SERMONS
SPEECHES
BY
ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD, D.D,
President of Zmoiy College, Oxford, 6a.
T
Soatbem KeUtodist Publisliiiis: BConse,
, Tenn. 1S83.

'<*
LIBRARY
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, THE BOOK AGENT OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHUBCH, SOUTH,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

SOLOMON'S

PAGE
AND FAILURE ................... 5

LOVICK PIERCE: 1785-1879 .............................. 31

CHRIST DWELLING IN Us. ................................ 79

THE STEW SOUTH: GRATITUDE, AMENDMENT, HOPE. ....... 103

"OCCUPY TTLI, I COME--. ................................ 125

THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN .. ............................... 147

GARFIELD'S MEMORY. . .................................. 182

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST ........................ 195

THE FAITH THAT SAVES ................................ 215

ST. PATH, TO YOUNG MEN.. .............................. 281

QUIT You LIKE MEN ................................... 255

THE PEACE JESUS GIVES ................................ 271

PROVE ALL THINGS..................................... 285

BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS ............................... 313

KENNETH H. McLAiN; OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT...... 326

THE NEW SOUTH FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT. ....... 340

THE NEGRO A CITIZEN .................................. 373

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.................... 392

THE LIFE TO COME ..................................... 410

(3)

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
[OXFORD, JUKE 1, 1879.^

"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Eccles. i. 2.
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Eccles. xii. 13.

T1HE first text tells us what Solomon found the world to be when he had concluded his exper

iment; the second tells us what, in the sad retro

spect, he felt that he ought to have done. The first

expresses, in bitterness and despair, his utter disap

pointment ; the second gives us, with an undertone

of remorse, liis solemn conclusion as to the whole

problem of human life and destiny.

It is to a study of " Solomon's Experiment and

Failure" that I invite your attention, young men,

this morning. I do so in consideration of the

misjudgments to which young men of culture and

opportunity are peculiarly liable, as to the real sig

nificance and the true ends of human life; of the

*b

delusions and dangers to which they are exposed;

*The only principle of arrangement adopted in this volume is that of time; the sermons and speeches appear here in the order in which they were delivered, except the last two speeches, which are the only ones not delivered before the students of Emory College and the citizens of Oxford.
(5)

6 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
and particularly in consideration of some of the tendencies and influences peculiar to our times.
Solomon was David's son by Bath-sheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. At the birth of Solomon, David was about fifty years old. Weary of war and worn with trouble, he had come to that period when his inmost soul sighed for peace. No wonder that we hear him sigh, " O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." The father's yearning heart read in the calm beauty of Bath-sheba's child a prophecy of peace, and he named him Shelom^h Solomon, "the peaceful one." And Nathan, God's faithful prophet and David's life-long friend, when he blessed the child, called him Jedediah "the Lord's beloved." Da^ vid's heart of song never reached a higher strain than in the seventy-second Psalm, in which, under the type of the approaching glory of Solomon's reign, the royal singer, full of prophetic faith and hope, depicted the more distant but everlasting glo ry of the kingdom of Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Lord's Christ, and the Redeemer of men. Great hopes were born in the cradle of this fair child, and in his naming, by father and prophet, was a deeper and holier feeling than moved the heart of the great Roman poet when he sung of the " Saturnian reign and eternal spring" that Pollio's child should bring to a troubled world.
There is not time .to-day to recite the historic de tails of the reign of Solomon. They are found chiefly in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The descriptions of his life and character are diverse,
I:.:

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILUEE. 7
but they are not contradictory. There is, indeed, a vast space between the beautiiul boy, upon his cor onation-day, and the broken old man, bowing him self before the horrible shrine of the Assyrian Venus and debasing himself before the foul altars of Moloch and Chemosh. It may remind you of the painter who, in early life, selected a fair boy as his ideal of beauty and purity, and who, forty years afterward, painted a poor wretch the child now grown into middle age and degraded by vice, doomed to the gallows, and hideous in form and expression as his ideal of ugliness and moral depravity. Sin, young men, explains the seeming contradiction.
The story of Solomon's life is well worth your study. No name is so deeply impressed upon East ern legends as his. It appears in many forms. His deeds and character are entwined with fantastic tales among Persians, Hindoos, Arabians, Egyp tians, and Africans. His name is found in nearly all the dialects of the East. Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans have kept the tradition of his great ness and wisdom.
He ascended the throne of David at the opening of the golden age of the kingdom of Israel. While he was king, the Jewish nation, for the first and last time, held rank as one of the great monarchies of the world. David had consolidated the loose con federation of tribes into a strong and homogeneous nation. He had not only beaten his enemies in battle, but he had reduced them to vassalage. Moab, Edom, Ammon, were subdued, Philistia was hum bled, and even proud Damascus was garrisoned by

8

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

the warrior king. Solomon came to a kingdom

that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Eu

phrates on the east, from Damascus to the border

of Egypt on the south-west. He inherited the

treasures that David had gathered, during a long

and successful reign, to an almost incredible extent.

He took the scepter amid the universal rejoicings

of a strong, happy, and prosperous people. The

nation was still outwardly faithful to the theocratic

constitution. All the influences that quicken the

energies and ambition of a people were at their

highest tide when this favorite of earth and heaven

ascended the throne. Knowledge, art, music, poet

ry had come with the wealth David brought to his

kingdom, and were culminating toward the highest

achievements of which the race and age were capa

ble.

It was a time of boundless hopefulness among the

people. There is one picture in the old history that

tells us more than seems to be on the canvas. The

ancient scribe says of the people in the opening of

Solomon's reign: "Judah and Israel were many, as

the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating

and drinking, and making merry." The beginning

was like the opening of a perfect day in spring

time, when the heavens bless the earth, and the

earth smiles its gratitude to the heavens, when the

morning air is sweet with odors and vocal with

i:

songs. No human career ever began with the prom

ise of being so nobly successful, or centered in it so

many hopes of men and blessings of God.

Solomon made a good and hopeful beginning.

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

9

While the dying exhortations of his father yet lin gered in his ear, the Lord appeared to him in a dream, 'and gave him choice of Heaven's richest gifts. The humility and deep sense of responsibil ity which led the young king to ask " wisdom " for the great work to which he was called, God's ap proval of the wisdom that asked more wisdom in stead of riches, and honor, and long life, has been celebrated by eloquent pens and tongues. The di vine promise that he should excel not only in wis dom, but in the gifts he did not ask, fascinating but dangerous all this you know.
His history as a king we can only sketch in out line we are more concerned with him as a man. He built the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, the wonder of the time, in the earlier years of his reign. His passion for building was as ardent as Nebuchad nezzar's, and as splendid as that of Pericles. I need only mention the gorgeous palace he built for him self, and the costly house he gave to his Egyptian wife, who brought him great cities for her dowry. To these he added vast and magnificent public build ings, as the porch of pillars and the porch of judg ment. He extended, strengthened, and beautified the wall of Jerusalem, and at convenient places in his kingdom erected "fenced cities, with bars and gates." He built Tadmor, a fortified city in an oasis of the desert that stretched along his northern frontier, midway between Syria and the Euphrates the Palmyra of classic history, the capital city of Zenobia's warlike race. Later in his reign he built other palaces, modeled after the styles of Egypt and

10 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

Assyria; and in its middle period, temples for the

infernal gods his foreign wives brought to Jerusa

lem. No price restrained his tastes. He erected

an ivory throne that surpassed in cost and magnifi

cence all that the proudest kings could boast. He

decorated Jerusalem with ornamental pillars that

outshone the costly memorials that fronted the

temple of the Phenician Venus in Tyre itself.

Solomon's foreign policy brought his kingdom

into intimate relations with the greatest nations of

his time. His marriage with the daughter of a

Pharaoh cemented a treaty between Egypt and Is

rael for the first time in five hundred years. His

relations with Hiram, King of Tyre, brought to

Israel the arts and culture of the Phenicians. He

introduced commercej and joined his fleets with

those of Hiram in their trading voyages to the

coasts of distant Spain; His possession of the

Edomite coasts enabled him to establish naval sta

tions at Elath and Ezion-geber, whence, sailing

down the ^Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea into the

Indian Ocean, they traded with lands hitherto un

known. India, Arabia, and probably Eastern Afri

i

ca, were brought into close and profitable commer

cial relations with his people. But the seas did not

content him, and dommerce by caravans was ex

tended to distant lands.

Wherever his traders went they carried the fame

of his greatness. He drew to his capital whatever

could add to its strength or renown. The Queen

of Sheba paid him a visit of state, and princes and

embassadors from the greatest kingdoms waited in

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 11
his ante-chambers. Departing from the simplicity of better times, he allied himself, by marriage, with perhaps every ruling family of the nations in inter course with him. He organized an immense stand ing army, importing horses and chariots, at great cost, from Egypt. But enough there is no such story of prodigal and wanton expenditure in any Eastern nation.
How such an administration bred discontent among the overtaxed and oppressed laboring class es; how it fomented corruption in every rank of society; how it sowed thick the seeds of revolution, we may not consider now. But in these old histo ries are lessons and warnings that rulers and states men of every age may consider with advantage.
The rapid sketch I have given of Solomon's per sonal and kingly history has indicated his wide departure, in many directions, from the pure theo cratic constitution given to Israel as a nation, and also his own amazing moral collapse. For this his tory shows us the man who was crowned king by the priest of God, who chose wisdom when Heaven . gave him his choice, who offered the prayer of ded ication upon the completion of the temple, giving himself to unlimited debauchery, and to the vilest rites known to the idolatrous and sensual East.
Solomon made as full and complete a trial of the world's theory and plan of a human life as seems possible to man. He lacked none of the conditions, and he pushed his experiment to the utmost in all possible directions.
He had the personal and, I may say, constitu-

11 I"

12 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE,

tional conditions. He had youth, beauty, health,

vigor, temperament. So much is evident from the

hints preserved in the history and in his own writ

ings. Besides these physical qualities and suscepti

bilities, he had mental endowments of the largest

measure. So far as breadth and vigor of understand

ing, accuracy of intuition, keenness of perception,

and knowledge of affairs and of men are co'ncerned,

none, says the record, who had gone before him

excelled him. And it was said that no superior, in

jj 1

these respects, should succeed him. For large-

mindedness, clearness and quickness of mental ac-

i

tion, for exquisite aesthetic sensibility, for all that

we mean by preeminent mental endowments, there

is no reason for doubting the intimation that the

human race never had a more nobly endowed rep

resentative. If the expression be allowed, nature

did her utmost in the production of Solomon.

He had all helps in order to make a man. "VVhat-

1(

ever training and culture was possible to that age

'

he received. The tradition is that the Prophet

, Nathan had the care of his education. The state-

it,

ment of his varied accomplishments, written per

haps in his early days, before that sin had blasted

his intellect and spoiled his life, presents a radiant

picture of a nobly gifted and richly cultured man.

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understand

ing exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even

as the sand that is on the sea-shore. And Solomon's

wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of

the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For

he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite,

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 13
and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all nations round ahout." He was an ardent student of nature, and he made a record of his observations: "And he spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Leb anon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." He was sage and poet: "He spake three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five."
If his lost writings were no better than his life, it is a mercy of Providence that they have perished
from the sight of men. Moreover, as we have seen, he had all the adven
titious advantages which unlimited wealth and ab solute authority can command, whether luxurious living, obliging friends, or popular favor. I say ad vantages, because those who are trying, on a smaller scale, to repeat his experiment count them so.
!NY)w this man, so circumstanced, made deliber ately, persistently, and without let or hinderance, the experiment of the world's theory of human life. He has recorded the various processes of that ex periment and their results he has left us a minute and clear account of his discoveries. If he succeed ed, then may smaller men imitate his example with fair hope of succeeding, in their measure, in his line of things. If he failed, then smaller men may save themselves the pains of the experiment, and the
agonies of failure. Solomon failed failed utterly, ignobly, misera
bly. He failed in every possible direction as a

14 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

man, as the head of a house, as the ruler of a peo

ple. He covered his name with infamy; he left his

family to chaos; he sowed among his people seeds

of dissension that dismembered Israel, and finally

blotted out ten of the tribes. The elements of all the

woes that overwhelmed the chosen people were in

the heritage of corruption and misrule which he

left them.

The chief service he has rendered mankind is

that he left a volume of confessions in the book of

It f

Ecclesiastes that are perpetual warnings against the

folly of sin. These confessions are summed up

in the bitter wail: "Vanity of vanities, saith the

Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" What

a monstrous and blasphemous misstatement! All

is not vanity. His life was vanity.
1
Since Christ came, the word "wisdom" has taken

on new dignity a broader and deeper meaning.

Our Catechism is wrong; Solomon was not the

wisest man; there is no true wisdom without grace

and virtue.

" Vanity of vanities all is vanity." There is not

m

a sadder sentence in the life of any man in the

literature of any nation. It is the last word of all

pessimistic philosophy a monster of unbelief, born

of sin and despair.

Let us contemplate the progress and results of

fi

Solomon's experiment upon life, as they exhibited themselves in him in his character and conduct.

i;

i;I.: i

The results were disappointment, satiety, vexation

ir!

of spirit, exhaustion, brutal sensuality, moral degra

dation, skepticism, superstition, idolatry, remorse,

i
Mi 7Lt ..i _____..

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 15
a blighted life, and as to its final issues, a miserable, perplexing, unsolved doubt as to his eternal future.
But this hasty glance, as one takes an instant's view of a landscape from a car-window, is not enough; the best lessons to us will require a more careful inspection. In pointing out the multiform failures of his experiments, I may indicate their causes-c^at least, their explanations.
As both cause and effect, we must notice that self enters every thing ha proposes every thing he does. There is something unsatisfactory be not startled, young men in the brightest scene in which he appears that night vision in Gibeon, in which the Lord said, "Ask what I shall give thee.?J Wise as his petition was, approved of Heaven as it was, one can hardly resist the impression that it is more expressive of the anxiety of a young king conscious of unfitness for his high duties than of the longing of a truly humble and penitent heart for the divine favor and mercy. His request is good and becom ing, but incomplete, since it does not stress the greatest want of the human soul the divine mercy in deliverance from sin and the kingdom of dark ness. Nor is the prayer of dedication as instinct with evangelical sentiment as would furnish the best ground of hope and confidence in the future moral stability of the suppliant. Indeed, it may well be questioned whether there is any passage in his life, or any word in his writings, that furnishes proof that Solomon ever was, as we say, soundly converted thoroughly regenerated by the Holy Ghost. For any sensible and patriotic youth, with-

"T

16 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

out religious experience, might desire wisdom for

the government of a great people; while the litur

gical sublimity and excellence of the prayer of ded

ication are not beyond the reach of religious senti

ment, good taste, and high culture.

We shall find the best materials for estimating

the true character of Solomon in his writings. Of

all his literary works, we have only the "Songs"

an exquisite wedding-poem of his ardent, poetic,

unfallen youth; the book of Proverbs, the gar

nered wisdom of his middle life; and Koheleth, or

Ecclesiastes, written in his later and more unhappy

years.

!| i

We cannot, after reading these confessions, avoid

ij

the conclusion that a subtle vanity marred his mo-

:

tive in the erection of the sacred temple itself.

j|j;

(There is vanity in many a church and cathedral in

||

Christian lands.) In his palace and city building,

;

self-love and ambition are too manifest to allow a

:|i;

doubt. In the most refined gratification of his

l|j;

tastes, as well as in his most revolting indulgences,

l;

self is predominant. His language is: "I made me

great works; I builded me houses; I planted me

vineyards" and in like phrase through the cata-

l! i

logue of all his works.

He seeks culture from the same selfish impulse.

Self entered predominantly into his pursuit of

knowledge. We talk much of the glory of culture,

but there is no species of selfishness more subtle,

delusive, or dangerous than the selfishness of cult

ure. There is a culture that hardens the heart and

dwarfs the affections. It is more refined, but it is

n

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 17

not less unrelenting than the selfishness of avarice

itself. Throughout the whole record this self-seek

ing spirit shows itself. The trail of the serpent is

in every garden and in every palace. In the account

he gives of his true inner life of his motives and

occupations there is little seen of a desire either

to serve mankind or to glorify God. Certainly,

after the first decade of his life, there appears little

desire to be useful, and little or no spirit of worship.

Indeed, God seems to have small place in the plans

and occupations of his middle and later life. Com

menting on this deplorable feature in his character.

Dr. Landels has well said:

"" " Has David's son, who commenced life with so

much promise, no place left in his heart for David's

God? Does he not even think of him in his attempt

to discover what will satisfy the cravings of his nat

ure? And what an obliviousness there seems to be

to his own responsibilities! Were his great wealth

and power granted him for no higher purpose than

to minister pleasure to himself ? .... Does he not

see that, even in the monarch, self-restraint is better

than self-indulgence, and that it ill becomes one so

men tally gifted to impose no limits on the gratifica

tions of his fleshlv desires? /

The selfishness of the

man breathes in every line. He thinks of nothing

beyond himself. There is no such question as, How

shall I fulfill the purposes of my existence? how

shall I glorify God and bless my fellow-creatures?

but, How shall I get pleasure pleasure that will

satisfy every craving of my nature, and leave noth

ing more to be desired? The me--the ego--has be-

2

T

18 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.

come the center of his universe, and the divinity of

his worship. This is the subject of every inquiry,

and the end of every pursuit."

On this line of self-seeking no man or woman

ever did or ever can succeed in living happily or

worthily. The eternal powers are against selfish

ness in every form and in every sphere. Law, om

nipotent and inexorable, enforces its decree; if

men will not be warned, they shall be disappointed

and crushed.

Solomon's career furnishes a startling illustration

of a vital but little understood truth: That self-

r'i

seeking culture culture without conscience mere

knowledge without worship, does itself tend to

nourish and develop the lower side of our nature;

that unsanctified culture, whether in philosophy, in

literature, in science, or in art, has its normal and

not infrequent end in some form of sensuality. Very

often there are restraints and conserving influences

that arrest and, in some degree, prevent such devel

\|i tl!

opment. Remarking on these topics, Charnock

says, with much force of expression:

"Many are fond of those sciences which may en

rich their understandings and grate not upon their

sensual delights. .... In those studies that have

not immediately to do with God, their beloved

pleasures are not impaired; it is a satisfaction to

self without the exercise of any hostility against it."

i;

Lord Bacon has admirably delineated the charac

teristics of mere knowledge-seeking without refer

ence to the great ends of worship and usefulness:

" The mistaking or misplacing of the last or far-

in

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 19
thest end of knowledge is the'greatest error of all the rest. For men have entered into a desire of knowl edge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquis itive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with vanity an d delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to obtain the victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; but seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men. .... I would advise all in general that they would take into serious con sideration the true and genuine ends of knowledge; that they seek it not either for pleasure, or conten tion, or contempt of others, or for profit, or fame, or for honor and promotion, or such like adulterate and inferior ends; but for merit and emolument of life, that they may regulate and perfect the same in charity."
In King Solomon's confessions we find almost in a breath such utterances as these: "And I gave my heart to know wisdom. .... I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure. .... I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom." In immediate connection with these state ments we have the recital of his great works in architecture, and in floral and horticultural orna mentation. The following statement also: "I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me." The connection shows that these "posses-

20 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILTJKE.

sions" were part of his appliances for luxurious and

sensual living.

The royal confessor goes on: "I gathered me sil

ver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and

of the provinces: I got me men-singers and women-

singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as

musical instruments, and that of all sorts."

It hardly requires critical learning to understand

all this. Thinly veiled by elegant euphemism, it is

the confession of a life devoted to gross though

splendid licentiousness. Let it be insisted on and

remembered that mere culture culture without

conscience and without God nourishes into despot

ic life the lower side of human nature, and finds its

fruition in sensuality.

,

And all history, if it be inquired into, confirms

f

the lesson taught by Solomon. To mention but a

i;tt

few instances: Ancient art reached its fullest tri

umphs in the period of the deepest moral degrada

tion. Exhumed Herculaneum reveals to the aston

ished gaze of our times the most exquisite art

dedicated and indissolubly wedded to the most

monstrous and revolting sensuality. Modern Ro

man art touched its highest point during the mag

nificent reign of Pope Leo X., but it was also the

period of the most degrading profligacy. And is

it not true of our own times that the centers of art

are also the centers of licentious sentiment and

practice? And often the world is shocked by indi

vidual instances where godless culture the most

splendid unites itself with animalism the most con

summate. Let it not be forgotten that Solomon

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 21
tells the story of his knowledge that was without God, of his art that was without conscience, and of his sensuality that was without shame, in the same paragraph of his confessions. And always, and in every age, these are the natural associations and issues from the Goethean theory of life, whether lived in Jerusalem or both taught and lived in Weimar.
Solomon's life, as set forth in his confessions, not only illustrates the truth that sensuality ends in wretched satiety as to the hodily appetites, and enfeehlement and degradation of the mind, hut that it leads to skepticism as to our beliefs and con victions. He did not, it seems, deny absolutely the existence of God; but his life of self-indulgence, issuing in disappointment, despair of happiness, and disgust at life, did lead to a blank and dreary skep ticism as to the beneficent and overruling providence of the Almighty Father.
In one breath he tells us: " Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy." In the next verse he says: " Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." His im patience waxes into intolerance. Hear him, raving like a madman, in his estimate of life and its re sults : " Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. For there is no remem-

22 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
braiice of the wise more than of the fool forever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. Therefore I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
Consider such wailings and ravings as these: " I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun. .... Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun."
!N"ow and then we have a momentary reference to God, as if an echo from his early days, a recognition more formal than hearty. But he falls again into his querulous and heartless unbelief. He seeks ref uge from the lashings of conscience in false philos ophy; he falls into a dreary pantheism, looking upon all nature as dominated by a blind and relent less law, or fate. Hear him, in words that pagans might have blushed to use: ." For that which befall eth the sons of men befalleth beasts; .... as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity." This is the creed of our modern materialism.
He contemplated the sufferings and oppressions of men as a sentimental observer, and concludes that there is help neither in God nor in man. His conclusion sinks into materialism, and is atheism, except the name. " Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive." And this praising of the dead takes

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
no glimpse at the thought of the felicity of the good who have entered into rest; he comprehends all the bad with the good. It is a fit creed for suicides.
What despair of life is in these petulant words: " Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good; do not all go to one place?" A man with such an experience, with such thoughts of life, and such despair of God, comes to hate his kind. Misanthropy is simply a symptom of skepticism. "Behold," says this un happy and depraved man, "counting one by one,to find out the account; which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found."
How monstrous, and false, and mean are such sentiments and such words! This burnt-out deb auchee, who had surrounded himself with a herd of bad women, pronouncing a sweeping verdict against female virtue! And always the man who entertains such sentiments and employs such lan guage about women is base, and false, and mean.
Solomon's skepticism has a moral rather than an intellectual origin. It is not the perplexity of an earnest searcher after truth; it is not the sorrow of a baffled mind that cannot find it; it is not the despair of a lofty soul wrestling in vain with the problems of the universe. His unbelief did not grow out of ignorance; nor was it due to lack of evidence. Like much of the unbelief of our times, his skepticism was a matter of the heart rather than of the head. To such a man as Solomon was for a

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
great period of his life, a firm, abiding, and saving faith in the divine goodness and justice, truth and mercy, was impossible. The man who deliberately puts pleasure in the place of duty will construct a creed low enough for the level of his practice. The man who deliberately says to his lower nature, " Go to now, I will prove thee with rnirth; therefore en joy pleasure," will presently say, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor." And on such a creed a man may build the most beastly materialism in life and morals. No man maintains a high standard of morals whose practice is low. The man who lives for pleasure only will conclude that pleasure is indeed the chief good, and will create a creed that rules out whatever principles interfere with his desires. No such man feels easy while the thought of God is in his heart. " The fool hath said iu his heart, There is no God." And he said it because the thought of God made him unhappy.
In such a life as Solomon lived the descent pro ceeds with accelerating momentum. The low prac tice seeks a lower creed; the lower creed allows and encourages a lower practice. Below every deep abyss of such a fall "a lower deep" still waits.
Skepticism like Solomon's naturally leads to su perstition. As always happens to such men, if they go far enough, there comes after awhile more than the sting of conscience for wrong-doing; there comes also the pains of disappointment. The de sire for pleasure often outlives the capacity of grat-

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 25
ification. Thousands have suffered Solomon's ex perience: "I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, "What doeth it?" The time came when his great works his palaces, his pleasure-gardens, his " men-singers, and women-singers, and delights of all sorts" were delioghts no more. He who had denied himself no pleasure came to a time when he hated it all. Here is his estimate of results: " Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."
We need not doubt it, chaos comes into such a soul as this. Such a man becomes a pessimist be cause he recoils from himself. From his sky the stars go out. Such a mind makes all existence like itself. Of such a mind we may say, in the sad and terrible words of Shelley, who himself sounded the depths of doubt and despair:
The curtain of the universe Is rent and shattered,
The splendor-winged worlds disperse, Like wild doves scattered.
But let us remember that desire does not go out when despair comes into the soul. When Solomon "despaired of all his labor which he took under the sun;" when his vexation at keen and utter disap pointment led him to "hate life" itself, his desire of happiness only asserted itself with more eager cries. The subsidence of passion, or the exhaustion of nature, brings not to the human soul even the quietude of indifference. If there be nothing else

26 SOLOMONS EXPERIMENT Afti> FAILURE.
left, the hungry soul will turn and feed upon itself. Every pulse of passion may be starved and bleached out of an emaciated body, without bringing one moment's rest to the mind,
which is its own place, And in itself can make a hell of heaven, A heaven of hell.
And, fearful to contemplate, there is no reason to believe that death itself will bring release from the fierce hunger of the soul that has fed on husks. Satan needed not a fleshly form to be the victim of contending passions, insatiable desires, and keen despair.
It is a just and profound remark of John Fos ter's: "All pleasure must be bought at the price of pain; the difference between false pleasure and true is just this: for the true the price is paid before you enjoy it, for the false after you enjoy it."
Solomon paid after he enjoyed, nor did he dis charge his debt.
Now, what was for him the natural outcome of such a course of life? This worn-out man, prema turely old, disgusted with all his works, hating life and doubting God, what was the natural thing for him to do, surrounded by an army of strange wom en from idolatrous countries? Manifestly to fall into idolatry. Molech, Chemosh, Ashtoreth, nat urally came after his departure from God came after a life of sensual indulgence that issued in dis gust and exhaustion, came after a life that brought him down to the low level of their abominations. He was like the crew of a burning ship who must

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT ASJ> FAILURE. 27
choose between the cruel fire and the cruel sea. He had ceased to call upon the God of his father Da vid; in his mortal agony and fear, he cried to the beastly gods his strange wives had brought him. "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians; and after Milcom, the abomina tion of the Ammonites."
He had proved the folly of mirth, the vanity of wealth, the mad vexation of indulgence; he had tried to find relief in skepticism, but his doubts were like the shifting seas, they could not let him rest. As Dean Howson says: "Unbelief, when it has become conscious of its weakness, is often glad to give its hand to superstition."
Young men, we have Solomon's experiment and its results before us. We have the history and his confessions. What do you think of it?
The experiment was made deliberately, thorough ly, with every possible advantage. And it failed failed utterly and ignobly. We have his estimate of it: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity." We have God's estimate. Our Lord Jesus, who knew what Was in men, made but one allusion to him; he preferred the lilies of the valley to all his pomp and glory. St. Paul, who mentions the dull giant Samson among the men of faith, does not mention great Solomon at all.
This history illustrates what we should all keep ever before us, that no man can set limits to sinful indulgence. Solomon deliberately and distinctly tried to do this. He said: "I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine> yet acquainting mine heart

28 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE.
with wisdom." This is universal experience. !NV> man ever died a drunkard who did not begin toying with wine with the distinct purpose to set limits to his indulgence, and with the confident belief that he could easily do it. ISo man ever died a wornout debauchee who did not, at the first, believe that he, and not his passions, was master.
Men know not the depths and force of the under currents of human nature. Woe betide the bold diver who is caught in the under-tow that leads out to the sea! Sin indulged is a very devil-fish that seizes the cable in its horrid jaws, shuts its eyes, and makes for unfathomed deeps.
What an opportunity this man trod under his feet! Consider how great were the possibilities to him when he ascended the throne. All Israel was glad, and Heaven sanctioned the joy of the people. He was " anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows." What a man in wisdom and in saintly grace he might have been! What a ruler of his people! What a light to all the nations of the earth! His rising sun gave promise of a golden and perfect day. Before it reached its meridian it was obscured with dark and fateful clouds. It hast ed to its setting in the blackness and mutterings of coming tempests. Whether there was any light beyond those clouds we cannot tell. All we know is that as he approached his end he seems, as the shadows fall upon him, to awake from his madden ing dream. He talks solemnly of the fear of God and of the judgment-day. Whether all this is more than the dying exhortation of a doomed

SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 29
man, going to his fate without hope, we do not know.
The closing chapter of Ecclesiastes is exquisitely tender and beautiful. It checks the foolish ardor of youth, and shames the vanity of selfish ambition. He paints old age as it was never painted. But, as to Solomon himself, there is no assurance in these sad last words that he~reeovered his lost purity, or that he found peace and salvation in the pardon of his sins. Speculation is idle and hurtful here. "We see him as a dismantled ship quivering on the con tending billows; mists, and clouds, and darkness settle about it and hide it from our eyes; a flash of lightning reveals it in painful distinctness for a mo ment; then we see it no more. Whether it ever reached the desired haven is known only to the dwellers beyond.
But his words are wise and his exhortation time ly: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole mat ter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." " Remem ber now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."
We leave Solomon as one turns from the burial of a man who, with vast possibilities, failed of suc cess, died and " made no sign." Let us be warned by his experiment and its failure.
If you will go to the Teacher who is wisdom, truth, and grace, he will show you the good and

30 SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. right way. Make him your friend. To the culture of books add the culture of grace. Seek the spirit of Christ; this only is your safeguard and your de liverance. Imitate his example. And he sure that no loftier promise was ever offered to the hope of men than that word of heavenly comfort and inspi ration : " We know that when He shall appear we shall he like him, for we shall see him as he is."
Fy

LOVICK PIERCE: 1785-1879.
[OXPOBD, NOV. 20, 1879.]
OUR Methodism never mourned at sucli a fu neral as that of Lovick Pierce; it never can again. For he was born six years before John Wesley died; he became an itinerant preacher during the Christmas of 1804; he was the contemporary of Asbury and MeKendree; he lived through three generations of men; he was a preacher of the gos pel of the Son of God for seventy-five years.
When he mounted his horse in January, 1805, and bade good-by to his mother for the wide reaches of the great Pedee Circuit in South Carolina, there were but five or six millions of people in the United States; when he died in Sparta, Georgia, on Sunday evening, November 9, 1879, there were, it is sup posed, fifty millions. When he began, the Indians were in Middle Georgia; when he died, our white population ever pushing westward had stretched its advancing lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He was before steam-boats, railroads, and telegraphs to say nothing of more recent and won derful inventions. During his life-time the most notable helps to the progress and civilization of the human race have come into use.
When he entered upon his career, Methodists counted by thousands; when he entered upon
(31)

32

LOVICK PIERCE.

his reward, they were counted hy millions. There

are more Methodists among the heathen nations to

day than were in England and America when As-

bury gave him his first appointment. There are

more Methodist preachers in Hindostan to-day than

were in America when Lovick Pierce was " admit

ted on trial." The Wesleyan Conference in the Fiji

Islands (and the Fijians were cannibals when he was

in his prime) is nearly as strong in numbers as was

Methodism in the United States when he entered

its ranks.

It may be mentioned with propriety also that the

greatest conservative and aggressive movements

of the Church have had their beginning, or have

taken on their strength, since our translated father

began to preach. The great Bible Societies, the

great Missionary Societies, have all been organized,

or developed into power, since Providence "gave

Lovick Pierce to the human race." Within his

time the Church has begun to realize her educational

function. That wonder of modern religious life, the

Sunday-school movement, has grown into a power

that promises untold blessings to the world since he

entered upon his career.

He lived through the "heroic days" of the first

period of American Methodist history; he lived

through the period of its more perfect ecclesiastical

organization; he lived to see Methodist churches

and missions planted on every continent and every

chief island of the sea; he lived to see universal

f

Methodism counting millions in its ranks gath

ering up its God-given energies for its grandest

>l

LOVICK PIERCE.

33

achievements; he lived to see, as in apocalyptic vis ion, the gray lines of light in the East that foretell the dawn of the brightest and divinest day in its history.
Full of years, full of honors, trusted and loved through three generations, revered hy millions of godly men and women, respected by his fellow-citi zens of every class, prized of Heaven and ripe for the harvest, he has "fallen on sleep," he has been "gathered unto his fathers" in the "sure and cer tain hope of the resurrection of the dead."
There is sadness in our Methodism, but not lamen tation. A mighty man and a prince in our Israel has been buried, but mingled with our tears are songs of victory. The noblest thing that a man can do is to live and die in the Lord. And he, whom they laid to rest in Columbus, November 12, had "fought a good fight;" had " kept the faith," had "finished his course." He has entered into rest; he has won his triumph; he is in heaven to day at home with his Lord, among the redeemed, a crowned victor forever.
If the Senate of Rome voted Caesar a triumph when he returned victorious from his wars, shall not the Church of God although bereaved of a trusted leader rejoice on the day of his triumphant entrance into the city of God, midst the acclama tions of the heavenly hosts? "What welcomes he has received! How many thousands helped to heaven through his ministry, how many veterans his companions in arms who toiled and suffered and triumphed with him through the campaigns

LOVICK PIERCE,

of three-quarters of a century, but who outran

him to glory, have received h}m into the shining

company above! While we meet to pay the im

perfect tribute of our respect to his greatness and

goodness, what high discourse he holds with the

immortals!

No Christian heart can. repine when we think of

him who SQ lately lingered upon our dull shores

"in age and feebleness extreme" as now holding

sweet converse with the redeemed, as now joining

his voice in the swelling song of the " multitude,

which no man can number, of all nations, and kin-!

dreds, and people, and tongues, that stand before the

throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white

robes, and palms in their hands, and cry with a.

loud voice, saying, Salvation to our Grod which sit-

teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. "

For our instruction and edification, let qs consider

carefully, thougn imperfectly, the story of bis life

and labors, the secret springs and motives of his

;'

private walk and public ministry.

Lovick Pierce "father of Methodism in Geor

gia" was born in Halifax county, North Carolina,

March 24,1785; he died in Sparta, Georgia, at the

home of his eldest son, Bishop George Poster Pierce,

on Sunday, November 9, 1879, at six and a-half

o'clock, just as the church-bells were ringing for the

evening service. To tell all that comes between

these dates would require a great volume. We

'

must content ourselves with brief consideration of

li

some of the leading facts of his life and the salient

points of his manifold character.

LOVICK PIERCE.

35

HIS BIRTH AND BRINGING UP.
Some ten years ago he wrote a long letter con cerning his early life and development to his wellbeloved friend, the lamented Dr. Edward H. Myers. "What I shall read to you at this time, concerning his early days, I have copied with that letter hefore me. Of his birth and bringing up, he writes:
U I was born in Halifax county, !Nbrth Carolina, March 24, 1785, but brought to South Carolina, I think, in 1788, and brought up in Barnwell District, on Tinker's Creek, twenty-three miles east of Au gusta, Georgia. My father resided on the same sec tion of land from 1788 till 1804, when he removed to Georgia. I was the second child, my brother Tfceddick of precious memory being two and a-half years older than myself. It being a very re markable circumstance, I will mention the fact that during this period, with a family of ten children, there was never a case of sickness, except three agues that I had. l$or was there a death among us, nor a dose of medicine taken."
He came of "good human stock." Of his parents, he says:
"My father and mother were sprightly and affa ble cheerful and happy. They were of that class of poor people whose views and feelings on points of propriety always belonged to the higher order of aspirations. From them we inhaled only pure and lofty aspirations, in so far as incentives to every hu man virtue were involved. They were models of industry. That labor is as honorable as it is neces sary, was an axiom in our house. And the precious

36

LOVICK PIERCE.

leaven of it has, in good degree, leavened our whole

lump. There was never one of our blood that was

constitutionally lazy. I am glad that I was born of

working parents. Good human stock is best."
i

HIS CONVERSION.

He tells us of the influences that led to his conver

sion and to his becoming a Methodist. In a memoir

of his brother Reddiek, written in 1860, he says of

the relation of his family to Methodism:

"My aunt "Weathersby had imbibed a love of

Methodism in Kbrth Carolina, before her removal,

and hailed their coming among us as a blessing.

My father despised the race with bitterness. My

mother, I think, like her sister, had a liking to Meth

odism. But not one of our family ever attended a

Methodist service till August, 1801."

In his letter to Dr. Myers, he says of himself and

brother:

" My acquaintance with Methodist preaching com

menced in August, 1801; my brother Reddick and

myself went to hear the Rev. James Jenkins, of the

South Carolina Conference. I joined the Church in

the summer of 1802. The circuit was then under

the care of the Rev. Thomas Darley, assis'ted by

John Campbell. Campbell took me in, my father

and mother, and brother and oldest sisters, having

joined three weeks before, under Darley. It was

* * i

a six weeks' circuit, Jenkins being presiding elder.

fl:

I was converted in August, 1803 Darley on the

circuit."
1';

i'

LOVICK PIERCE.

37

HIS EARLY ENVIRONMENTS.
The sketch from which we quote gives us a vivid view of the young convert's moral and social envi ronments on Tinker's Creek, in South Carolina, in 1803. He says:
" That portion of South Carolina in which I was brought up was only half civilized, as we call it, till after 1801. Then it was included in the old Edisto Circuit, and was regularly supplied with Methodist preaching. Previous to that time there was very little preaching in all that region, and what there was was so mixed up with crude notions of elec tion that sinners made a hobby of it. They parried all religious emotions with the plea, 'If I am to be saved, I will be.' But there were a few good people.
x " I have mentioned civilization, as we call it. I did so on purpose. In those days of semi-barbarian aspects, human life was estimated at its original worth. The people would fall out and fight. But the disposition to kill was unknown and unfelt. I do not think a case of killing, as we have it now, ever occurred during the first twenty-five years of my life. .... But as to myself, while my parents were not openly religious, they were firm believers in religion, and recommended its morality to us, while they did not fully enforce it, especially in re lation to keeping the Sabbath-day holy. We were restrained from all common labor, but not from sinful pastimes. O if we had had Sabbath-schools then, I wonder how I should have relished them!"
Of his early religious impressions, he says:

38

LOVICK PIERCE.

"Under all these unfavorable surroundings, my mind, to whatever agency it was due, was always deeply affected with religions impressions. My ideas of God were all pretty much of the terrific kind. I was indoctrinated with such views of God, all tending to make his power so terrihle, that no room was left for the solace of sympathy and love. I think I always offered some sort of a prayer when I lay down. I was afraid to go to sleep without it. But it was always done as law. The idea of kneel ing and praying formally I think I hardly had. My recollection is that I never saw but one man kneel to pray till after the Methodists introduced it. And as to teaching children to kneel and say,
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
I very much doubt if there was a family in the dis trict that ever heard of such a thing."

THE BROTHERS.

The brothers, Reddick and Lovick, were both

"awakened to a sense of sin" under the ministry

of the R-ev. James Jenkins; both sought and found

religion; both entered the traveling ministry to

gether. Their conversion produced a great sensa

tion among their acquaintances. Young men were

not expected to be religious; the public profession

of religion by these two well-known young men

l>:

was a social and moral phenomenon hard to be un

derstood. The general idea that prevailed in that

day was (alas! that it is not yet well out of the

world) that " every young man had his basket of

I ki .

Lovtcfe PIERCE.

39

wild oat-seed to sow; And he had the sanction of public opinion to sow on."
Dr. Pierce writes of the conversion of himself
t
and brother: " The conversion of two young men j so conspicu
ous as my brother and myself, turned right away from a country-dance to a Methodist prayer-meet ing, and both of us in for this new life, and no drawing us off, gave us great notoriety."

HIS CALL TO PREACH.
There were some very remarkable circumstances connected with his call to preach* Let the story be told in his own words. He says to Dr. Myers:
" I felt my mind impressed with a call to preach, or with impressions that I would have to preach, from my early boyhood days. This was the more noteworthy, because in my early times it was a rare occurrence with me even to see a preacher or hear a sermon. So that these impressions and feelings were not occasioned by familiarity and a fondness for preachers. These far-back feelings in my life frequently accumulated into such strength as, when I would be walking alone, to lead me to pass in thought words, as if addressing hearers, till I was overwhelmed with weeping. All this was the more 'marvelous because, in so far as I can now retrace these tender emotions, they were without any fixed purpose to be a preacher, or even the desire to be one."
Here is indeed matter for our study of the "way of the Spirit" with men. This stripling, working

40

LOVICK PIERCE.

on a small farm in an obscure part of South Caro lina, in the beginning of this century, who was without education or educational opportunities, who had rarely seen a preacher or heard a sermon, who was decently moral but without religious life this boy, walking alone along woodland paths and for getting what was about him, preaching " in thought," " as if addressing hearers, till he was overwhelmed with weeping " is indeed a sight to arrest attention. "Was it not the Spirit that called young Samuel in the silent watches of the night, that moved the heart of John the Baptist in the wilderness? But what mighty stirrings of the Spirit of all life and grace were moving that young and untaught heart only He who called the unconverted fishermen of Galilee to "follow" him could read or tell.

A CALL TO PREPARE.
What followed, years after, may appear as very singular to some, but the experience is not uncom mon. Returning to his own sketch, we will find sentences pregnant with meaning and rich in in struction. We begin with his own word "there fore:"
" Therefore, after my conversion, when my mind became impressed with the idea that I must preach, I resisted the call for nearly two years, until my religious life and peace disappeared, very much like a process of drying up. I simply felt as if it were .a punishment for disobedience. And yet, in my defense of myself, I went upon the ground of not knowing whether I was called or not, foolishly ask-

LOVICK PIERCE.

41

ing for a 'sign.' And then again, taking the ground that even if I was called I was too ignorant to preach, and could not undertake it. I now think my idea of ignorance then arose chiefly from my illiterate condition. It never entered into my mind that a call to preach was, of course, a call to prepare for it. This was then a sort of ingrained error iti American Methodists, to'wit: That a man was emphat ically called to preach, just as the Lord might lay hands on him. I say this was an error of American Method ists; I do not think that English Methodists were ever muck, if ever at all, affected with this low-bred enthu siasm"
We would give emphasis^ if possible, to the clos ing sentences of this paragraph. They are vastly important to young men contemplating the minis try, and to the Church in considering their applica tion for authority to preach. They express the de liberate judgment of such a man as Loviek Pierce after nearly seventy years of experience, observa tion, and reflection. Let the Church in her dealings with unprepared youths consider of them. And let such youths lay them to heart.

THE BEGINNING.
The following account of his providential induc tion into the ministry will be read with profound interest by all thoughtful persons; and it will be read with tears by some who have had like tribula tion of soul.
" But after all my well-grounded apprehensions and withering fears," the sketch continues, "I was

42

tiOViCK

led out by the Spirit, and became a preacher. The

following was the process:

"My pastor, the Rev. T. Darley, knowing my

troubled mind, gave me, of his own accord, a license

to exhort, and appointed me class-leader, at a new

preaching-place, eleven miles from my father's. The

people all concluded I was a preacher, and so an

nounced me. On my first appointment it was at

a private house when I reached the place every

hole and corner was a jam of people.

"My father was a military officer - militia, of

course and my brother and myself had accompa

nied him to so many military parades (for in those

days these militia-musters were as regular and near

ly as certain as the fulls and changes.of the moon)

that we had become widely known. The report

that a son of Captain Pierce would preach at this

place, on this day5 was enough to bring out all the

il

country. And so it did. "I was never in such a fright in all my life. I

halted, tried to pray, wallowed on the clean grass,

afraid to go back and give it up, and yet felt as if

to face the crowd, as a preacher, was more than flesh

and blood could endure. I cried to God for help

and direction, until my faithful watch announced to

me I must either go in or give it up. I did go in,

and that day sealed my destiny as to preaching. I

read a lesson, sung a hymn, prayed and exhorted

all of which consumed only about thirty minutes.

I left without dinner, because my mind was so agi

tated with my anomalous condition that all desire

for food was totally gone."

LOVICK PIERCE.

48

"TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL."
There are many preachers who cannot read this account of the "process" by which the great preach er was " led out by the Spirit" into the ministry with out tender and grateful recall of heart-searchings, of wrestling with the prince of darkness, and of divine deliverance in the days of their own weak ness and temptation. Are they not all who are to do great work for God and man "led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" for a season?
Let me read again from his own account, and see what experiences he had when his first sermon was over. He continues:
"And now my mind was plied with the very nat ural temptation that I had done wrong, because my religious comforts were all wasted, in my long refusal to obey my impressions to preach. Satan himself now admitted that there had been a time when I ought to have done it, but that now I had sinned away the Spirit and could not rightfully do it. In this perplexed state of mind I remember it well I said in my heart, as unto God: 'I will fill my next appointment (for in my hurry and confu sion I had left another), and if there is any evidence of Divine approval, I will never ask for another sign of assurance that it is my duty to preach.' I went at the time, and the Lord came down in mighty power, as in those days he did. In a few weeks nearly every family in the settlement were in the Church. I kept my promise, and have never doubted my call to preach from that day to this.".

44

LOVICK PIERCE.

AS ITINERANT PREACHER.

He was "admitted on trial" in the South Caro

lina Conference that met in Charleston during the

Christmas holidays of 1804, under the presidency

of Bishop Asbury. His first appointment was the

Great Pedee Circuit, South Carolina. His brother

Reddick, admitted the same day, was sent to Little

River, in Wilkes county, Georgia. Lovick's second

appointment was to the Appalachee Circuit, includ

ing Greene, Clarke, Oconee, and Jackson, counties.

At Sparta, where he died, he was " admitted into full

connection and ordained deacon" December, 1806;

he was ordained elder at a Christmas Conference

held in Greene county in 1808. To trace his ap

pointments from that time would be to recite the

history of Methodism in Georgia for nearly three-

quarters of a century.

From that first exhortation " in a private house,"

.

of which he has told us, to his last sermon preached on Sunday, D'ecember 1, 1878, before the JS'orth

Georgia Conference in Marietta, Dr. Pierce preached,

as he himself estimated, not less than eleven thou

sand sermons.

And he preached gospel sermons; from the be

ginning to the end of his long and illustrious min

istry, he could say, with St. Paul, " God forbid that

I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus

Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me,

and I unto the world." How constantly, how ably,

how earnestly, how successfully he preached is

known and read of all men. It is an essential part

of Methodist history in this country; it would re-

LOVICK PIERCE.

45

quire a volume to tell the story. For three-quarters of a century he magnified his ministry in cities, villages, and country-places on circuits, stations, districts, missions, agencies to the very best of his great ability, as God gave him opportunity. And no man of his time had more abundant opportunity, for God honored his servant's zeal.
His last appointment was given him by Bishop McTyeire, at Thomasville, Ga., last winter. He was named " Conference Missionary." His Conference would not place him on the list of " superannuated men." He shrunk from it, and they delighted to please and honor him.
MAMEJAGE.
In 1809, Dr. Pierce married Miss Ann Foster, daughter of Col. George Foster, of Greene county, Ga., a successful planter, a man of great force of character, and a devoted member of the Methodist Church. Forty-one years she was a help-mate wor thy to be the wife of such a man as Loviek Pierce. Georgia and Methodism owe such a wife and moth er as she was immortal honor. She died suddenly in Columbus, Ga., May, 1850, when her husband was returning from the St. Louis General Confer ence. Without warning, while sitting in her chair, reading her Bible, she went to God. It was by her side whose memory he cherished with pure, knightly devotion that a multitude of mourners laid the great preacher to rest, as the sun was set ting Tuesday, November 11,1879.

46

LOVICK PIERCE.

AS LOCAL PREACHER.

Nine years after he entered the itinerant minis

try, Dr. Pierce located at the Conference which met

in FayettevOle, North Carolina, January 12,1814.

During the few years of his location he studied and

practiced medicine, to provide for his family in that

period of meager salaries. But his zeal knew no

1

abatement during his enforced retirement from his

work as an itinerant preacher. How he magnified

M

the office of a local preacher during this period the

traditions of Middle Georgia faithfully tell. Change

of relation did not change his zeal. When, during the

war of 1812, he was drafted into the army and ap

pointed chaplain to the troops stationed in Savannah,

he gave himself to preaching just as he did on cir

cuits and districts.

AT GENERAL CONFERENCE.
He was a member of the first delegated General Conference ever held in Methodism. It met in New York in May, 1812. His name does not appear among the delegates to the two succeeding General Conferences that met in 1816 and 1820. Doubtless he would have been elected had he not been ineligible by reason of his temporary location, for the Church never missed an opportunity to honor and trust him. He was a member of the General Conference that met in 1824, the first that met after his return to the itinerant ministry, and of every other till 1844, when, at the memorable Conference in New York, American Episcopal Methodism became "two bands." He was a member of the convention that

te

LOVICK PIERCE.

47

organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1845, and of every Gen eral Conference thereafter down to 1878.

AS FRATERNAL MESSENGER.
It is matter of notorious Methodist history that he was appointed to convey to the General Confer ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church that met in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1848, the fraternal salutations of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. How that General Conference declined to receive the blameless messenger, how dignified and Christian was his communication to the Conference on leav ing the city of Pittsburgh all this is matter of history,
IBs connection with the recent movements to establish fraternal relations between these two larg est bodies of American Methodists you have in mind. He was appointed chairman of the distin guished delegation the lamented Dr. James A. Duncan and the venerable Chancellor Garland be ing the other members that was charged with the fraternal salutations of Southern Methodism to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that met in Baltimore, May, 1876.
It was matter of great regret to both Churches that Dr. Pierce hindered by his infirmities was unable to be present in person. The letter he ad dressed to the General Conference was worthy his own character, the great Church he represented, and the great cause he sought to serve. !STo man in American Methodism welcomed the tokens of

48

LOVICK PIERCE.

the sentiment of Christian brotherhood with more gratitude than did Dr. Pierce; these "fruits of the Spirit" in our common Methodism cheered his de clining years.

THE MANNER OF HIS DEVELOPMENT.

We have reserved some glimpses of his methods

of study, or of the history of his education, till this

point in the address, for the reason that he was a

student till the last. His education was never fin

ished; till late in life he was capable of new devel

opments and of new acquisitions.

As to school advantages in his boyhood and youth,

they were so meager that they enter into the story

*

of his mental development only in this, that he pos

sessed the simplest implements of further research

when he left the old-field school-house. But it is

plain, from his own account of himself, that when

he entered the South Carolina Conference in his

twentieth year, he had neither mental training nor

mental stores.

Let us remember that it is not the mental de

velopment of a scholar, a scientist, a literary man,

that we are considering, but the development of a

preacher. As a preacher, he read, observed, thought.

With him the preacher was first; preaching dom

inated him from first to last, from the time that he

wept under overpowering emotions in addressing,

in his unuttered thoughts, imaginary congregations,

to his last day, preaching was his uppermost thought

and deepest study. Underlying this habit of thought

if,

and feeling was the deepest conviction possible to

li:

LOVICK PIERCE.

49

the human mind of his special and divine call to preach the gospel. He believed, to use his own words, in "the personal designation of some men to the ministry in the mind and purpose of God," and that he was set apart by the Spirit of God to this greatest work to which human energy can con secrate itself. He believed further and he has left this opinion on record that men who are divinely designated to the work of preaching and who refuse to obey the divine call " commit a sin unto death."
Let us see him as he pictured himself when he began his work. He was eighty-five when he wrote of his early days:
"My educational advantages were very limited, when I entered upon the work of preaching. They have never amounted to much in the way of gen eral learning. The proof, however, of my mental structure I infer from my deep sense of the need of education and the native readiness with which I perceived all manner of irregularities in things vis ible, and to which mind had been applied in any artistic sense, as in relation to things level, or per pendicular, or straight. With me it was a natural necessity. I could but perceive all these imperfec tions, and being compelled to see new things and new places daily almost all of them out of proper square it became an annoyance to me. But my view now is that mind is a unit all of a piece if perfect in its perceptive capacity. . Hence it came to pass, when my duty called me in that direction, I found that, in some way, this perceiving capacity was operated on as readily through my hearing as
4

50

LOVICK PIERCE.

my seeing, and so bad language in composition, or preaching, and especially in the latter where most I met with it grated on some sense of mine, so as unpleasantly to aft'eet me, and drive me to inquire after a better way, and to learn the philosophy of language. So that long before I knew any thing of grammar as grammar, when some blunderbus, with apparent pomp, would open his discourse with, * My text are a copious subject,' it came over my feelings, even then, with a sense of shame and disgust. Un der the embarrassing want of education, for awhile I undertook to improve my language by a close ob servance of the language of the best speakers, and became greatly interested in the pleadings of the bar, and was, fortunately for me, my own judge of good speaking."
We have in this extract, we take it, a rare bit of mental history, and one that deserves the most thoughtful consideration.
Let us remember that young preachers had not then a "Conference Course of Study." In the Minutes of the old Georgia Conference, the first germs of a course of study appear at that one Con ference that Bishop Emory held in Georgia. And I am much inclined to believe that Dr. Pierce in spired the request of the Conference that induced the good and scholarly Bishop to draw up the out lines of a course of study for young preachers. For our improved methods we never will know how much we owe to the original and fruitful mind of Lovick Pierce.
The fact is, he learned language almost without

LOVICK PIERCE.

51

books, as he learned to be a preacher without teach ers or models. His account of the method he em ployed in learning the philosophy of correct and forcible speech reminds us of the Scotch Furguson learning astronomy while he watched his sheep un der the starlight on the hills, and of Hugh Miller learning geology while he dressed stone in the quar ries of Cromarty.
Dr. Pierce would have been the last man to argue from his own experience that young preachers do not need thorough scholastic training. For nearly fifty years he gave his great influence to building up our colleges. And it is worthy of mention that as a trustee of Emory College and of Wesleyan Female College he always stood up for the most thorough work, and for the highest standard in their curriculum. And it was never in his thoughts that he would not have been a greater and more useful man than he was if he had been favored with better training and richer stores in the outset of his ministry. He would have counted such a sentiment among the " low-bred enthusiasms " which he repro bated so earnestly.

HIS INDEBTEDNESS TO GEORGE DOUGHERTY.
During his first year God sent him a wise friend in the person of George Dougherty, who was the only preacher of that day with whom he came in contact who had any marked literary tastes or at tainments. Many of us have heard him speak with enthusiasm of this gifted and consecrated Irishman. Dougherty came to the young itinerant, hungering

52

LOVICK PIERCE.

and thirsting after knowledge, as a gracious provi dence. To how many young preachers has Lovick Pierce heen a providence! (If I may be pardoned a personal remark right here, I will say that for twenty years I have owed him a debt of gratitude that can never be paid.) George Dougherty came at a crisis in his intellectual history. Here is what Dr. Pierce says of his early friend:
" To an incidental remark of George Dougherty, made to me in the autumn of 1805 my first itin erant year, he being my presiding elder I owe the first inspiration of an outspread of my mind into the regions ahead. He heard me exhort not with my knowledge, but by lying in wait to see what he should say of me, I suppose. Being thrown to gether at night, he asked me, 'Have you ever read Paley's Moral Philosophy ?' I told him, * ETo; I have never seen it.' To which he replied, * Get it, and read it,' and it will make. a man of vvou. But do n't you read it and think you are a philosopher.' The speech was brief, but it was enough. To be made a man of and not in this sense, to think myself something while I was really nothing was my ideal in desire."
He lost no time in getting the book and studying it profoundly. It " unsealed the fountains." It set him to revolving the great moral questions which occupied him all his days. "We must not overlook his own reflections on the influence of this great work on his subsequent development:
"The arguing of these questions in my mind in so far as Dougherty's prediction has come to pass

LOVICK PIERCE.

58

concerning me made me the man I am, although it is a small one. And now suppose I had missed this advice and heen led off on some unprofitable speculation, .... does not any man, with any mental philosophy, see that my mental resources would have been impoverished, by the perpetual slavery of a one-idea delusion, instead of the free, untrammeled investigation of moral science, upon the basis of God*s indications of human compari son and relationship? In my study of moral phi losophy, I made it my stand-point to argue moral philosophy alone from the views of the divine will, given to us in God's revelation of himself to man. It has been my good fortune, small as the stock of ray mental capital was, to do a very fair business on it, mainly, I think, because I' went out and traded ivith the same.9 "
About this time another and very different book fell into his hands, his experience with which he tells us:
" In my early times as an itinerant, there was lit tle to inspire a young beginner in the way of liter ary taste or attainments. All were alike unlearned in letters, save Dougherty. And, as might have been expected, 'Simeon's Skeleton Sermons' were all the go for awhile. Accordingly I made haste to get a copy; and it was well I did. The contempt I felt for the book, and for myself, when I waked up to the littleness of employing another man's mind to do my thinking and planning for me, was an other upward step in my mental pathway."
Against" skeleton sermons," ancient and modern,

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LOVICK PIERCE.

he enters his solemn and vehement protest. And nearly as strong is his protest against musty manu scripts.
PREACHING "OUT OF SEASON"
One more salient point in the history of his men tal development we must consider for a moment. He observed that many preachers were in the habit of excusing themselves from preaching " out of sea son " on the ground that they had not had time to " study their texts." He says:
"They had fallen into the idea that any subject they intended to announce must be studied just as an advancing boy would study his next lesson in grammar. 'I did not so understand it. I could not see why a man engaged in the regular practice of preaching should need more than ten or fifteen min utes to prepare to preach from any common text, and these are the only sort a man of good sense will ever undertake to do common preaching from."
Of his own plan, he says:
"Instead of studying every text to see how it could be applied to the general scheme of Christian theology, I studied theology systematically."
This was the great secret of his peculiar gift of powerful preaching on short notice; he " studied theology systematically." To use one of his own expressions, what he wanted, when his mind settled down on a text, was to have time to " put the text on its basis." He looked to the context to what went before, to what came after; he considered what the doctrine of the text was; he rapidly ar ranged the order in which he would discuss the

LOVICK PIERCE.

55

topics it contained; and having previously studied the doctrine of the text, as a part of systematic theology, he was ready to preach it. It was the difference between a doctor who studies the symp toms of each case only and one who studies the human body and disease in all their relations; be tween the lawyer who hunts up law for a special case and one who studies the great principles of law that must apply to all cases.

A BORN PREACHER.
If ever there was a born preacher, Dr. Pierce was that man. He had emphatically a preaching mind, a preaching heart, and a preaching temperament. I had almost said, and a preaching body, for his person graced the pulpit, and his whole physical make-up was admirably fitted for powerful preach ing.
His rapid and vehement delivery during the early years of his ministry nearly cost him his life. See ing his error, he determined to reform and learn to speak naturally. It took him two years to learn the lesson; but he did learn it, and so thoroughly, that, for more than sixty years, he was perhaps the most easy and natural speaker among all his breth ren. Indeed, he learned so fully the art of speak ing and breathing that it became a sort of wonder that he could speak so long, so constantly, and, on occasion, so loud, without injury or even fatigue, so far as mere speaking was concerned. After he was seventy-five years old, he thought nothing of preach ing two hours at a time for four successive days at

56

LOVICK PIERCE.

a camp-meeting. At the close of the meeting his voice would be foil, round, and smooth, still capable of its greatest exertions.
He loved to preach "in season and out of sea son" as one renders it, "conveniently and incon veniently." He had little patience with men who stand in such fear of their reputation that they can not preach without special preparation. He would preach before any congregation on five minutes' notice, if necessary. No one ever heard him de cline preaching on the ground that he was not pre pared. He held with Wesley and the men- of his day that " a Methodist preacher should be always ready to preach and to die." And he was.
It seemed very easy for him to preach without special preparation. Some years ago, he wrote out ah able and elaborate treatise showing the methods of study that make such results not only possible but easy. Unfortunately for us all, the carefully prepared manuscript was destroyed by the Publish ing House fire in the city of Nashville.
But this much we know: He was always think ing, and, as a matter of course, there was always something to say. We doubt whether, during the last sixty j-ears, he ever turned over the leaves of his Bible to " hunt for a text." His mind was full of texts and themes. To the very last he was con stantly "breaking up new ground." Time and again we have heard him discuss texts he had never handled before. Notably, after a spell of sickness and enforced abstinence from preaching there was sure to follow a crop of new sermons.

