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September, 1904
PREFACE There have been gathered together in this volume some of the talks, more or less informal, which it has been my privilege to address in these last years to companies of young men and women, particularly students. Three of these papers have been published before. The topics are those that all young men and women are compelled to consider, whether they will or not. I have not supposed that in these talks any
new thought was presented. I have felt, however, that something perhaps was accomplished, if a fair consideration of the old thought might be secured. I am more confident today than ever before that the universities and colleges are not performing their full function in the matter of religious education. There is need of a reconsideration of this whole subject. Who will undertake the task? Meanwhile, the least one can do is to present to the students of each scholastic period of four or five years the practical questions of the religious life. Do I think that anyone was really helped by these talks ? Some have acknowledged that they received help; but this acknowledgment was made, perhaps, only as a matter of courtesy. In any case, I have in this way discharged in a measure a responvii
viii PREFACE sibility which has weighed upon me more heavily than any other connected with the office which I have been called to administer. This fact brings comfort to me, if to no one else. And yet I have noticed that, with each recurring year, it has required a greater effort on my part to undertake this kind of service. I have asked myself whether, as a matter of fact, it was growing more and more difficult to deal with subjects of this kind in a university atmosphere ? Perhaps someone will answer this question. It is quite certain that there are many who will be interested in the answer. Those who know my father and mother, and their lifelong interest not only in the religious life, but in higher education, will approve my desire to acknowledge this interest, as it has manifested itself in connection with my own life, by inscribing to them this small collection of "talks to students." William Rainey Harper. September 26, 1904.
CO TE TS I PAGE Religion and the Higher Life i II The Religious Spirit 21 III Fellowship and Its Obligation — Service ... 36 IV Trials of Life 57 V Loyalty to Self 69 VI Dependence 78 VII Certainty and Uncertainty as Factors in Life . 88 VIII Our Intellectual Difficulties 101 IX The College Experience an Epitome of Life . .113 -X Religious Belief among College Students . . . 132 XI Bible Study and the Religious Life 141 XII America as a Missionary Field 173 be
It was a great moment in the history of spiritual progress when the individual man became a factor; for till that moment came the ascent of man was largely physical. But when man the individual came to be fully recognized, when what he was or might be had for its largest determining element himself, then modern civilization had its beginning. The powers and the possibilities of the individual, as distinguished from those of the family, the clan, or the nation; the responsibility of the individual, as distinguished from that of the family, the clan, or the nation — these constitute the real basis of substantial growth; these furnish the true incentive toward forward movement; these supply the elements required for the realization of the higher life. The higher life — beginning with the first steps of civilization, inseparably related to the effort of the individual man, and taking on higher and higher form as individual effort became more distinct and determinative — has manifested itself in widely varied, yet closely related, forms of thought and action ; and the characteristics of these forms, always plainly discernible, distinguish it from that which is below, and also from that which we may call the highest.
2 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE In several fields of art individual men and women, through all the centuries, have created works which have lifted not only themselves, the doers of the work, into the higher life, but likewise all of their fellow-men who have sincerely sympathized with such work and entered into its appreciation. As evidence of this higher life, and as its fullest vindication, stands out the long line of the world's masterpoets and writers, its artists and musicians, with the millions upon millions whom they have helped and inspired. In the department of philosophy, in which men have made gigantic efforts to secure knowledge and to ascertain the origin of things and their relations, we see another sphere of the higher life — a sphere broader, perhaps higher and deeper, than that of art ; but less attractive to the ordinary man, and certainly more difficult to appropriate. Yet every man who really thinks, or who intelligently questions his world, is something of a philosopher; and the num-
ber of those who in this way touch only the border of the higher life is probably as great as the number of those who, in spite of wings clipped by nature, would follow the lofty flights of the artist. And in company with the philosopher and his disciples are the scientist and his devoted followers. These, too, seek knowledge and wish to know the origin of things. And all these, though their gropings be in darkness, though the light revealed is in every case but the
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 3 smallest gleam, lift themselves, by force of the very effort made to see the light, to a place whence they may catch a vision of other gleams while, with each new gleam thus possessed, the next becomes more clear. The higher life includes as one of its several spheres that of ethical purpose, moral effort. Here the element of individualism is clearly marked. Every man who endeavors to live a righteous life, to be honest and pure; every man who puts forth energy to perform his obligations as a member of a family, as a member of society, as a citizen of the state, holds his place, high or low as it may be, in the constituency of the higher life. That all men may not be found in this constituency is apparent. Is it not, therefore, presumptuous that we should count ourselves therein ? We may not assign others of our fellow-men here and there; we may be grossly deceived in any estimate we may hazard as to our own positon ; but if we are sincere, we should be able easily to determine in which of two directions we are moving: whether downward and away from all that is beautiful and uplifting, or upward and toward that which incites, elevates, and purifies the soul. For this sphere of moral effort is, after all, the one in which all the others are contained ; with which all the others are identified. The line between the higher and the lower life is not the same for any two individuals. If, for any
4 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE reason, we permit ourselves to dwell, either intellec-
tually or morally, on a lower plane than the very highest which nature and our environment have made possible, we live the lower life. It is only the man who lives the highest life possible for him to live, that may be said to live the higher life; the failure, at any time, to put forth his utmost endeavor — a failure of which in every case he is unquestionably conscious — degrades him, from a higher to a lower position. On the other hand, the man who has been denied opportunities of culture, or has been surrounded by abnormal and injurious influences, actually enters upon a stage of the higher life at the very moment when his mind and his life are turned away from that which has pulled him down and are lifted upward. There is a question we must now put to ourselves . Do those of us who are associated with university work sustain any peculiar or special relation to this constituency which lives, or tries to live, the higher life? Yes, a double relation; in that, first of all, we make public profession of membership; for in the very act of becoming associated with an institution of higher learning, whether as student or as instructor, one openly announces to the world his purpose to be of those who interest themselves in the higher things of thought and life. And, further, in this act we proclaim ourselves leaders in this life. This may, indeed, be an act of presumption on our
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 5 part; but it is an act which will bear no other interpretation. It is what every man does who makes effort, in a public way, to lift up either himself or his fellow-man. If all this be true, it follows, of course, that the university should furnish the highest ideals for life, and by its discipline make possible examples of the highest type of living. The artist and the student of art, whether in literature or painting, the philosopher and the student of philosophy, the scientist and the student of science, the moralist and the student of morals, are expected to be the leaders — and, as experience shows, have been among the leaders — in the higher life. It is, therefore, an appropriate thing that, at this time, I should ask a question concerning this higher life — a life with which, at least professedly, we are
so much concerned. The question may be put briefly in these words: What has religion to do with the higher life ? The answers to this question are both negative and positive: Religion is not the mother of art, science, philosophy, and ethics. Religion is not to be identified with one or all of these. Religion is not the enemy of art, science, philosophy, or ethics. Religion is independent of these phases of the higher life, but closely akin — in fact, the oldest sister of the family. Religion is essential for the fullest development of these phases of the higher life. Religion must have certain characteristics to work in harmony with them.
6 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE In the use of the word "religion "I am not thinking of the church, for the church is of a transitory and variable character; she takes on different forms at difierent periods of her growth and under different environments, and at times, and in certain places passes out of sight; while religion is something as imperishable as the mind itself, of which it is a necessary condition; something that is permanent and not a mere passing phenomenon. Religion, as has been said, is a condition of the mind; but, in its outward form, it is a kind of life; in fact, the life which is the outcome of the mental condition. Religion, therefore, takes on many forms, and in each case that form which is best adapted to the stage or phase of development already attained by the person or community concerned. In this way religion adapts itself to varying conditions and demands, and this capability of adaptation, it should be noted, instead of weakening religion, strengthens it. The capability of such adjustment to different personal temperaments, to different classes of society in the same community, and to communities as widely separated as are nations themselves — this indicates a strength and power the existence of which, on a priori considerations, one would be compelled to deny. I may not even attempt to state what is to be regarded as the essence of religion, whether it be worship, belief in the supremacy of God, the act
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 7 of faith, or the spirit of piety. But as a concrete type of the religion of this day and of this land I may use Christianity, for, since religion has kept pace with civilization, and since civilization, controlled by religion, has made progress, Christianity must be the highest and most perfect form of religion thus far developed. This means, of course, Christianity in its broadest sense, and not any one of the special forms of Christianity which have appeared. Coming back now to the higher life, we may ask : What has religion to do with the higher life ? 1. I am not one of those who would ask a place for religion in the higher life upon the ground that each of the different phases of this life, whether art, philosophy, science, or ethics, owes its origin to religion. This contention cannot be maintained; but even if it be true, it fails to bring us to the necessary conclusion, since the child, in time, may grow to be independent of its mother. The suggestions that the first attempts of art had to do with the expression of religious thought, and that consequently religion is the mother of art; that the earliest literature is religious literature, and that therefore religion is the mother of literature ; that the first philosophers and scientists and lawgivers were priests; that astronomy grew out of astrology, medicine from sorcery ; and that, in view of this, philosophy and science and ethics are the offspring of
8 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE religion, I may not now discuss. Today I do not wish to base an argument or an exhortation for the cultivation of religion upon this foundation. As against the idea expressed in these suggestions it has been asked: 2. May not art, philosophy, science, or ethics each constitute a religion in itself, at least for those who are its devotees or followers ? Renan maintained that religion (and he was thinking of Christianity)
was nothing but an expression of the aesthetic feeling — in other words, art. Many other writers have urged that religion is but a crude form of philosophy, and that when a pure philosophy prevails, religion will disappear. Furthermore, it has frequently been suggested that science itself would serve as religion, or at all events take its place. Matthew Arnold understood by religion "morality touched with emotion." This conception would make the moral and the religious life identical, except that the former would be the ideal, and the latter only an imperfect and undeveloped form. It is plainly to be seen, however, that to propose the substitution of one or another of these phases of the higher life for religion is merely to claim that these are identical with religion, and that they do for man what religion aims to do. For myself, I have found the words of Professor Tiele 1 on this point particularly illuminating: * Elements of the Science of Religion, Vol. II (1899), pp. 246 f.
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 9 The difference consists chiefly in this, that, while science, art, and morality yield a certain satisfaction, or even a considerable measure of happiness, they never produce that perfect peace of mind, that entire reconciliation with one's self and one's worldly lot, which are the fruits of religion, and have ever characterized the truly pious of all ages. The greatest genius, the acutest investigator, and the profoundest thinker, who have studied the most difficult of problems, and have made darkness light for themselves and others, will be the first to confess the limitations of their knowledge and the insolubility of many of their problems, and to admit that faith alone can answer the momentous and vital questions — Whence and whither ? Poetry and art may brighten this earthly life with their luster, they may mitigate sorrow and soothe the troubled mind; but they can only give true rest to the soul when they serve to bring home to it some great religious truth in a beautiful and striking form. And even the strictly moral man, who can boast of having kept all the commandments from his youth upward — unless utterly deluded by self-satisfaction — must often feel that he lacks something, the one thing needful. Religion, then, is something in itself and for itself, fulfilling a separate role, and not in any way to be confounded with art, or philosophy, or even with
morality. 3. But whatever may be the true relation between religion and these departments of human activity, there are many who think that religion has been and is the enemy of the higher life as exhibited in art, philosophy, science, and morality. They will ask you : Did not the law of Moses prohibit the making of any image of anything in the heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth,
io RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE and was not the artist condemned by Israel's prophets in words most severe? Did not the reformers destroy all that was beautiful in the churches, and make their worship something devoid of all softness and beauty ? Have not philosophers whether of sacred or profane history, been treated in all ages, as skeptics and mischief-makers ? Has not the church persecuted and even executed the leaders of science ? Has not morality lost ground whenever and wherever formal religion has gained ground ? So it is frequently maintained; but these statements, even if admitted as facts, do not bring us so easily to the conclusion which is urged upon us. Certain distinctions should be noted. There are times when art degrades, and there are uses of art which are always degrading. Is that influence hostile to literature which would take away from it the obscene ? There are professed scientists and philosophers who step beyond their sphere of knowledge, and in arrogant spirit make strange statements concerning that with which their science has no connection. Is it hostile to science to oppose the presumptuous denial of the existence of God ? There arc times when immorality becomes an epidemic; but is it the truly religious man who becomes immoral, or rather that man who has merely put on the form of religion ? Is it hostile to morality to assist one who is immoral to become pure ? Furthermore, religion must not be held responsible
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE n
for the deeds of all who profess to act in her name. As there is a distinction between religion and the church, so there is a distinction between the church of today and that of the Middle Ages. There may be a religion, as Tiele says, "one of those transient forms of religious life which, having served its time and fallen into decay, cannot tolerate those revelations of progress in the spiritual domain which mark the awakening of a new life." 1 Such a religion, however, should not be confounded with the normal religious spirit. Again, disease must always be differentiated from health. It is the sane, not the insane, man who most truly represents humanity. Abnormal forms of religion have undoubtedly antagonized the progress of truth and the growth of the higher life; but .the truth and the higher life have been all the stronger for an opposition that was ephemeral. 4. But if religion does not furnish the startingpoint, is not the origin of this higher life ; if religion is something quite independent of one or all of the phases of this life ; and if religion is not the enemy of art, science, philosophy, and ethics, how shall the relationship be designated ? Perhaps religion may be called the sister; and, if a sister, surely the oldest member of the family. That religion is a sister, and not the mother, would appear from certain facts in the history of art, literature, science, and « Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 258.
12 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE ethics. For example, so far as can be ascertained, art is synchronous with religion, while mythology is not religion, nor does it come from religion, but is an early form of philosophy. The priestly caste is something comparatively late, and its mastery of learning and law was obtained after long struggle. In the earliest days every man was his own priest, and there was no such caste. Like a family of languages descended from a parent stem, among which there is an oldest and a youngest, with others growing up between, so religion, art, literature, philosophy, ethics, and science are to be regarded as closely akin, each to the other. But though of a common origin, there are im-
portant points of difference between religion and these other phases of the spiritual or higher life. It has already been said that no other of these phases may take the place of religion, since no one of them gives that kind of satisfaction, of peace of soul, which is the gift of religion. As has often been pointed out, however, the kinship between what religion and these other phases give is so great as to minimize their difference. In the ethical life, as in the religious, peace of mind is one of the objects sought for, and it is only to be found in a state of unceasing development. or does the man of science rest satisfied with knowing. He desires also to understand, and to systematize and unify his knowledge. The philosopher tries to fathom the origin of things, but he also expects that philosophy will reconcile him with himself and the world. So
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 13 that scientists and philosophers alike, to a certain extent, also seek for contentment of soul. And does the artist never aim, in the pursuit of his art, at something beyond aesthetic enjoyment ? Does he not often throw his whole soul into his works, and thus stake his happiness upon their success ? * The fact, after all, which at the same time marks the relationship and the separation, which makes it impossible for religion to be taken as the mother, or to have one or another of these take her place, is this: in art the imagination and emotion predominate; in science, the intellect and judgment; in morality, the will; while in religion these various faculties must be held in an even balance. Undue emphasis on any one or another results in an abnormal and degenerate form, such as mysticism, or fanaticism, or moralism. Religion, many-sided, and wellrounded, is broader than any of its sister-forms of spirituality. It calls into exercise a man's whole being; and when its development is normal, it strengthens every function of his life. All this, we can see, is equivalent to saying that in working for the highest and fullest and truest development one must not ignore religion. The artist cannot be a scientist and thus strengthen his intellect and judgment; he would only destroy his power as an artist; but he may cultivate the frame of mind which constitutes religion, and in this way
obtain something of which he stands much in need. The scientist may not become an artist, and thus 1 C. P. Tiele, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 246.
i 4 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE find opportunity for the play of his imagination and his emotions (we remember the experience of Darwin with music). Yet in religion he may find that which will remove the charge that is made and sustained against so large a portion of the scientific fraternity, the charge of narrowness, of lack of interest in humanity, of dogmatic and arrogant conceit. The moralist, furthermore, cannot become religious by receiving a touch of emotion, for religion demands more than the exercise of will and of imagination. It requires also the strong and constant cultivation of the judgment. Art, then, if it will, may find in religion its closest friend and neighbor, for there can be no religion without sentiment, the essential element in art. Has this not appeared in the history of art ? To what has she more frequently turned, with what has she been more closely united in all her history than with religion — in poetry, in architecture, in painting, in sculpture, and in music ? Science and philosophy, too, if they will, may find in religion their closest friend and neighbor. It is true that a religion which lacks the intellectual energy which enters into philosophy and science may be tainted with superstition or mysticism or fanaticism^ still it cannot be true religion. And have not philosophy and science always been driven, in their last analysis, to God ? And belief in God is the very essence of religion. Ethics, surely, will find in religion a sym-
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 15 pathetic companion, for there has never existed a religion which did not, in forms more or less crude, try to influence its votaries to live purer lives. Have not preachers and religious sages, from the times of earliest history, striven with their followers to be truthful and honest and pure ? Can we not see, therefore, that since religion has something in com-
mon with each of these other phases of the higher life, and since religion in each case furnishes something which these others lack, religion is essential to their full fruitage ? It may be well to note briefly, in conclusion, some of the characteristics of the religion which is best adapted to the needs of those whose lives and sympathies are in harmony with the higher life. Here we must speak of a religion as distinct from religion, for nothing is clearer than that there are as many different religions in the world at large, and even among those immediately about us, as there are different tastes and sympathies. These differences are not merely differences of creed, nor of forms of worship, but of standards of morality, of external accompaniments, and of subjective ideals. The religion of an artist will be different, no doubt, from that of a scientist, and that of a scientist from that of a moralist ; yet there must be some things in common between the religion of a man who is spiritually inclined and that of a man whose mental faculties are exercised only slightly or not at all. One need but
1 6 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE read history to learn that the leaders of the world's thought, the men who, in one capacity or another, have made the highest contributions to the higher life, have for the most part been men of strong religious character. We may ask, therefore: What has been the nature of this religion ? What is the nature of the religion which today will prove acceptable to men and women of higher thought ? a) This religion will be simple in its nature. Truth is always simple; never complex or compound. The greatest teachers have thus presented it. It was Amos who said: "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate." (Amos 5:15a.) Another prophet said: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah6:8.) It was Jesus who said : "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter
therein." (Mark 10:15.) In respect of simplicity, then, religion is "like a work of art, a picture, a symphony, a cathedral. Its genius does not forbid ornament and variety. But its greatness is in its grand, simple, and total effect, toward which all ornamentation contributes." 1 Simplicity need not shut out aesthetic form; indeed 1 Dole, The Religion of a Gentleman.
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 17 it must not, for otherwise many of those for whom it has a mission will ignore it. b) It will be reasonable; else the scientist and the philosopher will reject it; that is, it must stand the test of investigation. It must make no false and pretentious claims. It must make no unreasonable demands upon the weak credulity of man. It must appeal to the judgment and the reason, in order that those of aesthetic predilections may find in it what they do not find in their special field. c) It must be a religion of toleration. One's neighbor must be allowed to differ. o single religion, not to speak of a phase of religion, can be regarded as the only one containing religious truth or affording religious help. There must be wholesome respect for the sincere adherents of other faiths, even though they be far removed. Religious expression must be regarded to some extent, perhaps to a large extent, as the product of historical circumstance, of geographical situation, of hereditary transmission. d) It will be a religion characterized by idealism ; for otherwise those inclined toward the artistic could not endure it. Think of a religion devoid of poetry and music; a religion with no prophetic vision; a religion with no reaching out toward the invisible and the infinite ! There can be no place for such a religion in the minds of those spiritually inclined. e) It will be an ethical religion in order to meet
1 8 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE the demands of the moralist and the needs of the artist; and in order that it may be capable of inciting to righteousness the lives of those who accept it. "Let judgment roll down as water and righteousness as a mighty stream." For righteousness the cry goes up on every side, and nowhere more loudly or more continuously than from among those whose lives have been molded in the atmosphere of the college and the university. It was the ethical side of prophetism that made it mighty in its influence, though it was handicapped in so many ways. /) It will be a religion capable of affording comfort in the time of trouble, consolation in the hour of distress; for this is what neither art, nor science, nor philosophy, nor ethics can do ; and this, after all, is the greatest demand of the human soul when it becomes fully aware of its utter weakness. There are seasons (who has not experienced them?) when life has nothing to offer that will please the human soul. Torn and bleeding, as it were, healing is needed; but the power of healing has been given only to religion; and without religion there is no health, no whole condition. I wish, finally, to say three things, the truth of which I am persuaded you will more and more appreciate as you go forward in the higher life. i. Religion has much to do with the higher life; much to offer those who are spiritually minded. It is an essential factor in a fully developed, well-
RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE 19 rounded life. Without it you lack that which would give you breadth and strength and vigor; calmness and tenderness and peace. 2. It is worth your while carefully to consider the kind of religion, the particular form of religious culture, which you will cherish. It is no longer a question of creeds or denominations. The dividing line runs, not between this and that form of religious faith, but through all forms. The name is insignificant; the serious thing is the character of your religion. Is it adapted to your needs, and is it lifting
you upward ? or is it something foreign to your nature and is it dragging you down ? Is your religion a source of anxiety and pain ? or does it bring rest and peace of mind ? If it is not what it ought to be, do not be > satisfied until it has been set aright; for every individual must have his own religion, and that of no other will answer his purpose. 3. The religion of Jesus Christ is a religion capable of adjustment to any and every individual, however peculiar his temperament, however exacting his demands. Its simplicity, as the Master himself presented it, is marvelous. In its proper form it has always stood the most rigid tests; and it appeals as strongly to the reason as to the heart. It will permit you to respect your friend's religion; if he is a Jew, because it came out of Judaism; if a sincere follower of Islam, because much of Islam came from it; if a disciple of some eastern faith,
zo RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE because its founder, Jesus, was broad-minded and tender, and saw truth wherever truth existed, without reference to the name it bore. It is a religion of ideals, not weird and fanciful; but chastened, strong, and inspiring to true service. It is ethical in a sense peculiar to itself, for it is the religion of the Beatitudes and the Golden Rule. It is a religion that says: " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The greatest minds of nineteen centuries have found this religion helpful. I do not urge upon you any special form of this religion, for I have in mind its very essence, that which is common to all forms, that which makes it the power history shows it to have been through all these centuries. This, as found in the teaching of Jesus, is, in the words of old Hebrew philosophy, the fear of the Lord — *. e., belief in and acceptance of One who has power to help, even to the uttermost. This step, this position, this opening of the mind and heart to an influence of the highest spiritual character, will prove to be the beginning, and indeed, the chief part, of that higher life which lies before you, that higher life upon which you have already entered, and in which, we trust, your walk will continue, until there comes the next step forward — the step that will usher you
into the life still higher, the highest life — the life beyond.
II THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT The religious side of man's nature will always furnish new and fresh material for study. Every manifestation of the religious spirit, whether in the individual or in the nation, deserves careful examination and consideration; and these manifestations are as numerous and as varied as are the individuals and the nations in which they appear. It may be said, with truth, that there is a religious spirit for every individual, and, in a slightly different sense, a religious spirit for every closely connected group of individuals. The differences which may be noted are so striking and so bewildering in our contemplation of them that one may fairly question the propriety of using such a term as "the religious spirit." Is it possible, for instance, that the degrading, licentious, and cruel religious rites of one nation, and the elevating, purifying, and ennobling practices of another, are manifestations of the same spirit ? * May we suppose that the man who, so far as concerns religion, seems cold 1 Contrast, for example, the base and sensual conceptions associated with the ceremony of circumcision among other nations with the holy and spiritual thought connected with that rite among the Hebrews. 21
22 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE and indifferent and unaggressive, has in him any of the spirit which makes his neighbor warm, enthusiastic, and zealous ? But more than this is true: the religious spirit in individual and in nation is always changing. The spirit of the child is not that of the mature man, and the latter, in turn, differs from that of the man of old age. The same man exhibiting the spirit in one form, in this environment, will, if suddenly transferred to other surroundings, make
a quite different manifestation. othing in history is more significant than the changes through which a nation passes, in the course of several centuries, in respect to the outward form and the inward content of its religious faith. Trace the history of the Hebrew nation from the primitive and simple ritual of early times, to the highly developed and complicated service of the second temple. Study the strange, almost incredible, movements in the history of Christianity itself; the peculiar, almost endless, variety in forms of worship and belief, which characterize the different bodies of Christians today; and there will be found full illustration of what has been said. There are three elements which enter into the religious spirit, and which may be said to constitute it. The presence of these three elements, in varying proportions, determines largely the nature of the religious spirit in any particular case. The first of these elements may be expressed in the single term
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 23 " worship. " This term means here the attitude of an individual, or a group of individuals, toward the outside and higher world of supernatural or divine existence. It includes the outward acts which in various forms symbolize the inward thought. In some cases so simple and unconventional is it as to pass almost unnoticed. In other cases it is so elaborate and complex in its various forms and manifestations as to win our aesthetic admiration, though at the same time suggesting the query as to whether the participant, in the maze of outward ceremony, may not lose sight of the essence which the particular act is intended to represent. I have just said that this element, called worship, includes the outward acts which in various forms symbolize the inward thought. ow one may ask: Does the thought precede the act and determine it, or does the act waken the thought which it is supposed to represent ? At different times and under different circumstances each of these things happens. We must suppose that in the institution of any particular form or act in a ritual of worship, whether simple or elaborate, the intention and effort were to
embody in a tangible form some conception suggested by the religious spirit; and that in the mind of individuals possessing a sensitive temperament, and controlled by the same general influences, the performance of the act would later produce that phase of feeling, or reflect that phase of thought,
24 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE which originally suggested, whether consciously or unconsciously, the institution of the ceremony. But how easy and how natural it is for the act to lose its significance after a long period of time has passed, or when the ceremony is performed in situations entirely distinct from that with which it was first connected ! In the history of religion one finds multitudes of these institutional ruins. Our modern religious_life_a bounds in rites and cerem onies -which no longer express the thought o riginally intended for expression, and in the performance of which we who take part are perhaps in many cases only performing a farce. They do not reflect our spirit; they do not, as they are performed, create in our hearts a corresponding emotion. These observances, unless performed with the right spirit, are a mockery, and we who perform them are little better than hypocrites. They constitute, however, the conventionalities of religion, and we are under the same obligations to observe the conventionalities of religion as to observe the conventionalities of social life. To violate these conventionalities is, in the opinion of many, to strike a fatal blow at ^jreUgjonjitself. This of course, is a mistake in so far as the violation is a violation only of conventionality. But we ought gravely to consider just where the line may be drawn between what shall be called conventionality, and the real expression of our inner self in its relation to God. The second element which enters into and con-
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 25 stitutes the religious spirit is the element of b elief or faith. This is never quite independent of the first element. Thus, in most cases, it determines sooner or later, the form of worship. In this second ele-
ment there is again at times the same simplicity and the same elaborateness which, in different instances, characterize worship. A simple faith or belief, however, is by no means always found with a simple form of worship ; and a complicated ceremonial does not necessarily presuppose, on the part of the ordinary worshiper, a more fully developed theological system. In respect to the exercise of belief, the individual has, of course, a larger freedom than is possible in the exercise of worship. It is necessary in the economy of life that men_ unite in forms of worship. It is not necessary that any two men should think alike. The desire for system and co-ordination, and the influence of the ceremonial, have led, in the course of our ecclesiastical history, to the separation into distinct bodies of those whose beliefs were similar; for the opinion has generally prevailed that, in order to work together in the religious field, men must have the same theological beliefs, and must exercise the same forms of worship. But the experience of most recent years shows us that this opinion was wrong, and in the future the tendency in the direction of union of effort on the part of those holding different theological views and practicing different forms of worship may surely be
26 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE expected to increase. o one, moreover, can fail to recognize the fact that in these separate bodies, whose separation from each other was effected in order to bind those who held the same views more closely together, there is coming to exist the widest possible divergence of opinion on many questions which have been regarded as of paramount importance. The third element which, together with worship and theological belief, enters into the religious spirit, is the ethical standard of a man's life — one's conduct in relation to himself and to his fellow-men. This element may not be entirely separated from either of the other two. The effect upon conduct of the other two elements of the religious spirit is marked. T hus th e form of worship may be the strongest possible incentive towarcTeither right living
or wrong living. One's belief, however, may exert afTeven stronger influence upon conduct than one's ritual. othing is easier to understand than the sensuality of many ancient nations when we recall that their conception of God was best represented by the bull, the animal representation of sexual reproduction. Character, it must be conceded, is largely determined by belief. The hue and cry so common today against creeds can be justified only on the ground that it is directed against the effort to compel men to accept some form of belief, or to accept all the details of any so-called system of belief, which, it is thought, must be accepted or
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 27 rejected as a whole. From any other point of view this hostility to creeds must be judged puerile, for where is the man who does not believe something, and does not therefore have a creed? It is to be noted, however, that the element of belief does not now occupy the same position that it once did. A man's life, at least in civilized countries, is not dependent upon his theological belief, as it once was. His position in a particular body of the Christian faith is not so definitely determined. The range within which he may exercise his belief, without injury to his influence and without the necessary change of ecclesiastical standing, is constantly widening. In other words, the present is an age of toleration, with which no past age of history may be compared. Though at first it may seem paradoxical, it is true that in_^ ropor tion _as less emphasis is placed upon a particula r form of belie f, greater emphasis is_ laid_ upon conduct. In proportion as larger liberty of thought, within reasonable limits, prevails, ethical standards are elevated. These then, briefly described, are the three elements which enter into the religious life and determine the religious spirit. Every true manifestation of this spirit will include all three of these elements, and the character of every such manifestation will be determined by the proportion in which the three elements are combined. May I now, before making a personal application
28 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE of what has been said, dwell for a moment upon two points bearing directly upon our subject ? The history of religion furnishes us some interesting facts touching the mutual relationship of these three elements in the progress of their development. In the ancient religions only the element of worship existed. There was no dogma. The rite, as Robertson Smith has pointed out, was connected with a myth, but, "strictly speaking, this mythology was not an essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction, and no binding force on the worshipers." There may have been several accounts of the origin of a given ceremony. It made no difference what the worshiper believed in reference to the ceremony, if only he performed it regularly and accurately. He did not understand that any special favor was to be obtained from the gods by believing this or that thing. As a recent writer has said, "what was obligatory or meritorious was the exact performance of sacred acts prescribed by religious tradition." In these ancient religions, of course, the ethical standard was very low. The religious spirit, therefore, found its manifestation almost exclusively in the acts of ritual service. At a later period the element of faith or belief was introduced. Few of us appreciate the fact that this element entered the history of religion very late. It is largely the controversies between the various divisions of the Christian church that have led us to
think that in the history of religion dogma or belief has been prominent. The controversy in reference to the ritual in the Christian church has been, after all, a controversy in reference to belief, for it is only the interpretation of the ritual that has been thought important. It was when the prophets of the Old Testament began to preach one God as against many
gods that religion, as we are acquainted with it, first really emphasized belief. The denunciations of the prophets were directed for the most part, it will be remembered, against the formality and hypocrisy of the Israelitish worship. It is also true that in the Old Testament religion the standard of right living was at first very low, and although it was lifted higher and higher through the centuries, it never reached a plane which, from the modern point of view, could be called a high one. Briefly, then, the religious spirit of the Old Testament shows itself most largely in the act of worship. The Levitical service occupied the largest share in the attention of the people. Then in the work of the prophets the elements of belief and right living were introduced and inculcated. In the later days the sages, who held a broader point of view than that of the prophets, gave practically all of their thought, as religious teachers, to ethics, and, while not ignoring the element of belief, found little or no ure for the element of worship. The historical development of these three elements in Israel's history is essentially their history everywhere.
30 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE The second point may be briefly stated. We notice in individual and in ecclesiastical life here and there abnormal manifestations of the religious spirit. In some_of_thes e the spirit is so strong as to _ overthrow the judgment, and, indeed, at times to dethrone reason. At others it has associated itself with immorality of the grossest type, and indescribable cruelties. Of all wars, religious wars have been the most dreadful; of all controversies, theological controversies have been the most implacable. We have often been at a loss to understand why, in the case of men whose hearts were right with God, there could be standards of life so utterly degraded; or why, in the case of men whose lives were pure and upright, there should be an utter disregard of church, and of church relationship. The explanation of these anomalies and abnormalities will be found in the historical background of the nation, or in the psychological constitution of the individual. This we may never be able to understand, but the character of their manifestation is clear. In each case one element of the religious spirit has been emphasized unduly, and the others neglected or ignored. Each
case presents a one-sided development. The nation and the individual has acted or lived at times without heart, again without mind, still again without heart or mind. This being true, ought we to be surprised at the result ? We may now return to the personal application of what has been said.
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 31 The cultivation of this religious spirit is for us_ as serious an obligation as the cultivation of the body oTThe mind; for without this spirit, our life is as deficlentaswould be our body if it had no heart, our mind if there were no brain. Rule out of life this element described under the word "worship," the great truths for which religion in the highest sense stands, and the principles of conduct of which religion is in the highest sense today an advocate — rule these elements out of life, ignore them all or any of them, and you are not a man or woman in the full sense intended by your Creator. Granting now that you, the individual, feel the force of the obligation to cultivate this spirit, how can it best be done ? Many and long answers have been made to this question, but mine shall be short and simple. Accept this unique, wonderful character, Jesus Christ, as your leader and guide in the work of developing in yourself the qualities which he possessed. In any other kind of work you would go for direction to that person within your reach who in himself and in his own actions best represented the thing which you were seeking. For be assured that Jesus Christ is the best representative of this religious spirit, and, likewise, that he is within your reach, within the reach of everyone who will stretch his hands out after him. Accept him, if you have not already done so, and try him. If when honest and sincere effort has been made, you find him lack-
32 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE ing in the qualities of a good guide, you may reconsider your step; but first and foremost give him a trial. You surely need guidance. To whom else
will you go ? If, now, you have accepted him, study his life as it is narrated to us, and his teachings concerning God. The Christian world has been trying to be Christian without a true or full conception of the Christ himself. Indeed, Christianity had almost forgotten that there was a Christ, or, perhaps more accurately, had so changed him that he could no longer be recognized as Christ. It has been the glory of more recent thought that it has in some measure restored the Christ who had been forgotten or ignored. But, as a matter of fact, each individual must perform for himself this work of restoration; and it can be accomplished only by constant and close study of his words and works. And to this end you must study yourself. In which of these three elements are you most deficient — worship, belief, or conduct ? In your secular life you have ascertained that your taste and talent lie in a particular direction — business, politics, perhaps science or literature. When this tendency was definitely discovered, you undertook to cultivate the special line for which your ability seemed adapted. This was right, but in the cultivation of the religious spirit the opposite policy is to be adopted. We want no specialists in the manifestation of the reli-
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 33 gious spirit. It is the all-round, the symmetrically developed, religious character that you should work for. The day of special priesthood is past — everyone must be his own priest; the day of special prophetism is past — everyone must be a prophet; the day of specialism in morality has never existed and will never come. If then you find yourself especially weak in one or another of the elements which we have considered, cultivate that element in particular, remembering that the bigots of religious history have been the specialists in the manifestation of the religious spirit; that the dark ages of Christianity have been those in which the church has emphasized one or two of these elements to the neglect of others. I desire to say a word, in conclusion, in regard to the religious spirit as manifested in university life.
Here are special difficulties. By nature we each represent different tendencies; this is true of any group of individuals. In the university we come, each from different communities and environments; we represent many phases of belief and unbelief; and, besides, we have a greater or less variety of opinions, forms of worship, and religious activity. And, in addition to all this, we are, for the most part, so busily occupied in our daily work, in our several occupations, that there seems to remain little time for the cultivation of the religious spirit. Our minds are engaged in adjusting themselves to new sur-
34 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE roundings, and there is a confusion of ideas and interests in connection with which, and as a result of which, we suffer the religious life to be pushed aside. And just as there rests upon each of us as an individual the obligation to cultivate the religious spirit, there rests also upon us as a university the obligation to cultivate the religious spirit. This may not be done in any such manner as to interfere with our separate individualism; and it is extremely difficult to find in such multiformity of belief and unbelief, of practice and non-practice, any unity. But unity must be found ; for an institution of learning which does not possess a strongly pronounced religious spirit of some kind may do as much harm as good. How shall this be cultivated ? My answer here must be still briefer than to the former questions. As individuals, first of all, we must do our work. The whole cannot be what the parts are not. Each individual should, therefore, recognize his responsibility for the whole, and for the sake of the university, as well as for himself, make urgent effort. And then we must assist each other, and in so doing bring ourselves more closely together. Common sympathy alone produces unity. We may surely find, as the days and years pass on, a more and more satisfactory way in which, with zest and profit, we may express our feelings of gratitude and reverence to the Power above and around us, to whom
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 35 we are indebted for all that we have and are. We may surely agree, not only to permit, but indeed to encourage, the widest possible divergence of thought and belief within reasonable limits; and such divergence should serve, not as a mark of separation, but rather as the token of that freedom which alone is found in Jesus the Christ. We may join in a common effort to elevate the life of the community, the state, and the nation; the effort to establish righteousness and truth on every side. Such efforts serve not merely as an expression of the religious spirit, but they serve also to tie more closely the bonds of those who thus work together, and to make that work stronger and more lasting. As with individuals, so with universities: the full religious spirit finds expression in maintaining a true worship, in cultivating a reverence for truth, and in putting forth strong effort for the upbuilding of humanity.
Ill FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO SERVICE The worlds we live in grow in number and in size as life proceeds. Each stage onward reveals a new world to us; and the strange thing is that as from time to time we enter into these new worlds, we still remain dwellers in those into which we had before gained entrance, each being superadded to another, until at last all are included in the world beyond. Each stage onward also reveals to us in these worlds heights and depths of which before we had no idea — heights and depths of pleasure and pain, of love and hate, of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, experiences so varied and so vital as to excite surprise that humanity can pass through even one of them and live. The worlds we live in grow in number and in size as life proceeds: First came that inner and most sacred world, the family, into which we were ushered without responsibility of our own, and in which we found ourselves the object of attention and love on every side. In this world, with its almost infinite detail of rela-
tionship and with its utter lack of selfishness, we 36
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 37 have gone on living, and with each year of life its mysteries have become more marked, its responsibilities more heavy, its points of contact more numerous and complex. In this world the tie that binds us to our fellow-members is the tie of blood. This bond, however, sometimes does not count for much, for when time and space intervene, even' the parent may forget the child, or the child the parent. This bond does grow stronger and stronger with the close associations which the family life makes possible; for it is a natural bond, and one which is strengthened by cultivation. Or it may be broken off at will; family feuds are often the bitterest. But, after all, even when the bond seems broken, it is there; perhaps only a thread remains still connecting those whom God and nature intended should be bound. This world one enters without responsibility of his own; and he may not really abandon it, even if he will to do so. Life does not go far before another world opens its portals. It soon appears that fellowship is possible with those outside the family circle — a fellowship pure and simple, in which blood-kinship plays no part; a fellowship in some cases restricted in the number of those among whom it exists, in others not so restricted; but in all cases maintained within a limit hardly larger than that of the family. This relationship we ordinarily call friendship. We are accustomed to say that we choose our friends; that,
3 8 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE in other words, we enter this world upon our own responsibility. This, if true at all, is only true in part. We enter into the friendships of life, whether in youth or in age, because of something in our friend which appeals to us, something which we cannot resist; because of an affinity which is as real, though not as tangible perhaps, as the tie of blood. The bond of friendship is a spiritual one; and so
close is it that men will sometimes do for friends what they would not do for blood-brothers. In this circle changes occur; friendships sometimes are outgrown. Yet, as time goes on, it generally proves true that the bond of fellowship once formed may not be broken, and in the later days of life, as one's mind goes back to the days of early family experiences, these may not be separated from others in which the jriends of youth had part. Most of us have enjoyed the fellowship of another world — the university. In entering this world each individual assumes for himself responsibility; but this world, like the others to which reference has been made, is one from which no man withdraws who has once entered it. The fellowship here possesses elements which would seem to have been drawn, some from the family, some from the sphere of friendship. The relationship of teacher and pupil, when rightly apprehended, is only less sacred and only less helpful than that of parent and child. In some sense, indeed, it is a substitution for that rela-
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 39 tionship. The relationship between student and student is at once that of brother and sister and that of friend; the friendships formed in college life are usually the warmest and the most lasting of all. The associations of college life are often as hallowed as any that man makes. The college world and its significance cannot be appreciatied by those who have not lived in it, and those who have lived in it will never clearly know how different their lives would have been if they had never entered. The college world is a kind of epitome of the great world. With its temptations and struggles, with its successes and failures, with its ambitions and despairs, its life is hardly to be distinguished from the life of the great world. It is the natural transition between the narrow life of the family and the world at large. It exhibits the world at large in its varied relationships, and shows how and when entrance to it may be gained most advantageously. There is, however, another world, of which every man is a member, and in which every man must
live. There may be a few who have not known life in the world of family; there may be a few who have not tasted the experience of that spiritual life called friendship ; the many do not know the college world. But there is no man who, soon or late, does not enter into the life of the great world — the world at large. What then, is the relationship between
4 o RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE the members of this world ? Are men of humankind all brothers ? Is there, indeed, a kinship of every man with every other man ? The Scripture statement as to the essential unity of mankind appears to be corroborated by modern science in every department in which the subject has been investigated. The biologist tells us that we are one in structure; the physiologist tells us that we are one in functional arrangement; the philologist tells us that our languages may be carried back to stems which themselves form families, and between these families there is evidence of relationship; the psychologist tells us that we are so constituted that under the same circumstances and in the same environment we will do in large measure the same thing, whatever be the country of which we are citizens. The fact of the relationship seems to have been clearly established, and is the basis for the changes which are now being made throughout our social structure. It follows, of course, that wherever relationship is found, there will be found fellowship; and there exists, therefore, a world-fellowship, as well as a family fellowship, or the fellowship of friends. This world-fellowship manifests itself in various ways. With some we are brought into direct touch, with others the contact is indirect. In the mass of individuals each individual of the mass may touch comparatively few. The relationship may be that
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 41 of business, or of religion, or of a civic or social character; but whatever the specific form it may assume, it is of such a nature as to illustrate the common
sympathy of men — the common fellowship which is always possible and which expresses itself whenever circumstances permit. Every man is of kin to every other man, and the multiform fellowships of life are but an exhibition of the fellowship which exists between members of the human race — a fellowship which justifies the phrase "our common humanity." This fellowship is, from one point of view, only the extension of the family fellowship, for here as there the bond is that of common blood. From another point of view it is the enlargement of that fellowship which is seen in the close association of a group of friends, or an enlargement of that life of which so perfect a type is seen in the university. The bond is that of common interest or sympathy — a bond which may be stronger even than blood. And into this great world, as I have said, every man soon or late comes. It is here that, notwithstanding family ties and bonds of friendship, a man must form new relationships, and upon the character of these will depend his career. This world includes many worlds besides those which I have mentioned, each sufficient in itself to limit the life and the influences of any individual. In taking one's position in this world, he does not give up his position in the other worlds to which reference has
42 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE been made, and sometimes membership in worlds so different from each other and so much in conflict, makes life and living all the more complex and difficult. Do we hesitate sometimes to enter ? Yes, but this counts for nothing; for, whether we will or not, we find ourselves numbered with the great throng and treated on every side as members. May we then, having entered, withdraw quietly to one side and give ourselves no concern over the affairs of the world at large ? If we are cowards, we may surely do this; but the training and the blood of many men render cowardice for them impossible. It only remains, therefore, to take up the burden of this life and carry it as best we can. And the burden, as we carry it, will grow heavier and heavier, until perhaps we sink crushed by its overwhelming weight. But this matters little, for we may interpret it as perhaps the true glory granted by the world to its favored children.
