Religion and the higher life; talks to students

JUN 171905 *)

RV 4310 .H37 1904

Harper, William Rainey, 185

iellllon and the higher lif^

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

RELIGION AND THE
HIGHER LIFE

lialks to Students

BY

WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

CHICAGO

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

1904

COPYRIGHT 1904
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

September, 1904

TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER

IN HONOR OF

THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

OF THEIR MARRIAGE

PREFACE

There have been gathered together in this volume
some of the talks, more or less informal, which it
has been my privilege to address in these last years
to companies of young men and v^omen, particularly
students. Three of these papers have been pubHshed
before.

The topics are those that all young men and
women are compelled to consider, whether they will or
not. I have not supposed that in these talks any
new thought was presented. I have felt, however,
that something perhaps was accomplished, if a fair
consideration of the old thought might be secured.

I am more confident today than ever before that
the universities and colleges are not performing their
full function in the matter of reHgious education.
There is need of a reconsideration of this whole sub-
ject. Who will undertake the task? Meanwhile,
the least one can do is to present to the students of
each scholastic period of four or five years the prac-
tical questions of the religious life.

Do I think that anyone was really helped by these
talks ? Some have acknowledged that they received
help; but this acknowledgment was made, perhaps,
only as a matter of courtesy. In any case, I have
in this way discharged in a measure a respon-

vui PREFACE

sibility which has weighed upon me more heavily
than any other connected with the office which I
have been called to administer.

This fact brings comfort to me, if to no one else.
And yet I have noticed that, with each recurring
year, it has required a greater effort on my part to
undertake this kind of service. I have asked myself
whether, as a matter of fact, it was growing more
and more difficult to deal with subjects of this kind
in a university atmosphere ? Perhaps someone will
answer this question. It is quite certain that there
are many who will be interested in the answer.

Those who know my father and mother, and
their lifelong interest not only in the religious life,
but in higher education, will approve my desire to
acknowledge this interest, as it has manifested itself
in connection with my own life, by inscribing to
them this small collection of ''talks to students."
William Rainey Harper.

September 26, 1904.

CONTENTS

I PAGE

Religion and the Higher Life i

II
The Religious Spirit 21

III

Fellowship and Its Obligation — Service ... 36

IV
Trials of Life 57

V
Loyalty to Self 69

VI
Dependence 78

VII

Certainty and Uncertainty as Factors in Life . 88

VIII
Our Intellectual Difficulties loi

IX

The College Experience an Epitome of Life . .113

X

Religious Belief among College Students . . .132

XI
Bible Study and the Religious Life 141

XII
America as a Missionary Field 173

ix

I

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

It was a great moment in the history of spiritual
progress when the individual man became a factor;
for till that moment came the ascent of man was
largely physical But when man the individual
came to be fully recognized, when what he was or
might be had for its largest determining element
himself, then modem civilization had its beginning.
The powers and the possibiHties of the individual,
as distinguished from those of the family, the clan,
or the nation; the responsibility of the individual,
as distinguished from that of the family, the clan,
or the nation — these constitute the real basis of sub-
stantial growth; these furnish the true incentive
toward forward movement; these supply the ele-
ments required for the reaHzation of the higher Hfe.

The higher hfe — beginning with the first steps of
civilization, inseparably related to the effort of the
individual man, and taking on higher and higher
form as individual effort became more distinct and
determinative — has manifested itself in widely varied,
yet closely related, forms of thought and action ; and
the characteristics of these forms, always plainly dis-
cernible, distinguish it from that which is below, and
also from that which we may call the highest.

2 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

In several fields of art individual men and v^omen,
through all the centuries, have created v^orks which
have Hfted not only themselves, the doers of the
work, into the higher life, but Hkewise all of their
fellow-men who have sincerely sympathized with
such work and entered into its appreciation. As
evidence of this higher hfe, and as its fullest vindica-
tion, stands out the long Hne of the world's master-
poets and writers, its artists and musicians, with the
milHons upon miUions whom they have helped and
inspired.

In the department of philosophy, in which men
have made gigantic efforts to secure knowledge and
to ascertain the origin of things and their relations,
we see another sphere of the higher Hfe — a sphere
broader, perhaps higher and deeper, than that of
art; but less attractive to the ordinary man, and cer-
tainly more difficult to appropriate. Yet every man
who really thinks, or who inteUigently questions his
world, is something of a philosopher; and the num-
ber of those who in this way touch only the border
of the higher Hfe is probably as great as the number
of those who, in spite of wings clipped by nature,
would follow the lofty flights of the artist. And in
company with the philosopher and his disciples are
the scientist and his devoted followers. These, too,
seek knowledge and wish to know the origin of things.
And all these, though their gropings be in darkness,
though the fight revealed is in every case but the

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 3

smallest gleam, lift themselves, by force of the very
effort made to see the light, to a place v^^hence they
may catch a vision of other gleams while, with each
new gleam thus possessed, the next becomes more
clear.

The higher life includes as one of its several
spheres that of ethical purpose, moral effort. Here
the element of individuahsm is clearly marked.
Every man who endeavors to live a righteous hfe,
to be honest and pure; every man who puts forth
energy to perform his obligations as a member of a
family, as a member of society, as a citizen of the
state, holds his place, high or low as it may be, in
the constituency of the higher Hfe. That all men
may not be found in this constituency is apparent.
Is it not, therefore, presumptuous that we should
count ourselves therein ? We may not assign others
of our fellow-men here and there ; we may be grossly
deceived in any estimate we may hazard as to our
own positon ; but if we are sincere, we should be able
easily to determine in which of two directions we
are moving: whether downward and away from all
that is beautiful and uphfting, or upward and toward
that which incites, elevates, and purifies the soul.
For this sphere of moral effort is, after all, the one
in which all the others are contained ; with which all
the others are identified.

The hne between the higher and the lower life is
not the same for any two individuals. If, for any

4 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

reason, we permit ourselves to dwell, either intellec-
tually or morally, on a lower plane than the very
highest which nature and our environment have
made possible, we live the lower Hfe. It is only the
man who lives the highest life possible for him to live,
that may be said to live the higher Hfe; the failure,
at any time, to put forth his utmost endeavor — a
failure of which in every case he is unquestionably
conscious — degrades him, from a higher to a lower
position. On the other hand, the man who has been
denied opportunities of culture, or has been sur-
rounded by abnormal and injurious influences,
actually enters upon a stage of the higher Hfe at the
very moment when his mind and his life are turned
away from that which has pulled him down and are
lifted upward.

There is a question we must now put to ourselves .
Do those of us who are associated with university
work sustain any pecuHar or special relation to this
constituency which lives, or tries to live, the higher
Hfe ? Yes, a double relation ; in that, first of all,
we make public profession of membership; for in
the very act of becoming associated with an institu-
tion of higher learning, whether as student or as
instructor, one openly announces to the world his
purpose to be of those who interest themselves in the
higher things of thought and life. And, further, in
this act we proclaim ourselves leaders in this life.
This may, indeed, be an act of presumption on our

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 5

part; but it is an act which will bear no other inter-
pretation. It is what every man does who makes
effort, in a pubUc way, to lift up either himself or
his fellow-man. If all this be true, it follows, of
course, that the university should furnish the high-
est ideals for life, and by its discipline make possible
examples of the highest type of living.

The artist and the student of art, whether in
literature or painting, the philosopher and the stu-
dent of philosophy, the scientist and the student of
science, the moraHst and the student of morals, are
expected to be the leaders — and, as experience shows,
have been among the leaders — in the higher life.
It is, therefore, an appropriate thing that, at this
time, I should ask a question concerning this higher
Hfe — a life with which, at least professedly, we are
so much concerned. The question may be put
briefly in these words: What has religion to do with
the higher Hfe? The answers to this question are
both negative and positive: Religion is not the
mother of art, science, philosophy, and ethics.
Religion is not to be identified with one or all of
these. Religion is not the enemy of art, science,
philosophy, or ' ethics. Religion is independent of
these phases of the higher Hfe, but closely akin —
in fact, the oldest sister of the family. ReHgion is
essential for the fullest development of these phases
of the higher Hfe. ReHgion must have certain char-
acteristics to work in harmony with them.

6 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

In the use of the word "rehgion "I am not think-
ing of the church, for the church is of a transitory
and variable character; she takes on different forms
at different periods of her growth and under different
environments, and at times, and in certain places
passes out of sight; while rehgion is something as
imperishable as the mind itself, of which it is a
necessary condition; something that is permanent
and not a mere passing phenomenon.

Rehgion, as has been said, is a condition of
the mind; but, in its outward form, it is a kind of
life; in fact, the life which is the outcome of the
mental condition. Rehgion, therefore, takes on
many forms, and in each case that form which is
best adapted to the stage or phase of development
already attained by the person or community
concerned. In this way rehgion adapts itself to
varying conditions and demands, and this capa-
bihty of adaptation, it should be noted, instead of
weakening rehgion, strengthens it. The capabihty
of such adjustment to different personal tempera-
ments, to different classes of society in the same
community, and to communities as widely separated
as are nations themselves — this indicates a strength
and power the existence of which, on a priori con-
siderations, one would be compelled to deny.

I may not even attempt to state what is to be
regarded as the essence of religion, whether it be
worship, belief in the supremacy of God, the act

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 7

of faith, or the spirit of piety. But as a concrete
t}^e of the religion of this day and of this land I
may use Christianity^ for, since religion has kept
pace with civihzation, and since civilization, con-
trolled by religion, has made progress, Christianity
must be the highest and most perfect form of
religion thus far developed. This means, of course,
Christianity in its broadest sense, and not any one
of the special forms of Christianity which have
appeared.

Coming back now to the higher life, we may ask :
What has religion to do with the higher life ?

I. I am not one of those who would ask a place
for rehgion in the higher Hfe upon the ground that
each of the different phases of this life, whether art,
philosophy, science, or ethics, owes its origin to
religion. This contention cannot be maintained;
but even if it be true, it fails to bring us to the neces-
sary conclusion, since the child, in time, may grow
to be independent of its mother.

The suggestions that the first attempts of art had
to do with the expression of religious thought, and
that consequently religion is the mother of art; that
the earhest literature is rehgious hterature, and that
therefore rehgion is the mother of literature ; that the
first philosophers and scientists and lawgivers were
priests; that astronomy grew out of astrology, medi-
cine from sorcery ; and that, in view of this, philos-
ophy and science and ethics are the offspring of

8 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

religion, I may not now discuss. Today I do not
wish to base an argument or an exhortation for the
cultivation of religion upon this foundation.

As against the idea expressed in these suggestions
it has been asked:

2. May not art, philosophy, science, or ethics each
constitute a religion in itself, at least for those who
are its devotees or followers? Renan maintained
that religion (and he was thinking of Christianity)
was nothing but an expression of the aesthetic feel-
ing— in other words, art. Many other writers have
urged that rehgion is but a crude form of philosophy,
and that when a pure philosophy prevails, religion
will disappear. Furthermore, it has frequently been
suggested that science itself would serve as religion,
or at all events take its place. Matthew Arnold
understood by religion "morality touched with emo-
tion." This conception would make the moral and
the religious life identical, except that the former
would be the ideal, and the latter only an imperfect
and undeveloped form.

It is plainly to be seen, however, that to propose
the substitution of one or another of these phases
of the higher life for rehgion is merely to claim that
these are identical with religion, and that they do
for man what rehgion aims to do. For myself, I
have found the words of Professor Tiele^ on this
point particularly illuminating :

I Elements of the Science of Religion, Vol. II (1899), pp. 246 f.

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 9

The difference consists chiefly in this, that, while science,
art, and moraUty yield a certain satisfaction, or even a consid-
erable measure of happiness, they never produce that perfect
peace of mind, that entire reconciUation with one's self and
one's worldly lot, which are the fruits of religion, and have ever
characterized the truly pious of all ages. The greatest genius,
the acutest investigator, and the profoundest thinker, who have
studied the most difficult of problems, and have made darkness
Hght for themselves and others, will be the first to confess the
limitations of their knowledge and the insolubility of many of
their problems, and to admit that faith alone can answer the
momentous and vital questions — Whence and whither ? Poetry
and art may brighten this earthly life with their luster, they
may mitigate sorrow and soothe the troubled mind; but they
can only give true rest to the soul when they serve to bring
home to it some great religious truth in a beautiful and striking
form. And even the strictly moral man, who can boast of
having kept all the commandments from his youth upward —
unless utterly deluded by self-satisfaction — must often feel that
he lacks something, the one thing needful.