LOVICK PIERCE.

57

Preaching was a holy luxury to him. He was never so happy as when in the pulpit, except, indeed, it was when he saw souls hlessed under his ministrv/ . Pulpit work was to him a sort of medicine. In his later years he would often drag himself wearily into the pulpit, preach an hour or two, and walk away erect and with elastic step.
In the days of his prime indeed, till he was past eighty his voice was an instrument of inarvelous power. Smooth, flexible, musical, ample, it was capable of the highest uses of sacred eloquence.

A BIBLE BELIEVER AND STUDENT
Dr. Pierce was emphatically a student of the Bi ble. He believed it with an absolute, unquestioning faith, and he pondered its great truths with ever new delight. He knew the contents of the sacred volume beyond most men of his time. It was not the knowledge of mere memory; his preaching was not the recitation of a string of texts. Bible truth was "bread of life" to him. He fed upon it, di gested it, assimilated it. It became part of his mental substance bone and muscle, nerve and sinew.
There was great variety in his preaching, but it was the variety of the Scriptures and of nature, and not of science, history, or literature. In his ser mons and writings we recognize the Bible origin of his great thoughts. Like sandal-wood, their sweet fragrance betrayed the place of their growth, meet them where you might. So diligent a student of the Bible would, of course, "bring forth out of

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LOVICK PIERCE.

his treasures things new and old," for the Bible contains as infinite variety as God's other great book, Nature, so deep, so high* and so wide.
He deprecated the abject dependence on commen taries which some preachers manifest. He listened to " authorities," but he did not give himself away to them. He honored critical learning, but he did not surrender his great Protestant right of " private judgment" to the masters of Greek roots and He brew vowels. His creative powers were not stran gled by the grave-clothes of "the Fathers," nor smothered by the Weight of modern books, nor confused by the dissonance of conflicting opinions. What are known as "skeletons of sermons" he simply abhorred. He believed, and with reason, that their use works the paralysis and death of all original, creative thinking-power. It disgusted him to see a man to whom God had given a good pair of legs walking on crutches. He himself used commentaries sparingly; he had no whimsical prej udice against them; he did not seem to feel the need of them. As between a first-class work on system atic theology and a first-class commentary, he would choose the first every time.

EXPOSITION AND EXEGESIS.
In the days of his power, he was counted, by good judges, the foremost expository preacher among his brethren. If we may make a distinction, sometimes overlooked, his preaching was expository rather than exegetical. His bent of mind inclined him to exposition rather than exegesis, and his method of

LOVICK PIERCE.

59

study confirmed his original inclination. With

what is known as " scientific exegesis" he was not

familiar; indeed, he had no great love for this sort

of work; nor did his early training, his mental

habits, or his methods of study, fit him for it.

He dealt less with the linguistic technicalities and

niceties of his texts than with their great substan

tial truths. He did not believe that the wise and

good God had given to his children a system of re

ligion and then locked all its treasures in an intri

cate and technical terminology that defied the com

mon sense of mankind. Without troubling himself

with minute verbal criticisms, he brought out the

great truths of the texts he discussed with breadth

and power. He rarely took short texts; when he

did, he " related them " to their context so as to eive

*

1**r

his great, broad mind scope and verge. He wanted

the broad bay or the open sea to move in; the nar

row banks of a canal he could not endure. If we

have " Great Easterns," we must have sea-room for

them. They would destroy the canals could they

move in them. But canals are very useful, and

canal-boats should stick to them. What is called

" topical preaching," with its triad of divisions and

subdivisions, he did not relish. Yet he was emi

nently a preacher of doctrines; but the doctrine

grew out of the text the text was not sought out

that it might sustain a preconceived theory of doc

trine.

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LOVICK PIERCE.

HIS SERMONIZING.
There was nothing mechanical or artificial in his sermonizing. His sermons grew like great foresttrees in virgin loam some of them like the Red wood cedars of California; they were not built like brick-walls, by the mere accretion of discon nected parts. They grew from a principle of life within; they were evolutions from some great germthought that he found in his text. If they had, both as to their structure and character, the vast variety of nature, they also had.its pleasing unity.
To every man his own method, so it be his best method. " The tools to him who can use them," was a maxim of the great Corsican. If one man has a gift.for landscape-gardening, or for arranging a parterre of flowers with pretty contrasts of color, we will not despise his gift. If one, in a thousand can grow a great forest with dense shadows under its lofty trees, brightened here and there with patches of green and sunshine with its vast soli tudes, rich in nature's treasures and musical with nature's harmonies we will not, if we are wise, dis credit him because his trees are not trimmed into artificial shapes, nor planted with the exact meas urements and precise order one may sometimes ob serve in a public garden.
There was logic in his preaching, but not logical formulae. Syllogistic bones did not show themselves. His arguments were not "articulated" after the manner of the " prepared " specimens the skeletonfitters furnish, but after the manner of nature in a living, vigorous man. Joints there were, strong and

LOVICK PIERCE.

61

supple but the full muscle and the smooth skin of vigorous, healthy life concealed their protuberances.
Of moral truths and their relations he had such intuitive perception that he did not often give the processes of his own mind in discovering them. He dealt with conclusions and applications rather than with premises.

HIS DISCUBSIONS AND PARENTHESES.
He indulged himself, at times, in large discursions. Leaving the main channel, he would explore, for a time, the affluents of his themes. But there was little danger to him; he who sails the Amazon will hardly find shallow water in the great currents that make into it. But he never forgot his points of de parture and landing. He knew where he was going, and, in his own way and time, he would return with renewed zest to the main lines of his discourses.
Some of his parentheses were as long and involved as De Quincey's, but when the wide swing of his dis cursive thoughts was accomplished, he would wind up the sentence or paragraph in harmony with its beginnings. The parentheses of some speakers are the dark places in their thoughts, where they do not understand themselves, and grope their way like the explorers of unlighted caverns; Dr. Pierce's paren theses were bright as broad avenues flooded with light. Often they sparkled with refined wit, bub bled over with chaste humor, or melted with pure pathos.
The use of the pen against which he warned his brethren in his pulpit preparations would have

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LOVICK PIERCE.

corrected this habit. Whether it would have been a gain to him we cannot determine. Possibly it might have cramped him overmuch, and lost him freedom and power where it gained him directness and precision. But we are sure that young men will find it dangerous to imitate the great master too closely. The arm that can hurl a javelin with force may not lift a spear large as a weaver's beam. Even David could not fight in the armor of King Saul. Better for him his shepherd's sling and the smooth stones out of the brook.

PRACTICAL AND ORIGINAL.
Dr. Pierce was not given to speculative theology. He dealt chiefly in the great practical doctrines that lie at the roots of religious experience and Christian ethics. And in this department he was a man of might, whose peer it would be hard to find. He brought out the great truths of a text and applied them to the conscience with rare power, sometimes with overwhelming force.
His preaching was bold in its thinking; his mind made its own orbit, and he moved in it without fear. God gave him great powers of original thought, and he honored the Giver by both trusting and using them. He put his foot down firmly as on a rock where many gifted men would step cautiously, as if they suspected concealed quicksands to swallow them up. Occasionally he startled his hearers by the boldness and sweep of his statements. But it was the belief that he had Scripture under him that gave him such preaching courage.

LOVICK PIERCE.

68

His absolute faith in the word of God gave an assurance to his preaching that idle hearers some times mistook for dogmatism. But dogmatism, in the sinister sense of the term, was utterly foreign to his nature. He did not indulge it himself; he could not abide it in others. How could a man saturated with the sense and sentiments, the truth and spirit of the Bible, and who felt upon his soul the rnovings of the Holy Ghost, preach otherwise than with apos tolic authority?
He had the gift of original expression as fully as that of original conception. It would be easy to give hundreds of examples. For half a century their repetition has enriched many a fireside talk. And these unique, idiomatic expressions were coined when needed. He rarely repeated them. Some of them were as quaint as any thing in Bunyan or Quesnel. But there was the truth of nature in them all.

THE POWER OF HIS PREACHING.
It is difficult for this generation to understand what the old people tell of the power of his preach ing in the days of his middle-life vigor. But the tradition is uniform as to his transcendent power over the human heart and conscience when the holy fire touched his lips and flamed out in his words. And there was always the indication of reserved power that deepened the impression he made upon his hearers.
Upon one ever-memorable occasion he preached to a great congregation in Morgan county, Georgia, upon Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones.

LOVICK PIERCE.
On and on he went in his argument, painting with words of fire the world's misery and its sins, till the listening multitude were appalled. They felt as if they stood at the hase of Sinai, wrapped in clouds, quaking with thunder, and flaming with lightning. And then the preacher turned their gaze to Calvary, and he seemed to he transfigured before their eyes. He held up the cross as Moses held up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and bade the people look and live! The great preacher held and mastered his congregation through four long hours of such argument and appeal as were perhaps never sur passed. It is matter of history that nearly three hundred people were converted, and ascribed their awakening to that tremendous sermon.
We mention another instance of the power of this master of assemblies. In 1806 the second year of his itinerant ministry^a great camp-meeting was held at Smyrna, not far from the town in which he died. "We quote the account from Bishop McTyeire's sketch of Richmond Volley one of the first Meth odist preachers who crossed the Mississippi, and who, after hard service, died alone in the swamps of Louisiana. Kolley was one of the converts of that camp-meeting. The Bishop writes:
"An immense crowd, estimated at ten thousand, attended. It was impossible for them all to be seated under the arbor, so a strong young preacher was detailed to an opening near the camp-ground, there to preach to as many as might gather around him. Lovick Pierce stood upon the table and an nounced his text, Rom. vi. 6 'Knowing this, that

LOVICK PIERCE.

65

our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might he destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.' To get the attention of his promis cuous assembly, the preacher began with rather a facetious description of the 'old man;' and, having attracted his hearers, proceeded to give a shocking account of his conduct, crimes, and excesses. He then sent forth Moses, as the high-sheriff of the realm, who arrested him. Having described his trial and condemnation, he sentenced the old man to be crucified. Reared upon the accursed tree, his crucifixion was begun, when, suddenly, a young lady, as if pierced by an arrow, ran weeping from the outskirts of the audience, and, falling near the table, cried for mercy, and entreated the prayers of those around. The preacher immediately stopped his sermon and called for mourners. A simulta neous movement toward him followed. The people fell upon their knees, and groans, and prayers, and praise were mingled. This work continued through the remainder of the day and the succeeding night. Over one hundred souls professed conversion around that table." Volley was among them.

REBUKING.
His power of invective, when he chose to strip nypocrisy of its phylacteries, was only equaled by the pathos of his consolations when he felt moved to "speak comfortably" to God's people. Popular vices, the inconsistencies of professors of religion, pride and vanity, unbelief and worldliness, received no favor when they put themselves in his way. We

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LOVICK PIERCE.

may say, without disrespect to his honored memory,

that some of his most loving friends sometimes re

gretted that he did not, particularly in the later

years of his illustrious ministry, more frequently

preach upon the softer and more consoling themes

of religion. When he did, he swept every thing

before him. But so profound and life-long was his

loyalty to the Church, so great was his holy jeal

ousy for her honor, so high was his ideal of what

personal religion ought to be, so deep was his sor

row over the wounds dealt to the body of Christ in

the house of unfaithful children, so pure and blame

less was his own life, that even those who sometimes

wearied under his iterations, on the subjects that

often engaged his thoughts, forgot their impatience

in their tender love and profound veneration for the

great and holy man who, at times, so sternly re

buked their failures and follies, their short-comings,

and their sins. We can but believe that the ser^

mons that were least relished, and the articles from

his busy and fruitful pen that were least popular,

will bear fruit now that he has passed from the

sight and hearing of men. Thousands will be more

devout because he told them of their faults, and be

the better prepared to die because he rebuked their

1-

errors.

'<l!

We give one specimen of his power in rebuking

covetousness. He was preaching on the sin of lay

ing up treasures on earth. He brought it home, to

his hearers as follows:

"Go out and look toward heaven, and say: ' O God,

a new year is beginning. We want wind, and rain,

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67

and sunshine, the regular order of the seasons, the fertility of the soil, the germinating quality of the seed, and all these in that harmonious adjustment of times and relations that will insure us a rich harvest and multiplied bags of cotton. O God, send these, and health, and friends; for we intend to revel upon the good things of thy providence; hut let it be distinctly understood that we do not intend to yield a single dollar to the support of thy cause in the earth, until we have feathered our nests to our own liking.' Attempt this if you dare; and you will feel that lightning ought to strike you be fore you get through with your petition. And yet this is the plain English of what you are doing!"

A KINDLY HEART.
There never was, in all our acquaintance with men or women, a more kindly, loving heart. In his personal intercourse in the thousands of families that counted it an honor to entertain him, he was as gentle and loving as St. John. Indeed, his gifts of intellect were only surpassed by his capacity for loving. Little children, that at his first coming to a house looked upon him with awe as they tried to realize his great age, and did realize the sanctity of his character, soon came to love him fondly. There was not a more beautiful thing in Hancock county than the clinging love for "old grandpa" of the " old Doctor's" descendants to the third and fourth generation. As Motley says of the Prince of Orange, we may say of Dr. Pierce, " "When he died, little children cried in the streets."

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LOVICK PIERCE.

THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN.

In his personal habits he was the embodiment of

neatness and propriety. He had an inborn respect

for the "fitness of things." He always looked

" dressed;" during war times the home-made wool

ens of the Confederacy looked better on him than

on anybody else. Of rude things, in speech or ac

tion, he was incapable. He was counted a model

Christian gentleman in his intercourse with society.

Men and women felt at home with him while they

revered him. Among the lowly he was welcomed

as a friend; among the rich and great his stately

manners commanded admiration. His exquisite

sense of propriety never forsook him and never de

ceived him. His personal bearing had something

of the cultivated soldier in it; and there was some

thing of the soldier in his heart. Child-like in the

i

sweet simplicity of his character, he was also one of the manliest of men.

He eschewed the habit, which bad or ill-bred peo

ple cultivate, of gossiping idly about their neigh

bors' weaknesses. He never " took up a reproach

against his neighbor." If evil rumors reached him

they grieved him deeply, and were believed reluc

tantly. An indelicate word I never heard him ut

ter; a vulgar anecdote, I am sure, never, during the

seventy-five years of his ministry, escaped his lips.

His thoughts were clean as his speech was pure.

PROGRESSIVE AND CONSERVATIVE.
Although we despair of treating our theme as it deserves, we must mention some other traits in his

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manifold character. He united in himself, in a
marvelous manner, the instincts of progress and conservatism. On the vital points of Methodist
doctrine and Christian experience, he stood hy the "old paths" with the heroism of Leonidas and his Spartans, dying at the pass of Thermopylae. But in matters of Church polity he was ever ready to adopt new methods when convinced of their utility. The sweeping and radical changes inaugurated by our General Conference at New Orleans, in 1866, he not only contemplated without alarm, but favored as to their more important features. What he did not favor he was willing to try thoroughly, and to help, by earnest cooperation, to defeat his own pre dictions and to reverse his own judgments. This leads us to say that his intellectual candor was in keeping with his moral sincerity. Conscience dom inated his intellect as fully as it ruled his life.
It was this candid, progressive spirit, united to great kindliness of heart, that helps us to under stand one fact of his history that is quite anoma lous. He had outlived every contemporary; every friend of his youth was dead; few acquaintances of his middle life remained; yet he gathered around him, through each successive .generation, hosts of loving, devoted friends. In his ninety-fifth year he had the confidences of mere boys in the ministry. There was less isolation about him than any old man we ever knew. It was as beautiful as it was surprising.

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WHAT INTERESTED HIM.
Ceaseless activity was the law of his mind. Called to his room on one occasion, in a Georgia city, we found him, while waiting over a day, reading with eager interest a treatise on the Constitution of the United States. He was then eighty-two years old. New books, on themes that interested him, he read with zest. What we call "literature" did not in terest him much; poetry he rarely read; works of fiction, never. The Church journals he read regu larly and eagerly; but the stately review pleased him more than the lighter newspaper. Tne discus sion of doctrine, the recital of experience, tidings from the field, caught his eye and enlisted his heart.
The great enterprises of the Church found in him an ever-faithful and able friend. The educational work of the Church engaged his deepest and most unflagging interest. He was among the pioneers in the work of sanctified learning in Georgia. He was the first Agent, as his distinguished son was the first President, of Wesleyan Female College the first of the kind and grade in the world. He joined his prayers with those of other fathers in the founding of Emory College. He was a trustee from the beginning of both these honored institutions. No man among us ever so nobly magnified the office of trustee of our institutions of learning. He made it a point of honor and conscience to be present every time at the regular and called meetings. He was present the first hour, and he remained to the last. There was never such a listener to school-girl compositions and school-boy speeches. Time and

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again we have seen him sit through four hours of commencement exercises, shaming by his example .many younger men (may we be forgiven for our own short-comings!) who had not his patience or his fortitude.
In the missionary movements of the Church he was profoundly concerned; he wept tears of delight when he read or heard of God's blessings on the foreign as well as the home missionary. He was the earnest advocate of the Bible cause, and was at one time the Agent of the American Bible Society in Georgia. He was among the first to see the power that was in the Sunday-school movement; he gave it his whole heart; served its interests as agent for a number of years, and saw in its possibilities the dawning of millennial triumph.
In a word, he gave his hand and heart to every good and noble cause that promised to bring glory to God or blessing to mankind.
But the characteristic anxiety of his heart was this: That the Church would keep itself pure. Ho liness of heart and of life was with him the supreme end of all preaching, and of all Church enterprise. He cared little for things that did not make men more Christ-like.

' THE HIGH PROOF OF HIS SANCTIFICATION.
Dr. Pierce always preached the possibility and duty of higher religious experience than is common to believers. The characteristic of his own expe rience was a longing for better things. He was never satisfied with his attainments. He " hungered

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and thirsted after righteousness." He could say with the psalmist, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God!" He has, of late years particularly, urged upon us all the great doctrine of " holiness," " sanctification," " Christian perfection." While speaking of his own attainments with the most unaffected diffidence, he evinced this high evidence that he had experienced the great hlessing; he was not intolerant of breth ren who did not agree with him in his statement of the doctrine.

THE SECRETS AND LESSONS OF SUCH A LIFE.
Lovick Pierce " served his generation according to the will of God." He worked out the problem of his life according to the divine plan. He stood by the divine constitution; he built upon the divine foundation; he succeeded beyond any man of his time among us. In our Church and in our State he was the man of the century. Let us consider briefly the secret springs that moved him, and the mighty motives that inspired him.
1. I mention first, as underlying and conditioning all that followed, a sound religious experience. To use his own words, " he was convicted of sin as well as for sin; he repented; he confessed his sins; he sought pardon through our Lord Jesus Christ, and a new heart by the * washing of regeneration.' He found pardon; he was converted; born again; 'cre ated anew in Christ Jesus.'"
2. One explanation of his character and work was his full and unquestioning faith in the truth of

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the gospel. He believed the Bible all of it as a child believes its mother. It was the man of his counsel a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. It was to him God's word and will the law of his life, from which there was no appeal.
3. In his personal religious experience he had the " witness of the Spirit bearing witness with his own spirit that he was a child of God." ^o earthly misfortunes no losses, nor afflictions, nor bereave ments, cost him such grief as u grieving the Holy Spirit." He rejoiced and he was strong because he could say," I know whom I have believed." There were, indeed, times especially when his nervous system was shattered by disease when his sky was overcast with flitting clouds, that appeared sudden ly but did not linger long. He had, it is but truth to say it, his moments of depression. These low tides of religious feeling did not originate in skep ticism; doubts of God, his word, his providence, seemed never to enter his mind. The noisy and boastful declarations of our modern materialism did not disturb his serenity; they were no more than Chinese gongs and Bengal lanterns to his trained mind and steadfast purpose. There were moments of profound dissatisfaction with himself, and we rejoice that it was so. For he was as instructive to us all in his hours of depression as in his sunlit moments of pulpit triumph and spiritual ecstasy. He had not a grander characteristic than his stead fast purpose to do his whole duty. His " eye " was " single," and his conscience and will true to Christ
the King of his soul and the Lord of his life. He

74
was sometimes like a noble ship, tossed by storms and wrapped about with clouds, and that seems to the unskilled in navigation to have lost its reckon ing. But through tempest and darkness the needle points straight to its star.. So with our sometimes tempted but ever victorious father. He pressed straight on in his duty, whether joyful or despond ent. He fully illustrated the great Wesleyan maxim that we must "trample under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it." Ko wonder such a man, a few weeks before his departure, sent word to the Church, " I am just outside the gate of heaven;" that he said to a loving friend, when he was daily expecting his sum mons to meet his Lord, "Tell my brethren that I am passing over the river of death, on the bridge of life, toll free." And so he did.
4. We mention another marked characteristic of Dr. Pierce as a preacher* Gathering strength with his years, there was in his heart the love of souls for whom Christ died. He had compassion on souls; he loved men as men, and as redeemed in Christ. He claimed for his Lord the entire race of man, and loved every one. As the old preachers used to ex press it, he had on his soul the " weight and burden of souls." We have seen him tremble and shake under this Spirit-given consciousness. Woe to the Church whose ministers do not feel the " weight and burden of souls!"
5. But if we had to express it all in a single phrase, we would say that the secret of his life his personal religious life, as well as of his long and

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illustrious ministry is this: "The love of Christ constrained him." He realized the great love that Christ bore to him. He read the story of the cross as it signified the price paid for his own redemption. The consciousness of the love of Christ laid hold upon him, apprehended him, possessed him, came into his heart with the " expulsive power of a new affection," and drove out from his thoughts, as Christ drove the traders from the temple, the love of the world. And out of this love of Christ to him was born his deep, true love to Christ. Truly it is said, " "We love him because he first loved us." Because he loved Christ, he loved to work for him. A few weeks before he was taken from us, he said to me, in speaking of some new and brighter views of divine things that had come to him, " I would be willing to die if I could finish that." Had it pleased God to move back the wheels of time, and place him, January 1, 1805, at his father's door, ready to mount his horse for his distant circuit, he would, the day he died, have gladly done it all over again.
We do not overstate the case when we say that the impress of Dr. Pieree's character and work is upon all of our Southern Methodism, and preemi nently upon the Methodism of Georgia. He has imparted somewhat that was wise and good of him self to three generations of Methodist preachers and people. He will live in our children when we are dead and gone from among men. In this respect, his life is so exceptional and unique that those who do not know his history cannot understand the depths, and range, and permanence of his influence.

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I feel deeply how impossible it is to " draw to the life" the picture of this true teacher, friend, and father of us all. What Tennyson wrote of the Prince Consort we may write of Lovick Pierce with one exception:

We have lost him: he is gone;

We know him now: all narrow jealousies

t

Are silent; and we see him as he moved,

I*!.'

How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise,

With what sublime repression of himself.

I say, with one exception, for there were no " nar

row jealousies" as toward him at least none for a

lA

generation before his departure. Should I not add a second exception, since we have not, in the deep

and true sense of things, "lost him" at all? His

name and fame, his work and influence, are still

ours, and will be our children's after us.

As to ourselves, we have the memory of his name,

and his deeds, and the splendor of his example.

He walked with God; so may we all. He loved

the Church; so should we all. He gave himself

unreservedly to his duty; so ought we all to do.

Columbus the city he loved so well honored

itself in the burial of its friend and benefactor.

The multitude that followed him to his rest paid a

splendid tribute to personal character. His coffin

and his grave, as was fitting, were covered with fair

white flowers and sprigs of evergreen. It was meet

1

that such a hero and conqueror should be buried

with garlands about him.

There were some beautiful coincidences in his

death. His soul departed as the church-bells
r11' * *

Mi.

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were calling the people to the house of God. For nearly three hours he had not spoken. The sweet tones of the evening-hells seemed to catch his ear for an instant; he made his last deliberate muscular eifort; the old habit came upon him strong; with a great exertion he placed his hands as in the attitude of prayer. And God heard him. Before the sound of the bells had died away, the songs of the ransomed and the music of angelic harps had filled his soul.
We can hut n'otice the coincidence in our longdelayed winter and his greatly prolonged life. It was near- the middle of November, but the songs of the harvest had not died away, and the woods and fields were still glorious in scarlet, and purple, and gold. He lived among men for nearly one hundred years, but he was not like a tree stripped of its foliage naked, bare, and cold under wintry skies. His faculties of intellect and affection were marvelously spared to him, and when he died the reapers were still gathering the harvests of his fields, and there was only the autumn splendor and ripeness to tell us that the summer of his life was
over and gone. This year of languishing has been a year of use
fulness. Many lessons of wisdom have been given and received in his sick-room, and from it have gone forth, through the religious press, many use
ful and comforting exhortations. As he lay on his bed of suffering, the tree of his religious life bloomed and fruited anew.
that he is buried, let us recall his life and

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worth; let us study its lessons; and at his tomb let us relight our torches, that with renewed zeal and a deeper consecration we may " follow him as he followed Christ," and press forward in the glorious wars of the King of kings and Lord of lords!

CHRIST DWELLING IN US.
Epbesians Hi. 14-19.
tCOMMENOEMENT SEEMOJJ, EMORY COLLEGE, JUNE 27, 1880.]
"TjlPHESUS was built on some hills near tbe 1*^ ^Egean Sea. In St. Paul's time, it was the greatest city of Asia Minor, and was the metropolis of the Roman province of Asia. It was Greek in its origin, hut more than half Oriental in the char acter both of its worship and of its inhabitants. It was a rich, populous, and luxurious city. Its peo ple united to the excitability of the Greeks the dreamy superstitions of Asia. It was renowned among all nations for the worship of Diana, and the practice of magic. It was not the Diana of the Greeks; the image of their goddess was rather after the Indian forms. It was a rude image that sym bolized the reproductive and nutritive forces of nature. It was kept sacredly in a costly shrine in the interior of the magnificent temple erected to her worship. Paul's enemy at Ephesus was not the proud and sneering philosophy of the Greeks, as in Corinth and Athens, but a dark and passionate Asiatic superstition.
In Ephesus Paul taught two full years. His theme was " repentance toward God, and faith to ward our Lord Jesus Christ." He taught publicly in the lecture-room of Tyrannus, and exhorted the people, Gentiles as well as Jews, from "house to
(70)

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house," warning " each one with tears." A large Church grew up under the apostle's lahors, and be came, for a long time, a center of Christian influ ence throughout Asia Minor. What toils, what anxieties, what dangers, what sufferings this Church of the Ephesians cost the great missionary of apos tolic times, this history tells us.
It was characteristic of St. Paul that he watched over his spiritual children and longed for their relig ious welfare with more than a mother's anxious tenderness. This spirit appears in many of his Epistles. To the Corinthians, of whom grievous reports had reached him, he writes: "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy." Over the mistakes and misdeeds of the Galatians he wondered and wept. The Philippians, whom he calls his "joy and crown," he exhorts to "stand fast in the Lord." To the Colossians he writes: "We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray ing for you always, since we heard of your faith in Christ, and your love for all the saints." He en treats the Thessalonians that they " be not shaken in mind." Their fidelity cheered and sustained him in the midst of "afflictions and distresses," and, forgetting both stripes and imprisonments, he tells them exultingly, " ISow we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."
This deep concern for his spiritual children finds intense and affecting expression in the prayer which is our text to-day. I read it to you it is in the Epistle written from Rome to the Ephesian Church, chapter third, verses fourteen to nineteen:

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"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of Ms glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in lone, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."
Before considering some of the precious things contained in this prayer of St. Paul a prisoner at Rome, and ready to be " offered up," but forgetful of himself in his yearning love for the children God had given him in the gospel we may dwell a moment upon the apostle's point of view.
First. His conception of God: He is " the Father." This is not a figure; the term indicates a fact and expresses a relation. The Bible doctrine is, God is the " Father of spirits," and therefore, and preemi nently, the Father of man, who is made in his "like ness and image." I do not enter upon a discussion of this doctrine now. It is everywhere. It is in our Lord's form of prayer; it is in his most tender addresses to his disciples; it is in his last words and their promise of " mansions " in our " Father's house." I can only pause long enough to ask you, young men, to consider what a different universe this is what a different being man is since the thought of God's fatherhood has rooted itself in the human heart to be lost no more forever. For our
G

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God is not a blind, remorseless, arbitrary fate; he is not an irresponsible omnipotence; he is not an infinite force; he is not a mere mindless, conscience less, heartless law; he is not simply the Almighty Ruler of the universe; he is the Father of men, and " God is love."
This fact lies back of the creation of man. God was the Father of man before that sin entered into him, and because he was still his Father he found redemption for him. So that his fatherhood is man ifested to us not simply by his creative power, in that he made us in his own image, but in his re deeming mercy, in a peculiar and infinitely gracious sense, in the gift of his only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
Second. Paul's conception of the Church: It is a family " of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."
I cannot doubt that Paul intended this phrase to be all-comprehensive. It takes in all in heaven and earth who believe and love Jesus Christ; all the good below; all the saints above; all the angels. And why not? For in Christ " all things subsist." Moreover, wherever, in any time or nation, there is a soul who, having no knowledge of Christ, devout ly, as did Cornelius, follows as best he may such light as he has, that soul is of this " family." NOT do the words leave out utterly the unbelieving chil dren ; they are also, in a true and blessed sense, of this family not in loving obedience and holy fellow ship, it may be, but members of this family in the conditions of their creation, in the fact of their re-

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demption, and in the possibility of their salvation. They are children too, only they have not the hearts of children, but of aliens.
There are many kinds of societies that bind men together, as we find them in communities, states, nations, races. They are held together by the bonds of power or of interest. But the Church is a fam ily, and its ties are family ties. Paul's word is pe culiar, and hardly translatable; it is itself derived from the word that means father.
Let us remember always the two grand concep tions that underlie and inspire such a prayer as this God's fatherhood, and therefore human brother hood. Let us remember also that it is Jesus Christ who " shows us the Father," and that he also, and he alone, shows us our brother. Jesus Christ is the true and only revealer of God and man. In him we find God our Father; in him we find man our brother. Without Jesus Christ, we know nei ther divine fatherhood nor human brotherhood. Law, nature, force, teach us neither. These doc trines are not in atoms, molecules, protoplasm. They come not by evolution; Jesus showed them to men, revealing God the Father to his children, and man, the brother, to his brother man.
Because God is our Father, we can pray and be lieve; because man is our brother, we can love him and do him good. In our text, St. Paul prays to the Father for the brother.
For what does he pray? I. That they may be " strengthened in the inner man" The Bible doctrine of man's sin and trouble is

CHRIST DWELLING IN Us.
that the "inner man" is corrupted, weakened, and degraded. This inner man, to be saved, must be purified, strengthened, ennobled. We will more easily catch the meaning of the words " inner man " by help of a passage in Corinthians, where St. Paul says, "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." It is that part of man that does not perish. It is not some thing physical, but spiritual. But it is more than we mean by the words mind, or intellect, as used to distinguish between the thinking power and the moral and emotional faculty and susceptibility. We must not make the definition too narrow, yet it must not be so broad as to lead us astray. It is nearly if not quite the equivalent of St. Peter's phrase, "the hidden man of the heart." Sometimes the word " heart" in the !N^ew Testament has the whole force and meaning of St. Paul's words, "the inner man." When the Scriptures speak of " a new heart," the words signify the divine change that is wrought in the " inner man." Our Lord uses the word "heart" in this broad yet peculiar sense: " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." He does not mean by heart the emotions only, nor yet the in tellect, but the entire spiritual part of man; that which differences him from the entire animal creation
that which was capable of being created in the image of God: that which was capable of losing the divine image by sin that which is capable of being renewed in that image by the grace and might of the Holy Ghost.
Let us notice that "inner man" is not the same

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as " new man." We may speak of the " inner man " of every child of Adam; we speak of the "new man" only as to those who have been "created anew in Christ Jesus." The "new man" is the "new creature" in which the true "inner man," restored to his lost purity and power of right-living, begins to truly live again, rising from the death of sin through the life-imparting energy of the quick ening and renewing Spirit.
And yet if we seek to find the exact truth of St. Paul's conception, we will rather stress the word "heart" than the word "mind," in defining the nature of the " inner man." For while sin has un hinged man's intellect, it has wrought its direst ruin in his affections. It is not so much wrong thinking that characterizes a bad man as wrong feeling; it is not so much a false creed as a bad disposition.
In saving man, the gospel begins with the "inner man." It works from within outward, and not from without inward. It would secure fruit by making the tree itself good, not by fastening good fruit upon barren limbs with wires and other mechanical adjustments. Mere ritualism always begins on the outward man, and it stays there. Religion begins with the inner man, and works like leaven through the entire lump of his nature and life. Nothing can be plainer, taught by the Script ures and clear to common sense; good lives must be the product of good hearts.
But let us remember that St. Paul makes this prayer for regenerate persons. They needed to be " strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner

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man." The power that is in the " new man " is not self-originated; it is imparted. It is God's gift. It is given by or through the Spirit, whose office it is to enlighten, to awaken, to renew, and to sanctify. It is no more a self-sustained than it is a self-origi nated life. It is not a machine wound up and left to run of itself. The " new man " can no more re tain the life within him without the Spirit than the " old man" could originate it without the Spirit. Religion is of the Spirit in its incipiency; so in all its progress and triumphs. In the most exclusive and absolute sense is it true that, in our spiritual or Christian life, "we live, and move, and have our being " in God.
The prayer that they may be " strengthened with might" by God's "Spirit in the inner man" does not contemplate a mere toning up of man's strength, but also the impartation of another, a new, a divine might. The word is elsewhere and in many con nections translated power. It is the equivalent of energy. Man needs this divine creative energy the same in essence and power that moved upon the face of the deep when it was made quick with life. When the strengthening Paul prays for is granted to a disciple, it is not simply that he is strengthened, energized in his own powers, though he is so strengthened, but that he is strengthened by the gift, " according to the riches of God's glory," of a power from above of a divine energy that comes into the "inner man."
We may illustrate, though imperfectly. Some times a man falls into bodily decay; the blood is

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impoverished, but has not lost its vital and restoring quality; this man may be bettered by tonics which enrich his blood, and he may build up wasted tissues out of his own blood. It is not simply this sort of strengthening that our text speaks of. Sometimes a man is so exhausted in his vital powers that his blood cannot be bettered in itself. In some such cases, transfusion is resorted to; new and healthful blood is drawn from the veins of another and in jected into the circulation of the run-down man. And the sick man is strengthened by the "might" the energy that is in the new blood, by help of which his own blood may, by and by, be improved and enriched. St. Paul speaks of something like this. He does not mean a dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit operating on the u old man," but in the " new man;" so operating in him that he becomes " a partaker of the divine nature."
But in all the saving processes of the gospel God and man cooperate. There is not only a place for faith, but such a necessity for it that without it the Spirit cannot do his gracious offices in man's soul. It is not an arbitrary thing that faith is made the condition of salvation; it is only by this avenue that the renewing might of the transforming Spirit reaches the "inner man." This renewing energy comes not to the inner man by processes of reason ing; it comes through faith, or it comes not at all. Faith is the avenue of the Spirit's approach; if it be closed, he cannot enter. This is not peculiar to religion; it is one manifestation of a universal law. A man cannot do his neighbor good by advice, en-

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couragement, sympathy, unless the neighbor has

faith in him. The mother's touch soothes the fears

of a startled babe at night only because the babe

has faith in that mother.

Christ " dwells " in such a heart as Paul is think

ing of in this prayer. It is a strong word; it does

not describe the casual coming in of a visitor, but

the permanent occupation of a building by its own

er, who is also its housekeeper. Christ takes entire

possession of a heart renewed by the Spirit.

How meager and barren is that notion of faith

that says, " Only look and live;" that sings of " one

drop of the blood;" that presents the cross as a sort

of charm a nobler sort of fetich. This sort of

preaching thinks only of the sacrifice, as if the

Christ who is our Saviour were not also our Law

r

giver and King as well as our Priest. This present ing a fractional Christ is in much of the current

preaching and singing. It gives us rhapsodies and

emotional heats, but it is lacking in the fiber of

Christian manhood. It is deficient in good morals

and good works. Its tendency is to exhaust relig

ion in what is called the enjoyment of religion.

Do not mistake me; I believe in the cross, the

doctrine of atonement; I preach it and trust in it.

But I believe in all that the gospel tells us of the

doctrine of the cross. Jesus is more than Priest

he is Lawgiver and King. Saving faith takes him

in all his offices. Faith that trusts only in the vic

tim slain is deficient. If we really believe in him,

we take him as our Teacher and our King. True

faith learns of the Teacher and obeys the King.

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When the " inner man " is " strengthened by the might" of the Holy Spirit, and " Christ dwells in the heart," true faith shows itself not merely in trust in his atoning blood, but in the full acceptance of all his truth, and in loyal obedience to all his law.
The phrase "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" is wondrous rich in its meaning. It tells us of a life that is not only at peace in the convic tion and persuasion of the infinite merits of the death of Christ Jesus, but that is also so enlightened and made free by his truth that obedience to the law of God is a privilege.
II. Knowledge of the love of Christ. The strengthening of the inner man by the Spir it's might, the indwelling of the Christ not the vic tim only, but the Prophet and the King received by faith, all this mighty working results in a proc ess of character-building. Such a man is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. The transfused blood asserts itself; new muscle and sinew are made. Let me remind you again that St. Paul is writing to Christians. To be renewed is not necessarily to be saved; it is not necessary to be born only, but also to grow. The new man needs to be confirmed in righteousness; he needs that right living in all things should become the established habit of his nature: that this habit should be fixed in his doing, his thinking, his feeling, and, above all, in his will ing. He needs to be so "rooted and grounded" in his knowledge of Christ that it becomes easy and natural for him to will as Christ wills.

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How does the new man become thus " rooted and grounded?" In his personal realization of the ex ceeding great love of Christ to him. Man's love to Christ is the fruit of Christ's love to him. The man who has some experience of Christ's dwelling in his heart apprehends the love of Christ to him as no new convert does or can. I know what is thought and said about the raptures of a pardoned sinner's first love. I know Charles Wesiey's lines:

I rode on the sky, freely justified I, Nor did envy Elijah his seat.

But it is not such love as the matured Christian feels, because only the matured Christian can appre hend aright the exceeding riches of Christ's love to him. It is the difference between the brawling brook of the Andes and the wide and deep Ama zon entering the sea.
The process I conceive to be a very simple one. He who is strengthened in the inner man by the might of the renewing Spirit in whose heart Christ dwells as sole Lord of his life and love more and more apprehends Christ's great love to him, and more and more his love to Christ increases in purity and intensity. Such a heart comes to feel, " I would rather die than betray or grieve him."
Such a man is " rooted " in love. It is the pict ure of a great tree, splendid symbol of a healthful and vigorous spiritual life. Let us consider such a tree for a moment. What we see is above ground. There is the rugged form, the massive trunk, the towering crest, the wide - spreading branches, the

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myriad leaves waving their gladness in the morn ing sun. But is that which we see the tree? Let us go down digging deep that we may trace the secret of its life, its beauty, its strength, and its varied glories. We find a system of roots corre sponding to the branches, great and small. The tap-root goes deep down into the earth; the lateral roots spread far and near, throwing off thousands of rootlets and spongioles that open their mouths to the treasures locked up in the generous bosom of the earth. "We wonder sometimes that its leaf does not wither, and that its fruit does not fail. The fierce heats of the summer sun seem to fall upon it in vain. It is green and fresh when all slightly rooted things are withered and dead. But let us consider it more carefully. Last summer, near the end of a long drought, we were digging a well in the street not far from this house. The well was sunk near a great oak one of the original monarchs of the unbroken forest in which your college was planted. Thirty feet down the laborer struck his mattock through a root of this tree. The heavy earth had pressed it flat, but it held its way, and was where it was cut a full inch thick the thinnest way. The well-digger sent up to us a section of the root he had found. Then the mystery was ex plained: it had gone down to the perennial springs. How many gallons of refreshing water had been pumped through these little arteries! Holding up a piece of the root, a full spoonful of water trickled out. I drank it; it was sweet and cool. Where Jesus Christ dwells in the heart, the roots of the

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Spirit's life go down so deep that they find the

sweet fountains of living waters that never fail.

St. Paul was much given to illustrations, some

times turning a great thought around like a revolv

ing light-house. To intensify our conception of

the strength of holy character that the indwelling

if

Christ brings to the inner man, he passes from the

I'

image of a tree to that of a house: "Grounded in love." The conception is that of a great building

upon a firm foundation. Some think that he had

the great temple of the Ephesian Diana in his mind.

It might well be so; years were spent in laying its

r-

foundations. If he thought of any particular build

I

ing it is probable that it was of the temple in Jeru salem. Explorations in our day show us its deep

and massive foundations; the ancient builders went

down till they found the very bed-rock itself. It is

certain that the idea of the rock-foundation is here.

It may be that Paul borrowed the image from the

closing words of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount.

Well he might, and find the application of both his

splendid figures in Christ Jesus and his relations to

redeemed men. When we realize the love of Christ,

the roots of our inner life go deep down into this

exhaustless soil, rich in all productive power, and

refreshed with never-failing streams, pure and sweet,

though concealed from the eye of sense; and when

we realize the truth of Christ, the heart rests upon

it as upon the eternal rock that does not move or

tremble beneath the thunders of the sky or the

beatings of the sea.

Eor Christians so "rooted and grounded," the

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apostle's prayer goes further; he prays that they "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height."
Shall we say the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ? This is not clear; besides, he speaks of this directly in the following clause. It is rather, as it seems, left indefinite of purpose. Is he not praying here that they " may be able to comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of all God's great work done for us, and revealed in us?
The spiritual law that underlies the weighty words of this sublime prayer is this: The knowl edge of Christ's love, made possible to us, not by the reading of the evangelists merely, not by the understanding of the plan of salvation merely, but by his dwelling in us, results in Christian character that is, in Christ-likeness, which, in its maturer development, is symbolized by a deeply rooted tree and a well-founded house; and this maturing Chris tian character, this increasing Christ-likeness, brings to us ever-increasing capacity to comprehend more and more of him of his truth and his love. This law holds good in all Christian experience. All experimental knowledge of Christ leads to maturer experience; this deeper experience to more perfect knowledge; and this more perfect knowledge to deeper experience. And so on, thank God, forever and ever!
Shall we try to fix in the forms of logical state ment and limitation the meaning of these trenien-

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dous words? Do yon ask for analysis here? for defi nitions, when we are thinking of these ineffable Christian experiences? Not if you are- wise. St. Paul does not teach the higher life, or the deeper experiences, of faith and love by definition. Nor does Jesus Christ our Lord. It is for ordinary thinkers and uninspired writers to try to do this. " Vanity of vanities!"
What do these terms mean? St. Paul, in using them, means to exhaust language in the hopeless attempt to express things in themselves unutterable. Many fanciful explanations, "geometrical, architect ural, and spiritual," have been offered. But we catch the true meaning of such words best when we do not attempt to fix their meaning too closely. They do not indicate angles and inclosed spaces that maybe measured; these dimensions take in all the stars and whatever there may be beyond them; they go down to the deepest secrets of being of life, of death, of time, and of eternity. St. Paul mentions all the dimensions that can be applied to the measurement of a body in order to stimulate the imagination to take hold upon infinite truths. His words tremble under the weight of his inspired thoughts.
We do not make our conceptions clearer by push ing definition too far; by attempting to apply anal ysis where, in the very nature of things, analysis is impossible. Tell me whether the great dome above us is more sublime, or even more clearly conceived, if we try to mark it off in geometrical figures and measure their lines in yards and inches, as we would

CHRIST DWELLING IN "Us.
a flower-bed, or a plaything? ]N"o, no; don't count the stars for me; nor map off the heavens as a sur veyor maps off the streets of a village. Let me bare my head under the midnight sky and worship God. Let me look at the whole heaven that is in view; if we would see more, bring a telescope, but no microscope here. When the telescope has done all that it can do, let imagination and faith do the rest we are only at the threshold.
III. The knowledge-passing love of Christ. Caught in the swing of his great thought, St. Paul cannot stop. The sky grows vaster over him; new and more splendid worlds wheel into his field of vision. Young men, he was praying when these thoughts came to him. It is profoundly significant. Prayer, and nothing else, " climbs the ladder Jacob saw." When a devout man is upon his knees, plead ing the truth and love of Christ, visions are granted to him that " eye hath not seen;" words, sweeter than angels use, come to him that " ear hath not heard." Nothing is plainer to me; our noblest thoughts of God and of redeemed humanity come to us when we pray. I do not mean when we mumble a form of words, but when the soul wrestles in its might of trusting weakness -it may be in utter silence and without words; when our faith, simple as a child's and strong as an archangel's, takes hold upon the eternal promises; when our gratitude makes its offering of love and service -breaking our very lives as Mary broke the precious, alabaster-box with its costly perfume in uncalculating love of her Lord

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it is at such times, and in such moods, and by help

of such wings, that we are lifted up into the higher

spheres of thought and life, where philosophy is

blind and science is dumb. It is when the soul

agonizes in prayer that faith discovers new worlds

that shine afar. It is the wrestling Jacob who

triumphs.

Paul was not only praying, he was praying in a

dungeon, and not in the great congregation, when

he wrote these words. Social prayer is good; it is

good to pray with and in the assembly of the saints;

it is good to bow down in the midst of our families

and offer the morning and evening sacrifice; but the

best praying, the truest praying, can be done only

in the closet, where only God's eye sees and only

God's ear hears. Religion reaches her highest and

deepest experiences when she " shuts the door" and

is alone with God. It was not an accident, or a

form, that explains our Lord's praying, by night

and all night, in mountain solitudes; it was a neces

sity to his spirit's life.

There is still, beloved, a holy of holies for us. It

is not in the dim interior of the temple at Jerusa

lem; it is wherever a human soul, burdened with

its woe of sin and leaning on the love of Christ, is

alone with God, its Father. For such a soul the

wings of the cherubim are still spread over the al

pPi,;
r

tar; for such a soul the light of the shekinah still shines between them; for such a soul there are still visions and voices in the night.

What, you ask me, does St. Paul mean by the

words, "And to know the love of Christ, which

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passeth knowledge, and to be filled with all the fullness of God?"
A man who does not pray can have no conception of them. He had gone to the very verge of expres sion in the words that go before them. Bnt when he had uttered them his soul took wing again, and he soars into still loftier regions. Again he strains to breaking the powers of that marvelous Greek tongue to tell the Ephesians something more of the wonders of redeeming love. Words perhaps can go no further; but he has not told all that struggles for utterance in his heart of flame. This much I know: the Greek form of words means, this love of Christ is a knowledge-surpassing love. Man did not evolve this thought; man can not master it: it passes his knowledge. But it may and does fill his soul fill it with the fullness of God -just as the revealing light and quickening heat of the sun fills the earth and sky, and has still enough left for ten thousand such worlds. O! if that light and heat were not tempered by distance and kindly clouds, it would blind and consume us; if God revealed himself in all of his ineffable glory, we would die. When he showed to Moses in the mount only a part of his glories a glimpse only of the mere fringe that skirted his garments he first hid him in a hole in the rock and covered him with his hand till the consuming splendors had passed by. But the glory that Moses saw only the blush of the dawn as compared with the sun shining in his strength kindled a light on his face, his mortal face, that made all Israel afraid% And now and for us it is

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true that the personal knowledge of the love of

Christ a knowledge that can come to us only

through spiritual experience and holy living enno

bles and glorifies our poor marred and sin-stained

I

humanity, till of all the fair and noble things in

this world a pure-hearted human being is the fair

est of them all.

Young men of the graduating class, I must to

day take counsel of my heart and say something to

you on this the last Sabbath we shall all ever meet

again in this holy place. "We have had pleasant

hours together; you now go your ways, but you

will always be dear to us. Often we will recall

your faces and names, and often we will try to pray

for you. We rejoice that many of you do already

know something of the love of Christ. I glorify

God that you all may know him. And, my dear

children, I have faith that you will all of you yet

come to know and love him.

You are going out into a world whose very air is

tainted with unbelief. You will be offered all sorts

of theories of the universe, of man, and of God, in

place of the grand old gospel which you first learned

at your mother's knee, and which, I give thanks to

God, we have always taught you here. In view of

all these things, I want to tell you to-day: Our mis

takes and misconceptions as to God and his provi

dence, and our relation to him, are due not to our

science or to our philosophy, but to the lack of the

indwelling Spirit of life within us. Nearly all the

infidelity in the world has its root in sin. It is sin

that confuses your philosophy, blinds your science,

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confounds your logic, and perverts your very in stincts and intuitions.
The German proverb says, "In this world the eye sees what it brings capacity for seeing." And it says truly. A few days ago I was returning from South Carolina through that most romantic region of Georgia, along the base of the Blue Bidge Mountains. It was near sunset. To our right, stretching far beyond the range of vision, were the blue mountains, softened by distance and glorified in the rays of the setting sun.
A youth, untaught even in the school of nature, entered the cars at one of the little stations and sat down near me. There was not an expression of thought or feeling in his face. His dull eye gave back no answer to the glorious visions around us. But presently the sun dipped behind the mountains, and then we saw a picture that memory will hold dear forever. Although we could not see the sun himself, his rays, shooting far above, fell on the tall tree-tops that crested a range of hills to the east. In a few minutes a new glory appeared. Rushing round one of the foot-hills, we passed through a gentle mist of rain. And now, among and above the tree-tops, the rainbow sign of the divine mercy appeared. Even the poor boy saw that, and his cheek glowed and paled; his dull eye flashed for an instant as he saw the splendors of light and shad ow and color that crowned and glorified the hills and the trees. For a moment that revelation lifted even him above himself. Suppose now he had said, as he looked on the glowing tree-tops and the glo-

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rious rainbow," It is there right there in the trees

all there is of it." He would have erred as they

do who explore all fields of science who count the

stars and weigh them who, beholding all the mag

nificence of the universe, say, " That is all there is

of it there is nothing more no power above and

beyond, and in it all no God." How strange that

it was among the Alps that Shelley called him

self an atheist! The glory of the tree-tops and of

the rainbow was not in the trees or the wondrous

arch that spanned them. On the other side of us

was the setting sun. The whole western sky was

resplendent in purple and gold. It was the sunlight

that painted these splendors and kindled these fires.

And wherever you see beauty and glory, whether

in a flower by the way-side, or in a snow-crystal

falling softly at your feet from wintry skies, or in

the magnificence of the heavens, or in the human

face, or in the human soul, be sure God is behind it,

above it, beyond it, in it.

For a few moments that evening my attention

was arrested in looking at the red embankment of

the road-bed. It was flowerless and lifeless. I

might have kept my gaze there, but I would have

missed the sunset glories of the earth and the sky.

There is a true as well as a false pantheism; if Jesus

Christ dwell in your hearts, you will see God every

I ;

where and in all things.

h

I ought not to close this sermon without remind

ing you again that St. Paul was in a dungeon when

he wrote this prayer and had these visions of Chris

tian experience. And a thousand times has it been

CttfclST DUELLING IN US. \
so that dungeons have furnished Pisga the promised inheritance. It was through the bars of Bedford jail that John Bunyan saw the Delect able Mountains, and the gate of pearl when it was opened for Christian and Faithful^ and had his glimpse of the white*robed company in the celestial city.
If you do your full duty to God, some of you may yet find yourselves prisoners of the Lord. Most certainly you will he brought through the valley of sorrow; he who follows Christ must pass through Gethsemane. Fear not ^the great law is, "Made perfect through suffering." These words were spok en of our Lord and Saviour, but they come home to us also. As one has said, " The duty-ideal, like the Christ-ideal, has the mark of wounds."
I remind you that it was the apostle to the Gen tiles who wrote this Epistle, and offered the prayer which has been the subject of our meditations this morning. St. Paul gloried in his call to be a mis sionary to the despised heathen, and it was the con ception of a divine love that embraced them every one that filled his soul with wonder and praise. The Jews were slow of heart to believe that God could love the heathen as he did the children of Abra ham. So many of us, whose ancestors were hea then till the missionaries brought them the gospel, have fallen into a fatal and sinful habit of thinkincg> of the heathen of our own times as the Jews thought of the heathen of their day as mere barbarians, in whom we have little concern, and who are of small consequence to God or to men. But the Lord

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Christ, who sent Paul far away to the Gentiles, comes to us at this Commencement, and lays his hand on some who are very near to us and says to them, " Get ye far hence to the Gentiles." Three of your class are going to China to help our dear Brother Alien and the rest of our brethren there to preach the gospel and found a Church that shall bless the ages to come.
You, dear boys " henceforth I call you brethren " who go to China, will need the divine supports that St. Paul found in his great missionary toils. They will not fail you. For you also is the prom ise: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
Many a time from around these altars will our voices mingle before the mercy-seat with yours from China. And some day our songs will mingle around the throne in heaven.
Read, again and again, this prayer of St. Paul; try to realize what it teaches, and tells, and inti mates. Let us join, every one of us, in the apos tle's sublime doxology: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

NEW SOOTH:
GRATITUDE, AMENDMENT, HOPE.
[A THAHKSGIVIN& SEEMON.*]
"O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord." Psalm cxvii.
"1VTE AUT/Y all nations, in both ancient and mod1 il ern times, have incorporated into their relig ious and social customs annual thanksgivings for the blessings that crown each year. Your classic literature, young gentlemen of the College, will tell you of many festivals, celebrated by the Greeks and Romans, that publicly recognized the gifts of the gods in the vintage and harvests of their fields. These festivals were a part of their social and relig ious life. I cannot conceive of any thing more be coming than that a Christian nation should celebrate a day of universal thanksgiving to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father, also, of all men, and the Giver of all good. To me it is most inspiring to think that at this hour there are millions of our brethren and fellow-citizens in this
* Preached heforethe students of Emory College and the citizens of Oxford, Ga., November 25,1880. Its publication was requested by a unanimous vote of the congregation, on a motion by the Rev. Dr. Morgan Callaway, Vice-president of the College.
(103)

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Heaven-favored land engaged, like ourselves, in songs of praise and in the worship of our ever-merciful God. From unnumbered hearts and voices goes up the song: "O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord."
Before considering some of our peculiar obliga tions to be grateful to God, let us first ask two questions:
Why should we observe this particular day, Thurs day, November 25, 1880, as a day of thanksgiving? And why should we assemble in our accustomed place of worship for this purpose?
I answer, Because our rulers have commanded it. "We are here in obedience to proclamations from the chief executives of both our Nation and State from his Excellency Rutherford B. Hayes, Presi dent of the United States, and from his Excellency Alfred H. Colquitt. Governor of Georgia. These proclamations make it not merely our privilege, but our duty also, to meet together on this particular day to unite in public thanksgiving to Almighty God for his manifold and great mercies. And the Scriptures our only rule of faith and practice sustain this proposition. In all things lawful, as tested by the greater law of God, it is a Christian man's duty to obey those in authority.
I have thought it well to examine with some care the scriptural basis of this doctrine. "Why should we obey law? Why ought we to promote the effi ciency and usefulness of the government under

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which we live whether municipal, state, or na tional? whether domestic, civil, or ecclesiastical? The subject is hroad, and there are many passages which bear upon it; but two or three will answer our present purpose. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, gives us a remarkable and unmistakable passage upon this subject. I read Romans xiii. 1-7: " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves dam nation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." St. Peter gives us a statement no less distinct and emphatic. I read 1 Peter ii. 13-18: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers,

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and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward."
On this whole subject there can be, I think, no doubt as to the general doctrine of the Bible. It may be briefly stated thus: 1. God is the source of all law and authority, as he is the fountain of all existence. 2. He ordains government; that is, the thing, not the form. The texts just read are as applicable to one form as to another. 3. Obedience to "the powers that be" is a duty, not only as to our rulers, but as to God, who is the Governor of all. 4. Let us observe further, for it is a matter of vital importance, it is not to the king, or president, or governor we owe obedience, but to the ruler; not simply to the highest, " the king as supreme," but to all rulers; to " governors" also, of every grade, as representing the highest rather as represent ing, under him, the law and government that are back of him and above him; that is, to push the thought farther, but not too far, not merely the law and constitution of the state, but the divine law and constitution of the universe. Wherefore St. Paul says, "Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due5 custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." St. Peter

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107

teaches the same doctrine. So does Moses. So does our Lord himself.
The foundation truth of the whole doctrine is this: Whoever administers legitimate authority rep resents, in so far forth as his office and functions go, God. Men speak sometimes of God's vicar-general. He has none neither in king, nor pope, nor democ racies. God's vicar is government all government. Just as the simplest, as well as the most complex, processes of nature show forth the power and prov idence of God, so the humblest office-bearer, enforc ing the least of all laws that are in harmony with eternal righteousness, represents the majesty and authority of the divine government. The principle and the obligation are the same, whether it be the president, the governor, the local magistrate, the town marshal, the college professor, the village school-mistress, the employer. In a word, whoever"! bears rightful rule does, in his sphere, whether it be great or small,represent God. And "whoso resisteth the power," in things lawfully commanded, " resisteth God." Be it remembered, furthermore, the obligation does not depend upon the personal char acter of the rulers, but upon the fact of their au thority. IsTero was Emperor of Rome, yet Paul commands obedience.
The right of amending bad laws, of seeking, by right methods, to change unsatisfactory administra tions, or even the right of revolution, if it come to that, all guaranteed to our race by ftoth the Script ures and sound reason, it is not needful to discuss at this time. But it may be remarked that even

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revolution should have this basis that it seeks! obedience to that which is the real law, and which ought to be the rule of existing governments. Dis obedience becomes a duty when literal obedience would be real disobedience. " Children, obey your parents in the Lord," expresses the principle. There is no authority more sacred than the parental, but it must be "in the Lord;" otherwise, authority is so perverted that obedience becomes disobedience.
The duty of thanksgiving to God needs no argu ment. It is summed up in the language of St. James: "Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Our entire dependence is stated by St. Paul in his discourse to the Athenians: "In him we live, and move, and have our being." A very large part of the Scriptures is made up of diflerent statements of this truth. In every age inspiration has been at infinite pains to teach men the truth and reality of their entire dependence upon God for all things. Thousands of texts might be brought forward in confirmation of this statement, and in illustration of this truth. Have we life, health, peace, food, raiment, homes, friends, civilization, grace, religion any blessing of any kind for our bodies or our souls, for this world or the next? Then it is God's free and gracious gift. It is the expression of his fatherly love for us, his children. If our industry has been blessed, it is God's blessing; if our friends have done us good, they are God's providential min isters to us. The Old Testament writers recognize

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the divine hand in every blessing; the Psalms of David, and of every other good man of every na tion, are full of it. Our Lord Jesus teaches it in discourse and parable above.all, in his mighty works and mightier life. He calls upon the lilies of the valley, and the sparrows of the house-tops and the fields, to make plain and sure to us the doc trine of the infinitely gracious, all-wise, and all-em bracing providence of God.
Let us consider briefly our special obligations to be grateful to God.
I waive, at this time, any discussion of those obli gations that are common to all men as the gift of life; the constant providences that bring us bless ings every day and hour; above all, the gift of Jesus Christ and his gospel, bringing life and immortality to light. This morning let me mention some con siderations that should influence us, as citizens of these United States, at this time, to thanksgiving, and especially as residents of that section of the country that is known as " the South."
1. We should thank God that ours is a Christian nation. Granting all that may be said of the wick edness that is in the land, it is still true that in its institutions and overruling spirit this is a Christian nation.
2. That our country is at peace, and that it is not threatened with war.
3. That we have passed through the quadrennial convulsion incident to the election of President so quietly and safely. And we should be thankful that the election is so pronounced that the country

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is saved from the strain of a six mouths' debate and conflict, such as we had four years ago, to settle the question of the Presidency. Although nearly half the people have been disappointed in the results of the election, still no sane man can doubt whether General Gartield has been elected President of the
United States. 4. That we have had so clean and able an admin
istration during the last four years. 5. That the general business interests of the whole
country are so prosperous. I come now to mention some reasons why we of "the
South" should both "thank God and take courage" I may possibly (but I trust not) speak of some
things that you may not relish, and advance some views that you may not approve. If so, I only ask a fair and reasonable reflection upon them. If you should condemn them, I have left me at least the satisfaction of being quite sure that I am right, and that, if you live long enough, you will agree with me. And first, we of the South have great reason to be thankful to God that we are in all respects so well off; and that, too, so soon after so great a war, so complete an upturning of our institutions, so entire an overthrow of our industries, so absolute a defeat of our most cherished plans. Recall briefly the last twenty years. Think of what we were in 1860 and in 1865. Then look about you and see what we are in 1880. What was thought by our people after Appomattox and April, 1865, as to the prospect before us? Some of you can recall the forebodings of that time as to the return of business prosperity,

GRATITUDE, AMENDMENT, HOPE.

