mindedness were a
crown. Put yourself with Him, at that bench,
for a while as a fellow-workman. Here is what
you see — a man who did His work faithfully
and well, with a joy in the work itself; a man
scrupulously honest in every particular; a man
thinking of His work not merely as the means
of earning a living, but as a contribution to
God's growing world; a man interested in the
lives and burdens of all who worked with Him
day by day ; a man who never stooped to any
base or paltry thing; a man who, while faith
fully working at His trade, yet took time to
cultivate His mind in leisure hours, to think

Jesus' Unknown Years 137
lofty thoughts and develop the moral and
spiritual sides of His nature. This was the man
at the bench. Now we cannot say that Jesus
never so much as spoke to His fellow-workmen
of the growing thoughts fast filling His own
heart; but what we can be forever sure of is
this, that no man ever worked long by the side
of Jesus without feeling that there was some
thing better and finer in life than he had yet
found ; that manhood was better than false
hood; that life consisted of something more
than eating and drinking, and playing and
sleeping; that there were other joys than those
of sense ; that character was the prize of life ;
that integrity exalted a man ; that religion was
more than a hollow form ; that the highest type
of life was fed from unseen forces. And no
man worked long in the same room with Jesus
without being ashamed to say some things he
used to say and to jest over some high things
he once thought funny. For base things are
hard to do in the presence of nobility, and there
are many things a vile man will not say in the
presence of purity. Jesus was unconsciously
preaching the gospel of manhood to all men
who worked with Him.
This is forever happening, and it is something
over which we who work with others or employ
others should often ponder. For in a great

138 The Enlargement of Life
measure their character will be unconsciously
moulded by us. We are our brothers' silent
makers, as well as keepers. We are not only
obligated to preserve our brothers' rights and
self-respect, but we have a great part in the
very making of them what they may become.
Any one who has studied this side of life at all
will have most striking reports to make of the
truth of all this. It was pointed out by a great
Frenchman years ago that in factory villages
the moral tone of the help was vastly influenced
by the life and character of the owner of the
mill. He gave instances of some villages where
the owners were debauchees and dissolute men,
and showed how the young men and women
caught the unwholesome spirit and fulfilled it,
while in the other villages where the owner was
of a high type of Christian honesty and in
tegrity, the moral tone of the help was immeas
urably higher. Many of us can corroborate
such facts. I remember a man in a large city
who employed thirty or forty clerks. He was
dishonest, took pride in crooked dealings, lived
a flagrant life, and scoffed at virtue. The
clerks in that store reproduced his life and
methods in almost perfect exactness, and of
course half of them took his cynical view of
life. The evil was contagious and they caught
it. On the other hand, I knew a factory where

Jesus' Unknown Years 139
the owner was one of the finest Christian men
I ever knew — exemplary in private and public
life. He insisted on seeing that his six hun
dred employees worked under best conditions.
He was recognized by everybody as a man who
would tolerate nothing base or fraudulent. It
was as easy to perceive the reflection of that
quiet, strong man's life throughout the mill
and village as it was to see the sunlight flood
its streets. The goodness was contagious and
men caught it. Booker T. Washington in his
autobiography said that he came to believe
that the only life worth living was the unselfish
life from seeing General Armstrong at Hamp
ton during his school days. Professor Moses
Stuart says that he was turned toward high
ideals of life from watching the consecrated
life of President Woolsey while he was at Yale
College. This is a law of human nature. The
young imitate the old. The weak man admires
the strong man and conforms to him. Our
ethical standards are always set by a few and
followed by the many. As the leaders live, so
live the followers. As the general, so the sol
diers ; as the employer, so the employees.
Let us remember, who work side by side
with others, that if we take a firm stand for
what is brave and right, manly and pure, in
the long run we can preach a great gospel. I

1 40 The Enlargement of Life
have seen one man transform the tone of a
room. I have seen a strong man work a gradual
reformation in a company without saying a
word, just by living a brave, strong life. A
fine mind silently dominates other minds.
Power needs not words wherewith to work. If
power be in you it will make itself felt. Virtue
goes out of the man who has it. Light will
shine if it be in you. Men often rise to the
level of the highest man among them.
And what was true of Jesus in the home and
shop was true also in the village of Nazareth.
While we have not the slightest factual evidence
of the esteem in which Jesus was held by
the citizens of Nazareth, yet we do know that
Nazareth was a better, purer, fairer village be
cause He walked its streets; that religion was
more honored because He lived and worshipped
there ; that the young men held higher ideals
of life and cherished vaster purposes and es
teemed good things highly because they saw
Him from day to day; that vice was not so
flagrant, nor intemperance so common — for
they were ashamed to meet His eye. We may
be very sure that it was easier to live a righteous,
godly life in Nazareth, and safer to bring up
children there, merely because Jesus walked its
streets. One bad man in a community lowers its

Jesus' Unknown Years 141
whole tone. He makes it harder for everybody
else to be good. An impure man makes purity
harder for any other man. This is what we
forget. It is not only that when we sin we
fall, but that we pull everybody else down with
us. It does little good to teach the children
one thing when the men are living something
else before their eyes. Every impure man
lowers the sentiment of the whole community.
But thank God the converse of this is true.
Every good man elevates the place where he
lives. He creates a moral atmosphere that
makes high thinking and pure living easier for
all. Your place is a better place to live in if
you live a clean, upright, forceful life. The
town is a purer town for every woman in it
whose life reflects all those divine qualities that
make womanhood beautiful. The boys and
girls, the young men and women, will find it
more natural to seek the best things, and love
things lovely, pure, and of good report, and
cherish lofty sentiments, and be true to their
best selves, for every man who lives a righteous,
godly life. At the time of President McKin
ley's death a foreigner was talking with an
American. The foreigner remarked :
" My friend, you are fortunate in having, both in
your president who is dead and in him who takes

H2 The Enlargement of Life
his place, men whose character and private life is
such that you can point the boys of America to
them and say, ' Emulate these men, my boys, in
your whole life,' and then, with sadness in his
voice, he said, 'Alas, we in our country cannot do
that, and it 's bad for our youth! "
Yes, it is bad. Have for a ruler a gambler and
a debauchee and it makes it hard for every
young man in the land to live his life on high
levels. Thank God that in this country we
have some such men in high places as McKin
ley and Roosevelt. The young men uncon
sciously emulate our noted and successful men.
The Prince of Wales sets the styles in hats.
Yes, he also sets the styles in morals for the
youth of England.
Believe me, those thirty years of Jesus in
Nazareth were not wasted in influence over
others. No pure, godly, honorable life is ever
wasted. To merely live it elevates our time
and place.

" Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was
stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and
with the devout persons, and in the market daily with
them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the
Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some
said, What will this babbler say ? other some, He seemeth to
be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached unto
them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and
brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this
new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is ? For thou bringest
certain strange things to our ears : we would know there
fore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and
strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else,
but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) Then Paul
stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as
I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with
this inscription, to the unknown god. Whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made
the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands ;
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed
any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all
things ; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ;
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
143

144 The Enlargement of Life
after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one
of us : For in him we live, and move, and have our being ;
as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also
his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent : Because he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained : whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked : and others said, We will hear
thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among
them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed :
among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a
woman named Damaris, and others with them." — The Acts
of the Apostles xvii: 16-34.

PAUL AT ATHENS: SHALL SONS OF
GOD WORSHIP IDOLS?
THERE can hardly be anything more mo
mentous than the meeting of two re
ligions. Especially true is this when one of
these religions is old and powerless and effete,
while the other is young and vigorous and
throbbing with power. This is what happened
that memorable day at Athens when Paul stood
on Mars' Hill and offered the Father of men
in place of unknown gods and idols. An old
half-faith, deep-rooted in a magnificent past,
groping toward larger things, yearning for per
fection, but powerless to be born into that per
fection — a new faith coming and taking this old
and wondrous half-faith and carrying it out to
the glorious completion of the full-orbed faith
of Jesus Christ : this is what we have here.
Paul had been driven from city to city by the
Jews and at last he seeks a city that has long
been the desire of his heart. Here he can get
an unmolested hearing. Here he can reach the
IO 145

146 The Enlargement of Life
culture of the world. One can imagine the
surge of feelings in his breast as he approaches
the beautiful Athens. From his ship he sees
first the glory of marble shrines and temples
crowning the Acropolis. Probably the great
statue of Athene was still guarding the sea.
Names of great statesmen, philosophers, and
poets crowd his mind. The spell of ancient
glory descends upon him as in a dream. As
he enters the city itself one can see the amaze
ment on his face at its glory of sculptured
marble, its lavishness of adornment, its pro
fusion of statues, its hundreds of temples, its
sun-bathed squares, paved with marble and
adorned with fountains, where he found groups
of men discussing all manner of questions and
where the beautiful Greek women came to draw
water from the wells.
Our story says: "Now all the Athenians and
the strangers sojourning there spent their time
in nothing else but either to tell or hear some
new thing." The Athenians were of an eager,
questioning nature. Their chief interest lay in
speculation and philosophy. Rome was prac
tical and produced a Caesar and an Antony.
Israel was religious, concerned not with specu
lation regarding the nature of God, but in do
ing His will, and produced Moses and Isaiah.
Greece was reflective, philosophical, more in-

Paul at Athens 147
terested in the nature of deity than in morals,
and produced a Socrates and Plato. So Paul
had no difficulty in getting a hearing here.
Indeed, they were only too glad to welcome a
new philosopher. They were craving new sen
sations, and they got one, a much intenser one
than they had dreamed of, when Paul turned
up in their midst. The crowd was largely
made up of Stoics and Epicureans. The Stoic
said, "Life is a struggle, but a wise man will
endure it with fortitude." The Epicurean
said, "Life is an accident, a bubble on the
ocean; enjoy the sunlight while it shines, and
die." Now into this group came Paul and
spoke his new words — so utterly new and vital
that they riveted all minds to him. "Life is
not a thing to be endured," he said to the
Stoics, "but a beautiful opportunity to live
largely, forcefully, with movement and with
increasing joy and gladness in the fulness of
God." "Life is not an accident," he said to
the Epicureans; "God is not far away, nor in
different, but a living, loving, spiritual presence
claiming us as His children, and offering us im
mortal life. So the thing to do is not to fritter
it away as if it were a dream or playtime, but
to be up and doing some good work for God
and making for one's self a soul."
I like sometimes to picture that crowd to

H8 The Enlargement of Life
myself as Paul uttered such words. Some
threw their heads back and laughed long and
loud. Some turned up their noses in scorn.
Most of them leaped to their feet with twenty
arguments, ready to confute all he had said. But
here and there in that crowd were a few sad-
faced, hungry-hearted men, tired of life, tired
of themselves, tired of all this useless talk,
tired of everything. Their faces lit up with a
strange eagerness, and they crept away, to seek
out Paul again, by night, as did Nicodemus, a
greater teacher, when in similar state. They
all got enough interested in Paul to ask of him
a public exposition of his views. This is just
what Paul wanted, and on the appointed day
they carry him up to the top of Mars' Hill,
where stood the Areopagus, the magnificent
court-house of Athens, and probably standing
on its steps Paul makes the great speech of his
life. We must remember that we have the
barest outline of this speech, which probably
lasted two or three hours, but we have suggested
here some of the greatest truths of the Chris
tian faith. Let us look at two or three of these
truths. Paul was very greatly impressed with the re
ligiousness of the Athenians. Very wisely he
begins his speech with reference to this fact.
"Ye men of Athens," he says, "I see that you

Paul at Athens 149
are somewhat religious. I see everywhere
images of the gods. And as I entered your
city, I also noticed an altar with this inscrip
tion, 'To the Unknown God.' Now this Un
known God whom you gropingly and ignorantly
worship, Him I know and I come to reveal
Him unto you."
You see, some of the Athenians had come
to feel that there was something in the world
greater than themselves. This is a great step
forward in any man's life. Let him feel that
there is something diviner than himself, and
soon he will find it. So these Greeks felt sure
that there was a God; they saw His move
ments, they now and then felt the touch of
unseen hands, some dim, inarticulate voice had
tried to speak in their hearts. But it was all
vague, intangible, undefinable, like a wind one
can never see nor catch, like an echo of some
far-off voice. Now Paul tells them that there
is no need of their longer groping, nor strain
ing spiritual eye and ear. For there has been
a clear, distinct, real, visible revelation of that
very God they dimly feel and seek. They
have been looking in the wrong place. They
have been searching seas, and skies, and books,
and philosophies and logic. "Not there,"
said Paul, "will you find God, but in your own
heart. He reveals Himself through His chil-