Religion, then, is something in itself and for itself,
fulfihing a separate role, and not in any way to be
confounded with art, or philosophy, or even with
morality.

3. But whatever may be the true relation between
religion and these departments of human activity,
there are many who think that rehgion has been and
is the enemy of the higher life as exhibited in art,
philosophy, science, and morality. They will ask
you : Did not the law of Moses prohibit the making
of any image of anything in the heaven above, in
the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth,

lo RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

and was not the artist condemned by Israel's proph-
ets in words most severe? Did not the reformers
destroy all that was beautiful in the churches, and
make their worship something devoid of all softness
and beauty? Have not philosophers whether of
sacred or profane history, been treated in all ages, as
skeptics and mischief-makers ? Has not the church
persecuted and even executed the leaders of science ?
Has not morahty lost ground whenever and wherever
formal rehgion has gained ground? So it is fre-
quently maintained; but these statements, even if
admitted as facts, do not bring us so easily to the
conclusion which is urged upon us. Certain dis-
tinctions should be noted.

There are times when art degrades, and there
are uses of art which are always degrading. Is that
influence hostile to literature which would take away
from it the obscene ? There are professed scientists
and philosophers who step beyond their sphere of
knowledge, and in arrogant spirit make strange
statements concerning that with which their science
has no connection. Is it hostile to science to oppose
the presumptuous denial of the existence of God ?
There are times when immorality becomes an epi-
demic ; but is it the truly rehgious man who becomes
immoral, or rather that man who has merely put
on the form of rehgion ? Is it hostile to morality to
assist one who is immoral to become pure ?

Furthermore, religion must not be held responsible

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE ii

for the deeds of all who profess to act in her name.
As there is a distinction between religion and the
church, so there is a distinction between the church
of today and that of the Middle Ages. There may
be a religion, as Tiele says, "one of those transient
forms of rehgious hfe which, having served its time
and fallen into decay, cannot tolerate those revela-
tions of progress in the spiritual domain which mark
the awakening of a new life."^ Such a reUgion,
however, should not be confounded with the normal
rehgious spirit. Again, disease must always be
differentiated from health. It is the sane, not the
insane, man who most truly represents humanity.
Abnormal forms of rehgion have undoubtedly an-
tagonized the progress of truth and the growth of the
higher life; but the truth and the higher life have
been all the stronger for an opposition that was
ephemeral.

4. But if rehgion does not furnish the starting-
point, is not the origin of this higher life ; if rehgion
is something quite independent of one or all of the
phases of this life ; and if rehgion is not the enemy of
art, science, philosophy, and ethics, how shall the
relationship be designated? Perhaps rehgion may
be called the sister; and, if a sister, surely the oldest
member of the family. That reUgion is a sister,
and not the mother, would appear from certain
facts in the history of art, literature, science, and

I Op. ciL, Vol. II, p. 258.

12 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

ethics. For example, so far as can be ascertained,
art is synchronous with rehgion, while mythology is
not rehgion, nor does it come from rehgion, but is
an early form of philosophy. The priestly caste is
something comparatively late, and its mastery of
learning and law was obtained after long struggle.
In the earliest days every man was his own priest,
and there was no such caste. Like a family of lan-
guages descended from a parent stem, among which
there is an oldest and a youngest, with others grow-
ing up between, so rehgion, art, hterature, philosophy,
ethics, and science are to be regarded as closely akin,
each to the other.

But though of a common origin, there are im-
portant points of difference between religion and
these other phases of the spiritual or higher life. It
has already been said that no other of these phases
may take the place of rehgion, since no one of them
gives that kind of satisfaction, of peace of soul,
which is the gift of religion. As has often been
pointed out, however, the kinship between what
rehgion and these other phases give is so great as to
minimize their difference.

In the ethical life, as in the religious, peace of mind is one
of the objects sought for, and it is only to be found in a state
of unceasing development. Nor does the man of science rest
satisfied with knowing. He desires also to understand, and
to systematize and unify his knowledge. The philosopher
tries to fathom the origin of things, but he also expects that
philosophy will reconcile him with himself and the world. So

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 13

that scientists and philosophers aUke, to a certain extent, also
seek for contentment of soul. And does the artist never aim,
in the pursuit of his art, at something beyond aesthetic enjoy-
ment ? Does he not often throw his whole soul into his works,
and thus stake his happiness upon their success ? ^

The fact, after all, which at the same time marks
the relationship and the separation, which makes it
impossible for religion to be taken as the mother, or
to have one or another of these take her place, is
this: in art the imagination and emotion predomi-
nate; in science, the intellect and judgment; in mor-
ality, the will; while in religion these various facul-
ties must be held in an even balance. Undue em-
phasis on any one or another results in an abnormal
and degenerate form, such as mysticism, or fanati-
cism, or moralism. Religion, many-sided, and well-
rounded, is broader than any of its sister-forms of
spirituality. It calls into exercise a man's whole
being; and when its development is normal, it
strengthens every function of his life.

All this, we can see, is equivalent to saying that
in working for the highest and fullest and truest
development one must not ignore religion. The
artist cannot be a scientist and thus strengthen his
intellect and judgment; he would only destroy his
power as an artist ; but he may cultivate the frame
of mind which constitutes religion, and in this way
obtain something of which he stands much in need.
The scientist may not become an artist, and thus

I C. P. TiELE, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 246.

14 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

find opportunity for the play of his imagination and
his emotions (we remember the experience of
Darwin with music). Yet in rehgion he may find
that which will remove the charge that is made and
sustained against so large a portion of the scientific
fraternity, the charge of narrowness, of lack of
interest in humanity, of dogmatic and arrogant
conceit. The moralist, furthermore, cannot become
rehgious by receiving a touch of emotion, for religion
demands more than the exercise of will and of
imagination. It requires also the strong and con-
stant cultivation of the judgment.

Art, then, if it will, may find in religion its closest
friend and neighbor, for there can be no rehgion
without sentiment, the essential element in art.
Has this not appeared in the history of art? To
what has she more frequently turned, with what
has she been more closely united in all her history
than with rehgion — in poetry, in architecture, in
painting, in sculpture, and in music? Science and
philosophy, too, if they will, may find in religion
their closest friend and neighbor. It is true that a
rehgion which lacks the intellectual energy which
enters into philosophy and science may be tainted
with superstition or mysticism or fanaticism, still it
cannot be true rehgion. And have not philosophy
and science always been driven, in their last analysis,
to God ? And behef in God is the very essence of
religion. Ethics, surely, will find in rehgion a sym-

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 15

pathetic companion, for there has never existed a
rehgion which did not, in forms more or less crude,
try to influence its votaries to hve purer lives. Have
not preachers and rehgious sages, from the times of
earhest history, striven with their followers to be
truthful and honest and pure? Can we not see,
therefore, that since rehgion has something in com-
mon with each of these other phases of the higher
life, and since religion in each case furnishes some-
thing which these others lack, rehgion is essential to
their full fruitage?

It may be well to note briefly, in conclusion, some
of the characteristics of the rehgion which is best
adapted to the needs of those whose hves and sym-
pathies are in harmony with the higher life. Here
we must speak of a rehgion as distinct from religion,
for nothing is clearer than that there are as many
different religions in the world at large, and even
among those immediately about us, as there are dif-
ferent tastes and sympathies. These differences are
not merely differences of creed, nor of forms of wor-
ship, but of standards of morahty, of external ac-
companiments, and of subjective ideals. The reh-
gion of an artist will be different, no doubt, from
that of a scientist, and that of a scientist from that of
a moralist ; yet there must be some things in common
between the religion of a man who is spiritually
inclined and that of a man whose mental faculties are
exercised only shghtly or not at all. One need but

1 6 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

read history to learn that the leaders of the world's
thought, the men who, in one capacity or another,
have made the highest contributions to the higher
life, have for the most part been men of strong reli-
gious character.

We may ask, therefore: What has been the
nature of this reHgion ? What is the nature of the
reUgion which today will prove acceptable to men
and women of higher thought ?

a) This reHgion will be simple in its nature.
Truth is always simple; never complex or com-
pound. The greatest teachers have thus presented
it. It was Amos who said: "Hate the evil, and
love the good, and estabHsh judgment in the gate."
(Amos 5:15a.) Another prophet said: "He hath
showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth
Jehovah require of thee but to do justly, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
(Micah6:8.) It was Jesus who said : "Verily I say
unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a Httle child, he shall in no wise enter
therein." (Mark 10:15.)

In respect of simplicity, then, religion is "like a
work of art, a picture, a symphony, a cathedral.
Its genius does not forbid ornament and variety.
But its greatness is in its grand, simple, and total
effect, toward which all ornamentation contributes."^
SimpHcity need not shut out aesthetic form; indeed

I Dole, The ReHgion 0} a Gentleman.

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 17

it must not, for otherwise many of those for whom
it has a mission will ignore it.

b) It will be reasonable; else the scientist and
the philosopher will reject it; that is, it must stand
the test of investigation. It must make no false and
pretentious claims. It must make no unreasonable
demands upon the weak credulity of man. It must
appeal to the judgment and the reason, in order
that those of aesthetic predilections may find in it
what they do not find in their special field.

c) It must be a religion of toleration. One's
neighbor must be allowed to differ. No single
reUgion, not to speak of a phase of rehgion, can be
regarded as the only one containing religious truth
or affording rehgious help. There must be whole-
some respect for the sincere adherents of other
faiths, even though they be far removed. Rehgious
expression must be regarded to some extent, per-
haps to a large extent, as the product of historical
circumstance, of geographical situation, of heredi-
tary transmission.

d) It will be a rehgion characterized by ideahsm;
for otherwise those inclined toward the artistic could
not endure it. Think of a rehgion devoid of poetry
and music; a religion with no prophetic vision; a
rehgion with no reaching out toward the invisible and
the infinite I There can be no place for such a reh-
gion in the minds of those spiritually inchned.

e) It will be an ethical rehgion in order to meet

1 8 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

the demands of the morahst and the needs of the
artist ; and in order that it may be capable of inciting
to righteousness the Hves of those who accept it.
"Let judgment roll down as water and righteousness
as a mighty stream." For righteousness the cry goes
up on every side, and nowhere more loudly or more
continuously than from among those whose lives
have been molded in the atmosphere of the college
and the university. It was the ethical side of proph-
etism that made it mighty in its influence, though
it was handicapped in so many ways.

/) It will be a religion capable of affording com-
fort in the time of trouble, consolation in the hour
of distress; for this is what neither art, nor science,
nor philosophy, nor ethics can do ; and this, after all,
is the greatest demand of the human soul when it
becomes fully aware of its utter weakness. There
are seasons (who has not experienced them ?) when
life has nothing to offer that will please the human
soul. Torn and bleeding, as it were, healing is
needed; but the power of healing has been given
only to religion; and without religion there is no
health, no whole condition.

I wish, finally, to say three things, the truth of
which I am persuaded you will more and more
appreciate as you go forward in the higher life.

I. Rehgion has much to do with the higher life;
much to offer those who are spiritually minded. It
is an essential factor in a fully developed, well-

RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE 19

rounded life. Without it you lack that which
would give you breadth and strength and vigor; calm-
ness and tenderness and peace.

2. It is worth your while carefully to consider
the kind of religion, the particular form of religious
culture, which you will cherish. It is no longer a
question of creeds or denominations. The dividing
line runs, not between this and that form of religious
faith, but through all forms. The name is insig-
nificant; the serious thing is the character of your
religion. Is it adapted to your needs, and is it Hfting
you upward ? or is it something foreign to your
nature and is it dragging you down ? Is your reli-
gion a source of anxiety and pain ? or does it bring
rest and peace of mind ? If it is not what it ought
to be, do not be satisfied until it has been set aright ;
for every individual must have his own religion, and
that of no other will answer his purpose.