Ill

the restoration and preservation of civil and social order among ourselves, and the restoration of our relations to the Union.
You know how many of our best and bravest left our section forever in sheer despair. Behold now what wonders have been wrought in fifteen years
Firstly, considering where and what we were fif teen years ago, considering the financial convulsions and panics that have swept over our country during that time I might say, that have disturbed the civ ilized world our industrial and financial condition to-day is marvelously good. It is not true, as cer tain croakers and "Bourbons," floated from their moorings by the rising tides of new and better ideas, are so fond of saying, that the South is getting poorer every day. These croakings are not only unseemly; they are false in their statements, as they are ungrateful in their sentiment. A right study of our tax-returns will show that there is life and progress in the South. But statistical tables are not the only witnesses in such a case. Let people use their own e3res. Here is this one fact the cot ton crop, as an exponent of the power of our indus trial system. In 1879 we made nearly five million bales; in 1880 it is believed that we will make nearly six million bales. We never made so much under the old system. It is nonsense to talk of a country as ruined that can do such things. There are more people at work in the South to-day than were ever at work before; and they are raising not only more cotton, but more of every thing else. And no won der, for the farming of to-day is better than the

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farming of the old days; and in two grand particu lars: first, better culture; second, the ever-increas ing tendency to break up the great plantations into small farms. Our present system is more than re storing what the old system destroyed.
The great body of our people not only make more than they did before the war, but they make a bet ter use of it they get unspeakably more comfort out of it. I am willing to make the comparison on any line of things that you may suggest, for I know both periods. Remember that I am speaking of the great mass of the people, and not of the few great slave-holders, some of whom lived like princes; not forgetting, meantime, that the majority of our people
never owned slaves at all. For one illustration, take, if you please, the home-
life of our people. There is ten times the comfort there was twenty years ago. Travel through your own county and it is rather below than above the average by any public or private road. Compare the old and the new houses. The houses built re cently are better every way than those built before the war. I do not speak of an occasional mansion, that in the old times lifted itself proudly among a score of cabins, but of the thousands of decent farm-houses, comely cottages, that have been built in the last ten years. I know scores whose new barns are better than their old residences. Our peo ple have better furniture. Good mattresses have largely driven out the old-time feathers. Cookstoves, sewing-machines, with all such comforts and conveniences, may be seen in a dozen homes to-day

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where you could hardly have found them in one in 1860. Lamps that make reading agreeable have driven out tallow-dips, by whose glimmering no eyes could long read and continue to see. Better taste asserts itself: the new houses are painted; they have not only glass, but blinds. There is more comfort inside. There are luxuries where once there were not conveniences. Carpets are getting to be common among the middle classes. There are parlor organs, pianos, and pictures, where we never saw them before. And so on, to the end of a long chapter.
Test the question of our better condition by the receipts of benevolent institutions, the support of the ministry, the building, improvement, and fur nishing of churches, and we have the same answer our people are better off now than in 1860.
In reply to all this some one will say, " But it costs more to live than in 1860." I answer, True enough; but there is more to live for.
Secondly, the social and civil order existing in the Southern States is itself wonderful, and an occasion of profound gratitude. For any wrongs that have been done in our section, for any acts of violence on any pretext, for any disobedience to law, I have not one word of defense. Admitting, for argument's sake, all that the bitterest of our censors have ever said upon these subjects, I still say, considering what were the conditions of life in the Southern States after April, 1865, the civil and social order that exists in the South is wonderful. Our critics and censors forget, we must believe, the history of othea
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countries. They have never comprehended the problem we had given us to work out after the sur render. Only those who lived through that period can ever understand it. Why has not this whole Southern country repeated the scenes of Ha3rti and San Domingo ? Not the repressive power of a strong government only; not the fear of the stronger race only; not that suggestions have been lacking from fierce and narrow fanatics; but chiefly in this, the conservative power of the Protestant religion, which had taken such deep root in the hearts and lives of our people. The controlling sentiment of the South ern people, in city and hamlet, in camp and field, among the white and the black, has been religious.
Thirdly, the restoration of our relations to the General Government should excite our gratitude. Possibly some do not go with me here. Then I must go without them, but I shall not lack for com pany; and as the years pass, it will be an ever-in creasing throng. We must distinguish between a party we have for the most part antagonized and the government it has so long a time controlled. Whatever may be the faults of the party in power, or of the party out of power, this is, nevertheless, so far as I know, altogether the most satisfactory and desirable government in the world; and I am
thankful to God, the disposer of the affairs of na tions and of men, that our States are again in rela tions with the General Government.
Should we be surprised or discouraged because our section does not control the government? His *ory, if not reason, should teach us better. Is there

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a parallel to our history since 1860 war, bitter, continued, and destructive, defeat utter and over whelming, and all followed so soon by so great political influence and consideration as we now en joy? When did a defeated and conquered minority ever before, in the short space of fifteen years, regain such power and influence in any age or .nation? And this is the more wonderful when we consider the immeasurable capacity for blundering which the leaders of the dominant party in our section have manifested during these years of political con flict. And it is the more wonderful still when we consider how ready the dominant party of the other section has been to receive, as the expression of the fixed though secret sentiment of the mass of the Southern people, the wild utterances of a few ex treme impracticables, who have never forgotten and have never learned. I tell you to-day, the soberminded people who had read history did not, in 1865, expect that our relations with the General Government would be, by 1880, as good as they are. But they would have been better than they are if the real sentiment of the masses on both sides could have gotten itself fairly expressed; for these masses wish to be friends, and before very long they will sweep from their way those who seek to hinder them. My congregation, looked at on all sides and measured by any tests, it is one of the wonders of history that our people have, in so short a time (fif teen years is a very short time in the life-time of a nation), so far overcome the evil effects of one of the most bloody, and desolating, and exasperating

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wars ever waged in this world! Arid the facts speak worlds for our Constitution, for our form of government, and, above all, for our Protestant re ligion a religion which will yet show itself to be the best healer of national wounds, and the best reconciler of estranged brethren.
Fourthly, there is one great historic fact which should, in my sober judgment, above all things, ex cite everywhere in the South profound gratitude to Almighty God: I mean the abolition of African slavery.
If I speak only for myself (and I am persuaded that I do not), then be it so. But I, for one, thank God that there is no longer slavery in these United States! I am persuaded that I only say what the vast majority of our people feel and believe. I do not forget the better characteristics of African slavery as it existed among us for so long a time under the sanction of national law and under the protection of the Constitution of the United States; I do not forget that its worst features were often cruelly exaggerated, and that its best were unfairly minified; more than all, I do not forget that, in the providence of God, a work that is without a paral lel in history was done on the Southern plantations
a work that was begun by such men as Bishop Capers, of South Carolina, Lovick Pierce and Bish op Andrew, of Georgia, and by men like-minded with them a work whose expenses were met by the slave-holders themselves a work that resulted in the Christianizing of a full half million of the African people, who became communicants of our

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Churches, and in the bettering of nearly the whole four or five million who were brought largely un der the redeeming influence of our holy religion.
I have nothing to say at this time of the particu lar " war measure " that brought about their imme diate and unconditioned enfranchisement, only that it is history, and that it is done for once and for all. I am not called on, in order to justify my position, to approve the political unwisdom of suddenly placing the ballot in the hands of nearly a million of un qualified men only that, since it is done, this also is history that we of the South should accept, and that our fellow-citizens of the Korth should never disturb. But all these things, bad as they may have been, and unfortunate as they may yet be, are only incidental to the one great historic fact, that slavery exists no more. For this fact I devoutly thank God this day! And on many accounts:
1. For the negroes themselves. While they have suffered and will suffer many things in their strug gle for existence, I do nevertheless believe that in the long run it is best for them. How soon they shall realize the possibilities of their new relations depends largely, perhaps most, on themselves. Much depends on those who, under God, set them free. By every token this whole nation should undertake the problem of their education. That problem will have to be worked out on the basis of cooperation; that is, they must be helped to help themselves. To make their education an absolute gratuity will per petuate many of the misconceptions and weaknesses of character which now embarrass and hinder their

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progress. Much also depends upon the Southern white people their sympathy, their justice, their wise and helpful cooperation. This we should give them, not reluctantly, but gladly, for their good and for the safety of all, for their elevation, and for the glory of God. How we may do this may be matter for discussion hereafter.
2. I am grateful that slavery no longer exists, because it is better for the white people of the South. It is better for our industries and our business, as proved by the crops that free labor makes. But by eminence it is better for our social and ethical devel opment. We will now begin to take our right place among both the conservative and aggressive forces of the civilized and Christian world.
3. I am grateful because it is unspeakably better for our children and children's children. It is bet ter for them in a thousand ways. I have not time for discussion in detail now. But this, if nothing else, proves the truth of my position: there are more white children at work in the South to-day than ever before. And this goes far to account for the six million bales of cotton. Our children are growing up to believe that idleness is vagabondage. One other thing I wish to say before leaving this point. We hear much about the disadvantages to our children of leaving them among several million of freedmen. I recognize them, and feel them; but I would rather leave my children among several million of free negroes than among several million of negroes in slavery.
But leaving out of view at this time all discussion

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of the various benefits that may come through the
enfranchisement of the negroes, I am thankful on the broad and unqualified ground that there is now
no slavery in all our land. Does any one say to me this day: "You have got
new light; you have changed the opinions you en tertained twenty years ago." I answer humbly, but gratefully, and without qualification: I have got new light. I do now believe many things that I did not believe twenty years ago. Moreover, if it please God to spare me in this world twenty years longer, I hope to have, on many difficult problems, more new light. I expect, if I see the dawn of the year 1900, to believe some things that I now reject, and to reject some things that I now believe. And I will not be alone.
In conclusion, I ask you to indulge me in a few reflections that are, I believe, appropriate to this occasion.
And first of all, as a people, let us of the South frankly recognize some of our faults and lacks, and try to reform and improve. I know this is a hard task. And it is all the harder because we are the subjects of so much denunciation and misrepresentation by our critics of the Northern States, and of other countries. Much of this comes through sincere ignorance; much of it through the necessities of party politics; some of it, I fear, through sinful hatred; and much of it through habit. Many have so long thrown stones at us that it has become a habit to do so. The rather Pharisaic attitude that many public men at the ]N"orth have assumed toward

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us has greatly embarrassed and arrested our efforts to discover our faults and to amend them. But all this only furnishes a reason for beginning the soon er and trying the harder. What is really good and there is much that is good let us stand by, and make it better if we can.
There are some unpleasant things that ought to be said. They are on my conscience. Will you bear with me while I point out some of the weaker points in our social make-up some of the more serious lacks in our development?
First, then, let us endeavor to overcome our in tense provincialism. We are too well satisfied with ourselves. We think better of ourselves than the facts of our history and our present state of prog ress justify. Some of us are nearly of the opinion that the words "the South" are a synonym for uni verse. As a people we have not enough felt the heart-beat of the world outside of us. We have been largely shut off from that world. Slavery did this, and this suggests another reason for gratitude that it exists no more. On this point I will add only one word more. Had we been less provincial, less shut in by and with our own ideas, had we known the world better, we would have known ourselves better, and there would have been no war in 1861.
Secondly, there is a vast mass of illiteracy among us* There is white as well as black illiteracy. There are multiplied thousands who can neither read nor write. They must be taught.
Thirdly, let us recognize our want of a literature.

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We have not done much in this line of thingos. It is too obvious to dispute about, it is too painful to dwell upon.
Fourthly, let us wake up to our want of educa tional facilities. Our public-school system is pain fully inadequate. Our colleges and universities are unendowed, and they struggle against fearful odds in their effort to do their work. We are one hun dred years behind the Eastern and Middle States. We are also behind many of the new States of the West.
Fifthly, consider how behindhand we are with our manufacturing interests. And remember that nature never did more to furnish a people with the conditions necessary to successful manufactures. Does any one say, We lack capital? I answer, 33b, my friend, it was always so. It was so when we had capital. I have thought of these things a great deal. I have been placed where I was obliged to think of them, and I have reached this conclusion with perfect confidence of its correctness: Our pro vincialism, our want of literature, our lack of edu cational facilities, and of manufactures, like our lack of population, are all explained by one fact and one word slavery. But for slavery, Georgia would be as densely peopled as Rhode Island. Wherefore, among many other reasons, I say again, I thank God that it is no more among us!
I mention, lastly, some traits of character ice should
sultivate. First, the humble but all-prevailing virtues of in
dustry and economy in business. There should be

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no non-producing classes among us^-no wasting

classes. The Northern people have more money

than the Southern people, chiefly for the reason that

they work more and save more*

Secondlv/ ,f let us cultivate the sentiments and habits of political and social toleration. This is sorely

needed among us. We need to feel that a man may

vote against us and be our friend; we need to feel

that we can be his friend although we vote against

him.

Thirdly, let us cultivate respect for all law and

authority as God's appointment. This is not a

characteristic quality of our people. The educating

influences of many generations have been unfavor

able to the development of this sentiment as a men-

-tal habit, or, rather, as a mental characteristic. We

must plant ourselves and bring up our children on

the platform of St. Paul and St. Peter, as read and

considered in the beginning of this discourse. Law,

authority, we must reverence and obey as the ordi

nance of God.

Fourthly, let us cease from politics as a trust and a

Sir

trade. Our duty of citizenship we must perform,

k

but we should look no longer to political struggles

as the means of deliverance from all our difficulties.

If we succeed we would be disappointed. Political

success may enrich a few place-hunters, who ride

into office upon the tide of popular enthusiasm;

but it will bring little reward to the masses of the

people.

There is no help for it; if we prosper, we must

work for it. Our deliverance will come through

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millions of hard licks, and millions of acts of selfdenial, through industry, economy, civil order, and the blessing of God upon obedience.
Finally, let us look forward. Hitherto I have spoken before some of you of the South of the fut ure. Again I say, Look forward! I do the heroic dead no injustice. But the only rational way in which we can emulate their virtues is to live for the country they died for. We are not called on to die for it, but to live for it; believe me, good friends, a much harder thing to do.
We should not forget what General Lee said to our General Gordon when it was all over: "We must go home and cultivate our virtues." Lee did that. He forthwith set himself to doing good. It is a good example. We are to do the work- of to day, looking forward and not backward. We have no divine call to stand eternal guard by the grave of dead issues. Here certainly we may say, "Let the dead bury their dead."
My friends, my neighbors, and my pupils, I de clare to you to-day my hope is, that in twenty years from now, the words " the South" shall have only a geographical significance.
If any ask, " Why do you say such things here to-day?" I answer, Because I remember who are here, and I consider what they are to do and to be when we are gone hence.
I have spoken what I. solemnly believe to be the truth. Moreover, the time has fully come when these truths should be spoken by somebody; and I try to do my part, persuaded that before many years

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there will happily be no longer any occasion or need

for them to be spoken.

There is no reason why the Sonth should be de

spondent. Let us cultivate industry and economy,

observe law and order, practice virtue and justice,

walk in truth and righteousness, and press on with

strong hearts and good hopes. The true golden

day for the South is yet to dawn. But the light is

breaking, and presently the shadows will flee away.

Its fullness of splendor I may never see; but my

children will see it, and I wish them to get ready

for it while they may.

There is nothing weaker or more foolish than

repining over an irrevocable past, except it be de

spairing of a future to which God invites us. Good

friends; this is not 1860; it is 1880. Let us press

forward, following the pillar of cloud and of fire

always. With health and peace, with friends and

homes, with civil liberty and social order, with na

tional prosperity and domestic comfort, with boun

I

tiful harvests with all these blessings, and good hope of heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord, let

us all lift up our voices in the glad psalm of praise

and thanksgiving: "O praise the Lord, all ye na

tions: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful

kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the

Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord."

"OCCUPY TILL I COME."
[COMMENCEMENT SUNDAY, EMOBY COLLEGE, JUNE 26, 1881.J
"And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." Luke xix. 13.
~T~ERICHO was the chief city of the valley of the fj Jordan. Oil his last visit to Jerusalem onr Lord passed through Jericho, where he probably spent the night. The whole land was singing with the fame of his mighty works and mightier words. At this time he opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus, and raised the popular interest to the highest pitch. As he passed out of the city a great multitude of people thronged his steps.
Among those whom curiosity had excited was a Jew, Zaccheus by name, one of the chief of the Ro man tax-gatherers. He had amassed fortune, and was perhaps the best hated man in Jericho. For while the Jews hated the Roman government and abhorred its tax-laws, they were especially bitter against those of their own race who accepted office under their despised conquerors.
You are familiar with the story of Christ's visit to the house of this chief publican, and it need not be recited here.
The parable of the pounds, in which my text ap pears, was delivered at the table of Zaccheus. It was primarily addressed to Christ's impatient disciples
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and followers who were looking, with clamorous eagerness, for him. to assert his kingdom and to re store the vanished luster of David's house. But its great lessons are for all men of all times. The par able takes its special complexion from the business world, of which Zaccheus was the chief representa tive in that company.
Let us consider, in a brief outline of statement, I. The doctrine of the text. 1. Here is the doctrine of stewardship. "He gave them ten pounds." But he gave upon conditions "occupy." And not for themselves u occupy till I come," then we will take account of your trading. " Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above." Whatever we have is of God's bestowmnt. Every power of body or mind; every influ ence, whether growing out of social or official' posi tion ; every opportunity, whether created by wealth or learning in a word, all that we claim as our own is God's gift to us, and it is a gift upon condi tions, to be used under law. We have no absolute right to any thing; we have no independent claim; we have no authority to keep, to use, or to dispose of any "talent" whatso ever, whether of time, or genius, or learning, or money, or influence, except in accordance with the will of the Giver. Speaking after the manner of men, we may say that all deposited in our care is in the nature of a trust-fund. It must be used in a certain way, and it must not be alienated from the purpose for which it is set apart.

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2. Nothing can be plainer the Giver requires his own with usury.
To each of his " ten servants " that is, to every human being the Lord says, "Occupy use till I come." The figure is taken from money invested in business that it may be increased. He says not, Spend as you will, wasting the very capital itself. The command is, "Trade with it." "Till I come" intimates account-taking at the end. To those serv ants who did trade with their lord's money so as to increase the sum of it, he says, " Well, thou good and faithful servant." He is approved and reward ed for his wise and profitable trading. The lord is not content with getting back his own. Hear the plea of the unfaithful and wicked servant, whose fault is that he had done nothing: "And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin; for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man; thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow; wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it 'to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath, shall he given; and from him that

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hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him."
Simply holding one's own, as the phrase is, does not meet the case; increase there must be. In busi ness life we count him unsuccessful who has, at the end, only what he began with. To be counted suc cessful, the business man must not simply not waste his capital, nor barely keep it he must increase it. The man who winds up his life like the unfaithful servant, with only the one pound he started with, is a failure. When a man's stewardship ends, he should have something to show for it there must be some increment of his own.
3. Fidelity in our stewardship is obedience to the law of life. God has constituted the world on this principle. There is life in obedience; death in dis obedience. It is no mere arbitrary arrangement that all the gifts of God are bestowed as trusts; that they are to be used for the Giver used upon con ditions and under law. It is not merely that the Supreme Ruler will not part with his own; it is that his gifts cannot be truly and happily ours un less they be received and used as trusts bestowed for a time of reckoning. We cannot conceive of any other adjustment that would be good for us or for others related to us.
Man is neither strong, nor wise, nor good enough to be trusted with the absolute ownership or control of the pounds, or talents. The broadest minded man who ever lived cannot draw out a plan of life for himself. The subject is so vast and complicated that the Infinite Mind alone can grasp and master it.

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There is no greater folly than the folly of him who says, "I do my own thinking on this subject; I am my own master; I am my own lawgiver; I will this; I forbear to will this." If untaught children need the guidance of a wise teacher as to both the subjects and methods of their studies; if a mere boy does not even know the names of books that are good for him; if the illiterate cannot devise a wise course of college or university studies; if in all our little affairs of daily life there is need of in struction and apprenticeship, how much more does man need that an Infinite Intelligence lay down the laws of all life and conduct. A mere man can no more think out a complete and wise plan of life, unaided by higher wisdom, than he could think out the whole mechanism of the universe.
Whoever undertakes to live on his own plans finds them lacking at a thousand points. He is utterly helpless in the attempt to execute them;
they are self-destructive. Moreover, weak and ignorant though he may be,
he is yet too strong to be left without authority. There must be over him authority; there must be in his heart the sense of responsibility to an Infinite Power. Any less power is inadequate. Only the consciousness of God's claims upon us can keep man in his place can make him true to his orbit. Alas! even this is not enough in multiplied thou sands of lives. In our text is one who would not use his pound as the Giver directed.
Let us observe that the Absolute Ruler has so adjusted his government and the nature of man that
9

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while he retains ownership of the pounds hestowed upon him, that while he lays down the law as to their wise use, he yet leaves man perfectly free in the management. He goes into a far country; he says, "Occupy till I come." As if he had said, "This pound is mine; I trust it to your hands for a time; I tell you to trade with it; but I leave it to you to ohey or not. I will return and take ac count."
This liberty in the use of the gifts is itself one of the highest. The very liberty which makes re sponsibility possible }s itself a most royal gift. He who uses his liberty so as to obey the law of life so as to work out God's plan of life he is the freest of men, yet the coinpletest of servants.
God no more relinquishes the government of men than he does of the material universe. But there is infinite difference in the nature of his govern ment. In the material universe there can be no disobedience to law; the laws of gravity and chem ical affinity are self-enforcing. There can be no resistance. In these realms there is no self-centered will that lifts itself up and says, "I will not do this, I will do that."
A man cannot be governed on any such scheme upon any system of mere force. So governed, he could not be a man. A clod, a tree he might be, but not a man. Our globe is under law, but not a law of stewardship. Its Maker says not to it, " Oc cupy till I come." It was made for man, and the law that controls it is absolute. It must fill its place and move on in its path. Man is placed on it to

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work out his destiny. And God says to him, " Oc cupy till I come." Liberty is necessary here; with out it there is no responsibility, no character. The globe gives no account it has no responsibility; man, must give account, for he can choose.
Obedience to this law of stewardship is life; dis obedience is death. It is set forth in the text in vivid, dramatic form. The faithful servants are raised to thrones; the unfaithful are destroyed.
Let us now consider some Corollaries that follow from the doctrine of steward ship. 1. The doctrine is of universal application. It applies to all men in all times and conditions. It applies to all their affairs, great and small, per sonal and relative. It applies to the whole of hu man life, and not to a part of it only. As if limited, (1) by certain places; (2) certain times; (3) certain employments. This doctrine does not recognize the ordinary dis tinction between things secular and things religious; it claims the whole of man's life, with all its pow ers, for God. I do not say that there is no differ ence between Sunday and Monday, between the church and the store. It is a great and ruinous error to conclude that because we are to serve God always and everywhere that therefore the peculiar duties that belong to the Sabbath and the house of worship are useless, or to be slightly esteemed. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, says, in one of his lectures on " Christian Life," on this very point: " Men have said that they were in all their actions -

1

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of ordinary life doing Christ's will; that they en deavored always to be promoting some good object; and that the peculiar services of religion, as they are called, were useless, inasmuch as in spirit they are worshiping God always. This is a great error; because, as a matter of fact, it is false. We may safely say that no man ever did keep his heart right with God in his ordinary life; that no one ever be came one with Christ, and Christ with him, without seeking Christ where he reveals himself; it may not be more really, but to our weakness far more sensi bly, than in the common business of daily life. We may be happy if we can find Christ there, after we have long sought him and found him in the way of his own ordinances, in prayer, and in his holy communion. Even Christ himself, when on earth, though his whole day was undeniably spent in do ing the will of his Heavenly Father, although to him doubtless God was ever present in the common est acts no less than in the most solemn; yet even he, after a day spent in all good works, desired a yet more direct intercourse with God, and was ac customed to spend a large portion of the night in prayer."
But this I urge: the obligation to observe the duties of the Sabbath, and to perform the duties peculiar to the house of God, is not higher, or in any sense more complete, than is the obligation to do the work of Monday, whether in store, or school, or work-shop, or field, or wherever man's duty car ries him, with an eye single to the glory of God. As says St. Paul, " Whatsover ye do in word or

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deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." "We mnst not disconnect our Bible-reading, our prayers, our communion, our public or social or private devo tions, from our daily occupations from the common portions of our lives. Rightly understood and faith fully used, there is no want of harmony between our duty in church and our duty in the place of daily labor, between the duties peculiar to the holy Sab bath and the duties of the other six days of the week. Very far from it; they are in perfect har mony, and are necessary to each other, like those double stars, of which astronomers tell us, that re volve about a common center. If one were gone, the other would lose its center, and, of necessity, find a new and alien orbit, or else, destroying and destroyed, rush lawless through the heavens.
He who is unfaithful to his Sabbath duties cannot be faithful in his six days' work, as he who is un faithful in his six days cannot rightly render his Sabbath service. He who is negligent of the duty he owes in the house of God cannot render com plete service in the place of labor, as he who is un faithful in the place of labor cannot render accept able service in the place of prayer and praise. In a word, he who does not try to live as a Christian on all days and in all places cannot be a true Chris tian on any day or in any place. The specific du ties appropriate to certain days, and certain places, and certain employments, have their obligation and sanction, not in the days, the places, or the employ ments, but in our relation to God. The obligation

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itself is as perfect, as binding, as solemn for one day as another, for one place as another, for one employment as another. We may illustrate from a simple and common case. A householder employs a servant to do many different things, but the obli gation to do any one thing has the same basis as the obligation to do any other thing.
What Ipleadfor is a place for Christ's throne in his own world. He made it all; he upholds it all " by him all things subsist;" he redeemed it all, and it is all his by sacred and divine rights. But ignorance, custom, conventionalism, fanaticism would rob him of by far the greater part of his own kingdom. The robbery is not less complete if done under some plea of peculiar and excessive loyalty in that part of his kingdom in which he is recognized. The man who vexes his house with painful exactness in Sabbath observances, but lives during the following six days according to a law of his own devising, is as really disloyal to his King as is the man who observes no Sabbath at all. I do not plead for a relaxation in the obligation that binds us to perform our Sabbath duties, but that we recognize as of equal authority our obligation to fidelity to our trust every other day. I do not ask that men think less reverently of the sanctuary, but that they remem ber and recognize Christ's claim upon their loyal service in every place. I do not ask that preachers of the gospel think less solemnly of their responsi bilities, of their obligations to lead pure and useful lives, but that every man recognize an equal obli gation.

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There can be no question that by various devices and through the influence of personal habits of thought and of conduct, and through the customs of society, the majority of men have managed to take away and isolate, in greater or less degree, the larger portion of their lives from the dominion of our Lord. Some have done this under the delusions of ignorance, imagining that Christ does not con cern himself about the common labors and business concerns of life; others under "the foolish and hypocritical pretense that they are too trifling and too familiar to be mixed with the thought of things so solemn." Men have revised our Lord's parable of the leaven hid in the meal that the whole lump may be leavened; they would confine the leaven to some little corner of the meal, taking care that it does not spread through the whole mass. The heav enly light of religion, which its Author designed to light up all the world, they would shut up in special places, or, if they venture with it into the streets and busy places of life, they must hide it under cov ers, or obscure it by smoked or colored glass. The divine grace of holy living, that God designs to con serve the whole of human life as a saving salt in the earth, they would lock away in cloisters or other receptacles for preserving instead of using religion. There are no greater follies; there are few greater sins.
Dr. Arnold uses the illustration furnished by some heathen people, converted only in name, to set forth the folly and sin of such exclusion of Christ from a part of our lives. When they came to be baptized

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they were careful to keep the right-arm out of the water, that it might not be brought under the authority of Christ; they would keep that their "sword-hand" that with it they might, without sin, wreak upon their enemies works of hatred and vengeance which, in their baptism, they had prom ised to renounce! " Is it too much," he inquires, " to say that something like this unbaptized rightarm is still to be met with amongst us? that men too often leave some of their very most important concerns what they call by way of eminence their business, their management of their own money af fairs, and their conduct in public matters wholly out of the control of Christ's law?"
This unbaptized right-arm in the Church, and in our Christian civilization to-day, is what men call the secu lar world.
I believe most solemnly that the great need of our times is the utter abolishment in Christian think ing, not of a mere speculative line of distinction, but of a high and mighty wall which we have built along the whole frontier of our every-day life, separating it from our religious life as the Chi nese wall was intended to separate the "flowery kingdom" of the Celestials from savage deserts and more savage tribes beyond. For the distinction is arbitrary, and of human invention. The only distinction that exists is in the difference in duties proper to special times and places; there is abso lutely no distinction in the essential nature of God's claim upon us, or in the spirit of reverence and fidelity in which our service is to be rendered.

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Furthermore, the distinctions we have invented have their real origin rather in a secret desire to have more freedom from God's claim upon us in what we call sec ular life than to magnify his claim upon our religious life. It is not that we seek to elevate the standard of religion in our Sabbath life, hnt that we would lower it in our week-day life.
I do not forget that our Lord, as well as his apos tles, give us many solemn warnings against con formity to the'"world." But many mistake the meaning of the term as employed in the Kew Tes tament. It does not mean human society, but the Christless spirit in society; not the six days, but the Christless spirit in all days; not business, but Christless living in all things.
There is much confusion of thought, if not down right nonsense, in the use that many persons make of the word " worldliness." It is not business; it is not money-making, or money-spending; it is not society; it is not politics; it is not this or that par ticular form of week-day life and activity but any and all life that rules Christ out of itself. "Occupy till I come " covers all human life. Christ asserts his perfect claim upon all our energies and all our time. We are as much under his law in business as in worship; in the field or work-shop, or in our social reunions, as in the closet, or around the sacramental table.
The invention of a distinction between things sacred and things secular that neither reason, nor nature, nor revelation recognizes, accounts for much wrong-doing and sin. For it has given us two utter-

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ly different worlds, with different conventional tests and measures of right and wrong. Whereas there is one world only for Christ's servants, just as there is one Lawgiver and one law. This invented dis tinction is supposed to give men margin on certain days, in certain places, and in certain employments, for living according to their own wills, as if God's will were suspended and man's obligation intermit tent. People who set up this distinction allow themselves to do things on work-days they condemn as exceedingly sinful on holy-days. This false think ing allows itself a spirit and purpose of life on Mon day that damns on Sunday; allows in business what it shrinks from in horror in what it calls religion.
It has a huge " right-arm unbaptized," with which it proposes to work out its own ungoverned will in regions where it recognizes neither God nor Christ. And with this arm it crucifies Christ afresh and in his holy temple.
II. The doctrine of the text dignifies and makes sacred all of human life, the lowliest and the loftiest.
It is to me inconceivable that God should have constituted the world in such way that the work we must do to live at all to get bread, and clothing, and shelter can, if rightly done, be unfriendly to our highest life, the life of religion, of communion with God, of oneness with Christ. As if a man should build a vast and complicated factory and fill it with machinery to make cloth, and yet so adjust it all that just six-sevenths of its power antagonizes the seventh; that his carding and spinning machines destroy his looms; that the very end for which it

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all exists should become impossible whenever the machinery is put in motion.
What are "means of grace?" Most persons will answer, "Prayer, the reading of the Bible, the preaching of the word, devotional meetings, and such like practices and observances." And so they are; but they are not all, nor the half, nor the greater part. Work is a means of grace, whether at the carpenter's bench, the blacksmith's forge, the farmer's plow, the student's desk, the mother's work-room, the servant's kitchen all work needful to be done in this world is an essential part of God's appointed means of making us what he would have us to be, true children in the likeness of Christ his Sou. Till we understand this we do not know the true law of human life, the real secret of religion.
I do not mean simply that our business affairs may be carried on in such way that they do not an tagonize and destroy our religion, but something much more important; I mean that we cannot be religious in any true sense, or on any broad and high plan, if we do not so conduct our business affairs. Just as the physician when he enjoins ex ercise does not mean it is consistent with health, but that there cannot be health without it. He does not say, You may work and be well, but, Without work you cannot be well; without work you can not even live. If we would be truly religious, it is as indispensable that we conduct our business affairs in the spirit of the gospel as that we pray reverently.
What is holy ground? What are holy-days? All

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ground is holy, and all daya are holy, if used in the name and in the spirit of Christ our Lord;
Pardon me when I say there is in much of our current talk about these things, no little pious slang and cant. When we hear men denouncing the world we live in and our state of existence as a "waste howling wilderness;" when they seek, by rhetorical declamations, to degrade this present life, they are talking worse than nonsense. It is an affront to the sovereign and all-wise Creator who made the world and placed us in it as the best pos sible place for a time. He said, when he made it, "It is very good." !Nbt simply good in itself, but good for man. This world is not a waste howling wilderness; it is beautiful; it is our home; we love it, and we ought to love it. Our all-wise and loving Father has taken infinite pains to make this world the most suitable for us of all places in his universe. Jf this world is no friend to grace to help us on to God, it is our abuse of it that has made it unfriendly--the trouble is in us. If we " use this world as not abus ing it," it is in all things to us as a friend to grace. And our business life the occupations and cares that the great primal law of labor make necessary for us all this is also good for us, if we are wise enough to learn, and faithful enough to obey God.
This world, this life, with all the possibilities they afford, are intrusted to us to use for their great Pro prietor and Lord. He bids us receive them and "occupy till his coming" to take account of our stewardship.
There can be no question that this world, and the

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business life that belongs to it, is absolutely necessary to rightly fit us for the next. We cannot truly pre pare/or the next world without using this world. The best preparation for heaven is the right use of this | world and this life. Jesus Christ did not teach that cloisters are means of grace; he lived among his fellow-men. He who lives six days as if there were no divine claim upon him, pretending to serve God the seventh day, abuses this world, and to him it is no longer a field in which to train himself for higher and better things it becomes his burying-ground; he sinks his true life by not recognizing the true uses of this world and its work. He who is secular on secular days, and religious only on religious days, dissevers this life from the next. To him this world, instead of being a training-school to prepare him for heavenly and immortal things, becomes a final finishing-school. He looks not beyond it, and there fore misses its real significance. And beyond it he never, goes nor rises.
"We shall hardly get to the bottom of .the solemn words of our text, " Occupy till I come." He will come come to take account of our stewardship. For his coming and account-taking we cannot get ready by burying our pound and keeping it for him as if the very work to which he assigned us were, in some way, contaminating as if the very thing he commands us to do were the one thing that unfits us for his coming. His words are fearful to those indolent and conceited souls who choose their own way and seek to avoid responsibility by dodging it: " Take from him the pound, and give it to him that

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hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, That unto every one that hath shall he given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall he taken away from him!"
Young men, if you ivould be ready for your Lord's coming, you must take him into your every-day life. You must take him into your business; into your shops and stores, your fields and offices, your labors and your aspirations, your private and public life. Where he cannot go with you, you must not go at all. George Macdonald says truly: " There is a holy way of doing business, and little as business men think it, that is the standard by which they must be tried, for their judge in business affairs is not their own trade or profession, but the Man who came to convince the world concerning right and wrong, and the choice between them."
The best and only true preparation for the life to come is found in the godly use of the life that now is. The true watcher for his Lord's coming is the true worker of whom Christ says, "Blessed are those servants whom when his Lord comes he shall find so doing."
An extreme illustration of the folly and sin against which I would warn you has been several times fur nished by certain lunatic pre-adventists, who, assum ing that they had unlocked the secrets of the divine mind, have, at different times, fixed upon certain days for the ending of this world and all its affairs. And what sort of preparation do they make? It is seen in the neglect of the plainest duties of life; in idling when they should have been working; in

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singing wild and fanatical songs about descending chariots when they should have been driving their plows; in making shroud-like things they called "ascension^robes" instead of making garments for the poor and friendless. This sort of thing is absurd and revolting to the last degree. But it is only less absurd than the notions of those religionists who substitute certain emotional raptures for a life truly w hid with Christ in God;" who talk much of faith in Christ but have no good works to prove their faith; who, to use Edwards Irving's stinging phrase, hunt for the basis of their religion in their nervous system, and not in the law and will of Christ Jesus the Lord.
Let me make the test sharp and pungent. We will try ourselves by an infallible criterion. Jesus was about thirty years old when he entered upon his public ministry. Till that time, except a short visit to Jerusalem in boyhood, he had spent his whole life in the retirement of a little Galilean town of small importance and sinister reputation. What did he do and in what spirit did he do it during all those thirty years? Was he an idler, a gentlemanly loafer, a mere hanger-on about the house of his re puted father, the industrious Joseph? The thought seriously entertained would be profanation. During those thirty years he was " about his Father's busi ness," and just as really when he drove the plane or the saw in the shop of carpenter Joseph as when he stood among the doctors of the law in the tem ple, both hearing and asking them questions. For Jesus was a worker, a carpenter, a builder of houses, as Joseph was. "Is not this the carpenter?" one

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asked, when he wondered at his works and his wis dom. The question carried its own answer. But were there no allusion whatever to his occupations, it is simply unthinkable that Jesus, the exemplar of men, spent thirty years in soft-handed and well-shaded indolence. I love to think of his face browned by the Syrian sun, and of his hands hard ened and horny with daily toil.
In what spirit did Jesus do his carpenter's work? Try to think of him as doing careless work! You cannot. How then can you think of any carpenter, who is Christ's servant, doing careless work? Or of any man, in any calling, doing careless or dishon est work? Jesus did the best work he could do; he did it as in the presence of his Father, as unto the Lord. And there is no other way.
It is said of Hugh Miller that when he was a stone-mason at Cromarty, he " put his conscience in every stone he laid." That was religion. Thomas Carlyle draws a picture of his father, James Carlyle, building the stone piers of a bridge so thoroughly and conscientiously that forty years afterward the old man looked upon them with satisfaction as wor thy expressions of a conscientious man's life and labor. There was more Christ in old James Carlyle's stone piers than in all his famous son's denun ciations of affectation and cant.
I cannot reconcile my mind to the too prevalent view that the great primal law of labor is a curse. The example of Christ, his spirit, the teaching of his gospel, and the experience of his people, show us that this much-despised law holds the richest

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blessing for man. God has so arranged the scheme of the world and of human life that what we must do to subsist is just what we most need to do to achieve the noblest and best results in ourselves, and for both worlds. The gospel makes labor the lowliest a blessing. If our perishing bodies bind us to the dust, God has so adjusted the demands and necessities of nature and the provisions and proc esses of grace that nature becomes servant to grace. In the very toils necessary to support our bodies that die we find growth and blessing for our souls that never die.
III. Our text reproves and cheeks impatience in our work--"Occupy TILL Icome."
True faith waits as well as works and dares. He will come, although the tempter whispers sometimes, " Our Lord delayeth his coming," and suggests re laxation in our toils and in our watching.
In the world into which you now enter, young men, you will have need of a faith that can endure till the end come. I beg you think on these weighty words, "Occupy TILL I come" If you do your full duty as men who recognize your true relation to God there will come times and occasions that will try your faith. If you do your full duty to Christ there will come occasions when many friends will part company with you, when you may find your selves alone with Christ. Be it so; remember the words he spoke at the publican's table, " Occupy till I come." He will come.
IV. Christ rewards such working and waiting like a king.
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There is nothing meager ahout him, either in his plans or rewards. He intends us to live largely while we live in this world. But greater things await us if we are faithful to him. Let us read in the conclusion of this discourse what the Lord will say to the true and faithful ones who " occupy till
he comes." "Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound
hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant; because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over
ten cities." "And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound
hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise unto him, Be thou also over five cities."
Zaccheus was himself an appointee of the Roman Empire. He understood how the emperor had given kingdoms away. Herod held his crown by grace of Home. What the Roman emperors gave in caprice became to him a faint but impressive illus tration of the divine gifts of the one true King of the universe, who gives to those who share his toils and sufferings. He will return, and not as he came at first in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. He will come in the clouds, glorious, majestic, victorious, with tens of thousands of his saints and holy angels. Then will he reward, in a kingly way, his faithful ones the humblest and obscurest as well as the greatest and most illustrious of his servants and his friends.
My dear young friends, if we do our work here in the spirit of Christ, if he share our labors with us, we shall reign with him forever and ever.

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[A SERMON.-]
" Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and pow ers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work" (i. 0., those good works due to government). Titus iii. 1.
T 11HE subject of this discourse is The Christian _JL Citizen. These terms are brought together advisedly, for I am not about to speak of the Chris tian simply, nor of the citizen simply, but of the Christian citizen of his responsibilities and duties. I do not discuss, at this time, those moralities that are binding on us as men, but as members of a com munity, living under the same government. The obligation to be truthful, honest, sober, chaste, in dustrious, economical, charitable, useful in a word, to be religious as individuals, is not to be argued at this time. My theme is: The responsibilities and duties that grow out of our relation to society, to law and order, to government.
This is a proper theme for the pulpit, for religion concerns itself with all things that concern the wel fare of man. Moreover, the duties of the citizen are Christian duties. All real duties are Christian
* Preached before the students of Emory College and the citizens of Oxford, Ga., Jan. 9, 1881; and in Trinity Church, Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 30, 1881.
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duties; all duties have a divine warrant and foun dation; whatever a man ought to do at all, he owes it to God to do. Religion claims the whole life; its hand is laid upon all our powers. It is a fatal mis take, and not less fatal because it is frequent, to sup pose that part of our life belongs to God, and part of it to any other lord whatsoever. Many speak and act as if they belonged to God on Sunday in a sense they do not belong to him on Monday as if they owed him an allegiance at the altar from which they are free in the workshop, in the counting-room, and at the ballot-box.
The sort of distinction we are accustomed to make between things secular and things sacred is un known to the word of God. It is a distinction in vented not, as some suppose, to preserve things sacred, but rather to secure greater license for indi vidual preference in other things. I do not forget that some things are becoming on Sunday which would be out of place on Monday; that somethings are right on Monday which would be wrong on Sun day; that there are duties peculiar to the house of prayer, and other duties peculiar to the place of labor. Nevertheless, it is true, and it cannot be stated too strongly, that he who is truly a Christian on one day is a Christian on all days; that he who is truly a Christian in one place is a Christian in all places; that he who is truly a Christian in one re lation is a Christian in all relations. If you doubt the soundness of these views, consider what St. Paul says: " Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And in another

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place lie says: " Whatsoever ye do in word, or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." There are many passages in God's word that teach the same doctrine. If, now, there are duties that grow out of our citizenship, they are Christian duties, for we are the Lord's.
I. Before discussing the responsibilities and duties of Christian citizenship, let us consider briefly the Bible doctrine of government. I will repeat substan tially some thoughts presented to your attention in November last. We may be sure that when we find just what this Bible doctrine of government is, we can then build our institutions upon a foundation that can never fail.
Let me read two passages of Scripture, of broad scope and unmistakable meaning. I read first, Ro mans xiii. 1-7. This is St. Paul's language. St. Peter gives us a statement not less distinct and em phatic. I read 1 Peter ii. 13 18. There are other passages of like character, but these will suffice.
Why should we obey law? Why should we seek to promote the efficiency and usefulness of the gov ernment, whether municipal, State, or national whether domestic, civil, or ecclesiastical under which we live? What is the ground of our obliga tion to be subject to " the powers that be"? to obey government? There can be no doubt as to the Bible doctrine on this subject. It may be stated only in outline at this time.
1. God's will is the foundation of all law and au thority, as he is the Source of all existence.
2. God ordains government that is, the thing,

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not the form. Those who are governed should de termine the form. The texts just read are as appli cable to one form as to another.
3. Obedience to " the powers that be " is a duty, not only as to our rulers, but as to God, who is
Lord and Governor of all. 4. Let us observe closely for it is <t matter of
vital importance it is not to the king, or presi dent, or governor, we owe obedience, but to the ruler; not simply to the highest, "the king as su preme," but to all rulers; to "governors" also of every grade, as representing the highest; rather, as representing, under him, the law and government that are back of and above him that is, to push the thought farther, but not too far, not merely the law and constitution of the State, but the divine law and constitution of the universe. Wherefore, St Paul says: "Render to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." St. Peter teaches the same doctrine. So does Moses. So does our Lord himself.
The foundation-truth of the whole doctrine is this: "Whosoever administers legitimate authority represents, in so far forth as his office and functions go, God. Men speak sometimes of " God's vicargeneral." He has none neither in king, nor pope, nor democracies. God's vicar, his representative, is government all rightful government fulfilling his will. Just as the simplest, as well as the most com plex, processes of Nature show forth the power, and the wisdom, and the good providence of God, so the

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humblest office-bearer, enforcing the least of all laws that are in harmony with eternal righteousness, rep resents the majesty and authority of the divine gov ernment. The principle and the obligation are the same, whether it be the president, the emperor, the king, the governor, the council, the mayor, the local magistrate, the town-marshal, the parent, or the village school-teacher. In a word, whoever bears rightful rule does, in his sphere and office, whether it be great or small, represent the divine govern ment. Hence, St. Paul says: " Whoso resisteth the power" in things lawfully commanded "resist eth God." This makes office-bearing a most sacred thing " not to be taken in hand unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of God."
(The right of amending bad laws; of seeking, by right methods, to change unsatisfactory administra tions, or even the right of revolution if it come to that all guaranteed to our race by the Scriptures and by sound reason, it is not needful to discuss at this time. But it may be remarked that even revo lution should have this basis that it seeks obedi ence to that which is the real law. Revolution becomes a duty when literal obedience would be real disobedience; for all authority and government should "make for righteousness," and all powers among men should be brought into accord with the highest and holiest the will of God. " Children, obey your parents in the Lord," expresses the principle and implies the limitation. There is no authority more sacred than the parental, but it

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must be exercised "in the Lord;" otherwise, au thority is so perverted that obedience becomes dis obedience.)
II. In the light of the great principles set forth in the Scriptures, we may inquire concerning the nature of our obligation to obey law, to respect govern ment--in a icord, to perform, the duties of citizenship.
The Bible doctrine is: Our duties of citizenship are duties to God. I make bold to say, Most of our civil and political troubles have come of our forget ting this truth. In a very large degree we have, in our vanity, and in the blindness born of vanity, sub

stituted vox populi for vox Dei. In some countries men talk superstition sly of the " divine right of kings;" in our country demagogues talk flippantly of the " divine rights of the people." They say, as a tribute to human pride, Vox populi, vox Dei--" The voice of the people is the voice of God." This de

pends on the voice, what it utters. For, alas! vox populi is sometimes vox diaboli. Let us ask soberly whether law is only vox populi; whether law has

no higher sanctions than the will of the majority; whether the ballot-box or Mount Sinai has the high er claim upon conscience; whether our obligation to obey law is bottomed on the will of the people, or created by the will and enforced by the authority of God. My brethren, the will of God gives to law its authority and its sanctions, and the voice of the people creates no obligation except as it expresses

the will of God. Instead of proudly and foolishly substituting vox populi for vox Dei, it is the best

study and the noblest achievement of true states-

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manship to secure a "voice of the people" that echoes faithfully the " voice of God."
III. Out of the principles and facts that have been pointed out grows the true doctrine of indi vidual responsibility in citizenship.
This doctrine is of transcendent importance in a system of government like ours a system whose characteristic fact is universal suffrage. "Where every man votes, it is needful if we are to have the best results of elections, it is necessary that every voter should realize his personal responsibil ity in the exercise of his great power in determin ing, by the ballot, the policy of a government and the fate of a people.
So far as my duty as a citizen is concerned, the question is not, What ought one among many, one among millions, to do? but, What ought one, what ought T, to do? The question, so far as respon sibility is concerned, is personal it is mine; so far as the influence of my vote goes, it is also yours. There will be, I think, no doubt in the mind of aiiy hearer when I say we do not, as we ought, realize our individual responsibility as citizens of a coun try, where the votes of the people determine the most important questions that affect our state in this world.
Let me make my meaning as plain as possible. Let us suppose a case: The Legislature is, we may say, in session. A law most unwise in its provisions, and hurtful in its tendency, is introduced and passed. The whole people suffer. Suppose also that I voted for the member who brought this law forward, or

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for some one of the members who helped to pass it. Have I any responsibility in this case? Undoubt edly. In so far as my vote enters into the history of this bad law, it is my law. Whether I voted for an unfit law-maker understandingly or ignorantly, in either case I have a personal responsibility in the law that I can by no device escape.
Let us change the illustration. A county officer, known as ordinary, is to be chosen. There are numbers of candidates. Suppose that, for any con sideration, I vote for and so help to elect a man who lacks ability or integrity, or both, and that through the blunders or crimes of this ordinary, whom I have helped to elect, great wrongs are committed. It may turn out that a whole county is, in some way, robbed of its treasures, or that many widows and orphans are defrauded. Am I not responsible in this thing? Yea, verily. He is my ordinary. Sup pose to offer one more illustration where scores might be given I help to make a justice of the peace of one who is ignorant, drunken, open to bribes, and that some friendless wretch suffers wrong at the hands of this justice my justice, if you please. Am I blameless? l^ay, verily. He is my justice.
I have applied the doctrine of individual respon sibility in only one direction that of the exercise of the perilous right of suffrage; but it applies in all directions where our duties of citizenship are con cerned. I cannot go farther into details at this point. But I commend the matter to your medita tions. As it appears to me, there is hardly one

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thing so sorely needed among us at this time as the reawakening of the personal conscience in our rela tion to government.
IV. In order to discharge our individual respon sibility to government, there must be perfect individual freedom.
It is a mere truism to say. Without freedom there is no choice, and, therefore, no responsibility. But it needs restatement in its relations to the obliga tions and duties of citizenship. Representative government without individual responsibility is an absurdity; responsibility without freedom is an im possibility.
When I say the voter must be free, I do not mean so obvious a thing as freedom from mere force; I mean his mind as well as his body must be free. Suppose a voter at the polls, ready to east his ballot. How is that vote determined? by avarice, by ter ror, by appetite, by hatred, by any influence that determines the decision against his judgment as to what is wise, and against his conscience as to what is right? That influence has mastered him, has un fitted him for the office and duty of a voter.
Please to observe that I am not attacking party organizations. Nothing is more certain than that parties will exist; few things are more desirable than that they should be useful to the State. But granting all that may truthfully be said in their favor, I yet affirm that our duty of citizenship, so far as voting is concerned, can in nowise be per
formed without freedom of choice and of action. If a party organization is to accomplish that for

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which it presumably exists that for which it must exist in order to justify its existence at all that is, the good of all the people then, in order to accom plish this good end, the individual must he free, ab solutely free, to follow his own judgment and his own conscience.
A citizen who has right views and right convic tions on public questions, and who follows an en lightened judgment and a good conscience, will generally vote with some party (for there will al ways be two parties, and sometimes more than two), but not because it is the party considered as such, but because it best interprets what, before God, he believes to be the need and duty of the hour. Elsewise he surrenders so much, not only of his per sonal judgment, but of his personal conscience, to a power outside of himself hence, surrenders not simply so much of his independence as a man, but of his value as a citizen. In such a case he does not truly vote he only registers the opinion of others.
Here let me say, If it shall ever come to pass that a party exists only for its own sake; if it holds to gether only for the sake of the offices it can hold and the emoluments it can win;' if it is used only/ as an instrument for the advancement of ambitious men then such a party is truly described in the lan guage of the street it is indeed a " machine." It has no longer a claim upon the confidence or suf frages of patriotic citizens; it can no longer offer a valid reason for its continued existence; it has for feited its right to live; it is time that it should die,

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and be buried out of the sight of men. .But when a party seeks the good of the whole people, then let it offer its proofs, both in sound doctrine and in , useful measures. The party which has the best proofs has the highest claims, and free, patriotic, and conscientious citizens will so decide.
I do not at this time enlarge farther upon the necessity of free thought and honest judgment in all matters involving the citizen considered as a voter, but I beg you, my brethren, to meditate upon the relation between a perfectly discharged respon sibility and a perfectly exercised freedom.
V. Let us now consider the Christian citizen in some of his most important characters and duties.
1. As a voter. (1) First of all, the Christian citizen (I speak of him as I believe he ought to be) will vote when measures are to be determined, and rulers are to be elected. No man charged by law with the duty of voting has a moral right to decline that duty. Ab senting himself from the polls, refusing to vote, does not leave one in the position of having had nothing to do with an election. In a government like ours, a citizen qualified to vote cannot, by any sort, of voluntary inaction, throw himself outside of the re sponsibilities of a voter. If two or more men ofter themselves for office, and the one least qualified is chosen, the citizen who declined to vote must share the responsibility of his election. Suppose a drunk ard elected by a majority of one, when your Chris tian voter, from indifference, or preoccupation, or fear, refused to cast his ballot. He cannot escape

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the responsibility of the shame and the wrong; his one vote might, at least, have prevented that evil choice.
I have mentioned the simplest case purposely; it is easy to enlarge and make applications.
But this doctrine- that it is the citizen's duty, both to God and to men, to vote should be preached and enforced till it becomes a matter not merely of party fealty, but of good conscience, to meet the re sponsibilities and to perform the duties that belong to our right of citizenship. A great and lament able cry is heard in our land that the country is c-ursed by unfit men in office. It is my deliberate judgment that these unfit men would not be in of fice if tens of thousands of well-meaning but mis taken citizens had not failed to cast their ballots as a good judgment and a good conscience would have determined. Let these non-voting citizens, whose tongues are not lacking in denunciations of the po litical corruptions that oppress the whole people, whose neglect of one of the highest duties of citizen ship has indirectly but effectively brought these woes upon us let these non-voting citizens "re pent and do their first works." There are enough of them to turn the scale in almost any important election, and, for the most part, their instincts would lead them to vote for the fittest men and measures. It is a hard thing to say, but it is true there arc multitudes of Christian men whose consciences should lash them for their guilty indifference and inaction in this high duty of citizenship. Had these men stood in their lot and done their duty,

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there are many dark chapters in our political his tory that would never have heen written.
(2) The true Christian citizen will not merely vote he will vote on his judgment and conscience, as unto God. If you please, such a man will " vote as he prays." lie will" mix his religion with his poli tics " just as he does with his buying and selling; that is, as a religious man, he will endeavor to do his whole duty, that he may keep "a conscience void of offense before God and men." What do I mean by "vote as he prays?" I will tell you. Your Christian citizen prays, as he is divinely com manded to do, that the Sovereign Ruler would bless the land with good government. If his prayers are worth any thing, he will not go from his knees and vote against his judgment and against his con science. No party exigencies can justify him in doing so insincere a thing; if he is a free man, no party discipline can compel him to do it. If there is any thing in his prayers, he will not go from his knees and vote for a drunkard, a gambler, a liber tine, a corrupter of men no matter how brilliant his talents, nor how exalted his name. If two cor rupt men are candidates, and there is no other, he will vote for neither. But he will vote, and for some man who is fit for office, if he receive only this one vote. Such a vote is not & thrown away;" it has its worth; it is a free and conscientious man's protest; it is a condemnation of vice; it is a com mendation of virtue. Such a man may, for the time, be as solitary as John the Baptist when he first appeared preaching in the deserts of Judea

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only " the voice of one crying in the wilderness." But it is a call to "repentance," and it is worth more to the country than the triumph of any party in the election of a corrupt man to " lord it over God's heritage."
Please to observe, I am not talking of an inde pendent party, but of an unspeakably better and more important thing a manly and conscientious personal independence of parties. The Christian voter who does his duty does not merge his respon sibility in his party; he does not surrender his free dom to any demand that does not satisfy his con science.
There is a good deal said about the blessings " a new party " might bring to the country. What we want are men free men, conscientious men who will not, for any party, vote against their conscience. "We want men who say, I am with my party when it serves the true interests of my country; but if my party favors vicious measures, or puts forward cor rupt men, then it is my duty to my country and to my God to help to defeat my party. And if his par ty be worth saving, he might say this also: It is my duty to my party to help to defeat it. For, in the long run, if free government is to continue to exist, triumph in wrong will bring death to any party. But this much, at least, is clear: A Christian citizen cannot desire the success of his party when success means the inauguration of vicious measures or the promotion of corrupt men; for a Christian man can no more rejoice in "triumphant iniquity" than he can be " a partaker of other men's sins."

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Nothing can be better for the politics of a coun try, in which two parties of nearly equal strength contend for mastery, than a number of courageous and conscientious men, sufficient to hold the balance of power, of whom it is known that their allegiance to righteousness is stronger than their allegiance to party men who can be depended on to vote with strict conscientiousness, and who cannot be depended on to vote with any party when it favors either men or measures that are unfriendly to the virtue and best interests of the whole people. Such men may be sneered at as " bolters," but it will be a glorious day for the country when there shall be a body of " bolters," whom no party can buy, large enough to vote down the " floaters," whom any party can buy. In many elections these purchasable " floaters " now hold the balance of power; for their sake it is judged necessary to nominate rich men, or men who can command money, when important elections are to be held. There are enough good men, unpurchasable men, in the country, who do not vote, to wrest from the vile hands of the easily-bought "floaters" the determining power in our elections.
There need be no formal organization of such men. If the Christian citizens of this country will but boldly assert their rights of conscience in the exercise of their right of suffrage, we shall soon see the last of nominating conventions that put bad men forward on the plea of " availability," or advo cate measures that are essentially wrong because they happen to please the unthinking multitude for the hour; for bad men would no longer be availa-
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ble. If what our political teachers tell us is true, they should heartily indorse these views. For do they not tell us always, and in all ways, and with much fervor of patriotic eloquence, that the citizen is a "sovereign?" I only apply this wholesome doctrine a doctrine taught, we are told, in the " Declaration of Independence." Let this 'sover eign citizen " stand forth, crowned and seeptered, for the vindication and maintenance of his sover eignty. This means, if it means any thing, that he must vote as his own judgment dictates, and his own conscience commands.
Above and before all things, we need in our poli tics not new parties, but clear-thinking, conscien tious, God-fearing men in the old parties, who pre fer defeated right to triumphant wrong, There are enough good men in both the great parties to regen erate them both if they will only dare to do what they conscientiously believe to be right. In passing from this point, I wish to say, with emphasis, A Christian citizen cannot be a conscious and will ing party to placing corrupt men in office.
2. Let us consider the Christian citizen as a candi date for office, and a holder of office.
(1) There is no office, from the humblest to the loftiest, that would not be better filled by a Chris tian citizen than by a corrupt citizen. jSTo man is farther than I am from advising or desiring that the Churches, as such, should nominate candidates, and seek, through the machinery of ecclesiastical organization, to carry elections. A Methodist can didate, put forward by a Methodist Conference; a

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Baptist, put forward by the Convention; a Presby terian, by Synod or Assembly, I hope never to see. And I do not expect ever to behold a sight so un seemly. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to say, I believe that Christian men, as a class, are fitter to hold office than are wicked men, as a class. If this be treason of any sort, there is no help for it.
I understand the sneers that nowadays are not uncommon about " Christian statesmen," and what use those who give currency to these sneers make of any instance of inconsistency that the public or private life of some professor of religion reveals; I am not forgetful that it is possible that before now some have " stolen the livery of heaven to serve the devil in." But as no man rejects good gold because there are occasional counterfeits, so no man of sense will lay to the charge of Christianity the faults of certain pretenders who have professed it for the sake of the favors of its true disciples.
The alternative is not, as some seem to suppose, putting a weak and ignorant Christian in office, or a strong and capable sinner. I know that goodness alone is not a qualification for office. But surely there is no reason, appreciable by common sense, for believing that the law-making and governing talent of the country is confined to outbreaking sinners. I cannot see that the habit of liquordrinking gives greater clearness of judgment in de vising or interpreting laws, or that it imparts firm ness of grasp to any of the executive departments of government. I do not see that the habit of pro fane swearing, that any other form of vice, adds

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any thing to a citizen's qualification for office.