1 50 The Enlargement of Life
dren. There has just lived and died and risen
One in my country who was a perfect Son. He
let this unknown God completely possess His
life. God took Him and entered into Him to
the extent of human capacity to hold divinity.
And we saw God manifested in a man, full of
grace and truth. The glory of God shone in
the life of this man Jesus. Him I bring to
your attention. Let me tell you the story of
His life and you shall see your unknown God
and also learn to find Him in your own hearts."
Then he told them that story, and gradually,
wonderfully, the unknown God began to take
visible shape before them, as a spirit presence
might slowly assume bodily form before us.
They heard what we find the comfort and in
spiration of all our living to-day, that God is
known, that He is love, and loves the humblest
and the greatest, the despised and honored,
and that He loves the weak, faltering, sinful
child with a love that ought to reclaim every
man that has a heart. They learned that this
God was a present God, and through perils,
storms and trials, through temptations and
through losses, through all life's shipwrecks,
He held them with His sure and gentle hand,
and let no one drift beyond His love and care.
They learned for the first time that God was
a merciful and forgiving God, and that where

Paul at Athens 151
any offending man sincerely wanted to re
trieve his past, and seek the things of God, in
God's mind former offences would be blotted
out, and the man might rise on stepping-stones
of his dead past to better things. Ah, in how
many hearts that day the first ray of hope of
many years was awakened ! How the prophet
on the marble steps seemed to glow with di
vinity as he shouted that purity and righteous
ness and love and justice was the will of God
and that He desired it in His children more
than their creeds and speculations. "And,"
he says, in closing this part of his sermon,
"you shall find God and know Him, not by
quibblings and arguments, but by practising
love and obedience, forgiveness and purity.
By living and not by talking do we know the
eternal Spirit."
Now he turns and points down to the city
to the temples. Hundreds are gleaming in
their marble beauty, and adorned by the
greatest sculptors earth has known. Each
temple contains images of its god. He tells
them how utterly at variance all this is with
the living God. "For," he says, "the God
that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, nor
in any one place or shrine, neither is He served

152 The Enlargement of Life
by hands. I myself once thought that only at
Jerusalem dwelt God, and that only there could
Hebe worshipped. We are all mistaken. God
knows no bound of place or space, neither does
He confine Himself to any people. God knows
no favorites except them that love Him and do
His will. He has made one all nations of the
earth to seek Him and to love Him, and the
only boundary to His kingdom is a bad heart.
Neither has His revelation been shut off from
any people. Everywhere has He been seeking
to enter men's hearts. He has revealed Him
self to you, O Athenians, just as much as you
have permitted. It is your fault that He has
been an unknown God. Forget your thousand
temples and your images and turn unto the
eternal Father, and He will come into you and
be your God."
And now he says something which touches
the hearts of the Athenians, for he takes up a
thought which one of their own philosophers
has uttered and shows its true fulfilment, and
he quotes one of their own poets to uphold the
thought. "All men are made for God," he
says, "and there is not one of you but may feel
His presence if you will but seek Him. For
He is not far from any one of us. In Him we
live and move and have our being; as certain
also of your own poets have said, 'We are also

Paul at Athens 153
His children.' He does not dwell afar on
yonder top of Mount Olympus, but He is a
spirit presence pervading all His world. His
dwelling-place is human hearts. He is in your
heart now. Learn to recognize Him. Wor
ship Him not by increasing temples, but wor
ship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship Him
by living pure lives and doing good. Your
own poet Aratus was right. We are His off
spring, therefore we have within ourselves the
capacity to know Him. He has made us for
Himself. We have power to answer to His
touch. The fire of God can kindle the altars
of our hearts, for like answereth unto like, the
deeps of God call unto the deeps of man, and
deep answereth unto deep. This is not an
empty and forsaken world, for Jesus Christ has
shown us the eternal God here and opened
up to us unfailing springs of grace and life.
Around you are the arms of love. Every
where, your friend, your stay, your hope, your
comfort, is the eternal Spirit."
After saying all these things, his mind sud
denly recalls the idols he has seen all over the
city, and drawing himself up, he says, "If, then,
we are children of the good Father, offspring
of the eternal Spirit, what fools we are to wor
ship pieces of gold and marble, which are be
neath us, lower than we are, less powerful than

1 54 The Enlargement of Life
the weakest man, base beyond the basest man !
Here we are, divine, children of God Himself,
worshipping things lower than ourselves in the
created order — children of the Eternal worship
ping senseless things ! We are fools, and blind,
and betrayers of our immortal birthright. Let
us throw these things aside forever and seek
the eternal God."
Paul was right. There is no degradation
equal to this. There is a law, as sure as the
law of gravitation; indeed, it is the spiritual
correlative of that law, namely this: we are
always conformed to the image of that which
we worship. While the Athenians worshipped
images of stone they were held down to basest
levels. When they worshipped gods with hu
man passions they lived brutish lives. Men
rise no higher than their gods. ' ' How can you
expect Plato to worship your gods," said a phi
losopher to a complaining Greek, "when he is
diviner than these same gods? "
One can see the same thing to-day. Some
men are worshipping gold and the gold keeps
them down to the earth, for, good as it is, it is
earthy. It has no power to brave the heights.
Some are worshipping success. But success,
as we commonly think of it, may be a very
meagre thing for a divine being. Some are
worshipping pleasure, and they never get off