3. The religion of Jesus Christ is a reHgion
capable of adjustment to any and every individual,
however peculiar his temperament, however exact-
ing his demands. Its simphcity, as the Master him-
self presented it, is marvelous. In its proper form
it has always stood the most rigid tests; and it
appeals as strongly to the reason as to the heart. It
will permit you to respect your friend's religion; if
he is a Jew, because it came out of Judaism; if a
sincere follower of Islam, because much of Islam
came from it; if a disciple of some eastern faith,

20 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

because its founder, Jesus, was broad-minded and
tender, and saw truth wherever truth existed, with-
out reference to the name it bore. It is a religion of
ideals, not weird and fanciful; but chastened, strong,
and inspiring to true service. It is ethical in a
sense peculiar to itself, for it is the religion of the
Beatitudes and the Golden Rule. It is a religion
that says: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

The greatest minds of nineteen centuries have
found this religion helpful. I do not urge upon you
any special form of this religion, for I have in mind
its very essence, that which is common to all forms,
that which makes it the power history shows it to
have been through all these centuries. This, as
found in the teaching of Jesus, is, in the words of
old Hebrew philosophy, the fear of the Lord — i. e.y
belief in and acceptance of One who has power to
help, even to the uttermost. This step, this posi-
tion, this opening of the mind and heart to an in-
fluence of the highest spiritual character, will prove
to be the beginning, and indeed, the chief part, of
that higher life which lies before you, that higher life
upon which you have already entered, and in which,
we trust, your walk will continue, until there comes
the next step forward — the step that will usher you
into the life still higher, the highest life — the life
beyond.

II

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT

The religious side of man's nature will always
furnish new and fresh material for study. Every
manifestation of the reHgious spirit, whether in the
individual or in the nation, deserves careful exam-
ination and consideration; and these manifestations
are as numerous and as varied as are the individuals
and the nations in which they appear. It may be
said, with truth, that there is a rehgious spirit for
every individual, and, in a slightly different sense, a
reHgious spirit for every closely connected group of
individuals.

The differences which may be noted are so strik-
ing and so bewildering in our contemplation of them
that one may fairly question the propriety of using
such a term as "the religious spirit." Is it possible,
for instance, that the degrading, licentious, and cruel
religious rites of one nation, and the elevating, puri-
fying, and ennobHng practices of another, are mani-
festations of the same spirit ? ^ May we suppose that
the man who, so far as concerns religion, seems cold

I Contrast, for example, the base and sensual conceptions
associated with the ceremony of circumcision among other nations
with the holy and spiritual thought connected with that rite
among the Hebrews.

2 2 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

and indifferent and unaggressive, has in him any of
the spirit which makes his neighbor warm, enthusi-
astic, and zealous ? But more than this is true: the
rehgious spirit in individual and in nation is always
changing. The spirit of the child is not that of the
mature man, and the latter, in turn, differs from
that of the man of old age. The same man exhibit-
ing the spirit in one form, in this environment, will,
if suddenly transferred to other surroundings, make
a quite different manifestation.

Nothing in history is more significant than the
changes through which a nation passes, in the course
of several centuries, in respect to the outward form
and the inward content of its religious faith. Trace
the history of the Hebrew nation from the primitive
and simple ritual of early times, to the highly devel-
oped and complicated service of the second temple.
Study the strange, almost incredible, movements in
the history of Christianity itself; the peculiar, almost
endless, variety in forms of worship and belief,
which characterize the different bodies of Christians
today; and there will be found full illustration of
what has been said.

There are three elements which enter into the
religious spirit, and which may be said to constitute
it. The presence of these three elements, in varying
proportions, determines largely the nature of the
religious spirit in any particular case. The first of
these elements may be expressed in the single term

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 23

"worship." This term means here the attitude of
an individual, or a group of individuals, toward the
outside and higher world of supernatural or divine
existence. It includes the outward acts which in
various forms symbolize the inward thought. In
some cases so simple and unconventional is it as to
pass almost unnoticed. In other cases it is so elab-
orate and complex in its various forms and mani-
festations as to win our aesthetic admiration, though
at the same time suggesting the query as to whether
the participant, in the maze of outward ceremony,
may not lose sight of the essence which the particular
act is intended to represent.

I have just said that this element, called worship,
includes the outward acts which in various forms
symbolize the inward thought. Now one may ask:
Does the thought precede the act and determine it,
or does the act waken the thought which it is sup-
posed to represent? At different times and under
different circumstances each of these things happens.
We must suppose that in the institution of any par-
ticular form or act in a ritual of worship, whether
simple or elaborate, the intention and effort were to
embody in a tangible form some conception sug-
gested by the religious spirit; and that in the mind
of individuals possessing a sensitive temperament,
and controlled by the same general influences, the
performance of the act would later produce that
phase of feehng, or reflect that phase of thought,

24 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

which originally suggested, whether consciously or
unconsciously, the institution of the ceremony.

But how easy and how natural it is for the act to
lose its significance after a long period of time has
passed, or when the ceremony is performed in situa-
tions entirely distinct from that with which it was
first connected ! In the history of religion one finds
multitudes of these institutional ruins. Our modern
religious life abounds in rites and ceremonies which
no longer express the thought originally intended for
expression, and in the performance of which we who
take part are perhaps in many cases only performing
a farce. They do not reflect our spirit; they do not,
as they are performed, create in our hearts a corre-
sponding emotion. These observances, unless per-
formed with the right spirit, are a mockery, and we
who perform them are httle better than hypocrites.
They constitute, however, the conventionalities of
religion, and we are under the same obligations to
observe the conventionalities of religion as to observe
the conventionalities of social life. To violate these
conventionahties is, in the opinion of many, to strike
a fatal blow at rehgion itself. This of course, is a
mistake in so far as the violation is a violation only of
conventionahty. But we ought gravely to consider
just where the fine may be drawn between what shall
be called conventionahty, and the real expression of
our inner self in its relation to God.

The second element which enters into and con-

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 25

stitutes the religious spirit is the element of belief or
faith. This is never quite independent of the first
element. Thus, in most cases, it determines sooner
or later, the jorm of worship. In this second ele-
ment there is again at times the same simphcity and
the same elaborateness which, in different instances,
characterize worship. A simple faith or behef,
however, is by no means always found with a simple
form of worship ; and a compHcated ceremonial does
not necessarily presuppose, on the part of the ordinary
worshiper, a more fully developed theological system.
In respect to the exercise of behef, the individual has,
of course, a larger freedom than is possible in the
exercise of worship. It is necessary in the economy
of life that men unite in forms of worship. It is not
necessary that any two men should think alike.
The desire for system and co-ordination, and the
influence of the ceremonial, have led, in the course
of our ecclesiastical history, to the separation into
distinct bodies of those whose beliefs were similar;
for the opinion has generally prevailed that, in order
to work together in the religious field, men must
have the same theological beliefs, and must exercise
the same forms of worship.

But the experience of most recent years shows us
that this opinion was wrong, and in the future the
tendency in the direction of union of effort on the
part of those holding different theological views and
practicing different forms of worship may surely be

26 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

expected to increase. No one, moreover, can fail to
recognize the fact that in these separate bodies,
whose separation from each other was effected in
order to bind those who held the same views more
closely together, there is coming to exist the widest pos-
sible divergence of opinion on many questions which
have been regarded as of paramount importance.
The third element which, together with worship
and theological belief, enters into the religious spirit,
is the ethical standard of a man's life — one's con-
duct in relation to himself and to his fellow-men.
This element may not be entirely separated from
either of the other two. The effect upon conduct of
the other two elements of the religious spirit is
marked. Thus the form of worship may be the
strongest possible incentive toward either right living
or wrong living. One's belief, however, may exert
an even stronger influence upon conduct than one's
ritual. Nothing is easier to understand than the
sensuality of many ancient nations when we recall
that their conception of God was best represented
by the bull, the animal representation of sexual
reproduction. Character, it must be conceded, is
largely determined by belief. The hue and cry so
common today against creeds can be justified only
on the ground that it is directed against the effort to
compel men to accept some form of belief, or to
accept all the details of any so-called system of
belief, which, it is thought, must be accepted or

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 27

rejected as a whole. From any other point of view
this hostihty to creeds must be judged puerile, for
where is the man who does not beheve something,
and does not therefore have a creed? It is to be
noted, however, that the element of behef does not
now occupy the same position that it once did. A
man's Hfe, at least in civilized countries, is not
dependent upon his theological belief, as it once was.
His position in a particular body of the Christian
faith is not so definitely determined. The range
within which he may exercise his belief, without
injury to his influence and without the necessary
change of ecclesiastical standing, is constantly widen-
ing. In other words, the present is an age of tolera-
tion, with which no past age of history may be com-
pared. Though at first it may seem paradoxical,
it is true that in proportion as less emphasis is placed
upon a particular form of belief, greater emphasis is
laid upon conduct. In proportion as larger liberty
of thought, within reasonable limits, prevails, ethical
standards are elevated.

These then, briefly described, are the three ele-
ments which enter into the rehgious Hfe and deter-
mine the religious spirit. Every true manifestation
of this spirit will include all three of these elements,
and the character of every such manifestation will be
determined by the proportion in which the three ele-
ments are combined.

May I now, before making a personal application

28 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

of what has been said, dwell for a moment upon two
points bearing directly upon our subject?

The history of religion furnishes us some inter-
esting facts touching the mutual relationship of these
three elements in the progress of their development.
In the ancient religions only the element of worship
existed. There was no dogma. The rite, as
Robertson Smith has pointed out, was connected
with a myth, but, "strictly speaking, this mythology
was not an essential part of ancient religion, for it
had no sacred sanction, and no binding force on the
worshipers." There may have been several accounts
of the origin of a given ceremony. It made no dif-
ference what the worshiper believed in reference to
the ceremony, if only he performed it regularly and
accurately. He did not understand that any
special favor was to be obtained from the gods by
beheving this or that thing. As a recent writer has
said, "what was obligatory or meritorious was the
exact performance of sacred acts prescribed by
religious tradition." In these ancient religions, of
course, the ethical standard was very low. The
rehgious spirit, therefore, found its manifestation
almost exclusively in the acts of ritual service. At
a later period the element of faith or belief was
introduced. Few of us appreciate the fact that this
element entered the history of reHgion very late.
It is largely the controversies between the various
divisions of the Christian church that have led us to

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT

29

think that in the history of religion dogma or belief
has been prominent. The controversy in reference
to the ritual in the Christian church has been, after
all, a controversy in reference to beHef, for it is only
the interpretation of the ritual that has been thought
important. It was when the prophets of the Old
Testament began to preach one God as against many
gods that religion, as we are acquainted with it, first
really emphasized belief. The denunciations of the
prophets were directed for the most part, it will be
remembered, against the formality and hypocrisy of
the Israelitish worship. It is also true that in the
Old Testament religion the standard of right living
was at first very low, and although it was lifted
higher and higher through the centuries, it never
reached a plane which, from the modern point of
view, could be called a high one. Briefly, then, the
religious spirit of the Old Testament shows itself
most largely in the act of worship. The Levitical
service occupied the largest share in the attention
of the people. Then in the work of the prophets the
elements of belief and right living were introduced
and inculcated. In the later days the sages, who
held a broader point of view than that of the prophets,
gave practically all of their thought, as rehgious
teachers, to ethics, and, while not ignoring the ele-
ment of beHef, found Httle or no use for the element
of worship. The historical development of these
three elements in Israel's history is essentially their
history everywhere.

30 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

The second point may be briefly stated. We
notice in individual and in ecclesiastical life here
and there abnormal manifestations of the religious
spirit. In some of these the spirit is so strong as to
overthrow the judgment, and, indeed, at times to
dethrone reason. At others it has associated itself
with immorality of the grossest type, and indescrib-
able cruelties. Of all wars, religious wars have been
the most dreadful; of all controversies, theological
controversies have been the most implacable. We
have often been at a loss to understand why, in the
case of men whose hearts were right with God, there
could be standards of life so utterly degraded; or
why, in the case of men whose lives were pure and
upright, there should be an utter disregard of church,
and of church relationship. The explanation of
these anomalies and abnormalities will be found in
the historical background of the nation, or in the
psychological constitution of the individual. This we
may never be able to understand, but the character of
their manifestation is clear. In each case one ele-
ment of the religious spirit has been emphasized
unduly, and the others neglected or ignored. Each
case presents a one-sided development. The nation
and the individual has acted or lived at times with-
out heart, again without mind, still again without
heart or mind. This being true, ought we to be
surprised at the result ?