There is as little reason for believing that being

truly religious in anywise disqualifies a man for the

duties and responsibilities of office-holding. Speak

ing in a general way, I am justified by all our his

tory in saying. It is better to have Christian men in

office; for there is equal probability of their capacity,

and greater probability of their integrity.

These considerations lead me to say that very

often the Christian citizen fails of his duty by de

clining to be a candidate. He says, very sincerely,

"I do not want the office." True enough; but it

may be his duty to hold it. It is tolerably well

understood among us that desire for office is no

proof of qualifications for its duties. For the most
part, the men who do not want office are the men

that the country needs in office. Very great eager

ness rather argues unfitness for the responsibilities

of power.

As things are now as campaigns are now con

ducted I can well understand how a Christian citi

i

zen may shrink with horror and disgust from going

down into the arena. Nevertheless, it is the duty

of Christian citizens to make sacrifices for the sake

of good government. Frequently we condemn a

town or city for having weak or bad men in author

ity, when we ought rather to condemn certain Chris

tian men who refused to do their duty when they

were called for. But supposing that our Christian

citizen has entered upon the race, I wish to mention

some things that he will not do, and that he cannot

do, without breaking with Christ the Lord.

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He will not lie upon his opponent. He will not seek victory by slander. He will not "fight the devil with fire " as the phrase is answering lies with lies. He prefers defeat. But if he should sink so low, true Christian citizens should vote against him. Campaigns of calumny should cease.
The Christian candidate who is true to his pro fession will employ neither intimidation nor bribes. He will neither force nor buy his way to power. He will not sell his prospective official influence to unfit men for the sake of their influence. He will not use that hire and price of fools whisky-treats. But if he should do these ignoble things, let honor able men vote him down. He is " weighed in the balances, and found wanting." But some man may say: "That sort of thing will do to talk, but it won't work; elections cannot be carried on that line." I answer: You are mistaken; they can be, and they will be, carried on this high line that day the Christian men of this country wake up to a right sense of their high calling as citizens. The Christian men of Atlanta, of Georgia, of the United States, can carry any election and without corrup tion they determine to carry. These men do not wish to form a political party, but some day they will say to the parties with which they vote: " See here: we will have no more calumnies, no more lies, no more corruption-fund, no more drunkardmaking."
If I am still told that elections can only be carried by vile methods, I answer, Then dig the grave of free institutions.

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(2) The Christian citizen who is placed in office will

endeavor to discharge his duties as God's represent

ative in that office. It will be his prayer and study

to so " bear the sword " that it will be a " terror"

only to "evil-doers," and always "a praise" "to

them that do well." O how we need, in the official

mind of these times, that grand conception of office

that appears in the Psalms of David! The true ruler

was as a " shepherd " to his people. How our high

rulers need to know that their offices were not

created for them, or for their party friends, but for

the benefit of all the people! O it is a shameful and

shocking thing to see a man in high office conduct

its affairs as if he were the enemy of those who did

not help to elect him, rather than the servant of the

whole people! How infinitely this partisan system

of government falls below the maxim of our Lord:

" Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be

pI

servant of all!" No man can do his whole duty to the people who conducts government whether national, State, or municipal on the " spoils " sys

tem. For banditti and pirates it is the only possi

;

ble system; for statesmen, patriots, and rulers, it is the worst system possible.

If the Christian citizen in office has the manage

ment of the people's money, he will discharge his

trust faithfully. He will take care of the people's

money more carefully than if it were his own. If

he makes contracts for the State, he will do" it hon

estly. So far as the State's money is concerned, he

will be "content with his wages." The State's

money will not " stick to his fingers." When pub-
r

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lie officers, without other legitimate income, grow rich on small salaries, we have more than hard co nundrums to solve; there ate crimes to unravel and punish.
One other word here: The true "civil service re form," of which we hear so mueh^ and see so little, will he mightily helped forward when good men and women scorn, as they ought to scorn, public thieves. And when a thief of the puhlic money is set to breaking rock in the chain-gang, or to hard labor in the penitentiary for his crimes, it will be a lesson that will nearly educate a generation.
3. Let us now consider the Christian citizen as a tax-payer.
Government cannot be carried on without money, and a great deal of money. Those who enjoy the protection of government should pay for it in some way. It may be through a tariff, an income-tax, a poll-tax, a general tax on all kinds of property. !N\>w, a Christian citizen may seek, by all right, means, to change existing tax-laws, but he cannot avoid the payment of his equitable share of the tax without compromising his character as an honest man, and shaming his profession of the Christian religion. Forever stands the answer of our Lord to certain Jews who would as gladly have escaped the Roman tax as involved Jesus himself with the Roman authorities: " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."
The gospel teaches justice and equity in our deal ings with each other. The citizen who dodges the payment of his share of the taxes violates the spirit

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of Christianity. Such conduct, it cannot for one

moment be doubted, is a sin in the sight of God.

Let a single illustration show how the non-tax-pay

ing citizen wrongs his fellow-citizens. A certain

amount of money, let us suppose, must be raised in

a certain city. He who answers falsely as to his

property, and appears on the tax-lists as worth only

$10,000, when, in reality, he is worth $50,000, .pays

just four-fifths less than he ought to pay, and by so

much robs his fellow-citizens, who have to make up

the difference by paying a higher rate than they

ought to pay. I can think of but one case in which

this statement would not hold good: if all tax-pay

ers should make false returns, they would be equally

guilty of an effort to defraud the Government at the

supposed expense of each other, and all alike unsuc

cessful, in that the higher rate necessary would-de

II

feat them all. But such a case never happens, and

it comes to pass that no man willfully makes false

returns without seeking to rob the State and act

ually robbing his neighbors.

Officials, who have had much to do with these

matters, tell me there is a great deal of sharp prac

tice against the State by property-owners, whereby,

in one way and another, they manage to pay much

less than they ought to pay. This is a sin against

God and men; it unfits people for the kingdom of

heaven.

i

There are many loose notions in many minds on

this whole subject notions, let us hope in charity,

that are held in ignorance, or want of attention to

their absurdity and iniquity. Many think it not

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wrong to cheat the Government, unless they are found out. They hold hy the old Spartan theory, that the wrong of stealing exists only in detection. If the custom-house officers, to mention an instance, can be evaded or bribed, and so money can be saved that ought to go to the Government, there are hun dreds who chuckle over their knavish achievement as if it were so creditable to their shrewdness as to condone their immorality. Does any man among us, who is at all informed upon the subject, doubt whether there are multitudes in our own State (and it is fair to suppose We are not more guilty than others), who systematically and intentionally cheat the treasury of a part, at least, of what they ought to pay, every year? Does any man who is informed doubt whether the general Government is defrauded of millions, year by year, by those who pay less than they ought to pay? who not only do a great wrong themselves, but actually tempt and aid reve nue officers and the customs-collectors in appropri ating vast sums of the people's money?
Wherein is it less criminal to cheat the State than to cheat individuals? !N"av, citizens cannot cheat
*/ s
the State without cheating individuals also, for, as everybody knows who thinks at all, those who pay honestly have to make up what is lacking through the deficits of those who pay dishonestly. My brethren, we do indeed want "ethical revivals" revivals of good morals, revivals that quicken the consciences of men, not only as to tax-paying, but as to justice and righteousness in all our dealings with our fellow-men.

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4. Let us briefly consider the Christian citizen in

his relation to the administration of law.

(1) The Christian citizen should be a pattern of

obedience to law. If it be only a law against " driv

ing faster than a walk" over a bridge, his conscience

says, "Respect it it is law!" T$o man can violate

any right law with impunity. It may be, in itself,

a very small thing, as the instance given, or a city

ordinance forbidding the use of fire-works in certain

places, or the trampling of grass in a city park; but

f;ti

it is law, and in nearly-every such case it is founded on good sense and moral right. But even a frivo

it

lous and foolish law, that does not contravene rights

of conscience, should be observed because it is law.

Get it changed if you wish, or can; but while it is

law, obey it.

Take a more serious case *the carrying of con

cealed weapons. The law forbids it. If there were

I

no other reasons against the practice and there are many and strong reasons and the law were never

enforced, as it ought to be in every case, the law

should be observed, and will be observed, by all who

have right views and good consciences. The Chris

tian citizen will obey law as law, and for the sake

of law.

(2) If the Christian citizen have children, and do

his duty to God and to man, he will not only obey

law, but he will teach his children to do it. It is a

rare thing that men are arraigned before the courts

for the violation of law who have been faithfully

taught obedience to law in childhood. It may be

I-

remarked at this place a whole discourse would

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not suffice for its full statement that in wise and scriptural parental government rests the hope of all true and lasting reforms. Children who have thor oughly learned ohedience to parents very rarely violate the laws of the State. Moreover, if domes tic government be lacking in the bringing up of children, they can find afterward no substitute for its saving culture. We must learn obedience at home it is but imperfectly learned in any other school.
It cannot be doubted by any who have studied the genesis and progress of crime, that the disposi tion to violate laws, the most sacred and important, is fostered and aggravated by the habit, formed perhaps in early childhood, of violating laws that were thought to be of small consequence. When a boy drives over a bridge in a rapid trot, when he sees the warning of the law, and also sees that he is not in danger of detection, or knows that the statute will not be enforced against him, he has done a thing that may indeed amuse him with its spice of adventure, but a thing that introduces into his heart and life an evil principle and spirit of disobedience that may some day bring him to the felon's cell, or to the gallows.
But I cannot enlarge here. Meditate on these things, and secure your children against the penal ties of violated law by inculcating the principle and practice of obedience to all law. .And medi tate also on the relations between such habits of obedience early formed and religion and salvation.
(3) The Christian citizen should do all he can to

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develop and strengthen a right puhlic opinion and sentiment on the subject, not only of obedience to law, but also of the enforcement of law.
The relation of public opinion to the enforcement of law is not sufficiently understood. This relation is almost vital. Outside of military law, or some system equivalent to it, it is next to impossible to enforce a law that is not sustained by public senti ment. In courts that come from the people, it is impossible to escape the contagion, or to resist alto gether the pressure, of a pronounced public opinion. If the court were so constituted as to be entirely insulated from the currents of public sentiment as, for instance, if the judge, jury, and solicitor, should be from abroad strangers imported for a given oc casion it might, indeed, be easier to procure con viction. (Even in the case supposed we should find the insulation imperfect.) But the educating power of a trial and conviction in a court so organized would be incomparably less than if the same case were conducted to conviction and punishment by a home-court. There was no true educative value in the trials conducted by such a despot as Jeffreys, who cared little or nothing for the opinions of com munities where he held his court " organized to convict." His sentences only inspired terror for the time, and begot only hatred afterward. They fostered no sentiment of justice, no sense of obliga tion to obey law and respect authority; they did not" commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." His executions were barba rous spectacles that only gratified the brute instincts

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that lurk in the feelings of the mob; they did not manifest the sacredness and majesty of law; there was in them no reminder of the awfiil holiness that awed the multitudes that waited before Sinai when Moses talked with God.
To set forth more clearly what I mean, let us suppose a trial in the city of Atlanta, in a case of murder. It is conducted, we will suppose, by a military court, such as we knew at the close of the war. The accused is convicted, and justly, as every body knows. Suppose now the same ease tried before your circuit judge ; that it is prosecuted by your own solicitor; that the jury is made up of citizens of Fulton County. It is too obvious to need an argument, that the impression made upon the community by such a trial is far greater for good, far greater as an educating influence, than in the trial conducted by the court from without. The one is a verdict, we may say, by the community, speaking through its own court; the other is a ver dict by a court of which little is known except its
power. An illustration may be given upon a large scale.
As an educating power, the Federal court that tries offenders against the revenue laws of the United States is not to be compared with our State courts, through which each community expresses its judg ment and conscience. I do not attack, in the least, the United States Courts (I know how necessary they are, and I believe they have been conducted with fairness and ability) when I express the opin ion that one conviction for illicit distillings by a

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home-court would do more to educate any given

community in right views upon the subject than

would a dozen convictions by the United States

court, made up of strangers, it may be, and sitting

at points remote from the scene of the offenses. I

know it may be said in answer, " Conviction can

not be had in a court whose juries are composed

of the neighbors of the accused distillers." Allow

that this is true, it only proves and illustrates

what I wish to bring to your attention the rela

tion of a strong public opinion to the enforcement

of law.

Other illustrations may be given. "Why is it

easier to prosecute a common murderer to convic

tion than the man who has slain his enemy in a

duel? Public opinion makes the difference. It is

said that only one duel has been fought in the State

of Illinois. The survivor was hanged there have

been no more duels. Public opinion, had he gone

unpunished, would have been educated the wrong

way.

We have laws against all forms of theft. Con

viction is easy public opinion makes it so. "We

have laws against murder. Convictions that issue

in capital punishment are rare, because public opin

ion hesitates in sight of the gallows. We have

I

laws against the carrying of concealed weapons. They are, comparatively speaking, rarely enforced.

Why? Because public opinion, on this subject,

is as yet only a feeble sentiment. We have laws

against selling liquors to minors. They are rarely

enforced. Public opinion is too crude and feeble to

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make conviction easy. We have laws against brib ery at elections. They are rarely if ever enforced, because public opinion is below the standard of the law.
Scores of illustrations might be given, but they are unnecessary. It has now come to be an accept ed maxim, " You cannot enforce a law that is far in advance of public opinion." Must we then bring our laws down to the lower standard? !N"ever. Rather let us, by all means possible, raise the stand ard of public opinion. I was deeply impressed some years ago by the remark of one of the strong est of our judges a man who is not afraid to do his duty. Some one had written an article, setting forth in vigorous language the importance and duty of sustaining our courts by a sound and pronounced public sentiment. Said this distinguished judge, " You cannot tell how such expressions strengthen me. The courts do need the support of public opinion."
May I remind you of a passage in the history of Atlanta, soon after the civil authority was reestab lished? How much easier than it was ought to have been the task of the brave man who presided in your Superior Court in this county, when, in God's fear, he bore so grand and heroic a part in the work of saving this city from the dominion of the mob ! Very great was the educating power of that court in your city. Its decisions helped to clear your moral atmosphere of suffocating clouds of vice. And as the sentiment of the better people of Atlanta rallied about that court and its cour-

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ageous judge, its power for good was multiplied a hundred-fold.
There are many ways by which a right public sentiment may be fostered. I cannot even mention them all. Some of the more effective I may point out. Let good citizens do their duty as jurors when the time comes. When a court is shut up to tenth-rate men for jurors, it indicates a low senti ment in the community as to. the dignity and im portance of the administration of law.
How little most people esteem the dignity and importance of our grand-juries! What noble " charges" are often delivered to them by our learned judges! How often the grand inquest results in findings that are unworthy of the charge delivered by the courts! When our grand-jurors realize both the solemnity of their oaths, and the greatness both of their opportunity and their re sponsibility, the power of our courts for good will be tenfold increased. (And the same principles should determine the verdict of the traverse-juries when they are determining the merits of any case that is brought before them.) And here let it be said, Citizens should cooperate with our grandjuries to purge the land of crime. The rightlydespised "sycophant" of the Roman courts was the base fellow who informed on his neighbors for pay, and who, in greed of gain, invented calumnies where crimes did not exist. But the citizen who gives to grand-juries information they need, not for rewards or revenge, but from love of righteousness, is not a sycophant, or professional informer. It is

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sometimes a high patriotic duty to give informa tion.
Let good citizens, hy word and deed, show all due honor to magistrates and rulers, of high and low degree. It is not an accidental or merely arbitrary thing that the Scriptures forbid us to speak evil of magistrates and of the rulers of the people. This sort of evil-speaking is a common vice. It is un speakably harmful. To speak contemptuously of our laws, of our courts, of our rulers, is to make a vicious and ignorant assault upon the very citadel of public and private morality. Let good citizens confirm and establish, by hearty approbation, the righteousness of all right decisions of the courts, and of our rulers. Where they must criticise and it is the right, and sometimes the duty, of citizens to criticise let them show their fitness for criticism by at least showing a becoming respect both for the law and its officers.
The press can do much in fostering such opinions and sentiments as will strengthen the hands of our law-officers, and all our rulers, for their great and difficult work. Alas! that so many newspapers abuse their liberty that they so often use their great influence to destroy among the people right sentiments as to law and authority.
The pulpit has a high duty to perform to the people. It can, I think, do as much as the press can do possibly more. It is not a Pauline concep tion of its functions and ministry that would forbid it such discussions.
The school-teacher has a grave duty here. In 12

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THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

the school-room should be taught the great lessons of law and order, of authority and obedience, of gov ernment and submission.
But, as intimated in another place, it is in the family that the greatest work may be done. If parents will teach their children the meaning of law and government, and the sacred duty of obedi ence above all, if they will add to wise precepts good examples, we shall, after awhile, have a public opinion that will enable our courts to perform to the full their divinely-bestowed and all-important powers and functions. Nor would the life-giving influence of a pure public sentiment be confined to our courts of law. There is no officer of govern ment, of any grade, who would not feel the ground firmer under him, and his heart stronger in him, for the faithful performance of every duty.
So great and noble a problem was never given to any nation as to ours. We are now fifty million; presently we shall be one hundred million; some time, it is not improbable, we shall be five hundred million. We need not fail because ancient republics have failed; they lacked the saving, inspiring, lifegiving, and sanctifying influence of the Christian religion. Let us bear in mind, these millions of men. are not simply human beings to be counted by census-takers; they are not simply subjects; they are citizens free citizens armed with that thun derbolt of political power, the ballot. It is their problem: these free citizens will make or mar the fortunes of their country. In no country, in any age, was there ever so much to hope for, or ever so much

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to fear. If these citizens are wise and good, we shall have a country and a civilization never matched in human history. If they are foolish, if they are un faithful, if they are corrupt, we shall work out a tragedy the saddest the world ever saw.
I am not dreaming of some Utopian scheme of a hettered world. I have not said more of the Chris tian citizen than his country has a right to expect of him. Nay; I have said no more than some Christian citizens are, than all ought to he, than all might be.
I have not been theorizing in this discourse; it is of things practical, and intensely practical, that I have spoken. It is of blessed realities that I hope to see in larger and ever larger measure. I rejoice to believe that Christian people are waking up to these things that they begin to meditate more and more upon their responsibilities and duties as citi zens. When they are fully awake, they will redeem their country from its political evils.
Let us see: What has been advanced in this dis course concerning the Christian citizen? That he should realize his personal responsibility as a citizen, and that to discharge it, he must be free; that he should vote in all elections, and that to vote as be comes him, he should vote on his judgment and his conscience; that as a candidate, he will bear himself as an honorable and honest man; that as an office bearer, he will be faithful to his trust, as one who must give an account to God; that as a tax-payer, he will neither defraud the Government nor rob his fellow-citizens; that as a member of the community,

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he will support, both by precept and example, the laws and government of his country. And is this too much to ask of a Christian citizen? Let every man answer in his own heart and upon his conscience. If the doctrines of this discourse do not commend themselves to your reason and your conscience, reject them as qandidly as they are pro posed to you; if they do so commend themselves,
act upon them and live by them. ~No doubt there is much sin among our people, as
there is much corruption in our politics. There are many great and sore evils in our political and social system that wise men dread and good men deplore. But there is no occasion or reason for despair. The controlling influences of our country are still Chris tian. Christian principle still underlies the founda tions of our social and civil structure, and Christian sentiment still leavens our laws and our institutions. But the Christian people of this country have not made themselves felt in the government of the country as they might and ought to have done. !N"one are more interested in the Government; none pay more to support it; none are more competent to manage its affairs; none have greater claim upon
the confidence of their fellow-citizens. "When such things are said, there are not wanting
a class of small demagogues who cry out, in feigned alarm, about the "Union of Church and State." There is no danger whatever of such a union in this country and this age. Nobody seeks it; no body desires it. The tendency of the times is all the other way. In what I have said to you, I have

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not come within a thousand leagues of advocating such a union. But I do plead for a union f relig ious principle and political principle. I do plead that in using this world, whether in business or politics, we may not abuse it, and that we may use it religiously. I do plead that the Christian relig ion is the foundation and soul of our civilization. I do plead that a Christian man, who would do his duty, ought and must carry his religion into his citizenship. I do plead that if religion should lead a man to give full weights in buying and selling; if it should lead him to be honest in his ordinary busi ness dealings with his fellow-men, it should lead him to be honest in his dealings with Government. I do plead that a Christian citizen should vote, and
seek office, and hold office^ and pay tax, and support law, as a Christian. I do plead that the claim which Christ our Lord makes upon the citizen is above and beyond all other claims. I do plead that the citizen who is loyal to Christ his King will vote, and acquire office, and exercise power, and pay tax, and support law and government, as unto the Lord.
If all should so live if the majority should so live we would usher in the millennium of civiliza
tion.

CARFIELD'S MEMORY.
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE DEAD PRESI DENT AS AN INCENTIVE TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE NATION.
DBEFOBE THE STUDENTS OF EMORY COLLEGE, OK THE SUNDAY AFTEE OPENING-DAY, OCTOBER 5, 1881.]
"He being dead yet speaketh." Hebrews xi. 4.
A MAS" must do his work while he lives; if he . has lived well, his best influence comes after he is dead. This is one compensation the world has in the death of its best men " their good lives after them." To this day Abel preaches the doc trine of obedience and the gospel of faith.
As we use language, it is proper to say that James A. Garfield, late President of the United States, is dead. But in every sense that is truest and most important, he lives; and "he being dead yet speak eth." Before speaking of him to you, my pupils, and of some of the lessons taught by his life and death, there are some facts of great and general interest that deserve recall.
First, the fact of the world's interest in this man. During the long period of his sufferings, the state ment of his case, its symptoms, treatment, and pos sible issue, morning after morning, interested more people than any other subject of private or public
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*

concern. Every newspaper in the world published

the bulletins issued by his physicians. More has

been printed, read, said, and thought than was ever

written, read, said, or thought during the same

period of time concerning any other ruler of any

nation in any time. Napoleon did never, during

any eleven weeks of his extraordinary career, com

mand so much of the world's attention.

The possibility of the concentration of the world's

interest upon one man is illustrative of the progress

of the arts and inventions of our time. It was

never possible before. When President Harrison

died, it was six weeks before the fact was known in

every county east of the Mississippi River. Steam

and electricity bring all nations nearer to each other

than imagination conceived to be possible a century

ago. The news from the illustrious sufferer's cham

ber outran the sun in his course through the heav

ens. In every city and large town in the civilized

world, tidings from President Garfield's sick-bed

were read and discussed before breakfast.

Such facts are worthy of consideration by thought

ful people. We talk of the wonders of former

times, but these are the wonderful times. We

should thank God that we live in such an age. But

we should speak of these things with humility;

there is every reason to believe that another gen

eration will so far outstrip us that we will be es

teemed slow in our movements and meager in our

plans. Yet it is a fearful thing to live in such an

age. Alas that we do not realize our responsibili

ties! that we know not the lansruaffe of God's

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GrARFIELD'S MEMORY.

providence in our own history! that we read so im perfectly the signs of these times!
But of more importance than the swift transmis sion of intelligence is the deep and heart-felt inter est the President's case excited in all civilized and Christian countries. The remark need not be qual ified by such adjectives, for messages of respectful condolence came from Mohammedan countries, and also from heathen China and Japan. It is idle to sneer and say this was the language of mere diplo macy. It was the language of human nature ex pressing its sympathy for a sufferer and its interest in a brother-man, exalted by the circumstances of his position and the nobleness of his character into an object of universal interest.
While he lingered in suffering, and the continu ance of his life inspired a hope of his recovery, de vout souls were praying for him in almost every nation. In our own country I do not believe there was one Christian man, woman, or child who did not pray the good God to spare his life. In En gland, and on the continent of Europe, in all lan guages, Christian people joined in our supplications. Protestants and Romanists prayed for him; so did Mohammedans and Jews. And thousands who had no personal faith said "Amen" to the universal prayer.
Was there ever so impressive a ceremonial as the funeral of our martyred President? "Would it be exaggeration to say that fifty thousand bells were tolling the day they buried him? And many bells were tolling bevond the sea at the hour fiftv mill-

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185

ions of people in our own land paused in their toils to lay him to his rest. The Queen of England sent floral tributes for his bier, and in her court were \vorn the badges of mourning. These facts will be remembered among the marvelous things of his tory. They illustrate in reality what we teach in theory the brotherhood of the human race.
In our own country, millions of prayers were offered that God would spare to the nation the life of the man whom every decent man respected and every true man was learning to love. These prayers were more remarkable for their intense earnestness than even for their number.
In the calm review of these months of anxious supplication, I am constrained to believe that for the most part our prayers were sadly, fatally defective in one essential respect confession. There is a sense in which the blood of this man is upon us all. If we do not repent, it will be upon our children also. It is as cruel as it is false to charge his death upon any party, or upon any section of any party, so far as purpose, or plan, or approval is concerned. But this I do believe: the shot of the altogether accountable madman who struck him down was but the final expression of the rancorous hates that have disgraced and dishonored our politics for at least three decades of bitter years.
Only consider, during the life-time of one gener ation the two leading sections of this country have been arrayed against each other as if they were nat ural enemies. It had almost come to pass that a Northern man was suspected as untru^ to his see-

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GARFIELD'S MEMORY.

tion if he did not denounce "the South;" that a Southern man's loyalty to his own people was ques tioned if he did not denounce " the ]^orth." We had nearly eliminated all geographical significance from the phrases "the Iforth" and "the South." Where national issues have entered into our politics, Democrats have cursed Republicans, and Repub licans have cursed Democrats. There is perhaps nothing in the history of any pedple that contains so much unmitigated hate and prejudice as the lit erature of American polities for a generation past. What I say needs no elaborate proof. All political and many religious papers have burned it into our eyes; nearly every political speech has poured it into our ears. Language suffered barbarous tortures that men might satisfy their passion for abuse and denunciation. Worse than all this, the language of abuse was heard in many pulpits, and bitter speech entered into the language of social inter course. It has been heard wherever men exchanged their notions, or gave vent to their prejudices. It had become a national vice from which no section, no party, no classes were free. But I will not dwell upon the revolting theme you understand it too well.
Is there one man or woman in the United States, of sufficient intelligence to take interest in public affairs and to discuss them, who has not during the last twenty years used language concerning political opponents that pure truth did not justify language that had its inspiration more or less in sinful preju dices and hatreds that violated and shamed the first principles of the gospel of the Son of God? If there

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187

is one such man or woman, it would be worth a pilgrimage to look upon so fair and lovely a soul. Would that I knew such a one!
One thing is certain: it is only during the last three months that there has been an appreciable subsidence of this fierce fever of party passion and hate. Alas that there are alarming symptoms of its return to the wasted body of our country! But for all this ocean-wide and ocean-deep sin of hatred and prejudice there has been most inadequate con fession. Clamorous in our prayers we have been. But if men's feelings are to be judged by their speech, there have been few to say for themselves, as expressing a personal sense of guilt: "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God against thee, and thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight." It may well be that our lack of confession and peni tence explain the final denial of the prayers of a whole nation upon its knees. For certain it is, the assassin's sin is, by so much as we have added to the bitterness and hatred of our polities, our sin. This day, I charge it upon you, my hearers, that you have been guilty in that you have indulged bitter hatred and prejudices. This day, I confess with shame before God that I have been guilty with you.
But abusive language has not been the worst characteristic of our politics during all these years; Vying speech has been more than bitter speech. We have practiced, as a people, the doctrine that any thing is to be employed that will help our party to win. As, for example, the unscrupulous slander of candidates for public office. Thus, to give recent

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GAKFIELD'S, MEMORY.

instances, Democrats, who knew it to be a forgery, published a letter that Mr. Garfield never wrote; Republicans, who knew what they said to be false, accused General Hancock of gross and habitual drunkenness.
Along with bitter and lying speech, both parties have used corrupt and fraudulent methods. Both parties have bribed and cheated, bought and sold. Neither has been free in its political methods from violence and cheating. During a visit to ]$Tew York last spring, I read in the papers full reports of a dinner given at Delmonico's. At that dinner it was openly boasted, by a man now threatened with prose cution for defrauding the government (and the boast was applauded to the echo), that a certain State was carried in the election for President by "puttingthe money where it would do the most good." And Democratic managers used money in the same way : when they could get it.
"We may be sure of it, the assassin's shot is the final expression of the bitterness and prejudice of our politics and of the greed for office that amounts almost to a national mania. Let us remember, it is as murderous to stab a reputation as a body; it is as devilish to destroy a man's fame by slander as it is to take his life by shot, or steel, or poison.
It should be remembered in this connection that what is aptly called " the spoils system " a phrase suggestive of barbarism of administering the affairs of the government is, of all things, the inspiration of the bitterness and the falseness of our political campaigns. For it holds out to perhaps a million

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189

of men the hope of some office in the gift of the government.
I ask you, Were not the prayers of our people lacking in confession?
Although our prayers lacked both confession and adequate penitence, it may he asked, Were they not answered?
The infidel sneers, and some weak disciples feel a chill of doubt.. Their syllogism runs thus:
There were never so many prayers oflered by so many people for any one thing;
President Garfield died; Therefore, God does not hear prayer. A most foolish sort of argument this. It would be as good logic and as sound sense to say: Millions of men have a certain notion upon a subject; God does not think of it as they do; therefore, God is not wise. That is not prayer in any sense, that God has ever promised to answer prayer that leaves out sub mission to his will. "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done," is the formula that infolds the true significance, and expresses the real essence and range of prayer. But the prayers of God's people were answered in the case of the late President: 1. In him and in his family. Great grace was given to them. They were sustained beyond the power of human forti tude or sympathy. 2. In the prolongation of his life during nearly three months. This gave time for his successor to be personally prepared for the

190

GARFIELD'S MEMORY.

duty that has now come upon him, as he could not have been prepared had President Garfield died soon after he was shot down. 3. During these months the country had time to prepare itself for a change of administration. The prolongation of Mr. Garfield's life saved us from the strain and wrench of a sudden change of government. 4. But the most conspicuous and important blessing that has come to us during this long period of suffering has been in the hearts of the people themselves. It has brought them together as they had not been brought together in fifty years. It is easy to say things will now go on in the old way; sectionalism and party bitterness will again assert themselves. If it be so which God in mercy forbid! it is mat ter for speechless gratitude that for nearly three months there was rest from the torments of these evil spirits. I, for one, believe that there is more genuine brotherhood and true national sentiment in the masses of the American people to-day than there has been in the last half century. A fierce harangue would not now by many audiences be list ened to with patience; a bitter editorial would not, by right-minded people, be read at all. As it seems to me, James A. Garfield has done, in the provi dence of God on his sick-bed, more to heal the bleeding wounds of his country than all others have done since the horrid war began. It was worth dying for to have done such a work.
I have said the prayers of the people were an swered. Consider this: that which was uppermost in the people's thoughts was not Mr. Garfield al-

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191

though they honored and loved him, and forgot his politics but their country. They believed that he intended to be the President of the whole nation; that his administration would tend to restore the lost brotherhood of our people. Hence they prayed God to spare him to the country, that this blessing he might bring to us. This he did, in large meas ure, on his sick-bed; this he does in his grave at Cleveland, as he could not have done it in full health and power in the White House. Moreover, this felicity is his: what he has done in the restoration of a true national spirit is done for all time. If we will be so foolish and wicked, we may forget the lessons, but his work is done. !N~o blunders can mar it. Happy are the dead who, while living, put in motion a good impulse, or gave the world a saving truth. Of a truth, such a man, "being dead, yet speaketh."
But upon this first Sunday of the new collegeyear, with nearly a hundred new faces before me, I must speak of other aspects of this man's career.
1. It was not and is not possible in any country in the world but ours. Young men, I have un speakable contempt for that class of persons who, affecting foreign airs, or indulging a vain conceit, sneer at the institutions of their country. A coun try is worth loving and dying for in which such a career as Garfield's is possible.
2. Consider what inspiration there is in his ex ample and character to young men, working and battling without money or powerful friends. Let us recall some of the points in his life. A widow's

192

GARFIELD'S MEMORY.

son in poverty helping his mother; a laborer on a small farm; walking the tow-paths of a canal for wages many here would scorn at last starting on foot to college with ten dollars in his pocket, work ing, waiting, graduating with the honors of his class at the age of twenty-seven, an age at which many count it a shame to be at school. Take heart, you brave-hearted sons of poverty! Many of you are here, as many like you have been here before yon, and have never been dishonored for their poverty.
3. Let me inquire, What was there in him that called forth, during his suffering, such profound and universal sympathies? His office had something to do with it; not its elevation simply, but the fact that he was our President.
4. Much more his personal character. There was in him that subtle something we call sentiment that takes hold of honest people's hearts. Large-brained he was, but he was not all brain; he had a big warm heart in him. He was capable of generous emo tions, and the people found this out. Men forgot the splendid pageantry of his inauguration when they saw him with his great honors fresh upon him turn to kiss his proud old mother, of whom he was not ashamed in the Capitol, and to kiss his true wife whom he had loved so well. Those meager souls that cannot conceive of an honest act or of a gen erous impulse sneer at such manifestations. I have seen a few who could see nothing beautiful in this scene. Mean souls! Such a man would estimate the value of his wife by balancing her work with
her board.

GARFIELD'S MEMORY.

193

5. People believed that Mr. Garfield feared God, and that he was a Christian. They had glimpses now and then of a pure home-life, where this man and his wife and children worshiped God. You cannot exaggerate this fact in estimating the popu lar interest in him. Blackguards pooh-pooh such things. So does the devil.
6. So far as the President was concerned, the real meaning of the popular interest in him is this: he was in himself a large expression of the true Amer ican idea of this government. That idea embraces several facts and principles, of which I mention some of the corner-stones:
(1) The perpetual union of these States. That idea was illustrated at Chattanooga the other day, when Confederate and Federal veterans joined to gether in raising our country's starry flag over the scene of their festival and close by the field of Chickamauga. O it was a fair sight to see!
(2) An unsectional administration of the govern ment. Mr. Garfield had developed immensely in this larger, truer patriotism within the last year.
(3) A fair chance and equal justice for all men of every race. He represented these ideas and senti ments that, despite our quarrels and wars, are at last deep down in the hearts of the people. !N^o wonder the people without respect to parties trusted that it had been given to him "to restore Israel."
This history, this life and death, should emphasize and accent for us some duties and principles of su preme importance.
1. Let us have done with abuse, and lying, and
13

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GAMTELD'S MEMORY,

fraud, and violence, in our politics. It would dis grace heathenism. But one says, "It is no use r they will keep on." Who are "they?" You and I are of this "they." You and I can see to it that our politics is not "set on fire of hell." Do not denounce without cause, tell no lies, do not defraud, commit no violence, vote for no bitter man for any place.
2. We should cultivate a true spirit of national brotherhood. To say and do things simply to irri tate or injure an opponent is mean, and unworthy a civilized, to say nothing of a Christian, man. To hand down to our children the bitterness of a quar- rel, for which they are in nowise responsible, is treason to the country is a sin against man and God.
3. We owe a duty to President Arthur. His po^ sition is difficult, his burden heavy; his task delicate and complicated. We owe him respect, patience, a fair trial, honest support, and our fervent prayers, that he may have divine grace and help for the du ties of his great office.
We cannot afford to return to the old bitter and savage way; we cannot forget either our own inter est in a good government or the world's stake in this best and greatest of all Republics that ever flourished or fell.

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.
[OXPOED, JASUABY 1, 1882,]
" Let this mind.be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians ii. 5:
THE text speaks of Christ as he lived among men in his sinless humanity, the type and pat tern of all goodness possible to our redeemed race. "Mind" here is not intellect, it is not the affections. It means essential character, that which makes a man what he is rather than some other kind of man. When we say of a man "his spirit is good," or "it is bad," we use the word spirit in nearly the sense of the word " mind " in the text. St. Paul wishes that his Philippian converts may be Christ-like in disposition, in character, in life; that they may have in them that which impelled Christ to choose al ways as he did, right.
In the Epistle to the Romans he tells us, " If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." How important and comprehensive this statement! How exclusive also! But we have no logic-forms of definition to tell us just what a Christian is; no apothecary's balance, nor yard-stick, nor other me chanical tests or measures.
What is a Christian? How easy to answer if being a Christian depended on any certain thing to
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196 THE MIXD THAT WAS IN CHRIST.
be done. If one could say, A is a Christian, lie has been "baptized," he has been "confirmed," he has " received absolution," we could separate Christians from sinners just as Jacob distinguished his cattle from Laban's by colors, marks, and such things. But if religion is a divine life in the soul, manifest ing itself in the character and life, you can no more answer the question, "Who is a Christian? 5'" by baptism-certificates than you can introduce the new life by baptism itself. After all, St. Paul's simple words contain the whole truth. A man may have been baptized, he may have had all possible eccle siastical rites performed upon him, he may have done all things put down in the ritual, but to be a Christian he must have in him Christ's mind.
Let us study the apostle's statement. What do we mean by "the mind that was in Christ?" To give a perfect analysis of the truth that is in these words would be like formulating a perfect cosmos. I speak to-day only of some of the more obvious points, knowing sorrowfully enough that I shall speak of them inadequately.
Let us first contemplate the moral side of His life.
His conscience was perfect. It responded always and promptly and fully to every claim of truth, to every call of duty. It resisted evil instantly upon its presentation. Its action was as instantaneous and invariable as the action of an instinct. We will understand this when we remember that Jesus always sought the right of things this and nothing else. He said of himself with perfect sincerity and

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHBIST. 197
with perfect modesty, "I do always the will of my Father." He said, in the Sermon on the Mount, in the simplest possible form of words, but expressive of one of the profoundest laws of spiritual life, " If the eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light." He had " the single eye" always.
We cannot think of Jesus as doing a right thing from sentiment, or policy, or fear. It was a matter of principle, of law, deep, constant, pervading his whole nature, to which every thing in this world had to bend.
Reading the story of his life from its beginning to its end, from his childhood in Nazareth to the moment of his ascension from Bethany, what im pression of him is deepest? Is it his wisdom, his power, his lowliness, his benevolence ? We know that we have never seen these attributes and qualities so full and perfect in any other life that ever was lived. But this is not our deepest and most lasting . impression of him. It is his purity that impresses us most. "We understand what Peter felt and meant when he said, "Depart from me,-for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
Here let me say, considering who are listening to me, that nothing is worth so much to a young man as an abiding sense of right and its supreme claim on human life. When we find a youth in the temple saying, "I must be about my Father's business," we expect him to have the Father's blessing, and to enter at last the "Father's house" in heaven.
Let us now consider the sympathies of Jesus.

198 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.
What did lie feel with? What struck the key of his heart? That which was good, and that only. What was evil might be splendid, but it did not touch a chord in his soul. An easy illustration may help us here. Suppose any three or four of your acquaintances visit together a great city, as New York. It has numberless and varied attractions. There is something for each eye, and ear, and sense. Here are the highest and the lowest, the purest and the vilest. One of your acquaintances will, you are sure, go to hear the great preachers; another will go to the art-galleries and libraries; another will go to the stock exchange; another will go to the varieties theaters; another to nameless places. What determines their choice? That with which they are most in sympathy will attract and hold them. If Jesus were to go to New York, what would excite interest in him? Only the good, ex cept as the evil would move his compassion that he might overcome the evil with his good. You can not think of him as choosing a bad place, or a bad company, on the ground of sympathy with it.
His life and his words make it certain that he was in sympathy with whatever is good, and with nothing else.
We must not make the word " good" here too narrow. It covers all that is worthy in man. Jesus was in sympathy with courage, fortitude all pure manliness. His life is not a mere aesthetic perfec tion soft, delicate. He borrowed figures, in illus trating his doctrine, from the working and battling world. His figures are agonistic and militant.

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST. 199
Many of his words thrill us like a trumpet sound ing* the charge.
It must never be forgotten that the goodness of Jesus manifested itself in good works. And good ness that does not do good is a sham. There is a good deal of dreamy dilettante piety in the world that meditates, and ruminates, and feels unutterable things, as is supposed. It affects raptures and im agines that it worships. But it does nothing but enjoy itself, saying, "I am very good." Christ's goodness was an active quality; it had in it the di vine energy that creates. There is no goodness without usefulness. St. Luke gives his biography and his character in a sentence: "He went about doing good." For this he lived. To do good was his meat and drink. He said of himself, " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
He cared for men, in all their interests. He taught truth to the ignorant, that it might enlighten and make them free. He comforted the sorrowful hearts of mourners; he pointed out to all the bless edness of purity. This is not all; Jesus eared for men's bodies. The Church has never fully under stood the significance of the fact that most of his miracles were wrought upon the human body. Thousands of sick people he healed. He put strength in lame feet and palsied arms. He made straight poor bent bodies,, drawn together by pain. He made the flesh of lepers like the flesh of healthy children. He gave sight to blind people, and opened the ears of the deaf. With what tenderness he

200 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.
made the hungry multitudes sit down upon the green grass while he fed them all. He speaks of acts of mercy to suffering bodies as among the things to be inquired into and rewarded at the last judgment.
We are Methodists, and are sometimes over-proud of our Methodism, but here let me say, Methodism has never done its duty as to men's bodies. Meth odists are behind many in ministering to the sick, the lame, the suffering. Roman Catholics lead us in such work so far that there is no comparison. The " sisters of charity" deserve the fame they have won all round the world. The Episcopalians are far in advance of us in such Christ-like work. Go into any city. There is an orphans'-home, there is a hospital, there is a retreat for the helpless old people. What Church is nearest to it most inter ested in it? It is rarely, very rarely, a Methodist Church. God be thanked! one Methodist, George I. Seney, of Brooklyn, is building a great hospital for all suffering and poor people of any nation or sect, or no sect whatever.
We may consider briefly the intellectual life of Jesus.
I do not speak of its power, or its compass, but its characteristics, in which the humblest of us may pray to be " like him." Consider the repose, the per fect balance, the healthful and harmonious action of his intellectual powers. Among other such qual ities we feel that his mind is without the heats that come of prejudice that is always a form of selfish ness. Only a good conscience and a good heart can

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

201

give us such a mind. Genius, and learning, and will, all combined, cannot secure this result in the characteristics of mental action. It comes of a good conscience and a good heart, and can exist in no other connection.
But Jesus was no recluse: he came "eating and drinking;" we cannot study his character without considering his relations with men.
In the first place, consider his perfect fairness. He looked at the man and the truth of things, not at the name, or dress, or title. He was as "full of light" in judging men as in stating principles, giv ing to each what was due him. See how he bore himself with men. Their greatness, their lowliness, are nothing to him. He does not cringe in the pres ence of hostile power; he does not assume an air of condescension when he talks with the most hum ble. Recall his interviews with the rich young ruler, with Kicodemus, with Pilate, with Herod, with the Sanhedrim. Recall him in the house of humble Lazarus, as he taught the woman by Jacob's well, and in all his dealings with the poor. You will fix the thought I am trying to bring before you by looking at its opposite for an instant. Think of Jesus as deflecting one hair's-breadth from right lines in the presence of frowning power, that night before he died! Or think of Jesus at the very height of his fame, -when the multitudes sung hosannas to him, as blushing because one of his poor relations from Galilee claimed his notice! But you cannot think of Jesus in any such light.
His sympathy with humanity was perfect. He

202 THE MIND DHAT? WAS IN CHRIST.
understood every one. This was not divine knowl edge merely; it was not the mere intuition of a perfect intellect; that which I now speak of was a. power of reading people's hearts^ which love gives, and nothing else does give. Ko genius, nor experi ence, nor long study of human nature, can equal love for understanding people. Sohbing penitents, sorrowful and heart-broken people of every class, flocked to him, because they knew he understood them. You cannot picture him as unloving, insen sible, impatient toward any of them; nor can you imagine him as blundering in the use of comforting or guiding speech; for he knew each heart, and wished to do it good. See him on the way to the house of Jairus, whose little girl had just died. "When the servants tell the distracted father that she is dead, Jesus instantly comforts him with this word: "Be not afraid, only believe." The crowd thronged him. Presently a poor woman, broken and bent with disease and pain and poverty, timidly slipped behind him and touched the hem of his garment, thinking that somehow it might do her good. When Jesus turned to look at her, he said, "Daughter, be of good comfort." You expected him to say such a word as this. That word from his lips never yet surprised any student of his life.
Let us now consider how Jesus bore himself in his dealings with sinners and their sins.
For a good man, one of the hardest things in the world to do is to sustain just the right relation to sinners and their sins. One must not make the im pression that it is of small consequence to be a sin-

THE MIND THAT WAS EJ CHRIST. 203
ner. Yet it will not do to repel them to make them feel that our religion banishes them from our interests, that it separates them from our humanity. If our religion drives sinners away from us, if it digs a chasm between usj there is something wrong ahout it.
How did Jesus do? First of all, he did not avoid the question by isolating himself from them. The idea that the best way to be religious is to seek the wilderness, or the monk's cell, did not originate either in the doctrine or example of Jesus* He was no recluse; this is certain. He began life in a car penter's shop; his first miracle was wrought at a wedding; he was often a guest when there was a large company entertained; his ministry was in the midst of the people. His times of retirement, for secret prayer and uninterrupted communion with the Father, were sacred. Though there is no inti mation that he had regular set times, it is plain that he did often retire for special spiritual exercises. But he did not live apart from men. He lived among them. And we may be sure that a religion that cannot survive the companionship of our fellowbeings in this working world is altogether too frail a thing to be trusted. It is not the religion of Christ. Ko man or woman who is devoid of a living and lov ing interest in a fellow-sinner can be a Christian after the spirit and example of Jesus Christ.
Let us see how Jesus bore himself in intercourse with sinners, or in conflict with them. A rich young ruler came to him one day, inquiring about the way of life. There was work for him to do; he had a di-

204 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

vine call to something other than the enjoyment of

his wealth and the leisurely cultivation of an exclu

sive and selfish pietism. With what kind candor did

Jesus show him the one way that was possible to

him! " Go and sell all that thou hast; give it to the

poor; come, follow me; thou shalt have treasure in

heaven." It is not as easy to be kindly candid with

the rich and great, in giving disagreeable advice, as

some who have not tried it may suppose. As a

general rule, the higher a man's station the less

likely is he to receive from Christian men the sort

of treatment and doctrine his soul needs.

On one occasion, Jesus dined with a rich Phari-

[ji

see, Simon by name. Simon was satisfied with

himself, and, therefore, critical in his judgment of

[j

other people. While they were at table, a poor,

penitent woman, "who was a sinner," came into

the room where they were, and timidly approached

Jesus as he reclined at the table. She " brought an

alabaster-box of ointment, and stood at his feet be

hind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with

her tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her

head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with

the ointment." The self-satisfied Simon could not

endure such a woman for a moment. He was one

of those who think that their own virtue is con

taminated if they are kind to the sort of sinners

that society condemns. It is not unlikely that

there was then at his table some rich old Pharisee

that Simon knew to be a sharper in trade a man

who made hard bargains, oppressing the poor when

he could make shekels by it, devouring widows'

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

205

houses on convenient occasion. But Mm, having succeeded in his villainy, the world tolerated! This woman, with her heart-breaking penitence she was contamination itself. Her betrayer, it is not im probable, had the entree to Simon's house. Such are the ways of self-satisfied Pharisees in all ages.
Simon made up his mind about Jesus when he saw that he did not repel the woman and her wor shipful caresses, but seemed rather to be touched by her grateful demonstrations. Ah! he won't do for a prophet. " This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner." It was to him conclusive argument; he took it for granted that a good man, who knew what she had been (such peojple look more to what men have been than to what they are), would have sent her away with indignation. Poor blind Simon! How very
good he thought himself to be! N"ow, see how Jesus dealt with this sinner not
a conscious hypocrite, only a self-satisfied, deluded Pharisee. Jesus spoke a parable to Simon," answer ing" his secret thoughts. You remember it the parable of the two debtors one owing five hun dred pence, the other fifty. They were both for given. " Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?" Simon answered, "I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." With what words Jesus applied the doctrine, showing Simon how unspeakably better than he was the penitent woman he despised! These words brought into Simon's soul an all-revealing lis^ht, that made

206

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHR>IST. i

ghastly death's-heads, of all his boasted virtues.

The hand of Jesus did not spare him. Yet there

was no fierceness in the stroke, as is too common

with us when we brace ourselves to the point of

rebuking the great. The woman needed comfort

and recognition, and Jesus gave both to her. How

her soul sunk within her when she felt the hard,

relentless eves of Simon fixed upon her! How her

soul lifted itself up at the sound of Jesus' voice!

What he said of her, in her hearing, and said it so

that she might hear, looking at her while he talked

to Simon, and what he said to her, was like the

wine of life. I must quote these words, just as

,

Luke records them. They thrill us now with their

1

music of divine compassion:

a

"And he turned to the woman, and said unto Si-

<

moil, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine

I

house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but

she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped

them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me

no kiss; but this woman since the time I came in

|

hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with

oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath

anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say

unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven:

for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven,

the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy

sins are forgiven."

What a divine union of dignity and tenderness

in his attitude toward this woman!

We pause here a moment. Our better nature

condemns Simon; we call him heartless and mean.

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

207

But stay! Suppose that just such a woman, just as penitent as she was, for just such a life as hers had heen, were this day to come among us? Would we look upon her with somewhat of Simon's feel ing? Are we Christ-like enough to know how to receive such a sister, so penitent, and for such sins? Think on the answer hefore you give it.
Let us see how Jesus hore himself toward a dif ferent class of Pharisees. There were three classes of Pharisees. The hest class was represented by Nieodemas, who seems to have heen an honest searcher after the truth. These had much of the leaven of religious truth and principle, and were the hest of the Church that then wasf The third chap ter of John shows us how patiently, candidly, and earnestly Jesus sought to lead such men into the kingdom of heaven. A second class was repre sented by this self-satisfied, self-righteous, critical Simon, whom we have seen revealed to himself in Christ's commendation of the penitent woman. A third class was full of conscious hypocrisy. They were men of policy, diplomacy. They hated Jesus, because his pure life and searching preaching con demned them. They were the men who dogged his steps with spies; who sent out their emissaries to entrap him in his words; who, on one occasion, at least, sought " vehemently to provoke him to speak of many things, that they might accuse him." They were the men who consummated the treason of Judas with their "thirty pieces of silver" cool enough, in spite of their blood-thirsty wrath, to drive a hard bargain with the traitor. They were the

208 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

men who "tithed anise and cummin," "neglected

the weightier matters of the law," and despised

righteousness except as the loud-mouthed profession

of it might hring them gain or cover up their crimes.

They were the men who prayed on the corners of

the street, and sounded trumpets, that they might

be seen of men; who, "for a pretense, made long

prayers," and, as a business, "devoured widows'

houses," as bad and unscrupulous villains as ever dis

honored the name of religion, or oppressed the poor.

How does Jesus deal with such sinners? His

words are terrible as the thunders that shook Sinai;

they burn like the lightnings that struck Israel

with awe. Read the " woes" denounced upon these

hypocrites in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew,

and in cognate passages.

I read to you some of these terrible denunciations:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo

crites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup

la.

and the platter, but within they are full of extortion

and excess. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers,

which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are

within full of dead men's bones, and of all unclean-

ness ! Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous

unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and

iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the proph

ets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and

say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we

would not have been partakers with them in the

blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST. 209

unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them

which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the

measure of your fathers."

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can

ye escape the damnation of hell?"

But wonderful to us, as we know the temper of

our own hearts, there is in these fearful, withering

denunciations no trace of personal feeling, no per

sonal heats, no pulse of bitterness toward the men.

We think of nothing, while we read, but of their

monstrous

sins, *

and

of

his

holv mf

abhorrence

of

all

evil.

It is in the close of this awful denunciation of the

hypocrites that Jesus thinking of Jerusalem," city

of solemnities " and the object of ten thousand di

vine favors, but whose streets had been reddened

with so much holy blood breaks out in a divine

sob of pity: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that

killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent

unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy

children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick

ens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold,

your house is left unto you desolate."

There is a harder test his bearing toward sin

ners who had wronged him. How he had honored,

trusted, and loved Peter, yet warning him faithfully

of his danger. Peter was with him when the dead

daughter of Jairus was restored to life; he was with

him on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses

and Elias came from heaven and talked with him

" concerning his decease which he should accomplish

at Jerusalem." He was with him in the garden.

Yet Peter denied him with tierce oaths. Do not

14

210

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

say that Jesus, being divine, did not feel such a

wrong. He was a man, and by so much as he was

purer and better and manlier than any other man

who ever lived, he felt the cruel desertion of his

friend the more keenlv. f When Peter had denied his Lord three times, the

cock crew. Jesus had forewarned him: "Before

the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." They

were in the high-priest's house. St. Luke says,

"And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter."

What a world of meaning was in that look, full of

suffering, full qf pity, the reproof veiled by the sor

row and bleeding love.

That look was not the last of our Lord's dealings

with the sorely sinning disciple. That morning he

rose from the dea4 an^ showed himself first to

Mary Magdalene, be said, " Go tell my disciples and

Peter." He emphasized this love-token to Peter

that he might know how " freely Jesus could for

give." And at some time during the forty days Jesus

appeared to Peter alone, as if he would make him

ft

sure of his perfect forgiveness.

it

When we have reached the point in religious ex

perience that we really forgive friends who have cru

elly wronged us blotting it all out from our book

of bitter remembrance we have somewhat of " the

mind that was in Christ."

I suppose a case that never occurred that never

could occur with Jesus. I speak reverently, and

am only trying to help myself and you bring home

to our hearts the doctrine of the text. Suppose,

for a moment, that Jesus had, in any way, wronged

THE MIND THAT WAS jx CHBIST. 211
another. How promptly, how nobly, how com pletely, he would have sought to make reparation! We do wrong one another. If we had more of the " mind that was in Christ" we would fly with con fessions and reparations to our wronged brethren.
In every case and everywhere we find Jesus bear ing himself toward sinners in such a way as never to make the impression that sin was a small thing, or that he hated the persons, or that he could do any thing other than to seek their highest good.
Putting all together, we have in the man Jesus a
perfectly simple character. Hence, when he came unto his own they " received
him not." They knew him not they despised, they rejected, they slew him.
He would not make money, nor lay up property, nor give himself to pleasure, nor flatter power, nor humor the multitude, nor seek office, nor accept a crown. They could make nothing out of him this man who wanted nothing and who yet showed him self capable of any achievement.
He did impolitic and unpopular things. He went to dine with Zaccheus though they all murmured; he accepted the lavish gratitude of a despised wom an; his most intimate Jerusalem friends were three poor and obscure people of Bethany. His life was transcendently pure, his doctrine the loftiest that had ever thrilled the human conscience. Yet he made " publicans and sinners" welcome, and moved to and fro in the midst of the people, as any other citizen might do.
When the people cannot make a man out, they

212 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.

always denounce him. So they said of Jesus: He

is a drunkard, a glutton, a fool; he is the friend of

publicans and sinners; he hath a devil.

It is all a mistake to suppose that the simplest

characters are most readily understood. A perfectly

simple and upright man is never understood at all

by the majority of men. The average man under

stands a Talleyrand better than he does a Madame

Roland; he understands Beaconsfield better than

he does Gladstone. Men understand what they can

take to pieces; that which resists their analysis baf

fles their intelligence.

To illustrate: Suppose some great Senator in

Washington City should rise in his place and make a

speech simply in the interests of his country cross

ing may be the dominant sentiment of his party

that can, at least, in no way have any relation to

party schemes or interests. Perhaps we may wait

long for such a speech, but it is a thing conceivable.

What would the party press say? They would

bristle with exclamations and interrogations. If

Irpt: ;!

they could find no possible motive except this, he

thought it was right, they would reject it. That is

too simple; they must find something complex at

r-

least double. If they cannot, they for the most

part denounce.

The average man not only does not readily under

stand a perfectly simple character a man who does

this or that only because it is rightj and does not

inquire farther for a ground of action but he is

disposed to hate and stone it. For it baffles him.

It is a unit, and defies analysis like an ultimate fact

THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST. 213
in nature. It reproves the mixed and selfish mo tives of the average man, and angers him. It may be remarked, this impatience with simplicity of character is most intense when it undertakes analy sis of a religious man. It flamed at a white heat in the Pharisees who compassed the death of Jesus.
Let me ask, young men and brethren, is the "mind that was in Christ" in you?
If so4 God is the center of your universe; God is your Father; man is your brother; you subordinate self, and will crucify self if need be.
How great is the blessedness and triumph of hav ing the mind that was in Christ! In any case, if we ask our hearts, " What would he do in this matter?" we can answer any question of right and wrong; we can solve any perplexity as to duty. This ques tion, "What would Jesus do in this case?" is an electric light, searching the very abysses,of the soul and of life. Our diplomacy hesitates and falters, and finally blunders; but the single eye, asking in his spirit for the truth, and the truth only, is full of light, and courage, and wisdom.
But we must consider for a moment the sustain ing, comforting, conquering power of him who has the mind that was in Christ.
If we have his mind in us, we are equal to any trial, any fate. Does some crisis suddenly precipi tate itself upon us? We will survive the shock. Is it only the weary monotony of daily drudgery? He drudged in Joseph's carpenter shop, and his spirit will start songs in our hearts over the lowliest tasks that life allots us. Is there some secret grief,

214 THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST.
some burden we can never lay down, some hidden sorrow that must have no voice except to God, some inner pain that must neither sigh nor groan that we must carry in our hearts all life-long? If his mind he in us we can do itj patiently, uncomplainingly, cheerfully, victoriously.
If his mind be in us prosperity will not make us vain, failure will not bring us into despair. There is no joy, there is no triumph like his who has the " mind that was in Christ."
To him be glory and dominion forever. Amen.
r

I
THE FAITH THAT SAVES.
[OXFORD, JANTJAEY 15, 1882.]
"As many as received him, to them gave he power to hecome the sons of God, even to them that helieve on his name." John i. 12.
ERY often sincere people have said to me, "I can't believe; I do n't know how to believe."
They are mistaken; they can believe, and they know how to believe. What they can't do is some mys terious something they suppose to be believing; as if faith were some sort of spiritual sleight-of-hand.
I feel deeply moved to-day, young men, to speak to you of the faith in Christ that saves men.
By saving men, I mean this one thing saving them from sin, and, by that token, saving them from the wages of sin. I will earnestly try to avoid mere technicalities; I will try to find out and tell you what believing is, as our Lord Jesus teaches us.
In the very nature of things, faith implies need, dependence. We cannot think of God as having faith; he needs nothing no pardon; no help of any sort. If he could need, there could be none who could supply the need. There is no power, no wis dom, no purity, no goodness beyond him. But any created being, that is also intelligent, is capable of faith; for where there is subjection and dependence there can be, must be, faith. Adam in Eden had faith; Adam out of Eden could have faith. Angels
(215)

216

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

have faith. Saints redeemed will have faith forever

and forever. It is foolish to sing, " Where faith in

full fruition dies." Faith will never die. It is bet

ter to say with St. Paul, " !Nbw ahideth these three,

faith, hope, and charity."