In this world-fellowship the college man has a place. Others may be cowards and shirk responsibility. Disturbed by the conflict which rages everywhere so continuously; distressed by the misery which cries out to heaven from every quarter; confused by the various sounds and noises which fill the air on every side, many may selfishly shut out the world, and live for and by themselves, with eye and ear closed to all that goes on about them. And many live thus. But of this many the college man
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 43 may not be one, unless, to be sure, his college life is to count for nothing. His position is like that of a man going through the world the second time. As we look back over life, we think — in fact, we know — that in many ways we would have acted differently. We see now what at the time of action was entirely obscure. We appreciate the mistakes and blunders that were made, and understand how they might have been avoided. The experience of the college man in later life is something like this. He has lived one life. When he enters into the world at large, he is beginning life a second time, and has before his eyes its probabilities, or at all events its possibilities. Such a man sustains a peculiar relation to the world and must occupy a peculiar place in its fellowship. He it is who must, in some measure, occupy the place of the parent in the family, of the instructor in the university. We may stop here to ask: Why is it that the parent is fitted to guide and direct the life of the child through its early periods ? Because the parent has passed through this period, and by experience has learned the dangers and difficulties which beset childhood. Why is it that the instructor is fitted to guide and direct the work of the pupil through the various stages of his educational development or in special fields of research ? Because the instructor has himself gone through this work and profited by
its experiences; has gone over the ground of the special department. Just so, the college man, in general has been fitted by the life which he has lived (if it has been lived properly) to assist those about him — because, while they, for the most part, are going through the world for the first time, he is living through it a second time. This, then, is his position and the relationship which he sustains. Or, to use another analogy, he is an elder brother in the family; not elder, perhaps, in years, but in experience; for experience comes not merely with days of life, but with days of thought and action. Each year of preparatory and college life contains five years of ordinary, routine life. The student of twenty is, therefore, not a man of twelve plus eight, but of twelve plus forty. I do not forget that occasionally there are those who in life outside the college find a discipline and a training which contains many, if not all, of the elements of college training. These are the exception. or do I forget that frequently there are those who have passed through the college without having lived the college life, and who, therefore, enter upon the life of the world as if living for the first time. These, although many, are, I trust, the exception. If, then, the college man's position in the world is that of one about to live a second life or that of an elder brother, what is his responsibility, his obligation? There is, of course, the responsibility
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 45 which attaches to membership in the human family, the responsibility of fellowship, of man to man, of brother to brother — the responsibility which rests on every man, which all men bear in common. I shall not here attempt to define this. But there is also the responsibility which rests upon the elder brother, or the leader; there are also the responsibility and obligation which rest upon those who have been permitted to receive special gifts and to enjoy special advantages. And just here, as it seems to me, lies the solution of the problem which today is disturbing the minds of so many. Granting that the world's affairs are under the general guidance of an all-wise and omnipotent God — a
God who is at the same time just and impartial — why is it that upon some men greater gifts are bestowed than upon others ? Why is it that to this man wealth is given, and to that man high position ? Why is it that you have been permitted to enjoy the advantages of college life ? Why are men of wealth placed in a class by themselves, and not infrequently looked upon with reproach simply because they are wealthy ? Men who have had college training are sometimes in similar fashion regarded with suspicion merely because they have something which the mass of men do not possess. Why, I ask, do a certain few have gifts which the masses do not have ? Before answering the question, let me make this suggestion :
46 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE Life for these few is no easier, on the whole, than for the many. In fact, it is more difficult and more hazardous. In the majority of cases, the men and women who occupy high positions, and who have had the advantage of education, are carrying burdens to which the men of lower rank are utter strangers; burdens heavier and more grievous even than those brought by poverty and sickness. Pain of body is not so great as pain of heart and mind. With every increase of knowledge there is an increase of the capacity for sorrow. To the unthinking mind the man of wealth, living in his mansion, is an object of envy. If the real facts were known, the life of such a one would be found, in most cases, to be a life of care and responsibility, for which the satisfaction of physical life is no fair remuneration. To the unthinking mind the man who occupies a high position in the affairs of government, or in affairs of business, is an object of congratulation and sometimes of envy. If the real facts were known, in almost every case it would be found that such a man is being crushed — literally crushed — by the weight of the burdens which he is compelled to carry. He may find satisfaction in the prominence which is accredited him, but such satisfaction is not a sufficient reward for the anguish of mind and heart he is called upon to suffer. Again, therefore, the question comes: Why is it that to some are given what seem to be special gifts
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 47 and special advantages ? Because they deserve them ? o ! In order that, having them, they may secure a greater measure of enjoyment in life ? This may sometimes be the result, it is not the purpose; and even when such enjoyment comes, there come also with it a burden and responsibility which in large measure often counterbalance the enjoyment. Is it because these men have greater energy and ability? This answer merely begs the question. Why is it then, that they have been given the ability to acquire wealth or to secure an education ? The answer is that every such gift or opportunity placed within the reach of an individual is his, not for personal advantage, but to be used by him for the advantage of others. Every individual to whom has been given such gift or opportunity, if he is true to himself and true to the world-fellowship of which he is a part, will use the gift or the opportunity, not for himself, but for those with whom he is associated ; and in every such case the burdens which he assumes and the weight of responsibilities which he carries, the suffering of mind and heart which is imposed upon him, will counterbalance all satisfaction that comes to him from the enjoyment of these privileges; and the God who has thus distributed his gifts will in the end be found to have been just and impartial. For if he has given to this man a special gift, it has not been for that man's pleasure or advantage. It has been given that he might help his
48 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE brother — that humanity might be lifted higher; and if the man has been equal to the trust committed, his life will have been no less hard and difficult than that of the men whom he has helped. Do you say that many who have received these gifts are faithless to the trust committed, and receive the benefits without incurring the responsibilities and the pains ? Well, this is in accordance with the nature of things. In order that man may be good, there must be an opportunity to sin. In order that there may be men who will accept this trust, and the obligations which it imposes, there must be the opportunity to prove recreant to the trust. Vice is
permitted to exist for the sake of virtue — for without one the other could not be. The obligation which rests upon the college man is, therefore, one of service — service to his fellowmen. The man of wealth who does not use the wealth given to him for the benefit of humanity is a curse to the world of which he is a member. The college man who does not use the advantages gained by a college experience for the help of those about him is a curse to humanity. To help humanity is to serve humanity — to be a servant — to enter service. An obligation which rests upon you, my friends, in part because you may not deny your relationship to every member of the human family with whom you come in contact; in part because of the very constitution of your mind and body which brings you into
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 49 close relationship with others of the human family; but especially because you have been accorded privileges not ordinarily enjoyed by the members of the human family. If in your home you are given wealth or advantage of any kind, would you not share it with the other members of the family ? The principle is the same. The obligation is the same. Advantage has been given you, not because you deserve it, not because you are better than many another man or woman, but in order that, having received this advantage, you may thereby be better fitted to serve your fellow-men. I would have every college man and woman acknowledge, as most other men and women cannot, the obligation which is imposed by the fellowship of humanity. This obligation can be acknowledged by the college man better than by any other, because he appreciates it more fully; his eyes have been opened to see it more clearly in all its bearings. I would have every college man and woman assume the special obligation imposed by membership in the human family upon those of its members who have had special advantages, such as you have enjoyed. In the ordinary obligation, that which rests upon all, there is something of service; the special obligation, which rests upon the few — those who have had advantage of one kind or another —
is wholly one of service: a service hard and rigorous; a service continuous and never ending; a service
50 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE which will require you, in one form or other, to give to others everything that has been given to you; a service the pain of whose performance will equal any satisfaction or pleasure which you may derive from the enjoyment of the advantage accorded. This service will be toward your equals, those blessed with as great advantages as yourself. These will need your help for themselves; for where you are strong they may be weak; and in this respect they will require your aid. For your own sake you will serve them also ; since where they are strong you may be weak; and the joint service thus secured will uplift you both. Many a strong man has fallen because of a weakness which was not soon enough discovered by himself or by his friends. Many a strong cause has perished for the lack of timely service at the hands of those who might have warded off disaster. Too often we forget the duty we owe to those in our own station of life — our duty to those engaged in the same occupation with ourselves. Even when the thought of service is in our minds, and the desire to render service has taken possession of our hearts, we ignore the fundamental principle that service rendered the strong, when it is needed, is of more value than service rendered the weak. Why is it so ? Because the strong, when strengthened and kept strong, may in turn help others; whereas the weak, if only slightly strengthened, are still unable to render much assistance.
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 51 It will also be well for you, my college friends, to keep in mind the fact that your equals will not all be found in the ranks of college men and women. Some of your brothers and sisters, better gifted by nature in some directions than yourselves, have in large measure accomplished without the aid of college what you have done with the aid of college. These individuals would tell you that what they
have gained has cost them far more than you have paid for your advantage. They will tell you that, if it were to be done over again, they would adopt your plan; they would go through the college life. But, however true this is, be on the lookout for such; recognize them at their true worth; join hands with them in every good work. They are of the college fellowship, though they have not seen the college. They are your equals, and upon them rests the obligation which rests on you. Is this service due those who are, as we say, above you — those who have had even greater advantages than yourselves ? The man who cannot serve another well cannot himself be leader. Wherever you may be, or in whatever station, there will be those above you who both need and deserve your hearty service. They will stand in need of it in order that by your service, organized with that of others, great results may be accomplished. It is, after all, united service that counts. There cannot be union of service without grading of service as
52 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE higher and lower. This is the point I have in mind. Do not be chary about doing the lower service whenever it is needed and you can do it. Most of us find life occupied largely in performing the lower service. The amount of this kind of service is relatively very large. The real fact is that in service one always takes the lower place. If the truth were told, those who hold the highest positions are, in proportion to the honor of the position, performing the lowest service. This service, as has been said, will be needed. In most cases it will be deserved, because, upon close investigation it will be seen that they are serving you. Surely, then, these higher ones deserve your service. If they are true to the high position which they occupy, they will be using every gift or advantage of wealth or power or endowment to serve you and those who, like you, need help. The case will be entirely different if they are recreant to their trust. In my experience, I have found none so eager for help and aid as those who were commonly supposed to have been raised by their wealth or position beyond all need of help. It is here that gratitude finds
the possibility of expression. Those who serve us deserve in turn our service, and there is no sin that may be committed which is so black as the sin of ingratitude. Remember, therefore, that your education obligates you to serve those who by directing you and your work can at the same time help you
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 53 and benefit humanity at large. The world today needs more of the spirit of voluntary sacrifice and less of that spirit, called independence, which is in essence real selfishness. I have one thing more to say — perhaps the most important. The service expected of you will be, in large measure, service for those who, as the world reckons them, are below you. I cannot myself think that the world's reckoning is correct. There is no real sense in which they are below you. The world, as it is constituted, has not been able to furnish them the opportunity which it has given you — that is all. I am optimist enough to believe that in the end it will be shown that the laws which regulate the universe have been the best which could be devised under all circumstances to attain the highest and greatest results. These laws being what they are, millions of people are unable or unwilling to obtain the advantages which you have gained. This places upon you an obligation to render an account for what has been entrusted to you; the account will be given to humanity at large, and the masses of humanity at large belong to those who, as I have said, have been reckoned as below you. When we compare the situation of the masses today with that of a hundred years ago, or five hundred years ago, or a thousand or five thousand years ago, we see, as clearly as we see the light of the sun,
54 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE that progress is being made, but we feel that it is not being made rapidly enough; and it is equally clear that the progress would be greater if the men who have been given a mission for humanity — I
mean by that the men who have been given the advantages of wealth or knowledge — would in every case perform their whole duty. It is not for me to indicate how this service for the poor and needy shall be performed. There are a thousand methods, any one of which you may adopt. The question that concerns us at this time is: Have you — along with the preparation for service — the spirit of service ? If in your college work you gain the preparation, and do not acquire the spirit, your life will be an injury to the world, and not a benefit. You will retard the onward movement, instead of assisting it. This is why progress is so slow. So many who have been given opportunity to serve and benefit humanity have used the preparation given them, and the facilities placed within their grasp, to do injury. Has the spirit of service been inculcated by those who have instructed you? If not, it would be better for the world if those instructors had not lived. This, of all questions, is the one question. It matters not how much knowledge you acquire; since the amount, however great, is as nothing compared with what you have not learned. It matters not how little knowledge you have ac-
FELLOWSHIP A D ITS OBLIGATIO 55 quired; for the amount, however little, will be great in comparison with that of the tens of thousands with whom you will be associated. The question is: Have you acquired the spirit which will lead you to use your energy and ability in the interests of those who have been less favored than yourself ? And this service, as I take it, is the real essence, not only of true manhood, but of divinity itself. We no longer think of God as a taskmaster, seated on a throne, imposing tasks upon a burdened people. This conception is a thing of the past. We now think of him as actually existing in every human being, and as working out through man in all the multiformity of man's activity. God himself is the great servant of humanity; and in the ideal man, Jesus, this spirit of service found its highest example. The question is: Will you permit the great servant of humanity, by whatever name you call him, to work in you and through you for the improvement of humanity? Will you consecrate your body, your
mind, and your heart to the cause of humanity? Or will you be a miser, and, like the rich man who gathers wealth for its own sake, or for his own selfgratification, use your wealth — that is, your training and knowledge — for selfish ends, and thus become something to be despised and spurned and cursed ? It cannot be: it has not been; college men and women, throughout the world, stand for the spirit and for the work of service in behalf of all who need,
56 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE and for service in every cause in which service may legitimately be rendered. It is the prayer of the University with which your lot has been cast, and with the name and work of which your name and work will always be associated, that this spirit — the spirit of University life through the ten centuries since universities began, the spirit of the true church, in whatever form the church through all ages has exhibited itself, the spirit of the Divinity existing in all and working through all — it is our prayer that this spirit may be your spirit in the years and in the days and in the very moments of your life, however or wherever you may live it.
IV TRIALS OF LIFE Some of us this afternoon are wondering what is ahead. Is it success or disappointment? Is it happiness or suffering? That each member of the University shall achieve a marked success in life is the University's expectation. That to each member there may come many days and many years of unmingled happiness and prosperity is the University's hope. The chances for success and happiness are greater surely than they would have been without the discipline and knowledge gained in years of university residence. Life ought to be a better life in proportion as fit preparation has been made; otherwise all preparation would be a waste. If "a sound mind in a sound body is the best description of a happy state in the world," those who have made earnest effort
to train the mind and body have in this effort made long strides toward happiness. If "to be strong is to be happy," happiness is more likely to become the possession of those who have cultivated the methods that produce strength. If we believe that "True happiness never entered at an eye, True happiness resides in things unseen," we should expect that those who have learned to 57
58 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE think of the spiritual in contrast with the material, of that which is eternal instead of that which is transient, of that which is holiest of all things — truth in whatever form it may clothe itself — we should, I say, expect these to be happy. God is generally on the side of the large battalions. But every life cannot be successful in the same way, or to the same extent; and to every life there will come hours of disappointment and days of suffering. Many times the man who, as the world thinks, has achieved great success will feel with Macbeth that "the wine of life is drawn and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of." Indeed, even in the most successful life every day will contain a record of suffering. There is no life, there is no kind of life, there is no form of life, which escapes; for suffering is universal. There is suffering most intense among the plants in the "green sward beneath our feet," for here a never-ending struggle goes on in which the weaker suffer until there comes entire extermination. The trees of the forest about us are engaged in a similar daily struggle, and the history of the centuries shows a work of ruin and devastation almost indescribable; the suffering among animal life multiplies in intensity in proportion to the complexity of that life. It is, however, among human beings that suffering shows itself keenest and most poignant. Wherever we look, our eyes see pain and labor, sorrow
TRIALS OF LIFE 59 and disappointment, sickness and death. The world's traditions, rightly or wrongly, point back to a time of innocence and freedom from suffering. Each tradition, however, tells a story of a change, and testifies to the universality, to the absolute certainty, of trouble and sorrow in every life. There are times in every man's life when, as he regards the world, it seems to be as a "great battlefield heaped with the slain, an inferno of infinite suffering, a slaughter-house resounding with the cries of a ceaseless agony." * There are times also when his heart is filled with despair; when so thick a darkness envelops him that not even the midday sun may pierce it. This is everywhere, and will come sooner or later in every experience. At times it will be something which one must carry quite alone. The soul has sinned, and "sin let loose speaks punishment at hand;" or, perhaps, a parent has sinned, and the wound is one so deep that many generations of suffering will not heal it. In silence and in solitude, the agony of life continues; while prayer for relief, whatever be the form, is all in vain. If one looks about and numbers the men and women of his acquaintanceship, what a meager few of this number does he find to whom a beneficent Providence has given release from such suffering! And if the inner life of our neighbors were known to us, the ache and pain of heart and soul revealed 1 Drummond, Ascent of Man.
60 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE would be so great that human strength could not endure to face it. Occasionally the veil is lifted, and, for a moment, humanity at large, through the medium of the daily press — that mighty power for good, and yet a power as great for evil — gazes into the inmost recesses of the privacy of a life, upon a sickening spectacle of woe and misery. Such was the life of David in olden times, as we read it in the disclosures of the prophetic recital. We see him as a shepherd boy trusting innocently in the God whose pastures and quiet waters furnished food for life and thought. We see him as
courtier at the court of Saul, tempted and flattered, abandoning the simple faith and habits of home life, trusting and at last joining those who are hostile to his own countrymen and his God. We see him as king of Israel, the beloved of the people, the favorite of the people's God, cruelly torturing to the death those who fall into his hands. Selfish does he seem beyond belief when, though himself a warrior, he sends his armies to the field while he remains behind in the ease and luxury of his court; and how sensual and murderous, when, after seducing the wife of his brave captain Uriah, he arranges, in the hope of covering his guilt, for Uriah's death. From this day forward to the end of life David suffered in private and before the world. In the months that follow his agony is so great that his very bones cry out in anguish of pain. The child that is born to
TRIALS OF LIFE 61 him sickens and dies; his daughter is violated by his own son. He himself is forsaken by his countrymen, who place another son, Absalom, upon the throne; and the same Absalom, in the full light of day, takes to himself his father's wives. Then Absalom, gives battle, and perishes miserably, to David's indescribable grief. The years pass on, but they are years of confusion and strife, of deathbringing pestilence, of harsh reproach and stinging rebuke; and finally, as David lies sick unto death in his palace, the tumult of conflict sounds in his ear, plots and counterplots thicken the air about him, the queen is occupied with the question of succession; and so the king, forgotten at the last, gives up a life covered with the dishonorable scars of sin. David's life is a type, and history is full of such lives. Every life, indeed, has in it something of the sorrow of David — suffering for sin. It is not only, however, our personal disappointments and sufferings that we must bear. We must suffer with others; and we must suffer for others. The calamity which befalls any one of those with whom we live always brings some pain to us. Our individuality is so bound up with that of others that we often fail to ask ourselves whose burden we are bearing, our own or a friend's. It is this close association that cements friendships and takes away from life something of its bitterness, and yet at times
it is this very suffering which seems most bitter.
62 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE One's utter inability to afford relief, in an hour of distress, finds expression in the entire willingness with which the mother would take the child's place, the sister the brother's place, even if that place stands in the shadow of death. Suffering with another thus passes into suffering for another, the most vital factor in life, without which no life is complete, with which any life, though otherwise most degraded, may become a life of glory. Consider in this connection of vicarious suffering how sad was the condition of those faithful Jews who were torn from home, temple, and country, and carried into Babylon. In their faithfulness to Jehovah they could not comprehend why such suffering should be theirs. They bore this foreign captivity for a sin committed, not by themselves, but by their brethren who now disloyally with bitter taunts and reproaches spat upon them and said: "Where is the great Jehovah in whom ye so strongly profess to believe ? Why does he not give aid ? " But for them saddest of all must have been the thought that Jehovah had abandoned them: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" They suffered because others had sinned; but not alone for this. They suffered that they might become purified and developed; that through their suffering light should come to the world, and deliverance to all humanity. For us, then, pain and disappointment are ahead,
TRIALS OF LIFE 63 and at times we must endure them alone; at times, with those whom we call our friends; sorrow and anguish — which, perhaps, we deserve to experience, or which we must accept as the legacy of heredity; suffering and agony through which we pass because others have been faithless to their trust, or, perhaps, in order to secure for others blessings which we may not enjoy.
When we come to apply to ourselves what has been said, two questions present themselves: How may we best meet these pains and disappointments when they come ? and, What preparation shall we make for the sorrows and agonies of life which, soon or late, we must suffer ? My answer to the first is: Face to jace, just as you would meet an enemy. With the courage of a stout-hearted warrior, who will not brook defeat, you must stand firm. Then each assault beaten off, your enemy will be weaker, while you are stronger. Take advantage of every favorable factor in the situation; keep in readiness every available weapon; and fight, for, whether you know it or not, you are fighting for your life. To yield is to die; You must conquer, or forever be a slave — a slave to doubt or apprehension ; a slave sinking deeper and deeper in the bondage of self-distrust. But you must also meet this pain and suffering jace to jace, as you would meet a friend for, paradoxical though it may seem to be, every pain in the
64 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE physical world, and every disappointment in the world of spirit, if rightly reckoned with, is a good friend, from whom we may gather great assistance. This friend has come, perhaps, to bring a word of warning, which, if heeded, will render unnecessary visits of an equally friendly, though probably more painful, character. Study this friend closely. Though its attitude may at first seem hostile, attach yourself to it as you would attach yourself to a wellbeloved companion. Standing face to face with it, allow your eye fondly and lovingly to rest upon it until you have read the thought which only the eye of a friend would disclose. Receive the message as you would receive the loving words of a friend, even though such words may cut you to the soul. Do not be tempted into impatience or irritation, for this will be an indication of distrust. o lukewarm attachment will be helpful. Remember that in a close friendship both friends are masters, the one of the other. In battle only one may be victorious. Treating this experience as a friend, willingly permit it to have full mastery of you; for in so doing you in turn gain complete mastery of it. Cherish it,
hold it close; for unless you are absolutely loyal, your treachery will be discovered, and, abandoned by the influences which would gather around you, you will be separated farther and farther from the true life which you are making so earnest an effort to live.
TRIALS OF LIFE 65 And further, let me say that you must meet the sorrows and disappointments of life face to face as you would meet God himself, were he to be presented to you. If there is a God, and if he has to do with mortal man, his messages are delivered in the events which make up life's experience. When does God speak to men, and how ? When he would have them know more of himself — some new phase of his character which has not yet impressed itself upon them; when he would for their own sakes teach them the outcome of this or that kind of action, this or that policy of life; when, perhaps, he desires to draw them nearer to himself, to purify and make more perfect their character. And how does the message come? In great disaster and war; or in the infliction of loss, whether of property or of friends. That man has not learned to live who does not recognize in every event of life the hand of God stretched forth to guide and lift him up toward heaven. When, therefore, disappointment comes, and pain follows close at hand, one must be reverent and not blasphemous as was Job of old, even though his blasphemy was accounted better than the piety of his friends. One must be reverent and resigned; for the struggle, if it is a struggle, is with God himself. Face to face as with an enemy; face to face as with the closest friend, and face to face as standing in the very presence of God, one must meet the sorrows and disappointments, the pains and the suffering, of life.