Paul at Athens 155
the childhood stage of life. They change their
toys, but pleasure cannot pull a man out of
childhood. Some are worshipping their appe
tites, — that is, they are thinking more of them
than anything else, — and that is worship. But
if our appetities are the highest that we know,
how high shall we rise?
The sad part of all this is, as we saw, that
these things, being lower than ourselves, can
not lift us above our own levels. We rise as
we are lifted by something higher than our
selves. If we set our minds on things beneath
us they pull us down. We always become like
that on which we set our minds and hearts.
Our gods are either our worst enemies or else
our salvation. If our gods are earthy they will
keep us to the earth. If our gods are heavenly,
they will lift us to the skies.
A recent writer has defined civilization in this
way: "The progress of civilization has been
largely a process of discovering sources of
power which previously had lain concealed
from human attention." How true that is — ¦
first the use of water and wind to work for
men, then steam, now compressed air and
electricity, and one knows not what as yet
hidden sources of power shall be revealed.
Now the same thing has been true in the
history of the soul. Each great step forward

156 The Enlargement of Life
has come from the revelation of some hidden
power — some unknown source of strength.
This was just what Paul was carrying to the
Athenians. They were groping for it ; he re
vealed it ; and there was a great leap forward
in the progress of the soul. If we to-day were
as eager for new sources of hidden spiritual
power as we are for forces to do our work, one
would hardly dare say what new revelation of
unseen legions, now waiting to do our bidding,
might rush in upon us from God's great, un
known world. So Paul says, Turn from your
idols and seek these greater things. Think on
those things that are loftier than yourselves,
that you may rise to their levels. Love those
things that are diviner than yourselves, that
you may grow into their likeness.
The trouble with all these other things is,
that they are not worthy of our worship. They
are less than we are. It is making things with
our own hands and then worshipping what we
have created. It is as if God, having created
men, should have turned around and wor
shipped them. We make a gold image or a
silver dollar and degrade our creative power to
bow to it. Think of a divine spirit kneeling
before a silver dollar! So what Paul was
urging here with all his heart was this tremend
ous truth — that simply because we are children

Paul at Athens 157
of God we degrade ourselves by worshipping
anything less than God and God-like things.
Let us worship the best we know, that we may
become the best. Seek high ideals. Low
ideals will hold us down; a high ideal will
swing us up into its own glory. Let us turn
from all idols to the eternal God, unknown no
longer, but made known in the living Christ.
Let us think God's thoughts, and they will
exalt us. Let us walk after Him, and we shall
catch His gait. Let us learn to love Him and
all beautiful things, and our hearts will grow
beautiful and God-like. The deeps of man rise
only to the call of God.

" And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster
box of ointment of spikenard very precious ; and she brake
the box and poured it on his head. And there were some
that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was
this waste of the ointment made ? For it might have been
sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given
to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus
said, Let her alone ; why trouble ye her ? She hath wrought
a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you al
ways, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good : but me
ye have not always. She hath done what she could : she is
come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily
I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached
throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done
shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.''— Mark xiv: 2-9.

159

OUR DOUBLE IMMORTALITY
THIS beautiful incident of the anointing of
Jesus came near the close of His life.
He leaves Jerusalem to spend these last hours
in Bethany. While here He is the guest of
Simon at supper. A woman who has in some
way been helped by Him, and loves Him with
a great love, hears of His being in Bethany and
seeks Him out. Perhaps she had heard of the
impending death. But in some way she must
show her devotion. So while Jesus and His
disciples are reclining at supper, Mary comes
quietly in and pours the costly ointment over
the head of Jesus.
Sometimes a comment on a deed betrays
character as almost nothing else. Here several
phases of character are at once revealed in the
remarks called out by this deed. Some said
she was forward and should be reprimanded
and put out; others were indignant that so
much costly perfume should be wasted. It
might have been used for the poor. Jesus,
161

1 62 The Enlargement of Life
comment is this: "Trouble her not. She has
done a beautiful thing to me. The poor will
be always with you and you can help them
when you will, but I shall not long be with
you. She has followed the promptings of her
heart and shown her love in the only way she
knew — indeed she has truly anointed My body
for the burying. Verily I say unto you, where
soever this gospel shall be preached through
out the whole world, this also that she has
done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."
It would be interesting to stop and look at
several of the truths brought out in this con
versation ; but I want now to dwell on the last
and most beautiful verse. However, there is
one truth that stands out so prominently and
is so suggestive of a good train of thought for
some quiet hour, that it is worth noticing as we
pass it. This is it : we should go back to mo
tives in our judgment of any deed. Sometimes
the motive may be of more importance than
the actual deed. The motive may put an en
tirely different aspect on the deed. A generous
man will always be guided in his judgment by
the impulse behind the act.
And a good half-hour could be spent here
thinking over the relative values of things.
Real values can never be measured by money
standards. Sometimes that which seems waste

Our Double Immortality 163
issues in greater gains than the hardest, closest
economy. This woman, pouring costly oint
ment over Jesus, seems wasting valuable mer
chandise. In reality she was purchasing a joy
for the lonely Jesus, and an eternal satisfaction
for herself, that was worth all the spikenard in
Palestine. Sometimes devotion is worth all
the money one has. Sometimes it is worth a
great sacrifice of money to know for once a
large, beneficent, generous feeling in one's
heart. The man who has never loved enough
so that money, for the time being, was of no
consequence, has not dipped very deep into
life. Sometimes a man gains things through
abandonment to the loftier impulses of his
nature that no money can ever buy. Money
spent on character may sometimes be wisely
spent, even though we be short of bread. So,
too, one can buy bread and dole out charities
at any time. He cannot, perhaps, have oppor
tunity every day to render some transcendent
act of love or sacrifice to his Lord. Let us
always be careful how we let the lesser values
of life stand between us and the greater.
Jesus closed His remarks with these words :
"Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached
throughout the whole world, this also that she
hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial
of her." How truly this prophecy has been