The principle and law of faith are not accidents

of our present mortal and sinful condition. Faith

is not only possible, but it is normal and inevitable

wherever there is dependence. It is as certainly and

as essentially a law of the spiritual as gravitation is

of the physical universe. Intelligent beings can no

more exist and fulfill the ends ot their existence

without faith than the worlds can keep their orbits

without gravitation.

I remember that when I was a sophomore here,

in 1857,1 was greatly troubled with this question

(sophomores are sometimes very absurd): " Why is

faith, and not something else, made the condition

of salvation? " Some well-meaning but most un

;

wise friend placed in my hands a book, or pam

phlet, on the " Philosophy of Faith." I forthwith

devoured the treatise, and knew less than I did be

fore. It helped me somewhat when I found out

that neither Jesus nor his disciples used the word

" condition " that it was one of the words used by

philosophers and theologians. The fact is, the word

condition sometimes misleads us when used in con

nection with faith and the blessings faith brings to

us. Among the conditions of the surrender of an

army may be several particulars, as that all govern

ment property be turned over to the conqueror, that

the men agree to fight no more unless exchanged,

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

217

that officers retain their side-arms, and many other such matters, any one of which, or all of which, might have been different. Faith is not a condition of salvation in any such sense; the only reason we may use the word condition at all in this connection is simply this there can be no salvation without it. Not simply because faith has been fixed upon as the condition, but because it must needs have been the condition. , Nothing else can be. Breathing is a condition of continued animal life in the same sense that faith is the condition of spiritual life. Consti tuted as we are, breathing is a vital necessity; con stituted as we are, faith is as truly a necessity to all spiritual life. It is law not arbitrary, but essen tial a law growing out of the very nature of God, the very constitution of man, and the relation be tween them. In the very nature of things, no mere form or ceremony could have been made a condition of salvation. Nothing that can be done without faith, or that is done without faith, is of any utility in bringing salvation into the soul and life of man. No rite, as circumcision or baptism; no sacrifice, no priestly manipulations, could answer as condi tions. If God could have appointed the mere doing of some particular thing as the condition of sal vation, it might have made the matter very sim ple ; but it would have made salvation itself impos sible.
I long to show you how simple a thing it is, and you must help me by answering questions in your own hearts. Now, what is it that we need? I speak now of our personal, spiritual life, not of our

218

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

need of things temporal, as food, raiment, help in trouble, deliverance from bodily danger, and such other things as belong to our daily external life. Men are sometimes frightened away from a truth by the name people give to it. It may be a foolish v/eaknessj nevertheless a man who loves a truth more than he loves its frfrm will respect this weak ness. Our Lord did. K^ever did a teacher lay so little stress oil mere form. Indeed, in the sense in which Church councils use such words, he never formulated a single doctrine -not one. He did not formulate a ddctririe everi o'f his own nature or character';
I do not in the least discdunt or question the writings of St. Jdhri or of St. Paul; I only call at tention to a fact in the teachings of Jesus. It is St. John, not Jesus, whd gives us the doctrine of the Word, the liogfe; it is St. 3?aul, not Jesus, who gives us iii form the doctrine of "justification by faith." Thd essential living truth that these words signify Jesus did teach. But let us remember, with gratitude unutterable, that Jesus does nowhere stress, as necessary to salvation, the acceptance of a form of words, the understanding of definitions.
It is important to understand this clearly, for sometimes people are frightened from the truths of religion by certain words and phrases, as if they were religion itself; as if because the words suggest something they do not understand that therefore they cannot understand religion itself. As if one should say: " I do not know what you mean by ' the primary colors; 3 therefore I do not know what

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

219

you mean by light; in fact, I do not believe there
is such a thing." I was asking just now, What is it that we need?
Let us look, first of all, into our own hearts con sciousness, if you prefer. Look closely into your hearts and find the answer. This is the natural method; the gospel means nothing to us till there rises up in our own hearts the sense of need of something we have not in ourselves. There comes into every human heart the cry of John the Baptist before the manifestation of the Christ. And this wilderness cry, this call to repentance that has for its answer in obedient souls a cry for a Saviour, comes very early. Who shall say how soon? Long before a little child can manage to take into its com prehension our form of words we call doctrine, it can take in the words which the Holy Ghost useth. How soon the Spirit may make itself understood by a child, I cannot tell; but far sooner than they be lieve who are accustomed to say, when little chil dren ask from God's people recognition of their rights in his Church, " They are too young to under stand what they are doing." As if j ustification were by knowledge! If so, who then could be saved?
S"ot long ago a friend, the pastor of a Church, wrote to me, telling me of a little girl four years old who wanted to join the Church. The little one's mother said that her child had been piously dis posed from the first evidences of intelligence that she lived religiously. But alas! the child must have certain Church questions "propounded " to it about a " desire to flee from the wrath to come," " ratify-

220

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

ing " its " baptismal covenant," and such like! The " twelve" are not the only disciples of Jesus who forbid the little ones to come to him. What would Jesus have done had he been pastor when such a candidate came forward ? "We know what he did once. " He took them in his arms and said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
This John the Baptist call we have been hearing since we could remember. It has been always fol lowed by one feeling. Let us lay aside all technical words and phrases and ask, What does my heart tell me that I need ?
1. When we have done wrong pardon. This is not peculiar to theology; it grows out of the very constitution of our nature and our relation to the eternal law of right. It is not a feeling confined to the religious sphere. It may exist without our thinking of God at all. It arises whenever a human being, child or man, reflects upon an act of disobe dience to rightful authority, or a wrong done an other. A little child who has never heard of God a Chinese child, if you please feels it, having disobeyed its mother. Let us respect facts whether we can account for them or not. Here is a fact, obvious, undeniable, unmistakable. Whenever we feel that we have done wrong, we feel the need of pardon.
2. With further knowledge of ourselves a knowl edge that may not have found definitions as yet we realize a certain tendency to wrong-doing. We very early distinguish between the wrong thing

fI '.
I

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

221

done and the tendency to the doing of it. With the feeling that we need pardon for what we have done very soon comes the feeling that we need some sort of change on account of what we are; a change that will take from us that something whose natural drift is evil, and of the hringing into us of some thing whose drift is good. St. Paul justifies me here. So does Horace when he speaks of one who " saw the better way and pursued the worse." You and I have felt this many times.
3. Moreover, when we do not only see the right, but prefer it, we still feel the need of help that we may do the right. Prayer is an instinctive cry for this help. Who is there that does not feel this need of help in his efforts to do right, and to he what he feels that he ought to he and what he wishes to be? There never was a human being who never had this feeling. At all events, you have had this feeling, and you have it now while I speak to you. Tell me, is there any thing unnatural, any thing contradic tory of your past experience, or of your present con sciousness, in what I have said ? You might have used different words in stating it, but have I not in dicated the facts in your case ? Who of us has not felt a need of pardon for what we have done; a change in us; help to do and to be right and pure? But these things are meant when the Church speaks of (1) the forgiveness of sin; (2) the new birth, or a change of heart; (3) divine grace to help us.
Feeling all these things, penitent David prayed: " Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and

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THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy
free spirit." I speak now of Christ's answer to this cry. The gospel is called "good news," because it
offers the helps we need pardon, a new heart, and grace. Jesus says: " I am the true life;" " He that believeth on me shall never die;" " He that helieveth shall be saved." He says also, "He that believeth not shall be damned." St. Paul, and every other true preacher from his days, speaks of "being jus tified by faith." He says also, "The just shall live by faith."
All depends on faith, whether we ask Jesus, or Paul, or any other who knows the mind of Christ. "What, then, is faith? What is believing?
It is worth your remembrance and best reflection: Christ never defines faith that is, tells us exactly what it is. No inspired writer attempts a definition of this sort. Only ordinary and uninspired men do this. Why did Jesus not define faith tell us ex
actly what it is? Because, 1. He could not; faith is incapable of
such definition. Only complex things, or things limited, can be defined. Defined means to mark the limits. Simple things cannot be defined. There are truths, principles, powers, that are like ultimate facts in science. You cannot go beyond them. You can state them that is all. Ask your man of science, "What is water?" "That is easy," he will say; "it is a fluid composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, combined in certain definite proportions.''

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Ask him, " What is oxygen? " He will say," Why, oxygen is oxygen." Why does n't he define oxygen? It is simple; it is an ultimate fact; it is so far, in the history of the laboratory, incapable of analysis. Truths and principles and influences that reach into infinite realities cannot be defined. Faith is an ul timate fact in the spiritual world, and its reach is boundless. You had as well attempt to fix the boundaries of space. If you conclude, now, that faith is not real, that it is not important, because indefinable, you will conclude most unwisely. For the most real things in the universe, and the most important, are indefinable. What is so real, so im portant, as love? But it is indefinable, as beauty is indefinable. So is holiness indeed, all the greatest facts in life, and the dominant forces of the uni verse. May we not say, with great reverence, God is the essential reality, and God is indefinable?
2. There is another good reason why our Lord did not define fkith; it was not necessary to define it. For all men know what it means until they try to define it. Then they do not know; and the more they define, the less they know.
But you will ask, What is faith? what is believ ing? I answer, There are no words only facts, in stances, illustrations, paraphrases.
Let us see. See that little baby on its mother's bosom, looking into her eyes while it draws from her breasts its life. It sees her love, and believes. Your conceited and impertinent logic will be asking pres ently, What is it, this faith of the baby? Ask the baby; it can tell you as well as my Lord Bacon can.

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THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

By and by that baby, now a tired and hungry boy, comes to the mother and says," Mother, please give me a piece of bread." How the boy would be stunned by refusal! Why? Because the request grew out of faith. Years come and go. That boy, once the clinging baby, is now a man, no longer young. He seeks once more that mother's loving breast. Storm-tossed and weary, the broken spirit longs to feel again the sweet support of a mother's arms. And with absolute confidence he comes and lays his head on the mother's lap. What does it mean? Faith.
Let us look at the matter in another light, as re lated to the activities of life. See the boy Warren Hastings, lying full-length on a hilUside one autumn evening, gazing at the hall and home of his ances. tors, and resolving to reclaim it from alien hands, or die in the attempt. That purpose fired his heart and nerved his arm for forty years. What is the very center and main-spring of such a purpose, and of such a history, but faith ^faith that it could be done? " Faith is," indeed, " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." One trouble is, you think, that faith, as a saving princi ple, faith in religious experiences, is a strange, un accountable, and altogether diflerent thing from any other faith. You do not want it explained any where else; you accept facts-^-you believe, and go on with all the activities and realities of life.
Do you say, This is because religious faith is con cerned with things invisible? N"ot so; all faith is concerned with things invisible. The baby's faith

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is not in the face of the mother it sees, not in the

arms it feels, not in the voice it hears, but in the

love it neither sees, nor feels, nor hears.

|i

i-

You are asking again, But what is faith in Christ?

!'

I answer, Just that, and nothing else -faith in

Christ. This is not trifling with you, or making

light of your perplexities. It is the right answer

to give you, and there is no other. Why don't you

come, with your cold-blooded logic, and ask me

what is the baby's faith in its mother's love? It

would be quite as reasonable and profitable. The

faith of the baby is not a simpler thing, not a less

indefinable thing, than is saving faith in Jesus

Christ. Of saving faith, it is Bushnell, I think,

who says, " It is an act of trust by which one being,

a sinner, commits himself to another being, a

Saviour." Long ago, when I read these words, I

was glad. I thought I had found a definition of

faith. But not so; this only tells us what one does

who has faith. A sinner wants pardon, a new heart,

and grace, to help him live a holy life, and he looks

to Jesus for what he wants. - That is all there is in

it. As a mental process, believing in Jesus does

not differ from believing in one's mother. The ob

ject is in one case my mother; in the other, it is

my Saviour.

From the beginning to the end of his ministry

among men, Jesus was, in one way and another,

persuading them to have faith. What sort of words

did he use? What form did his invitation take?

The simplest possible to words. It was always as

simple as this: "Come unto me."

15

226

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

The faith that saves trusts. It need not explain, and its efficacy does not depend upon the excellence of its explanation.
1. Let us distinctly understand that the inex plicable does not mean the untrue or impossible. Illustrations abound; the world is full of them. The fact is, every form of being has its secret. A blade of grass baffles all science. We cannot get at the how of things the most commonplace in the world. That religion has inexplicable facts, pro-, cesses, and experiences, is no argument against its reality. If it were, it would be easy to prove that you yourself do not exist, since nobody can explain how-you came to exist, how you continue to exist,
2. Let us understand, also, that it is not our knowledge of the method of salvation, but our faith in its author, Jesus Christ, that saves.
It is well enough to seek to know the divine mode of working, but not too curiously. You may be sure that a great deal of what is called "theoU ogy " is only a pitiful exhibition of human folly a.nd pride.
Let me explain clearly at this point. Is it neces sary that one should "understand the plan of sal vation," in order to be saved? Yes, if we are saved by the "plan," and not by Jesus Christ. Yes, if justification is by knowledge, and not by faith.
Why do you look so doubtfully upon a child, only
four years old, that prays to the Father in heaven
and trusts in him when it wants a place among
God's people? Because you doubt if it "under
stands the plan of salvation." Millions of grown

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227

people have thought in such a case, "That child does not understand the nature of its responsibilities in joining the Church." "What if it does not? Who is saved by any such understanding? "Not one hu man soul.
Let us go to Simon's house, as Jesus reclined at his table. A penitent woman " a woman that had been a sinner " approaches the Lord. Such women were not afraid to go to him, and he was not afraid to have them come. It is such as we who are afraid God forgive our conceited Pharisaism! She breaks an alabaster-box, and anoints his feet; she weeps upon them; she washes them with her tears; she wipes them with the hairs of her head.
Did she understand the plan of salvation? What did she know about the Logos? About vicarious atonement? About original sin ? " the federal head ship of Adam?" about the Catechism? or the Creed? .about theology? I do not despise catechisms and creeds and theology, if kept in their place. But do not hang them on a cross and tell me, " Under stand these, and you will be saved." It is a fearful thing when men make a stumbling-block of their so-called science of salvation, so blocking the way of life with it that people cannot be saved.
I^o; the penitent woman did not understand the ology. There was a great pain in her heart, and she came to Jesus for help, just as naturally as a poor child, shivering from a weary tramp through darkness and blinding snow, draws near the light and spreads its hands toward the warmth of the fire in a loving home.

228

THE FAITH THAT SAVES.

St. Paul understood a good deal about the plan of salvation, but he was not saved by that knowl edge, but by his faith in Christ Jesus, whom he re ceived as his Teacher, Priest, and King. All per fect faith receives Christ in this threefold character, but millions have been saved who never thought of either of these words as applied to Christ.
What did the poor thief on the cross know about the threefold offices? What does a poor heathen a Chinaman in Shanghai wandering in his darkness till he comes in, some Sunday morning, to " Trinity Church," and hears our own Young Alien tell the story of the cross, till his heart is moved and he falls in love with Jesus what does he know about a creed concerning him?
Pardon me, good women, who hear me to-day, how is your religion related to your doctrinal knowledge of Christ? your understanding of what is meant by such words as "atonement," "vicarious suffering," "the eternal word?" You do not, in your best religious moods, and in your deepest re ligious experiences, think of such things. And nobody does. Christ Jesus satisfies your souls; therefore you come to him; it is enough. You are saved by a person, and not by a plan.
Let Paul tell us, and John, and Luther, and Cal vin, and Wesley, and Edwards, and the other im mortals among saints and thinkers, whether the faith that saved them was dependent upon their knowledge of how they were saved, or upon their comprehension of the mysteries of the divine nat ure. !N"o; Paul says, "O the depth of the riches

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229

both of the wisdom and knowledg*- e of God!" Wesley said when he was about to be " translated that he should not see death,"
+
I the chief of sinners am, Yet Jesus died for me.

How can we believe in Jesus? Ah! that is an other qnestion. If we do not want him we cannot believe in him. But if we truly feel the need he came to supply, if we want him truly, we cannot help believing in him. And be sure, Jesus is what we want.
You do not understand this? That is because you neither know yourself nor Jesus.
"But I do not understand some verses in Genesis, and Paul says some things that trouble me." And you have come to this refuge have you? As if un derstanding Genesis were any more the condition of salvation than understanding creation. You do not deny the creation, do you? Satan is indeed hard pressed when he leads you into such a castle of doubt as this.
Let me say to you, in conclusion, for this time: I am not in the least troubled by any discoveries, or so-called discoveries, of science. I rejoice in all the discoveries. They teach me more of my Father and my Saviour. Nor does my faith the faith that brings me comfort depend upon the answers that wise and good men make to the unbelievers. I do not believe that geology contradicts Moses; I do not believe that there is in dead matter "the prom ise and potency" of the universe teeming with life.

230

THS FAITH THAT SAVES.

But if there never was a deluge, nor a Tower of Babel, nor a hundred other things that infidels have caviled at, and that foolish people have ridiculed, this I know: here still is Jesus. Here are his words, here his life, here his death. He stands fast, though
the heavens fall. Pardon an -absurd illustration of a form of doubt
hard pressed for an objection. One of our young men came to me the other day, telling me that some one calling himself an infidel had been troubling him about an alleged discrepancy between two gen ealogical tables one in Matthew and one in Luke.
If there were such discrepancy, what of that? No man is saved by faith in a list of names. If the names of men were all blotted out," the Name that is above every name that is named in heaven or earth" abides. In that Name we trust; in him we believe who is called by that name. Jesus said, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." This is the theology that saves men. " He that be lieveth shall not perish" cannot. Faith in Jesus and damnation cannot coexist. He that believes is saved; he that continues to believe lives forever; he that believeth not is condemned already. It was at the grave of Lazarus that Jesus said: " I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whoso ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

it
ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.
[OXFORD, FEBEUAET 5, 1882.]
"Be sober-minded." Titus ii. 9.
T1HE germ-thought of this text is self-restraint. The Bible doctrine of human life demands re straint; that is, the right government and not the extirpation of our nature. The right understand ing of this distinction I look upon as a matter of the first importance. Let us use great plainness of speech, and endeavor honestly to get at the truth of things.
First of all then, let us consider what kind of a heing God made man to he.
1. He is an animal. Considered in respect simply of his body and its life, a man is as truly and purely an animal as is a horse. The general structure is alike a combination of bones, muscles, nerves, tis sues. The great vital processes are alike in each. So far as mere body is concerned their mode of com ing into this world and getting out of it are the same. They hold identical relations to the law of gravity, the processes of chemistry, and the mechan ical forces. They have in their constitution many characteristics in common. Their wants, appetites, instincts, in so far as these grow out of bodily or ganization, are alike. For example, hunger is the same sort of thing in the horse and in the man; the
(231)

232

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

reproductive instinct is the same. So is the dispo sition to rest that follows exertion, and the desire of motion that follows repose.
Now let us ask, Is there a place in nature that is, in God's world for such an animal as man? There is not only a place for him, there is need of him. Animal life would be incomplete without him without him considered simply as an animal. All other things, animate and inanimate, are a true prophecy of his coming. In man are the arche types of all the ideas set forth in the creation of other beings in nature. This impressive fact is as obvious, perhaps more so, in fetal as in post-natal life. No wonder so many writers have called man a microcosm a little world in himself, an epitome of the universe. As Mrs. Browning sings:

Since God collected and resumed in man The firmaments, the strata, and the lights, Fish, fowl, and beast, and insect all their trains Of various life caught back upon his arm, [Reorganized and constituted man, The microcosm, the adding up of works.

What we first seek for this morning, young men, is this: To find a true, rational,.and scriptural law and rule of life for this wondrous animal man. Of course we will fail if we forget the other and higher elements in man's complex nature. We cannot, in any sensible view of man as an animal, forget man as mind, or man as spirit; we cannot forget either his intellect or his affections. But in our attempts to teach the rights and wrongs of things we too often forget man as an animal. When we have

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

233

thought of him so we have heen prone to despise him. This is irrational and a sort of profanity, since it casts contempt upon the works of God works that he pronounced " very good."
For my part, I firmly helieve that no little non sense, false philosophy, and sham religion has con fused council in the consideration of man as an animal an animal, let us rememher, that God made. Let us endeavor to get at the very bottom truth of things. We may fail, hut we can at least make an honest effort.
I bring the discussion at once to the altar and ask, Is there sin that is, any violation of law, the law of his very life in what is simply normal, natural if you please, to the nature, the essential constitu tion of this animal, man? Let us take a concrete case: Is hunger sinful ? It is a purely bodily, animal sensation, whether in the tolerable disquiet in the nerves that govern the digestive apparatus when he has passed his usual feeding hour, or in the intoler able agonies of starvation. Is hunger therefore sinful sinful because it is a bodily sensation ? So; but whatever misuses, abuses this appetite of hun ger, whether it be gluttony or fanatical starving, is sin. Gluttony violates the law of bodily health and degrades the man, considered simply as an animal. For no mere animal, under normal conditions, ever commits the sin of gluttony. Gluttony sins on the side of over-indulgence; asceticism sins on the side of excessive abstinence. Both violate law, both are sinful, both are followed by the "wages of sin," both produce disease and tend to death. Fanatical

234

ST. PAUL to YOUNG MEN.

fasting fasting that goes so far that it produces
disease is as sinful as gluttony. I have taken the food-appetite and hunger, the
indication and effect of the lack of food, for illus tration, because it is easy of apprehension. But other natural appetites and instincts of the animal, man, are in the same category. There is nothing ignoble or worthy of contempt) there is no sin in the appetite itself, whether it be hunger, thirst, the reproductive instinct, or any other. Sin appears with its abuse that is, a use not according to the law ordained for its regulation.
This is not an argument that will extenuate or condone licentiousness; it is an argument that for bids it most sternly and absolutely; it is an argu ment that finds for chastity a foundation impregna ble a foundation of law inherent in the very nature and constitution of man himself, a law primordial, that existed and pronounced its benedictions and enforced its penalties before Moses and Sinai a law of which the seventh commandment and all its cognates are but the formulated and authoritative
statements. You may be sure of it; the law of chastity and
the law of moderation in eating were not ordained by Moses, or even by the Creator in Moses's time. They were before Moses; God impressed them upon the essential constitution of the first man he ever made. And they would survive^ instinct with sav ing or avenging power, if every Bible were burned
out of the world* what are men, trying to fill aright the true

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG

235

ends of their existence, to do with the appetites and instincts that inhere in the very organization of their hodies and constitution of their being?
There are two answers proposed to men seeking the way of life. Asceticism, which is one of the blind fanaticisms that has intruded itself into much human thinking, says, Tip-root them, crucify them, destroy them utterly. A class of so-called devo tional books, that have done much harm in the world, are full of this folly. TVe need not go to books for proof of the statement that one answer to the question is, these appetites and passions must be destroyed utterly and crucified out of existence. Scores and hundreds of times have most of us heard men pray that God would " utterly consume our pas sions and appetites!" All this is irrational; more, it is blasphemous. It is to take to God's altar a piece of his handiwork, and tell him to his face that he blundered in making it; that he did not know how to make man; that he must now atone for the blunder by destroying what, according to the divine plan, is an integral and essential part of him.
Such philosophy is a hollow sham, and such prayers are insincere. Where they are sincere, they are the indications of a kind and degree of insanity. No man in his senses ever really wants God to an swer such a prayer. Such prayers are made with the full and comfortable assurance that they will not be answered. Elsewise they would not be made at all.
Sincere or insincere, it all comes to nothing. You cannot extirpate these natural promptings and in-

236

ST. PAUL TO Youxa MEN.

stinets without marring and destroying God's work. See Simeon Stylites, celebrated in legend and song, as a typical man among those who have sought purity of soul by abusing and destroying their bod ies, waging fierce war upon the very natures that God gave them for noble and necessary uses. See the crazy devotees of all false religions whether Buddhistic, Mohammedan, Romish, or pseudo-Prot estant trying to starve, and flagellate, and destroy their bodies to the point of overcoming the devil. Such fanatics may reduce themselves to mere skel etons covered with rags, but nature is there, quiv ering under the rags, potential, if not active, pro testing against the wrong. How Satan mocks, with jeering and endless laughter, such mindless folly! How these fanatics contemn the wonderful story of Eden, where man, as God made him, was placed with his Creator's blessing pronounced upon him! How they contemn the more wonderful story of Bethlehem and of the eternal Word made flesh!
What does St. Paul say to us, young men ? " Be sober-minded;" practice restraint, self-restraint; keep to law the law of nature, of health, of decen cy, of virtue, of chastity, of life, of God.
But does not St. Paul, in another place, speak of crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof? Yes; and the argument, as well as the figurative terms which he employs, shows that he does not mean extirpation, hut government. Does he not speak of "keeping his body under?" Yes; but this means subordination, not destruction. Does he not teach us to pray that our " bodies," as well as our

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEX.

237

" souls," may be " sanctified ? " Yes; and the prayer is graciously answered in and for both body and soul, when both are in their place, obeying the di vine law of their existence.
-2. Looking further at this being man, that we have so far this morning been considering only as an animal, we find something more than body; we find that which we call mind something more than we can discuss at this time or fully understand at anytime. But keeping sight of the text and those principles and powers in man that make self-re straint necessary and a supreme virtue, we find that the mind has certain tendencies or cravings that we call desires, just as the body has certain cravings that we call appetites. Among others we find in all normal minds the desire of knowledge, of power, of superiority, of property, of praise. These de sires are as spontaneous as any instincts.
Are they sinful in themselves? It is often taken for granted that these natural desires of the mind are in themselves very wicked. By many they are denounced, sneered at, prayed against in words at least as if they were mortal sins.
ISow these desires are normal to the mind they grow out of its constitution; just as hunger is nor mal to the body when it needs food; just as hunger grows out of the very organization of the body. And they are as innocent in their lawful use and gratification. " O! " but says one, with an eye on what he fancies to be a peril to orthodoxy, " these dispositions, the desire of property, superiority, praise, and such like, are sinful, though natural, for

238

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

they came through the fall! they are the outcrop-

pings of our depravity!" Little douht have I as to

the fact of what we call depravity, but will some

one he good enough to tell me how he knows that

these natural desires of the mind are any more due

to the fall than are hunger and the other bodily ap

petites. Is it too much to suppose that Adam and

Eve in Eden, without food, would have suffered

i

h unger ? It would be as easy to conceive of a square

[

circle, or of a four-sided triangle, as to conceive of a

man not hungry when he lacked food, or of a man

displeased when he receives deserved approbation.

|i

There is neither Bible nor reason for any such no

tion as that what is essential to the very constitu

tion of a man came to him by any violation of the

law of his being. "Without these mental aptitudes

man would be as unfit for the work of the world

and the duties of human life as he would have been

had his bodily organization lacked what is essential

to the very existence of it.

Does one quote our Lord's words: "How can ye

believe which receive honor one of. another? " His

reproof of the disciples struggling for the preemi

nence? Of the Pharisees, ostentatious of their pi

ety ? I answer: Jesus does reprove the unrestrained,

ungoverned, inordinate seeking after honor the

making a business of it, the sacrificing other and

higher things for it. But the natural instinct that

finds satisfaction in praise he does not reprove; he

appeals to it. He offers rewards for well-doing;

he says, " Well done, thou good and faithful serv

ant." In his letters to the Churches in Asia Mi

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MES.

239

nor, our risen Lord commends every thing good in them.
Let me bring this matter of the sinfulness or in nocence of the desire of praise to a sharp issue. If all love of praise is wrong, then we ought to praise nothing. If all desire of success is wrong, then we ought not to try to succeed.
I>et us, in order to find out the truth more clear ly, keep to the easy illustration and instance, the love of praise, remembering that the argument ap plies to the other natural desires of the mind. If it js all wrong, we should praise nothing; we should be silent, except where we can condemn; or so man age our approval that those who have deserved and won it shall never hear of it-^-at least not in this world. If the love of praise, the desire of esteem, be in itself sinful, what are we to do about the meth ods employed throughout the entire organization of human society? Is it a sin for the mother to pat the head of her little prattler, and tell him he has done well, when he has done well ? If the sim ple desire of praise is wrong, then is it wrong for the mother to praise her baby, for she gratifies this desire and strengthens it. Is it a sin for a husband to praise his wife, when she has done her part well? Is it a sin for the wife to let her husband see that she truly appreciates his struggles for the support of his family ? Is it a sin for the faculty here to give students credit for what they do ?
"Why do I ask such questions ? To show Eow ab surd are some notions that are urged upon people as virtues.

240

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

What a sham is all this philosophism and socalled religion that assumes to plant its iron heel on the human heart, and that esteems itself wise and good in proportion to its success in crushing out of it God-given instincts that he saw to be necessary to the constitution of humanity. It is an affecta tion of humility that says, O you are lost if you en joy the approval of your friends, the praise of your fellow-men. What a sham to say: " I care nothing for what men think of me, say of me. I praise none. I receive praise from none." Profound ego tism and mock humility are at the bottom of such talk as this.
There is no human being of good sense, not ut terly depraved, who is insensible to the good opinion of his felloAV-men. It is only an all-consuming ego tism, feeding upon the contemplation of its assumed incomparable excellence, that pretends to such in difference. What is the divine law as to this in born and innocent love of esteem? Restraint, not extirpation. What is the sin? Becoming a slave to the feeling inordinate, selfish ambition, that blinds to better things; that makes men mean and false; that seeks its ends by unworthy and sinful methods. For illustration: it is not a sin, young men, for you to desire to excel in your class; it is a sin to cheat in order to excel. And it is a sin to be miserable and jealous if you fail.
Secondly, it is not mere restraint, but self-re straint; it is self-government that St. Paul enjoins upon us.
What young men want (old men too, for that

il

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

241

matter; also, women, very much as being greatly exposed to the danger of having mere feeling to run away with them) is not merely restraint from with out, as from an authority or government external to themselves. It is not the arrest upon evil ten dencies that comes through authority as the par ent's, the school-master's, the policeman's but a self-restraint, a self-government, that has its foun dations, its laws, its administrations, in the very constitution of the man's self. A father once said to me of his boy," I can trust him round the world." His boy deserved this high praise; he had in Mm this principle of self-restraint he was a law unto himself.
S"o one can be farther than I am from discredit ing outside government as that of the family, the school, the Church, the State. But this I do insist on: all outside .government, if it fill its true place, has self-government for its end.
Two weeks since I received a letter from one of our Emory boys, who will, I trust, be with us again after awhile. He is working his way, teaching school by day, studying by night, and so, by force of manliness, winning from poverty the opportunity of education. Sometimes he has given way to de spondency, but he is getting the victory. Among other very sensible things, he wrote: "The hard part is in building up manhood within" He is be ginning to understand what St. Paul is talking of in his letter to Titus.
Not long ago a gentleman, living in one of our Geor"gia cities, said to me: "If I were not afraid to

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ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

trust my boy away from his mother, I would send

him to college." I said in answer: " Your son must

learn to stand alone; more boys have been saved at

Christian colleges than have ever been spoiled at

them." On one occasion a good woman told me

she wanted to come to Oxford and stay with her

son till he finished his college course. I said to her,

[

" Your boy will likely do better without you than

[

with you." How she stared at me with flashing

>

eyes, her maternal soul making indignant protest.

i

But I was right.

I hear much about the danger of evil companion

ship, and I have seen much of it. But this I do say,

and do you, young men, remember it: The youth

who goes down easily under the pressure of temp

tation has himself to blame. He lacks self-restraint,

self-government. A gay fellow asks you to go on a

spree with him; to drink, and to do other bad things.

You go, and say in defense, " O the boys persuaded

me." That will not do; it is a cowardly plea. What

were you doing while they were persuading?

There is no help for it in this world, and there

ought to be no help for it; you must stand on your

own feet. You cannot be nursed always. Your

character must have " root in itself;" else you have

no character at all. Adam and Eve fell out of Eden

without bad companionship; you may, if you

will, rise out of this world and return to Eden in

spite of the companionship you cannot altogether

escape.

Pray tell me how else can you do ? You cannot

get out of this world innocently till God takes you

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEX.

248

out. I tell you plainly, if you cannot acquire selfgovernment you are lost. That is all.
The good things in our Christian civilization may become occasions of evil. We have in our time all manner of societies to help men do right; we are much given to systems of cooperative morality. I say no word against these good societies; much good they do, no doubt. But if young men trust in them altogether, they become a delusion and a snare. They must trust in themselves also; above all, in God. Whenever a society weakens the sense of personal responsibility and enfeebles a man's true individuality, it has become a curse to him.
By all means avoid occasions of evil; it is foolish, to invite temptation; it is wicked to give assigna tions to Satan. For it is still written, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
It is wise and useful to seek all good influences. Seek them diligently, but not chiefly for the defense and support they bring you, but for the nurture that is in them. Seek them that you may grow strong in yourself. After a time a cripple must throw his crutch away; else he will always be a cripple.
Above all things, "build up manhood within." You may avoid men, and shut yourself up in secret cells, but if you have no better guard than an iron door the enemy will come in; if you have no better preventive against moral infection than isolation, you will perish of secret vices and be consumed from within. You may stay in your mother's room till your head is gray, and if there is no man in you,

244

ST. PAUI, TO YOUNG MEN.

no self-restraint, no self-government, you will die

of moral leprosy there, under her eyes. You must

govern yourself, or go down. You are in the broad

and rapid, and ofttimes turbulent, river of human

life; you must swim or sink.

I am now to offer you some arguments in favor of

sober-mindedness, self-restraint, self-government, a

balanced character:

1. The necessity is based in man's complex nat

ure. He is not all animal, nor all intellect, nor all

spirit. Yet this complexity is so divinely balanced

that there need be no confusion, or disorder. Man

the animal with appetites, passions, instincts;

man the being with intellect, thinking, aspiring,

seeking knowledge, striving after success, carrying

on the world's business; man; the being with a

soul with many-sided affections, who can love and

r

hate, hope and fear, suffer and enjoy, who is capable

of right and wrong, who can be holy, and who can be

wicked; this complex man, yet one person^ must be

in harmony with himself. Each side of him, with all

its powers, may be (and if he be sober-minded, self-

f ;

restrained, self-governed, will be) helpful to every

1

other side of him, and to the whole man when in his

place and fulfilling the law of his life. The body,

rightly used, helps the mind and the heart; the mind

helps the body and the heart; the heart helps the

I*;

mind and the body provided always that each obeys

its own laws. Then there is harmony, equilibrium,

health, and life. A man showed me in Willimantic,

Connecticut, a great shaft of twenty-six tons weight,

turning with almost inconceivable rapidity under the

ST. PAUL lo YOUNG

245

power delivered upon it from two great wheels one driven by water and one by steam itself propagat ing this vast power through fifty thousand whirling spindles. Yet it was so nicely balanced that by push ing against the end of it with a common pencil it was moved lengthwise half an inchj returning to its place without noise or jar the instant the pressure was withdrawn. It is in God's conception and plan of human life that it should, with vaster powers, be in perfect equilibrium: It is too plain to argue that where a machine is out of balance the greater its power and the swifter its motion the greater its disorder and the completer its ruin. It is sin that throws man out of balance. Its issue is disorder, confusion, endless riot, irreparable breakage, ruin complete, death without hope, and damnation with out deliverance.
2. The necessity of sober-mindedness, self-re straint, self-government, is obvious from the nature of the appetites and desires themselves. They are impulses, and they are both blind and deaf. There is no more reason, or conscience, or will in them than there is in the attractions and repulsions of electricity. They know nothing, they care for nothing, but their special objects. They are impa tient, clamorous, eager, imperious. They made Reuben, eldest born of the patriarch Jacob, their slave. The dying father, leaning on his staff while he blessed his children and "told them that which should befall them in the last days," touched the place of fatal weakness in Reuben, and left a warn ing for us all. "Boiling over as water" (for this,

246

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

some of the best Hebrew scholars tell us, is the cor

rect rendering), " thou shalt not excel." Reuben

was the slave of his lower nature, and there was no

hope for him. But God has not left us to the dom

ination of the blind forces that work within us.

They must be governed from the higher nature, and

they can be so governed governed so well that

they become the ministers of our better lives. In

tellect must see what passion cannot see; conscience

must feel what passion cannot feel; the sovereign

will must give the word of law and sway the scep

ter of dominion.

3. Self-restraint is necessary lest man's lower nat

ure get the mastery of his higher nature. The lower

nature with its appetites, passions, instincts, de

sires is in itself innocent. Sin comes in when the

?

servant becomes master. If the lower nature get

the mastery, then the whole man is pulled down.

If the higher, then the whole man is lifted up.

"When the lower nature governs, then the man grav

itates out of his true sphere into the sphere of

'

beasts and devils. I say beasts and devils, for there

i

are in man powers which, abused and perverted,

*

tend not only to the sphere of beasts, but to the

sphere of devils. It is not a rhetorical phrase and

parade of words I use; it is the bald statement of

i

an appalling truth and fact. The animal part of ns

if. :

tends to bestialism, and the lower intellect tends to

demonism when the higher man of reason and con

science and will is dethroned. Bulwer's Margrave

I!.?

was both a beast and a demon. It is significant and

;i}

marvelously instructive that the demons felt at home

'\\

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

247

in the swine when they had long reigned in the man of Gadara. Upon what intimate and easy terms do Satan and his familiars find themselves with one who gives rein to his lower natnre who does not control, who is controlled by it. Every gate is open to them; every sense becbmes an inlet to a broad avenue; they go and come at their own will, bearing master-keys that unlock all doors. Of such a man it may be truly said, He has sold his soul to the devil, and the proof of the purchase is that Satan rules the mind and the higher nature through the lower and all the instincts that bind soul and body together. This is the meaning of much of the tragedy that is in human life. It is the mean ing that is in the Faust and the legends of many na tions of infernal partnerships between Satan and men. Commenting on the words of the demoniac of Gadara, addressed to our Lord, Dean Trench has well expressed a fearful truth exemplified in the ex perience of thousands of our sin-cursed race: "In his reply, lMy name is Legion, for we are many, truth and error are fearfully blended. ISot on one side only, but on every side, the walls of his spirit have been broken, down, and he laid open to all the in cursions of evil, torn asunder in infinite ways, now under one hostile and hated power, now under an other. The destruction is complete; they who rule over him are Mords many.' Only by an image drawn from the reminiscences of his former life can he express his sense of his own condition. He had seen the serried ranks of a Roman legion, that fear ful instrument of conquest, that sign of terror and

248

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

fear to the conquered nations, and before which the

Jew more especially quailed. Even such, at once

one and many, cruel, and inexorable, and strong,

were the powers that were tyrannizing over him."

I am now to present to you some considerations

that should persuade you to accept St. Paul's advice,

and to make it a principle of your life.

1. It is advice. Advice is the only substitute for

the wisdom that comes through experience. Think

of it, young friends, you need the wisdom of expe

rience now more than you can ever need it again,

and you have less of it than you will ever have

iy

hereafter. For you are now at the beginning, and

the ending is, for the most part, infolded in the

beginning, just as the tree is infolded in the acorn.

What are you to do ? I will tell you what Satan

will tempt you to do. It is to be headstrong rather,

passion-strong and head-weak.

Take the risk? says one. What's the need? You

do not take such risks in less important matters.

Why do not electricians repeat Franklin's experi-

\

ment with the kite? It has been made and needs

}

not to be made again. You take up science where

*

your predecessors laid it down; you begin with

what they have proved and go on to prove more.

^

Apply the principle to the science of human life.

j

Take the advice of those who know. You would

*

not wish to make an ocean voyage with the captain

of a ship who scorned the knowledge of ar. expe-

rienced pilot, preferring to guess his way among

t;.J

shallows and rocks.

H

2. Our argument commends St. Paul's advice not

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG

249

merely as to the right subordination of our lower nature, but as to our whole course of life and prin ciples of conduct. Self-restraint, which is sobermindedness, is necessary lest we shape our plans, make our decisions, and determine our lines of ac tion on mere impulse, whim, caprice; by the clamors of some sin-governed appetite, some inordinate de sire. So decided Esau when he sold his birthright. He was hungry, and before him was the savory mess of pottage. Hunger seized the reins. Honor, grat itude, piety these were trampled under foot; the animal in him triumphed in a paroxysm of blind and mindless impulse. And then, through long and unhappy years, the higher man looked back with bitter remorse upon the folly and sin of one hour's indulgence, seeking, with scalding tears, a place for repentance and finding none.
Study Esau's case, young men; you are greatly prone to decide the gravest questions on the merest whims, to do things for which you can.give no good reason, and for which you never can give any rea son. A dozen times, during the years I have been in Emory College, have I had, as explanation, this answer from a wayward and foolish boy, throwing away his opportunity of education: "O I don't know; somehow I am dissatisfied." This would be answer enough from a mere animal moving, with out wisdom of choice, from one place to another, but it is not a fit word for a man to say.
"Young men, if you live to middle-life to say nothing of old age, or of eternity you will hold a "judgment-day" of your own, and upon yourselves.

250

ST. PAUL to YOUNG MEN.

You are now twenty, may be younger. You decide

under the dictation of a blind impulse some grave

matter; your decision will show its influence on

every day of your whole after-life. You take the

bit in your teeth; you will have no advice. Yery

well; you will have your way for a time, and then

your way will have you. When you are forty, it

may be, but some time, sure, you will review your

11!

case. Then you will summon passion and preju-

\ i|

dice and the whole troop of your whimsical follies

to the judgment-bar of conscience and reason. You

will convict the culprit; he will be punished. Alas,

he cannot then pay what he will owe!

To save ourselves from the fatal blunders and

misjudgrnents which issue from capricious and

whimsical decisions^ and from the multiform and

countless evils that follow them, we need not simply

t

thoughtful moments, but a fixed habit of thought-

ij

fulness, sober-mindedness^ self-restraint. Without

the habit, we are liable to break down at any

moment of pressure. It is the fixed habit of self-

r;

restraint that stores up in the character reserved

I

power against the day of trial, just as it is the train-

*

ing of years of service that gives the veteran sea-

captain nerve and skill to carry his ship safely

-

through the fury of tempests when they break upon

I>

him. We may be sure that the strength of char-

I

acter that meets and survives a supreme trial may

not, by any effort of will, be summoned when the

emergency is upon us.

!-. j;

I suggest, in conclusion, some helps in the forma

tion of a fixed habit of self-restraint.

i,

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MES.

251

You ask, How am I to secure the mastery of my lower self? to form this fixed habit of selfgovernment? I will try to help you to the right answer.
1. Make up the issue now. Find out which is the real master, the lower or the higher nature within you the animal or the spiritual man. Study your own case; then you will understand the method of treatment. To change the figure, con sider well which side of your fortress of "Mansoul" is weakest. Then you will know on which side to set your watch against the devil. For he will make his attack on that side. Remember the soldier's maxim, "The strength of a fortress is measured by its weakest side."
Let me show you what I mean by making.the issue. I suppose a case which I trust may not fit your experience. You are disposed to be a drunk ard. You are warned by some friend, both wise and loving. You answer, " I can't help it." Now, do you mean that? Then the animal part of you is master, and the higher man must rise up and do quick and fierce battle. He must conquer, or the whole man dies. That despotic beast of a body for when it gets control of a man it is a mere beast will, like the blind Samson, pull down ruin upon the whole man.
I will suppose another case, and I speak of it with shuddering horror. You are given to licen tiousness; the fearful habit is fixing itself upon you. Unchaste thoughts inflame your blood; unchaste deeds are fixing the perdition of a licentious char-

252

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

acter upon your whole manhood. The warning

voice cries to you," Stop right there! that path you

tread leads down to death; it takes hold on hell."

You answer, " I can't stop." Do you mean that in

sober earnest? Then the beast, the mere brute

beast in you, is master. The battle is on you. Now

gather up all your energies, brace yourself for a

mighty struggle; you are in the arena, the wild

beasts are upon you. Do or die*

2. Begin. No matter what the issue is about,

begin now self-restraint, self-government. You are

not to treat your instinctive appetites and desires

lj|[

as if they were demons to be driven out. You are

to use them as ministers to your higher life. To be

such they must be subordinate; they become demons

only when they become masters^

I say, Begin. It may be so simple a thing, so

|

commonplace a thing as overeating* What you

j-

want to do now is not to destroy the appetite for

food, but to regulate it. Whatever the case is,

begin.

3. As a very great aid in this effort to fix the

41 '

habit of self-restraint, make it the rule of all your

".

thinking to try to find out the very truth of things.

Else appearances will be always deceiving you.

:;

One instance, as illustration, I mention: Are you

>

about to become a slave to your ambition? A clear

jj

view of the realities of things of life and death,

of time and eternity will quickly abate the inten-

;,

sity of the fevered dream.

f-{

4. Learn to wait. If your life-plans leave out the

long-run, they are childish. If you live worthily,

1i1;

ST. PAUL TO YOTJXG MEN.

253

you can afford to wait, and waiting will mightily help you to learn your difficult lesson of self-re straint.
5. Dig down till you strike the granite. You will need the brace of one grand truth and law, too often overlooked, but without whose uplifting power no human life ever yet rose into lofty proportions. Learn then that he who loves and obeys God can suffer no fatal hurt from any fate in any world. This brings me to say that the self-restraint, the self-government, which I am trying to commend to you cannot exist if we leave out of view eternity and its high motives.
6. You expect me to speak to-day of the relations of experimental religion to self-restraint. Not to day. We tell you that every time we meet in this place. We do this every time we speak of religion; every time we preach repentance and obedience; every time we tell the story of "the Word made flesh." It is enough to say to-day: You cannot succeed without God's help. Without Christ work ing in you, the lower will be too strong for the high er nature. But where he comes in, the evil spirits go out.
You can get help if you want it. Sin abounds; grace much more. "They that be with you are more than they that are with them." It is by faith, by prayer, by obedience, by the work of the Holy Ghost, that you prevail. It is by religion penetrating e'very thought and plan of life, perme ating every fiber of your manhood. It is the " mind that was in Christ" dwelling in you.

254

ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN.

Just now I spoke of equilibrium of a balanced life and character. It is not a fancy. Where Christ's will becomes the governing principle in body, mind, and spirit, then we have such perfect adjustments of relations, and such blessed harmonies of life, as shame the fabled music of the spheres.

-'t .1
i
M-
ii!

QUIT YOU LIKE MEN.
[OXFORD, MABCH 26, 1882 DTTBETQ THE GBEAT REVIVAL,]
"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity." 1 COT. xvi. 13,14.
r I iHERE are few things in this world more inter_J_ esting than a genuine revival of religion. A religious awakening attracts the people as nothing else does. ]^o matter who gives direction to such a meeting, no matter who it is that asks the atten tion of the people, no matter where its wonders are wrought whether in the city or in the woods, no matter what class of people are drawn into it whether the cultured or the unlettered there is one uniform result, a genuine revival attracts the people like a great magnet. There may be the eloquence of Maffitt, the illiterate zeal of Harrison, the ear nest persistence and hard sense of Moody, the bizarre extravagances of the captains of the "Salvation Army," but after all it is the revival itself that at tracts. If there be a profound religious awakening in any community, there will be crowded houses, no matter who preaches, or whether anybody preaches.
It is not mere curiosity that attracts the crowd; it is something deeper and stronger. It is first of all an interest in men.* Whatever stirs a man's heart profoundly interests his brother-man, whether
(255)

256

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

it be joy or grief, a deep conviction of sin, or a rapt urous joy in deliverance from it, or even the gain or loss of earthly fortunes.
But this is not all; except on the one subject of religion, men presently tire of any subject. There is no political, or social, or commercial question that can draw the people, night after night, as a revival draws and holds them. Let the most wise and elo quent man in the United States attempt to hold the same audience for thirty consecutive nights in the discussion of the same subject. He would lose his audience. Let thirty of the ablest try the experi ment, a new man coming forward each night. How long would they hold the attention of the multi tude? But we have seen churches crowded night after night for many weeks, when there was neither learning to instruct nor eloquence to move the peo ple; when there was only exhortation, with endless iteration of appeals, with singing of a kind to throw musicians and singers into despair.
The truth is this: There is no subject, there never was in any age or nation any subject, about which men can think, that has such a hold upon human nature as religion as man's relation to the invisible and eternal powers. It is, in its last analysis, the thought of God in the human consciousness a thought the most deeply fixed, and the hardest to shake off that explains the marvelous attracting power of a general and deep religious awakening.
We have seen many revivals in Oxford. God's seal of approval has rested on this Christian Col lege, from the beginning to this good time. Since

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

257

1856 I have shared in the labors and rewards of most of these meetings. In essence they have heen alike, but different in their characteristic manifesta tions. It is so always in all Chnrches. In some revivals we have a great deal of noise and witness many expressions of emotional excitement. Others, in all respects as genuine, and in many respects more satisfactory, are noiseless and calm. People will differ in opinion as to the value of this or that phase of religious experience and expression. They differ about these things as they differ about all
other things it is largely a matter of nerves and temperament.
It is a matter of small moment whether our per sonal tastes are satisfied as to these things; it is a matter of great moment that we do not confound the manifestations of religious excitement with re ligion itself. If we begin to dogmatize about such things we talk foolishly; if we are so blind and narrow as to demand conformity to our peculiar notions, we become irrational and do hurt to God's cause, and hinder and mar his gracious work in the souls of men. Immeasurable evil has been done by zealots in their demand that all others should feel just as they do, and manifest feeling just as they do.
This common sense should teach us: There is no more reason for demanding that every revival of religion or that every religious experience should have the same manifestations than there is in de manding sameness in other things. But, strictly speaking, we do not find sameness anywhere in nat ure or mind.
17

258

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

Did God ever make two things alike, so that no difference caja be detected? There are not two hu man eyes so alike that two other eyes cannot see their differences, nor two human faces. Each voice has something its own. There are not two blades of grass exactly alike, nor two leaves. "As much alike as two black-eyed peas," we spmetimes say. But they are not alike; the eye shows some differ* ences; a microscope shows many. Take two very small grains of sand and try them with a micro scope; they are as different as two hills or mount ains. And it is so throughout the works of God in the world around us. There were never two human minds exactly alike, I do not think that there are or ever were in the entire universe two things just alike.
Let us take one other illustration the diversity in manifestation of emotions excited by other sub jects that interest and move men. A few years ago there was a long contest before the General Assem bly of Georgia for the office of United States Sena tor. The contest lasted through many days of in creasing excitement. Men worked for their favorites as if their lives depended on success. When the last ballot showed that Mr. Hill was elected, there was a scene that rivaled the wildest camp-meeting outbreaks that ever excited the jeers of unbelievers. Some clapped their hands, some stamped the floor, some laughed, some cried, some yelled; one man, it is said, threw his hat into the air; two embraced; and one,it is affirmed, shouted "Glory!" at the top of his voice. But many sat perfectly still, and very

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

259

likely they had been the most efficient workers in bringing about the result that gave them as much pleasure as the noisy men felt. This sort of thing depends on the nerves and other such things.
One of my old friends here is troubled about me; indeed, he has kindly taken me in hand. He thinks that I am "opposed to shouting." He mistakes me. I neither favor nor oppose it. This I mean: it is nothing in itself. It becomes important if peo ple make its presence or absence a test or measure of a meeting, or of an experience. This also may be added: sometimes very good people shout so much that they have little strength left to help those who are still in bondage; indeed, in the nerv ous collapse that frequently follows a vigorous shout ing experience there is not enough spiritual or other force left to help anybody. On this point allow some caution to these young disciples: Do not com mit the blunder of trying to realize in your own consciousness what you imagine to be the peculiari ties of other people's experience. Do not make yourselves so absurd as to ridicule people who ex press their religious emotions by shouting; do not commit the intolerant absurdity of doubting the religion of persons who make no demonstrations to your eyes or ears whatsoever.
The very notable and wide-spread revival-meet ing, in which we have rejoiced, and in which we have been blessed, has its own characteristics. I mention some that are obvious to us all. We have heard little noise, we have seen many tears. There has been little that is called preaching; there has

260

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

been a great deal of " giving testimony." The meet ing has had next to nothing of "management;" its methods have been simple and unstudied to the last degree. There has been absolutely no clap trap, no sensationalism; there has been earnestness, devoutness, thoroughness. The preachers have borne only their part in the services; the meeting has been open to all, and the praying people have seemed to feel heavily " the burden of souls."
How glad and grateful we are to-day! To many of us there was never such a Sunday as this before. With many of you this is the first Sunday that ever awakened in your hearts the sentiment of sacredness. Many of you can say to-day, as never before, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."
I cannot be silent this morning as I think of the great blessing that has so lately come upon some of you dear to us as life itself. There are two events that make fathers and mothers know how much they love their children. I have experienced both. One is death; the other is conversion. Which event wakes the deepest fountain of parental love I do not know. In neither case can mere words tell what the heart feels. But I know that some of you here, and that many in.their distant homes who have had glad news from their boys at Emory, join me this morning, with joy unutterable, in saying with the psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!"
The conversion of our children, or of a friend's children, is an occasion of great joy, but it does not

QUTE You LIKE MEN.

261

terminate our solicitude for them. Some knowl edge of their dangers makes us anxious. We re joice that the ship is well launched, but we know also that the sea is wide, and deep, and stormy.
Young people are objects of affectionate interest

because they are young. But religious young peo ple make a double demand upon our sympathy and

interest. There is so much to hope for in them,

and the world needs them so much. Upon wed

ding-days, and upon other occasions of happy worldly fortunes, we are accustomed to offer our congratulations to the fortunate ones. This morn

ing let me offer congratulations to those of you who

have begun the new life.





Just before Paul wrote the Epistle that contains our text, there had been a great religious awaken ing in Corinth one of the proudest, richest, and most sinful cities of ancient Greece. The apostle is deeply concerned for the stability of the young con verts. He writes them from Philippi the exhorta tion of the text: " Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,

quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things

be done with charity." In the same spirit he wrote to the young believers among the Galatians: " Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." And to the Philippians

also: "Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved."
Let us consider briefly St. Paul's exhortation.

262

QUIT You LIKE MEN.

Watch ye. There 'is constant need, and always will be, for temptations will come to you they will come to you as long as you are in this world. But there is the greater need for you to watch, seeing that the young Christian is not fortified against them by habits of faith, of virtue, and obedience.
Stand fast in the faith. This is the image of a soldier enduring a fierce assault and holding his ground. What is it they are to stand fast in? The faith. This does not mean standing by a form of words merely defending a creed, merely maintain ing orthodoxy. Some men fight very fiercely for their orthodoxy when they have lost their religion. !N"or does the apostle mean to say to these young Christians, Maintain a certain mood of feeling. This cannot be done; if it were practicable, it is wholly undesirable. Constant ecstasy would unfit us for the service both of God and man. I said a mood of religious feeling cannot be maintained; the rea son is that no mood of feeling can be maintained. The constitution of our nervous systems makes this impossible. Last week, last night, may be this morning, you were, or are, what you call " happy." You received what was called a "great blessing." You rejoiced in it; very well, but do not try to re call just that feeling for its own sake. Right there, on one of those front benches, some years ago I heard a young man, who had been a happy Chris tian and had then fallen into bad ways, make this prayer, "O Lord, make me just as happy as I was this time twelve months ago." I whispered to him, "You have no business to pray to be made happy;

QUIT ifou LIKE

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pray God to forgive* your backsliding and to make you strong."
I solemnly believe that mdre backsliding begins in the effort to stand fast in a certain mood of feel ing than in any thing else. In the nature of things feelings are inconstant; they have their rising and their falling tides. As well forbid the ebb-tide its movement seaward as to try to maintain a fixed emotion. Feeling cannot abide1 ; conviction and purpose and practice may. Feeling is only indi rectly within the sphere of our volitidns* our pur poses, resolutions, efforts, dre cdnipletely in that sphere. Wherefore we are responsible for our con victions, resolutions, and efforts, and are not called to account for our emotions, whether they be de pressed or exultant. Moreover, the state of the feelings depends largely on the state of one's health. I remember at a class-meeting in my early ministry the saintliest woman in a certain Church, who gave a lamentable account of her spiritual state. She felt badly, and was trying to maintain good feelings in her religion; because she could not, she feared that she had grieved the Spirit. Every token in her case revealed a badly disordered liver; I recom mended a medicine good for such a case, and it helped her much.
Last night some of you were up to a late hour; you were singing and rejoicing together. This morning you feel dull and sleepy; your emotions are sluggish. What does this signify? That you were deceived last night? that you have lost the blessing of pardon and the new life God gave you?

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No; it means only collapse in your nervous system. I warn you against the fatal error of testing your real religious condition by your feelings. Stand fast in the faith, in the truth of the gospel, and in a worthy rule and principle of living.
Play the man. Religion has its gentle virtues, as patience, meekness, kindliness, and such like. And they are essential. You cannot cultivate them too carefully. These gentle virtues are not inconsistent with manliness; far otherwise, they support and nourish manliness. There are many false and wide spread delusions on this subject. Many young men have strangely come to think that a religious man is somehow or other not quite manly. Many shrink from religion from a half-conscious feeling that in becoming religious they surrender part of their manliness. There never was a greater delusion and misconception. There is nothing worthy of a real man, nothing that such a man ought to be or to do, that religion does not approve and sustain. You may make your analysis as exhaustive as you please. There is no true manliness, no quality of character or habit of life that will stand all tests, that is not in sympathy with religion.

















-

Please to remember that the phrase, ?* quit you like men" play the man has a generic sense. It appeals to women as well as to men. True woman liness and true manliness rest on the same founda tions. .... The exhortation means, when you get to the bottom of it, Be true to your nature. "What nature? Your Christian nature. See that your

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whole life grows in harmony with this higher law of life that you have received. " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made you free from the law of sin and death." Be true to this "law of the Spirit of life" within you, and you will
" quit you like men" A goodly numher of you expect to preach the
gospel. Let me turn aside and say a special word to you. There are some unmanly things in some preachers that I would affectionately warn you
against. 1. An overconsciousness of the sacrifices you
make in heing preachers. I rememher to have heard a man talk much on one occasion of the sac rifices he had made in becoming an itinerant preach er. It was cant; the itinerant ministry had taken him from the corn-field, and had made what men called a gentleman of him. Suppose this ministry does involve hardships; so does commerce, so does every pursuit in this world that has enough in it to employ the hest powers of a man. Drummers outtravel us, and they do this only for money. Do not fear that the world will respect you less if you drop all sanctimonious whining about your sacrifices; the world is eagle-eyed to see through a sham; it does respect a genuine man, whether in the pulpit or at the plow-handles.
2. I warn you, young brethren, against a frequent fault of preachers, oversensitiveness. I have heard it said that doctors, teachers, and preachers are the most sensitive of men; that their feelings are most easily hurt. I fear that preachers are not the least

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given to this weakness of the three classes named. The explanation is not far to seek. Our vocation far too much isolates us from the busy world. Christ did not, I think, set us this example. We get it from the middle ages and from the cloisters. We are not used to contradiction; the sermon goes on to its end without uttered criticism. When differ ing opinions do strike us they are apt to hurt. This sort of sensitiveness may reach such a degree of intensity as to arrest all healthful mental develop ment.
3. Another weakness, perhaps not so common, but too common when it exists at all, is a too fixed feeling and sentiment of dependence, as if you were to be considered as the special object of the world's charity. Avoid as you would pestilence the feeling of a beggar the mental habits (to borrow a word from the street that fits the case) of a mere " deadbeat." Be on your watch against longings for free or half-fare tickets on railroads, free meals at hotels, "goods under cost," and such like temptations, de lusions, and snares.
The worst thing about such feelings and the hab its that grow out of them is that it makes you moral cowards--the very last thing a preacher ought to be. No preacher ever learned such ways from St. Paul; we had all of us better go to "tent-making" than to be unmanly. (It is not unmanly to receive a support from the Church for service rendered; the "laborer is worthy of his hire," but the right to the "hire" depends on the labor. And it ought to be so.)