66 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE There remains, now, the second question: How shall one best fit himself beforehand for the disappointments of life, and for all its suffering ? And my answer to this is:
Begin at once to suffer, if you have not already begun. Try to find a disappointment. ot, of course, your own; but someone's else. Enter into his situation; put yourself by his side; give what your sympathy alone can give; receive, in turn, what sympathy alone can receive. Your advantage will be twofold and direct. First, the attitude of mind in him who suffers will be for you a preparation, whether such attitude be good or bad. For the effect of suffering is learned. Association with those who are in distress ought not to harden the heart, and does not harden the true heart. Such familiarity tends, rather, to make all the more tender the heart which has thus put itself in the way of suffering. And besides, he alone knows how to accept sympathy, and to get good from it, who has learned to give it when and where it was needed. If you would experience the blessing of having sympathetic friends in days of trouble, be a sympathetic friend before your trouble comes. If you would anticipate the troubles of life, make earnest and continuous effort to obtain a vision of God. Too many of us rest satisfied because, having heard of God, we think this sufficient. The heart must see God, if the intellect would understand
TRIALS OF LIFE 67 him. How much greater is the world's suffering because men have heard of God only by the hearing of the ear, whereas, if the eye were to see him, there would come a vision so immediate and so full that darkness would not seem to be darkness but light, and suffering would be accepted with joy. And finally, if you would anticipate trouble and would prepare yourself for suffering, hold relationship with that unique character in the world's history who suffered as no man ever suffered before or since — alone in the agony of Gethsemane, upon the cross, in the face of all the world ; whom men buffeted and reproached and spat upon, and whose last words were: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" whose sympathy with a suffering humanity was so great that only God himself could have experienced and expressed it; whose life and death, a long series of indignities and sufferings, have brought
light and life to all who will accept them. Hold relationship with this man, Jesus, for in so doing you at once begin to suffer with him and with the world for which he suffered; you are at once coming into that attitude of sympathy with all about you which will make it possible to give and to receive blessing. He who is in sympathy with Jesus Christ is in sympathy with suffering of every form, in every clime. He who is not in such sympathy stands alone, separated from the whole world of sympathy, and from every other man who like himself lacks
68 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE such sympathy. He stands alone, unable to give, and, when trouble overtakes him, unable to receive, true sympathy. But furthermore, we have seen that not the hearing of God, but the seeing of him, is the solution of life's difficulties. How easy it is for us, in these days, to have this sight, this vision of God ! It was for this purpose that Jesus came to men, from God the Father, to represent him as only he could be represented to humanity. This, above all things else, was his mission, to make God known to man; Jesus, the brother, through whom the Father might be revealed to those who also were brothers. To see Jesus is to have had a sight of God. In fellowship, then, with Jesus the sufferer; in companionship with Jesus the friend and brother; and in obedience to Jesus the Lord, one is best prepared for the battle of life. If my theme this afternoon has seemed a gloomy one, its purpose, I can assure you, has only been to suggest how burden and suffering may be averted, or at all events relieved, and the lives of those who are now so soon to leave us thus made the brightest possible. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
These are days in which men's minds and hearts are filled with the thought of loyalty — loyalty to country. The nation is being quickened in every fiber of its life by the strange and striking events of the passing hour, and the sons and daughters of the nation, while they bemoan the seeming necessity of war, while they may think that this, perhaps, could have been avoided, at the same time rejoice in the new and lofty sentiments aroused by the stories of brave and courageous acts which men of our own blood and our own generation have performed. The names of Dewey and Hobson and the story of their deeds rouse an intense spirit of loyalty within us — a spirit far different from that slow stirring of the blood we get from the perusal of brave actions of passed generations. And more than this, devotion to country becomes a stronger passion as we are awakened to an appreciation of the country's strength and opportunities. We see today what a score of years ago would have been thought impossible — men who once fought against each other now standing side by side in a struggle with a common foe — and the nation thus united will do what could 69
70 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE not have been done until such union was a union in fact as well as in name. We see the coming of an alliance with the greatest of the world-powers — greatest not only in naval equipment and in financial strength, but greatest likewise as a power for good ; an alliance, indeed, of all who speak the English tongue; and this event will signify as no single event since the coming of Christ has signified, "peace and good- will to men." We see our nation just passing from its period of adolescence, from a youth with his vigor only partially developed, into a manhood conscious of newly acquired powers; a nation able henceforth to stand side by side with other nations, and as one of them to determine the method and kind of progress which the world shall make. We see our nation still sensitive to the cry of the
oppressed and downtrodden; and may the day be far distant when that cry, wherever uttered, shall not be heeded! May it never be that the heart of America shall fail, as the hearts of European nations have failed, to respond to the voice of the lowly and the suffering, when that voice is raised for help ! Events are taking place today which are fraught with as heavy significance as any that have happened within the century and a quarter of the nation's history. And these events are creating a new spirit within us — a spirit of intense loyalty, a spirit pos-
LOYALTY TO SELF 71 sesscd of all the strength and freshness of a new creation. There is no man, who can be called a man, to whom, in such times, the word "loyalty" does not take on new meaning. But these are days, too, in which men's minds and hearts are filled with another thought of loyalty — loyalty to God. The world knows God at this, the close of the nineteenth century, as he has not been known in all past ages. The sum of truth known to men is larger; but, better than this, the sum of truth put into application is greater. It is not what one knows that counts, but the use made of what one knows. God is coming into contact with life with an ever-increasing degree of force. Life is responding to the touch of God with an ever-increasing degree of appreciation. It is truth that makes men free. But what is truth ? Any act or thought which is in harmony with the will of God and with God's laws is truth. To act or think out of harmony with his nature is to act or think that which is not true. To be free is to live and move in touch with him; to love him, and to show that love by devotion to him and his cause. To love him is to be free and to make others free. This is loyalty to God. The ignorant love of God, on the other hand, is mere superstition. Real love, true loyalty, are possible only for those whose conception of him is an intelligent conception. For God was known only
72 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE in part before the day when Science began to make her contribution toward a better knowledge of the laws through which he works. And in proportion as this contribution in the future shall become more definite, our knowledge of him will become more clear. And so it follows that the man who ignores the contribution of Science thus far made is guilty of disloyalty. The connection between this loyalty to country and loyalty to God is clearly to be seen. Thus the interest in human kind, so intense in modern times; the love of man for his fellow-man, as shown in so many ways; the pouring out of life and property for the purpose of helping those who need help — all this, seen today as the past has not seen it, is God working through the hearts of men in behalf of other men; and every such manifestation is a manifestation of harmony with God's will, of loyalty to God. "Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." "Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me." We all realize that the world is growing better; that its ideals of life are gradually rising high and higher. And this is so because the life of the individual is moving on a higher plane. Herein, perhaps, lies the most conspicuous evidence of God's presence, and at the same time the most marked
LOYALTY TO SELF 73 indication of loyalty to God. For when God finds opportunity to enter a man's heart, when that heart turns away from unrighteousness, then in all sureness we see the working of the hand of God and the sign of loyalty to his standards, and seeing this we see God himself, just as in seeing Christ, the perfect man, the world saw God. With love of country thus incited by the things we see and hear on every side, with love of God quickened by what we see, that was not seen before, in nature, in the lives of those about us, and perhaps
in our own individual life, we ask ourselves the question : How may each lif e most thoroughly and most perfectly possess itself of all these opportunities ? How may one reach this high plane of true loyalty to country and to God? The answer to this question is my message to the members of the University, on whom the University will soon bestow its highest, and indeed its only, honors. Briefly, the answer is this: In order to be loyal to country and to God, first of all be loyal to yourself. For this loyalty to self, if cultivated and acquired, will lead you to avoid those things which, left to exert themselves upon you, must demoralize and ultimately break you down. Such influences are many and strong and all about you. They form an integral part of the plan of life. Without them life would be an insipid thing. Strength in life is, for the most
74 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE part, secured by resisting them. Death comes by yielding to them. Do many die thus? Yes; that the few who live may live stronger lives. This is the law of life. If, now, you would be loyal to country and to God, if you would place yourself in a position to give evidence of such loyalty, you must first be sure of your strength to resist everything that may weaken you, whether in body, in mind, or in soul. The country has no use for a weakling. The instruments of God must be the best and strongest. One cannot be true to God and country and at the same time false to self. "The first great task (a task performed by few) Is that yourself may to yourself be true." "To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." It is easy enough to deceive ourselves in this matter. And though we sometimes endeavor to conceal this fatal weakness, the effort always fails. A man who has no self-respect is dead to every true feeling of patriotism or piety.
Furthermore, this loyalty to self, to the extent in which it is acquired, will enable you to overcome the difficulties and disappointments of life. These, like the temptations to which I have just referred, are inevitable. o man ever achieved greatness who was lacking in strength to overcome great obstacles. The greatest men in history have been those whose
LOYALTY TO SELF 75 greatness came because a kind Providence gave them obstacles to overcome. " oble souls through dust and heat Rise from disaster and defeat The stronger." Do not, then, misunderstand the meaning of those difficulties with which life is so entangled. One cannot gain strength without them. For they constitute a preparation, each in itself for something more difficult, and all together a preparation for the giving up of life itself — a renunciation which but for such preparation would be the most difficult thing in life. Thus loyalty to self means strengthening of self for the battles of life, whether fought in the army of the nation or for the kingdom of God. Whom can you expect to believe in you, if you do not believe in yourself? More men commit the sin of undue self- depreciation than that of undue self-confidence. Loyalty to self means also making the most of self. ature has so endowed each one of us that life has something, at all events, for us to do. In the case of many it is a particular thing clearly determined by the character of the endowment given. Loyalty to self's best interests demands that one's effort be put forth to discover this particular thing, and, when it is discovered, to undertake it, and not something else for which an endowment was not given. Thus the failures in life are of two kinds: those in which the individual has not been able to
76 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE discover what it was intended he should do. Oh,
what is so sad in life — not sickness, nor insanity, nor even death — as an aimless life! The other kind of failure is seen in the case of those who, at heart knowing the nature of the life-work which should be undertaken, are unwilling to undertake it, and turn instead to something else because, perhaps, this something else is thought to be easier, or more dignified or lucrative. It is no sin to be ambitious. To be ambitious in the true sense is only to seek to bring one's self into harmony with the will of God; to endeavor to fulfil the promises which God has made in his constitution of one's being; and not to be ambitious is to array one's self against his Creator. Loyalty to self means, I say, the making the most of self; this, however, will not be a making the most of self at the expense of others, but for others' welfare. It is in this way that ambition becomes a virtue rather than a vice; a command from heaven rather than a word from hell. To make the most of self at the expense of others is the greatest sin which man may commit ; to make the most of self in order that others may be benefited is the highest duty which man may practice. The line of distinction is sharp, and applies alike to nations and to men. From an ambition to secure self-aggrandizement may God deliver our country! But may He also implant deep in our hearts an ambition to develop our strength that we
LOYALTY TO SELF 77 may be of service to the world! There was never a time when temptation to do the thing which would hurt was stronger or more insidious. There was never a time when the problems of life were more numerous or more difficult to contend with. There was never a time when the world could furnish to those taking up its duties greater promise of opportunity for success. To resist these temptations, to battle with these obstacles, to achieve this success — in other words, to be loyal to self — should be, and indeed must be, the highest aim of every man who would be true to the country of his adoption or his birth; true to the God of his fathers or to the God of his own experience. May the heart beat quicker as we learn more clearly our country's mission among the nations of the earth ! May it beat more lovingly as we more clearly learn the method and the work
and the character of the world's Creator and Ruler! May it, to this end, beat more truly and sincerely as we grapple with the powers of evil, as we rise above trouble and despair, as we set ourselves to undertake the work divinely appointed us to do!
VI DEPE DE CE In these days we find it necessary to lay stress upon what is called independence — independence in spirit and independence in action. The necessity arises because, as it would seem, this quality, if I may call it such, is not even yet sufficiently cultivated. The desirability of acquiring it or of possessing it is never questioned. Upon those who possess it we are accustomed to look with admiration. The man who thinks for himself is the ideal man. The imitator, on the other hand, who shows at every step his entire dependence upon those about him; who never thinks for himself, never acts for himself; whose opinion is that of the man with whom he last held conversation; who does, for the most part, just what the world tells him to do — this man his fellows esteem lightly. The real purpose of the intellectual work carried on in all our schools and institutions of learning, from the lowest to the highest, is to make those who receive the discipline of the school capable of thinking, acting, and, in short, of living independently. In so far as this end is attained, our institutions succeed; and in so far as they fall short of attaining it, they fail. This is the purpose — is it not ? — of 78
DEPE DE CE 79 our reading, of every kind of intellectual activity. The things about us, here in America, are intended to cultivate this characteristic. Our history, as we read it, stimulates us in this direction. The study of our civil institutions, whatever defects such study may bring to light, encourages us to breathe more freely, and to make every effort to throw aside the fetters of tradition, many of which we still wear as
an inheritance from our fathers. In religious and theological thought the tendency is the same. Who does not see that men may speak and think more freely, that men do speak and think more freely? It is to this liberty of thought and action, this possibility of exercising independence, that we are indebted for the rapid and forward movement which within a century has taken place in every line of human action, whether material or intellectual. What we need to inquire, first of all, in connection with this tendency is: Are there any indications that the liberty which we so prize will be restricted ? Will the movement forward become a movement backward ? Will this independence, which, after all, is but another name for individuality, gradually, or perhaps suddenly, become a thing of the past ? The answer, if indications may be trusted, is that the very reverse will be true. Individualism is the doctrine of the future — in religion, in business, and
80 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE in letters. It may be urged that combination is the order of the day. But these combinations, when examined closely, exhibit an individuality of the most marked character. Indeed, it was not until the days of specialists that combinations arose; the underlying principle of all of them is that of specialism, or individualism. There is no probability — indeed, there is hardly a chance — that, in the future, we are to expect anything even apparently reactionary. It is probable, on the other hand, that the spirit of independence, of individualism, will grow stronger and more intense. Indeed, there is a danger that this spirit may grow too strong and do great harm. There is danger that men will forget the difference between being independent and feeling independent. The man who is independent is rarely conscious of the fact. The man who jeels independent, and takes occasion to exhibit the feeling, generally lacks the thing which he imagines himself to feel. The line between spurious and real independence is sharply drawn. The spurious — and it is this which we all too fre-
quently meet — soon develops into arrogance and conceit ; for these are but the outer shell of an inner emptiness. There is also a danger in the genuine independence; and this danger is twofold: it takes the forms of narrowness and of self-dependence. The cultivation of independence, as has been
DEPE DE CE 81 said, is the development of the individual. The individual, however, whatever may be the degree of his development, never ceases to be part of a whole composed of many individuals. The question is: Shall the part, though to some extent separate, and perhaps elevated, continue to be a part, and as such to exert a strong and helpful influence upon the other parts? Or shall it, though only a part, exert a repellant influence on them, endeavor to drive off the other parts, and then to usurp the functions of the whole ? This is what happens when one of our number, strong in the particular thing which he professes, forgets the many things which should occupy a position side by side with that in which he has interest, and gradually comes to believe that his, and his only, is of value, or worthy of thought. In other words, while the proper cultivation of the spirit of independence will produce breadth, the result, if it is wrongly cultivated, will be narrowness; and, among all sins, narrowness is near to the worst. The other phase of the danger involved is that, instead of independence, we acquire self-dependence. This does not mean mere self-conceit, although it would not be surprising to find the latter as an accompaniment. It means dependence on self carried too far — so far, indeed, as to make self the god at whose shrine all worship is conducted. The sin of Babylon of old was this:
82 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE "Yea, he scoffeth at kings, And princes are a derision unto him:
"He derideth every stronghold; For he heapeth up dust and taketh it. "Then shall the wind sweep by and he shall pass away, For he is guilty, even he whose might is his God." or was Babylon the ancient nation alone guilty of this sin. Many individuals nowadays commit the sin of self-worship. Before continuing our direct study of this subject, we must look at the obverse of it; we must consider the relation of independence to dependence. For my own part, I desire to see dependence encouraged. Do you ask why ? For three reasons : First, that the independence of which we boast may be a real independence. This is not a contradiction of terms. True independence is based upon the right conception of the relations of things. This right conception will never be ours unless we recognize our own insufficiency and weakness. To be able to do, one must know what he is unable to do. I desire, therefore, to see dependence encouraged. And, second, in order that humanity may secure the good results which accrue when one depends upon another. Benevolence, the greatest virtue of God or man, is only exercised when there is on the part of someone an act of dependence. It is more blessed to give than to receive; but there cannot be giving without receiving.
DEPE DE CE 83 I desire to see dependence encouraged, finally, in order that individualism may be kept within bounds. There is no virtue that may not become a vice. Individualism may be pressed too far. The dependence which I have in mind, is however, of three kinds. The first I have already spoken of to condemn it — self-dependence. I speak of it now to commend it, and at the same time to utter a word of caution. It is one's duty, a sacred duty, to ask for nothing which he can of himself secure. It is wrong to ask from God, or to expect of him, that which we ourselves can obtain. To be sure, all things come from him, and yet he sees
to it that nothing comes but that for which we work. To do for one's self is to do for others. For no action is restricted in its influence to the doer of it. Dependence on self carries with it, for all who make up self's circle, blessings seen or unseen. But care must be taken lest, as has been suggested, selfdependence become self-worship. We may be confident, but we must not be overconfident. Distrust of self generally leads to ruin. Here, then, is a vice which at times may be a virtue. Let us, at least on rare occasions, distrust ourselves. For it may be that such distrust will prevent our falling into a pit-hole. The second kind of dependence I shall call inter-dependence. Our situation in this world is a close relationship with each other and with
84 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE nature. Whether we will or not, we are dependent. ature makes us dependent. Civilization has increased the debt, if debt it is, that we owe our contemporaries. We must use, but not abuse, the privileges granted us. Let us lean upon each other; for surely the brother upon whom we lean increases his own strength in the effort to sustain us. Life would be only half life if it included giving without receiving, or yielding without securing. Here again the word of caution must be spoken. We must not lean upon broken reeds; and yet, how shall we determine who is strong and who weak ? So often a mistake is made, so liable is it to be made, that we are almost ready to cry out with the prophet : "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of." Alas ! we are in sore straits. We may not fully trust ourselves, we may not fully trust our fellow-men. What shall we do ? The answer lies in what shall be said of the third kind of dependence. This time I have in mind, not self, nor inter-dependence, but a dependence which is absolute. This time I shall speak no word of caution. Will you picture to yourselves a scene in ancient Babylonia: the great city, with its immense walls and battlements, the very embodiment of all that was powerful; with an army regarded as invincible;
with a king whose prowess in war the whole earth celebrates — mighty Babylon, the mistress of the
DEPE DE CE 85 nations ! And behold, in the midst of all this pomp and power, that ragged captive remnant, the residue of what was once the lion of Judah; a poor, heart-sore, distressed folk, held in reproach by man, seemingly abandoned by God. ever was there a picture combining so strong an apparent contrast of strength and weakness, pride and debasement. But, hark! One says "Cry!" And the prophet asks: "What shall I cry?" "Tell the downtrodden captives," speaks the voice from heaven, "not to be despondent. Babylon's walls are strong and lofty; Babylon's king is fierce and terrible; but all flesh — and Babylon, after all, is flesh — all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, when the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it. Babylon is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever." The preacher of this sad period had no occasion for the exercise of self-dependence; less, if possible, for that of dependence upon those about him. But there was one on whom he depended — God; and his trust in this one was not misplaced. And as it was with the prophet, so with us. God is the rock on which we may set our feet without fear of danger. Some of us are just assuming the responsibilities of life, the burdens of life — none too light, as even the few years we have lived
86 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE clearly show. Each one of us, however situated, with every new day finds new cares. It is, indeed, a heavy burden. I have felt that every year, yes every month, contributed to the weight of the burden. And we are, as I have said, taking up new burdens all the while. Shall we ask ourselves now whether we are trying to carry them alone ? Doubtless we are putting
forth every effort to do all that men and women can do. We do not wish to lean too heavily upon our friends. Our education has taught us independence; but have we also learned dependence? My friends, we must do everything we are able to do. We must secure all legitimate aid from our friends. But we may not stop with this, or life will bring to us nothing in comparison with what might have been ours. Go one step farther. Put your trust, and keep your trust, in God. Let us place ourselves unreservedly in his hands, to be guided according to his will. If we are weak, he will strengthen us; if we are strong, he will make us yet stronger. "Gracious is the Lord and righteous, Yea, our Lord is merciful. It is better to trust in the Lord, Than to put confidence in men." "It is better to trust in the Lord, Than to put confidence in princes." "Some trust in chariots and some in horses; But we will make mention of the Lord our God."
DEPE DE CE 87 "They that trust in the Lord Are as Mount Zion which cannot be moved, but abideth forever." "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about his people." Be dependent ? Yes. Be likewise dependent on self ? Yes, though with caution. On God ? Yes; without reserve, and with absolute confidence that he will render help in every time of need.