1 64 The Enlargement of Life
fulfilled ! Wherever the gospels have gone this
beautiful incident has been told. Every child
knows it. It has caused uplifting thoughts.
It has stirred deep feelings of devotion in the
breasts of millions. It has quickened our love
for the Lord of life. Yet, what a simple, spon
taneous, modest little act it was ! — a woman
in a country village showing her thankfulness
for help and love. It is a splendid illustration
of the undying quality of any good thing. It
suggests to us the possible earthly immortality
for even the humblest soul.
We are always interested in immortality.
For so much hangs upon its truth — the joy
and power of large, hopeful, living ; the oppor
tunity of cherishing and fulfilling long ideals ;
the gathering up again of the broken ties of
life; the completions of partial love. And
God has been good, and placed within our
hearts the promise of this endless life. But
He has been more than good to His children,
as always, and given us a double immortality,
one in heaven, and one on earth. So that for
the man who has lived largely, faithfully, and
beautifully here, not only does his soul go on
in heaven, but the influence and sweet savor
and inspiration of the life abides forever in the
world of men. He being dead, if he lived
nobly and forcefully, yet speaketh. He being

Our Double Immortality 165
dead, his soul in heaven, yet lives here, for his
works follow up his life and make him a living
force. A possible earthly immortality — there ought
to be a great satisfaction in the thought for
every serious man. For a real man wants to
touch this world in most forceful and most
lasting measure. A man can so live here that
he can double, aye, triple, the power of his
life. He can so live to-day that he shall be a
vital force in the to-morrow he shall not see.
He can gather up an energy here that will work
for high things when he has gone. He can
project his life into the future in a thousand
ways to be a beneficent and inspiring power
forever. He can make for himself an immor
tality among the sons of men.
Did you ever stop and think how largely the
world is ruled to-day by the dead? Sometimes
it would seem as though it were even more
really inspired by the lasting influences of the
dead than by the living. Who to-day rules
the religious life and thought of men? Jesus
and Paul who died two thousand years ago.
What living man is determining the thought of
men so greatly as Plato and Darwin? Shake
speare and Milton are the ruling forces in litera
ture. Augustine and Clement and Calvin still
dominate the minds of men. And I am not

1 66 The Enlargement of Life
sure but that our boys are to-day more stirred
to heroism by the great deeds of the past than
by those of living men. However that may
be, yet are the immortal deeds of the past still
stirring the hearts of youth. These men all so
lived that the power of their lives lived after
them. And it will never die. Never will men
cease to feel the divine impulse of that life
lived in Palestine. Never will they cease to
drink at the great fountains of the past. Never
will the heart cease to leap exultingly at the
stories of Thermopylae, of Florence Nightin
gale, of the woman who anointed the Lord.
Now what is true of these greater lives is
true for us all in measure. Not ours, perhaps,
to think thoughts that shall inspire the world ;
not ours to do great deeds read of all people,
not ours to exert an empire-moving force, but
it is ours — I care not who we be — so to live
and love and work and speak that we can lay
up for ourselves a futurity of life and power
and influence here that shall abide, helping and
blessing at least a few, after we have gone.
And what a satisfaction!
Thus a man can so place his influence to-day
that it will abide, working for him beneficently
in encouraged lives. A man will leave an in
fluence behind in spite of himself. The sad
dest thought for some men, in dying, must

Our Double Immortality 167
be this: "Not only have I had a degrad
ing influence while I have lived, but I must
leave it behind me, working its evil work."
How horrible a thought! But, thank God!
good influence remains, working its good works.
You can put forces in operation that will bless
the world. You can put high ambitions, lofty
motives, great hopes, worthy ideals into the
"minds and hearts of youth that will make you
live long after you are gone. It is said that
Lincoln lived in the lives of all the young men
who were near him. Jesus so imparted His
life to His disciples that when, afterwards, they
wrote, it was almost impossible to distinguish
their thoughts from His. Thomas Arnold so
stamped himself on the young men of Rugby
that there were a hundred Arnolds living and
working in England while he lay in his grave.
So you who have youth in your employ, or who
work with them, impart your best self to them
and let yourself live in their lives.
I think especially of parents. You are going
to live in your children. This is a beautiful
provision of God for your larger life. Like all
of God's beneficent gifts it can be perverted.
But where parents will seize the chance, what
an opportunity to live helpfully through gen
erations! Be strong and true and generous,
and then give yourselves to your children. Do

1 68 The Enlargement of Life
your work honorably and as best you can, then
impart the same high principles and integrity
to them. Love the best things in nature, life,
and books, and try and lead your children to
love the best. Thus shall you live in your
children and your children's children. And
many a father and mother, who have been
cut off from doing the larger things they
once wished to do, and who have been kept
from some high eminence of which once they
dreamed, have found the coveted prize of life
through the children they have inspired with
their ideals. And how many a father and
mother, long since dead, are living in their
children the life they once coveted and failed
of! Beecher once said that what there was
of goodness in him was his mother who died
during his childhood and his father who taught
him duty. Carlyle said the reason he wrote
books with all the thoroughness of his nature
was because of the old Scotch father in him,
who would never tolerate a poorly built stone
wall. Emerson speaks of the aunt who fired
him with a love of truth. The parent lives
again in the child. Let us see that our best
selves find there their abiding influence.
If one were writing to teachers he could not
urge too strongly their large opportunities of
putting themselves, in lofty, abiding, quicken-

Our Double Immortality 169
ing influence, into the lives of pupils. Re
member what was said of Arnold and recall the
score of great teachers who have lived almost
more vitally in the generations after death than
before — Agassiz at Harvard, Woolsey and
Porter at Yale, Mark Hopkins at Williams,
Mary Lyon at Holyoke. These men and wo
men are to-day living forces in this land. Being
dead, they speak and act through their pupils.
And to any man who has money let me say,
Buy with its generous use not only immortality
in the heavens, but immortality here. If you
know of a young man of promise struggling to
fit himself for some useful work, link your life
to his by helping him, and thus find a useful
ness for yourself after you are gone. I know
a man who, in a university town, has for years
been helping poor and struggling students.
That man will be preaching and teaching in
fifty places long after he is dead. Yes, even a
good life, nobly lived, without consciously ex
erted influence, exerts unconsciously abiding
power over men. Goodness is contagious.
The young men who saw Sumner and Phillips
walking the streets, unknowingly took over
into themselves some of the nobility and
grandeur of their manhood. But the great
thing we are now trying to impress upon our
selves is the possibility of consciously building

1 70 The Enlargement of Life
ourselves into the life of the future. We can in
fuse our life into it. We can shape its destiny.
We can make ourselves a power for good in
other lives.
What is true of influence is true of other
things. Thus, no good deed ever dies, no kind
act. Shakespeare said, "The evil that men do
lives after them, the good is oft interred with
their bones." It is only partly true. The
evil that men do does unfortunately live after
them. And this ought to keep us from it.
But the good men do also lives after them, and
lives longer than the evil. The evil is soon
forgotten and the good is remembered. The
evil act dies of its own lifelessness. Death
is written in the members of sin. But good
is life, and life is self-propagating. It waxes
lustier, and increases from the life-principle
within. The good is immortal in its nature, as
is the good soul. So Browning is nearer the
truth than is Shakespeare.
" There shall never be one lost good! what was,
shall live as before ;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying
sound;
What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so
much good more;
On the earth the broken arcs ; in the heaven, a
perfect round.