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As to all these matters it is, for a young preacher,

first of all, to he a man. Clear a little space about

you that you may put your feet firmly down and

stand upon them. It will not only help you, it will

help all to whom you preach. Do not allow the

world to treat you as a sort of intellectual invalid,

as a sort of compromise between a man and a wom

an. A celebrated wit said there were " three sexes

men, women, and clergymen." The satire was jus

tified by the lives of many of his own rank the

wit was a clergyman. If the world treats you with

a sort of contemptuous deference, it will be because

you deserve such treatment. " Quit yourselves like

men," and the world will treat you like men.

Be strong. Religion does not stop with what we

call the gentler virtues; its spirit is heroic. Many

of St. Paul's figures are military, and some of them

are agonistic. Some of our Lord's words ring in

our hearts like trumpets in the day of battle. Chris

tians need courage as well as meekness, fortitude as

well as patience, energy as well as submission. In

its root-idea the exhortation "be strong" means

action, doing, energy. There is no Christian life,

however humble and obscure, that does not allow

all the work and work too of heroic sort of which

that life is capable.







Let all your things be done in love. A condition of

Christian living is love. It is a comprehensive

word. It is love to God and love to man. You

cannot love aright either God or man unless you

love both God and man.

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Head the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and then live it.



4*

Summing it all up, we have a few inferences and

general conclusions.

1. Religion is a life rooted in principle, inspired

of the Holy Ghost, guided in its methods hy

common sense. It is not a series of ecstasies,

it is a life of service. The value of a locomotive

is in its power to draw, and not in the circum

stance that it can also make a great noise with its

whistle.

2. I said it is a life; therefore it belongs to the

whole of life. Your religion claims all absolutely

all of your life. Often I hear you sing, "Every

hour I need Thee." That is true, hut not merely

that you may feel as you wish, but that you be what

you should be, and do what you should do. Your

religion must go into life real, every-day life. It

belongs to the field, the workshop, the store, the

business office, the parlor, politics to every thing

in which a man has a right to concern himself. So

also it belongs to the kitchen, the laundry, the nurs

ery to the most fretting and wearing drudgery of

the poorest as well as of the richest woman's life.

It concerns us as husbands, as wives, as parents, as

children, as masters, as servants, as teachers, as pu

pils. "When I was a boy I heard that apostolic man

of blessed memory, the late Rev. Dr. Loviek Pierce,

say in a sermon, " He who is not religious all the

time and everywhere is not truly religious any time

or anywhere." And he was right, St. Paul being

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judge. St. Paul says, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
Religion is the most intensely practical spirit that ever appeared in the world.
3. On the basis of St. Paul's doctrine in our text, I am authorized to say, You must make by your religious life some contribution to the emoluments of human life. If the world is not better for your having lived in it, your life is a failure. It is igno ble to seek only to save yourselves.
4. You hear much about consecration, and much that is confusing and misleading. !N"ow remember, consecration implies not a state of feeling, but a way of living. It means service. St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, sums up the biography of Jesus in a single statement "who went about doing good."
5. Finally, for this time: There is no conceivable and sensible reason for discouragement or despond ency. You can stand fast, you can quit yourselves like men, you can be strong, and you will if you really try in any rational and earnest way. This good Book makes the way plain enough to all who wish to know it. You will need help, and help you will have help of God and help of man if you really desire it. The relation of trustful prayer and of the use of all the "means of grace" to this sort of liv ing cannot be pointed out this morning. Some other time we can discuss all these matters.
....
Back of the exhortation in our text is the doc trine of the resurrection and of the immortality of the soul. I conclude with the words with which

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St. Paul concludes his great argument in the pre ceding chapter: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

THE PEACE JESUS GIVES.
[OXFORD, APEIL 9, 1832.]
f* Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John xiv. 27.
O F these words Luther says, " These are the last words, as of one who is going away and gives his good-night, or blessing." " Peace be unto thee" was the friendly farewell and greeting in Israel in the ordinary partings and meetings of common life. Very often it was conventional and formal only, as our "good-by" God be with you not seldom means only a conventional courtesy. But these words of Jesus seem to breathe on weary and troub led spirits a divine rest. There had been, we think, a tender pause in these last loving words of our Lord. When he speaks again he says: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
There are three things in what He says concern ing peace that lift his words into a higher sphere than the ordinary salutations and partings of mere friends belong to. First, it is "my peace;" second ly, "I give you peace;" thirdly, "not as the world giveth."
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It is not the world's peace, it is Christ's; and Christ's hecause he gives it.
1. It was to give peace to a warring and troubled world that Jesus came among men. So had all the prophets foretold, and the psalmists and holy sing ers. Even heathen sages and poets had dreamed and sung of a peace to men that the gods would some day send them. The song of the angels over star-lit Bethlehem set to heavenly music the hope and longing of the world: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the high est, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." Among the beatitudes we find these words: " Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." He himself said, " The Son of man is come to send peace on the earth." Nor is all this contradicted by his sterner speech, "I am come not to bring peace, but a sword."
One little learned in the Scriptures must see the harmony of these words. It means only that his coming would become, by the wrong use or abuse or rejection of his gospel, the occasion of divisions. And that the great disturber of the world's peace, which is sin, must first be driven out before real peace could find a resting-place in the human heart. Just as painful and disagreeable remedies are need ful to restore the sick to health. This necessitv of
V
'driving out sin first of all sometimes brings a sharp and agonizing conflict. Satan goes not out willing ly, but must ever be driven out. You remember that demoniac boy brought to Jesus. Before leav-

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ing him the devil threw him down and tore him dreadfully. It is so now the demon-spirits of pride and envy and jealousy and hatred tear the soul from which the word of Jesus drives them out. But go they must, or there can he no peace.
Wherefore I say, there is no contradiction when He speaks of bringing a sword, and of kindling a fire. The sword cuts down and slays the monsters that keep the heart in a state of war, and the fire, as it burns up the dross, leaves the pure gold reflect ing the beauty of the King's face.
Wherefore I say again, Jesus came into the world to give it peace. You cannot take the words too broadly. He came to give peace to the world.
(1) He came in a special sense to give peace to human hearts, which have been the most disturbed things in the universe. All lives have in them the elements of tragedies, and many lives are tragedies. Human hearts, using this word in its wide Bible meaning, are dearer to God than all else that he has made. In them we find more of his image. Giving peace to them is Christ's delight.
(2) The peace he gives to men's hearts is a peace that goes with righteousness and right-living. And this means peace to families, that can no more be at true peace without Christ than can individual hearts. He came also to give peace to communities, and to nations, and to the race. And the song of the an gels shall some day become a fulfilled prophecy and a realized promise all round the world. Where Christ is King there must be peace.
We do not discuss the blessed doctrine to-day, but
18

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nothing can induce me to give up the inspiring hope that cheers the heart of humanity that in some golden day to come the " nations shall learn war no more."
I quote another wise word from Luther: "!N"o man has peace unless things are with him as they should be. Therefore in the Hebrew tongue this little word peace means nothing else but thriving and prospering." This brings me to speak a mo ment of our* need of peace. Till Christ comes and reigns, it cannot be said of any man, or house, or community, or nation, " Things are as they should be."
We will never settle the conundrums about the origin of evil the genesis of sin.
There is a Babel of tongues that wag out their answers, such as they are, but for the most part we had as well ask the cold and silent Sphinx gazing with stony eyes on the barren and dead sands. But nothing in the world is plainer, nothing is more absolutely certain, than that in this world, and in most men, "things are not as they should be." Call it by what name you will, refuse to use the old Bible name " Sin" if it please your philosophy, but the fact remains whether you give it any name that there actually is a vast deal of wrongness in the world, and in us every one. Infinitely more impor tant to us than the question of its origin is the question of its end. How it came into the world is a very small question compared to this: How can it be gotten out of the world? In what way would it help us in our conflict to know how sin came into

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the world at all ? We know God did not bring it. This is one case in which we can prove a negative.
When our Lord speaks of giving ns his peace, he means nothing less than a heart, and a house, and a community, and a world, from which sin has heen driven out. It must be so, for sin and peace cannot live together, and Jesus knew no sin. If we have his peace, we have deliverance from sin. The con verse is true; as sure as there is such a thing as sin so sure is it that where there is no peace there is, insome form, sin. The Old Testament words are aptly chosen: Where "peace flows like a river, righteous ness flows like the waves of the sea."
My peace! The words are as simple as words can be. But how deep and broad is their meaning! As once before I told you, in reading the life of Jesus the one thing that impresses us most is not his matchless wisdom, not his divine power, but his purity, !N"ext to this, perhaps, is the impression that this Man is at rest in mind, his heart is full of peace. And we always connect, in our thoughts, his peace with his purity.
Let us understand then that when Jesus speaks to us of peace he is speaking also of purity.
2. Jesus gives peace. He does not say simply, I leave you peace, but I give you peace.
There never was in this world any other who has appeared in human form who could give peace to men. For no man can give what he does not have as his own. l$o man has peace whose fount ain is within himself. We must all say, with the psalmist, "All my springs are in Thee."

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There is no story so old, so often told, so often illustrated, so perfectly understood, as the deep un rest of the human heart when left to its natural powers and dispositions. The human heart can no more he at peace in itself than the sea can be still.
But Jesus Christ had perfect peace, and he can give it to us all.
I cannot, this morning, speak of all the divine processes with us and the blessed experience within us that bring us peace. It is enough now and here to say that Jesus gives peace, first of all, by giving us the pardon of our sins peace of conscience. Also such a change of heart as means a new nature. We need not tangle ourselves with metaphysical speculations this morning. It is enough to say, all honest-minded people know that men need that which alone can come through a sense of pardoned sin and the consciousness of the new life begun in them.
Sum it up in a word, it is the office of religion to bring the peace that Jesus gives. How well its derivation helps us to understand the thing itself! It means to rebind. Sin has been a fearful wrench
ing and dislocation of our souls from God. It has "broken all our bones." Religion rebinds us to
God. Or, to change the illustration: If a star could fly
its orbit and could be brought back, it would illus trate what sin has done for its victims, and what Jesus will do for us.
Being Christ's peace, it cannot be the world's peace
that he gives.

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What is the world's peace? It is such satisfaction as its hestowments can bring. It would not be edi fying, perhaps, to go into a full discussion of its sad deficiencies. Where God is left out and his bless ing is lacking, it all comes to grief. Solomon, as I showed you in a sermon once, furnishes us illustra tion at this point. His experiment issued in wretch edness: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith the preacher."
I will point out some of the notable lacks of the sort of peace the world gives.
1. It is incomplete, and of necessity. It over looks the spiritual side of man. Its very noblest forms do this; the highest philosophy and the most exquisite culture. I will deal fairly. It is in the power of the human will and in the gift of human philosophy to attain a sort of calmness in trouble that has much the appearance of peace. And it is infinitely better than unrestrained feeling, of what ever character it may be. It is wonderful how the countenance may be schooled, and how the voice may be ruled, so as not to betray distress. This is like to real peace as shadow is like to substance. It succeeds in calming the surface while the deep of the soul is in tumult. Whereas Christ's peace will keep the great depths at rest even where the infirm ities, or peculiarities of temperament and of the nervous system, under trial, whip the surface into agitation. Lieutenant Maury says of the sea in its depths that the fiercest storms do not disturb it.
Whatever overlooks or fails to provide for man's spiritual side cannot give him true peace. This is

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much the same as saying his religious side. Such a side he has, as sure as he has any side. The ag nostics know-nothings are well named; they do not know any thing of God, they do not truly know themselves.
2. This peace of the world is not only incomplete, it is utterly uncertain. This goes without saying. It can need no proof. It is contingent on many props. If only one fails, it is hroken. And they will ail fail some time, and may fail any time.
But, for the sake of all these young people, who will hardly understand all this till they have learned by failure, let us consider this matter with some care, though briefly. What are some of the ele ments, out of which, compounded in various pro portions, the world makes and gives peace. I mention some of them: Health, youth, agreeable occupation, bodily comforts, friends. To these are added the rewards of energy and capacity wealth, luxury, splendor, favor, fame, power. I have not mentioned the mere animal forms in which the world offers its satisfaction. I will not go so low down in my argument this morning. As soon seek pure air and balmy breezes in the valley of Jehoshaphat, or any charnel-house, as to seek it here. And you know this, although in the delirium of passion men forget it. Which can you afford to lose, if you seek peace on the world's plan? Is it youth, health, occupation, comforts, friends? This last least of all, but most probably. If you are aspiring to be all that you can be, and to do all that you can do, which will you give up fame, reputation, power,

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wealth? A very few favored ones seem to have all, as young Solomon had. But they failed hefore he lost any of them, and there is not one that we may not lose.
This brings me to say that the one supreme need of every human soul is that his peace of mind the peace that is his own should he independent, not simply of one but of any mere external conditions, of any mere circumstances. If not, the man's fate turns on that circumstance. Is it health, or youth, or friends ? Whatever it is, when that fails all fails.
]S"ow, the peace that Jesus gives does supply this want supplies it fully; and it is the only system or plan of life that ever did so supply it, or even talked of so supplying it.
For it leaves out nothing in its reckoning, no de crepitude of age, no failure of health, or wealth, or favor, or friends, or any thing else. It reckons these good things at their true value, and enables a man to do without any of them. It brings such an afflu ence of divine resources into the soul as not only supplies every lack, but fills every place. More: the peace of Christ actually feeds and strengthens on the lack of these earthly goods; has done it mill ions of times, and does it to-day in millions of hearts. The gospel is the only system that is not scandal ized by suffering. The world has three answers for the agonized heart of man: (1) Drown your paiu in indulgence. (2) Endure it with grim fortitude. This is something; I respect the genuine stoic. He is, at all events, not a beast. (3) Despair. They are now trying-this, and for dignity's sake call it

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" pessimism." But the gospel puts a consistent and perfect sense into such a phrase as this: "Sanctified through affliction," or, "made perfect through suf fering." It wrings pleasure from pain, joy from grief, triumph from defeat. When other lights go out, it kindles a brighter and diviner light. Nature in the saintliest and strongest man that ever lived may command her tribute of tears when the heart is sick, but the tears become new lenses that give fairer visions of God's beauty. Once when preach ing in this house years ago before I wore glasses and I could not distinguish your faces, a gush of tears filled my eyes, and for one instant it transfig ured you all; I saw faces shining and eyes glisten ing in a gentle baptism of holy emotion, and it lifted me up. So, if Christ's peace be ours, our very sorrows bring us visions of beauty that make us glad and victorious.
With Christ's peace, the soul can do any thing that the occasion requires. It can endure, it can wait, it can triumph.
I could give you illustrations almost without number. I will mention a few.
1. A poor girl I saw in Lawrenceville, Georgia, one day. There were three sisters, very poor. One was the victim of a rheumatism that had anchylosed every joint in her body but those that belonged to her jaws. She had been there on the bed utterly helpless for many years. She suffered always. The two sisters cared for her tenderly. During a Dis trict Conference Bishop Pierce and I called to see her. The good Bishop read a precious chapter, and

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we kneeled down to pray. How I loved him when his full heart choked his voice till he could not fin ish the prayer! Christ was with that girl all the time. As we were going, one of the sisters in health said, with faltering voice," She is the bright est of us all."
*
2. One night in Virginia, after one of the terrible battles, I heard in the darkness a low murmuring voice. I was with a hospital-camp. Hundreds of wounded men were all about us in the woods. Many dear friends had been shot dead in battle that day; others were dying. It was very dark, the wind having blown out our candles. I crept along till I found the place where the soldier lay whose voice I heard. He was dying. I stooped over him and asked him, "How are you getting on?" "Dying," he answered. "Where from?" "Alabama. Wife and three children there." " How is it with you?" "All right." And he died there in the dark, rejoic ing in Christ the Lord.
3. There are historic cases that you recall, as the Hebrew children in the furnace of fire. The beautiful legend is that they sung the forty-sixth Psalm as they went into the fire. You recall the midnight songs and prayers of Paul and Silas in the dungeon at Philippi. You have read how Bunyan saw the beauty and heard the songs of the Beulahlands while he lingered in Bedford jail. The lives of all God's heroes and heroines furnish illustrations.
All these help us to understand the closing words of our text: "Let not your heart be troubled" lit erally, let it not be tossed about " neither let it be

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afraid." Occasions enough will come for both trouble and fear. Christianity does not propose ex emption to its followers from the ordinary expe riences of humanity. It could not without destroy ing itself. To have offered health, wealth; power, long life absolutely, would have marred, all religion with a selfishness that would have made true relig ion impossible.
Dear young people, I look at your bright eyes and hope-illumined faces sometimes and my heart bleeds for you; for I know that clouds will come, and rain, and cold. You cannot live in this world and escape trouble, peril, heart-sickness.
It is spring-time now. flowers are all about us, and the songs of birds till the air. But winter will ^come again. And your time of trial will come.
But when I think of the peace that Jesus offers to every one of you, I am glad for you, and feel that it is unspeakably better that you have come into the world, rough as it is, since his remedy for all ills is so complete. Let not your heart be troubled.
These last words, "Neither let it be afraid," lift us higher than the words of safety and peace. Re ligion is not a mere softness that yields to blows; a reed that bends before the blast; a patient, suffering spirit that can be resigned. It is not sent to soften sick-beds only. It is not sent only to wounded and bleeding hearts to pour in oil and wine. It is a heroic spirit. It teaches courage and exacts it upon fit occasion. It can dare as well as endure; it can give battle as well as suffer. It can die in its place when the hour comes to die.

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This high courage and this perfect peace sustain and supplement each other. If you want illustra tion, call the roll of the martyrs and confessors of all ages. Modern Madagascar, within the last twenty years, has furnished illustrations of the divine cour age of martyrdom as radiant as ever shone forth in moral splendor in the Roman arena when, for sport,
they pitted lions against Christian women. There is much talk in the world ahout consecra
tion. There is no consecration that does not put duty above interest, principle ahove self, righteous
ness and loyalty to Christ ahove life. I affirm here that the Christ-spirit in men has
given to the world the finest, fullest illustrations of peace and perfect courage. And there will always he need of this spirit. There are arenas where in visible lions tear and devour. The courage of the
truth is needful every day and every hour. Finally, take it all together, we see that a good
man's life is a sort of double life, and to the eye of sense full of contradictions. We see sickness and health, poverty and riches, weakness and strength, defeat and triumph, death and life. It is what Paul
meant by his paradoxes. We may be perplexed, but we are not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed. To use an illustration I have employed heretofore
in a different connection: Every man who has the peace of Christ abiding in his soul is in the sea of human life like the Gulf-stream of the Ocean in it, but distinct from it; higher than the surrounding

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waves; moving straight on through them, against all winds; and warmer, carrying life to frozen lands.
I can give you no better advice than this: Seek till you find it the peace of Christ. I can wish you no fortune so good for either world, as this.
Christ's peace keep you now and always. Amen.

PROVE ALL THINGS.
[COMMENCEMENT SEEMON, OXFORD, JUNE 25, 1882.]
"Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; liold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. v. 20, 21.
fTlHE meekness that makes true learning possible _L_ in the school of truth is very far from blind credulity on the one hand, and from the conceit of over self-confidence on the other. The really teach able student is one who is willing to be taught by the wise; but he is also one who is not afraid to think for himself. The monk who has so deeply sunk his individuality that he simply receives what his supe rior delivers to him as the final statement of truth, and who accepts it without inquiry or hesitation because it is the word of his superior, cannot be a true learner in any of God's schools. On this point so conservative a writer as good Matthew Henry has well said: " The doctrines of human infallibility, implicit faith, and blind obedience, are not the doc trines of the Bible." These are the doctrines of Rome, and in this eflbrt to secure faith and obedi ence by suppressing the human mind, we find the origin of the long conflict which free thought and inquiring science has waged with what is improper ly called " the Church."
You will hear and read much of this conflict. If we rightly understand the matter, we may safely
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settle it in our minds that a holier war was never waged. But nothing can he more harmful to us than to confound Rome with the "true Church of Christ," in speaking of this conflict. " The Church" and "Rome" are not synonymous. For the true Church is not a sect; the true Church of Christ is an invisible, unnamed thing; it is the "kingdom of
God" among men a kingdom "that cometh not with observation," but a kingdom most real and actual, that embraces every human being that ever lived, that lives to-day, that shall live to-morrow, who accepts Christ Jesus, or, not having known Christ, yet " walks in the truth," according to the best light that God has given him. With this king dom true philosophy, true science, has no conflict; it can have no conflict. In other words, true phi losophy and true science have no conflict with Christianity. " Science falsely so called" may have a conflict with Christianity, just as Christianity "falsely so called" may have a conflict with science. True science has a conflict and a most righteous conflict it is with Rome, and with whatever there may be in any other form of religion that preserves the spirit or imitates the methods of Rome.
It was Rome, and not Christianity, that sought to crush Galileo; that denied facts if they unsettled theories; that refused to look through a telescope lest something in the creed might be put in jeop ardy ; that shut its eyes to a mathematical demon stration in maintaining the decrees of popes and councils concerning matters they did not understand and that were not subjects of revelation. It is the

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spirit of Rome, and not the spirit of Christianity, that has kindled all the fires of persecution that ever lighted the way along which martyrs and con fessors have ascended to God.
These statements should not occasion surprise. For as nothing is more obvious than that traces of paganism survive in the social and civil life of our Christian civilization, so it is equally plain that some errors and misconceptions of Rome survive in the opinions, and sentiments, and customs of the Protestant Churches.
The statement holds good without qualification: There is not, there never was, any conflict between true science and true Christianity. It is only cor rupted Christianity that has withstood science; true Christianity is in league with true science, and it is true Christianity that has made true science possi ble. For it is 'the truth" that "makes free" the human mind, and Christianity is the highest form of truth ever presented to human thought.
In illustration let me say, A false or imperfect astronomy may be in conflict with Christianity. So may a false or imperfect chemistry, or geology, or ontology. And the converse is true: A true astron omy, or chemistry, or geology, or ontology, may be in conflict with a false or imperfect form of Chris tianity, whether formulated by Romanism or any other development in the history of religion. But nothing in this world can be plainer, can less need argument to prove it to candid and enlightened minds, than that God's universe is in harmony with itself, and with him, its maker. l$o two truths can

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contradict or antagonize each other. The conceit of John Stuart Mill that there " may he a world in which twice two are five" is an unthinkable ab surdity. But it is not more absurd or unthinkable than that any truth should contradict any other truth; than that any truth, for example, in astron omy or other science should be in conflict with any truth in religion. It would be as reasonable to sup pose that a truth in geometry can be in conflict with a truth in chemistry. If in our statement of geo metrical or chemical truth contradictions appear, we know at once that we are at fault, either in our chemistry or in our geometry. In such a case, a wise man will return to his blackboard or his labo ratory; he knows there is an error, and he seeks it that he may correct it. The last thing he thinks of is to seek to overturn one truth by another. And so when any science seems to be in conflict with any truth in religion the wise man does not simply sus pect, he knows that there is a mistake somewhere, and he will devote his best efforts to the discovery and rectification of the error. Any other course is destructive, and it is madness; for if we once surren der the doctrine that all truth is in .harmony with itself, and that therefore no two truths can contra dict each other, we are at the end of intelligent thinking; we are at the end of progress; we are at the end of all law and order; we are in chaos and " thick darkness that may be felt."
In our text to-day St. Paul gives us, in simple but comprehensive terms, the temper and attitude of mind which is not only becoming, but that is vitally

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necessary to every true student in every field of in vestigation: " Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
I. First of all, we are taught hy the apostle to hear with respectful and candid consideration what "the prophets" say to us.
I understand very well the special sense of these words, that he is speaking to us not of prophesying in the sense of foretelling future events, hut of proph esying in the more general sense of proclaiming the divine will. I know that St. Paul is speaking par ticularly of religious truth, and of what the "proph ets," the accredited teachers of religion, say to us. But it is neither irrelevant nor irreverent to find in the apostle's words a just description of the right mental attitude toward all who hefore us have dis covered or proclaimed what they helieved to he th8 truth in any province of the kingdom of truth. statement of truth hy any teacher is to he " despised " treated with contempt, made light of, dismissed sneeringly as of little or no worth only because its teachers have lived before our time, or possibly did not know some things that we have learned, or were seeking truth in some field that we have not explored.
The ancient astrologers made many mistakes, they followed many wandering stars of the imagination. Moreover, they were what we call "superstitious." But you would think less of an astronomer of our time, turning his great telescope round the sky and discovering new worlds from time to time, who, because the worshipful star-gazers of the East were
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mistaken in most qf their speculations, should there

fore ridicule or denounce them. In every field of

research the truest learner and the wisest man will

consider with candor and respect even the miscon

ceptions of sincere seeders who have gone before

him. Brewster and Faraday may he found, iu

the light of the latest discoveries in chemistry,

to have been out in some of their statements,

but such a man as Tyndall will not, for this cause,

denounce or despise them. He owes them too

much.

These statements will illustrate for us the true

lesson in our text. Every student of religion should

hear what" the prophets " the teachers of religion,

whether they be among the living or the dead-

have to say to him, with at least as much respect

and candor as we find in sensible and sincere men

of science in the attitude they assume toward their

predecessors. While no authority of a venerated

name, or of all venerated names, can be received as

a substitute for evidence, much less as an answer to

evidence in any search after truth, yet no success in

discovering truth can justify any son of science in

"despising" the beliefs of those who have gone be

fore him.

At this place, to come nearer to the special truth

in the text, I raise this question: In what light are

we to view the creed-builders, the fathers, the coun-.,

;

cils, the conferences, the prophets, the teachers of the Church, who have gone before us? The answer

is plain and ready to hand: With candid respect and

perfect fairness we are to hear what they have to

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say to us. !NTo right-minded or pure-hearted man " despises prophesyings."
The current fashion with some of ridiculing "the creed," of sneering at what is called " dogma," is not an indication of either piety or sense. It is rather an expression of the prevailing tendency of our times to revolt against all authority. This tendency is, in part, rooted in a good instinct; it is the natural rebound of the human soul that finds itself now being delivered from the despotism of priestcraft, than which no tyranny more cruel ever ground its heel into the heart of prostrate human ity. But the tendency of which I speak has in it an element of evil. It is largely due to the spirit of license false and bastard liberty that is abroad in the earth; a spirit out of the pit that resents all rule, defies all authority, and would overthrow all law. It is socialism, communism, nihilism, atheism, according to the conditions of its existence and manifestations.
There are those in our time who are instinctively disposed to repudiate whatever "the fathers" have taught. They jeer at councils, despise " creeds," and contemn " orthodoxy." Orthodoxy is the redflag that starts them into frenzies of iconoclastic rage. They set themselves forward as reformers, and reject what the Church has accepted through out the ages, not because it is proved to be false, but because the Church accepts it as orthodox. This spirit is vain, conceited, rebellious, wicked, destructive.
For the most part its small claim to the respect

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and confidence of thoughtful and devout men is in dicated by the character of those who make it their business to assail whatever is venerable in the insti tutions of the Church; to reject with disdain what ever has received the concurrent approval of the best and wisest men. The men of whom I speak, and against whom I warn you to-day, are generally, when found in ecclesiastical circles, men who have failed to achieve their ambitions in the Church; when found in the other camp, men who, with few exceptions, are in their spirit and lives out of har mony with Christianity, and who, for this reason, find within themselves a motive for assailing all that is connected with it. Nothing is more evident than that many persons assail Christianity because they wish to find a lower standard of life and mor als. Among Church-people there are not wanting those who having failed to achieve fame in the ortho dox paths, seek notoriety, its cheap and seductive substitute, by attacking what their betters accept as the truth. Moreover, they are generally ill-bal anced men, uncertain and cranky in their intellect ual methods and impulses. And not infrequently they are men of uncertain personal character.
In this connection it is worthy of remark that these despisers of the prophets, these assailants of the fathers, these theological insurgents against or thodoxy, are intensified in all their weak and evil impulses by the applause of those who neither fear God nor regard the Church. In illustration of my meaning I need only remind you that when some pulpit star flies its orbit the Philistine press shouts

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{j.i

all along the line. When not long since a Chicago

|

preacher publicly announced that he no longer be-

\

lieved in a personal God^and began to pray to his

f

own ideal aspirations, and to harangue his bewil-

[

dered hearers upon the progress of the race and the

[

enthusiasm of humanity, the " reporters" from the

uncircumcised press flocked about him and gave,

with a mighty blare of trumpets, his heresies and

declamations to the world. Just as these papers

parade with endless iteration any new discovery or

supposed-to-be discovery in science or history, that

by any torture can be imagined to be contradictory

of the least important statement in the Bible; at

the same time suppressing with shameless persist

ence of unfairness a thousand confirmations of the

Christian religion.

Just here we find ample explanation of one of the

most common and harmful delusions in the public

mind: the notion that the pulpit is full of men who

either doubt what they teach for truth, or use their

opportunity to attack principles they are supported

to defend, and the equally absurd and mischievous

notion that nearly all the truths of science do, in

some way, antagonize the body of Christian doc

trine. The paper that spreads before the world the

atheistic confessions of a fallen pastor may say

nothing of the steadfast orthodoxy and constant

usefulness of hundreds of thousands of wiser and

better men. . Popular misconceptions are not to be

wondered at, when we consider the noise that is

made over the lapse from the faith of the Church

of one of her sons who announces that he has just

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discovered that there is no God after all. One unin formed might infer that a Chinese army is one mill ion strong, if he only reckons by the noise made by a thousand gongs.
There is much need of the exhortation, "Despise not prophesyings." It is especially needful in our times, and needful above all by young men who have educational advantages, whose knowledge has not yet ripened into wisdom, who are still in the green and sappy stage of life, who have not yet " come to themselves," who are too often disposed to mistake disrespect for authority for an expression of true independence. To young men to educated young men especially the exhortation is as timely as it is necessary. Young men, do not throw away your father's creed just because it was his; do not reject it because you may not understand it, and therefore infer that it must be false; because it lays an arrest upon your passions and ambitions, and you infer that it is intolerant.
The forms of truth that have come down to us from the days of old are worthy of your respect. They have been sneered at before your time, and have survived a logic as forceful and a satire as sharp as any that you are likely to bring against them. Young men, "Despise not prophesyings."
St. Paul does not speak half truths to us; more dangerous, as has been said to you before, than whole heresies. When he says, " Despise not proph esyings," he says also:
II. "Prove all things" The word rendered "prove" was often used to

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express the testing of metals. According to some of the best expositors, the metaphor suggested by the word is derived from the money-changers who try, hy whatever tests they trust as ringing, weigh ing, and such like all coins that are oftered to them, and then reject the had and keep the good.
In every age counterfeits have followed after gen uine coins. There must be tests for distinoguishincg them, whether in matters of business or of faith.
St. John enjoins upon us the duty of testing " prophesyings." He says, " Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits Whether they be of God." The urgent necessity for this testing of the spirits he sets forth in these words: " Because many false spirits are gone out into the world." Before St. John, our Lord pointed out the necessity, laid down the principle, and gave us a rule for testing both the prophets and their doctrine: "Beware of false prophets. .... Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" The right and duty of personal investigation and personal judgment in matters of faith are implied in his exhortation, "Search the Scriptures." And the writer of the Acts of the Apostles eulogizes the men of Berea as " more no ble " than others because they did search the Script ures in order to determine for themselves whether what the apostles had told them was the truth.
In this right and duty of "private judgment" Protestantism is based. This is its declaration of independence; in the exercise of this right it had its origin; in the continued exercise of it rests its

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safety and its life. Protestantism sets itself against two despotic claims of Rome:
1. That what the Church says concerning mat ters of faith is a finished and complete statement of truth, and therefore a sacred thing to be received as upon divine authority on the peril of the soul by every generation.
2. That in the interpretation of the word of God the Church is infallible.
Granting these claims, it is logical and necessary to believe: (1) That what the Church has said at any time in the past is a final and absolute state ment, and must be received as such forever. (2) That what the Church may say at any future time must be received as absolute truth. (3) That to reject what the Church says is a mortal sin. (4) That the Church is lord of every man's thoughts, and conscience, and life; that its oificial voice is the voice of God. A statement near of kin to the cry of the demagogue, " The voice of the people is the voice of God." Within limits, both formulas are true; without limit, their doctrine is despotism.
Against this crushing spiritual bondage our text makes its everlasting protest in an exhortation that has the force of law, and that is addressed to the mind and conscience of each disciple in the school of Christ: " Despise not prophesyings," but " prove all things."
The utility of written creeds and formularies statements embodying the main points of Christian doctrine is not questioned by wise and careful thinkers. But whenever we think of our creeds as

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being in their form sacred things, we think of them superstitiously, and they become harmful to living faith. It is then that we are in position to lose the spirit in the letter, and to " make void" both " law" and gospel "through the tradition of the elders." What we call the '"Articles of Religion " are at best only the clearest expression of human judgment as to the essential truth of God's word of which wise and good men are capable. It is not every one who realizes that his " Confession of Faith " is not in spired. The truth is God's, and therefore sacred; the formulation of it is man's, and therefore a prop er subject of investigation, criticism, and revision. It was the highest duty of Israel to keep the com mandments written upon the two tables of stone by the finger of God; it would have been base idolatry to have worshiped the ark that contained them that was the work of men's hands. The ark was wood, and passed away; the law was truth, and abides forever*
At best all confessions of faith are but imperfect expressions of truth; imperfect because they take their form in the minds of fallible men, who cannot know all the tru'thj and who confessedly make mis takes. I have known godly men lift up their hands in horror at a proposition to change certain forms of expression in the ritual of baptism, as if change were itself akin to blasphemy. This is a relic of Romanism. The principle in our text would ask, Is the proposition for change in itself wise? is the proposed form a more perfect expression of the truth?

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Why should it surprise us that religious truth takes on new forms of expression age after age? In no sphere of truth can one generation either dis cover all its treasures or give perfect expression to all that it knotva. It was never yet ttfue, it never will he true, that the men of one generation, although they composed the first councils of the Church, could do all the thinking for all that come after them. The natural world is new to each generation of investigators, and each generation, if it study the world, will find new things to describe and define. ISo true poet describes nature in the very words of his predecessors; no true scientist is contented to simply catalogue the opinions and discoveries of those who have gone before him. What is true of the works is true of the word of God " The king doms are but one."
The Bible is essentially a hew book to each gen eration and to each man. Our studies no more exhaust the words than they exhaust the works of God. To the end of time there will be new state ments of scientific truth; arid always, so long as men think at all, there will be new formulations of religious truth. IS^ew discoveries in the powers and resources of nature do not imply new creations, nor do new expressions of religious truth imply new revelations. No doubt there is a Providence, allwise and gracious, in men's thoughts as in their deeds. As God's providence timed the great dis coveries and inventions of our time, so, I cannot doubt, the enlightening and sanctifying Spirit that gives " man understanding," and that " enlightens

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every man that is come into the world," brings to the " remembrance " of each generation those forms of truth that are most needed for the work of God. Till we have passed into the heavens, we will only know in part; we will be looking through a glass darkly. Then, but not now, shall we know even as also we are known.
If truth could be furnished to us just as the gov ernment issues coin, with its image and superscrip tion; if perfect and final expression could be given to truth by the " prophets," it would not accomplish the divine purpose in giving truth to the world. For we are so constituted that much of the blessing that the truth brings to us can come only in our search after it. In relation to the pearl of truth we are more than receivers; we are also finders. It was only when the man in the parable had found, after diligent search, the pearl of price, and had sold all he had to be possessed of it, that he could claim it as his own.
It is beyond question a fact in our mental consti tution that we cannot thoroughly know any thing that we do not in some way formulate for ourselves. It is on this principle that some writer, unknown to me, asserted some years ago in Blackwood's Maga zine that " we do not thoroughly know any thing till we have spoken or written it." For it is in our effort to formulate truth for ourselves that we stamp our own die upon it and it is ours, as no truth can be that we only receive from another; or, to employ a most familiar but forcible illustration: Our knowl edge, like our food, must be digested and assimilated

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before it oecomes part of our very blood and fiber and muscle.
The catechism is good after its kind, but mere catechism knowledge is apt to stop in the verbal memory; it is not generally so digested and assim ilated as to become a constituent part of our vital and vitalizing faiths. To illustrate this thought by the simplest possible case: Suppose you tell your lit tle boy that Samson was the strongest man, or that Job was the most patient of all sufferers. He knows what you tell him in a sense; you have told him so, and he believes you. But there is no vividness of impression. Let the boy now read for himself the story of the giant's prowess, or even look at a pict ure of his mighty deeds. Let him read how he slew the lion that rose up against him; how he bore away the massive gates of Gaza; how he slew the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass; how he pulled down upon himself and his tormentors the temple of Dagon. The story kindles his imagina tion. His blood quickens, and his little muscles swell as the story comes into his consciousness, a reality, a living fact, that he sees and knows for himself.
Or, let him read for himself the wondrous story of the man of Uz, who lost all things and suffered all things, yet sinned not with his lips nor charged God foolishly; let the boy hear him say from his ash-heap, " The Lord gave and the Lord hath tak en away, blessed be the name of the Lord." It all comes home to him with its infinite pathos, and the child who has known neither suffering nor want

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can almost understand the victorious outburst of faith, " I know that my Redeemer liveth."
But mere catechism questions and answers can not give such knowledge. The principle applies universally; we must find truth for ourselves to make it, in its best sense, truth to us. And we can not make it our truth without searching for it our selves. This is not peculiar to religious truth; no truth can be conveyed simply by teaching; there must be learning also. Take the simplest proposi tion in geometry: the learner must see for himself the relations of two straight lines crossing each other before he can understand what you mean by right-angles.
If it were possible for the Church, through proph ets, or popes, or fathers, or councils, to do all the thinking that needs to be done so far as reaching a perfect expression of the truth is concerned (and how impossible this is the history of theology makes plain), the necessity of "proving all things," of " trying the spirits," of " searching the Scriptures," would still exist. For the necessity of individual judgment is based in the very constitution of our minds. Only thus can truth be truth to us; and it is only when the truth is realized as truth in our inmost heart that it " makes us free." Just as the light of the sun is not light to us till it enters our eyes. It is not enough that other men have the light and tell us what they see. The most eloquent description of colors, of lights and shadows, cannot make its sweet wonders known; it is only when we see with our own eyes that we say," Truly the light

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is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun,"
The right and duty of personal study and judg ment imply that there are tests by which we may try the prophesyings may " prove all things," that we may " hold fast that which is good." As already intimated, the word rendered "prove" implies the test of coins. The merchant uses his tests; he tries the weight, the ring of the coin that is offered to him. He knows the genuine coin, and tests that which is under consideration by his knowledge of the true.
Where now is our criterion? By what shall we test the word of the prophets? We are as fallible as they. The right to judge them implies their lia bility to error. As this liability inheres in their finite humanity, so we, being men, are also liable to err in our judgment of them. We cannot, then, as judges of the prophets, find in ourselves any abso lute standard of truth. We have need to remember with humility that human fallibility shows itself in the criticism as well as in the formulation of a creed, or an interpretation. But it would be ab surd to conclude that our judgment is useless because it is not infallible. It would be equally wise to bandage or put out our eyes because they sometimes deceive us as to colors or distances. In seeing and judging we are to do the best we can.
We find the test of coins in certain definitely as certained facts of metallurgy. So, in our religious beliefs there are tests, not so easily applied nor so

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definite in their results as are the tests of gold and silver, but nevertheless satisfactory for all the uses that belong to the nature of the subject. There are two tests of the truth of doctrine that will an swer all our need in such cases. And it is a most important and comforting fact that it is easier to make these tests in doctrines of vital importance. Thijs it is easier to determine whether a prophet preaches the truth in relation to repentance and pardon, and the new birth, than when he under takes to formulate in precise definition the ontological relations of the Trinity. In a word, the more practical and important in its relations to our per sonal faith and salvation any truth is, the easier is it for us to test the '* prophesyings " that are urged upon our attention.
One of these readily applied tests, and that most prominent in the apostle's mind, we find in the Scriptures themselves: "Search the Scriptures," says our Lord, " for they are they which testify of me." If the prophets do not speak according to this word, we must reject their message. Since it is inevitable that men differ in their interpretation of the word, the question occurs, How shall we be certain in such cases? The answer is, "We cannot be certain in such cases. We must do the best we can to reach honest conclusions; God requires no more, man can achieve no more. As to the rest, " the day will declare it," and this is not the only world in which we can study the mind of God. In the white light of eternity we will " know even as also we are known." Till then, diligence in study,

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patience in failure, gratitude in success, toleration in our differences, become us all.
Our Lord gives us another test that we may use in safety, even when there is little of the learning of books. He says, in speaking of false prophets, so certain to come, " By their fruits ye shall know them." Prophesyings that make men worse are false. In applying this test, we shall have to do with ourselves more than with others. Prophesy ings that neither teach us nor strengthen us, that do not help us to conquer our sins, that do not bring us nearer to God or make us more like Jesus our Lord, however learned or eloquent they may be, are not good to us. We have proved them; we find them wanting; we may let them go. But let it teach us modesty to remember that we are not in fallible in deciding what are the influences the fruits of any given doctrine. We may be mis taken here also. But candor in our investigations and perfect charity toward other searchers after the truth will save us, for the most part, from disagree able and harmful conflicts of opinion.
But if one says, " Since I cannot determine relig ious truth as I measure distances or weigh bodies, I accept agnosticism and declare myself to be a know-nothing in religion," it is the doctrine of a fool.
How are we to make proof? What method must we use in our search after religious truth?
I answer: 1. We are to use our minds. Religion is a proper subject for thought. There is nothing abnormal in

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the relations between religious truth and the human mind. As to the mental process, we think when we study religion as we think when we study other subjects. The study of religion involves no vio lence to our reason. Its truths may be beyond rea son, but we will not help our understanding of them by refusing to use our reason.
2. In our search for religious truth we will not forget the works of God, but the Bible, the word of God, is our text-book. The Bible, if we would understand it, needs to be studied, so far as our in tellectual methods are concerned, just as we would study any other book. It is a sin and a folly to make a mere fetich of the Bible. We are not to read the Bible as an end but as a means. One can not become learned in Bible truth by simply read ing over so many chapters, as a sort of penance or as the price of security and a pacified conscience, before going to sleep. We are to study the Bible as we would study our geometry, not simply read. " Search" signifies our best effort to get at the very marrow of its teaching. We are to search not be cause it is the Bible, but because it tells us of Christ, the way of salvation. There is no more virtue in simply reading the Bible than in reading Blackstone; all the good of Bible study comes in Bible learning.
3. In searching the Scriptures we should pray for the help of the Holy Spirit that we may be led into the truth. We have the promise of our Lord, made the night before he died for us, that the Father would send the " Spirit of truth " to help us find
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the truth. This promise he makes again and again. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you an other Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth." Again he says, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Again: " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."
No doubt we have God's blessing in honest search ing after every form of truth, for all truth is his. But it cannot be questioned that in the words I have quoted, as well as in other such words of Jesus, we Lave a very special promise of divine help in our search after the truth of his word; after the real essence and meaning of the gospel.
It is a- very narrow and mistaken exposition that would limit these blessed promises of Jesus to the apostles or to the Church of that day. The mirac ulous bestowments of the Holy Spirit were for that day only. But those gifts of the Spirit which are most valuable his enlightening, quickening, and sanctifying influences abide with the Church for ever. These last promises are for us of the present time. On the strength of them, Jesus urges us to pray for the help we need. In one place he makes a special promise of the Spirit's help. " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Father which is

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in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
In these last words of our Lord there is no prom ise to us of inspiration, but of help that we may understand what God has already given the Church through his Son and the apostles.
Let us distinctly rememher that these promises of the Spirit's help in our search for truth is coup led with exhortations to pray for it. Prayer is in stinctive with devout searchers after the truth. It is as natural to ask God's help when we are seeking God's truth as for little children to look to their mothers for tender care. Prayer is instinctive and easily understood till we undertake to construct a philosophy of it. When we are seeking to know the truth, prayer follows naturally and certainly; it is the turning of the spirit's eye to the source of all light, " the Father of our spirits."
The prayerless man is not in the right attitude to find the truth. Religious history is full of proofs and illustration of the truth that our best views of God and of men, and of our duty to God and men, come to us in the hour of prayer. It is not inci dental, it is a law of the Spirit's operation, that his help comes in answer to prayer. It is to the praying soul that the light of the shekinah still shines between the cherubim. Prayer and the Spirit's help and earnest search after the truth are so intimately and vitally connected that we may settle it in our minds as certain beyond all doubt that when we cease to pray we cease to discover truth in its noblest forms: that we are proceeding

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without our Guide; that we are groping along a toilsome and uncertain way in the light of the fitful sparks we may strike from the stones under our feet, whose flash only bewilders and then leaves us to denser darkness.
It is not simply that it does not please God to grant the Spirit's guidance and help to prayerless souls, but that he cannot in the higher offices of the Holy Ghost, for the prayerless heart shuts him out. The Holy Spirit may convince such a heart of sin, but he cannot "sanctify it by the truth," and by the truth make it free.
4. In seeking still further to know how we are to " prove all things" that the prophets say to us, I mention to you one of the most interesting and comforting truths taught in the Bible or realized in experience: The desire to know the truth is the vital condition of knowing it. This is the universal law; but it has its peculiar force and prevalency in our study of the gospel of Jesus. The desire to know the truth and only the truth is the best security for finding the truth in any field of inquiry. But it is perfect security, so far as essential saving truth is concerned; so far as rights and wrongs and ques tions of duty are concerned, in the field of religious investigation. All this is comprehended in the words of our Lord, " If any man will do (that is, wills to do) his will, he shall know of the doctrine."
I am not speaking of speculative " prophesyings " on matters unsettled by divine revelation; these are matters of opinion. I speak of things essential the vital, saving truths of the gospel, and of questions

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of duty, of right and wrong. Here we can "prove all things." " If the eye he single, the whole hody shall be fiill of light." jSTothing clears the mental vision like a fixed and absolute purpose to do the will of God like a sincere desire to know just the truth of his word.
5. This brings me to say that, in the fullest and highest sense, religious truth is only known in eonsciousness through experience. This principle is very broad, but it has its peculiar force in the sphere of religion. Not long since an eminent composer was looking over some anthem-music that he had just received. He did not sing, but his soul thrilled un der the music that had no voice. He said to me, " I hear them." One who knows nothing of music would not understand him. These things being musical are musically discerned. It was the music in him that put tongues in every note upon the page. Beethoven composed grand and perfect har monies after he was so deaf that he could not hear the orchestra.
It should not be counted a strange thing that we should say of many of the higher truths of religion, " These things are spiritually discerned." As relig ious truth has its empire preeminently in man's heart, as these truths enter into consciousness, it is more peculiarly true of religious than of any other forms of truth, they are known through experience.
Our Lord and his apostles recognized this princi ple. So does common sense. Take one ease out of many for illustration. The gospel promises "peace"in some special sense. What does this

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mean? Is the promise good? Is the word true? This is not settled by exegesis or philosophy; it is settled by experience. Who can explain it to one who has no experience? The principle is not pecul iar to religion. Who can understand what love is? who can tell another what it is where there is no experience of the grand passion? We can only know by experience, and we can know perfectly by experience.
This age demands the test of experiment. The gospel responds to the demand. There were never any doctrines or theories offered to men that so completely subjected themselves to experiment as those truths of the gospel that concern our relations to men and to God.
III. "Holdfast that which is good" The doctrine is, having " proved" what is " good," hold it fast. Only those who have not "proved" the truth for themselves are "tossed about with every wind of doctrine." Fickleness of opinion is a great weakness; the best guard against it is can did and thorough investigation. But immutability is no more a human prerogative than infallibility is a human attribute. Immutability is God's prerog ative because his infinite perfections make him in fallible. In him is no variableness nor shadow of turning, because in him is no possibility of error. Holding fast the good is a high duty. But this true firmness, this true consistency in holding fast to our convictions of truth and duty, is infinitely removed from the weakness that clings to an opin ion because it was entertained yesterday, and from

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the obstinacy of prejudice. If you are never to modify your opinions, then you will never learn more than you know to-day. You will, young men, if you use your minds, come to the time that you will find it needful to rethink the grounds of your beliefs. Do not be afraid to do this when you feel the need; honest reinvestigation will do you no hurt. What is true will be confirmed; what is false you should wish to reject. What you can retain in the years to come only because you once believed it, is not worth retaining. Error is not made sacred by being long entertained. A man who is a man will not stand by an opinion in the face of facts from considerations of prejudice. This is not strength, it is despicable weakness. !N"o slavery is more degrading than the bondage of prejudice. True consistency a genuine holding fast that which is good demands that you surrender what new and brighter light shows to be false. This is no more fickleness than the winding course of a streamlet swelling into a river as it seeks the sea is fickleness. Its true persistence is seen in its onward though tortuous course. So, in the course of hu man life, changes of opinion that " make for right eousness" are to be welcomed. It is only by mak ing changes that the truth requires that we can hold fast that which is good. If one moving down a stream in a boat should refuse to follow the turn of the stream, he may be stranded in shallows or tossed upon rocks, but he will never reach the sea.
Seeking the truth in the best light that God gives you," hold fast the good." The truth alone is worth

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struggling, suffering, and dying for. The word here is to kalon the fair, the noble, the beautiful. And St. Paul, I suppose, uses this word because only that is fair and noble, and worth loving and hold ing fast, which, being true and good, is therefore beautiful and worth loving with all the heart.
Young men, I give you no further charge at this time. Many times we have exhorted you to follow Christ; nearly all of you do. Follow close to him; walk in his footsteps; then you are safe for both worlds.
"Despise not prophesyings" give respectful", modest, and candid attention to what the prophets tell you. " Prove all things," for yourselves. " Hold fast that which is good," throwing off, with increase of years and wisdom, all that is false, and holding fast forever to all that is true. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."

BACCALAUREATE pRESS.
[COMMENCEMENT DAT, EMORY COLLEGE, OXPOED, JUNE 28, 1832.]
men of the Class of 1882,1 part with I you with regret and with pleasure. With re gret, because as a class you have heen orderly, duti ful, and studious beyond the average. You held up to the routine of college work to the last. You have given us singularly little trouble; I do not recall a single disagreeable passage with one of your num ber. We shall miss you next term, and we cannot forget you. Happy will we be if your successors do as well as you have done. We part with you with pleasure, because we expect you to do well. You have good training for the work that awaits you, and you are well furnished for the beginning of your life among men. And all we claim to do is to help you to get ready to begin. Every verb you have conjugated, every noun you have declined, every problem you have solved in a word, every lesson you have learned, every form-of drill and discipline that you have undergone, whether in col lege recitations or society debates, only makes you the stronger and readier for the real work upon which you enter after to-day. Ignorant men talk most absurdly of what they call " practical educa tion," as. if training a boy to be a man were not the
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most practical and useful thing in th'e world. In so far as you have used your opportunity and most of you have used it well we have not given you trades and professions, but we have prepared you to do and to he any thing in this world that you are capable of doing and being. Some may think I am boasting to-day. Be it so; yet I say to you, with good conscience, for myself and my colleagues, If you fail it will not be our fault. We have stead fastly done our duty by you$ and you have deserved the best that any could do.
We do not expect you to fail. I could give many reasons for this confidence in your future. Some I will mention; in some points you may not agree with me. If you do not, I am inclined to believe that in a few years you will reconsider your opin ion. The first ground I mention of my confidence in your success is this: there is not a genius among you; and what is better, there is not, unless I am greatly mistaken, among you a man who thinks himself a genius. If any of you entertain this opin ion, make haste, I beg you, to lay it by with other faded things as the bouquets of your sophomore triumphs.
But many of you have what is better than genius the spirit of hard, plodding, patient, all-conquer ing work. In this spirit is " the promise and po tency" of any achievement Providence calls you to attempt. It is hard work that wins building pyramids, tunneling mountains, making deserts bloom, kindling great lights in the dark places of the earth, fighting the battles of truth and right-

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eousncss, lifting the world higher, and saving your own souls.
Another reason I mention for my hope of you and confidence in you: most of you are what the world calls poor. For this I thank God. I hope there is not a man of you whose father has money enough for him to live without work. If there is one, I tremhle for him; if there he one, I expect him to fail. Except vice, there is hardly any thing in this world that so emasculates energy as gold. It is to he feared that you do not sufficiently appreci ate the hlessing of poverty.
It was a rough hut true kindness that led Thurlow to refuse a lucrative office to the young lawyer who became Lord Eldon, although he had prom ised it to him. Eldon said of this early disappoint ment: "What he meant was that he had learned that I was by nature very indolent, and it was only want that could make me very industrious." Had he received the coveted office, he might have lived and died an office-holder; he would not have been Lord Eldon.
How nobly some of you have already learned the uses of adversity; how bravely you have fought your way through college, eking out your small means, denying yourselves, and patiently practicing economy; how splendidly you have won in this con flict with a poverty that does not cause you a blush to-day, and that in the years to come will be an in spiration to others, in like case, who will come after you. All this some of us know. "Wherefore we rejoice with you to-day. And I rejoice, too, that

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in this town where you have lived, and in this col lege where yon have studied, money has never com manded recognition Where merit did not deserve it.
Let me ask you this last time I will ever see you all together, What are you going to do ? Some thing, I am sure. Most of you must; all of you should. Ko achievements by your ancestors can buy for you exemption from the duty of work. It is a shame to a man to live upon the accumulations of others, without purpose or effort to do something himself. It is a shame for any human being to be contented with a life of idleness; it is a shame be yond words when an educated man does nothing to deserve to live in this working world. Thoreau puts the case well: " Be not simply good -be good for something/' If you are to be good for any thing, you must do something; with small qualifi cation, we may say with Matthews,- " What a man does is the real test of what he is."
It was suggested to me by a wise frierid that I should speak to you to-day on a choice of a' profes sion. Meditating upon the matter, I find the sub ject so large and complicated that the occasion will not give me time for its proper discussion. Some general remarks are all that I can indulge at this time.
For one thing I am glad to know that you do not propose to divide yourselves absolutely among what
are known as the learned professions. Some of you are good debaters who do not propose to be lawyers; some of you can feel a pulse who do not propose to be doctors; and some of you feel divinely moved to

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do good in the world who do not feel called to preach. I am told that some of you will preach, some teach, some practice law, some medicine. This is well enough; there is room for you there is always much room in these professions at the top. But these lines do not suffice for you all. Some look to journalism; some to civil engineering; some to farming; some to merchandise. There may be other fields that you are contemplating. One thing is sure there is a place for you if you are only fit for it; or there will he when you hecome fit. There is a great cry from the army of the unemployed that they can find nothing to do; this cry is answered hy the great world, "We cannot find men to do what sorely needs to be done what we are willing to pay for."
Young men, I would ring it into your ears to day, It is easier to find one hundred young men in Georgia who want a "first-class position" than it is to find one thoroughly fitted to fill such a place. I beg you to consider the significance of this state ment; it is the simple truth without a trace of ex aggeration. Circumstances have given me oppor tunity to take an inside view of this matter, and I tell you plainly, we are poop in men and women who are fitted to do the first-class work of either the Church or the State. Hundreds can do com monplace work; many can do average work; few, very few, can do the higher work that the times re quire to be done. If you doubt what I tell you, ask those who are called on to fill the higher places when a vacancy occurs. I make no exceptions; my state ment applies to the pulpit ask your bishops and

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your congregations; to schools and colleges ask your trustees; to journalism ask the publishers of the great newspapers; to the mechanic arts ask your builders and contractors. I may be blamed and contradicted for what I am about to say; be it so. I am used to it; and it were better for a man to say what maybe false in fact, when he is honestly mistaken, than to say what he believes to be false. It is better to be right than to be thought right. What I wish to say to you, and to the undergrad uates of the college, and to the young men and women of my section, as far as my voice can reach them, is this: "We of the South are poorest where we least suspect poverty in men and women thor oughly qualified to do the work that our time and our duty and our opportunity demand at our hands.
Look where you will, and the facts and remem ber that no amount of complacent, patriotic elo quence can put away facts -justify my statement. Take illustrations that^ are right about us. There are more houses to be built than there are among us and of our own people men who are qualified to build them properly. First-class carpenters, brick-ma sons, painters, blacksmiths, first-class artisans in all departments of the mechanic arts, are very scarce among us;. they are humiliatingly scarce, if we look for men born and reared among us. The country is filled with men who are jacks-at-all-trades and masters of none. IsTot one-fourth of the carpenters among us can do joint-work; not one-fourth of the blacksmiths can shoe your horse without the risk of laming him; not one-fourth of the brick-masons

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can build a straight wall; not one-fourth of our painters can touch a washboard with a brush with out smearing the plastering. If these statements be denied, it is in order to prove honesty where com petency is affirmed, and bad work cannot be de nied. For no man who is familiar with the mat ters I am discussing, and has been far enough from home to find some basis of comparison, will deny that the South is filled, in city, town, and countryplaces, with all sorts and degrees of shoddy work. I except no el ass of men from this statement. As to the men who adhere to the John Jasper astronomy, and stand to it " that the sun do move," what do tel escopes and the mathematics signify to them?
I have taken certain cases, easily understood by us all; especially as most of us who have tried to have any sort of work properly done are sufferers. But the statement holds terribly true in other than
the mechanic arts. "Nothing to do," indeed! It is not true. There
are hundreds of things to do things useful, profit able, and honorable if men with souls in their bod ies will only lay to and do them; do them earnestly, faithfully, competently. Young men, and young women too, opportunities are many; they crowd upon you; they urge you vehemently; they offer you great rewards; they have gold and laurel crowns for the worthy who dare to embrace them and are worthy to be crowned. Alas that so many should long for successful careers who. are not willing to
pay the price! Let a single illustration save the trouble of a

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statement: Men say," There is nothing to do," and here, in K"ewton county, there are not enough mar ketable butter, eggs, and chickens to satisfy the demands of this commencement, and house-keepers must pay tribute to distant States for the most com mon of table supplies. My guests are eating butter from East Tennessee. Yet the majority of our young men would rather stand behind a counter and measure off ribbons than to conduct a dairy or poultry farm. Another illustration of the thought I would impress is found in the tide of deluded emigrants leaving such a State as Georgia, year after year, dreaming of El Dorados in Texas, or in some other country, where they suppose that they can have an easy time. Where one succeeds, two, perhaps ten, fail. The failure is not in Texas, but in them. Such men would fail in the garden of Eden; they would neither till nor dress it.
Before dismissing the subject of work sorely needed to be done, and of men humiliatingly scarce who can do it, I should call your attention to a fact that merits your consideration. It is this: work that would pass twenty?five years ago will not pass to-day. The competitions are too sharp; this age requires more of us than the preceding age did. You cannot do the work with success that might have made your father rich and famous without the capacity to do better work than he did. Our ad vancing civilization has multiplied our wants, sharp ened our faculties, raised our standards. Hundreds of men of the former generation made themselves famous who could not, were they now beginning,

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repeat their careers; they could not even hold their own.
If harder work and better work are now required of us, we have commensurate encouragement and inspiration. Opportunity never offered greater re wards for well-doing. This is preeminently true in the South. There is a word I frequently hear the young men employ in their speeches "Renaissance" I think you call it. I use it to-day for the first time, I believe. Young men, this time is the Re naissance of the South, so far as time and opportu nity can make it. It rests with our men and wom en whether they will make an accomplished fact what history, nature, and God have made a possi bility. For my part, I am sick of croakers; I am worn out with the prophets of evil; I am disgusted with the men who have no voice except lamenta tions over what they call the losses of the South, and no gratitude to God for her infinite and eternal gains. What did whining over losses ever do for the world? What will croaking about impending evils, that will not come if we be brave and true, ever accomplish?
Harms, sitting in gloomy and wrathful medita tions among the ruins of Carthage, is a sorry figure. I^ehemiah, riding his mule by moonlight among the ruins of Jerusalem, meditating great plans for the restoration of her waste places, and working by daylight with heroic valor and endurance to accom plish what he hoped for, is the man to admire and imitate.
Again I say, now begins the Renaissance of the 21

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South, if her sons and daughters will have it so. Our fields and rivers call for us. The swelling tide of a true prosperity is heating against the barriers that false notions and evil customs have erected, O that we were wise, in this our day, to see the oppor tunity that Heaven offers us! If we do not answer to the call that God makes upon us, others will. But we will have lost our crown. Somebody will wear it, for such a country as this Southern land will never rest till it claims a people ivho know how to. use it.
But you ask, "What can I do?" Do the thing nearest to you that you are hest qualified for. YOU cannot wisely choose a profession simply on grounds of profit or honor.
These considerations are not to he despised, hut they are not the highest. No wise and good man will determine his life-work by the considerations that money and fame alone can offer; he will ask himself, "How can I do the most good?" At the same time remember, I beg you, that if you live ac cording to God's plan of a human life you can do most good in the work you can do best, whether it be preaching, teaching, plowing, or building houses.
If you do not find a profession that suits you, make one. James Vick, of the State of New York, who died during the flowery month of May, was known and honored by millions of our people. Forty years ago he began to raise garden and flower seeds. He elevated his business into a profession. He has enriched untold, thousands of American gardens with superior vegetables, and he has beau tified untold thousands of American homes with the

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fairest flowers doing more to cultivate a love for the beautiful than all the long-haired lecturers that ever talked aesthetics before bewildered audiences. He lived to become a great benefactor, giving away princely fortunes in the cause of education and be nevolence.
There is no country in the world to-day that offers as many opportunitiesfor honorable, comfortable, profitable, useful living as this Southern country we live in.
Let me tell you a true story of a man I met in Willimantic, Connecticut. He finished his school course about the beginning of the war between the States, and went into the army. At the close of the struggle he went into the machine-shops of the great manufacturing company with whose fortunes he is now so closely identified. He began an appren ticeship, working at forty cents a day. He learned his business through and through, and he is to-day the chief man in an establishment whose capital aggregates five millions of dollars. He is making money and reputation; but this is not all he is doing good incalculable. He is introducing into the great factories he controls the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. There is a store for the benefit of the operatives, where they buy the best things cheaper than they can buy them anywhere else; there is a free library, well patronized, that would make many a college proud. He has, in the construction and arrangement of the vast buildings where the army of operatives are employed, every contrivance that ministers to good taste, to health, and to comfort. There are beautiful flowers in con-

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servatories connected with the mills. The cottages of the operatives are models of neatness and com fort. Compared with others I saw in the same town, it was the difference between civilization and barbarism. How the operatives love this man! Yet there is no looseness of management, you may be sure. There is system and science in all things. For instance, they have reached this degree of ac curacy: There is an arrangement by which every revolution of the great driving-wheel is counted by a self-registering machine. This man showed me the register for a series of weeks. I recall two. One week the great wheel turned 198,196 times; the next week, 198,198 times: a difference of two turns of the giant driver that moved the whole vast and bewildering machinery. And this was about the average in the register for many weeks. How did Major W, E. Barrows and those who labor with him reach such perfection in attending to their business? By attending to it; by doing their best to do it well.
Would God that our young men knew the time they live in, and appreciated the land that God has given them for a heritage!
But I have said enough on these subjects. You go your ways now; Emory's blessing goes with you. Whatever you do, be men manly men. Clear a little space about you for your feet, and put them down firmly. Do not be afraid to do right. Have opinions that rest on your convictions. Then express them when there is occasion. Maintain them, and, if need be, suffer for them. Fear nei-

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ther minorities nor majorities; fear what is wrong what is false. Do your very best, and crucify unto the death all petty jealousies and envies and suspicions. If you cannot win the world's rewards fairly and honorably, fail. In such a case failure is success, and what is called success is failure forever and ever. When some crazy pre-adventist said to Emerson that the world was presently coming to an end, he answered, " I can get on very well without it." Until we can get on without the world we cannot get on with it as God intended we should. Keep your ship's prow seaward, and sink her in mid-ocean before you will make a port by flying the enemy's flag.
Follow the truth as one finding his way out of a tangled wilderness would follow the clear light of a star. In every good and right way persuade as many to go with you as you can. But if you must, go alone -rather, if there be no one with you except Christ the Lord, go alone. He was with the He brew children in the furnace of Are. He is the majority. Keep all things right between you and him. As to the rest, you " can wait," if need be, till the judgment-day.
My dear boys, Emory loves and trusts you. She commits her honor to you and pronounces her bless*ing on you to-day. Be true true to yourselves, to one anotherj to all men, and to God. Be true to your section, and to this great TJnion and nation that God has set up as the hope of the oppressed, and that he would make a blessing to all the world.