VII CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY AS FACTORS I LIFE So closely interwoven are the many and various elements which make up life that most of us fail to recognize the complexity which sober thought shows
us to exist, and consequently to make due allowance for it. Life, even in its simplest forms, is complex. or is this more true of physical than of social life. In the case of both, the ancients were innocent of any true comprehension of the facts. Their ideas of physiology as well as of the relationships of life were crude and infantile. Where there is no adequate knowledge of details there is, of course, a conception that simplicity exists; and so it remained for modern times to discover and to make known the utterly incalculable complexity of life, physical and social. One sometimes wonders whether this additional knowledge is to be recognized as gain or loss. Whichever it may be, it is coming into our possession with a rapidity which often bewilders us. This bewilderment, however, exists not merely because we are for the first time beginning to comprehend this complexity, but also because in our times the complexity is being greatly intensified. The life of the ancient 88
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY 89 peoples, even if it had been understood, would have been a simple thing compared to the life which we live. The century so soon to close has brought a more marked advance in this respect than perhaps any ten or twenty preceding centuries. That a still greater complexity is something inevitable, no one doubts. With the progress of civilization it is always increasing. The lines run out in still more numerous directions. They become finer and finer, so as to be almost imperceptible, though having real existence. The possible combinations grow in number and form, and no one may even dream of the end of this seemingly boundless development. There is, therefore, no advantage to be gained from opposing it. It is creeping onward quietly, but irresistibly, and opposition will only increase the speed of its progress. Resistance to it would be like the resistance of an isolated tree to the fierce windstorm which tears it from its roots, or like that of the unprotected hut to the power of the advancing river-torrent which swallows it and leaves nothing. or, indeed, are we for a moment to suppose that it is undesirable. The word "development," just used, furnishes us the explanation of it. For the
highest development there must be just such flexibility, such interweaving, such combination, such complexity. But what is the fate of the individual in this complexity? Here is the practical question to
9 o RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE which we ought to make answer. If life in general is thus complex, surely life in particular is a perplex thing; a labyrinth or maze in which the individual wanders now here, now there, without light and without guidance, now up, now down; not knowing, perhaps not even caring, what shall be the outcome. It is for the individual to make the needed effort, however great a struggle it may be, to find his place in the midst of this complexity. How shall he know where he belongs ? One of millions, what is his relationship to those about him ? Aiming to accomplish the best thing for himself, what is his attitude to those in whose midst he lives ? But whether right or wrong, whether conscious or unconscious, determined to find a place for himself, to what extent shall he regard the rights of those who are aiming for the same place ? Is not this the practical issue of life — that external thing for which every man strives who has ambition in him ? And is not the higher issue only another phase of this ? Various methods are employed; various routes are followed ; but, after all, it is the essence of life to find one's place in this complicated machinery of the world, and thus to avoid, so far as may be, the dismal perplexities, the uncounted miseries, of an aimless existence. Does anyone suppose that his fellow, however fortunate he may be, at last attains a position in which struggle is no longer needed ? Does anyone suppose that for any human being this perplexity
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY 91 ever has an end ? o man has lived for whom life was not this thing of doubt, of perplexity. Heaven is nothing but the elimination of this perplexity; hell, its further intensification. In which direction are we moving ? For we may well believe that the future life is but a continuation of that which we
deliberately choose in this life. Yet back of this question lies another as fundamental and as important: How are we moving? Indeed, the two questions are one, for if the method is indicated, one is inevitably made cognizant of the direction likewise. There is a right and a wrong policy of life. Failure, in general, is due to an inability to grasp the right policy. In this policy — and I am now speaking only of the method of living — there are two elements, both of which are necessary, both of which contain promise of good outcome; either of which, when exaggerated, brings ruin and disaster. Has it occurred to you that the dividing line between good and bad is very difficult to draw; that the character of the policy is often determined, not by what it is, but by the extent to which it is carried; that mistakes are made, not simply in going, but in going too far or not going far enough ? Remembering, now, this complicated maze in which every human being finds himself moving in one direction or another; remembering that every action has to do with the actions of others, every
92 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE thought connects itself with others' thoughts; remembering that all possibilities are wrapt up in the kind of combinations made; that one cannot remain alone; that there is no such thing as isolation; that every effort must be put forth to find the particular place in this great labyrinth which the individual was intended to occupy, a place possibly near at hand or possibly far removed — picture to yourself the man who refuses to put forth effort to find this place, who fears to come in contact with other forms of life, and so far as he may, stands still; who, finding himself in a certain groove, remains fixed and gradually becomes hardened, impervious to influence; who hears nothing, sees nothing, merely exists; who, being out of place and unable to find a place, is consequently out of connection with all about him, and so constituted that those who would naturally come into relationship with him are injured by contact with him; who has become callous and unsympathetic, out of touch with those about him except for harm; who is unable to assist or direct others to the
place in the maze which they ought to occupy; who, indeed, actually prevents others from taking the place which is really theirs. What element in the true policy of life does this man lack, or what element does he possess which makes his life a failure ? Remembering, further, that each life among all lives has its part, that this part is a unique one, and that the player of it must do a particular thing
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY g
in order that it may contribute its share to the whole and be in harmony with all; remembering that any failure on the part of one life affects all, and that life itself is too short in any single case to permit many parts to be assigned to a single life, even if they are fittingly assigned ; remembering that it takes time to fit one's self into one's surroundings, even when the supposition is that one has found one's true place, and that skill also is required in order that the adjustment of each part to other parts may be complete — picture to yourself that other man who in each successive month or year imagines that his work is something different from that which he has been pursuing; who imagines that his neighbor's place is that which he was intended to occupy, and forthwith makes effort to secure that place; who today is here, tomorrow there, moving from one point to another, regardless of the fact that he is one of many and must connect himself with others of his group in order that the work of the group may be successful; who jumps from this path to that, little appreciating that he is perhaps going farther and farther away from the true path; who does not seem to understand that he is mingling and confounding that which, though complicated, was definite and distinct; who finds himself, when he stops to consider the situation, moving in a circle, and not in a direction which would have indicated progress; who is ready at any time and under any circum-
stances to change or modify his course, moved as he is by any wind that blows. What element in the true policy of life does this man lack, or what element does he possess, which makes his life a failure ? I have used general terms because I did not wish to specify any one of the many realms of life's activity. One's policy will probably be the same, whether in business, political, or religious life. For the sake of this general application, I may be allowed to use general terms with which to designate these elements in the policy of life. In one of the cases described there was a fixity and rigidity, a selfsatisfaction and unwillingness to put forth effort, a lack of flexibility. Here belong one-half of life's failures, the occasion of the failure being an unwarranted certainty that what one has is all that is worth having; that what one knows is the whole truth; that what one does is the right thing to do; a certainty based upon lack of sufficient evidence; a certainty involving immense risk to everyone possessed by it. The dangers of certainty are many and serious. The feeling of certainty begets a contentment which dwarfs and stunts the life and soul of man; an indifference to truth which condemns before its utterance every new form of statement, every new phase of conception; a fixity of thought which soon comes to be obstinacy and prejudice; a lack of sympathy
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY 95 which dries up the heart and starves the intellect; a literalism which shrivels and destroys. This, we must grant, is the most natural and most common tendency of human life. It is from the lethargy growing out of this that we must free ourselves, if the race as a race, or if individuals of it, are to accomplish the great mission of the Almighty. The
results of this tendency have presented themselves to every thinking man or woman. The disposition to shut one's eyes to the facts about him, to accept without sufficient evidence that which is presented, to fail to hold these things subject to verification, is, alas, too common a characteristic even of the leaders of our times. God forbid that I should say anything which would seem to be harsh! But when I see on every side of me the monuments of the past revered as if they had been handed down by God himself, actually erected into gods for worship, treated with a reverence and a holy fear worthy of something higher and better, my heart sinks within me at the proneness of men's minds to stand still — a tendency as great as is the proneness of the sparks to fly upward. But the element of uncertainty in life is even more mischievous. Its presence leads to a shallowness painful in its weakness; to an inability to grasp truth even in the simplest form; to a flitting hither and yon without purpose and without result; to a dangerous radicalism, because of the lack of strength
96 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE to resist that which is plausible, though false; to an ignoring of the lessons of the past and a blindness to the real possibilities of the future; to a failure to appreciate the existence of great and fundamental principles in accordance with which life and all that goes to make up life shall be regulated. The lack of honest convictions on important questions is a source of uneasiness and disquiet. It must lead to abject dependence upon others and an utter abolition of that feeling of independence which should be the characteristic of every man. What more pitiable spectacle than that of a man who never knows what he himself thinks; whose life is one of credulity and skepticism, of inconsistency and unfaithfulness? Here belong the other half of life's failures, their occasion being an utter uncertainty as to what one should think or should do, or should be; instability of character, for which no better symbol can be found than that applied by Jacob of old to Reuben — "unstable as water." In one's contact with men he finds many possessed of high qualities and great ability whose lack of stability makes a life, that
would otherwise be most successful, an utter failure. The absence of a continuity of purpose, the inability to adhere to a plan of action, counterbalance all else and condemn them to darkness and despair, provided they have a disposition serious enough to lead them to understand their condition. It is one's business, and I think I may say one's chief business in
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY 97 life, to succeed; to avoid the probability, and indeed the possibility, of failure. The work which we do in school and college and university is intended to reduce the chances of failure, or, if you please, to increase the chances of success. It is not impossible, of course, for a college man to fail. If, however, he has been able to read aright the commission which has been given him by nature — and nature, that is God, has given a commission to every man before his birth — he will have attained ideals which will enable him to understand this complicated system in which he has been placed and to overcome the perplexities of the situation. The ideals of a university man in his efforts to advance himself, and in his attitude toward those about him, should be the highest. He must steer clear of the dangers of certainty as well as those of uncertainty ; and he of all men knows that the world is making progress, and that the best life is that which is lived in its own times rather than in those of a past generation. There must be strong conviction, and sturdy adherence to a well-founded opinion, if anything is to be accomplished. How, now, shall he adjust himself to these two elements, each of which contains some truth; either of which, as has been said, when exaggerated brings disaster? He should first of all repudiate mere partisanship. He must be an independent, whether in matters of religion of or politics. He must not be a sectarian in
98 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE religion, a party politician in politics. Such adherence to political or religious creed of the past, because of historical or local influence, cannot be justified.
This does not mean that he shall not work in connection with that religious denomination or with that political party which seems to him, upon the whole, best adapted to his needs and necessities, as well as to his conceptions of truth. But the religious denomination or the political party will be the means employed by him to serve God and his country, not the end of that service. He will put aside the preconceptions of the local atmosphere which he has breathed, and endeavor to reach for something higher. But he will not, if his training has been scientific, throw away what he has obtained before securing something which shall serve as its substitute. He will above all things go beneath the surface and aim to understand the foundations of things; for he will soon learn that it is only upon strongly built foundations that later work of substantial character can be established; or, to change the figure, that, if his roots grow deep down into the soil the tree will grow above and beyond the narrow limitations which otherwise might have been set, and that the tree with roots reaching far down is the tree which stands firm and is less disturbed by the storm. He will live and think and act in accordance with principle rather than according to rule. And here, after all, lies the great difference between the
CERTAI TY A D U CERTAI TY 99 strong life and the weak. There are laws and principles which govern our lives, and the life that disregards these suffers. The petty rules and regulations of one class or another signify nothing, accomplish nothing. They are of use only, if at all, for training where the mind is not yet developed, or is always to be weakDo you think that I have not had in mind in these few words the religious life and its influence, and the contribution which religion makes to this complexity of situation and perplexity of life ? I answer that in my own mind I have thought only of the religious. But it is easier to present religion in the concrete than in the abstract and so, in closing, I present to you the concrete example of one who knew, as no other man has known, the complicated structure of the universe and man's peculiar relation to it ; who experienced, as no other man experienced, the perplexities and bewilderments and wretchedness of this our life upon earth; who steered his way
through the midst of all the dangers which attend the life of one standing firmly for his convictions; who represented to the world new thoughts and new conceptions, and who gained reproach and death because of his lack of adherence to the old; who trampled upon the beliefs of his time, repudiated the teachings of his fathers, introduced the sword of contention among his brethren, climbed high above the narrow and inconsiderate prejudices of his country-
ioo RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE men, reached far down beneath the surface to discover and to proclaim principles, the adoption of which should shake to their very foundations the institutions of the world. Who was this man? Jesus Christ — the ideal of a humanity into which divinity had been breathed ; in whom the complexity of life is lost, unity and simplicity taking the place of it ; in whom the perplexities of life find their solution. Do we know this man Christ Jesus ? For not to know him is not to know the true philosophy of history, and to be ignorant of the very purpose of our existence. We, who have gathered here this afternoon, are students. Let us see to it that we remain students. And may I suggest, what surely has been suggested many times before, that one subject of our study during what is left us of life, indeed the subject, shall be this perfect exemplification of the life and character of an educated man; and that the purpose of our study, as well as the purpose of our lives, shall be not to treat as known that which is uncertain, and not to hesitate in respect to that which is certain.
VIII OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES We are all interested in the progress and growth of the principles of Christianity. There may be differences among us in respect to the application of some of these principles ; but in reference to their substance, and in reference to the importance of promulgating them, we are agreed. We are all likewise interested in the work of higher education.
As instructors and students, as parents and friends, we are closely connected with a great cause — one only less important than that of Christianity itself, a cause which, indeed, may not be separated from the highest life and teaching of Christianity. But we have noticed that at times, and in the case of certain individuals, perhaps even in ourselves, there has arisen what may have seemed to be a conflict between these two interests — the religious and the intellectual life. At times in the history of the church, men have reached conclusions in their investigation of great themes which have been adjudged irreconcilable with the creeds of the church, and these men have been made to suffer, even death. At certain periods in the history of some of our denominations, the IOI
ioz RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE people as a whole have been afraid of higher learning and have frowned upon it. And the day of this evil is not yet entirely past. But what I wish to speak of here are certain difficulties into which those who are engaged in higher studies sometimes fall. They are especially the difficulties of university men and women, although many outside of the university circle have to struggle with them; for is it not true that men who think, whether in or out of the university, belong to one great family ? The first one is the disposition to doubt, a disposition which characterizes most men, whatever may have been one's Christian experience, or even if one has had no such experience. The time when we first began to see things from the new point of view may have been very definite — so definite that we can remember the hour and place when our thoughts were turned, and our lives began to be different; or the experience of change may have been so gradual as to be almost imperceptible; or we may still be looking forward to that time ; but in every case there have been difficulties, and there are doubts. I use the word broadly.
This Christian life is a strange thing; with some of us it is comparatively easy and bright ; with others gloomy and hard. We pass through what is utterly incomprehensible; we grow uneasy; it is so dark at times that we seem almost to have lost the light;
OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 103 but the experience of those unfortunate ones who never have had even a faint glimpse of this light which lighteth the world must be darker and more wretched still. But these intellectual difficulties are certain to exist. o man who really thinks can escape them. It has sometimes seemed to me that to think and to doubt were synonymous. Certain it is that in proportion as a man thinks, in that same proportion questions arise the answers to which are often hard for him to discover. And since it is the chief business of the student to think, he need not be surprised if doubts crowd in upon him thick and fast. If one's reading does not lead him to think and to ask the wherefore of things, the why this is true, if it be true, and the why this is false, though always believed to be true — it would be better for him not to read. If one's reading has taught him to think about the classics, and about art, about science, and about history, and has not also led him to think (and I mean by the word "think" the asking of questions, the testing over again of truth supposed already to have been tested, the interposing of a doubt as to this or that thing not yet based on sufficient evidence) — if, I say, one's reading has not led him to think about the great questions which are connected with our religion and our faith, that reading or study has been in part a failure. You must not misunderstand me when I say that unless your intellectual work
104 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE has taught you to doubt, at least to an extent which will compel you in self-defense to make inquiries
the result of which will be the furnishing you a basis on which to rest an intelligent faith, that intellectual work has not yet gone far enough. Although you will meet difficulties, if you think, do not, I beg of you, stop thinking because you are afraid of difficulties. They are certain to exist. In the great majority of cases, these difficulties are independent of a true profession of Christianity. Thus you are not to suppose that because of their existence you cannot become a Christian, or that, having become a Christian, they will cease to exist. They exist before, during, and after the change of heart. Your faith in the essential verities of Christianity is largely independent of them. Let us suppose that you and I are Christians. Certain difficulties of belief arise — the same difficulties for both of us. You will probably settle yours, if at all, by one method, and I mine by another; the result will be one thing in your case, and quite a different thing in mine. We are, however, both satisfied. I may think that you are wrong, and you may think that I am wrong, as to this specific point; but our faith is the same. And so, all about us, Christian men are settling their difficulties of belief in many different ways; and, notwithstanding these differences, faith remains unaffected. or is this all. These intellectual difficulties
OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 105 may continue to exist without being settled in any way, and still one's faith may remain unaffected. Faith in Jesus Christ and in the living principles of Christianity is not bound up or in any vital way connected with the outside intellectual difficulties which are all the while presenting themselves to us. You have your difficulties; some one else has other difficulties. The result should not and need not affect one's active Christian life. But suppose that you are not a Christian; are you waiting until all difficulties have disappeared ? If so, you will wait until the end of life. If some good friend labors with you until he has persuaded you that these difficulties have been removed, and begs you now to accept the Christ, he is deceiving you; it is not so. Do not allow yourself to be thus
deluded. Many of these perplexities will continue; but if your faith is real and simple, they will gradually become less and less significant, until by falling into their proper places they will leave you undisturbed. Be sure, thus, of this: if you wait until you are argued out of these doubts, you will wait long and hopelessly. And now, as to the solution of these difficulties. I insist that they are independent of our Christian life and activity; that we may be good Christians, and may rest in peace of soul, without having settled them. But do not think that therefore I advise you to let them go unsettled. That would be to
io6 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE stop thinking; and to do that you must cease to be a student. You cannot pursue any line of investigation without coming into contact with Bible thought. If you are an honest thinker, you will be compelled to make an effort to reach definite conclusions. or must we leave the resolving of these questions to the men who deny the existence of a God. They are not to be left to be decided by the rationalistic skeptic. It is the province of the thinking Christian to discuss, and in due time to settle, them. And so, my friends, although these questions are separate from a simple faith, it is your business to grapple with them and to settle them, in so far as they can be settled through honest thought and work. But in all such work it is to be remembered that first comes the effort to cultivate a Christian life, and that the difficulties stand second. Just here someone may raise an important consideration. "How," he asks — and I understand him to ask it honestly — " How can I profess to accept that about which I have doubt ? A Christian life is inseparably connected with a full acceptance of Christian doctrines. If I cannot accept the doctrines, how can I lead, or profess to lead, the life ? " I answer : I know that life and conduct are affected by opinion; but I know also that the doctrines necessary to be accepted by him who would lead a true life, are not many, nor abstruse. I remember that
OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 107 the men and women of our Lord's times who accepted him, and in him found rest and peace, were not loaded down with theological systems; and, still further, that their theological beliefs, so far as they held such beliefs, were made up largely of the ephemeral notions and ideas of their day. The sum and substance of the Christian faith is found in two words, "Follow me." The belief in this or that thing may be important; it is not essential. The simpler one's faith, and the more childlike, the more helpful and satisfying it will prove to be. Again, therefore, I urge you, do not hold back because this or that thing is not clear, because this or that thing cannot be accepted. Do not be all intellect; allow yourself to be moved, at least to some extent, by your heart. But I have drifted somewhat away from the question of the solution of these difficulties. Let me tell you, out of my own experience, that during several years before personally accepting the Christian faith I studied the Bible earnestly and carefully for the purpose of discovering that which would enable me to convince others that it was only an ordinary book, and very ordinary at that. I could not, if I would, here tell you of the work of those years — years spent in finding, not in settling difficulties. The work was. of course, superficial, and my point of view altogether wrong; but those difficulties were still there, when, after a while, I began
108 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE to see some faint rays of coming light. And as the light grew brighter the difficulties did not diminish in number or in character. I desired to be a Christian, but no man told me what I now know, and what I beg you to hear from me, that I could first become a Christian and settle the difficulties later. I went forward; yet the difficulties remained. What could I do with them? Only one thing: take up again the study of the Bible, this time going deep, and working from a different point of view; and it was not long until I discovered two things: that the
difficulties were in some cases altogether imaginary; and that from the new point of view, and with the more scientific study, principles could be found which, if followed out, gave to the whole case a different aspect. This, then, was my experience ; and among others I have found that perplexity is due almost always either to ignorance of the representations of the Bible or to a misunderstanding of its contents. The man who will study it honestly and fearlessly, regardless of the mass of rubbish which tradition has gathered about it, but, at the same time, with a spirit of true reverence, will find his imaginary difficulties vanishing one by one; he will find his real difficulties assuming a new and more manageable shape. He will find great and fundamental principles, of the truth of which he will be so confident that his feet will seem to be standing on a rock, which doubt cannot shake.
OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 109 Do you believe the Bible, asks someone, because of what is in it, or do you believe what is in it because it is in the Bible ? How should one answer these questions ? I would answer yes to both questions. When I compare the early chapters of Genesis with the similar stories in other literatures, and note the spirit and purpose of one in contrast with the spirit and purpose of the other; when I compare the history and psalms of the Old Testament with the history and psalms of the old Assyrians ; when I study the story of the life of Christ, a story beside which no other story may be placed; when I see what the Bible has done for humanity and what it is today doing — I can say most strongly, I believe the Bible because I find it to be a collection of books that have stood the test of time. But let me turn it around. I believe also what is in the Bible because it is there. To be sure, I reserve the right for myself to decide that one book of the collection has more of religious truth in it than another. Who, for example, would deny that the ninetieth psalm was not more helpful than the first chapter of Chronicles? I reserve the right also to decide whether this or that book is really
to be taken as one of the collection. Luther exercised this privilege. Why should I not enjoy it also ? I reserve the right, still further, to decide for myself in what way I shall interpret this passage or that. When I read:
no RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER L[FE "The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs," I am at liberty to believe that it is poetry and not to be taken literally. So likewise when I read, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon! And the sun stood still and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies," and see that it is poetry, as it is shown to be in the Revised Version, and that it is obviously quoted from that ancient collection of poetical pieces, the book of Jasher, I understand that I may believe the Bible, without believing at the same time that the sun and moon stood still. Thus I find upon investigation that if it be properly interpreted, what the Bible says is true; I could, therefore, easily believe that the things which are in it are true because they are there. But I do not wonder sometimes that some of our students and investigators have thrown the Bible aside. Here is the situation : In childhood they were taught ideas concerning the Bible which were in keeping with their ability to comprehend the subject. As the years passed, the childish conceptions relating to other subjects were displaced by more mature conceptions ; the child grew to be a man. As a man, however, he is unable to accept the teachings given him when a child. And, meanwhile, he has not been given other, better, and more mature instruc-
OUR I TELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 1 1 1 tion. The old is gone; there is no new to take its place. This is the explanation of a large part of the
skepticism in the world; and the responsibility for it rests upon those who have given direction to the curriculum of instruction. But I have only talked about difficulties in general. This is not the time to discuss questions of miracles, or the question of inspiration, or the question of the incarnation, or any of those subjects which are ordinarily supposed to cause us most perplexity. I have limited myself to talking about the question as a whole, and all that I have said may be summed up in very few words: i. Have your difficulties; go on having them; suspect that something is radically wrong when you cease to have them. 2. You who have not yet accepted as your friend and guide the Christ who lived and died for all men, do not wait for a time when these difficulties will grow less. Until you take this step, you may hope for nothing. That step taken, all the rest, in time, will follow. 3. You who have cast your lot with the church, remember that these difficulties need not, must not, interfere with your Christian work and life. It is a mistake to suppose, as many do, that when difficulties begin to arise, and faith to grow weak, you should forsake communion with God and association with his people until your faith grows strong again.
ii2 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE This, of all times, is when you need such help as only prayer and Christian activity can furnish. For relief from difficulties of every kind, whether of life or thought; for a help which may always be obtained; for a rock on which firm standing-ground may be gained — go to the Bible; not as to some talisman possessed of magic power, but as to a book containing story after story which tells of God's dealings with man; to a book containing precept upon precept, richer in truth than any other of the world's possessions — a book which will guide your thought unfailingly to the only source of wisdom, to the source of all wisdom — to God.