Our Double Immortality 171
" All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good,
shall exist:
Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor
good, nor power
Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives
for the melodist
When eternity affirms the conception of an
hour."
You see the poet is so sure of the immortality
of all good deeds that not only does he believe
that they survive us here, but that we shall
find them awaiting us in eternity. Anyhow it
is true so far as earth is concerned. Do a good
deed, and it goes on through the years. It
grows with the days. Plant an acorn and die,
and the oak tree, not the acorn only, outlives
you to bless. Good deeds are built into the
eternal architecture of the world. Every good
deed you do becomes an enduring stone in the
temple of God. Every good deed you do is a
bequest to the world, more potent, perhaps, in
its abiding power than the fortunes men leave.
Even where men leave money to some good
cause the act of generousness sometimes is
more productive of immortal good than the
gift itself. Do all the good deeds you can, —
the heroic, brave, unselfish deeds — and they
shall live with your name upon their brows.
The same is true of words. Idle words are

1 72 The Enlargement of Life
characterless and die upon utterance. Evil
words rankle for a while, make contentions,
and then die. But the hopeful, kind, cheering
word sinks into a man's heart and goes on
bearing fruit forever. How many beautiful
written words — words in book and song and
story — are still inspiring men and making the
world fragrant with their beauty ! It is just so
with the words you write, not on paper, but
on the hearts of men. I wish there were room
to mention here the testimonies of great men
to the power of some hopeful, encouraging
word they had spoken to them in youth and
in the days of struggle. But every autobiogra
phy records this thing. Booker T. Washington
tells how the encouragement of General Arm
strong saved the future for him. General
Armstrong lives in Washington. I know a
young man who is to-day filling a large and
useful place in the world, who was kept to his
high purpose in a time of discouragement by
just an encouraging word from a man he greatly
admired. That man's word will live and grow
in the increasing influence of the younger man.
This world is full of men bearing in their minds
deathless words of inspiration heard in youth
from lips now still forever. Speak hopeful
words every chance you get. Always send
your young friends from you bearing a word

Our Double Immortality 173
that they will take into the years and fulfil for
you. And remember, too, that the pieces of work
one does live after him. They are your biog
raphy. I think there is nothing I should hate
more to do, than to die leaving behind me a lot
of shabby, dishonest work, — poor things I had
made. And if, after we die, we perchance
have the power of revisiting former scenes,
think of finding scattered all about, forever
facing men, a lot of poor, dishonest, cheap
pieces of work : Put your best selves into your
work, for it lives after you. By it your im
mortality on earth will be largely measured
and your character revealed to future genera
tions. The man who does a good, honest,
strong piece of work builds himself into it, and
he lasts until it perishes. So long as St. Paul's
stands in London, so long lives Christopher
Wren. So long as St. Peter's stands in Rome
so long lives Michael Angelo. So long as your
work lives, so long live you. Do your work,
whatever it is, so that the integrity of your
character shall be seen of future generations.
Our real immortality is in heaven. There
shall we fulfil what we have begun here. But
there is open to us here also an endless life of
beneficence and inspiration and lasting influence
upon the growing world.

1 74 The Enlargement of Life
" Oh, may I join the choir invisible,
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence.
 feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world."

A CHRISTMAS SERMON
THE KINGDOM IS CHRISTMAS PUT IN PRACTICE
THE Christmas time has come again. We
have our joyous services, we sing carols,
we read the old stories of the birth of the Christ-
child, we give presents and send messages, ex
tend best wishes for the days that are to come.
The effect of all this upon the world is, I sup
pose, beyond all fathoming. Once a year, at
least, there does seem to be a reign of love.
People do think once, anyhow, if no oftener,
of what they can do to make others happier.
Once a year, anyhow, men are drawn to think
of the Christ. Men who never take His name
upon their lips give presents in His holy name.
Once a year men go outside themselves and
have the beginnings of a world-feeling. Once
a year all the world turns toward Bethlehem
and hears the angels sing. So it is a beautiful
day. The kingdom of God exists for one day,
at least, with its joy, its love, its peace, its
175

1 76 The Enlargement of Life
charity, its beauty. So that perhaps if one
were to ask for a definition of the Kingdom of
God the best answer might be, ' ' Christmas put
in practice all the year." Not its outward
trappings, its presents, its carols, its anthems, —
these are but beautiful expressions of a spirit
which should abide through all the year, ex
pressing itself in a thousand ways, — but the
spirit of Christmas, the real Christmas, the
sense of divine things near the earth, the reign
of love and gladness, the glow and expansion of
the heart, the hopes and thrills of Christmas,
the Christmas peace. This Christmas put in
practice all the year would be the Kingdom of
God. Let us think together of this a little while.
What would it mean to us if to-day we should
resolve to put Christmas in practice every day
in the year? What would be a life daily lived
under the Christmas spell? Well, for one
thing, it would mean that we would all live a
free, glad, happy, cheerful, brave life this com
ing year. For if Christmas means anything, it
means that this world has been touched of God
and is Plis world forever more, and lies secure
and beautiful in the sunshine of His presence.
In the beautiful story of the Wise Men it says
that when they saw the star they rejoiced with
exceeding great joy. For the star meant that