KENNETH H. McLAINj
OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT.
[OXTOED, <JA., SUNDAY APTEE OPENING BAY, GOT. 8, 1882.]
"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality*" Romans xii. 9-13.
ri 1JLLKJ first Sunday of a college-year is always an JL interesting and important day in this church. The greetings between the old students returning, and the warm welcome they receive from their teachers and our citizens, are expressive of sincere affection and good-fellowship. Naturally, the new students are much observed; they are looking into each other's faces, and all of them the old and the new are trying to read one another, to find out what manner of men they are. There is more in all this than mere idle curiosity; there is genuine human interest, and with very many a true Chris tian solicitude.
Among so many we may expect some triflers, who come to college with no clear conception of the end of their coming, and no fixed purpose as to what they will do. Some come only because it is the cus-
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torn of people of their station to send their sons to college; they will be contented when they return home to say to their friends, " I have heen oft* to college." These do not feel the need of knowledge or of training; they will return to their homes much as they came, with possibly this solid gain: they will have lost something of their conceit and self-satis faction. They will give some trouble to their teach ers, for, being idle, they are apt to be disorderly and injurious in their influence. It is to be feared that such young men will acquire some additional bad habits, for it is as easy as it is natural for idle peo ple to drift into evil currents. It is to be feared that they will be harmful to some who, had they not come, might have done well in their college life; for your habitual idler, above all men, wants company, and is not pleased unless he can induce others to fall in with his ways. I do not think that this dis position to induce others into evil ways is generally due to vicious sentiment, or a conscious purpose to do harm to others; it is rather the unrest of an idle mind that wants sympathetic companionship. One thing is clear to us who have had long observation in a college community: these habitual idlers will make themselves troublesome to men who wish to do good work; for a loafer is always a burden to a worker. Moreover, he is sure to be a "sponge;" if nothing else, he will be always seeking to borrow other people's brains. Too indolent to learn, and too proud to be utterly unprepared, he will seek all easy devices for getting over his lessons. Long prac tice in these devices will make him skillful in them,

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and he is apt to acquire the feeling that he has a sort of natural right to have other people do his work for him. If he had only staid at home, if he would only return to-morrow, what a relief to the serious and diligent students of the college! I have perhaps said more about this sort of student than he deserves, but it is impossible to ignore him.
But among so many some come to do their best, and some day they will make the world better.
I said that the first Sunday in a college-year is an important day with us. It is so for many reasons; two I mention. On this day many new students present the evidence of their membership in their churches at home and identify themselves with us for a time in the fellowship of our church in Oxford. Another reason is, it has grown to be a custom with us to have the communion of the Lord's Supper on the first Sunday of a college-year. On these occa sions many devoted young men, during past jTears, have consecrated themselves anew to lives of Chris tian duty and service.
Another element of interest enters into this morn ing's service it is the home-love that follows you here. I need not dwell upon this; many of your hearts are now full of the pure and tender filial love and gratitude you feel for your parents at this hour. One gracious result in every right-minded boy when he goes from home is this: he learns as he never knew before how much he loves his father and mother. Only a fool is ashamed of the tender feel ing this discovery awakens. To me, young men, it

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is a sweet and cheering thought that at this hour, in many churches, there are good men and women who can hardly listen to their preachers for think ing of and praying for you. But these things can not he put into words; only God understands the pathetic solicitude with which parents follow their children when they go out into the world, whether
to school or to business* I would like, at this point, to say a few words to
you concerning the real end of a college life, like that which we ofter you here. It is expected that you will learn many things of practical utility. In the languages, in mathematics, in the sciences, in ethics, in metaphysics, you study that you may gain knowledge. Vou cannot overestimate the value of such knowledge; hilt there is an end to he achieved more important than even this. I mean your thor ough training. The information you will gain is in valuable, I grant you; the discipline of mind that you should acquire while gaining this information, and in the very processes by Which you gain it, is also beyond price. A college training should give you the fullest use of your best powers. To express substantially the same idea in different words: the college not only desires to make scholars of you, but, in the very best sense, and afte? the noblest ideals,
to make men of you. With these views I say, a college that is not
Christian in all its convictions and inspirations is fatally lacking in the conditions and influences nec essary to the accomplishment of this highest end of true education the making of men strong,

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broad, intelligent, wise, pure, and true men. Young men, it is with gratitude to God this morning that I can say to you, without reserve or doubt, it is a Christian college and community that welcome you to-day.
In what time remains for this discourse I am going to commend to you the example of one who was four years among us, and whose life was such that we may well speak of him as The Christian Stu dent. I speak of the Rev. Kenneth H. McLain, who entered the freshman class in the fall of 1876; who, having completed the full course of four years, grad uated with much credit in 1880; who, in October of
that year with his young wife, and his classmates George Loehr and Hector Park was appointed a missionary to China. Most of you know the sad and moving story of his return to America. A few weeks ago he " fell on sleep " and " was not," for God took him.
This is not a funeral discourse: I wish to teach some lessons from the student-life of the devoted young missionary whose departure from this world we lamented. Let me read the text again. St. Paul's words describe with singular felicity and accuracy the life and character of Kenneth McLain while a student in Emory College:
"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not sloth ful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continu-

OR, THE CHRISTIAX STUDENT.

331

ing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality."
I knew him about as well as it is possible for one man to know another. Two years he lived in my family, and was as a son to me. I do not say too much when I say the words I have read are not too strong as descriptive of the spirit and life of my dear boy who has " passed into the heavens," and of whom men say, "He is dead." Verse nine describes McLain's sincerity of spirit and purity of heart. There was no dissimulation in his love or life. His soul was open to all light; his lips were without guile; his life was without deceit. The truth was in him, and the truth had made him free. ISo man among his fellows wanted corroborative evidences when he made a statement; his word was enough; none who knew him could suspect the veracity of his speech or the sincerity of his convictions. There could not be dissimulation in his professions of love, for his soul abhorred that which was evil and cleaved to that which was good. I am not, in what I say to you this morning, idealizing a deceased friend; the man, while he was among us, was what I tell you. This conception of his character did not come to me after he was dead; it grew upon me daily while he was with us. It was his life, not his death, that made me sure I did not misjudge him. I believe that there was just one thing that he hated he " ab horred that which was evil." Rarely have I known men or women, young or old, who recoiled with more horror from moral evil. He apprehended with intense vividness in his conceptions the essential

332

H. MetACT$

sinfulness of sin and the ineffable beauty of holi ness.
Verse ten describes McLain's relations to his fel low-students. He was kindly affectioned to them; he loved them with brotherly love. Many students I have known whose interest in the welfare of their fellow-students was constant; I have never known one who loved them more. He was true to his lit erary society, devoted to his club; but his love was not confined to those who wore his colors or whose badges were like his own. He had loving friends in all ranks and circles of college life, for he " showed himself friendly " to all. Naturally, he was a poor partisan; but when a difficulty was to be settled, a trouble pacified, a breach healed, McLain was called for and listened to. He was marvelously free per fectly free, so far as I could ever see from that bane of student life, the envy of rivals. There were some who surpassed him in their class standing; but their success cast no shadow on him; he was glad when they were crowned; he could do what not every one can do with hearty good-will, " rejoice with them that rejoice." As well as any young man I have known, he understood that saying of our Lord: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Verse eleven describes McLain's methods and spirit in relation to all duties: he was diligent in business; he was fervent in spirit; he was always serving the Lord. He might have said at any time though I never heard him say any thing like it

OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT.

388

" Thou, Lord, art ever before me." I think I can say very safely, he never shirked a single college duty of any sort. Had he studied only to secure a good class standing, or to win the praise of men, his motive would have failed him at some point. There is hut one inspiration to duty that can he relied upon at all times: it is the thought of God and our duty to him. With our now translated and glorified brother every duty had such dignity and worth that it commanded his loyal effort to perform it. I give him this high praise: it never entered his mind to dodge a lesson by the invention of an inglorious ex cuse. He would have felt himself simply disgraced to have performed a college duty in the mere letter that he denied in spirit. As, for example, to have gone to the church-door and then to have gone at once elsewhere, and to have answered at Monday's roll-call in chapel, "At church." He would have counted such a thing as lying; and it is lying. He would have esteemed it as profanation; and it is profanation.
McLain came to college to get all the good and to do all the good possible to him. S"ot many men or women do their best; I believe he did. It was more than once said of him, as was said of Stone wall Jackson at "West Point: " So great was his im provement upon himself that had the college course taken ten years, instead of four, he would have out-* stripped all his fellows."
One summer vacation he spent with me. He asked me to suggest a line of reading. I said, " Will you do what I tell you? " He answered, with a sort of

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KENNETH H.

open-eyed wonder at my question," I will." " Well," said I, " you must not simply read for information; you must learn how to investigate, how to run down a subject. Take the life and times of Cromwell. Here is a history of England; read these chapters first. Here are the cyclopedias; read all that they say of Cromwell and of the men of his time. Here are Carlyle's volumes concerning Cromwell's life and letters; read them. Then read all that the essayists say of him, an.d every thing else by compe tent writers that you can find." He spent the three months reading about Cromwell, and wrote a very full essay that would have done credit to an older investigator. The duty-idea ran like a golden thread through the entire warp of his college work. No wonder he improved upon himself.
Verse twelve describes the type of his piety. He rejoiced in hope; he was patient in trial; he was in stant in prayer. There was neither sourness nor gloom in his religion. There was neither Pharisaic display nor Puritanic hardness. He was far from gayety that is mostly a matter of temperament, and his was too serious and devout for gayety. But his gravity of deportment was not in the least affect ed. He could laugh when amused, and when the spell was on him he laughed vigorously. His relig ious joy was very nearly a constant quantity, and largely because it grew out of his habitual experi ence; it was not spasmodic. Sometimes his exulta tion of spirit broke the bounds of ordinary reserve, and his rejoicing was great. For the most part such rejoicings were over victories won in the res-

OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT.

335

cue of his companions from sin, and not in the exu berance of mere personal good-feeling. I recall one of his jubilant moods. It was in my sitting-room one night during the " Christmas revival." Some friends had been converted, and " Mack " was lifted up. How shall I devscribe to you who did not know him his " patience in tribulation? " It cannot be described. This phase of his experience appeared in its full-orbed luster when the trouble came that brought him back from China. He had without reserve given himself to the work of .preaching Christ in that land of darkness with its crowding millions. On that subject I knew his inmost thoughts. He expected to be buried there. Then came the breaking up of all his plans and the wreck ing of all his hopes. His return to us was like a tragedy. How could he bear it? Sot by any sud den development of manly strength or philosophic composure. When his trial came there was the gathered strength of years of consecrated living to meet it. I have seen many men in " tribulation;" not one have I known who surpassed Kenneth McLain in Christian patience.
I say Christian patience, for it was not the grim fortitude of the stoic; it was not the insensibility of dull and dumb despair. Every fiber of his nat ure was quivering with agony, his heart was nigh to breaking, but in it all he had " the peace that passeth all understanding." In all that came upon him he did not "charge God foolishly." Providen tial circumstances kept him in Atlanta from April to the close of 1881. A man was needed in the work

336

KENNETH H. McLAiN;

of the city missions a pastor had died. McLain gave himself to that work as fervently as if he had never thought of China. Returning to his own Confer ence, he received his appointment and went to his circuit as if he had never done any thing else. Soon came his sickness. He was never well again. His sickness and death I do not dwell upon it was an easy victory for him who had conquered his fight of faith a year before. Last summer, while he lay sick in our town, some of you saw in him, it is true, the marks of wounds; and this did not surprise those who know something of the deeper experi ences of religion. But you saw more than this you saw the trophies of his triumph. !N"ot once did I catechise him about his spiritual state while he was getting ready " to put on immortality." But one day of himself he opened the subject, and he said this to me: "I am willing to get well and work on; I am willing to die and rest. God will do right." It was Jesus who said in Gethsemane, " Thy will, not mine, be done." When a man about to go hence talks in that way there is no room for lamentation; it were better to sing an anthem.
Verse thirteen describes his instinct of usefulness. In his short and broken life there was little oppor tunity to show hospitality in the literal and ordina ry sense, and little he had of this world's goods to distribute. But St. Paul's Greek means, to give it more literally," sharing in the necessities of saints." This he did to the utmost of his opportunity. His heart throbbed with quick and intense sympathy when others suffered. "When he could help, he

OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT.

3S7

helped promptly; when he could not, he suffered with those who suffered. There was not a drop of selfish, narrow blood in him. The man who was sorry when others failed, and was glad when they had success, could not fail to help all who needed what he could give. He did not " live unto him self."

I shall love him always and forget him never. In many places and in many relations his image will rise before me. But there are some occasions which I recall with most vividness: I can almost see him when I think of him. The first is the day he came to Oxford to enter college. He promptly reported at my office. The tall, angular, awkward, and em barrassed boy seems almost to be before, me now. When we had shaken hands and he had taken a chair, he broke silence in thiswise: "Dr. Haygood, I have not had good opportunities; I know very little; but I have come to do my best." His face was beautiful in its candor, and truth was in the very tones of his voice.
1 recall the night--it was about mid night--he broke to me his sacred secret--his purpose to offer himself for China. How his "fervent spirit" glowed in his face and eyes! How he thrilled me with the hum ble, devout tones of his voice! I recall the paling and flushing of his face, and the intense look in his eyes that memorable Commencement-Sunday after noon in June, 1880, when he and Loehr and Park talked to you, standing just there. I recall the glad light of his face as he kissed me good-by when in
22

338

KENNETH H. McLAiN;

the October following, about sunrise one morning, they started westward toward the field of their choice and love. And I recall him the day he grasped my hand in Atlanta when he had come back, with his great grief of disappointment and his great burden of anxiety. There was no need for him to tell me in words that day that his faith was firm, that his soul was staid on God. The first look out of his eyes told me that.
But they say he is dead--this model Christian stu-, dent, this heroic young missionary. The necessities of language require us to use such words, but so far as the real man--the man of whom I have been speaking to you--is concerned, Kenneth McLain is not dead. In any sense that makes death a fearful thing such a man never dies. Sometimes they build memorial tombs over young men of promise who have passed away in the morning of their life. A common form is a broken column, to indicate a marred life. It is not a Christian symbol. Who knows what success is? Who knows enough of God's ways and of eternity to say of an old saint who worked all through his long day, praised by all and honored by all, that he succeeded, and that the young man who fell on the field of battle at the first onset failed? Such a life as McLain's cannot be a failure; his influence lives here in this college, and there are Emory boys in more States than one whom God gave to his college-ministry as the firstfruits of his harvest. Who can tell how far, how wide, how deep may be the ministry of McLain as perpetuated in these, his sons in the gospel ?

OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT.

339

And it seems to me very foolish and heathenish, to use such words as "blighted lives," as "failure," about one who so uses this world as to get well ready for the next. As if there were need of good men only here; as if good men can only do good while in the flesh! In God's natural world there is no waste; much less in his spiritual world. It is well that McLain struggled through college; it is well that he went to China; it is well that he re turned to America; it is well that he has gone out of this world into heaven. For all I know he may be more useful to this world out of the body than in the body. What we call death does not dissipate spiritual energy, any more than the decay of springflowers or forest-oaks annihilates the substance that gave them form and color.
Spirit abides. McLain and all the good people who have gone out of this world are now as much a part of the spiritual and redeeming forces of the universe as they ever were. And character abides. Wherever he is to-day, whatever he is doing, the words of our text describe him.
*>
While we engage in this precious communion service, let us ask more of the mind of Christ, that we also may rejoice in hope, be patient in tribula tion, and continuing instant in prayer, may receive at the last a crown of life.

THE NEW SOUTH
FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT,
[A SPEECH,*]

OVER1TOR LOSFG, I thank you for the gracious and graceful introduction you have given me. During the last three weeks I have been speaking in Kew England, and I have begun by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen;" but to-day and here I say, " Fellow-citizens." And why should I not use these words? Georgia and Massachusetts both be long to the original thirteen. The first place I vis ited in your city was Bunker Hill, and I have looked at that part of the bay where they emptied the teachests. A few days ago I read President Arthur's mes sage. My heart burned within me with gratitude and hope that it contained no reference to "the South" as a peculiar section of the country. Mr. Vice-president Davis says it is the first message in

* Delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts, at noon

Monday, December 12, 1881. This speech was delivered in sub

stance in fifteen other cities and towns of New England. December

12th, Governor Long, of Massachusetts, presided, and introduced the

speaker with many kind references to the South. Bishop R. S.

Foster offered prayer.

ft 1

(340)

THE

SOUTH.

341

forty years that has not contained such a reference. It is a good omen. As it seems to me, there is hardly any thing so desirable as that the South should be thought of as simply part of the Nation, as is the JSbrth, the East, the West, and that it should think of itself in this way*

TO-DAY AND TO-MO&ROW.
As I am to talk to you of the " JS"ew South " I have little to do with history. I have little to do with yesterday except to repent of its sins, to learn wisdom from its failures, and to he grateful for its blessings. But I do not recall it now, neither your yesterday nor ours4 As to whatever was bitter in any of its experiences, it is time for wise and good people to say, " Let the dead bury their dead."
"THE SOUTH."
That part of the TJnited States that is called "The South " is a large part of -North America. It may be described as extending from Delaware, along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, to Mexico; going west ward, it embraces all south of the Ohio River. "West of the Mississippi would be counted as of the South --Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and the empire of Texas. The South contains fifteen of the States of the Union; five of them belonging to the "orig inal thirteen." These States embrace a territory of nearly nine hundred thousand square miles, some thing more than twelve times the territory of E"ew England. You have but one State as large as our smallest. Texas would make four IsTew Englands; it would make two hundred and ten of Hhode Island.

342

TiiE

SotJTri

(But if We compare manufacturesj and not acres, I am afraid that Rhode Island would make two hun dred and ten of Texas.) .

IN VARIETY OF SOILS, CLIMATES,
productions of the earth, and minerals, I suppose that no country can surpass the South. Mature gave the first comers to this region a good start and a fair chance. The South produces nearly all the varieties of food, vegetable and animal, that civilized man cares for. Few, if any, countries can show such a variety of woods and minerals. To illustrate how great is this variety and range of productions in the South, take my own State of Georgia for ex ample. In the northern counties of the State, a re gion traversed by the Blue Ridge range of mount ains, may be found in perfection the vegetables and fruits common to mountainous and* northern coun tries, as cabbages, potatoes, apples, buckwheat, etc. The middle part of the State produces all the most valuable cereals; it abounds in the most useful fruits and vegetables. In the southern counties we have rice, sugar-cane, oranges, bananas, and many of the best tropical and semi-tropical productions. In South Georgia are found vast stretches of longleaf pine forests, affording -the best of lumber, and sustaining hundreds of turpentine distilleries. (We have found these distilleries much less injurious than distilleries of a different class.) The northern part of Georgia, south of the Blue Ridge, is a true gold-* bearing region. In some counties we find copper, in others slate and the finest building-stone; in

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

348

North-west Georgia, coal. Nearly as much may be said of half a dozen Southern States. The coal and iron fields of Tennessee and .North Alabama are said by experts to be practically inexhaustible.

SOME DEVELOPMENTS OF LATE TEARS
are surprising some of the older people. For in stance, the cotton and sugar-cane belts have moved northward from one to two hundred miles. In my own county of Newton, on about the same parallel with Atlanta, a number of farmers, I am told, have this year made large quantities of the best sirup from genuine ribbon-cane. Twenty years ago it was thought that sugar-cane would not grow so high up the country. And cotton is now produced profita bly a hundred miles north of where it was consid ered, in old times, an unprofitable crop. But siiioe Providence set our white people free, they have " found out many inventions."
But these matters cannot be further discussed at this time; a few samples will sumce for those who know something of the productions of other countries.
The great export staples of the South, as all men know, are tobacco, chiefly confined to Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and parts of Tennessee; sugar, Louisiana furnishing the greater portion of this product; and cotton, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri affording but a small part of this greatest of Southern products.
If the world-wants it, the cotton-belt can produce ten times any crop it ever raised. For we have found that by high culture we can produce three

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THE SOUTH

times the average crop, and one-fourth of the cottonlands have not been brought under the plow. And when this country becomes--as it will at no very, distant period--the home of three hundred millions of people, we will need sixty millions of bales.
It would be difficult to draw, a just outline pict ure of this vast region, to give a fair account of its natural resources and of its industries, in a single address. How impossible to make a full statement of life in the South--a far more complicated subject for investigation and discussion.

THE ORDINARY "BIR&S-EYE VIEW"
the mere tourist gives of a country is well named; generally only a bird's observation and wisdom are back of it. The migratory birds--wild geese for ex ample, in their annual flights northward and south ward--as they fly look down upon fields and forests, hamlets and cities. No doubt they have their views of all these things and report them to their friends, just as mere tourists do who glimpse a country from car-windows, reading books or papers for the most part, when they are not asleep.
I have never been in Kew England (so much the worse for me) before this time. Suppose now that I write home to our papers my views of ^ew En gland, its climate, soil, and productions; my notions and guesses as to the characteristics of your people,' the nature of your institutions, the tendencies of your civilization, and other such infinitely compli cated matters, making up "my mind about you and all your affairs in the cars, on the streets, at lunch-

PROM A SOUTHERN

345

counters, in railroad eating-houses, hotels, in the few households I visit, or even by looking into the faces of an audience like this. I should make many mistakes, injurious to you or complimentary over much. And if I come among you with a prejudice that tended to make my eye contract under the in fluence of light, I should be tempted to affirm of you what I did not know to be true, which I take to be the most harmful form of lying practiced among men.
"In this world," says an old German proverb, " the eye sees what it brings capacity for seeing." There are plenty of things to see if there be only an eye. "With equal truth it may be said the eye sees what it looks for, as the humming-birds and butter flies always find the brightest flowers, and the vult ures always find the dead things. It was Parker, the London preacher, or some other man who had the Christ spirit in him, who prayed that "we may have grace to see the best things in each other" To this prayer all good people will say "Amen."

THE PEOPLE MORE THAN THE LAND.
The true student of a country concerns himself more about the people than the land; if for no other reason, because, as the history of Kew England shows, there is more in the people than in the land. In the South there are about sixteen millions of peo ple--a respectable part of the fifty millions that make up the population of the United States. Un less we wish to lapse into savagery, the people of the different sections of the Union cannot afford to hate each other, or even to think evil of each other

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THE KEW SotJTit

as classes. The devil is in all wholesale denunciation. If there is one supreme civil duty that this hour calls for, it is the burial of sectional animosities. If there is one civil crime the most unpardonable, it would be for us to hand down to our innocent chil dren the heat and bitterness of a quarrel for which they, at least, are not responsible:
Of the sixteen millions, about ten millions are white, and six millions are negroes. (I use the word negro because it means black*) Bach race is homo geneous in itself. The white people are nearly all of English descent, and nearly all Protestant. In Georgia, for instance, according to the last census, in a total population of l,538,983j only 10,310 are of foreign birth.
PURE-BLOOD AFRICANS.
Of the six millions of colored people in the South, the overwhelming majority are pu1 re-blood Africans, though many lighter skins among them show the mixture of races. The white blood betrays itself. This explains, in part, the hasty and erroneous con clusions of those who give "bird's-eye views" of the South. They think that there are very large num bers of mulattoes among us. They are mistaken, and not unnaturally. A score of black children are passed unnoticed; one mulatto is observed. An other fact should be considered: most of the halfbreeds are found in towns and cities, and from towns and cities tourists get their impressions of a country. But the great mass of Southern pop ulation is in the rural districts. This should also be added as a part of the statement of this case:

347
few mulattoes have been born during the last six teen years.
OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TBE NEGUO
population of the South there is only time to give you a hurried sketch. When they were set free they had little but their trained muscle and their hope; Of many of them this should be added--their faith in God. This also: they had the good-will of the great majority of the Southern white people, particularly of the minority that once owned them as slaves. And now the former slave-holders are more patient-with them than are those of our people who never owned them; they are more patient with them than are Northern people who have come South since the war. During the last sixteen years many of them have had a sharp struggle for existence. Many of our white people have had a similar expe rience. A few of these emancipated people have shown good capacity for business, and have accumu lated handsome properties. A large number have built themselves humble dwellings, which are their own, and a few have gained some foothold in the soil and are the owners of small farms. Most of them depend for subsistence on their daily labor, and the great majority are at work on the farms and plantations, as hired laborers, or as tenants on con tracts renewable at the end of each year.
HOW THEY LIVE.
They have this advantage of the laboring classes of some other countries and sections: they are not subject to "lockouts;" they are not victimized by

348

THE NEW SOUTH

"strikes*" nor are they liable to be thrown out of employment by "panics" or suspensions; for agri culture does not suspend. It may be questioned whether the laboring classes of any country are so certain of employment a's are the negroes of the South who really wish to work. They are begin ning to appear upon the tax-books as land-owners. Thus, in Georgia, according to the report of the Comptroller-general for 1880 (and I take Georgia only because the figures were accessible to me, and I did not wish to guess), they own of "improved lands " 586,664 acres--a snowing most creditable to them. And of these negro land-owners this may be said with certainty i they are mtir'e satisfactory as neighbors and citizens than are those Who do not own land. A little land does more to elevate him as a citizen than even the wonder-working ballot itself. They live, most of them, in small and un comfortable cabins. Btit this gives them less trouble than Northern people may suppose. They have had a good training in order to contentment with small things; the climate favors them; most of them have enough to eat, and in winter fuel enough to keep them warm. They will spend their last dime for food or fuel, and if it comes to the pinch will get it elsewise. (Some white men, I have observed, employ similar methods.) The negro is constitutionally and habitually a meat-eater; it may be well questioned whether the common laborer of any country has as much meat to eat as the Southern negro. A fence rarely survives a severe winter if it be close to a ne gro settlement in a town or village where wood is

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

349

scarce. The average negro will burn his own fence without compunction or hesitation. I have a negro neighbor who has burned his own fence and part of mine four winters in succession. I^ext spring he and I will make a new fence.
Few of them are skilled workmen--the best me chanics among them learned their trades when they were slaves. Free Southern negroes and Southern white boys are alike in one thing at least--they are impatient of apprenticeship. This is one reason why the South is so far behind in the mechanic arts.

AS A CLASS THEY AEE NOT SYSTEMATIC
in their plans and labors; few of them know how to lay by for a " rainy day." When they were slaves they had no motive for economy; when old or worn out their masters provided for them as no great cor poration provides for its disabled servants. The exceptions to this statement were few--the master who did not provide for his sick or disabled negroes lost caste. Their lack of foresight and economy may be well explained by their antecedents; some of them antedating their coming to America.
But poor and shiftless as they are, they are im proving; they are not slipping back into barbarism, and they are not dying out. (The last census shows that they increase somewhat faster than does the white race.) The tax-books show that they are be ginning to produce a little more than they consume. They live better than they did ten years ago.
Many of them drink whisky when they can get it. As a race, they are fond of strong drink--as

"T"

I
850

THE NEW SOUTH

all races are. But I think as to sobriety they will compare favorably with the common laborers of other races and countries. But when it comes to temperance reform, they will not do to depend on overmuch. Witness the prohibition movement in North Carolina, last summer, when the revenue offi cers voted them almost solid in favor of the bar rooms.
Their conventional moral code allows more mar
gin than is consistent with sound ethics. But they are not so bad as many Northern, as well as South ern, writers have represented them to be. The fact is, too much attention has been concentrated on the South for just judgments, either as to the negroes or the whites.
UNTAUGHT.
One of the saddest facts of their lot is that most of them are very ignorant. The majority of them are untaught. (Many of our white people are in the same condition.) Few ex-slaves can read. While slavery lasted, there was small chance to teach them; some were taught, nevertheless. A few ex-slaves have learned to read since they be came free--greatly to their credit. Thousands of the younger race can read and write and cipher-- if not after the best models, yet profitably. Many of them have learned these things after the best models. (Witness, for instance, specimens of the school-work done by negro boys and girls in the public schools of Atlanta--some of it as good as the best.) One of the most encouraging signs of their progress and uplifting is this: It is fast becoming a

PROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

351

point of honor with colored parents that their chil

dren learn to read and write.

Alas that there ever was any hinderance to their

education! God he thanked, there is now next to

no opposition to their instruction. Where yon can

find one heathen man or benighted neighborhood

opposing their education, I can find twenty that

favor it.

THEIR DISPOSITIONS.

As a class they are obliging, good-tempered, and nu revengeful. Their disposition to help one another is wonderful. They have many relief societies that help in sickness or other distress. Their treasurers are held to strict accountability. Few bank direct ors watch cashiers so closely. But some negroes are as dishonest and mean as any white man, and now and then one "absorbs" the funds of the soci ety. But they do not say, " He has been unfortu nate; has overdrawn;" that he is a "defaulter." They express themselves plainly; they say, "That nigger is a thief" And they are right. (When ever a negro wishes to express his contempt, or to jeer at one of his fellows, he pronounces the word as if spelled with two "#'s.")
I do not at this time go into a discussion of their future. I content myself by saying these six mill ion, and those who come after them, are in this country to stay, for the most part, and chiefly in those sections where they now are. What was called the "exodus" turned out to be an immense word for a small affair. In some respects it would be well if fifty or one hundred thousand of them

352

THE $EW% SOUTH

could settle in each one of the New England and Middle States. It would give knowledge of this problem where it is needed, and teach pa tience.
THEY INCREASE IN NUMBERS.
There is nothing like it this side the land of Goshen. The census shows an increase between 1870 and 1880 of 34.78 per cent. This is larger than the percentage of total increase in the entire population. They have multiplied nine times in the last, hundred years.
People that can think need no help to see that in the relations of two such races in this country, this Nation has a problem of no ordinary magnitude to solve. The true solution of this problem is not a party matter. The Republican party is a big thing, as we of the South have found out, but it is not big enough to settle the questions of which I am speak ing to-day; nor is any party or section. It will take the Christian sense and conscience of this whole people.
These questions cannot be settled on any narrow party or "sectional basts." They must be settled on the foun dation of the Declaration of Independence and the Con stitution of the United States; above all, upon the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.

THE FRQMATURE BALLOT.
The difficulties of our case are greatly increased by the fact that the ballot was given to the negro before he was ready to receive it. I refer now to an unpleasant matter. But this is the land of

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

358

free speech. I can now speak of these things without passion, and you must hear me without prejudice.
You people of the I^orth put a tremendous strain upon the institutions of our country when you made every recently enfranchised negro man'a voter, dis franchising, at the same time, thousands of our white people. Did it, too, when the wide and deep sea of our national life was still rocking and seeth ing under the blasts of a four-years' storm.
In times of great excitement the majority do not think; they only feel. But the most far-sighted of our Southern people clearly saw that the hallot was one of the logical sequences of the events of the war. But they did think that it should have been accompanied with some condition (not so hard, Gov ernor Long, as Rhode Island and Massachusetts have imposed upon white men), but something, as that the new voter should be able to read the name of the man he voted for, and to sign his own name. White men are hardly competent to vote; they have been struggling toward fitness for five hundred years. But upon these emancipated negroes the ballot was tumbled en masse, and without condition. When he was made a voter the average Southern negro had just three ideas as to the significance of the ballot. It was proof that he was free; it was an expression of your regard for him; it was chiefly to keep the white people of the South down. This was Ms view. With such ideas he could have no just appreciation of the ballot, and little conscience in the use of it. As a matter of course he became,
23

354

THE SOUTH

as a voter, the victim of adventurers and place-hunt ers in all sections.
THE REAL WONDER.
When we remember what the war was and what followed it;* when we remember that half a m~ 'illion men, who had lost their cause, disbanded from the Confederate armies, returned to a desolated and prostrate country; wfren we remember the stress and storm and fury of that period, the true wonder is not that there was a period of disorder which good men lamented, not that there were occasional outbreaks of violence which they deplored; the true wonder is that there was not utter and final chaos. And, as a man who lived in and through it all, I here declare my opinion that the one influence that saved the South from utter and remediless ruin was the leaven of the Christian religion that is so widely diffused throughout that region, both among the white and black people.
But whatever was wise or unwise in the fact or manner of enfranchising the negro, it is now too late to discuss that. The ballot he has, and the ballot he will keep. And in this place I declare my opinion that the South will be the last part of this Union that will wish to take the ballot from him. If there were no other reasons, there are political considerations that will secure this result.
HELP US.
There is but one thing that can now be done. "We must make the most of him. And we want you of the Korth to help us make the most of him,

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

355

as a man and a citizen, with that thunderbolt of power, the ballot, in his hands. You have done much for him, but the results would have been bet ter if you had had better knowledge of the work you had in hand. But I do not see how you could have had better knowledge unless you had had ex perience, or unless we of the South had cooperated with you more heartily. We are not blameless in this matter. I, at least, am not blameless; I might have done more. But this I say in common justice:
During those years of confusion and strife and mis understanding on all sides, it was harder for us of the South to do just what we wished to do--just what was right--than you can ever understand or
appreciate. But times change and people change. There is
everywhere in the South a growing interest in the education of the whole people. You can do more now, and we can help you as never before. We are beginning to feel that all the people must be educated-- MUST BE. Ballots in the hands of ignorance are packages of dynamite, whether cast by a fair or a dark hand.

THE NEGRO AND RELIGION.
I should do wrong not to say a few words about the religious characteristics of the negroes in the South. No matter what one may believe on the subject of religion in general, or of their religion in particular, no man who would understand them and their relations to the problem of our national life can afford to overlook their religious character.

356 '

THE NEW SOUTH

>

Their notions may be crude, their conceptions of

truth sometimes grotesque and realistic to a painful

degree, their religious development may show many

imperfections--nevertheless, their most striking, im

portant, and formative characteristic is their relig

ion. The negro's Church is the center not only of

his religious but of his social life. Their religion

is real to them. They believe the Bible--every line

and every word of it. To them God is a reality.

So are heaven, hell, and the judgment-day.

GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE.
The religion of the Southern negro, slave or free, was and is a divine reality. During the late war it was pure and strong enough to secure peace and safety to women and children on the plantations while the men were away fighting under a flag which did not promise freedom to them. For this the just and good hold them in everlasting and grateful remembrance. And we may be quite sure that they understood what the war meant in its relations to them.
They may not have outgrown their superstitions, * but the school-house and the Bible will do for them
what they have done for all people--drive out the evil and cruel spirits of superstition.
THE SOUTHERN WHITE PEOPLE.
But you have several million of brothers in white in the South. Of them I must tell you some things worthy of your consideration. " As we have seen, the Southern white population is almost exclusively of English descent and Prott-

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

357

estant faith. Some of the characteristics of our peo ple I mention; none of them I have time to discuss.

NO ISMS.
1. Those intellectual monstrosities known as "isms," horn of cranky brains, are almost unknown in the South. They are never indigenous, and they get no foothold there. One of our critics suggests that we " have not enterprise enough to get up an ism." I accept the criticism in view of the com pensation we have in deliverance from the affliction that is suffered hy some. Among Southern people speculative infidelity is practically without an au dience. Our people believe the Bible to be the word of God, and the number who doubt make an inap preciable percentage of our population. Sinners we have plenty, but they are not infidels or atheists. They need preaching, repentance, and conversion.

DANGEROUS CLASSES.
2. The South is almost absolutely free from what are called "the dangerous classes." During the railroad riots of 1877 that in Pittsburg burst out in blood and flame--startling and shocking the whole country--there was hardly a strike in our section, and there was no violence or disturbance.
A home-bred "tramp" is hardly ever seen; I never saw but one, and he was deaf and dumb. There is no tendency among us to communism, nihilism, or any such deviltry. Faults we have plenty, but not these.
AT WORK. 3. The Southern people nearly all live in the

858

THE

SOUTH

rural districts, and are at work, and have been at work all their lives.
The second part of this statement you are dis posed to doubt; it is asserted on all sides that " the South" is lazy. Lazy people we have--too many of them--but it is not true that our people as a class are lazy.
A lady in Connecticut asked me one evening: " Did the white women of the South do any thing at all before the war?" I asked her: "What do you suppose to have been the facts as to the owner ship of slaves in the South? About how many owned slaves?" She answered: "I suppose every family, except the utterly worthless, owned at least one or two to wait on them." I asked, in reply: " Did it ever occur to you to ask, Who made the living while one or two negroes waited on white people who did nothing? "
There were in the South, in the old times, people of wealth and leisure who did no work; just as your aristocrats and millionaires of Boston do nothing that they can hire another to do. But the majority of slave-holders worked. I will give you a fair av erage case. My grandfather began life a poor man; he first kept house in a log-cabin. He was a hard worker and was economical. In a few years he saved enough to become the owner of two or three slaves. He died at fifty-six, owning fifty or sixty negroes. But till he was too old, or till his super intendence was worth more than his personal labor, he led the foremost row in the field. (We have large families in the South, Governor Long.) He

A SOUTHERN STAJJD-POINT.

859

brought up five sons to the plow, and five daugh ters could spin and weave under the old dispensa tion. My father taught me to plow, and I have not forgotten the art.

WHAT WJS FOtJGST FO&.
As I have already told you, the majority of our people never owned slaves at all. The majority of them fought through our horrible war not for'slav ery, but for their doctrine of State rights, in which they had been brought up from the beginning. And as Mr. Lincoln, in a memorable letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862, said: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that:"--So our people of the South would have set free every slave to have preserved their doctrine of State sov ereignty. That for which they fought so long and well they surrendered at Appomatox for good and all; and tens of thousands of us have come to thank God not only that the slaves were set free, but that the Union was saved.
PROOFS.
But I was about to say something of our people as workers. There is surely some work done in the South. We never hear of people starving, and sta tistics of pauperism show fewer people " on the coun ty," or "on the town," than in any other civilized

360

THE

SOUTH

country. No man who saw the South in 1865, and who knows what she produced in 1880 and 1881, will make the general charge of laziness against our people.
Commissioner Loring, the papers tell us, has re cently repeated what so many have said, that the Southern farmer sticks to his old tools--showing in so many ways how behind the age he is. Much of this is true. But this does not prove that he is lazy. Solomon knew long before we of the North or we of the South began to find fault with each other that " if the iron be blunt, he that useth the ax must lay to more strength." A matt who does not know how to farm, and who uses inferior tools, must work all the harder if he succeeds*
Let me make a witness of one of your own peo ple, Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston. I quote his words (from an article in Good Company for Sep tember), because he has been making an exhaustive study of the industries of the South since the war. Mr. Atkinson says:
" To him who either hastily or with ample time now studies the condition of the Southern States, from the end of the war to the present time, noth ing will appear more marvelous than the recuper ative power of a people so lately made free from bondage as the people of the South; and the term ' made free' is used with respect not only to all the blacks, but to the vast majority of the whites as .well." [He might have said all the whites, for slav ery was an incubus upon every white man, woman, and child in the South.] " By comparison with oth-

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

361

er countries, the war left the Southern States with

nothing hut neglected lands, up6n which were seat-

.

tered dwellings more or less adequate to shelter the

:l

people, but with few mills or works of any kind,

with old tools or none, and with all the internal ma

chinery of commerce practically destroyed. The

soldiers from most of the Southern States went hack

after the surrender to meet conditions absolutely un

known before; they were obliged to begin life anew

without capital, without experience to guide them,

and in the face of conditions which, from their point

of view, must have been absolutely appalling. How

it has been possible even for men of intelligence, but

whose only training in the practical work of life had

been gained in the destructive operations of war, to

have returned to fenceless and deserted farms and

plantations, there to adapt themselves to a complete

change, not only in the system of labor, but to a

complete revolution of the very ideas of the people

in regard to labor, and in the few years that have

*

since elapsed to have compassed the great progress

already made, is one of the marvels the history of

which has hardly yet been observed and is yet un

written."

SOUTHERN RECUPERATION.

Mr. Atkinaon is right; the recuperation of the South since April, 1865, is one of the marvels. Ko people were ever called upon to do such a work, and to solve such a problem under such conditions. Kb people ever did more to recover from such an utter overthrow and such an utter reversal of all their political, social, and industrial doctrines and

362

THE SOUTH

methods* And their success is without a parallel in the history of conquered people.
One of two things is true: either the South is the best country in the world, or the Southern people are at work. Both propositions are true*

REVOLUTIONS.
4. The Southern people are almost exclusively an agricultural people, and in the Cotton States much inclined to give their energies to their great staple. Most of them serve their " King Cotton " with slav ish loyalty; and dearly has he made them pay for their allegiance, as all despots do.
But we are upon the threshold of revolutions. I do not say changes, but revolutions. We are enter ing upon diversified industries. The manufacturing instinct manifests itself. The opinion is settling down into perfect conviction and confidence that some cotton-factories should be closer to cottonfields than they are. Our people are going to try the experiment. "Within the last few years there have been large increase and much success in our manu
facturing interests.

FARMS VS. PLANTATIONS.
"What is, perhaps, more vital to our comfort and prosperity, our people are becoming convinced of the sound policy of diversified crops. The most marked and impressive change in our agricultural system is in the tendency to break up plantations into farms. I give you a few figures recently sent out from the census office. Thinking people cannot fail to understand the prophecy in them of vast and

PROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

363

many changes in Southern life, and hetter things for us all. I take, for illustration, five States--Alahama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and South Car olina. The table shows the number of proprietors at different periods. You will observe that the in crease between 1860 and 1870 was about the same as between 1850 and 1860:

States.

. 1880.

Alabama..........................135,864

Arkansas.......................... 94,433

Florida............................ 23,438

Georgia...........................138,626

South Carolina.................. 93,864

1870*
67,382 49,424 10,241 69,956 51,889

1860.
55,128 39,004 6,568 62,003 33,171

1S50.
41,964 17,758 4,304 51,759 29,967

These figures tell the story of a revolution that must affect every industrial and social interest in the South, and, as I believe, for the almost incon ceivable bettering of our condition. Figures cannot measure the results of these changes; they cannot be compressed into any statistical columns whatso ever. With small farms come ten thousand bless ings--industrial, social, educational, and political-- denied to the majority under the old plantation sys tem, and that grow directly out of the ownership of the soil. For one thing: THEY MAKE THE COMMON
SCHOOL A CERTAINTY AND A NECESSITY.
The number of proprietors has nearly doubled in the last ten years. The probability is that it will double again in the next ten*

SMALL ECONOMIES.
The multiplication of small farms, the increasing railroad facilities that Northern money for the most part is bringing to us, the development of manu-

364

THE KEW SOUTH

factoring interests, and the common school that is growing and strengthening itself in the confidence and love of the people from year to year, and, above all, free labor, will bring into the social and busi ness habits of the Southern people that which, as a class, we have sorely needed and conspicuously lacked; that which largely,.if not chiefly, accounts for the prosperity of New England; that which explains the marvelous financial recuperation of Erance after a most fearful war--I mean the habit of small economies.
Many causes combined to develop wasteful and uneconomical habits among our people. It grew partly out of the fact that in a fertile and thinly set tled country, where land was cheap, where work can be done in the open field nearly every week in the year, it was easy to produce more than was needed for consumption. The general lack of transporta tion facilities made the surplus of small money value in the local markets; but beyond question our sys tem of labor itself fostered w#ste by all our people.
But economy we are learning. Free labor, trans portation facilities, ready markets, small farms--all these things are helping us.

THE NEED OF SAVINGS-BANKS.
All over the South we need what we have never had, outside of a few of our larger cities (and they have been so managed as to amount to but little there)--we need savings-banks, and the habits of economy and the practice of small savings which they foster and encourage. The savings-bank,

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT. 365
rightly managed and well patronized, would almost work miracles among us. It is needed lor whites and blacks; some place, some way, for saving the small margins between production and consumption.
If the savings-bank becomes an institution in the South, it must first win confidence. The disasters that followed the collapse of the Freedman's Sav ings-bank was an immeasurable calamity to the ne groes of the South. What we want (and, as it ap pears to me, there is nothing we need more in our business life) is a savings-bank system that can be available in our small towns and villages. A sav ings-bank in Atlanta or Savannah might as well be in Boston so far as the majority of the people of Georgia are concerned. Why cannot our "pater nal government" devise some plan, something like the English system, recommended, I believe, by Mr. Postmaster-general James--a post-office savings-bank system, available by all our people, so that they can deposit, where they will be safe, their small savings? The people want a system in which they will have the same confidence they have in the national cur rency ; the bank may break, but the bill is good. If some statesman rises up with enough practical sense to manage this matter, the next generation will build him a monument as noble as that which the people of England have built in honor of the father of cheap postage.
THE COTTON EXPOSITION,
now progressing in Atlanta, symbolizes, in a most instructive way, to people who see and think, the

366

THE

SOUTH

vast changes that are coming into the industrial and social system of the South. A Boston Yankee, Mr. Edward Atkinson, suggested it; another Yankee, whom we have adopted and made our own, Mr. H. I. Kimhall, pushed it through. Many thanks to these gentlemen, and all who helped them. The Southern people have gone into it most enthusiast ically, and the more hopeful helieve that this Expo sition of the resources of the country opens fairly the new era that is to make the South truly prosper ous, and that is to hless the whole country.
It is impressive and inspiring to look upon the multitudes that throng the Exposition buildings and grounds. They are there from all sections of our great Union--the men of the North and the men of the South mingling happily together--talking cotton and all manner of business--asking nothing of each other's politics.

COTTON-FACTORY VS. PRESIDENT.
The fact is, the Southern people are marvelously stirred up about their business interests at this time. An old Democrat at the Exposition, some days ago, said with some emphasis of language: "I would rather see another big cottoYi-factory in Atlanta than to elect a Democratic President of the United States." That was putting the case strongly. There may be a stray Democrat in Tremont Temple to day. It may occur to him that the Atlanta man-- as Bishop Foster's people would say--has "back slidden." But let me suggest to the Democrats of New England, before they condemn him too severely:

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

367

"We Democrats down South have heen trying rather diligently for ahout sixteen years to secure a Dem ocratic President, and we have had poor success. Whenever the Democrats of the North get ready to elect one of that faith and order, let them proceed, and ice will help them.
PYRAMID ON THE WRONG END.
In the matter of education we of the South have much to learn and much to do. We are hehind in these interests. It was inevitable with our past his tory. Our better people feel it keenly, and are do ing their utmost to mend matters.
It is not just to say that we have lacked interest in education. Before the war the South had more sons and daughters in college than the North had. Our mistake was, we tried to stand the pyramid on its apex; we neglected the common school.
Our common schools are not efficient, but they are improving. For the most part our system is good, but we lack money. Our States are not able to spend as much as the richer States of the ^orth and West. But we are able to do better than we do, and we are going to do it, for the people are de manding it. It will not be long till an elementary English education is made available to all the chil dren of the South--white and black alike.

COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH.
I have been asked about our colleges. They are better than you suppose. Many of them have com petent faculties, and do thorough and honest work. With few exceptions our colleges lack endowments

868

THE NEW SOUTH

and the resources they bring. Few of them are equipped with libraries, apparatus, museums, as they should be. You ask why? I answer: 1. Much of the South is a new and thinly settled country. 2. In the older parts of the South, where in former times there was money, the idea of endowing col leges had small place in the minds of those who had it. 3. Since 1865 our people have not had the money to do it.
The South is looking up, the people are getting on their feet again; but there is little money in the South in masses. The great endowments which have made your colleges and universities strong and famous did not come out of the pockets of the poor, or even from small and well-to-do farmers. Was a great endowment ever raised by the small contribu tions of the thousands? No; they come by the thousands of the few. For the college men and women of the South I will say, They deserve honor for their heroic efforts to do their work in spite of their poverty

LIVING ON EIGHT DOLLARS A MONTH i
My position as President of one of the oldest Southern colleges brings me into constant com munication with young men in all parts of the South.
Nothing is plainer than that there is a constantly widening and deepening feeling of intense desire among our young men for higher education. There are more than sixty in Emory College working their way and living on eight dollars a month. (There will be

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT.

369

nearly one hundred in the coming term.) [Decem ber, 1882, more than one hundred^ Our young women share this feeling of noble aspiration. You will un derstand what it signifies when I tell you there were neversomany young men in collegefrom thefarms as now. There is brain and backbone in them. They will win and be heard from in the golden day that is beginning to dawn upon us. Some day they will help you make this country what it ought to be.

THE SOUTH AND POLITICS.
I wish to say a word about the South and poli tics. I know not what the professionals will think of what I say. Nor am I overconcerned about it, as I have no favors to ask, nor have my kinsfolk. I doubt, indeed, if they understand me. In their lines there are no shrewder men. But their lines are narrow--they are party lines. When a man is looking straight at an office, there is not much else that he can see. The "signs of the times" hung out in the higher skies are invisible to him; he could not see the sign of Constantine itself.
I claim no prophetic insight, but a man who is not a candidate for any thing may see and hear some things hidden from him whose soul is hun gering and thirsting for office. And I venture
to say: The great body of the Southern people are grown very
weary of geographical and sentimental politics. The political leaders they are looking for, and
that they are ready to follow, are the men who can do something that has sense and substance in it;
24

370

THE

SOUTH

who can so attend to the business of the country as to give it the fairest chance and the best devel opment. They are weary of declamations; they are tired to death of controversy; they want peace, the development of their industries, and the build ing up of their civilization. And it will go hard with them, or they will have what they want. Moreover, it will go hard with party leaders and bosses who seek to hinder them. Hinderauces that they cannot overcome they are going to throw off; bonds they cannot untie they are going to break.

WHY WE PRAYED FOR PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
Thanking you for your generous attention, I wish to tell you now the secret of the deeply sincere and universal interest of the Southern people in Presi dent Garfield. They recognised his true greatness, and respected him; they saw in him a certain lofti ness of chivalric sentiment, and were drawn to him; they looked on his sufferings, and sympathized with him; they beheld his fortitude, and admired him; they believed in his religion, and trusted him. But the real secret of their interest in him was this: After the smoke and fury of the canvass had cleared, and they saw him in the bright sunlight, they rec ognized in him a splendid embodiment of the true American idea of this country. They believed that he intended to give the country a true national ad ministration, from which they were not expecting favors, only justice and a fair chance. While he yet lingered in suffering, millions of prayers were offered by our people--in the great congregations and in humble

PROM A SOUTHERN STAISD-POINT.

371

prayer-meetings; in the houses of the rich and in

I

the lowly cabins of the poor. They trembled on

;

the lips of the eloquent, and they were offered in

: ;j

the supplications of the untutored negro. And these

\ !j

prayers of men--of races and nations--were answered.

\

IPor the hearts of the people were brought nearer

together than they had been for fifty years. As it

)

seems to me, James A. Garfield did, in the provi

dence of God, more to heal the bleeding wounds of

his country than all others had done since the ac

cursed war began.

It was worth dying for to have done such a work.

And now, if you men of the North and we men of the

South allow party bosses of any party or section to undo

it all, we will deserve the wrath of God and the indig

nation of men.

THE MEN OF WAR AT PEACE,

There was a scene in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last



September, that symbolized truly the spirit that

animates the hearts of nearly all of the old Confed

erate soldiers and inspires the hearts of the young

men of the !N"ew South. (Our implaeables are those

who helped to bring on the war and then criticised

its generals from the bomb-proofs of their exemp

tion,) The survivors of the Confederate Army of

the Tennessee held a reunion, to which they invited

the survivors of the Union Army of the Tennessee.

Many of the bravest veterans--officers and men--

of these-two great armies met together. Missionary

Ridge looked d6wn upon them; Chattanooga was

close by; each registered a defeat and a victory.

372

THE NEW SOUTH.

These veterans--the wearers of the blue and the gray---joined their hands in raising our country's starry flag over the scenes of their festivity. "With equal devotion would they die under that flag in defending its honor or in protecting and preserving the perpetual union of these States.

THE NEGRO A CITIZEN.
[A SPEECH.*]
MR. PRESIDENT, I never saw the day since Christ converted me that my heart did not warm toward any good cause that in its plans and efforts took in the whole human race. The Ameri can Missionary Association represents such a cause, and I am grateful for the privilege of taking some small part in this anniversary meeting. And I am the more glad because this meeting is held in the city where Garfield, our President, awaits the resur rection of the just.
President Hayes did a good work for the South, for which history will give him due credit. It was this: He let the South alone, that the storm-rocked sea might calm itself. And President Garfield, liv ing, dying, and dead, awoke within the hearts of the Southern people the throbs of a profounder na tional sentiment than they had felt in twenty years.
It is becoming that I should speak this evening of that part of your work which I understand best, your work in the Southern States; and of that part of it which I know best, your work among the ne groes. Any work of importance, as to its extent,
* Delivered before the American Missionary Association, in Cleveland, Ohio, October 26,1882.
(373)

374

THE NEGRO A CITIZEN.

methods, or designs, done among the negroes must arouse interest in all thinking minds. For the ne gro has been in America two hundred and sixty years; there are not far from seven million of them in the United States to-day, and nearly all of them are in the Southern States. At the close of our war for independence there were in the United States about seven hundred thousand negroes. Within a century they have multiplied ten times. How many will they be by 1982? To speak in round numbers, the increase of the total population of this country from 1870 to 1880--as the last census shows--was thirty per cent. The increase of the white popula tion, aided largely as it was by immigration, was twenty-eight per cent.; the increase in the negro population, unaided by immigration, was thirty-four per cent. It is only very foolish people who can be indifferent to such facts; thoughtful people will con sider of them.
Visionaries and " cranks " may dream and declaim about solving the problem of their future and ours, by getting them somehow out of this country. But if it were desirable or practicable to transport them, they are born faster than whole navies could move them. And it is as undesirable as it is impractica ble. They are here to stay, and, so far as men can see, for the most part where they now are--in the Southern States of this Union. They are now nearly one-seventh of our population, and, by the providence of God, they are freemen and voters.
The time has about passed, Mr. President, for the North to please itself with eloquent speech concern-

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ing their emancipation, and for the South to fret itself with, fervent denunciation concerning their enfranchisement. It were wiser and more profita ble for the people of both sections to accept the facts of a most difficult question, to discuss the is sues of 1882, and, in a business-like way, to do our best to make the most of them. As to the now dominant sentiment in the South, nobody who has good sense wants them back in -slavery, and the South, you may depend upon it, will never consent for the ballot to be taken from them. Everybody knows that when they received the ballot en masse they were utterly unprepared for it. As a class, they had just three ideas concerning the ballot when it was given to them: 1. They looked upon it as the symbol of their freedom; this, perhaps, did them some good. 2. They received it as a special mark of the love borne to them by the people of the North; this made them vain of it, and alienated them from their white neighbors. 3. Their pre dominant notion was that it was given them to keep "the old rebels down;" this spoiled them for fair-minded politics.
You will pardon a single illustration of the new voter's capacity for enlightened politics. For nearly eight years I have had in my employment a very worthy colored man, Daniel Martin by name. He is about my own age; I trust him fully in all mat ters for which he has capacity; we are much at tached to each other; and, the truth is, we have been taking care of each other for a good while. He is above the average of his class in character

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and common sense. He can read " coarse print," and can sign his name imperfectly.
You will miss the point of my illustration unless you bear in mind that Martin had steadily voted the Republican ticket from the beginning of his citizenship to the date of my story. And he so votes till this day.
The day before the Hayes and Tilden election, Daniel was plowing in a little field near my house. One of the students quizzed him about his views and intentions: "How are you going to vote to morrow, Uncle Daniel?" It is a peculiarity of the Southern negro that he never delivers a solemn judgment on any subject without coming to a full halt in whatever engages him. One consequence is, he comes to a great many halts in his work. An other peculiarity of at least the Southern negro is that he thinks in metaphor and speaks in parables. So Daniel, stopping his horse and sticking his plow deeper into .the ground, delivered himself as fol lows:
" Now, Mr. Longstreet, you see I is plowin' dis furrow. If I only plow dis furrow I makes dis fur row too deep, an' I do n't plow de balance ob de patch."
Mr. Longstreet admitted the force of this state ment. Daniel continued, in answer to the young man's questions:
" I think things is bin gwine on in one way long enough; I think dere ought to be a change, wharfore I is gwine to vote for Mr. Hayes to-morrow-- git up, Bill."