We may now return to the personal application
of what has been said.

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 31

The cultivation of this religious spirit is for us
as serious an obligation as the cultivation of the body
or the mind; for without this spirit, our life is as
deficient as would be our body if it had no heart, our
mind if there wTre no brain. Rule out of life this
element described under the word ''worship," the
great truths for w^hich rehgion in the highest sense
stands, and the principles of conduct of w^hich religion
is in the highest sense today an advocate — rule these
elements out of life, ignore them all or any of them,
and you are not a man or w^oman in the full sense
intended by your Creator.

Granting now that you, the individual, feel the
force of the obhgation to cultivate this spirit, how
can it best be done ? Many and long answers have
been made to this question, but mine shall be short
and simple. Accept this unique, wonderful character,
Jesus Christ, as your leader and guide in the work of
developing in yourself the quahties which he pos-
sessed. In any other kind of work you would go
for direction to that person within your reach who
in himself and in his own actions best represented
the thing which you were seeking. For be assured
that Jesus Christ is the best representative of this
rehgious spirit, and, likew^ise, that he is within your
reach, within the reach of everyone who will stretch
his hands out after him. Accept him, if you have
not already done so, and try him. If when honest
and sincere effort has been made, you find him lack-

32 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

ing in the qualities of a good guide, you may recon-
sider your step; but first and foremost give him a
trial. You surely need guidance. To whom else
will you go ?

If, now, you have accepted him, study his life as
it is narrated to us, and his teachings concerning
God. The Christian world has been trying to be
Christian without a tru^ or full conception of the
Christ himself. Indeed, Christianity had almost
forgotten that there was a Christ, or, perhaps more
accurately, had so changed him that he could no
longer be recognized as Christ. It has been the
glory of more recent thought that it has in some
measure restored the Christ who had been forgotten
or ignored. But, as a matter of fact, each indi-
vidual must perform for himself this work of restora-
tion; and it can be accomplished only by constant
and close study of his words and works.

And to this end you must study yourselj. In
which of these three elements are you most deficient —
worship, behef, or conduct ? In your secular life
you have ascertained that your taste and talent lie
in a particular direction — business, politics, perhaps
science or literature. When this tendency was
definitely discovered, you undertook to cultivate the
special line for which your ability seemed adapted.
This was right, but in the cultivation of the religious
spirit the opposite policy is to be adopted. We
want no specialists in the manifestation of the reli-

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 33

gious spirit. It is the all-round, the symmetrically
developed, religious character that you should work
for. The day of special priesthood is past — every-
one must be his own priest ; the day of special proph-
etism is past — everyone must be a prophet; the
day of speciahsm in morahty has never existed and
will never come. If then you find yourself espe-
cially weak in one or another of the elements which
we have considered, cultivate that element in par-
ticular, remembering that the bigots of religious
history have been the specialists in the manifesta-
tion of the religious spirit; that the dark ages of
Christianity have been those in which the church
has emphasized one or two of these elements to the
neglect of others.

I desire to say a word, in conclusion, in regard
to the religious spirit as manifested in university life.
Here are special difficulties. By nature we each
represent different tendencies; this is true of any
group of individuals. In the university we come,
each from different communities and environments;
we represent many phases of beHef and unbeHef;
and, besides, we have a greater or less variety of
opinions, forms of worship, and religious activity.
And, in addition to all this, we are, for the most
part, so busily occupied in our daily work, in our
several occupations, that there seems to remain Uttle
time for the cultivation of the religious spirit. Our
minds are engaged in adjusting themselves to new sur-

34 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

roundings, and there is a confusion of ideas and
interests in connection with which, and as a result
of which, we suffer the religious life to be pushed
aside.

And just as there rests upon each of us as an in-
dividual the obligation to cultivate the rehgious
spirit, there rests also upon us as a university the
obligation to cultivate the religious spirit. This
may not be done in any such manner as to interfere
with our separate individuahsm ; and it is extremely
difficult to find in such multiformity of behef and
unbeHef, of practice and non-practice, any unity.
But unity must be found ; for an institution of learn-
ing which does not possess a strongly pronounced
religious spirit of some kind may do as much harm as
good. How shall this be cultivated? My answer
here must be still briefer than to the former questions.

As individuals, first of all, we must do our work.
The whole cannot be what the parts are not. Each
individual should, therefore, recognize his responsi-
bihty for the whole, and for the sake of the university,
as well as for himself, make urgent effort. And
then we must assist each other, and in so doing
bring ourselves more closely together. Common
sympathy alone produces unity. We may surely
find, as the days and years pass on, a more and more
satisfactory way in which, with zest and profit, we
may express our feelings of gratitude and rever-
ence to the Power above and around us, to whom

THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT 35

we are indebted for all that we have and are. We
may surely agree, not only to permit, but indeed to
encourage, the widest possible divergence of thought
and beUef within reasonable hmits ; and such diver-
gence should serve, not as a mark of separation, but
rather as the token of that freedom which alone is
found in Jesus the Christ. We may join in a com-
mon effort to elevate the hfe of the community, the
state, and the nation; the effort to establish right-
eousness and truth on every side. Such efforts serve
not merely as an expression of the religious spirit,
but they serve also to tie more closely the bonds of
those who thus work together, and to make that work
stronger and more lasting. As with individuals, so
with universities: the full religious spirit finds ex-
pression in maintaining a true worship, in cultivating
a reverence for truth, and in putting forth strong
effort for the upbuilding of humanity.

Ill

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION-
SERVICE

The worlds we live in grow in number and in
size as life proceeds. Each stage onward reveals a
new world to us; and the strange thing is that as
from time to time we enter into these new worlds,
we still remain dwellers in those into which we had
before gained entrance, each being superadded to
another, until at last all are included in the world
beyond. Each stage onward also reveals to us in
these worlds heights and depths of which before we
had no idea — heights and depths of pleasure and
pain, of love and hate, of faithfulness and unfaith-
fulness, experiences so varied and so vital as to excite
surprise that humanity can pass through even one
of them and Hve.

The worlds we live in grow in number and in size
as lije proceeds:

First came that inner and most sacred world, the
family, into which we were ushered without re-
sponsibihty of our own, and in which we found our-
selves the object of attention and love on every side.
In this world, with its almost infinite detail of rela-
tionship and with its utter lack of selfishness, we

36

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 37

have gone on living, and with each year of life its mys-
teries have become more marked, its responsibilities
more heavy, its points of contact more numerous
and complex. In this world the tie that binds us
to our fellow-members is the tie of blood. This
bond, however, sometimes does not count for much,
for when time and space intervene, even the parent
may forget the child, or the child the parent. This
bond does grow stronger and stronger with the close
associations which the family Hfe makes possible;
for it is a natural bond, and one which is strength-
ened by cultivation. Or it may be broken off at
will; family feuds are often the bitterest. But, after
all, even when the bond seems broken, it is there;
perhaps only a thread remains still connecting those
whom God and nature intended should be bound.
This world one enters without responsibihty of his
own; and he may not really abandon it, even if he
will to do so.

Life does not go far before another world opens
its portals. It soon appears that fellowship is pos-
sible with those outside the family circle — a fellow-
ship pure and simple, in which blood-kinship plays
no part; a fellowship in some cases restricted in the
number of those among whom it exists, in others
not so restricted; but in all cases maintained within
a hmit hardly larger than that of the family. This
relationship we ordinarily call friendship. We are
accustomed to say that we choose our friends; that,

38 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

in other words, we enter this world upon our own
responsibility. This, if true at all, is only true in
part. We enter into the friendships of Hfe, whether
in youth or in age, because of something in our
friend which appeals to us, something which we can-
not resist; because of an affinity which is as real,
though not as tangible perhaps, as the tie of blood.
The bond of friendship is a spiritual one; and so
close is it that men will sometimes do for friends
what they would not do for blood-brothers. In this
circle changes occur; friendships sometimes are out-
grown. Yet, as time goes on, it generally proves
true that the bond of fellowship once formed may
not be broken, and in the later days of hfe, as one's
mind goes back to the days of early family experi-
ences, these may not be separated from others in
which the friends of youth had part.

Most of us have enjoyed the fellowship of another
world — the university. In entering this world each
individual assumes for himself responsibihty; but
this world, like the others to which reference has
been made, is one from which no man withdraws
who has once entered it. The fellowship here pos-
sesses elements which would seem to have been
drawn, some from the family, some from the sphere
of friendship. The relationship of teacher and pupil,
when rightly apprehended, is only less sacred and
only less helpful than that of parent and child. In
some sense, indeed, it is a substitution for that rela-

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 39

tionship. The relationship between student and
student is at once that of brother and sister and
that of friend; the friendships formed in college life
are usually the warmest and the most lasting of all.
The associations of college Hfe are often as hallowed
as any that man makes.

The college world and its significance cannot be
appreciatied by those who have not lived in it, and
those who have lived in it will never clearly know
how different their lives would have been if they
had never entered. The college world is a kind of
epitome of the great world. With its temptations
and struggles, with its successes and failures, with
its ambitions and despairs, its life is hardly to be
distinguished from the life of the great world. It
is the natural transition between the narrow life of
the family and the world at large. It exhibits the
world at large in its varied relationships, and shows
how and when entrance to it may be gained most
advantageously.

There is, however, another world, of which every
man is a member, and in which every man must
live. There may be a few who have not known
life in the world of family; there may be a few who
have not tasted the experience of that spiritual hfe
called friendship ; the many do not know the college
world. But there is no man who, soon or late, does
not enter into the Ufe of the great world — the world
at large. What then, is the relationship between

40 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

the members of this world? Are men of human-
kind all brothers? Is there, indeed, a kinship of
every man with every other man?

The Scripture statement as to the essential unity
of mankind appears to be corroborated by modern
science in every department in which the subject
has been investigated. The biologist tells us that
we are one in structure; the physiologist tells us
that we are one in functional arrangement; the phi-
lologist tells us that our languages may be carried
back to stems which themselves form famihes, and
between these famihes there is evidence of relation-
ship; the psychologist tells us that we are so con-
stituted that under the same circumstances and in
the same environment we will do in large measure the
same thing, whatever be the country of which we
are citizens. The fact of the relationship seems to
have been clearly estabhshed, and is the basis for
the changes which are now being made throughout
our social structure.

It follows, of course, that wherever relationship
is found, there will be found fellowship; and there
exists, therefore, a world-fellowship, as well as a
family fellowship, or the fellowship of friends.
This world-fellowship manifests itself in various
ways. With some we are brought into direct touch,
with others the contact is indirect. In the mass of
individuals each individual of the mass may touch
comparatively few. The relationship may be that

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION

41

of business, or of religion, or of a civic or social char-
acter; but whatever the specific form it may assume,
it is of such a nature as to illustrate the common
sympathy of men — the common fellowship which is
always possible and which expresses itself whenever
circumstances permit. Every man is of kin to every
other man, and the multiform fellowships of hfe are
but an exhibition of the fellowship which exists
between members of the human race — a fellowship
which justifies the phrase "our common humanity."
This fellowship is, from one point of view, only the
extension of the family fellowship, for here as there
the bond is that of common blood. From another
point of view it is the enlargement of that fellowship
which is seen in the close association of a group of
friends, or an enlargement of that life of which so
perfect a type is seen in the university. The bond
is that of common interest or sympathy — a bond
which may be stronger even than blood.