IX THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE A EPITOME OF LIFE Everything repeats itself. The experience of today is only that which happened yesterday; and our experience of yesterday was much the same as that of men who lived six or seven thousand years ago. The child before birth repeats every stage of that long ascent from the lowest life to the highest which culminates in man. The child after birth repeats every stage of that long process by which primitive man has become civilized man. The college life, with its temptations and struggles, with its successes and failures, with its ambitions and despairs, is an epitome of that larger life which men are said to live when they go out into the world. The fact is, of course, that when one enters college, he enters the world, and life in the world is only the repetition over and over again of the life lived in college. If men and women could only be made to see this when they first enter college, how different would be for most of them their college life. But now the question presents itself to those of us who are soon to leave the University precincts, and take up work in another and different atmosphere : What have we come in contact with here "3
ii 4 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE in this environment that will be repeated in the new situation? What is it that we have had which we shall experience again many times in later life ? If I mistake not, one of the most striking things in the life of the great majority of students is the nature of the difficulties with which they are called upon to contend. These difficulties vary in number and in character as they do in life itself. Some have had to fight against poverty. And to one engaged in this battle the obstacles which confront him seem at times insurmountable. To go through college under these circumstances is to
be deprived of even the most reasonable recreations ; to separate oneself from others, for lack of means to share the necessary expense of even a simple social life; to sacrifice the very necessities of living; to submit to what, under other circumstances, would be constant humiliation. Yet this struggle is undergone by a larger proportion of our numbers than is ordinarily supposed; and in many instances the struggle is more severe than the facts, as seen by those on the outside, would seem to indicate. The result of the struggle with poverty usually is either discipline of the highest character or death; not infrequently both. With others the obstacle which stands in the path of progress is ill-health. Strangely enough, the author of existence has not always seen fit to adapt the body of man to the vigor of his mind; and so,
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 115 many of us suffer in long- continued agony because the body will not fulfil the mandates of the brain; because we see as if within our very grasp possibilities of life and living which, after all, are as far from realization as heaven is from earth. This constant failure to attain what in all reason might have been expected disheartens us. The struggle is indeed maddening; the sense of disappointment, keen and ever-present. And often both these things — a lack of means and a lack of health — are coincident. In such a coincidence the case would seem to be hopeless; and yet even this combination the human will is sometimes strong to combat and conquer. But great and varied and numerous in college life as are those difficulties which have their origin in lack of means and in ill-health, and sad and pathetic as is the result of the struggle in many cases to overcome them, there are other conditions which give rise to difficulties greater and more numerous, with results sadder and more pathetic. There are sometimes found within the university circles those to whom nature refused to give a strong, vigorous mental equipment; those who are styled, in common conversation, slow and dull. Conscious of the fact that nature has thus despoiled them;
realizing that every forward step costs them twice, or even ten times, the effort required of others about them; knowing that, at the best, only a mediocre
1 16 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE attainment is possible, these souls plod on and on day after day. In these cases the difficulties of progress are magnified tenfold, since for them every hill is a mountain. To feel during each moment of existence that for oneself only this little thing is possible, while for that other nothing is quite impossible, is to have one's life, whatever kind it be, enveloped in a cloud of darkness the density of which will be appreciated only by those who, once swallowed up in it, have passed beyond into an atmosphere of comparative clearness and rarity. It is here that strength of will is developed — the determination to do or die. Many, to be sure, give up the struggle in an early stage; many others fight as with death itself, and in the end triumphantly win the battle. I wish, however, to mention still another source of difficulty which confronts men and women in the college life. I have referred to lack of means, to lack of physical endowment, and to lack of intellectual equipment ; I have in mind now lack of strong moral purpose, or, more briefly, lack of character. I may not here consider how this deficiency has arisen — whether by heredity, or from the sin of early youth long since put aside, or from an evil habit still practiced. or do I wish to refer to those men and women who are sunk so low in depravity that they are unconscious of being in depravity, or who, being conscious, justify themselves. I am thinking rather
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 117 of that one whose ambition is to be good and to do good, who knows what good is, and who really seeks it; but who is nevertheless morally weak; who cannot withstand temptation; who, now and again, in spite of honest effort, in spite of the influences with which friends seek to surround him, falls; and who, when he has fallen, is conscious of his degradation.
This man or woman may or may not have ample means for the prosecution of his work, he may or may not have the blessing of a good physical constitution, he may be brilliant or he may be dull; at all events, he lacks moral purpose, his conduct is not guided by moral principle, and he knows what his lack is. For this man, just in proportion to the degree of his consciousness of his shortcoming, life is a torture. A merciful providence has decreed that in most instances in which there is moral defect there is a lack of consciousness of the defect. But this is not always the case. The struggle of a soul tending thus to fall, and apparently too weak to resist the impulse, is a struggle far more pathetic than any to which reference has thus far been made. When the downfall is one which takes on outward significance and is apparent to all eyes, the man soon leaves college; but often this lack of character does not assume an objective form; it may manifest itself in secret sin, and so the man goes on and on, now rising superior to it, now again falling. The details of such a contest are known only to himself
n8 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE and God ; except when, by the keenness of his suffering, he is impelled to lay bare to some friend the secrets of his life and heart. It has been my privilege to hear the confession of many a soul thus burdened and to see the pressure relieved in part by such confession. If, then, the story which we hear almost every day of some worthy student's lack of food is sad; if the picture of disease, and sometimes of death itself, seen on the face of one striving for intellectual advancement, is still more sad; if the desperate determination, hopeless yet full of confidence, of those whom nature has, as it were, branded with a mark that tells of something lacking which neither money, nor love, nor work may supply — this dogged determination to fight at all hazards and at every cost — is pathetic; how much more sad and pathetic, indeed how truly pitiful, is the struggle of the man who has been denied the strength to maintain himself in the path in which he knows he ought to walk — the path of moral rectitude? These difficulties I mention are, however, not the
only ones that you have encountered in college and university life. Some of you have had too large an allowance of money. Some of you have found the very vigor and physical strength with which nature endowed you a source of trouble and difficulty. In many cases it is brilliancy of intellect that proves a man's ruin; and sometimes it is the effort to be conscientious that brings the most bitter sorrow.
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 119 These, I repeat, are not the only difficulties to be met with in college life ; but they are the chief ones and are typical. ot all of you have had to contend with these difficulties; but there are few men or women who leave the university without having fought some of them. And these are precisely the difficulties you will continue to encounter in the days to come. Your weakness or defect, whether material or physical, whether intellectual or moral, is certain to disturb you in the future. You have been poor in this world's goods today; the chances are that this poverty will be your constant companion. If you are to practice law, you must face the fact, apparent on all sides, that the average lawyer is scarcely able to support himself. If it is the ministry, you are told that the average salary of a minister in the state of Illinois is less than five hundred dollars a year. Are you to be a physician ? Then the number of young physicians who actually starve while they are waiting for a practice to grow up is appalling. Is business your choice ? More than 90 per cent, of all business undertakings fail. Is it the teaching profession ? Listen to the cry which goes up every day from the hearts of the teachers of Chicago for an increase of remuneration — a cry entirely justified; and yet Chicago teachers are among those who receive the highest salaries paid in the profession. Whatever the field of work, then, which you may decide to enter, the gaunt specter of poverty will
izo RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE pursue you. The experiences of one period of life are but repeated in another. I would have you remember, however, that the experiences of your college life have prepared you to meet these very
conditions. It is well that your mind has been broadened, that your taste has been cultivated, and that your capacity for enjoyment has been increased. It is also true that in college you must have learned some self-denial and self-sacrifice; you have been disciplined to some self-restraint; you may have acquired entire control of self. You are an example of the law of the survival of the fittest. Many once among you, weakened by their terrible discipline, have fallen by the way; you have been strengthened, and with the strength and courage growing out of many victories you will be able to take your place in the world and maintain yourselves, when otherwise you would have failed. You will find the same difficulties in the outside world that you found here; but you will not find the same helpful shelter that has been afforded you in the college environment. To be sure, you no longer need this, for you have acquired a strength of your own, on which you must henceforth rely. This same principle holds good, as well, for those in the college who have been battling other difficulties, and who, as is indicated by the honorable completion of the college life, have in a measure
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 121 triumphed over them. If you have reached this stage of life, and have not yielded to a dread disease, nor been discouraged and deterred by lack of brilliant endowment, nor discomfited in your struggle with evil habit or weak moral purpose, you enter upon the next stage of life with a capital of strength which, if not drawn upon too unguardedly, will continue to grow, and with the gradual accumulations of interest, will soon become a permanent insurance against failure. This means success; for success simply consists in always maintaining a reserve, whether of money, or intellect, or spiritual power; and in allowing that reserve to increase. Every man who finishes rightfully the college or university course is a man who has saved more of his income than he has spent, and with this balance to credit he goes on practically as before. The difference is that he has a balance to credit. If you have no balance to credit, you are slipping through college without the right to
do so. Your future will be determined by the amount of this balance to credit; because this balance represents the foundation on the basis of which you are to work; it is the capital which you are to keep invested; it indicates the measure of the discipline which you have secured. It may be capital in money, in physical strength, in intellectual power, or in moral force. It may include some of all. But however large or small it is, and
122 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE whether of one kind or another, husband it, and with it go on fighting as you have been fighting. In your college and university life you have found many restrictions. Even in those institutions in which the largest liberties are given — and we think that this institution is one of them — there are restrictions, and rules, and regulations. Some of them, doubtless, are unnecessary; some, unquestionably, are only the outgrowth of the mind-wandering of some high or low official. But, after making allowance for all such, there exists a residue of "red tape," of form, of conventionality, which it has been found necessary to observe. There has been a certain routine, unpleasant perhaps in some of its features, which all have been compelled to follow, even though every effort has been made to adapt the details of the institution's policy to the needs of the individual. This kind of thing, however, is what you will find all about you in life when you are outside of the university walls. This is what some persons of a peculiar cast of mind occupy their lives in opposing — I mean, the ordinary conventionalities of life. The man who has never enjoyed college life scarcely knows what it is to breathe an atmosphere comparatively free; for soon or late you will learn that the restraints and restrictions and conventionalities observed during college life are as nothing in comparison with those of professional and business life, and those of life at large.
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 123 It is because college life, even when strictly regulated, partakes so much of what is some-
times called "the Bohemian," the "do as you like" element, that men in after-years invariably look back upon the days spent within the precincts of their alma mater as the happiest of their lives. Constantly, and sometimes very roughly, you will find your head set directly against the high and inexorable wall of some kind of conventionalism. It is unfortunate for the reputation of institutions of higher learning that too large a proportion of those who have enjoyed the privileges of freedom accorded in these institutions have fancied that they might do away with much, if not all, of this necessary conventionalism. These representatives of ours, deploring the fact that they might not live without reference to the happiness and comfort of others, have so ordered their living that the very freedom of the university life has injured them as members of society. In general, of course, the university life has had the other effect. One of its greatest lessons has been aptly described by the Psalmist who, though he never knew of a university in the modern sense, was certainly well informed concerning the purpose of a religious society: "Behold how beautiful and how fair it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." This living together of brother and sister employed in the one work of search for truth, older and younger
124 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE working side by side, each contributing his part to the work as a whole, is a picture of that ideal life in which every man and every woman will work in the spirit of brotherhood. The few occasions when the younger brotherhood in the university finds itself at variance with the older, the few restrictions which here and there are placed by the older brotherhood upon the younger — these will prove to be but survivals of ages long past, and themselves will disappear in that joyous time which will first be realized on earth in the college environment — the time when all men shall see, as they walk shoulder to shoulder, that the restrictions their alma mater put upon them were but part of their preparation for the still greater ones of the life in the larger world. But difficulties and restrictions make up only
one side of the life which you have been living here in the university. There is another side, the elements of which will be found also to repeat themselves in the life outside. I may speak of only two of these. The following statement I hold to be literally true : In the college as in no other circle among humankind do the members show so consistently and so fully a true appreciation of each other's efforts; in no other circle are the members so alert and so magnanimous in their appreciation of the successes of their fellow-members. When one of you has shown special excellence in class-room work, there
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 125 were several ways of having that success noted, of recognizing it, and of proclaiming it to every other member of the brotherhood. Honors and prizes, scholarships and fellowships, are only the expression of appreciation. The same is true in athletic work, though here indeed appreciation goes even too far; and there arises something which too closely resembles hero-worship. or is this appreciation confined to the student ranks. Among the instructors it takes the form of promotion and honors. Still further, this appreciation is by no means limited to official recognition; the largest part, and the part most esteemed, is that which is expressed so frequently in a word spoken privately, or perhaps only in the glance of the eye or the pressure of the hand. This it is that makes life worth living. It is not praise that most men long for, but rather the word or the sign of appreciation ; and sooner or later every man in the university circle who does aught to make him worthy of it receives it. There may be delays growing out of misunderstanding; but in time true worth will be seen and understood for its real value. How is it now in the world outside ? I cannot count myself among those who believe that in general the world fails to judge a man at his true worth. The world, of course, makes great blunders. ot a little of its appreciation is lavished where it does not belong; and there are too many the true estimate of whom comes after long
iz6 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE lapse of time. But, in spite of occasional blunders, the majority of which time corrects, the world in general treats a man according to his deserts. To hold any other view is to adopt the philosophy of pessimism. But the words "in general" are very indefinite. The question is: What may you expect in the way of appreciation? I answer: You will receive it if you deserve it, and if you need it; if you give it to others when it is deserved and needed ; and if you do not indicate that you are reserving to yourself all of it that your nature is capable of expressing. It may be, you will not deserve it. This will certainly be true if you are one of that class of persons who never see in others anything worthy of appreciation; it will be true likewise if you are thought by others to be too appreciative of yourself. It is just here that college training shows its worth; the college-trained man, however successful he may be, never boasts that he is a self-made man. The college training is expected to teach two things: the satisfaction which one feels in being shown appreciation. And this should serve as a constant incentive to exhibit appreciation of the work of our fellows, in the proper form and under suitable circumstances. But college training is supposed also to teach one such a sense of humility as to make undue selfappreciation impossible. In mingling in the world, however, do not allow
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 127 your college experience to lead you to expect this expression of appreciation to an undue degree. Remember that the circle is larger; that the atmosphere is colder; that the contact is not so close; that competition is greater; that the prizes are not so numerous in proportion to the number of contestants ; and that the number of fellowships is small absolutely. Remember, too, that the course is longer than that of three or four years, being sometimes thirty or forty, or even fifty; that it is for the most part in a single department ; and that the honor, the mark of appreciation, may come only at the end.
And though all these things must be kept in mind, we may nevertheless be assured that true work and true worth will sooner or later be recognized at its market value. More than this we cannot ask; for in the exchange of life artificial values do not long maintain themselves. There is one thing now about which I desire to say a word. Whatever else your college life has been to you, whatever else you have found in it, one thing has stood out more prominently than any other. In this thing, poverty has been forgotten; by it, physical and intellectual weaknesses have been corrected; and through it moral purpose has been incited. In connection with this, there has been no restraint, no restriction. It was this thing which itself, more than all else, has developed in your hearts the spirit of appreciation. There is
iz8 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE no word in the English language which serves in so true a sense as a synonym of college or university, not even the well-worn word " discipline," or the still more common word "education." That for which college and university stands above all other things is opportunity. A college life is opportunity — opportunity to grow with the smallest possible number of obstacles to growth. This is true even for those of you who have had to encounter the largest number of obstacles. You could have found no other place so free from obstacles. College life is opportunity — opportunity to free oneself from the bonds of ignorance; bonds which seem almost hopelessly fastened upon us; bonds which many of us, indeed all and the very best of us, are able to remove only in part. College life is opportunity — opportunity to discover what the great God has placed within us in the way of mind and heart ; a discovery essential to life itself, and yet one which so many fail to make; and the consequence of their failure is something worse than death. College life is opportunity — opportunity to see the world of the past and of the present, and from this sight to learn how best one may enter it, and become a part of it in the future; opportunity to note the mistakes of men and the blunders of
nations, and to profit thereby; opportunity to learn the laws of God, which are the laws of life. But however true all this is of the college and
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 129 university, it is just as true of the life that comes after the university. All life is opportunity. What you have found in college you will find now in the life that follows. The opportunity may, to be sure, have lost something of its freshness; it may no longer seem so attractive; realism may have taken the place of the idealism of early youth. Yet the opportunity still remains. The world is organized upon a single principle, viz., to furnish opportunity for effort. There have been moments in our lives when we have thought ourselves to be standing, as it were, before a high and immovable wall; but after a time the wall apparently vanished, and we have been able to look far and wide, and indeed to roam almost at will in the fields beyond. There have been times in our national history when darkness seemed to have settled down upon us, so dense as to render fatal every effort to act; but in each instance the darkness has passed away, and the sunshine afterward has been all the brighter because of the darkness which preceded it. There have been periods in the world's history when seemingly everything was at a standstill; when progress of every kind was arrested; when individual and nation, so far as man could see, were impotent ; but such periods have always proved to be the precursors of reform, or revolution, and are now regarded as most important periods in the
130 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE world's progress — the periods, indeed, of highest opportunity. The life of individual, of nation, of race, has no moment in which opportunity is denied it. Life
and opportunity are synonymous; it is only in death that opportunity ceases; and perhaps death itself, if rightly interpreted, is the greatest opportunity of all. Do not, then, be over anxious. The opportunity which you have already found will continue yours. And there never was a period in human history when opportunity was greater or more glorious than it is today. My friends, let me repeat what I said in the beginning: You will find in the next period of your lives just what you have found in this which is closing — difficulties and restrictions without question, but also appreciation of true worth, and opportunity to live and grow. If this be true, it behooves us to battle on against the difficulties; to make all proper and consistent effort to meet the demands made upon us as members of society; to cultivate a true appreciation of all that is high and good and noble; and to regard every movement in life as an opportunity to be employed for that which heaven will regard as something holy. When the next great change in life shall come, and we stand on the other side, we shall find, if our great teachers have correctly informed us, no diffi-
THE COLLEGE EXPERIE CE 131 culties and no restrictions. Every act will be worthy and noble and deserving of approval; and every moment of every life will be an opportunity supreme. May the God who has us in his keeping grant that we may prepare ourselves for this life beyond by living, as we may live it, the life that is still ours.
X RELIGIOUS BELIEF AMO G COLLEGE STUDE TS It would be curious, and something very sad, if the institutions founded by our fathers as training schools for Christian service should come to be
centers of influence destructive to that same Christianity. The first purpose of the college was the defense of Christianity, together with the education of men to foster its interests. o one will deny that this purpose has been most effectively realized during the past two centuries of church and college history. But what is the situation today ? Is it true that there has been a remarkable decrease in the actual teaching of Christian truth, while a large and growing emphasis has been placed upon the teaching of branches altogether devoid of religious character ? Yes. Is it true that of the students who enter college only a meager few look forward to Christian service of any kind, the larger number having, as a matter of fact, but the slightest possible interest in religious matters? Yes. Is it also true that many college men who might otherwise enter the ministry turn aside to teaching, or to business, or perhaps to some other line of work because of the 132
RELIGIOUS BELIEF I COLLEGE 133 influence of the purely technical instruction given in the colleges? Yes. Is it certainly a fact that many men and women who entered college as Christian workers in their home churches take little or no active part in church life after they have completed their college work? Yes. If, now, all this is true, or even half of it, one need not be surprised to find the feeling frequently expressed throughout the religious world that college education is tending to decrease Christian faith, and that institutions founded and conducted for distinctly Christian ends are, in fact, educating their students away from the church; in a word, that religious skepticism is increasing in our colleges. Is this conclusion to be accepted? The answer now is: Yes and no. It seems certain that two tendencies are constantly discernible. The first is that many men and women in their college life grow careless about religious matters, and in some cases actually give up, or think that they give up, Christianity. This class
of persons will, of course, include those who before they entered college either had no interest in religion or were hostile to it. There has been a peculiar and a fatal lack of proper religious instruction for the young during the past twenty years, and we are just beginning to feel its terrible effects. But there belong also here the cases of those who in the course of their college studies are led to
i 3 4 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE question the truth of the teaching received in early years from teacher, parent, and even pastor. This teaching, however true or false, was accepted on the basis of authority. The scientific attitude of mind cultivated in most colleges as well as universities distinctly opposes the acceptance of truth on the basis of another person's authority. The college student passes through an evolution both intellectual and moral. He is taught to question everything. He is brought into contact with men who are investigating problems in every department of thought — problems supposed by the rank and file of humanity to be settled, or else of the very existence of which the ordinary man is quite ignorant. This same questioning attitude must inevitably include matters of religion. Difficulties are certain to arise, and unless during this period the young man or woman is brought under proper and appreciative influences, and the right kind of assistance is given, skepticism is liable to pass over into infidelity. The question of miracles, which to many minds presents no difficulty, to the young man or woman under the influence of scientific study becomes a matter of very serious importance. Unless such students are helped to see the true relation of the biblical narratives to Christianity, it is almost an invariable rule that they pass through a period of great religious depression and uncertainty which in some cases results either in a religious
RELIGIOUS BELIEF I COLLEGE 135 indifference or in a half-cynical contempt for the teaching of the church.
Then, again, experience shows that besides the college students who do give up entirely their faith in God — and there are very few of these — there is an increasing number of those who with more or less good judgment are training themselves to discriminate between what they regard as the essential and the unessential elements of religion. The effect of the college environment is to produce this habit of mind. or is it difficult to see why it should. Education that does not help a man thus to discriminate is a poor education. Yet in this separating of the two elements of religious faith, the college student is almost certain to include among those elements which he judges to be unessential, matters which many persons deem essential. From the point of view, therefore, of such persons, these college men are infidels. But, after all, such a charge is in most cases too sweeping. That ebullition of omniscience which at some time in their career marks all college students hardly demands so severe a term. The influence of scientific study is, therefore, on the whole not unsettling, but constructive. If men believe fewer things, they believe fundamental things more intensely. If they question, it is for the sake of finding true answers, and, finding these answers, they go on to even larger truths.
136 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE Thus we are led to the second answer which we must give the question. Does college education lead men into infidelity? o. If we mean to define infidelity as a general distrust of the existence of a divine being, a downright denial of immortality and of the truth of the gospel, and a refusal to bring one's life under the teaching of Jesus, I maintain that infidelity, so far from increasing, is rapidly decreasing. A comparison of the religious condition of the older colleges today with that of the same institutions fifty years ago will show indubitably that there is in them today a far more sturdy belief in the fundamentals of the Christian religion. Further than this, there is to be found today religious interest in our colleges which is absolutely unparalleled. It is not only that Young Men's and
Young Women's Christian Associations are more prosperous and more influential than ever before, but the colleges themselves are awakening to their responsibility for the religious life of their students. Everywhere we see the establishment of chairs for biblical instruction; the formation of Bible departments; the institution of preacherships especially adapted to the needs of the college mind; the outgoing of the earnest life of the students in college settlements; great conventions of college men and women under the direction of religious leaders. The college student who grows up among these influences is already making himself felt. From
RELIGIOUS BELIEF I COLLEGE 137 all quarters come reports of the awakening of religious earnestness because of the energy and broad vision of educators and students. And the Religious Education Association, which has just begun its work under such auspicious circumstances, would ten years ago have been impossible. It is unquestionable that the life of students today is more natural, more wholesome, more pure than in any previous period in the history of education. This fact speaks volumes. Infidelity, let us thank God, so far from increasing in the colleges, is being conquered there. In some particulars the Christian faith is passing through a transitional period, but it is not being destroyed. Possibly it is growing less ecclesiastical, but certainly it is growing more practical. Just as the modern conception of education is growing unscholastic, and is emphasizing life rather than information, so the religion of the educated man is becoming less based upon theological philosophy, more based upon demonstrable truths, more determined to find expression in better social conditions and larger social sympathies. It would be a most disastrous situation if the case were otherwise. To separate the educated man from the religious man would mean infinite loss to the world. Our colleges may be less determined to support some peculiar view of God and theology, but they are producing men and women who are not content to live in a universe
138 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE in which there is no God. If education tends to lead college students to adopt the shorter form of every creed, it is teaching them at the same time that religion is an elemental fact in human life, and that no man can be thoroughly educated who does not know the fear of the Lord. Infidelity has always been, is, and probably always will be, present in the world. The greatest danger to which the church today is exposed, however, is not the infidelity of the college student, or of the educated person, but that of the great mass of men and women who are being estranged from the church because of the unwillingness of Christians to make the love of man co-ordinate with professions of loyalty to a creed. It is too easy to distrust any institution which teaches that one must love a God he has not seen, but which does not lead a man to love his brother whom he has seen. The evils in the situation, then, so far as college students are concerned, may in great measure be avoided. Let me point out three things which the remedy for these evils must include: Better training and more of it in the earlier years. Every academy, college, and preparatory school should have an instructor of broad sympathies and large knowledge whose entire time is devoted to the work of preparing the boys and girls for the changes through which in college life they are to pass; in other words, a biblical chair, to be filled by one who
RELIGIOUS BELIEF I COLLEGE 139 will anticipate the coming struggle, and provide beforehand that which will be of service at the time of the student's crises. But, besides more and a better training, there must be stronger preaching, and a different kind than there has been during the college years. It is absurd to suppose that the same kind of preaching will satisfy, at the same time, the inquiring, anxious, soul-disturbed student, and the self-satisfied, inert, lifeless person of the same age in an ordinary church. or will a single preacher meet the needs of any
considerable number of students. For different temperaments and different points of view there must be preaching of different men and different sympathies. And, finally, there must be specific teaching of a definite character, adapted to individual needs and necessities. This calls for chairs of Bible instruction in every institution. These chairs should be filled by men who rank in scholarly ability with the men who occupy the other chairs in the institution. The religious side of instruction must not be ignored or treated half-heartedly. The best talent is none too good. For are not the interests involved the very highest? Let us not croak, then, about the amount of infidelity now in our colleges. We may well be surprised that it is not even greater than it is, when we take into account the wretched conditions which
i 4 o RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE exist as to the religious education of boys and girls who have not reached the college age. We ourselves, as parents and church members, are largely responsible for such infidelity as does exist in college since, in most cases, we have failed to take even the most, simple measures to prevent it. The college can hardly be expected to repair the mistakes of the home, or the teacher to overcome the indifference or irreligion of the parent.