A Christmas Sermon 177
at last "Immanuel " — God with us — had been
born. Christmas is the day of God's coming
and He walks forever this transfigured world.
It is His world now. It swings not through
empty space, nor is it the sport of chance and
fate- and ruthless laws. But it floats forever in
the beautiful unseen love of God, enveloped
and enshrined by spirit, and moves to the mu
sic of heaven. It is God's world, some day
to be His in fulfilment among men of His will,
is the Christmas message. The waste and arid
deserts of men's souls shall sometime bud and
blossom with His presence as a rose. The
whole meaning of Christ's birth and life and
teaching and death is that God is love and has
made His home forever in the haunts of men ;
that heaven has come to earth ; the beautiful
city of the new Jerusalem has descended from
heaven to be builded here. And this Christ
mas day is the invitation to enter into the city.
Now some men live as though this were a
dreary, deserted, benighted world. The sun
shines, but they look only to the ground. The
birds sing, but they hear only the moan of winds.
The whole face of the earth smiles, but they
wear sober faces. So also many men live in
the spiritual world as if it were a dreary, grue
some, ghostly state of being, where melancholy
broods and fear and night reign. But there is

1 78 The Enlargement of Life
no night since Christ was born. The light
that goeth no more out lights the world.
Neither is there any more fear. Let us rejoice :
the star still shines where God has entered His
world. So then, this being true, if we would prac
tise Christmas in our lives, we will go out
and live as though everywhere we felt and saw
God. We will walk, will live, as living in His
house, a guest at His table, our happiness His
care. We will walk the streets buoyantly
and exultingly, as though He were by our side
and we were talking with Him. We will live
with such a holy radiance in our face, such
smiling features, that men will say what the
peasant said to Erskine, "There is always a
sense of God where you are." We will look
at the landscape as if God brooded on the
mountains and in the valley. The stars will
shine with a new and beautiful Christmas
light. The poets all love to speak of the
divine feeling of awe and wonder pervading
Bethlehem that starlit night, as if some holy
presence brooded near the earth. Who has
not felt that feeling of divine mystery on some
starlit Christmas eve? It ought to be the feel
ing of every starlit night, an awe and glad
ness in the sense of God.
So, also, this all being true, if we are to ful-

A Christmas Sermon 179
fil the Christmas in our lives, we will no more
be discouraged as if we were alone, and had to
begin all things anew in our own strength.
For a great hope and courage now fill our heart
in the presence of our God. We will be no
more afraid, as if it were a world of evil powers
and darkness. It is a world of light and love ;
and divine forces move over its surface stron
ger than any power of harm. And God fights
with us, and legions of His angels are at our
call. No, we will not fear anything, not even
death, for we are persuaded that nothing in
heaven or earth can separate us from the love
and presence of God revealed in the Christmas
Babe. We will not fear nor falter nor turn
back, but sit down and open our hearts to God,
and be strong and glad and brave. We will go
singing on our way instead of moaning. We
will smile instead of sigh. We will walk as
them that see visions and are bound toward
some city. We will walk these earthly streets,
seeing already their redemption. We will
live forever full of a holy awe and wonder at
the greatness and the beauty and the sweet
mystery of life and the opportunity it offers of
love and work and rest.
Turning now to a second aspect of the
thought, — if we are to put Christmas in prac
tice through the year we would live with a new

180 The Enlargement of Life
sense of the holiness of our lives and with a
deep hatred of any sin. I think we feel it on
this Christmas day. It stirs within us a feeling
of exultation. Our common life seems trans
figured. We would not stoop to any low,
base, mean thing on this day. The Christ is
too real and near to stoop to sin.
As a matter of fact this was just the feeling
Christ produced upon His disciples. Professor
Harnack and Dr. Whiton and Rev. Jonathan
Brierly have lately called our attention to this
thing. They have said that the measure of
the Christ life must be found in the effect it
produced upon the men who came in contact
with that life. Whatever we may come to
think of the nature of Jesus this remains for
ever sure — the men who lived near Him felt a
divine power playing upon their lives, and a
new life coursing through their souls, and loftier
ideals possessing them ; and there came over
them a new consciousness of the worth of life,
its purity, its holiness, and there was awakened
a deep hatred of any sin. The two men walk
ing to Emmaus have expressed what was true
to all who walked with Jesus, 'Did not our
hearts burn within us, while he talked with us
by the way ? ' '
Now this is what it will mean for you and
me to live this next year as if every day were

A Christmas Sermon 181
Christmas, — that we will have a deep sense of
the holiness of life and the sacredness of our
own personality. We will live up to the con
sciousness of our divine origin, nature, and
destiny, which this Christmas day inspires.
We will carry ourselves with a sense of worth.
We will remember daily the high calling to
which God has called us. We will esteem the
priceless privileges He has granted us. We will
prize the kingly capacities wherewith He has
endowed us. We will live as though we really
were sons of God, which we are. We will
exult in the divine image that is within us.
We are eternal beings ; infinity upon us broods ;
the light of other worlds shines in our eyes.
We are immortal since Christmas came, and as
immortal beings will we live and die.
On the other hand, throughout the year,
there will be in our lives the Christmas hatred
of anything low or base or mean. Who, stand
ing at the cradle of that pure Christ-child, could
think of evil things? Who, living with the
pure Christ of manhood, could love base deeds?
But the real Christmas runs through all the
year. To live each day as in that presence
would be to have a repugnance for anything
vile or low. We could not prostitute these
Christmas souls of ours to sinful things. Who
practises Christmas in his life will hate sin with

1 82 The Enlargement of Life
a hatred born of a sense of his own holiness
and the holiness of life.
And finally, to put Christmas in practice
through the year is to live in love. More and
more men are summing up Christianity in two
phrases — the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man. That is, man is a child
of God, and the will of God toward him is good
will and love, and this same relationship exists
between man and man, because we are all of
one family. And is it not significant, when
we stop and think of it, that the way every
body celebrates Christmas is by love? We
instinctively give presents, and giving is our
expression of love. And not only Christians
in the strict sense of that word, but everybody
in Christian lands instinctively and naturally
practises love on Christmas day. That is,
when the world settles itself down to define
the real significance of Christ's birth, it says
by deed and word, "Love."
We spoke a while ago of- the necessity of de
fining Christ by the transfiguration He made
in His disciples. The change He wrought in
their attitude toward men was hardly short
of a miracle. Whatever else we may know of
Christ or not know, we know that here was a
power that transformed selfish manhood into
magnanimity and love. Self-centred men be-