And into this great world, as I have said, every
man soon or late comes. It is here that, notwith-
standing family ties and bonds of friendship, a man
must form new relationships, and upon the char-
acter of these will depend his career. This world
includes many worlds besides those which I have
mentioned, each sufficient in itself to limit the Hfe
and the influences of any individual. In taking
one's position in this world, he does not give up his
position in the other worlds to which reference has

42 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

been made, and sometimes membership in worlds
so different from each other and so much in conflict,
makes life and living all the more complex and
difficult. Do we hesitate sometimes to enter ? Yes,
but this counts for nothing; for, whether we will or
not, we find ourselves numbered with the great
throng and treated on every side as members. May
we then, having entered, withdraw quietly to one
side and give ourselves no concern over the affairs
of the world at large ? If we are cowards, we may
surely do this; but the training and the blood of
many men render cowardice for them impossible.
It only remains, therefore, to take up the burden of
this life and carry it as best we can. And the burden,
as we carry it, will grow heavier and heavier, until
perhaps we sink crushed by its overwhelming weight.
But this matters little, for we may interpret it as
perhaps the true glory granted by the world to its
favored children.

In this world- fellowship the college man has a
place. Others may be cowards and shirk responsi-
bihty. Disturbed by the conflict which rages every-
where so continuously; distressed by the misery
which cries out to heaven from every quarter; con-
fused by the various sounds and noises which fill
the air on every side, many may selfishly shut out
the world, and live for and by themselves, with eye
and ear closed to all that goes on about them. And
many live thus. But of this many the college man

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 43

may not be one, unless, to be sure, his college life
is to count for nothing.

His position is like that of a man going through
the world the second time. As we look back over
life, we think — in fact, we know — that in many ways
we would have acted differently. We see now what
at the time of action was entirely obscure. We appre-
ciate the mistakes and blunders that were made, and
understand how they might have been avoided.
The experience of the college man in later life is
something like this. He has lived one life. W^hen
he enters into the world at large, he is beginning life
a second time, and has before his eyes its probabiH-
ties, or at all events its possibihties. Such a man
sustains a pecuhar relation to the world and must
occupy a pecuhar place in its fellowship. He it is
who must, in some measure, occupy the place of
the parent in the family, of the instructor in the
university.

We may stop here to ask: Why is it that the
parent is fitted to guide and direct the life of the
child through its early periods? Because the par-
ent has passed through this period, and by experience
has learned the dangers and difficulties which beset
childhood. Why is it that the instructor is fitted to
guide and direct the work of the pupil through the
various stages of his educational development or
in special fields of research ? Because the instructor
has himself gone through this work and profited by

44 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

its experiences; has gone over the ground of the
special department. Just so, the college man, in
general has been fitted by the hfe which he has hved
(if it has been lived properly) to assist those about
him — because, while they, for the most part, are
going through the world for the first time, he is
Hving through it a second time. This, then, is his
position and the relationship which he sustains.
Or, to use another analogy, he is an elder brother
in the family; not elder, perhaps, in years, but in
experience; for experience comes not merely with
days of life, but with days of thought and action.
Each year of preparatory and college life contains
five years of ordinary, routine Hfe. The student of
twenty is, therefore, not a man of twelve plus eight,
but of twelve plus forty. I do not forget that occa-
sionally there are those who in Hfe outside the college
find a discipHne and a training which contains many,
if not aH, of the elements of college training. These
are the exception. Nor do I forget that frequently
there are those who have passed through the college
without having lived the college life, and who, there-
fore, enter upon the life of the world as if living for
the first time. These, although many, are, I trust,
the exception.

If, then, the college man's position in the world
is that of one about to live a second life or that of
an elder brother, what is his responsibiHty, his obH-
gation? There is, of course, the responsibility

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 45

which attaches to membership in the human family,
the responsibihty of fellowship, of man to man, of
brother to brother — the responsibility which rests on
every man, which all men bear in common. I shall
not here attempt to define this.

But there is also the responsibility which rests
upon the elder brother, or the leader; there are also
the responsibihty and obligation which rest upon
those who have been permitted to receive special
gifts and to enjoy special advantages. And just
here, as it seems to me, lies the solution of the prob-
lem which today is disturbing the minds of so many.
Granting that the world's affairs are under the general
guidance of an all-wise and omnipotent God — a
God who is at the same time just and impartial —
why is it that upon some men greater gifts are be-
stowed than upon others ? Why is it that to this
man wealth is given, and to that man high position ?
Why is it that you have been permitted to enjoy the
advantages of college life ? Why are men of wealth
placed in a class by themselves, and not infrequently
looked upon with reproach simply because they are
wealthy ? Men who have had college training are
sometimes in similar fashion regarded with sus-
picion merely because they have something which
the mass of men do not possess. Why, I ask, do
a certain few have gifts which the masses do not
have ? Before answering the question, let me make
this suggestion:

46 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

Life for these few is no easier, on the whole, than
for the many. In fact, it is more difficult and
more hazardous. In the majority of cases, the men
and women who occupy high positions, and who
have had the advantage of education, are carrying
burdens to which the men of lower rank are utter
strangers; burdens heavier and more grievous even
than those brought by poverty and sickness. Pain
of body is not so great as pain of heart and mind.
With every increase of knowledge there is an increase
of the capacity for sorrow. To the unthinking mind
the man of wealth, living in his mansion, is an object
of envy. If the real facts were known, the life of
such a one would be found, in most cases, to be a
life of care and responsibility, for which the satisfac-
tion of physical life is no fair remuneration. To the
unthinking mind the man who occupies a high posi-
tion in the affairs of government, or in affairs of
business, is an object of congratulation and some-
times of envy. If the real facts were known, in
almost every case it would be found that such a man
is being crushed — literally crushed — by the weight
of the burdens which he is compelled to carry. He
may find satisfaction in the prominence which is
accredited him, but such satisfaction is not a sufficient
reward for the anguish of mind and heart he is
called upon to suffer.

Again, therefore, the question comes: Why is it
that to some are given what seem to be special gifts

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 47

and special advantages ? Because they deserve
them ? No ! In order that, having them, they may
secure a greater measure of enjoyment in life ? This
may sometimes be the result, it is not the purpose;
and even when such enjoyment comes, there come
also with it a burden and responsibihty which in
large measure often counterbalance the enjoyment.
Is it because these men have greater energy and
ability ? This answer merely begs the question.
Why is it then, that they have been given the ability
to acquire wealth or to secure an education? The
answer is that every such gift or opportunity placed
within the reach of an individual is his, not for per-
sonal advantage, but to be used by him for the ad-
vantage of others. Every individual to whom has
been given such gift or opportunity, if he is true to
himself and true to the world-fellowship of which
he is a part, will use the gift or the opportunity, not
for himself, but for those with whom he is associated ;
and in every such case the burdens which he assumes
and the weight of responsibilities which he carries,
the suffering of mind and heart which is imposed
upon him, v/ill counterbalance all satisfaction that
comes to him from the enjoyment of these privi-
leges; and the God who has thus distributed his
gifts will in the end be found to have been just and
impartial. For if he has given to this man a special
gift, it has not been for that man's pleasure or ad-
vantage. It has been given that he might help his

48 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

brother — that humanity might be lifted higher; and
if the man has been equal to the trust committed,
his life will have been no less hard and difficult
than that of the men whom he has helped. Do
you say that many who have received these gifts are
faithless to the trust committed, and receive the
benefits without incurring the responsibihties and
the pains? Well, this is in accordance with the
nature of things. In order that man may be good,
there must be an opportunity to sin. In order that
there may be men who will accept this trust, and
the obhgations which it imposes, there must be the
opportunity to prove recreant to the trust. Vice is
permitted to exist for the sake of virtue — for without
one the other could not be.

The obligation which rests upon the college man
is, therefore, one of service — service to his fellow-
men. The man of wealth who does not use the
wealth given to him for the benefit of humanity is
a curse to the world of which he is a member. The
college man who does not use the advantages gained
by a college experience for the help of those about
him is a curse to humanity. To help humanity is
to serve humanity — to be a servant — to enter service.
An obligation which rests upon you, my friends, in
part because you may not deny your relationship to
every member of the human family with whom you
come in contact; in part because of the very consti-
tution of your mind and body which brings you into

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 49

close relationship with others of the human family;
but especially because you have been accorded
privileges not ordinarily enjoyed by the members
of the human family. If in your home you are given
wealth or advantage of any kind, would you not
share it with the other members of the family?
The principle is the same. The obligation is the
same. Advantage has been given you, not because
you deserve it, not because you are better than many
another man or woman, but in order that, having
received this advantage, you may thereby be better
fitted to serve your fellow-men.

I would have every college man and woman ac-
knowledge, as most other men and women cannot,
the obhgation which is imposed by the fellowship of
humanity. This obligation can be acknowledged by
the college man better than by any other, because
he appreciates it more fully; his eyes have been
opened to see it more clearly in all its bearings.

I would have every college man and woman
assume the special obhgation imposed by member-
ship in the human family upon those of its members
who have had special advantages, such as you have
enjoyed. In the ordinary obhgation, that which
rests upon all, there is something of service; the
special obligation, which rests upon the few — those
who have had advantage of one kind or another —
is wholly one of service: a service hard and rigorous;
a service continuous and never ending; a service

50 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

which will require you, in one form or other, to give
to others everything that has been given to you; a
service the pain of whose performance will equal
any satisfaction or pleasure which you may derive
from the enjoyment of the advantage accorded.

This service will be toward your equals, those
blessed with as great advantages as yourself. These
will need your help for themselves; for where you
are strong they may be weak; and in this respect
they will require your aid. For your own sake
you will serve them also ; since where they are strong
you may be weak; and the joint service thus
secured will uphft you both. Many a strong man
has fallen because of a weakness which was not
soon enough discovered by himself or by his
friends. Many a strong cause has perished for the
lack of timely service at the hands of those who
might have warded off disaster. Too often we for-
get the duty we owe to those in our own station of
life — our duty to those engaged in the same occupa-
tion with ourselves. Even when the thought of serv-
ice is in our minds, and the desire to render service
has taken possession of our hearts, we ignore the
fundamental principle that service rendered the
strong, when it is needed, is of more value than
service rendered the weak. Why is it so ? Because
the strong, when strengthened and kept strong, may
in turn help others; whereas the weak, if only
sHghtly strengthened, are still unable to render much
assistance.

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 51

If will also be well for you, my college friends, to
keep in mind the fact that your equals will not all
be found in the ranks of college men and women.
Some of your brothers and sisters, better gifted by
nature in some directions than yourselves, have in
large measure accomplished without the aid of col-
lege what you have done with the aid of college.
These individuals would tell you that what they
have gained has cost them far more than you have
paid for your advantage. They will tell you that,
if it were to be done over again, they would adopt
your plan; they would go through the college life.
But, however true this is, be on the lookout for
such; recognize them at their true worth; join hands
with them in every good work. They are of the
college fellowship, though they have not seen the
college. They are your equals, and upon them rests
the obligation which rests on you.

Is this service due those who are, as we say,
above you — those who have had even greater ad-
vantages than yourselves? The man who cannot
serve another well cannot himself be leader. Wher-
ever you may be, or in whatever station, there will
be those above you who both need and deserve your
hearty service. They will stand in need of it in
order that by your service, organized with that of
others, great results may be accomplished. It is,
after all, united service that counts. There cannot
be union of service without grading of service as

52 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

higher and lower. This is the point I have in mind.
Do not be chary about doing the lower service when-
ever it is needed and you can do it. Most of us
find life occupied largely in performing the lower
service. The amount of this kind of service is
relatively very large. The real fact is that in service
one always takes the lower place. If the truth were
told, those who hold the highest positions are, in
proportion to the honor of the position, performing
the lowest service. This service, as has been said,
will be needed. In most cases it will be deserved,
because, upon close investigation it will be seen
that they are serving you.

Surely, then, these higher ones deserve your serv-
ice. If they are true to the high position which they
occupy, they will be using every gift or advantage
of wealth or power or endowment to serve you and
those who, like you, need help. The case will be
entirely different if they are recreant to their trust.
In my experience, I have found none so eager for
help and aid as those who were commonly supposed
to have been raised by their wealth or position be-
yond all need of help. It is here that gratitude finds
the possibility of expression. Those who serve us
deserve in turn our service, and there is no sin that
may be committed which is so black as the sin of
ingratitude. Remember, therefore, that your educa-
tion obligates you to serve those who by directing
you and your work can at the same time help you

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 53

and benefit humanity at large. The world today
needs more of the spirit of voluntary sacrifice and
less of that spirit, called independence, which is in
essence real selfishness.