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Next day he and I went to our county-town; he voted for Hayes, that there might be a change; I voted for Tilden, that there might be a change; he killed my vote, or possibly one of yours, and we were " equal before the law."
But few of them are now prepared to vote intelli gently; and ballots, whether cast by fair or dark hands, deposited by ignorance, are dangerous to free institutions. Are not you of the Korth nearly as much concerned in the quality of the negro's ballot as we of the South are ? Till recently they voted " solid" for the Republican ticket. A few weeks ago, in Georgia, the majority of them voted for an ex-Confederate brigadier-general, who fought brave ly at the first Manassas, and who ran for Governor as an Independent Democrat, receiving, however, the whole Republican vote; and thousands of them voted for the nominee of the Democratic party, the ex-Vice-president of the Confederacy. S"o white man running for oflS.ce in the South refuses their votes, and, so far as T know, their votes are always sought when there is any chance to get them. I am not sure but that his ignorance makes his ballot more dangerous when both parties seek his vote than when it was given solid to one.
In your work in the South, Mr. President, I re joice for many reasons. The reason I now mention is this: That work is helping to prepare the negro for his duties of a citizen. I can well understand how the best and wisest people of the !N"orth feel most deeply and solemnly the obligation to do this work, for they gave him the ballot, and history will

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not justify that gift unless they do what they can to prepare him for its intelligent use. Not now, nor during the next generation, can the South do this work alone. Unless you contimie to help, and to help mightily, it cannot he done.
As to primary education, niany in the South--and I, for one, agree with them--frellevej with our Sen ator Brown, of Georgia, that the national govern ment should come to the rescue, and help the States in this work, distributing its aids on the basis of illiteracy. This would give the South a large share of "appropriations" "under the old flag." What if it does? The South is a p'art of the North, and the North is a part of the South, if this is a Union and a Nation. Slowly but surely, as it seems to me, we are beginning to understand our relations to each other. Some day we will, it is to be hoped, understand one another so well, and agree so amica bly, that the phrases * the North" and " the South " shall have only geographical meanings. President Arthur--many thanks to him for this!--made no allusion to "the South" in his first message to Con gress.
If the General Government gives this needed help, it will be in the interests of the whole country, al though the Southern States may get, for once, the lion's share. For we are a very large part of this country; we are in the Union, and intend to stay there--if we have to whip somebody in order to do it.
But, in the nature of things, this sort of help must be temporary, and. as I suppose, should, like the

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educational work of the State governments, be car ried on, for the most part, in the common schools.
The thing that must he done, if our work is to stand, is to train up among the negroes, as well as among the whites, men and women who can teach the children of their race--teach them in homes, in school-houses, and in churches. This cannot he done by the State as it should be done. For if, as one has said, the " negroes need educated Christian ity," they need Christianized education in order to get it. This the State does not and cannot give. To achieve this most desirable and necessary result, the school-house and the church must work togeth er. There must be Bibles in the schools that are to train teachers among this people, and there must be Christian men and women in them who both teach
and practice religion. To train such teachers, as it appears to me, is the
work you, and others like you, are trying to do. You are raising up in those schools men and
women who, in the years to come, can, will, and must teach the children of these people. Hundreds of them, trained by you, are doing this now. I say must, for Christianized education must, by its in stinctive and divine impulses, perpetuate itself and diftuse itself. Christian education, whether in Chris tian or heathen lands, is the most aggressive and formative influence that is now shaping the destiny of the human race. When you send out from Nash ville, from Atlanta, and from New Orleans, young men and young women who are both educated and religious, you send into the masses of these untaught

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millions those who must teach them what they have learned both from books and from Christ. Again I say must, for the spirit that is in an educated Christian man or woman is, as the old Methodist preachers used to say, " a fire in the bones," and it will blaze out.
The author of the Declaration of Independence wrote, it is said, in 1782, this prediction: "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government."
It does not surprise me that Mr. Jefferson made both of these predictions* As to the first, there was at that time in Virginia and other Southern States a strong party that favored the emancipation of the slaves. As to the second prediction, he had studied French philosophy more than he had studied Chris tianity. If this country had been pagan Rome or infidel France, the first prediction would have failed --they never would have been set free by the will of men. Had they been set free, the second predic tion would have been fulfilled, for in a pagan or in fidel country the two races could not be "equally free and live in the same government." They would not have been set free had this not have been' a Christian country; as it is a Christian country, the two races, "equally free" before the law, can "live in the same government," and the problem of their free citizenship can be solved.
But this problem cannot be solved by legislation alone. Time has proved the truth of the weighty

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words delivered at your anniversary in 1875, by that venerable and great man who was taken to heaven last winter--the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. At that time Dr. Bacon wrote these words:
" I come to this conclusion: Legislation on the part of the national government is no longer to be invoked in aid of fundamental reconstruction. At tempts by Congress to employ force for the aboli tion of prejudices and antipathies in social inter course do not help the cause in which the American Missionary Association is at work. I use the word 'force,' because law enforced is force, and a law not enforced is not law. The more completely our cause can be henceforth disentangled from all con nection with political parties and agitators the bet ter for its progress. Doubtless there will be more legislation by the several States--especially in be half of the great interest of public education for all --before the consummation that we hope for shall have been attained; but the legislation must be the efieet and not the cause of that fundamental recon struction which we desire to work for. It will ex hibit and record more than it can inspire or control the progress of reformed opinions and better senti ments among the people."
When the law gives equal opportunities and guarantees equal rights to all (and this it must do to be worthy of respect), it has done all it can do. Foundation-work, of the sort Dr. Bacon had at heart, means character-building, and this goes on in individuals. Law has its educative force; but to lift up a race--whether white, or black, or yellow,

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or red--there must be character-building in individ ual men and women, and to do this work aright we must have the church and the school-house. And these two must work together, and not against each
other. This sort of foundation-work you are trying to
do through the American Missionary Association, and others like-minded with you are trying to do. It has not failed; it cannot fail; it has life in itself.
Mr. Jefferson's second prediction will fail--it is failing now. These two races are equally free, and they are living together in the same government with less and less of difficulty and misunderstand ing each year. Disturbances here and there, con flicts, acts of violence, there have been, there are, and there will be for a time. The wonder is not that there was a period of disorder in the Southern States after the war. The true wonder is that there is now so little of it, and that between 1865 and 1870 the South did not rush into final and utter chaos.
There was never in any country such a state of things--so provocative of universal and remediless anarchy. What is it that saved us? Not the troops, not acts of Congress. Christian schools and the Church of God saved us. It was the Protestant religion that dominated the majority both of the negroes and of the Southern white people. I grant you that the conservative influences that the Churches in the South brought out of the war have been greatly aided by the work done by your society and others like it, but it is also true that but for the

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work the Church in the South did hefore your com ing, you could have done next to nothing by this time in the experiment.
As to this whole subject, full of difficulties as those know best who have personal relations to it, there is just one platform on which Christian peo ple can stand. Our problem with these millions of negroes in our midst can be happily solved, not by force of any sort from without the States where they live; no more can it be solved by repression within those States. It can be worked out only on the basis of the Ten Camniandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
On this platform we can work out any problem whatsoever, whether personal, sqcial, political, na tional, or ethnical, that Providence brings before us.
On any lower pr narrower platform we will fail, and always fail.
We have learned, you of the North and we of the South, many things in the last ten years. Among other valuable discoveries, we have Jearned that the people of neither section are either all good or all bad. As to this race question, we people of the South have learned^ and are learning, that we can not manage our problem by any mere repressive sys tem. The people of the North have learned, and they are learning, that it cannot be solved by any sort of force from without-^whether force of law, force of troops, or force qf denunciation. Such knowledge is precious. Alas that it cost us so much!
May I quote at tl^is place one other paragraph

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from the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon? It is at the cdose of a letter dated "New Haven, October 22, 1875," and is in these words:
" May I be allowed to say one word concerning the future of this society? That word is concilia tion--conciliation by meekness, by love, by patient continuance in well-doing. The field is wide open for schools and for the preaching of the gospel, two great forces operating as one for fundamental recon struction. In both these lines of effort the work of the society must be more and more a work of con ciliation--conciliation of the South to the North and to the restored and beneficent Union--concili ation of races to each other, white to black and black to white--conciliation of contending sects, oppressed with traditional bigotries, to the simplic ity of the truth as it is in Jesus."
"Thomas Jefferson was not a prophet; Leonard Bacon was. And thank God so much has been done by this association to incarnate the truth that was in his great thoughts, and to fulfill his hopes and predictions as to its own future.
" But this work of * fundamental reconstruction' is a slow process," suggests the impatient one. That is true; character-building, whether in a man, or in a nation, or in a race, is always a slow process. And it must be slower in a nation, or in a race, than in a man. There was never any great work done in the uplifting or training of a race in a day, or in a year. It takes generations. How slowly our own race has risen out of savagery! how unfit we still are to fulfill our mission to the world! "We have

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small cause for boasting when white men's votes --sometimes enough of them to turn the scale in great elections--can he hought cheap in the open streets.
Lifting up a nation or a race is a slow process; wherefore the greater necessity for zeal, for wisdom, and for patience in our work. Wherever a great and necessary work that requires a long time and much labor is to be done, we should begin at once and do our best.
You find more sympathy and more of the spirit of cooperation among Southern people than you found ten years ago. I rejoice in this change of feeling in the South, and it is easy to understand it. Time, the healer, has clone his blessed work. Grace has overcome and the grave has buried much of bitter feeling on both sides. You have learned your work better, and we have learned more perfectly its value.
A good deal of your work I have seen. I be lieve it is good. I have looked into your school methods; they are yielding happy results. I have considered "examination papers" from some of your schools; they would have done credit to any school for any race. I have listened to speeches and essays from colored youths at your commencements; there was the evidence of sound culture and true re ligion in them. When I heard them, " I thanked God and took courage."
It is often asked, " Why does not the South do more in this work of educating and uplifting the negroes? " Sometimes the question has been asked

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angrily, perhaps because ignorantly. I believe the South can do more than it is doing--certainly more than it has done. But I think it likely that we have done as much as any other people in like circum stances would have done. History does not record of any people such vast, rapid, and radical changes of opinion and sentiment on subjects that had been fiercely fought over on hundreds of bloody fields as have taken place in the South during the last fifteen years, on the questions that grew out of the negro's emancipation and enfranchisement.
But the Southern States have done more than most people suppose. Nearly one million of negro children attend the public schools of the South.
In considering what the South has done and has not done in the work of educating the negroes, let it be remembered that the white people of the South have not been on beds of roses since 1865. The war and its consequents made the South poor beyond conception by those who have not had our experi ence. It left the North rich. The majority of our people have had a sharp struggle to live; most of them have been unable to educate their own chil dren.
Let me tell you of a man I talked with last sum mer. I went with my family and a little party on what we might call a camp-fishing expedition. As we approached the place where we proposed to spend a few days in recreation, my attention was ar rested by a white woman pulling fodder in a little field near a cabin. That night her husband came to our camp, offering such welcome as he could. We

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had a long talk together. He had been a Confed erate soldier, and he had on his body the marks of seven bullet-wounds. He never owned a slave; he had fought for what he had been taught to believe were the rights of the States. He is a laborer on the farm of the man who owns the land where he lives. He gets one hundred and forty dollars a year, cabin rent, a few acres tended by his wife and little girls, and the privilege of his winter wood. He said his employer is one of the kindest of men, and does for him all he can do. The landlord himself has small margins of profit. The poor fellow has five children, the eldest a bright girl aged fourteen; she looked dwarfed and older than her years; she had been nurse and drudge for the little ones. These children came to our camp by invitation, and the oldest promised to come one afternoon and show my children how to fish; she knows the river and the ways of the fish. I had my heart set on her coming; I wanted my children to know more about such people. She did not come at the time ap pointed, but that night she came to tell us why. Her cotton dress was wet with the dew, and her lit tle hands were fodder-stained. She said to me: "I am sorry I could not come; mother and I had so much fodder to take up that we have just got through."
This child and I had much talk together. I asked her: "Daughter, can you read?"
Her face brightened as she answered, "Yes, sir; a little."
" Can vou write?"

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The brown eyes sought the ground as she an
swered, "No, sir." "If I will send you some books, will you try to
teach your little sisters to read? " The glad look in her eyes I will never forget as
she answered me, "Yes, sir; I will try." "We sent her a good supply, and it made them all
glad. They are not beggars; the father would not take money for a tine bunch of fish he sent with his compliments to my wife; and when he found that we had'left some monej7 for some little services by the children, he flushed and could hardly be per suaded to let them keep it.
Some people call these " white trash! " I declare to you I never heard a Southern white man or woman use the expression in speaking of such per sons.
Mr. President, there are tens of thousands of white people in the South as poor as my friend of the fishing-camp. If you can help them, in Christ's name do it.
As to our higher schools, some of our best col leges have died since 1865; others are dying. Such a death is a loss, not to the South alone; it is a loss to the country. Yours have grown rich. I do not envy you; I rejoice in your strong and well-fur nished institutions. But you should be patient to ward us, and I am not ashamed to say, you should help us as God gives you opportunity.
Men and brethren, it is time to have done with 1860-65. The majority of our voters were in their cradles in 1860, or have been born since then. Said

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a Brooklyn man to me last year, who, unsolicited, had helped two Southern schools: "I think my friends here approve what I have done, hut if any should ask, * Why did you not give this money to your own people?' my answer is, They also are my people; we are one people." On that platform we can become a Christian nation strong enough to hless the world.
Northern money has done much to " develop the South " during the last decade, in pushing railroads and other great industrial enterprises. It is all welcome, and ten times as much. But I do not question that each hundred dollars invested in Christian education in the South since the war has done more to develop it in every best sense than each thousand dollars placed in railroads and factories.
But enough on these lines of thought. I must say a word or two as to the relations of your work to Africa. The first school-atlas I ever saw made a desert of sand cover all the wonderful lands that Livingstoue, Stanley, and others have discovered, and across the map of Africa was printed 28,000,000, with an interrogation-point to indicate a guess as to the population. Now we are studying the maps of interior Africa, and they tell us of great nations, and a population that may reach two hundred million.
Can any man, who believes in the Bible, or in God, doubt for one moment that Providence is in the history of the negroes in the United States? Can we doubt that these millions of negroes now

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committed to us, as the wards of the Christian Church, must, some day, attempt and accomplish the evangelization of Africa?
I rejoice that your association has its eye and heart on Africa. I saw two photographs in the chapel of Fisk University last May that stirred my soul. They were the faces of two missionaries who had gone from that great Christian school to the Dark Conti nent. One Sunday evening I preached in the chap el. A youth from your Mendi Mission, a native of Africa, getting ready in Fisk to be a missionary, sung for us, in his home language, a familiar Sun day-school song, " I have a Father in the Promised Land." Some day they will be singing Christian songs in every village in Africa. How the thought of the Divine fatherhood and of the brotherhood of the Eternal Son has changed Europe and made America! Some day these thoughts will change Africa too. What we call civilization cannot do it; the gospel can.
The Christian negroes are getting ready for their work, and you and others working in the same field are helping them to get ready. The missionary fire is beginning to burn in their hearts. When they go forth, bearing the sacred symbol of our Lord's love to men, every Christian man and woman in our land should help them. That movement--and it is coming at no distant day--will give your missionary and colonization societies all they can do.
Wars there ever a greater need or a more hope ful field? a greater duty or a higher promise of success?

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Mr. President, you may be sure that from thou sands of Christian hearts all over the South the prayer goes up: "God bless the work of the American Missionary Association, with all others who are preachiug the gospel to the poor!"

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
[OXFORD, GAM NOVEMBER 19, 1882,]
"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he unto them: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Matt. xiii. 31-33.
H "AD our Lord spoken only the parables of the . Sower and of the Tares, there might have sprung up a doubt as to the final triumph of his saving truth. The parables of the Mustard-seed and of the Leaven come to reassure our faith. And they are as fresh and true to-day as when Jesus de livered them, for the natural miracles of growth are being wrought every day, and nature expounds the supernatural now not only as in the beginning, but far more lucidly and eloquently. For every truth that science finds in nature is a truth of God, and belongs to his children. The parables of our text are distinct in their form and in their lessons, but the spiritual laws they unfold and illustrate are so related that neither could be true without the other.
(392)

THE MUSTAHD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN. 393

They belong to each other as surely as the two

motions of the heart are essential to each other.

Our Lord says, "The kingdom of God cometh

not with observation." This the parable of the

Leaven sets forth. But, in a true sense, this king-

dom does come with observation; we see its work

and progress in the world, and this the parable

of the Mustard-seed illustrates. As Dean Trench

says: "The parable of the Leaven sets forth the

power and action of the truth on the world brought

in contact with it; the parable of the Mustard-seed

the power of the truth 'to develop itself from within

itself--how it is as the tree shut up within the seed,

which will unfold itself according to the inward law

of its own being. Both have this in common, that

they describe the small and slight beginnings, the

gradual progress, and the final marvelous progress

of the Church."

"

The parable of the Mustard-seed declares the ex-

tensive, that of the Leaven the intensive, develop-

meut of the gospel.

The statement in the parable as to the size of the

mustard-seed is in proverbial form; it was not in

tended to be scientifically precise. (It illustrates the

contemptible spirit of a class of infidels that they

gravely object that there are really some seeds, as

tobacco-seeds for example, that are not so large as

mustard-seed!) The illustration is introduced not

to show how small the seed was, or how lar^e its

J

^3

growth, but the proportion between the smallness

of the seed and the greatness of the plant. One

such herb might well produce a million of mustard-

394 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE
seeds, each as large as the first, to say nothing of roots, and stalks, and branches, and leaves--all to gether containing a mass so many times larger than the seed that the figures which express it would only bewilder us could we at all ascertain them. Our Lord's comparison is the ultimate glories of his kingdom compared with what to the eye of sense, or to mere worldly wisdom, were such utterly insignificant beginnings.
What was there then to be seen ? This Galilean Teacher and the little company of obscure friends, more or less devoted to him. What were the great things in the world then, of the sort that were to be seen? In learning^ artj and philosophy, Athens; in conquering power$ Rome; in ecclesiastical organ ization and influence, such a Church as that which the scribes and Pharisees controlled. If you look at this mustard-seed, what you see is very small--a little round and altogether in significant -looking black thing* What you do not see is its secret of life that is locked up in its heart. The microscope will show layer upon layer down to what seems to be nothing, but there is a cell-form there with life in it. And much more; it is a life that imparts and perpetuates life in an infinitely widening series. Give the little seed a chance--soil, heat, air, moist ure--and it will grow more seeds, small and dead as it seems, than there are grains of sand in the globe, or drops of water in the seas.
And the gospel--that is, Christ and his truth--is a seed that has " life in itself." It is small at its be ginnings, as all the works of God are, so far as we

THE MtfSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEtf. 395
see or know them. (As also are the works of men that are good for any thing.) Look about you and see. The great-oak was once a small acorn; the small acorn was once wrapped up in a very small bud, and that bud was once invisible in its smallness. So of all forms of life. If you would trace the progress and seek the genesis of any life-forms, you will presently reach a point where the micro scope itself is blind.
We are slow to learn the parables of nature that God sets before us day by day. The ambitions of men sometimes seek to launch great schemes proud ly and upon a vast scale to begin with. But things great at first do not abide. The mythologic conceit of Minerva, full-grown and full-armed at the first, violates both nature and philosophy. Just here, as a lesson both of patience and hope--a lesson good for men as well as boys--I am going to read you a lesson from one of George MacDonald's novels, " Weighed and Wanting." Two persons in the story were talking of the need of helpful work among the wretchedly poor of London. (You young men, who have had the rare good fortune to have been brought up on farms in the country, cannot un derstand what is meant when men talk of the pov erty and wretchedness of garret and cellar life in the great cities.) Hester Raymount, a grand Christwoman, was almost in despair because she could do so little; her faith was nearly paralyzed, for she had been brooding over the magnitude of the work that needed to be done more than she had been meditat ing upon the power that was in Christ to help her

396 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVES.
do such part of the work as he had committed to her. She was talking sadly enough one day with Doctor Christopher, who was also trying to do good. He had money enough, but had learned medicine to help him in a work to which he felt that God had called him. (It is very strange to me that, for the most part, only those who " preach " feel " called;" I believe God " calls " every one.) Hester envied the good Doctor his power and opportunity; so one day she said to him:
" Is it not delightful to know that you can start any thing when you please? "
The wise worker for the Master made answer: "Anybody with leisure can do that, who is will ing to begin where every thing ought to be begun-- that is, at the beginning. Nothing worth calling good can or ever will be started full-grown. The essential of any good is life, and the very body of created life, and essential to it, being itself operant, is growth. The larger start you make the less room you leave for life to extend itself. You fill with the dead matter of your construction the places where assimilation ought to have its perfect work, build ing by a life-process, self-extending and subserving the whole. Small beginnings with slow growings have time to root themselves thoroughly. I do not mean in place, nor yet in social regard, but in wisdom. Such even prosper by failures, for their failures are not too great to be rectified without injury to the original idea. God's beginnings are imperceptible, whether in the region of soul or matter."

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVER. 397
vVhat is the essential life of the gospel-seed? It is not merely the doctrine that Jesus, taught; it is certainly not the Church he planted upon the earth; least of all is it any outward Church-form, whether expressed in a creed, a polity, or a ritual. Jesus Christ is himself the very " mustard-seed " that sym bolizes the life that is in the gospel. " In him was life."
I mean this: If it had been possible for any think er to have constructed an ideal character that yet never lived, and to have put into his mouth every word that Jesus ever spoke, these words would not have had life in themselves. If any thinker could have constructed a philosophy of life that should have contained in it every single truth that Jesus ever taught, then such a philosophy would have had no life (of a sort that saves sinful men) in itself. "I am the truth," Jesus said. What makes his spoken truth a living and saving truth is his own life. Truth that has life-seed in it must, somehow, become incarnate; it must be lived by a person, and, if it is to save men, it must be lived by a man. There is no stronger impression made upon us when we read the gospels than this: Jesus lived all he taught. And herein is a lesson for us every one, in our sphere and measure of living. The truth we live is our truth that has life-seed in it. It is not the truth in our words, in our creeds, it is the truth in our lives that is self-propagating. One who does not live his true doctrine may indeed give good ad vice; a man who lives his truth cannot fail of use fulness. Illustrations abound. Whether we preach

398 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
purity, or integrity, or benevolence, the important and vital thing is that we live the truth we teach.
What does history say to this parable of the Mus tard-seed? We need not go far into the answer to day. But the seed, once so small that the great ones of our Lord's time took no account of it, has grown into " a great tree." All the best things in the world to-day gather about it, feed upon it, and are sheltered by it. What,a space it fills! It is in our laws, customs, literature, science, philosophy, art; it is in all of our civilisation that is good; and, if we look about us and beyond us, we see it spread ing always and everywhere. If we look into the future of our race, we see that all that has good and hope in it is vitally joined to the life of this seed and the growing of this tree.
The parable of the Leaven also shows the marvelous increase of the kingdom of Christ; but while the parable of the Mustard-seed shows its outward and visible development--yet emphasizing the truth that this outward growth is from within--this of the Leaven declares the hidden, mysterious processes by which saving truth does its work in the world. It teaches what the first does, but it goes farther; it not only shows the increase and development from within; it not only illustrates the marvelous increase of what, in its beginnings, was so small; it also shows how the gospel changes into its own qualities whatever it lays hold upon.
Let us trace briefly some of the analogies sug gested by the figure.
1. The leaven, or yeast, is different from the lump

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND TEE LEAVER. 399
of meal. It is brought to it from without. So the gospel truth is not by humanity self-evolved. In its origin it is not of this world; it is not a product of the fermentation of philosophy. The kingdoms Daniel saw in the prophetic visions "rose out of the earth;" they belonged to this world. The king dom of Christ, which John saw, " descended from God out of heaven." Our Lord himself said, " My kingdom is not of this world.'5 Christ Jesus, with his incarnate truth, came into the inert mass of hu manity as a new and quickening power; a center of life around which all of good in man, and all of good the gospel itself awakens, forms and gathers, as around one little yeast-cell millions more are formed *' till the whole is leavened,"
2. The leaven and the meal have affinity for each other; yeast cannot work in substances not in affin ity with it. Yeast cannot work in a mass of plas ter of Paris, or powdered chalk; a small quantity of sulphuric and of some other acids immediately arrests its processes. The gospel is leaven in hu manity because it finds its affinity in man. And it has affinity for humanity because it is the gospel of " the Son of man." There might have been all the truth, so far as words go, that there is in the gospel, but it would not have been leaven in humanity had the eternal Logos taken the form of an angel, or of any other creature but man, for his manifestation. " He took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." " He was made like unto his brethren;" so like them that "he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." "Where-

400 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
fore the apostle adds: "In that he suffered, being tempted, he is able also to succor them that are tempted." Jesus Christ brings to man that which he needs for his completion. The "kingdom of heaven " is the renewal and exaltation of humanity bv/ the rigOhteous man,* Jesus Christ.
3. To use the words of Chrysostom: " That which is once leavened becomes leaven to the rest; since as the spark, when it takes hold of wood, makes that which is already kindled to trans mit the flame, and so seizes still upon more, thus it is also with the preaching of the word." In the leaven it is a cell that produces another, and from this others proceed in an infinite series. The scientists--Heaven prosper their search in all God's works!--are finding out more and more about " cells." They have found out that there are cells where there is life. What is a cell? It is a large and difficult discus sion, and needs a specialist for its elucidation. Take a small particle of common yeast and place it under a microscope. You will see a multitude of minute egg-shaped bodies, not more than ".one two hun dred and fiftieth part of an inch in diameter." Pres ently these minute egg-shaped bodies, so very small as we have seen, begin to throw out from their in conceivably thin sides--what one would call a shell if it were not so thin that it seems to be almost a mere nothing, as if it were the shadow of the least and thinnest something in the world--little buds, still smaller than the cells and with thinner disks, that presently grow into cells of full size; and from

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN. 401
these more and more infinitely. Leaven diffuses it self by cells; plants grow by cells; so do animals. So does every thing visible by our eyes or by our microscopes grow and form its hidden beginnings to its largest development.
As the leaven-cells spread through the dough, so the truth of Christ, if there be no hinderanee, hid in the heart, spreads throughout the sonl and spirit and life of a man, and throughout the whole mass of humanity. And always where there is not re sistance. Here is the difference: the meal is pas sive, but human volition may prevent or arrest the processes of truth. And let me emphasize this that has already been alluded to: as the life of the gos pel is in the life of the Christ who lived it, so its as similating power, so far as you and I are related to its spread among men, is in the truth we live--that we make incarnate. Mere creeds, however perfect, do not leaven men; the gospel lived does.
4. What the gospel leaven does it does in persons, in individual men and women and children. There is no such thing as " leavening society," considered as something other than the whole number of per sons who compose it. If we conceive of the truth as leavening " the whole lump " of humanity, we must remember that it does this only as it works its blessed results in individuals. Thus, if it be said of a certain town," This town has improved greatly un der religious influences," what is the truth in the case ? Just this: that Smith, and Jones, and Brown, and the rest, are better men. If now we ask how the truth leavens these persons, I answer, " Through
20

402 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
other persons who have been leavened, and so on back to the men whose lives were leavened by Christ, by contact with him by living faith." If I may use the word--and why not, since He uses the natural fact to illustrate his truth?--Jesus Christ is the original spiritual cell from which grew every oth er of untold millions.
What you and I need just now to think of is this: It is not the Church, as a corporate body or society, that does any good in this world, but the persons in it. I read you more gospel truth from MaeDonald's novel, " Weighed and Wanting." It is fresh on my thoughts; I was reading it but last week, on the cars. He says in one place:
" How the devil would have laughed at the idea of a society for saving the world! But when he saw One take it in hand, One who was in no haste even to do that; One who would only do the will of God with all his heart and soul, and cared for nothing else, then indeed he might tremble for his kingdom! It is the individual Christians, forming the Church by their obedient individuality, that have.done all the good done since men, for the love of Christ, be gan to gather together. It is individual ardor alone that can kindle into larger flame. There is no true power but that which has individual roots. Neither custom, nor law, nor habit, nor foundation, is a root. The real roots are individual conscience that hates evil, and individual faith that loves and obeys God, individual heart with its kiss of charity."
The spiritual power of this Church at Oxford is just and only what the personal spiritual power is.

"THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN. 403

5. "What the gospel leaven does for us it must

first of all do in the hidden places of our hearts. It

must be hid in the innermost recesses of our nature.

It is not a matter of mere external conformity to

certain conventional observances, or even what are

called duties. Its true working is in the heart; its

results are that we are, in our thoughts and loves,

assimilated to Christ, the original cell of all spiritual

life.

'

Let me ask you now to make some sharp test of

yourselves. Let each one search diligently his own

heart. Are you being leavened by the truth that is

in Jesus? The ruling love determines. What is it

that you love most? Is it gold ? or fame ? or pow

er? or pleasure ? or is it the truth of Christ ?

6. We have in both parables the time-element, not

as accidental but essential in God's plans and deal

ings with men. This also is in accordance with

every analogy of nature; and nature cannot lie or

preach a false or contradictory gospel. Many oth-

er parables and many words our Lord uses recog-

nize the time-element in Christian life. The very

terms that inspiration uses to express the origin and

processes of spiritual life imply jthe time-element,

and they are without meaning if it be denied. If

not, what mean such words as " quickened," " eon-

ceived," "born," "babes," "grow," and many more

like them, as applied to the genesis and experiences

of religion ?

The principle of which I now speak is as uni-

versal as it is important. l$o change in place or

condition can take place instantaneously. Light,

404 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.'
though it is so swift, requires time. It takes time for the nerves to report to the brain a hurt upon the finger. Astronomers recognize in their calcu lation what they call the " personal equation " of observers of the heavenly bodies. It is short time, but it is time. A whale seventy-two feet long re quires, it has been determined, a full second for his brain to know that a spear-point has pierced his tail.
It is almost too obvious and commonplace to say that whatever has life must grow, and that growth requires time, not as an accident, nor as an arbitra ry, but as an essential, condition. This law prevails in intellectual and spiritual even more than it pre vails in vegetable and animal life.
We need not question it; the time-element enters by a natural and, I may say (since God has so ar ranged the constitution of his universe), a divine ne cessity into religious life. It is folly and fanaticism to deny this law, written upon every thing that lives, recognized in the Holy Scriptures, and pres ent in our very consciousness: There never was a child of God who did not, if faithful, ripen as years passed over him. Moses did; and Paul, and Wesley, and Judson, and Livingstone--and, I say it most reverently, so did the man Jesus. It is said of him: " The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him."
Moreover, much in Christian character depends not merely upon what we believe, upon what we feel, upon what is done in us, but upon what we do; perhaps much more upon what we suffer--and this requires time.

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEX. 405
If you ask about the processes by which a Chris tian is to approach perfection--and let us always re member that it is to be an eternal approaching--I answer, " It is not a question only as to what God can do, but a question chiefly as to what it actually pleases him to do." And we see it pleases him to make time one of the conditions of the process, as the parables of the Mustard-seed and of the Leaven, as all nature, and all common sense, and all obser vation, and all experience, that can give articulate and rational expression to itself, set forth and con firm. The question is not whether God, by his al mighty Spirit, can make a man, by one given spir itual act, as good as he can be, but whether he chooses that way. I say--his word and his works being witnesses--he does never, in such a case, choose any instantaneous method. Having made man as he has made him, he could not so choose. And why not? For two reasons that involve each other. First: Character is conditioned on volition, and cannot be created in any such sense as a world may be created. Secondly: The whole gospel scheme is one of co operation--God and man working together--and this requires time.
It is fanaticism of a ver*v/ meaoner and blind sort to conclude that by any so-called " act of faith" any man can achieve instantly what requires time, and for the reason that it requires time to live and to do and suffer the will of God.
Men talk of the moment of conversion. "What do they mean by that? I grant you that, in strictness of thought, there must be an instant when spiritual

406 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
life begins in a man's soul, just as there was an in stant when both bodily and spiritual life began in the darkness where God fashioned wondrously the child conceived and not for a long lime yet to be born--a moment when that was which just now was not. But no science can absolutely fix that point of time, or eternity--which should I say ? There is an instant when that life, so unsearchable in its be ginnings, manifested itself; but there is no search ing that can determine just when that life began to be. But the main question is, Is there life?
There are some ill-informed persons, who think loosely and know not the force of words, who are disposed to say, " If one does not know the very time and place of his spiritual new birth, then he has had no spiritual new birth." This is folly, pure and simple. It is true, indeed, that many do know when they first realized in consciousness the " quickenings " of the new life in the soul, but there is no man, who understands what he is talking about, who can, on the dial-plate of his spiritual history, put his finger on the very figure that marks the hour when he began to exist in religious or spiritual life.
One says, " On such a day and hour, and at such a place, I was converted." It is no more than to say, " On such a day and hour, and at such a place, I was born." That does not determine when or where the new being really was first a being, a person.
This 19th day of November is, as we say, my birth day. That is, forty-three years ago I came into this world "with observation," and began to occupy a place among those who were counted in census ta-

THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN. 407

bles. But I was a person that God counted before

that day. I have known of two very good men,

each one saying "he was spiritual father to me."

Whyl Forsooth, because they chanced to be about

when I stepped forth one Sunday morning, in July,

1854, and joined the visible Church! How absurd!

"Where were they when the renewing Spirit, by the

saving leaven of divine truth, fashioned my spirit

ual life in the secret places deep down in and deeper

down below my own conscious thoughts ?

The difference is just this: the consciousness of

this new spiritual life in the soul is vivid as light

ning and pronounced as thunder in some, so that

they do know the hour and spot where they first

knew that they were beginning to live in Christ

Jesus; in others this consciousness comes gradually

and gently as the dawn of a cloudless day.

Sow, if any careless hearer infers that because I

say the time-element enters into the divine methods

of perfecting religious character that therefore I set

forth a lower standard of religious aspiration and

religious living, I tell him, "Say, brother, you do

not even know what I am talking about. I am

talking of a spiritual life so deep and high that your

definitions do not measure it."

I will use no past tense. I will never say Christ

has done his work in this or that man; I will sav,

7

/ 7

Christ is doing his work in this man. And this

Christ will do through all eternity, if he have his

way with him. So man will fairly understand

what I am now talking about, who, by any thought,

or wish, or plan, or hope of life, consciously and de-

408 THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN.
liberately opposes the working of the Christ leaven in his heart and life. I believe that the richest and sweetest of all the beatitudes is this: " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shad be tilled." Filled, but never sated. This hunger, this thirst, are immortal. That which feeds increases the divine pang of spiritual hunger.
7. " Till the whole be leavened." This is a word of promise and prophecy. The leavening has been going on since God gave to men the first word of truth--before Jesus was born and ever since that hallowed hour. Before Jesus, all that God did was the preparation; since he came, ail that is worth re membering is the history. It is the leaven of Jesus that changed Europe, that has made America, that is making Madagascar, India, the islands of the sea, China, and Africa.
What hosts of croaking frogs we hear sometimes. "Alas for the Church!" croak they. "Alas for the times! the world is getting worse; ' the former days were better than these.'" There never was a great er lie, or a meaner libel on Divine Providence.
Worse, indeed! Who are we? Descendants of savages. Compare the times now and only one hun dred or one hundred and fifty years ago. Take for illustration a special case, where many cases might be offered. Consider England and Ireland. It is bad enough now; but how different the attitude and spirit of the Government now and one hundred 3*ears ago! Compare the methods undertaken by Gladstone--that noblest figure in public life to-day in the whole world--in the pacification of Ireland

THE Mtfsa?ARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEX. 409
and the methods of prime-ministers a century ago. We see this man simply and grandly trying to do right; we read history, and see those of former gen erations robbing and slaying without emotions of pity or pretense of justice.
This Christ-leaven is working its way through the whole lump. It has worked out of civilization legalized slavery; it is working out all despotisms, despotism of governments and of ignorance. It is working out the savagery that still lingers in civil ization, and the superstitions and fanaticisms that still linger in the Church.
May it work all sin out of you and me! Our Lord says, "Till the whole be leavened." How deep a word is this to your conscience and mine! l^ot a belief, not a feeling, but the whole man is to be leavened. The man in his loves and hates, his joys and griefs, in his plans and aspira tions. The man in his whole life, at the anvil as well as at the sacrament; in his savings and speiidiugs, as well as in his prayers and songs. We are to be all Christ's--all and forever. We may conclude with the prayer of S.t. Ambrose: " May the holy Church, which is figured under the type of this woman in the gospel, whose meal are we, hide the Lord Jesus in the innermost places of our hearts till the warmth of the divine wisdom penetrates into the innermost recesses of our wills!"

THE LIFE TO COME.
[OXFORD, GA., NOVEMBER 26, 1882,]
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Cor. V. 1.
r I iHE thought of annihilation is repugnant to ev_A_ ery mind in every age and every race of men. Explain it as we may, or deride it if we will, this fact remains: there is something in man that utter ly refuses to die--to go into nothingness. It may be doubted whether any sort of education, whether any long-indulged habit of thinking about these questions as out-and-out materialists are supposed to think of them, ever yet sufficed to utterly hush that voice, deep in the secret places of our nature, that as soon as it can speak and as long as it can speak declares, as one of the fundamental beliefs of the human mind, its own immortality. Very often avowed atheists have forgotten for a time to be con sistent, and have talked about the other world and the hereafter; just as some of our modern unbeliev ing scientists, in elaborate arguments to prove that there is no designing Mind in the universe, often employ words which imply design in the facts and processes of nature that they describe.
The lowest savages and the noblest men of civil-
(410)

THE LIFE TO COME.

411

ized races agree in this, that this life is not all; there is something to come; death is not and cannot be what it seems to be, annihilation. I know that at times men have affirmed that there is no hereafter, but they cannot keep to that track of argument; nature will have her revenge 011 their philosophy and somehow manage to record her protest.
One thing is certain: whether there be such an essence as spirit; whether thought be the result of mere organization; whether mind, which thinks and feels, dissolves into nothingness or no, the body does not. There is no annihilation for the body, by any skill of science or process of natural law. If science has settled any thing whatsoever, it has settled this: that matter is indestructible. Make any experiment you will, and with any substance. Take the hard est, toughest things, or the softest and frailest. Heat up your furnaces till they are white, and burn this toughest or frailest thing in the universe. It goes off in flame or smoke, or sinks down into ashes, but you have not destroyed one atom of it. Take the ashes and pound them, if possible, into greater fine ness, or try them with any solvents known to chem istry. You may so change their form and relation as to lose sight of them, but you have not destroyed --resolved into nothingness--the very least atom. Whether by burning, pounding, or dissolving you try your experiment, the result is the same; you change forms, you destroy nothing. There is not in the whole universe one atom of any sort that ever existed that is extinct, non-existent, missing to-day. There are in the universe just as many

412

THE LIFE TO COME.

atoms as when it was first created, and no more-- unless, as it may be, God is creating new worlds.
2Tow, there is something that is behind thought and feeling; something in which it inheres and from which it proceeds, just as bodies are necessary to the qualities which characterize them. It is as easy and reasonable to think of weight and length and thick ness, of color and form, without bodies to which they belong, as to think of thought without some thing that thinks; to think of feeling without some thing that feels. To make the annihilation of mind a conceivable thing, it must first, be proved that thought is a product of the bodily organization-- a sort of secretion of the brain, just as bile is the secretion of the liver. But this has never been proved, and in the nature of the case it never can be proved.
The scientific law of the conservation of substance and force--a law that utterly refuses to let slip out of its grasp into nothingness any single atom, or any one form of force--does, in my belief, absolutely deny and repudiate as unscientific, impossible, and unthinkable the notion that the something we call "spirit" can any more cease to exist than an atom of matter can cease to exist. And we know that it is as possible to create out of nothing an atom of niatter as it is to resolve it into nothing.
St. Paul's language in the text is exactly scientific: " We know that if our earthly house of this taber nacle be dissolved;"--he does not say destroyed. " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," does not mean de struction; only change in form and function.

THE LIFE TO COME.

413

He affirms, as an article of his faith, that when this present tent-dwelling, called "tabernacle," is taken down--" dissolved"--" we"--that is, the soul, the real person--will certainly have another body for the indwelling1 of the soul. For "house not made with hands" here does not refer to the heav enly city, or the house of the Father in which the " many mansions" are "prepared" for his children. The apostle is still speaking of the soul's house; if our present soul-house--this body--be dissolved, we will have another, and of this he affirms--seeing that it is no more under any law of mortality--that it will be " eternal in the heavens." This " building of God" is antithetic to another building, namely, our present perishing bodies; it will be something which is not the soul itself--just as the body we now inhabit is not the soul, but only its tent and vehicle for a time--but a something as necessary to the modes of existence and uses of life in what we call the spiritual and eternal world as these bodies are necessary to our states and modes of action in the present world. It is the opinion of some that corporeity--bodily form--is necessary to the exist ence of a finite spirit. It may be that a human being cannot exist as pure spirit--as spirit wholly dissociated from form. But corporeity may be and, in sound thinking as well as according to the doc trine of the Bible, must be denied of God. For God can have " no form nor parts;" God is infinite, and there cannot be infinite form, since form signi fies limitation. To talk of a four-sided triangle would be as rational as to speak of infinite form.

:'rt

414

THE LIFE TO COME.



I will not affirm that the human spirit cannot exist, or act, without some kind of form as its dwelling-place and vehicle, but it is certain that the

Scriptures teach that, in absolute strictness of speech, there are no disembodied human spirits. When they go out of these bodies, and out of the sight and

hearing therefore of our bodily eyes and ears, they assume some other form. They are said to "be clothed upon " with that form--not yet visible to us; this in the text is signified by the "house not made with hands." The same fact and law of ex istence underlies St. Paul's argument on the resur rection of the dead, where he calls the resurrection body " a spiritual body."
Whether the tabernacle of the spirit spoken of in the text as "a house not made with hands" is identical with the " spiritual body," is an inquiry that may involve difficulty, but it need not give us

trouble. For this much is clear: St. Paul affirms that when our souls go out of these bodies they as sume, rather are " clothed upon " by, others. And the phrase " spiritual body " indicates the essential characteristics of the new form, whether we think of the soul-house that is ready for us the instant we move out of these present "tabernacles" that are daily being dissolved, or of the bodies that will be

ours at the resurrection. Obviously we have here a difficulty of expression;
language cannot perfectly adapt itself to the state ment of conditions and existences now unknown to us. It is hardly more odd sounding to say bodily spirit than it is to say "spiritual body;" but what

THE LIFE TO COME.

415

else could St. Paul say, when he wished to speak of a something not spirit but connected with it, and different from and yet more like it than the bodies we now know? It seems to me not improbable that if there were some word exactly fitted to character ize the form assumed, by the spirit when it escapes from these bodies, it would appear so plain to us that we would immediately conclude that we un derstood the whole matter fully. I speak in this way because it does not occur to most people that they no more understand how spirit dwells in these present bodies than they understand how it may dwell in some other kind of body. There is no greater mystery than the mode of the indwelling of our spirits in the bodies they now have. This mystery does not perplex us, becau.se we are so fa miliar with the fact that we imagine that we com prehend the mode.
If one should ask me, ^How can God give the spirit another body? " I answer," I do not in the least know." But before he concludes against the truth of St. Paul's doctrine on this ground, let me ask him, "Do you know how God gives our spirits their present bodies? how did they get into them? how do they stay in them ? how do they get out of them? " As to the how of our complex existence, we know just as much of the mode of existence of spirit and body in the life to come as we know of it in the life that now is. That is, we know nothing of either; and it is not of the least consequence that we should know. Else God would, in some way, have told us.
If it be asked, " What ai*e some of the qualities

416

THE LIFE TO COME.

and characteristics of this 'house not made with hands ?'--this body with which the spirit is clothed in the invisible world when it is unclothed here in the visible world by the processes of nature that we call death? " I answer," The apostle's language makes .two things clear to us: (1) It is * a spiritual body;' (2) it is immortal, being ' eternal in the heavens.'"
Sometimes we can have glimpses of more than we can describe or put into words. So of this re markable phrase, " spiritual body." What do these words mean ? I have thought of them very often, and have never satisfied myself; perhaps I never will. But I think I see pretty clearly one truth and one fact that they intimate;--a form of exist ence in which the spiritual predominates over the material. We know how gravity binds these pres ent mortal bodies to the earth, to which they will soon be returned. Our present bodies come under all the laws which control mere matter. We move slowly and with difficulty; we are arrested by walls and other obstacles. Our bodies are like other or ganized bodies; the very law of their organization anticipates and provides for disorganization. But " a spiritual body" is not dominated by matter, or the laws which control it. If spiritual bodies have any relation to such laws, it is only as these laws are subservient to the ends the spirit wills to accom plish. We see some faint foreshadowing of such relations between spirit and matter even in this world, where now and then some great mind and large heart seems almost to have control of mate rial conditions, dominating the body by force of

THE LIFE TO COME.

417

spirit, and using many of the mightiest agencies of material nature to serve its ends.
But how transeendently superior in these respects will our spiritual bodies he! As the bodies we now have are perfectly suited to our conditions, perfectly adapted to the ends for which we want bodies in this world, so will our spiritual bodies be perfectly fitted to the conditions of existence which await us in the other world. As we use our present bodies to accomplish the ends of the present life, so will we use our spiritual bodies for the ends God will appoint us to accomplish in the life that is to come.
Let me dwell on this thought a moment. How admirably our bodies are adapted to their present uses! To be able to explain this adequately, both your preacher and his congregation should have perfect knowledge of anatomy, physiology, mathe matics, mechanics, chemistry, possibly of other sci ences also. An illustration or two will suggest what is not now to be discussed. For instance, the aver age body is the right size, and lasts long enough for its uses here. I mean that if men, as a race, were either much larger or smaller than they are, or if they lived much longer than they do, they would be badly adjusted to the work they have to do. For the ordinary occupations of life, man's combination of nerves, ligaments, muscles, and bones, gives him just the right degree of strength and facility for his work. If the average arm were shorter or weaker, the average man could not raise the weights or do other things necessary to be done. If it were much lon^ger or stronger, he would have a great deal of

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force he would not need to exert; perhaps he could not, with this excess of force, do satisfactorily the kind of work necessary to be done. In a word, man's present hodily adjustment to his environment, to the world he lives in--its size, weight, and rela tion to the solar system and all other systems, so far as we know--and to the work he has to do in this world, is absolutely perfect.
You may extend this inquiry if you will, and you will find fitness in all points. Man's appetite of hunger and his function of digestion are as perfectly adapted to the food he needs as the length and strength of his arm are adjusted to the weights he has to lift, or to any other task he needs to perform. In brief, these bodies are in harmony with all the mathematics and mechanics and chemistry of the world we now live in, and are therefore perfectly adapted to the uses of the spirit for which bodies were given to spirits.
Now, every analogy in the universe which is open to our view, every principle of divine law that is expressed in any exhibition of creative power, as well as every word of inspiration, lead us to believe, without a shadow of doubt, that the spiritual bodies with which we (when I say we I mean our spirits-- that is, our real selves) will be "clothed upon" in the invisible world, which we will presently enter, will be, in every respect, perfectly adapted to our needs in that mode of existence. And more, that mode of existence will appear to be in perfect har mony with us when first we enter it; as natural to us as this world, as first felt in a mother's arms, ex-

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pressed in a mother's form, voiced in a mother's words, or mirrored in a mother's eyes, is natural to the baby that has just come out of the realm of the infinite and invisible to dwell for a time in the finite and visible.
Last Sunday, when we were about to bury in the kind bosom of our mother earth the mere physical body (if you will let me employ an awkward phrase as antithesis to St. Paul's equally awkward phrase, "spiritual body") of Professor BonnelFs dear little girl, I made some allusion to the beautiful fact in nature that God, directly or through some fit agen cy, prepares beforehand for the coming of every new life that appears in this world. What he does per fectly and upon an infinite scale, through all the processes and changes of nature, men do, by instinct and from the teachings of experience, upon a lim ited scale. We prepare our fields for the seeds that are to be planted, and for the crops that are to be grown, that there may be wise and useful adjust ments between our designs and the conditions under which we work. The expectant mother prepares a little world for the babe that is to come to her with a new prophecy of hope. We seek in all our school and college training to prepare our children for the duties that await them.
So we may be sure that there will be perfectly natural and harmonious adjustments between the vehicles of our immortal energies--between our spiritual bodies and the sphere into which we go when we leave this present world. If it be needful in the life to come that we move from one place to

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another as quickly as the light moves, it may read ily be done, for our volitions will not be held back by spiritual bodies; for spiritual bodies cannot sus tain such relations to gravity as our fleshly bodies sustain to it, if indeed they will sustain anj' relation to it. If this be so, the limitations of time and space which now press upon us will be unknown. In many senses it may be, we shall "be as the an gels," strong, swift, immortal. The astronomers make us dizzy when they tell us of the distances and magnitudes of the universe. But it is not too large for the explorations and useful activities of millions upon millions multiplied of human souls redeemed that are clothed upon with spiritual bodies.
I do not iuean to assert or to intimate that the many millions of far-off worlds that people space will be the fields of activity for redeemed spirits; for spiritual bodies are so different from these pres ent heavy physical or natural bodies that they may not at all need mere material worlds for their uses. The worlds they will inhabit, being adapted to them, may well differ as much from such a world as this earth, or from such a world as Venus, or Mars, as the spiritual bodies themselves differ from our present natural bodies.
If these things be true, the sphere in which spir itual bodies live and move may be very close to the world in which we who are still in the flesh live and move. We do not know how to measure distances or dimensions, or how to estimate relations, in such altogether possible coexistences.

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It may be remarked here, not as explanatory of the mystery of the spiritual bodies that await our going hence, but as an illustrative instance, that the body in which our risen Lord manifested himself, during the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension, seems, in its appearances and disap pearances, its sudden manifestations in rooms whose doors were shut, its ascension from the solid earth, which had no power to hold to him, to have been a spiritual body.
How near and yet how far from us one may be who dwells in a spiritual body! When Jesus " man ifested" himself to his disciples, it was done so in stantaneously that he seemed to have been already there; when he " vanished," he seemed, to their eyes and ears and hands, as far gone from them as if a universe stood between. O if these eyes could see spiritual bodies, what visions we might behold! How near we may be to them! How near they may be to us! Myriads of circles may be drawn around a common center; how the spheres of being compre hend one another, we may not know. J^o doubt it is well that we cannot know and see and hear all that is close to us; we could hardly finish the work to which the Master has appointed us. It is idle, and it may be hurtful, to ask too curiously concern ing these things.
But we may ask, "What do the Scriptures tell us of the worlds, or spheres, into which the spirits of the good--now clothed upon with their soul-house, or tabernacle, from heaven--have entered?" They tell us much--much more than can be set in order

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before you to-day* I shall only mention some char acteristic statements--nearly all of them figurative --to give stronger statement of glorious facts than any form of literal and exact speech could convey.
1. What we may call the negative characteristics. I do not dwell upon them; I only mention a few-- your reference Bibles or a concordance will give you many. There is no sickness; of that country it is said," The inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick." There is no pain, "neither sorrow, nor crying," for "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." "There is no night"--type of evil. There is "no more sea"--'type to the Jews of old of desolating and hostile forces. There is no sin among these redeemed ones;--this, thank God, is no figure! And "there is no more death," for "death is swal lowed up"--overcome of life. Life there is so in tense, so godlike, that death can have no place among them.
2. What we may call the positive characteristics. As to the place, or what is represented as place to help our imagination take hold on absolute truths, we have the most beautiful and fascinating images that ever moved the heart of man. The holy writ ers speak of fair cities. We look through the eyes of the exile of Patmos, and we see^ walls of jasper and gates of pearl. We look through the open gates, and see streets of gold and a bright river run ning through the midst of it, with trees golden with fruit all along its margin. The city is full of brightrobed and beautiful people. They bear palms of victory, and upon their heads are splendid crowns.

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/
We hear harps of gold, with the songs of the angels

and of the saints.

But gold is cheap, pearls are commonplace, com

pared to the reality. Inspiration seized npon the

things we prize most to lift us up to the noblest

contemplations and sentiments possible to us".

There are many ways in which heaven is repre

sented to us. Just now I mention but two others,

and they belong to each other: Our Lord speaks of

home-like scenes and enjoyments in heaven. Laz

arus is in Abraham's bosom. Jesus speaks of those

who should " sit down in the kingdom of God with

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Appealing directly

to the home-instinct (and did it because he meant

to satisfy it with the truth), he said: " Let not your

heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in

me. In my Father's house are many mansions;

if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to

prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare

a place for you, I will come again, and receive

you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be

also."

God has not seen fit to give us a schedule of the

employments of his redeemed ones when they have

entered into that sphere where spiritual bodies are

to be their vehicles and servants. But some thing*^-s are too plain to admit of a moment's doubt. For

one thing, the notion of heaven that makes it a

place of eternal choir-practice is absurd. As if

God's purpose in framing the worlds, and in creat

ing and redeeming man, was that he might be sung

to! There are ways of praising God other than by

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singing, sweet and good as it is. Nothing praises or pleases God like service.
It is certain that activity--elevated, intense, con stant, eternal--will characterize the lives of those redeemed spirits who are clothed upon with spirit ual bodies. The very lowest forms of life indicate a degree of activity. The poor sponge has activity in virtue of its being alive. The law is universal; wherever there is life--vegetable, animal, or intel lectual--there is action. One of the sages of an tiquity expressed it thus: "To energize is to exist." That is, where there is existence in the sense of life, there is energy in action. The higher the form of life the greater the energy, and the intenser the ac tivity. Nothing can less need proof or illustration.
There will be service--something good to do. There is room enough and work enough for all. It may well be that we shall have to learn how to do our work; it is to be hoped so, for hardly anything is so delightful as learning. When the baby first comes into this world, it does not know what to do with itself; it does not even know the use of its lit tle fingers. By and by it learns that there is enough in this world for its fingers to do. But this much is certainly true: all that we learn in the school of Christ here fits us for better service and nobler joys yonder. I fear that some of us, who only want re ligion to keep us out of hell, and therefore seek as little as we think will do (hardly enough to do), will have to begin in heaven's school in a very low'fbrm --will have to begin there to " learn our letters" in the great studies of usefulness and of true happiness.

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"We must conclude that in the sense of idleness there is no rest in heaven. There is work to be done there, and upon a scale so vast that it may some day take in the whole universe--except (shall I say?) that part of it which, in "outer darkness," is without the fair city with its jasper walls and gates of pearl.
But let us not fall into the error of supposing that action and service mean only doing certainthings. It is also learning; it is thinking; it is feeling--in a word, the use of all our redeemed fac ulties. How a redeemed spirit, clothed upon with a spiritual body, can study, can think, can learn of all God's wonderful works and wonderful words! How such a spirit will look into the heart of things! How it will hear answers to its questions inaudible to us!
We see in this world great differences in capacity not only of learning but of truly apprehending and rightly feeling truth. People are born with differ ing capacities; culture in books, in art, in .experi ence, but culture, far more, in character,, makes greater differences. Compare two children. One never sees the blush of a rose, never hears the song of a bird. The other has all the senses of the soul open. Now and then half-superstitious people say of such a child, " The angels talk to it." Many years ago, one autumn evening, just before sunset, a man carried a little girl, in her fourth year, to the Capi tol in jNashville, Tennessee. The little one had never seen a great house like this before. She stood gazing at the great columns, the rays of the setting

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sun flashing back in golden splendors from the many windows. Her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks were flushed. " Daughter," said the father, "whose house is this?" The little thing clasped her hands together, a worshipful spirit shone in her face, and she answered, "It is God's house."
How the beauty of God's great universe thrills some souls! In some souls,

The sight of the meanest flower that blows, Moves thoughts that are too deep for tears.

How some people's souls vibrate under the spell of music! The man with no music in him thinks it an affectation, or the mere excitation of certain nervecenters, like the effect of martial music upon a spir ited horae. But it is not this. There are souls so attuned to the harmonies of music that they can express, not simply in songs, but in wordless music, thoughts that were never put into words, feelings that were never expressed, visions of beauty that were never sung, carved, nor painted. There is a woman in this congregation whom I have seen list ening to a singer, or to an orchestra, with a face as of one transfixed--who felt it till it gave her pain.
These illustrations I offer to suggest the vastly greater capacities of our spirits when we get our spiritual bodies. In this world some see and hearand feel more than others. But we will then all of us far surpass our present selves. Then we will see clearly " in the white light of eternity" with keener eyes. All forms of truth will yield up their secrets to us; but not all of them--we will be learning for-

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ever. 2fow we have glimpses of things and their meaning; then we will see what rainbows, and flow ers, and snow-crystals, and sweet human faces really mean. The whole universe will be close to us; we can read it then. Then we can shape our questions aright; then we can understand the answers which will come to us out of secrets that have been locked up since the creation of the worlds. Then we will, with our finer ears, understand the many voices of God in his works. We will understand the song of the seas and the storms, and of all things that God has made.
But best of all the possibilities of that world, we will be capable of diviner spiritual thought and ex perience. Our susceptibility to divine influence-- to the communion of the blessed Spirit--will be quickened. We will begin to understand the char acter of Jesus Christ our Lord and Brother. " We will be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
How does the doctrine of our text and of this discussion apply to the future states of the impeni tent and unsaved? They also will have spiritual bodies. There will be no bodies in that world that material fire can burn; spiritual bodies are not sub ject to the laws of combustion. Monstrous fur naces and broiling flesh--these are pagan concep tions; they are not in the word of God.
Sin is hideous everywhere, but it is most hideous in the most nobly gifted. The unsaved, because per sistently impenitent, will when they have their spir itual bodies be capable of greater wickedness, and therefore greater suffering. Suffering follows sin;

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hell begins in this world--it can never end till there is an end of sin. Of those whose sins have shut them out of the holy city--it might be worse for them could they be shut inside of it--it may be said of a truth: " Their worm dieth not," and " the smoke of their torment ascendeth forever."
St. John, in setting forth the blessed doctrine that the redeemed ones, when they enter into their spir itual bodies, shall be 'like Christ, adds this saying: " Whoso hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure." This is our chief business-- rightly understood, our only business--in this world. And God's chief concern about us--rightly under stood, his only concern--is to get us ready for our spiritual bodies and our immortal duties in the world to come.
We may conclude, this morning, with St. Paul's burning words that go before our text:
"We are troubled on every side, yet not dis tressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; per secuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de stroyed ; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. .... For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."