A Christmas Sermon 183
gan to get outside of themselves a few years
after that first Christmas. Introspective men
became absorbed in the larger world. "They
looked outward, not inward. ' ' Ambitious men
began to be ambitious for others with them
selves. Men of knightly spirit suddenly found
themselves fighting for things outside their
own desires. Men whose ideal had been to
rule other men suddenly found themselves tak
ing chiefest delight in lowly service of their
brothers, as did their Master.
Now this is just what would happen to us if
we decided to live every day as we do on
Christmas. On that day all the feeling and ex
pression of our life is love — why not every day?
When on the street we will look on all with
kindliness in our eyes. Our faces will beam on
all we meet. We will walk with that happy
countenance we wear on Christmas morning.
The heart will go out to every man and child
because we are magnanimous and they are sons
of God. We will look for the best and truest
in all our friends and try to draw it out. It
will pain us to seek the evil and recall it to our
friends. We will be appreciative of every
body's efforts toward the higher life, and speak
our appreciation with delight. We will try to
be cheerful with all we meet and send our
friends away with happier hearts. We will say

1 84 The Enlargement of Life
every helpful, encouraging word we can, and
send our friends away more hopeful, more
brave to live their lives. "To meet Horace
Bushnell on the street when one was despon
dent," says an old acquaintance of his, "had
the same effect on one as did the sun suddenly
shining on a cloudy day." Bushnell practised
Christmas all the year 'round.
The real Christmas will have come when in
the home we try to put in operation this same
Christmas spirit every day. What is more
beautiful than a home on Christmas morning,
when every member is doing his best with
presents and kind greetings to make every
other member happy ! Why not continue this
blissfulness throughout the year? Ah, what a
perpetual Christmas joy — each one thoughtful
for the comfort and happiness of the others,
each one preferring others to himself, setting
aside his own wishes often for the sake of
others, each one patient, guarding his temper,
saying nothing to wound another, anointing
with smiles another's woe, tenderly sympa
thetic under trying conditions, solicitous for
one another's joy. A recent French book, The
Simple Life, by Charles Wagner, has in it a
passionate plea for the restoration of the simple
home life of our fathers. Well, we cannot go
back to the home of our fathers in all its de-

A Christmas Sermon 185
tails, but we can make homes as full of the
sweet spirit of Christmas simplicity and love as
were those simple homes. We can make a
sweet, simple home life that shall be beautiful
in its Christlike individuality. The curse of
our times is the imitation habit. We are pass
ing through a kind of monkey stage. Every
body wants to make a home like somebody
else's — often the home of somebody else much
richer. Hence so many woes. But beauty is
in simplicity and personality. Let us not
worry about our home resembling somebody
else's, but in its being full of the sweet Christ
spirit, where, in simple joys and pure, healthy,
simple amusements and good books, and good
music, and free and frank comradeship we shall
have a perpetual Christmas.
And would that we could get our industrial
life on to the Christmas basis ! What would it
mean? It would mean that men would treat
one another as brothers. One man would not
find pleasure in another's downfall. One man
would not rise by the ill-treatment of his
brother. One man would not get rich by
subjecting his brother to degrading condi
tions. One man would not fill his own cof
fers by refusing a living Christian wage to his
employee. Employer and employee, capita
list and laborer, would settle their disputes

1 86 The Enlargement of Life
without mistrust or fear or suspicion. Christ
mas shall have come indeed when men see that
Christianity is a social religion as well as a mat
ter between one's soul and God. Christianity
covers and permeates and determines all life
and all conditions, or it is nothing. When,
lately, a great capitalist hinted that religion and
sentiment had nothing to do with coal mining
he showed ignorance of the first meaning of
Christmas and of the first principles of Chris
tianity. If religion does not enter into the re
lationship of operators and miners it does not
enter into anything. What a Christmas im
pulse would throb through all the world if in a
time of some great labor difficulty capitalist
and laborer should say to each other: "Here,
we are brothers; we want to do just what is
right ; we want the best welfare of employer,
workmen, and public. Let us get together
in a spirit of brotherly love and settle this thing
on a Christian basis. " "Ideal ! " you say, ' ' too
high for practical use." Yes, "ideal," but it
is Christianity nevertheless. And the reason
we have such pagan realities is because we will
not order our relationships by Christian ideals.
From Christian ideals have come what blessed
realities of brotherhood and peace we have.
Industrial troubles will never cease until Christ
mas is perennial.

A Christmas Sermon 187
And, shall we not say, too, as our last word,
that the larger Christmas waits until brother
hood shall have become the rule of nations;
when nations shall settle their difficulties, as do
the Christians, on a basis of charity and brother
liness; when arbitration shall be resorted to
rather than armaments ; when nations shall lay
aside suspicions and mistrust and exist for
humanity rather than themselves alone ; when
that larger patriotism shall possess men which
makes brothers not only the men of one nation,
but of all the world because children of the one
God, with common hopes, common aspirations,
common destinies; when one nation will treat
a weaker nation as a strong Christian man
treats a weaker brother, helping him, not rob
bing him. God hasten that Christmas time
when all the nations of the earth shall see the
true meaning of Christmas, and seek first, as do
all Christian individuals, the kingdom of peace
on earth and good will among men. Then will
Christmas have come indeed — and it will come.
The significance of the birth of a child is not in
its birth, but in the promise of its life and the
fulfilment of the ideals and forces it puts in
operation. So the real power and meaning of Christmas
are not found in Bethlehem, but in that time
when men shall see the whole earth filled with

1 88 The Enlargement of Life
the glory of God, and shall rejoice to live in
the gladness of that glory; when sadness and
sighing shall be turned into gladness and sing
ing; when men shall live bravely, fired with
eternal hopes ; when men shall be true to the
dignity within them, and with the Christ spirit
in their hearts bring in that eternal Christmas
of brotherhood and love which is the kingdom
of our God. THE END

Y*t*UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08844 9609

; .¦:¦:.;!>!.»;.•;• : ¦¦¦¦¦¦,. ¦ ¦ '