I have one thing more to say — perhaps the most
important. The service expected of you will be, in
large measure, service for those who, as the world
reckons them, are below you. I cannot myself
think that the world's reckoning is correct. There
is no real sense in which they are below you. The
world, as it is constituted, has not been able to fur-
nish them the opportunity which it has given you —
that is all. I am optimist enough to beheve that
in the end it will, be shown that the laws which
regulate the universe have been the best which
could be devised under all circumstances to attain
the highest and greatest results. These laws being
what they are, milhons of people are unable or un-
wilhng to obtain the advantages which you have
gained. This places upon you an obligation to
render an account for what has been entrusted to
you; the account will be given to humanity at large,
and the masses of humanity at large belong to those
who, as I have said, have been reckoned as below
you.

When we compare the situation of the masses
today with that of a hundred years ago, or five hun-
dred years ago, or a thousand or five thousand years
ago, we see, as clearly as we see the Hght of the sun,

54 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

that progress is being made, but we feel that it is
not being made rapidly enough; and it is equally
clear that the progress would be greater if the men
who have been given a mission for humanity — I
mean by that the men who have been given the
advantages of wealth or knowledge — would in every
case perform their whole duty. It is not for me to
indicate how this service for the poor and needy
shall be performed. There are a thousand methods,
any one of which you may adopt. The question
that concerns us at this time is: Have you — along
with the preparation for service — the spirit of
service ?

If in your college work you gain the preparation,
and do not acquire the spirit, your Hfe will be an
injury to the world, and not a benefit. You will
retard the onward movement, instead of assisting
it. This is why progress is so slow. So many who
have been given opportunity to serve and benefit
humanity have used the preparation given them,
and the facihties placed within their grasp, to do
injury. Has the spirit of service been inculcated
by those who have instructed you ? If not, it
would be better for the world if those instructors
had not lived. This, of all questions, is the one
question. It matters not how much knowledge
you acquire; since the amount, however great, is
as nothing compared with what you have not learned.
It matters not how little knowledge you have ac-

FELLOWSHIP AND ITS OBLIGATION 55

quired; for the amount, however Httle, will be great
in comparison with that of the tens of thousands
with whom you will be associated. The question
is: Have you acquired the spirit which will lead
you to use your energy and ability in the interests
of those who have been less favored than yourself ?
And this service, as I take it, is the real essence,
not only of true manhood, but of divinity itself.
We no longer think of God as a taskmaster, seated
on a throne, imposing tasks upon a burdened people.
This conception is a thing of the past. We now
think of him as actually existing in every human
being, and as working out through man in all the
multiformity of man's activity. God himself is the
great servant of humanity; and in the ideal man,
Jesus, this spirit of service found its highest example.
The question is: Will you permit the great servant
of humanity, by whatever name you call him, to
work in you and through you for the improvement of
humanity? Will you consecrate your body, your
mind, and your heart to the cause of humanity?
Or will you be a miser, and, like the rich man who
gathers wealth for its own sake, or for his own self-
gratification, use your wealth — that is, your training
and knowledge — for selfish ends, and thus become
something to be despised and spurned and cursed ?
It cannot be: it has not been; college men and
women, throughout the world, stand for the spirit
and for the work of service in behalf of all who need,

56 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

and for service in every cause in v^hich service may
legitimately be rendered.

It is the prayer of the University with which your
lot has been cast, and with the name and work of
which your name and work will always be associated,
that this spirit — the spirit of University life through
the ten centuries since universities began, the spirit
of the true church, in whatever form the church
through all ages has exhibited itself, the spirit of
the Divinity existing in all and working through all —
it is our prayer that this spirit may be your spirit in
the years and in the days and in the very moments
of your life, however or wherever you may live it.

IV

TRIALS OF LIFE

Some of us this afternoon are wondering what is
ahead. Is it success or disappointment ? Is it
happiness or suffering?

That each member of the University shall achieve
a marked success in Hfe is the University's expecta-
tion. That to each member there may come many
days and many years of unmingled happiness and
prosperity is the University's hope. The chances
for success and happiness are greater surely than
they would have been without the discipline and
knowledge gained in years of university residence.
Life ought to be a better life in proportion as fit
preparation has been made; otherwise all prepara-
tion would be a waste. If "a sound mind in a
sound body is the best description of a happy state
in the world," those who have made earnest effort
to train the mind and body have in this effort made
long strides toward happiness. If ''to be strong is
to be happy," happiness is more likely to become
the possession of those who have cultivated the
methods that produce strength. If we believe that
"True happiness never entered at an eye,
True happiness resides in things unseen,"

we should expect that those who have learned to

57

58 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

think of the spiritual in contrast with the material,
of that which is eternal instead of that which is
transient, of that which is holiest of all things —
truth in whatever form it may clothe itself — we
should, I say, expect these to be happy. God is
generally on the side of the large battalions.

But every life cannot be successful in the same
way, or to the same extent; and to every life there
will come hours of disappointment and days of
suffering. Many times the man who, as the world
thinks, has achieved great success will feel with
Macbeth that "the wine of Hfe is drawn and the
mere lees is left this vault to brag of." Indeed, even
in the most successful life every day will contain a
record of suffering. There is no Hfe, there is no
kind of life, there is no form of life, which escapes;
for suffering is universal. There is suffering most
intense among the plants in the ''green sward beneath
our feet," for here a never-ending struggle goes on
in which the weaker suffer until there comes entire
extermination. The trees of the forest about us are
engaged in a similar daily struggle, and the history
of the centuries shows a work of ruin and devasta-
tion almost indescribable; the suffering among ani-
mal life multipHes in intensity in proportion to the
complexity of that life.

It is, however, among human beings that suffer-
ing shows itself keenest and most poignant. Wher-
ever we look, our eyes see pain and labor, sorrow

TRIALS OF LIFE 59

and disappointment, sickness and death. The
world's traditions, rightly or wrongly, point back to
a time of innocence and freedom from suffering.
Each tradition, however, tells a story of a change,
and testifies to the universaHty, to the absolute cer-
tainty, of trouble and sorrow in every life. There
are times in every man's life when, as he regards the
world, it seems to be as a "great battlefield heaped
with the slain, an inferno of infinite suffering, a
slaughter-house resounding with the cries of a cease-
less agony." ^ There are times also when his heart
is filled with despair; when so thick a darkness en-
velops him that not even the midday sun may pierce
it. This is everywhere, and will come sooner or
later in every experience. At times it will be some-
thing which one must carry quite alone. The soul
has sinned, and "sin let loose speaks punishment at
hand;" or, perhaps, a parent has sinned, and the
wound is one so deep that many generations of suf-
fering will not heal it. In silence and in sohtude,
the agony of hfe continues; while prayer for rehef,
whatever be the form, is all in vain.

If one looks about and numbers the men and
women of his acquaintanceship, what a meager few
of this number does he find to whom a beneficent
Providence has given release from such suffering!
And if the inner life of our neighbors were known to
us, the ache and pain of heart and soul revealed

I Drummond, Ascent of Man.

6o RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

would be so great that human strength could not
endure to face it. Occasionally the veil is lifted,
and, for a moment, humanity at large, through the
medium of the daily press — that mighty power for
good, and yet a power as great for evil — gazes into
the inmost recesses of the privacy of a life, upon a
sickening spectacle of woe and misery. Such was
the Hfe of David in olden times, as we read it in the
disclosures of the prophetic recital.

We see him as a shepherd boy trusting innocently
in the God whose pastures and quiet waters fur-
nished food for Hfe and thought. We see him as
courtier at the court of Saul, tempted and flattered,
abandoning the simple faith and habits of home life,
trusting and at last joining those who are hostile to
his own countrymen and his God. We see him as
king of Israel, the beloved of the people, the favor-
ite of the people's God, cruelly torturing to the death
those who fall into his hands. Selfish docs he seem
beyond behef when, though himself a warrior, he
sends his armies to the field while he remains behind
in the ease and luxury of his court ; and how sensual
and murderous, when, after seducing the wife of his
brave captain Uriah, he arranges, in the hope of
covering his guilt, for Uriah's death. From this
day forward to the end of life David suffered in pri-
vate and before the world. In the months that
follow his agony is so great that his very bones cry
out in anguish of pain. The child that is born to

TRIALS OF LIFE 6i

him sickens and dies; his daughter is violated by
his own son. He himself is forsaken by his country-
men, who place another son, Absalom, upon the
throne; and the same Absalom, in the full light of
day, takes to himself his father's wives. Then
Absalom, gives battle, and perishes miserably, to
David's indescribable grief. The years pass on,
but they are years of confusion and strife, of death-
bringing pestilence, of harsh reproach and stinging
rebuke; and finally, as David hes sick unto death
in his palace, the tumult of conflict sounds in his
ear, plots and counterplots thicken the air about
him, the queen is occupied with the question of
succession; and so the king, forgotten at the last,
gives up a life covered with the dishonorable scars
of sin. David's Hfe is a t}^e, and history is full of
such lives. Every hfe, indeed, has in it something
of the sorrow of David — suffering for sin.

It is not only, however, our personal disappoint-
ments and sufferings that we must bear. We must
suffer with others; and we must suffer for others.
The calamity which befalls any one of those with
whom we hve always brings some pain to us. Our
individuahty is so bound up with that of others that
we often fail to ask ourselves w^hose burden we are
bearing, our own or a friend's. It is this close asso-
ciation that cements friendships and takes away
from life something of its bitterness, and yet at times
it is this very suffering which seems most bitter.

62 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

One's utter inability to afford relief, in an hour of
distress, finds expression in the entire willingness
with which the mother would take the child's place,
the sister the brother's place, even if that place stands
in the shadow of death. Suffering with another
thus passes into suffering for another, the most vital
factor in life, without which no life is complete,
with which any life, though otherwise most degraded,
may become a life of glory.

Consider in this connection of vicarious suffer-
ing how sad was the condition of those faithful Jews
who were torn from home, temple, and country, and
carried into Babylon. In their faithfulness to
Jehovah they could not comprehend why such suf-
fering should be theirs. They bore this foreign
captivity for a sin committed, not by themselves,
but by their brethren who now disloyally with bitter
taunts and reproaches spat upon them and said:
"Where is the great Jehovah in whom ye so strongly
profess to believe ? Why does he not give aid ? "
But for them saddest of all must have been the
thought that Jehovah had abandoned them: "My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" They
suffered because others had sinned; but not alone
for this. They suffered that they might become
purified and developed; that through their suffering
light should come to the world, and deliverance to
all humanity.

For us, then, pain and disappointment are ahead,

TRIALS OF LIFE 63

and at times we must endure them alone; at times,
with those whom we call our friends; sorrow and
anguish — which, perhaps, we deserve to experience,
or which we must accept as the legacy of heredity;
suffering and agony through which we pass because
others have been faithless to their trust, or, perhaps,
in order to secure for others blessings which we may
not enjoy.

When we come to apply to ourselves what has
been said, two questions present themselves: How
may we best meet these pains and disappointments
when they come? and, What preparation shall we
make for the sorrows and agonies of life which, soon
or late, we must suffer ?

My answer to the first is: Face to jace, just as
you would meet an enemy. With the courage of a
stout-hearted warrior, who will not brook defeat,
you must stand firm. Then each assault beaten off,
your enemy will be weaker, while you are stronger.
Take advantage of every favorable factor in the
situation; keep in readiness every available wxapon;
and fight, for, whether you know it or not, you are
fighting for your hfe. To yield is to die. You
must conquer, or forever be a slave — a slave to doubt
or apprehension; a slave sinking deeper and deeper
in the bondage of self-distrust.