XI BIBLE STUDY A D THE RELIGIOUS LIFE I have come with the sincere feeling that I have for you a message. I may be unable to express this message in forceful style, but I shall use my utmost endeavor to make it definite. If it does not seem to be new, at least you must agree with me that, since the days of Jesus and the apostles, men have not delivered many messages altogether new. Human effort has, in great measure, been
expended in ascertaining, explaining, and illustrating that old, old message, the truth of which has become more firmly established with each cycle of the years. My message may, then, be imperfectly expressed, and it may be lacking entirely in the new, the strange, or the startling; but I ask permission in advance to assure you of two things: first, that the positions suggested are those which I have tested by my own personal experience — an experience, you will allow me to say, of more than twenty-five years in Bible study and Bible teaching; an experience likewise including contact of the closest kind with young men passing through almost every phase of life; secondly, my purpose in presenting these points is sincere, and honestly meant to be helpful. God 141
142 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE knows how many men in trouble and in misery it has been my lot to meet, and in some small way perhaps to help ; too many, I can vouch to you, to permit me to say a single word that would be other than helpful. The phrase "personal experience" is interchangeable with two other phrases which relate to the individual: "religious experience" and "religious life." We have here, in fact, a specific use of the word "experience," as applied to religious feeling. It is something through which a man goes; something, perhaps, which comes to him — a feeling, an emotion, though always more than this: it is a state of being, a life in which, as Emerson has expressed it, the "individual soul mingles with the universal soul;" or, as it is more commonly put, in which the individual soul comes into sympathetic touch with God. And first I wish to remind you that this religious life or experience may be regarded from two points of view, one largely outward, the other inward. The outward expression of this experience is seen in all that enters into worship. This the Psalmist had in mind when he said: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his Holy ame ! " This is the effort of the soul to express its feeling toward the higher world of supernatural or divine
existence; an effort in some cases so simple and unconventional that it passes almost unnoticed, in
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 143 other cases so elaborate and complex as to bewilder and confound. The various acts of worship, whether of sacrifice, prayer, or praise, symbolize in various forms the inward thought. At times it is the thought that makes effort thus to express itself; at other times the expression leads up to the thought and stimulates it to a higher achievement. As individual temperaments differ from each other, as national characteristics separate great bodies of humankind from one another, so the outward expression of the same thought frequently varies, and men find many different ways of giving expression to the varied religious thoughts which fill their souls. While these outward forms, indicative of the religious life, are all the time undergoing change and modification, it is evident from the history of religious thought that they are carefully to be observed, not merely as we observe the conventionalities of social life, but even more rigidly and more sacredly, because they constitute the agency for the preservation of that long and helpful experience of religious life which has been transmitted to us from the beginnings of human thought. But the religious life finds outward expression in another form — in the system of belief, or the creed. It is important to keep in mind that creeds, as we find them in the various religions, and in the various historical stages of Christianity, are mere outward expressions of the religious life, not the religious life
i 4 4 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE itself. Here, again, we find the same simplicity and the same complexity as in the forms of worship. But no one, in face of the facts confronting us every day, would dare to assert that the religious experience of any man is to be measured by the definiteness or the completeness of his system of theology. Some of the purest and noblest lives ever lived were largely innocent of even the simplest knowledge of creeds or theology. At the same time, it is a fact easily
capable of demonstration that life and character are influenced in the highest degree by the nature of the religious belief. In illustration of this, contrast the ancient belief in the bull as the representative of deity, and the revolting consequences which ensued, with the more modern Puritan conception of God and the sturdy virtue accompanying it. What a childish thing it is, therefore, to raise a hue and cry, as so many do, against creeds ? What man is there that does not have a creed ? His creed is but the outward expression of his inner thought. o doubt in our day less emphasis is placed on the factor of belief than was done in former times. A man's life in civilized countries is no longer dependent upon his theological belief. or is his position in a particular body of the Christian faith so definitely determined as it once was by his special form of creed. This means simply that we live in an age of toleration. But though men's beliefs are not so strongly contested, they are not on this account any the less vigorous.
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 145 Still a third outward form of expression for the religious life is conduct or ethics, for we are told that "pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." The external acts of life — that is, one's conduct in relation to himself and to his fellow-men — constitute perhaps as clear an expression of personal religious life as can be found. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The regular performance of the various acts of worship in a given ceremonial reveals some characteristics of one's religious experience; the sincere acceptance of this or that form of dogmatic creed is also a token ; but much is left to be discovered from a study of the ethical standard of life which a man holds up to himself. And in all these ways you and I tell the world something of that inner experience which we, as Christian men, say we have passed through and are now living. But we must ask ourselves this question: What constitutes this inner life, this spiritual life, this religious experience of which the acts of worship, the formulation of creeds, and the conduct of life are
but the outward expression ? What does it mean to have one's soul in sympathetic touch with God ? What, after all, is actually to be understood as being included in the second phase of our topic, personal or religious experience ? What is the very essence of it? And, it seems to me, no answer to this
146 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE question can be sufficient that does not show the spiritual life to include these three elements : a consciousness of sin, a fellowship with God, and a love for God. The religious experience must invariably include, then, a consciousness of sin. The depth of the experience may most accurately be estimated as in proportion to the keenness of this consciousness. o modern expression of this feeling is more vivid or more pathetic than that of the Psalmist of old: There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation : either is there health in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head: As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness. I am pained and bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with burning; And there is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and sore bruised: I have groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart. -Ps. 38:3-8. When I kept silence, my bones wasted away Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity did I not hide: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah; And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. — Ps. 32:3-5.
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 147 It is hardly worth our while to ask whether this consciousness of sin is to be regarded as the recognition of a high estate once held by man, but long since lost; or as the recognition of the survival of animal conditions out of which in his ascent upward he is gradually but surely being lifted. It is the fact, not the explanation of the fact, which forms a part of the religious experience. Do I feel this awful, this terrible lack, in my own soul ? this falling short of the standard clearly fixed before my eyes ? this tendency to be dragged downward in spite of constant struggle ? this separation by an almost impassable gulf from all that is high and pure and holy? This is the question. And for my part, I can conceive no true religious experience that has not in it some such feeling. It will assume varying forms with different individuals, and even entire nations may exhibit characteristic features in their experience of this feeling; but it will always be present, and with it a corresponding longing for truth and righteousness. The latter is but the complement of the former. One is the negative, the other the positive, side of the same phase of feeling. To be sure, in some individuals the negative may seem to be all that exists, but a closer study will reveal at least the germs of that insatiable longing for truth and righteousness as they are represented in divinity. In every true experience there must likewise be
148 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE found a sense of fellowship with God, together with that realization of divine aid in the struggle of life which has brought comfort and consolation to all who have experienced it; in more common language, trust in God's goodness and mercy. This phase of the religious experience, which, however violent and antagonistic may be the character of the immediate situation, always brings calmness and peace, is in striking contrast with that just described as consciousness of sin. And, again, you will notice that it is just in proportion to the strength of the feeling of divine fellowship that one is conscious of sin. It is the touch received from contact with divinity, the appreciation of the divine character — in other words, the consciousness of God — that brings one to a proper sense of his own utter meanness, his humble lowliness in the sight of his Creator. But the sense of fellowship with God, and trust in his goodness, do not constitute the highest form of the religious experience. This was not all that religious development had achieved even in Old Testament times. There had come to some the experience of love for God— not fear, nor merely reverence, but a love represented to be like that of son for father, or of wife for husband. Do you recall how often the Old Testament prophets tried to picture this idea, at that time so new to all about them ? Was not God a father, and his true followers sons? Are not the latter often described as chil-
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 149 dren that have rebelled, children that "deal corruptly"? and yet again as those whom Jehovah draws with "cords of a man, with bands of love," for "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Was he not also a husband, while the true believers, the church, were represented as the bride, sometimes faithless and adulterous, but after all to be "betrothed to Jehovah forever in righteousness, and in judgment and in loving-kindness, and in mercies and in faithfulness" ? And then the bride would "know Jehovah." The full significance of this word "know" can scarcely be overestimated. Perhaps in these utterances the fuller emphasis
is on the love of God for man, rather than man's love for God; but the latter is always included, and finds ideal expression in the words of another psalmist "I have said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, I have no good beyond thee" (Ps. 16:2). Wherever love for God exists, there is the corresponding feeling of love for one's fellow-man. If the first four commandments of the Decalogue deal with the attitude of man toward God, the remaining six have to do with his attitude toward his fellow-men. Hosea, whose greatest thought is the love of God for man, is no less urgent in his plea for the proper treatment of one's fellow-men than was Amos, who viewed the Deity chiefly as a God of justice. The attitude of Jesus was clearly marked. After all, the greatest
150 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE contribution of the new religion introduced by him was the conception of love instead of fear as manifested toward the Deity, love instead of selfishness as manifested toward one's fellow-men. "But now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (i Cor. 13:13). The religious life, then, although expressed in acts of worship, articles of belief, and standards of conduct, really consists in a consciousness of sin and a longing for truth; in a sense of fellowship with God and trust in his goodness; in a consciousness of love for God as well as for one's fellow-men. The religious life is a spark, more or less brilliant — a spark of the divine life in man. This spark may have gone out ; or it may still be in existence, although it no longer appears to the human eye. It may just be growing warm and bright under the influence of a breath blowing upon it, a divine breath; it may be very bright and brilliant, giving warmth and guidance to all who see it. Or, if we were to use the figure of the seed, the germ, the thought would be the same. The outward expression of this divine element in the human soul may be indeed imperfect. When we recall the history of individuals and of nations; the cases in which even reason itself has been dethroned as a result of the experience; the instances in which immorality of the grossest type has been associated with it; the wars and controversies which are termed religious — the most bitter
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 151 of all history; when we recall the names of men like David, whose hearts seemed right with God, whose lives nevertheless represent much that was utterly degraded; and the names of other men whose lives seemed pure and upright, who nevertheless have shown utter disregard for all religious conventionalities — we ask ourselves whether in all this there has really been evidence of the existence of religious life. I answer: Yes, but the spark was shining in different degrees of brightness, or perhaps already so nearly quenched as to appear black; the germ was exhibiting different stages of growth, or was perhaps almost destroyed. All this only emphasizes the truth that one's conception of God, one's attitude toward him, is the fundamental thing in life, whether it be that of the individual or that of the nation. ations have existed whose names have long been lost. Of some nations only a name has come down to us. These have done nothing for the world, have added nothing to its history. They have maintained for a longer or a shorter period merely the dead level of monotonous existence. In the case of other nations the very opposite is true. Separating themselves in an early period from the environment of which they formed a part, they have lifted themselves gradually away from that environment to higher and higher planes of life and thought. It is the story of these nations that makes up the world's history.
152 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE Of the many millions of human beings that have lived, the mass are as if they had not existed. There is no tangible evidence of their life. They have been born, they have existed, and they have died — this is all. There has been no contribution to life or thought. In the case of some, however, this does not hold true. Imbued with a spirit eager to secure that which was higher, driven by an impulse growing out of a desire to help humankind, controlled by a power which they themselves could not comprehend, these men have led the world in each step of its progress. What now, in each case, was
the factor which differentiated the few nations from the many, the few individuals from the masses ? I answer: Their conception of God. In proportion as this conception was true and clear and strong, in that proportion did the nation or the individual rise out of darkness into light; to that extent nation or individual entertained true and clear and strong conceptions of life and the relationships of life, of death and the significance of death. In other words, if we may point out the idea concerning God which prevails in any nation, or is accepted by any individual, there is furnished at once the key to the laws of the nation, the habits of the individual, the literature of the nation, the soul of the individual. If you would tell me, my friends, what you think of God, or the relationship which you sustain to him, I could determine the character of your religious
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 153 life — nay, more, the measure of your influence in the world. Is it possible that you have no thought of God; that you have not come to realize the existence of God and your dependence on him; that you do not yet understand the goodness of God and his power to inspire your soul ? Then, indeed, you are to be pitied; for you are one of the vast multitude whose hands have worked without avail. The great and controlling influence needed in order that your work shall count has been lacking. I do not have in mind the meaning of the creeds, nor the work of the churches. It is something higher and deeper — the contact of the human soul with the power that created it; the communion of that soul with the spirit that continues its existence. Just as light and progress have come into the world with the coming of the truer conception of God, so light will enter the soul; and the life of that soul will make progress with the increasing appreciation of the goodness and the greatness of God. Religious life is largely the outward expression of thought, and thought is most ideal when it is thought of God. Let us free ourselves, so far as we may, from the things which fetter the spirit in its effort to come into contact with the great spirit of which it is a part. Let us break down the barriers which stand between us and the God in whose image we were made. Let us avail ourselves of every opportunity to grow
upward rather than downward. Let us earnestly
154 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE seek that higher life in which spirit meets spirit, and the ideal of man's creation is at last attained. What is it to be free ? It is to be in touch with the Divinity. What is it to be strong? It is to be a companion spirit of the Great Spirit. What is it to be true? It is to be in harmony with the truth of the universe, which is itself the reflection of the character of God. And now, what has Bible study to do with all this ? What relation has been found to exist between this inner and outer religious life, this personal consciousness of sin and righteousness, of God and his goodness, of love for God and for man — all this on the one hand, and, on the other, the study of the Bible ? My question does not put on one side the religious life and on the other the Bible. For the Bible is of no more value to you ' in the struggles of your religious experience than the trashiest ten-cent novel — unless directly or indirectly you make use of it. Do you remember that most interesting discovery made in the days of King Josiah in Jerusalem, the discovery of a long-lost Bible ? Shaphan read it before the king. "And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes." Then there followed that reformation, one of the most remarkable in history, the reformation under Josiah. My point
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 155 is that an unused Bible, an unstudied Bible, is not helpful. It is also true that a mere knowledge of the contents of the Bible is insufficient. I know men who can repeat entire chapters and even books of the Bible, not to speak of verses, whose lives and thought, so far as one can judge, remain wholly uninfluenced by the knowledge. There is likewise a certain scholastic knowledge which, so far as the religious life is concerned, avails little or nothing. You will not misunderstand me. The most accu-
rate and extensive learning is needed in connection with the archaeological, exegetical, and theological examination of biblical material. But this may exist and yet render but an indifferent service to the man whose heart calls for consolation, whose soul needs lifting up from the depths of misery and wretchedness. It is therefore the Bible studied, not the unused Bible, that is the subject of our theme; and the Bible studied with special reference to the religious life, not to archaeology, nor exegesis, nor even theology. The fact is that the exercise which we call study is in itself a good religious discipline. It produces accuracy of thought, and this is only another phrase for truth; it creates a desire for knowledge, and all knowledge rightly considered leads to God. This exercise of study, when it is taken up seriously and honestly in connection with the sacred books that form our Bible, is the highest function of the human
156 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE mind, and the function which produces the largest and most valuable fruitage. For, if we regard the matter closely, we perceive that Bible study is the act of furnishing nourishment to the seed of divine life which exists in the individual soul; or, if we use the other figure, it is the force which keeps alive the spark of divine life, increasing its brilliancy and constantly adding to its power. Let us consider this thought from three points of view. First, the spiritual life within us stands as much in need of nourishment, of assistance in its growth, as do the physical and the intellectual life. We may not say that the religious or spiritual life will take care of itself, because it is divine. God has given us bodies and minds, but they are so constituted that they will starve and die, if not fed; the same law holds good in the religious life. Second, everything which contributes toward the legitimate development of the inner religious life will deepen and enrich one's personal experience in all of its phases, the outward as well as the inner.
Third, of all agencies which may serve as sources of help in the training and strengthening of the religious life, the Bible, when studied, is the most helpful, and, in a word, is indispensable. I shall ask your attention in what follows to this third proposition, omitting further reference to the first and second.
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 157 Looking at the matter externally, and, as before, from the point of view of worship, or the cultivation of the devotional spirit, no literature, not even those of Christian nations and of modern times, contains such helps to prayer and praise and holy communion with the spirit in and around us as do the pages of the Bible. We realize that for most of us the ritual of ancient Israel has been supplanted by the simpler ceremonial of ew Testament times. But we do well to remember that the old ritual, as it stands in Holy Writ, was one used largely by Jesus himself; that this ritual, complex and mysterious as it may now seem to be, was, at one time, the honest and sincere expression of the relationship of man to God and of God to man, on the part of a people rightly called holy, because they had been the agency chosen by God himself for the revelation of himself to all humanity. This ceremonial, expressing the religious life, which was the divinely authorized precursor of the Christ, must contain rich food for those who, like all the people of those times, have not yet reached in their religious growth the higher things of Christianity. Even believers require different kinds of food; some may be ready for the strong meat of the gospel; while for others a better diet will be found in the milk of an earlier stage of development. I make bold to say that even today children and many adults will be better nourished if they take their food in the order in which God has seen
158 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE fit to give it to man; namely, first "the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." Furthermore, as a manual of prayer and praise the old Hebrew Psalter still stands unsurpassed.
It is the highest and purest expression known to man of the soul's communion with God. It has for nearly twenty-five centuries served as the mouthpiece of untold millions of God's saints, and is destined, so far as we can see, to continue thus to serve a suffering humanity for all time. Its adaptation to human needs has been well summarized in the following utterance: What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms are not able to teach ? They are to beginners an easy and familiar introduction — a mighty augmentation of all virtue and knowledge in such as are entered before — a strong confirmation to the most perfect among others. Heroical magnanimity, exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries of God, the sufferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the comforts of grace, the works of Providence over this world, and the promised joys of that world which is to come, all good necessarily to be either known, or done, or had, this one celestial fountain yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease incident unto the soul of man, any wound or sickness named, for which there is not in this treasure-house a present comfortable remedy at all times ready to be found. 1 The same thought has been finely expressed by another writer: — He only who knows the number of the waves of the ocean, and the abundance of tears in the human eye; He who sees 1 Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V, chap, xxxvii, sec. 2.
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 159 the sighs of the heart before they are uttered, and who hears them still when they are hurled into silence — He alone can tell how many holy emotions, how many heavenly vibrations, have been produced and will ever be produced in the souls of men by the reverberation of these marvelous strains, of these predestinated hymns, read, meditated, sung in every hour of day and night, in every winding of the vale of tears. The Psalter of David is like a mystic harp, hung on the walls of the true Zion. Under the breath of the Spirit of God it sends forth its infinite varieties of devotion, which, rolling on from echo to echo, from soul to soul, awakens in each a separate note, mingling in that one prolonged voice of thankfulness and penitence, praise and prayers.
These quotations point to another fact of a practical character. The study of the Bible, when properly presented, is inspirational; for the intelligent acceptance and appropriation of its materials, incorporated into creeds, has moved and controlled the greatest spirits of nineteen centuries, and through them the civilized world. o great man has wrought among his fellows, no nation has made history, except under the influence and inspiration of these books we call the Bible. Space permits here no illustration; still we may recall how the Roman empire passed into Christian hands, and the great movements since — the Reformation, the War of Independence, and even the French Revolution. This Bible of ours has been the incentive; the truth gathered from its pages, even when mingled with the false error of human interpretation, has been the basis of the world's most helpful, most
160 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE efficient, and most startling forward steps through all these ages. And it has happened thus because this truth has entered into religious life and experience. If it has affected the life of men in days gone by, if it is affecting their lives today, you may well believe that you, as well as they, may receive inspiration and direction; that the study of the Bible will lift you to a higher plane of usefulness to your fellowmen. Still again, in this matter of life as men see it — I mean standard of life, conduct — where else, pray, than in the Bible is there to be found more vivid presentation of life as it should be lived, or of life as it should not be lived ? Where else is there given more pathetic illustration of the consequences of sin than in the story of David; or more definite presentation of the rewards of righteousness ? One may study history outside of the Bible and fail to find anywhere a commingling in any true proportions of the various elements which make up the religious life. Sin has made such headway in the world that apparently no instance can be found of a well-rounded religious life perfect in every particular. We look in vain for a nation that has produced or expressed this ideal religious life.