But you must also meet this pain and suffering
face to jace^ as you would meet a friend for, para-
doxical though it may seem to be, every pain in the

64 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

physical world, and every disappointment in the
world of spirit, if rightly reckoned with, is a good
friend, from whom we may gather great assistance.
This friend has come, perhaps, to bring a word of
warning, which, if heeded, will render unneces-
sary visits of an equally friendly, though probably
more painful, character. Study this friend closely.
Though its attitude may at first seem hostile, attach
yourself to it as you would attach yourself to a well-
beloved companion. Standing face to face with it,
allow your eye fondly and lovingly to rest upon it
until you have read the thought which only the eye
of a friend would disclose. Receive the message as
you would receive the loving words of a friend, even
though such words may cut you to the soul. Do
not be tempted into impatience or irritation, for
this will be an indication of distrust. No lukewarm
attachment will be helpful. Remember that in a
close friendship both friends are masters, the one
of the other. In battle only one may be victorious.
Treating this experience as a friend, wilHngly permit
it to have full mastery of you; for in so doing you
in turn gain complete mastery of it. Cherish it,
hold it close; for unless you are absolutely loyal,
your treachery will be discovered, and, abandoned
by the influences which would gather around you,
you will be separated farther and farther from the
true life which you are making so earnest an effort
to Uve.

TRIALS OF LIFE 65

And further, let me say that you must meet the
sorrows and disappointments of life face to face as
you would meet God himself, were he to be presented
to you. If there is a God, and if he has to do with
mortal man, his messages are delivered in the events
which make up life's experience. When does God
speak to men, and how ? When he would have them
know more of himself — some new phase of his char-
acter which has not yet impressed itself upon them;
when he would for their own sakes teach them the
outcome of this or that kind of action, this or that
policy of life; when, perhaps, he desires to draw
them nearer to himself, to purify and make more
perfect their character. And how does the message
come ? In great disaster and war ; or in the inflic-
tion of loss, whether of property or of friends. That
man has not learned to live who does not recognize
in every event of life the hand of God stretched forth
to guide and Hft him up toward heaven. When,
therefore, disappointment comes, and pain follows
close at hand, one must be reverent and not blas-
phemous as was Job of old, even though his blas-
phemy was accounted better than the piety of his
friends. One must be reverent and resigned; for
the struggle, if it is a struggle, is with God himself.
Face to face as with an enemy; face to face as with
the closest friend, and face to face as standing in the
very presence of God, one must meet the sorrows
and disappointments, the pains and the suffering,
of Hfe.

66 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

There remains, now, the second question: How
shall one best fit himself beforehand for the dis-
appointments of hfe, and for all its suffering ? And
my answ^er to this is:

Begin at once to suffer, if you have not already
begun. Try to find a disappointment. Not, of
course, your own; but someone's else. Enter into
his situation; put yourself by his side; give what
your sympathy alone can give; receive, in turn,
what sympathy alone can receive. Your advantage
will be twofold and direct.

First, the attitude of mind in him who suffers will
be for you a preparation, whether such attitude be
good or bad. For the effect of suffering is learned.
Association with those who are in distress ought not
to harden the heart, and does not harden the true
heart. Such famiharity tends, rather, to make all
the more tender the heart which has thus put itself
in the way of suffering. And besides, he alone knows
how to accept sympathy, and to get good from it,
who has learned to give it when and where it was
needed. If you would experience the blessing of
having sympathetic friends in days of trouble, be a
sympathetic friend before your trouble comes.

If you would anticipate the troubles of life, make
earnest and continuous effort to obtain a vision of
God. Too many of us rest satisfied because, having
heard of God, we think this sufficient. The heart
must see God, if the intellect would understand

TRIALS OF LIFE (i^

him. How much greater is the world's suffering
because men have heard of God only by the hearing
of the ear, whereas, if the eye were to see him, there
would come a vision so immediate and so full that
darkness would not seem to be darkness but light,
and suffering would be accepted with joy.

And finally, if you would anticipate trouble and
would prepare yourself for suffering, hold relation-
ship with that unique character in the world's his-
tory who suffered as no man ever suffered before or
since — alone in the agony of Gethsemane, upon the
cross, in the face of all the world ; whom men buffeted
and reproached and spat upon, and whose last words
were: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" whose sympathy with a suffering humanity
was so great that only God himself could have ex-
perienced and expressed it; whose life and death, a
long series of indignities and sufferings, have brought
light and life to all who will accept them.

Hold relationship with this man, Jesus, for in so
doing you at once begin to suffer with him and with
the world for which he suffered; you are at once
coming into that attitude of sympathy with all about
you which will make it possible to give and to receive
blessing. He who is in sympathy with Jesus Christ
is in sympathy with suffering of every form, in every
cHme. He who is not in such sympathy stands
alone, separated from the whole world of sympathy,
and from every other man who like himself lacks

68 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

such sympathy. He stands alone, unable to give,
and, when trouble overtakes him, unable to receive,
true sympathy.

But furthermore, we have seen that not the hear-
ing of God, but the seeing of him, is the solution
of life's difficulties. How easy it is for us, in these
days, to have this sight, this vision of God ! It was
for this purpose that Jesus came to men, from God
the Father, to represent him as only he could be
represented to humanity. This, above all things
else, was his mission, to make God known to man;
Jesus, the brother, through whom the Father might
be revealed to those who also were brothers. To
see Jesus is to have had a sight of God.

In fellowship, then, with Jesus the sufferer; in
companionship with Jesus the friend and brother;
and in obedience to Jesus the Lord, one is best pre-
pared for the battle of life.

If my theme this afternoon has seemed a gloomy
one, its purpose, I can assure you, has only been to
suggest how burden and suffering may be averted,
or at all events relieved, and the lives of those who
are now so soon to leave us thus made the brightest
possible. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

V

LOYALTY TO SELF

These are days in which men's minds and hearts
are filled with the thought of loyalty — loyalty to
country. The nation is being quickened in every
fiber of its Ufe by the strange and striking events
of the passing hour, and the sons and daughters of
the nation, while they bemoan the seeming necessity
of war, while they may think that this, perhaps,
could have been avoided, at the same time rejoice
in the new and lofty sentiments aroused by the
stories of brave and courageous acts which men of
our own blood and our own generation have per-
formed. The names of Dewey and Hobson and the
story of their deeds rouse an intense spirit of loyalty
within us — a spirit far different from that slow stir-
ring of the blood we get from the perusal of brave
actions of passed generations. And more than this,
devotion to country becomes a stronger passion as we
are awakened to an appreciation of the country's
strength and opportunities. We see today what a
score of years ago would have been thought impos-
sible— men who once fought against each other now
standing side by side in a struggle with a common
foe — and the nation thus united will do what could
69

70 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

not have been done until such union was a union in
fact as well as in name.

We see the coming of an alliance with the
greatest of the world-powers — greatest not only in
naval equipment and in financial strength, but great-
est likewise as a power for good; an alliance, indeed,
of all who speak the English tongue; and this event
will signify as no single event since the coming of
Christ has signified, "peace and good-will to men."

We see our nation just passing from its period of
adolescence, from a youth with his vigor only par-
tially developed, into a manhood conscious of newly
acquired powers; a nation able henceforth to stand
side by side with other nations, and as one of them
to determine the method and kind of progress which
the world shall make.

We see our nation still sensitive to the cry of the
oppressed and downtrodden; and may the day be
far distant when that cry, wherever uttered, shall
not be heeded! May it never be that the heart of
America shall fail, as the hearts of European
nations have failed, to respond to the voice of the
lowly and the suffering, when that voice is raised
for help !

Events are taking place today which are fraught
with as heavy significance as any that have happened
within the century and a quarter of the nation's
history. And these events are creating a new spirit
within us — a spirit of intense loyalty, a spirit pos-

LOYALTY TO SELF 71

sesscd of all the strength and freshness of a new
creation. There is no man, who can be called a
man, to whom, in such times, the word ''loyalty"
does not take on new meaning.

But these are days, too, in which men's minds
and hearts are filled with another thought of loyalty —
loyalty to God. The world knows God at this, the
close of the nineteenth century, as he has not been
known in all past ages. The sum of truth known
to men is larger; but, better than this, the sum of
truth put into application is greater. It is not what
one knows that counts, but the use made of what
one knows. God is coming into contact with life
with an ever-increasing degree of force. Life is
responding to the touch of God with an ever-increas-
ing degree of appreciation. It is truth that makes
men free. But what is truth ? Any act or thought
which is in harmony with the wall of God and with
God's laws is truth. To act or think out of har-
mony with his nature is to act or think that which
is not true. To be free is to live and move in touch
with him; to love him, and to show that love by
devotion to him and his cause. To love him is to
be free and to make others free. This is loyalty to
God.

The ignorant love of God, on the other hand, is
mere superstition. Real love, true loyalty, are pos-
sible only for those whose conception of him is an
intelhgent conception. For God was known only

72 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

in part before the day when Science began to make
her contribution toward a better knowledge of the
laws through which he works. And in proportion
as this contribution in the future shall become more
definite, our knowledge of him will become more
clear. And so it follows that the man who ignores
the contribution of Science thus far made is guilty
of disloyalty.

The connection between this loyalty to country
and loyalty to God is clearly to be seen. Thus the
interest in human kind, so intense in modern times;
the love of man for his fellow-man, as shown in so
many ways; the pouring out of life and property for
the purpose of helping those who need help — all
this, seen today as the past has not seen it, is God
working through the hearts of men in behalf of
other men; and every such manifestation is a mani-
festation of harmony with God's will, of loyalty to
God. "Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did
it unto one of these my brethren, even these least,
ye did it unto me." "Verily, I say unto you, inas-
much as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did
it not unto me."

We all reahze that the world is growing better;
that its ideals of life are gradually rising high and
higher. And this is so because the life of the indi-
vidual is moving on a higher plane. Herein, per-
haps, lies the most conspicuous evidence of God's
presence, and at the same time the most marked

LOYALTY TO SELF 73

indication of loyalty to God. For when God finds
opportunity to enter a man's heart, when that heart
turns away from unrighteousness, then in all sure-
ness we see the working of the hand of God and the
sign of loyalty to his standards, and seeing this we
see God himself, just as in seeing Christ, the perfect
man, the world saw God.

With love of country thus incited by the things
we see and hear on every side, with love of God
quickened by what we see, that was not seen before,
in nature, in the lives of those about us, and perhaps
in our own individual life, we ask ourselves the ques-
tion : How may each Hfe most thoroughly and most
perfectly possess itself of all these opportunities ? How
may one reach this high plane of true loyalty to
country and to God?

The answer to this question is my message to the
members of the University, on whom the University
will soon bestow its highest, and indeed its only,
honors. Briefly, the answer is this: In order to
be loyal to country and to God, first of all be loyal
to yourself.

For this loyalty to self, if cultivated and acquired,
will lead you to avoid those things which, left to exert
themselves upon you, must demoralize and ultimately
break you down. Such influences are many and
strong and all about you. They form an integral
part of the plan of life. Without them Hfe would
be an insipid thing. Strength in Hfe is, for the most

74 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

part, secured by resisting them. Death comes by
yielding to them. Do many die thus? Yes; that
the few who Hve may live stronger lives. This is
the law of Hfe. If, now, you would be loyal to
country and to God, if you would place yourself in
a position to give evidence of such loyalty, you must
first be sure of your strength to resist everything
that may weaken you, whether in body, in mind,
or in soul. The country has no use for a weakhng.
The instruments of God must be the best and strong-
est. One cannot be true to God and country and
at the same time false to self.

"The first great task (a task performed by few)
Is that yourself may to yourself be true."

"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day.
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

It is easy enough to deceive ourselves in this mat-
ter. And though we sometimes endeavor to conceal
this fatal weakness, the effort always fails. A man
who has no self-respect is dead to every true feehng
of patriotism or piety.

Furthermore, this loyalty to self, to the extent in
which it is acquired, will enable you to overcome the
dilB&culties and disappointments of life. These, like
the temptations to which I have just referred, are
inevitable. No man ever achieved greatness who
was lacking in strength to overcome great obstacles.
The greatest men in history have been those whose

LOYALTY TO SELF 75

greatness came because a kind Providence gave
them obstacles to overcome.

"Noble souls through dust and heat

Rise from disaster and defeat

The stronger."

Do not, then, misunderstand the meaning of
those difficulties with which life is so entangled.
One cannot gain strength without them. For they con-
stitute a preparation, each in itself for something more
difficult, and all together a preparation for the giving
up of Hfe itself — a renunciation which but for such
preparation would be the most difficult thing in life.
Thus loyalty to self means strengthening of self for
the battles of hfe, whether fought in the army of
the nation or for the kingdom of God. Whom can
you expect to believe in you, if you do not believe
in yourself? More men commit the sin of undue
self- depreciation than that of undue self-confidence.