We look in vain for an association or organization of any kind that has furnished the world an experience that might be accepted as the true type. Individual men have approached this ideal more nearly
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 161 than nations or organizations. But the men who have reached the highest place in this effort of transcendent interest to all humanity have, after all, exhibited characteristics of weakness and evidences of innate sinfulness which have made it clear that humanity in itself may not attain this supreme thing. Does it follow, then, that the world has seen no perfect example of this life ? In order that the world might have such perfect illustration of it, an illustration which all men might see and study, and by which humanity might be lifted to a still higher plane than that which it had reached through the divine help already furnished in other ways, Jesus Christ was born, and therefore he lived and taught and died. His attitude of reverence and homage toward God, in its simplicity and sublimity, in its prayerful dependence, and in its irrepressible aspiration, was the perfect presentation of the true worship, in itself, and in its relation to the other factors which constitute the religious experience. His teaching concerning God as Father of the world, of humanity as a single, closely related family, every member of which had responsibility for every other member, his teaching of the kingdom of heaven, and the ideal social life in which justice and peace shall reign, constitute a creed from which nothing may be subtracted; while the making of additions to it, as history has shown, leads surely to confusion
1 62 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE and controversy. His life, in the perfection of its purity, in the pathos of its self-sacrifice, in the loftiness of its unselfish achievement, has furnished the world principles which underlie and control all right living. In proportion, therefore, as the worship of nations, or of organizations, or of individuals, is as sincere and honest as that of Jesus Christ; in
proportion as their belief is as broad and deep and true as was his belief; in proportion as their life is as pure and self-sacrificing and lofty as was his life — in just such proportion will nation, or organization, or individual give illustration of the true religious experience. Suppose we grant, for the sake of argument, that a man of earnest religious temperament might be able to find elsewhere than in the Bible the material which would serve him fairly well for purposes of devotion, for basis of belief, and for standards of ethical life. What shall be said in reference to the material which will serve his purpose in the realm of his inner religious life — the experience of the consciousness of sin and the longing for righteousness; the experience of a sense of fellowship with God, and appreciation of receiving God's help in time of trouble; the experience of love for God and love for man ? Can the best material for the nourishment of spiritual life be found elsewhere than in the Sacred Scriptures? Let me stop here to answer a point sometimes
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 163 made against the necessity of Bible study. It is said, with apparent plausibility, that, in one form or another, our modern literature contains all of the biblical element really needed for the nourishment of the divine life in man; that in the lines of poetry and the discussions of philosophy, in the treatises on ethics and the pages of history, one may find a really excellent substitute for the prophecies of Isaiah and his disciples, the utterances of the sages, the ethical narratives of the Old and ew Testaments, the letters and discourses of the apostles and their co-workers. Two replies may be made: first, the very fact alleged shows all the more clearly the power of the Scriptures, for if they possessed not a special power and value given from on high, their influence could not have permeated as it has all modern literature; but, beyond this, it is to be noted, the source of the wonderful influence thus exerted is conceded by all to have been and to be the Bible. In these days, if never before, we are expected to go to the original sources for our information. The one source, the only source, as well as the original
source, for help of the kind here considered is the Bible. My friends, do not waste your time and strength in the effort to find this most precious material in a diluted form, when you can so easily obtain it pure; and remember that the dilution of a pure article is often only another term for adulteration. It is not an uninteresting piece of work to
1 64 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE follow this or that author in his effort to reproduce the truth of the biblical writings according to his own fancy; but it is a far more profitable thing to study the biblical writings themselves — writings so strong and so helpful, and so necessary to man's true life that even in their adulterated form they have been found most valuable. I have a feeling of profound pity for that minister of the gospel who finds it necessary to place side by side with his text or as a substitute for it, a quotation, however excellent, from a secular writer. Lack of time forbids me to consider separately the three great ideas which constitute the controlling thought of the inner spiritual life. Indeed, in what has already been said I have largely anticipated what I might say at this point. o one can deny that in our Old and ew Testament Scriptures we find the fullest and clearest presentation of the character of God. We may interpret this revelation in one way or in another; but whatever way we adopt, the fact remains that the material to be interpreted is biblical material. If God is himself the ultimate source of all religious experience, it may surely be predicated that the richest and fullest experience will come, can come, to those only who best know him as he has made himself known; to those only who by such knowledge are in closest touch with him. In the olden days the prophet Hosea repeated pathetically the bitter complaint: "My people are
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 165 destroyed for lack of knowledge" (4:6); "they do not know Jehovah" (5:4). In these modern days men are even more foolish and go awhoring after every absurd notion which the human mind can
invent. In very truth, they do not know the God of the Scriptures ; and why not ? Because they have not studied his character as it is revealed in the Word, and in the flesh; or because they have studied it, alas, through glasses so dimmed with human error that the true light has been shut out. This is true, likewise, of the two great corollaries of the teaching concerning God — that of sin, and that of man's relation to man. o man, good or bad, has ever lived whose picture has not been painted in Holy Writ. You cannot read many chapters before clearly to your eyes your own portrait appears. There is no sin so damnable, no virtue so exalted, that it has not found full illustration in these sacred narratives. You will find nowhere else so clearly presented your own religious needs, your shortcomings. You will find no writings which, by their insistence upon ethical ideals, appeal so strongly to your conscience. You will find nowhere else so definite a placing of responsibility for sin upon the individual. If you read sympathetically the words of an Old Testament prophet, or of a ew Testament apostle, you will, in spite of yourself, wonder at the deep and overwhelming sense of sin which he exhibits. In other words, your own con-
1 66 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE viction of sin will be so deepened as to bring you by reaction into that state in which you may assume the right relation to your Maker. o other literature will produce this effect, unless it be a literature so saturated with biblical truth as in itself to reproduce the biblical thought. Think, too, of the educative element in the records of the lives of great leaders, now following the right path, now turned aside; at one time crowned with all the favor of a loving God, at another punished with all the severity which characterizes an impartial judge. I have already spoken of the unique life pictured to us — the life of Jesus. This is the climax of the whole; all else might perhaps be dispensed with, so long as this remained; and yet all else forms the background on which this picture rests. Let me then repeat: The study of the Bible is to be thought of as the eating of food — food not for
the body or the mind, but for the soul. One may at times find nourishment for his soul elsewhere in diluted form. If it is desired pure and at first hand, the Bible is the one source of supply. This work of Bible study is indispensable, if one's religious life is to be strong and sturdy and alert, and if it is to be at all equal to the demands made upon it in this world of struggle and temptation. I desire to state in conclusion certain propositions which seem to me to grow out of this discussion and which belong to it.
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 167 In your study of the Bible do not expect to find all portions of it equally helpful to you in your Christian life. The Bible is for universal use. If every part of it were of equal value to you, how narrow and provincial and even valueless it would be for many others of your fellow-men! Its truth is so presented that children may go to it with satisfaction; the deepest thinker also may find that of which he stands in need. This is the Bible's greatest worth. Every stage of individual and national religious development is provided for. The art in all this, that which makes it possible, is something far beyond human understanding. We cannot fail to see that it is so, however futile our attempt may be to explain how it is so. We know quite well why it is so; for otherwise it would not be what it is — universal, the only collection of writings which may seriously claim to be universal. In your study of this collection do not lose sight of the large amount of history in its content; and keep in mind that every utterance of prophet, lawgiver, and sage, of disciple, apostle, and teacher, has an historical basis; that is, it grew out of some historical situation intended in the divine providence to serve as the occasion of the utterance and as its basis. An important historical event happens among us in these days— the assassination of a president, the rumor of war, the centennial of the birth of a city — and the teachers and preachers seize this
as the basis for lessons in religious instruction. A certain condition of things exists in this or that country, a great awakening is needed, and from every pulpit there comes the word of exhortation and demand. Just so in ancient times. And if by the study of sacred history we are able to discover the event or circumstance, the situation or occasion, of a prophecy or a letter, whether it be the approach of an invading army or the corrupt condition of one of the churches of ew Testament times, a new light is shed upon the words ; they take on a new significance ; they live, as they did not live before. Too much cannot be said in favor of the effort thus to connect the sacred words with the sacred history which furnished their occasion. And then, we may not forget that, after all, the events were the principal thing. For example, the suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are history; that is, they are facts. ow, suppose no gospel story of them had ever been written, would they have altogether lost their historical value? And, as such, would not the divine purpose sought for in them have been accomplished? Is it not true, then, that the historical fact back of the record is the thing on which we must build our faith, the solid rock on which we may take our stand ? Some of us in our Bible study are troubled with the so-called difficulties. I am afraid that the number of such persons is too small. To be thus troubled
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 169 indicates two things: that one has actually been engaged in study; and — take my word for it — no student ever worked in any subject who did not find difficulties. It shows also that the man is honest. There is much that I should like to suggest on this phase of our subject; for I have had very sad and bitter experiences of my own along this line. I wish, however, to make a single suggestion: Do not, for the sake of all that you hold sacred, allow the existence of intellectual difficulties to interfere with the progress of your practical religious life. Many men think that unless all their intellectual problems are settled it is impossible to live a truly religious life. A more mistaken . notion never entered a man's head. If you are a thinking man,
you will always have difficulties; new ones will probably come forward even more rapidly than old ones are settled. Be not too greatly disturbed by these difficulties. If you are not yet a Christian, do not put off becoming one until they disappear Such a time will never come. Go forward in Christian work and service, follow the paths pointed out to you so clearly in Sacred Scripture, and let the difficulties be settled as your Christian faith grows stronger and your Christian character becomes more firmly established. I cannot bring myself to forego just here a quotation from one of the greatest of modern Bible students, the late Professor Davidson, of Edinburgh. It is
170 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE found in his Commentary on Job, in the chapter containing Jehovah's answer out of the storm: It is God who now speaks to Job; and in his teaching of men he never moves in the region of the mere understanding, but always in that of the religious life. He may remove perplexities regarding his providence and ways from men's minds: He does not do so, however, by the immediate communication of intellectual light; but rather by flushing all the channels of thought and life with a deeper sense of himself. Under the flow of this fuller sense of God, perplexities disappear, just as rocks that raise an angry surf when the tide is low are covered and unknown when it is full. It goes almost without saying that if your religious life is based upon a study of the Scriptures, it will be largely shaped by the way in which you handle these Scriptures. There is no error of the human mind or heart which has not supported itself by the use of Scripture; for instance, here polygamy, there slavery; here spiritualism, there — I might mention twenty abnormal, absurd religious developments which flourish in the very heart of our strongest and most intelligent centers. The origin of all these is false interpretation, failure to see aright the thought intended to be conveyed by the sacred writer, and an ignorance of God so great as to allow it to be thought that such absurdities are pleasing to him and represent aright his truth to men. The responsibility, therefore, of interpretation is very great — so great that in certain divisions of the Christian church
it is a privilege denied the ordinary Christian and
BIBLE STUDY A D RELIGIOUS LIFE 171 granted only to those holding high ecclesiastical position. There is in this a great lesson for us all; and yet, it is better to have error stalk high through the land than to deprive a single man of the privilege of interpreting for himself and of accepting for himself the significance of the Sacred Writings. But where privilege is granted, there responsibility rests; and you may never shift upon another the responsibility which is solely yours. It follows that one can well afford to put forth the greatest possible effort to secure in correct form this food for the nourishment of his spiritual life. The strange thing is that men who profess to value this food so highly satisfy themselves with so small an amount of it. The most serious act of hypocrisy which a Christian can commit is to boast loudly on the street corner, or on the housetop, of the value and authority of the Sacred Scriptures, assigning each and every word literally to the finger of God, and then to accord to these same Scriptures less thought and attention by far than he gives to the daily newspaper. In how many Christian families of the city of Chicago do you suppose the reading of the morning paper at the breakfast table has supplanted the morning reading of the Bible so common in these same families less than twenty years ago ? Every Christian man should face this question: "Is the Bible what I have supposed it to be? If so, it is for me to treat it differently, to make it
172 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE the subject of systematic study, and, through acquaintance with it, to come closer to God; to know him better, and, having this knowledge, to realize, as I have not hitherto realized, my responsibility to my fellow-men." o man need ever fear that he will attain too large a knowledge of these sacred books. It is promised many times in these same Scriptures that to him who approaches God in this attitude of mind the Holy Spirit, in turn, will come with blessings of mercy and comfort and peace. This
promise, the saints of all ages assert, has always been fulfilled. Let it be our prayer that it may find large fulfilment in the case of every man or woman who, in earnestness and sincerity, determines to study this sacred volume in the future more carefully more assiduously, and more systematically than hitherto.
XII AMERICA AS A MISSIO ARY FIELD The world has had sixty centuries of history. How many centuries of life man lived on earth before the dawn of history we can only guess, as new discovery pushes back still farther the date of history's beginnings. These sixty centuries fall quite naturally, and with a peculiar symmetry, into three divisions of about twenty centuries each. During the first twenty the great civilizing forces came from the fertile region of the lower Euphrates and the Tigris, Babylonia — a country whose petty kingdoms were first organized into an empire by Sargon of Accad 3800 B. C; a civilization which, through two thousand years or more, pervaded and uplifted the countries west of the Mediterranean. Egypt all this while was developing a second civilization, but the aggressive spirit seized her much later. The end of the twentieth century B. C. was marked by the movement westward through Mesopotamia to the Palestine seaboard of a group of nomadic tribes under Abraham, one of which, in the providence of God, was to bring to humanity the true conception and apprehension of a personal God. These twenty centuries of Babylonian civilization on one side, and Egyptian civilization on 173
174 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE the other, had furnished the preparation of Syria, and of those who were to be Syria's inhabitants, for the great work which was to follow. It is true that after this both Babylon and Egypt flourished, but their real work had reached its culmination, and their continuance only assisted the later steps
in Syria's development. Babylonia was the great power in the first twenty centuries, Syria in the second. The close of the first saw the coming of the Hebrew tribe under Abraham's leadership; the close of the second was marked by the coming of the Son of man, the ideal Hebrew, to whom Syria, with sore travail, at last gave birth. The work of centuries of Greek and Roman history was but a contribution to this, the crowning event of forty centuries. The third period of twenty centuries is but now drawing to its close. The Hebrew, though not born as a nation till nearly half the period had passed, was the central influence of the second period. In this third period the central figure has been England, although in her case, too, a good portion of the period had elapsed before she took her place among the nations. Babylonia, Syria, England! Another great period is just being ushered in, which promises to eclipse its predecessor even as that predecessor eclipsed those that preceded it. The lines separating these great periods are not sharply drawn. Perhaps we are already fairly
AMERICA AS A MISSIO ARY FIELD 175 under way in the new period. A thousand years from now men will be better able to determine. In any case, we know, and the world knows, that what Babylonia was in the first period, what Syria was in the second, what England was in the third, all this and more America will be in the fourth. This westward movement has been synchronous with the history of the progress of civilization. And the history of civilization has been synchronous with the development of a pure and true conception of God, and of his relation to man. Did God enter into this wonderful development for the first time when Abraham was called ? And did he take a journey into a far-off country when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven? Was not God acting throughout the period of Babylonian influence just as truly as through the period which began with Abraham and closed with Jesus? May we not believe that he has been as closely identified with the
period which is now closing as with that which presented the Sacred Scriptures to humanity? The Babylonian, Syrian, and English periods are passed. The American is coming. Will there be new revelations of God in this period ? Surely we may expect them. Does not the world know God in a new way because of the events in the world's history during the past two thousand years ? Does not the world know God in a new way because of the discoveries made by science in these latest years — dis-
176 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE coveries which teach us nothing, if they do not teach of God and of his laws ? It must be remembered that the revelations which God has seen fit to make of himself in the past have been accepted as such by very few of those to whom they were first given. The Christ himself was rejected by the mass of those who saw and heard him. It has taken centuries for most of these revelations to gain recognition as divine. For myself, I am compelled to believe that during these centuries words have been uttered and ideas developed which later generations will recognize as a revelation from God himself. What, now, is the nature of this revelation which has not yet been clearly discerned ? and toward what does it point? In Christ the Son we are accustomed to say, and we believe, that God the Father revealed himself. But it is also true that in him for the first time ideal man and ideal humanity were revealed; and the discovery that such a revelation was given is only gradually coming to us in these last centuries of Christian progress. The social rights, which aforetime had been limited to a few lords and vassals joined in solemn compact, were acquired by the great non-feudal classes only at the breaking up of feudalism. It was through the great political revolutions of English history that humanity learned that political rights were not the grants of a sovereign in a charter, as under the orman kings, but the God-given
possession of the people themselves to be administered according to the will of the people. It was in the Reformation that humanity began to appreciate the true conception of religion as something not to be mediated to men by other men of special sanctity or authority, or by an institution of peculiar divine appointment, but rather as the appropriate prerogative of every individual. I need not give further illustration. My point is this : The contribution of these nineteen centuries — in other words, the contribution of Christianity — has not been simply a better, truer knowledge of God. Men knew very much about God before Christ came. It has been a better, truer knowledge of man himself, of whom men knew next to nothing at the dawn of the present era. The powers and rights which had supposedly belonged to classes are now known to belong to individuals as such. Every idea of individual right, as distinguished from the privileges of caste or class or guild, has been worked out into definite expression since the birth of Christ. This idea of individualism, of the paramount dignity of the individual, has expressed itself, more clearly and more specifically, in every advance of civilization. In the increasing effort to control the powers of nature every man today is, potentially, a thinker, a scientist; for to no man is there denied the privilege of securing such control ; in the effort to
178 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE make provision for the conflicting claims of persons with similar interests every man is, potentially, a producer, an economist; in the effort on the part of a constantly increasing number of persons to secure the full enjoyment of the highest life every man is, potentially, a co-operator, a citizen; in the effort to secure the highest privilege, that of freedom of opinion on religious subjects, every man is, potentially, a worshiper, a priest. Within the bounds of the various fields, every man has come to be recognized as by nature endowed with the power of a freeman. This is the teaching of nineteen centuries of Christian civilization; in other words, of Christianity.
But, now, these ideas have been demonstrated only "piecemeal, and incoherently, in separated times and places." However clearly they may have been taught in the new Testament, they have not yet received their perfect demonstration in human history. The question of individualism as a whole is still on trial; the real test of Christianity's success is still in the future. She cannot be said to have achieved final success until her founder Jesus Christ has been everywhere recognized. The arena in which the great trial shall be conducted is America. The old countries, with their traditions and institutions which obstruct their performance of full human functions by the masses, cannot work out the problems which confront us.
AMERICA AS A MISSIO ARY FIELD 179 The history of the church during these centuries is sufficient evidence of this proposition. Here in this great country, provided by God himself with all the facilities needed, preserved in large measure by God himself from the burdens and trammels of dead institutions and deadly traditions, the consummation of Christian life and thought will be realized. This is the message written on every page of our nineteen centuries of history. It is a wonderful and significant message. Is its meaning appreciated ? God is in the world as of old. He may move slowly in further revelations of himself; yet when the days are placed together, each will be found to have furnished some such revelation. And the days that are coming will surpass any that have gone; except that one day which saw God take the form of man, the day which saw him live as man, and die as man, and rise again as God. And of all that is coming, America, broadly speaking, will be the scene of action. We remember that in Babylonia the masses were only beasts in their filth; and we realize how much more rapid the advance of true thought and life would have been had the highest ideals permeated that empire. We remember that Syria, and even Jerusalem, were rotten with the putrefactions of debauchery and sin; and we can see that the battle waged for centuries between the prophets and the people
180 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE would have brought much sooner the long-expected Messiah, but for the fact that the time was not yet come, the world was not yet ready. Today we see the vileness of life even in Christian England, and among her children in every section of the world ; and we wonder how, with such vileness at home, progress in heathen lands can be expected. We need only to look at our own country to see how burdened it is with vice and crime, with skepticism and indifference. If, now, our faith is sure that there has been committed to us this great mission, shall we not purify ourselves ? Shall we not organize ourselves as a nation for the work that lies ahead ? Purification and organization, that is Christianization. But the Christianity of the future will be something different from that of the past. When one thinks of the battles fought, the men and women slain, the prisons filled, the crimes committed, the closing of the door to efforts for progress, and the closing of the ear to cries for help — all in the name of Christianity — one may well be excused for suspecting that, after all, not Christ but Satan has been at God's right hand. How did this all come to be ? Simply because of ignorance. The new Christianity will have no room for ignorance. Education will be its watchword. The ideal purification is a purification from vice and immorality, from sin of every kind and from impurity; but it is more — it is a purification (I use the word advisedly) from ignor-
AMERICA AS A MISSIO ARY FIELD 181 ance and prejudice, from narrowness of every kind, and from intellectual dishonesty. What is needed ? The gospel and education. The gospel, as it is commonly understood (again I speak advisedly) is not sufficient. It will free men from vice and impurity; but, when thus freed, the converts would better be permitted to die, unless they are provided with an education which will free them from narrowness and prejudice and dishonesty. But, happily for humanity, the gospel has in itself, if only it be
permitted to exercise them, the elements which incite to education; and, in the future, education will constitute a larger part of the work of evangelization than in the past, both at home and abroad. The call to mission work in America is a call from heaven. Can this be doubted by anyone who reads the pages of history and is familiar with the achievements of the last half-century? It includes a call to educate the Indian — poor outcast, for whose extinction even Christendom itself has, by its attitude, petitioned heaven. It is a call to the education of the negro, anticipating thus by thousands of years what by natural development would have been the career of a downtrodden race. It is a call to work out the problems of the city — problems appreciated many centuries ago, when the sacred writer described the building of the first city, and connected with it all the woes and wickedness of advancing civilization; problems avoided by the
1 82 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE Rechabites of old, whose ancestor forbade residence in cities because of the attendant temptation and wrong-doing; problems which today appall the stoutest heart. It is a call to take in hand and organize that element which has not yet become a true part of our American civilization, and which, if Christianized and guided, will, by the intermixture of blood, make America just what Palestine was; which, however, if left to itself and its anarchistic socialism, will bring down speedy ruin on our heads, and plunge us into grief more bitter even than that with which civil war overwhelmed us. It is a call to evangelize this great West of ours — a land so boundless and so full of possibilities as to make even reasonable calculation seem like visionary dreaming. It is a call to establish here at home the foundations for the evangelization of the world; for if the world is to be evangelized, America must do it ; and if America is to do the work of evangelizing the world, she must first Christianize, that is, purify and educate herself. America is the world's great mission field, because of what she is, and because of what she is to be. It is a call to train the boys and girls in all our churches; for has not history
shown that he who is to lead must be trained ? If as Christians, we are to make progress, we must have our own leaders — leaders whom we ourselves have trained. It is a call to equip all our academies and colleges and theological seminaries, and to see to it
AMERICA AS A MISSIO ARY FIELD 183 that the instruction given in these institutions bears upon its face the mark of truth ; has its roots in the established principles of the faith. America, then, is to be the leader of the world's influence and thought during the next twenty centuries, just as Babylonia, Syria, and England, each in turn, has been leader during the past centuries. But, more than this, she is to be the arena of an intellectual, social, and spiritual conflict, in which Christianity must vindicate itself against all opposing forces — a conflict more serious than any which has yet been waged. o man or woman in our number doubts for a moment the ultimate triumph of our Christianity; but, in order that the triumph may be decisive, in order that the agony of the struggle may not be too greatly prolonged, let us use foresight and farsight. Let us purge our ranks, putting aside everything that will not be of service in the conflict. Let us organize our forces, strengthening at every point the places of vantage-ground. Christianity's contribution to the world is a single thing, and a simple thing : to teach the meaning of love; for this includes God and humanity, each in its relation to the other. The message has been received, but the lesson has not been learned. Mankind still lingers in the kindergarten. The lesson, though in itself single and simple, is very complicated in its applications. The Great Teacher is patient ; no one knows better than himself the importance of funda-
1 84 RELIGIO A D THE HIGHER LIFE mental training. Centuries will pass; and gradually humanity will come to recognize the significance of love; gradually Jesus the Christ will come to reign in the hearts of men. In this work of educating humanity to understand God and itself, America is
the training-school for teachers.
1. 68 FREE BOOKS http://www.scribd.com/doc/21800308/Free-Christian-Books 2. ALL WRITI GS http://www.scribd.com/glennpease/documents?page=1000
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