Loyalty to self means also making the most of
self. Nature has so endowed each one of us that
life has something, at all events, for us to do. In
the case of many it is a particular thing clearly de-
termined by the character of the endowment given.
Loyalty to self's best interests demands that one's
effort be put forth to discover this particular thing,
and, when it is discovered, to undertake it, and not
something else for which an endowment was not
given. Thus the failures in hfe are of two kinds:
those in which the individual has not been able to

76 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

discover what it was intended he should do. Oh,
what is so sad in life — not sickness, nor insanity,
nor even death — as an aimless life! The other
kind of failure is seen in the case of those who, at
heart knowing the nature of the life-work which
should be undertaken, are unwilling to undertake
it, and turn instead to something else because,
perhaps, this something else is thought to be easier,
or more dignified or lucrative. It is no sin to be
ambitious. To be ambitious in the true sense is
only to seek to bring one's self into harmony with
the will of God; to endeavor to fulfil the promises
which God has made in his constitution of one's
being; and not to be ambitious is to array one's
self against his Creator.

Loyalty to self means, I say, the making the most
of self; this, however, will not be a making the most of
self at the expense of others, but for others' welfare.
It is in this way that ambition becomes a virtue rather
than a vice; a command from heaven rather than a
word from hell. To make the most of self at the
expense of others is the greatest sin which man may
commit; to make the most of self in order that others
may be benefited is the highest duty which man may
practice. The line of distinction is sharp, and ap-
pHes ahke to nations and to men. From an ambition
to secure self-aggrandizement may God dehver our
country! But may He also implant deep in our
hearts an ambition to develop our strength that we

LOYALTY TO SELF 77

may be of service to the world! There was never
a time when temptation to do the thing which would
hurt was stronger or more insidious. There was
never a time when the problems of Ufe were more
numerous or more difficult to contend with. There
was never a time when the world could furnish to
those taking up its duties greater promise of oppor-
tunity for success. To resist these temptations, to
battle with these obstacles, to achieve this success —
in other words, to be loyal to self — should be, and
indeed must be, the highest aim of every man who
would be true to the country of his adoption or his
birth; true to the God of his fathers or to the God
of his own experience. May the heart beat quicker
as we learn more clearly our country's mission among
the nations of the earth ! May it beat more lovingly
as we more clearly learn the method and the work
and the character of the world's Creator and Ruler !
May it, to this end, beat more truly and sincerely
as we grapple with the powers of evil, as we rise
above trouble and despair, as we set ourselves to
undertake the work divinely appointed us to do!

VI

DEPENDENCE

In these days we find it necessary to lay stress
upon what is called independence — independence
in spirit and independence in action. The neces-
sity arises because, as it would seem, this quaUty, if
I may call it such, is not even yet sufficiently culti-
vated. The desirabihty of acquiring it or of pos-
sessing it is never questioned. Upon those who
possess it we are accustomed to look with admira-
tion. The man who thinks for himself is the ideal
man. The imitator, on the other hand, who shows
at every step his entire dependence upon those
about him; who never thinks for himself, never acts
for himself; whose opinion is that of the man with
whom he last held conversation; who does, for the
most part, just what the world tells him to do — this
man his fellows esteem lightly.

The real purpose of the intellectual work carried
on in all our schools and institutions of learning,
from the lowest to the highest, is to make those who
receive the discipline of the school capable of think-
ing, acting, and, in short, of living independently.
In so far as this end is attained, our institutions
succeed; and in so far as they fall short of attaining
it, they fail. This is the purpose — is it not ? — of

78

DEPENDENCE

79

our reading, of every kind of intellectual activity.
The things about us, here in America, are intended
to cultivate this characteristic. Our history, as we
read it, stimulates us in this direction. The study
of our civil institutions, whatever defects such study
may bring to light, encourages us to breathe more
freely, and to make every effort to throw aside the
fetters of tradition, many of which we still wear as
an inheritance from our fathers. In rehgious and
theological thought the tendency is the same. Who
does not see that men may speak and think more
freely, that men do speak and think more freely?
It is to this liberty of thought and action, this pos-
sibihty of exercising independence, that we are
indebted for the rapid and forward movement
which within a century has taken place in every
line of human action, whether material or intellec-
tual.

What we need to inquire, first of all, in connec-
tion with this tendency is: Are there any indica-
tions that the liberty which we so prize will be
restricted? Will the movement forward become a
movement backward? Will this independence,
which, after all, is but another name for individual-
ity, gradually, or perhaps suddenly, become a thing
of the past ?

The answer, if indications may be trusted, is ttiat
the very reverse will be true. Individuahsm is the
doctrine of the future — in religion, in business, and

8o RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

in letters. It may be urged that combination is the
order of the day. But these combinations, when
examined closely, exhibit an individuality of the
most marked character. Indeed, it was not until
the days of specialists that combinations arose; the
underlying principle of all of them is that of special-
ism, or individualism.

There is no probabihty — indeed, there is hardly
a chance — that, in the future, we are to expect any-
thing even apparently reactionary. It is probable,
on the other hand, that the spirit of independence,
of individualism, will grow stronger and more intense.
Indeed, there is a danger that this spirit may grow
too strong and do great harm. There is danger
that men will forget the difference between being
independent and feeling independent. The man
who is independent is rarely conscious of the fact.
The man who feels independent, and takes occasion
to exhibit the feehng, generally lacks the thing which
he imagines himself to feel. The Hne between
spurious and real independence is sharply drawn.
The spurious — and it is this which we all too fre-
quently meet — soon develops into arrogance and
conceit ; for these are but the outer shell of an
inner emptiness.

Thjere is also a danger in the genuine independ-
ence; and this danger is twofold: it takes the forms
of narrowness and of self-dependence.

The cultivation of independence, as has been

DEPENDENCE 8i

said, is the development of the individual. The
individual, however, whatever may be the degree
of his development, never ceases to be part of a
whole composed of many individuals. The ques-
tion is: Shall the part, though to some extent sepa-
rate, and perhaps elevated, continue to be a part,
and as such to exert a strong and helpful influence
upon the other parts? Or shall it, though only a
part, exert a repellant influence on them, endeavor
to drive off the other parts, and then to usurp the
functions of the whole? This is what happens
when one of our number, strong in the particular
thing which he professes, forgets the many things
which should occupy a position side by side with
that in which he has interest, and gradually comes
to beheve that his, and his only, is of value, or worthy
of thought. In other words, while the proper culti-
vation of the spirit of independence will produce
breadth, the result, if it is wrongly cultivated, will
be narrowness; and, among all sins, narrowness
is near to the worst.

The other phase of the danger involved is that,
instead of independence, we acquire self-dependence.
This does not mean mere self-conceit, although it
would not be surprising to find the latter as an
accompaniment. It means dependence on self
carried too far — so far, indeed, as to make self the
god at whose shrine all worship is conducted. The
sin of Babylon of old was this:

82 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

"Yea, he scoffeth at kings,
And princes are a derision unto him:

"He derideth every stronghold;
For he heapeth up dust and taketh it.

"Then shall the wind sweep by and he shall pass away,
For he is guilty, even he whose might is his God."

Nor was Babylon the ancient nation alone guilty
of this sin. Many individuals nowadays commit
the sin of self-worship.

Before continuing our direct study of this subject,
we must look at the obverse of it; we must consider
the relation of independence to dependence. For
my own part, I desire to see dependence encouraged.
Do you ask why? For three reasons: First, that
the independence of which we boast may be a real
independence. This is not a contradiction of terms.
True independence is based upon the right concep-
tion of the relations of things. This right concep-
tion will never be ours unless we recognize our own
insufficiency and weakness. To be able to do, one
must know what he is unable to do. I desire, there-
fore, to see dependence encouraged.

And, second, in order that humanity may secure
the good results which accrue when one depends
upon another. Benevolence, the greatest virtue
of God or man, is only exercised when there is on
the part of someone an act of dependence. It is
more blessed to give than to receive; but there can-
not be giving without receiving.

DEPENDENCE 83

I desire to see dependence encouraged, finally,
in order that individualism may be kept within
bounds. There is no virtue that may not become
a vice. IndividuaHsm may be pressed too far.

The dependence which I have in mind, is how-
ever, of three kinds. The first I have already
spoken of to condemn it — self-dependence. I speak
of it now to commend it, and at the same time to
utter a word of caution. It is one's duty, a sacred
duty, to ask for nothing which he can of himself
secure. It is wrong to ask from God, or to expect
of him, that which we ourselves can obtain. To
be sure, all things come from him, and yet he sees
to it that nothing comes but that for which we work.
To do for one's self is to do for others. For no
action is restricted in its influence to the doer of it.
Dependence on self carries with it, for all who make
up self's circle, blessings seen or unseen. But care
must be taken lest, as has been suggested, self-
dependence become self-worship. We may be
confident, but we must not be overconfident. Dis-
trust of self generally leads to ruin. Here, then,
is a vice which at times may be a virtue. Let us,
at least on rare occasions, distrust ourselves. For
it may be that such distrust will prevent our falling
into a pit-hole.

The second kind of dependence I shall call
inter-dependence. Our situation in this world is
a close relationship with each other and with

84 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

nature. Whether we will or not, we are dependent.
Nature makes us dependent. Civilization has
increased the debt, if debt it is, that we owe our
contemporaries. We must use, but not abuse,
the privileges granted us. Let us lean upon each
other; for surely the brother upon whom we lean
increases his own strength in the effort to sustain
us. Life would be only half life if it included
giving without receiving, or yielding without securing.

Here again the word of caution must be spoken.
We must not lean upon broken reeds; and yet,
how shall we determine who is strong and who weak ?
So often a mistake is made, so liable is it to be made,
that we are almost ready to cry out with the prophet :
"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted of." Alas ! we are
in sore straits. We may not fully trust ourselves,
we may not fully trust our fellow-men. What
shall we do ? The answer lies in what shall be
said of the third kind of dependence. This time
I have in mind, not self, nor inter-dependence, but
a dependence which is absolute. This time I shall
speak no word of caution.

Will you picture to yourselves a scene in ancient
Babylonia: the great city, with its immense walls
and battlements, the very embodiment of all that
was powerful; w^ith an army regarded as invincible;
with a king whose prowess in war the whole earth
celebrates — mighty Babylon, the mistress of the

DEPENDENCE 85

nations ! And behold, in the midst of all this pomp
and power, that ragged captive remnant, the residue
of what was once the lion of Judah; a poor,
heart-sore, distressed folk, held in reproach by
man, seemingly abandoned by God. Never was
there a picture combining so strong an apparent
contrast of strength and weakness, pride and debase-
ment. But, hark! One says "Cry!" And the
prophet asks: "What shall I cry?" "Tell the
downtrodden captives," speaks the voice from heaven,
"not to be despondent. Babylon's walls are strong
and lofty; Babylon's king is fierce and terrible;
but all flesh — and Babylon, after all, is flesh — all
flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, when the breath of Jehovah bloweth
upon it. Babylon is grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall
stand forever." The preacher of this sad period
had no occasion for the exercise of self-dependence;
less, if possible, for that of dependence upon those
about him. But there was one on whom he depended
— God; and his trust in this one was not mis-
placed.

And as it was with the prophet, so with us. God
is the rock on which we may set our feet without
fear of danger. Some of us are just assuming the
responsibilities of life, the burdens of Hfe — none
too light, as even the few years we have lived

86 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

clearly show. Each one of us, however situated,
with every new day finds new cares. It is, indeed,
a heavy burden. I have felt that every year, yes
every month, contributed to the weight of the burden.
And we are, as I have said, taking up new burdens
all the while.

Shall we ask ourselves now whether we are try-
ing to carry them alone ? Doubtless we are putting
forth every effort to do all that men and women can
do. We do not wish to lean too heavily upon our
friends. Our education has taught us independ-
ence; but have we also learned dependence? My
friends, we must do everything we are able to do.
We must secure all legitimate aid from our friends.
But we may not stop with this, or life will bring to
us nothing in comparison with what might have
been ours. Go one step farther. Put your trust,
and keep your trust, in God. Let us place ourselves
unreservedly in his hands, to be guided according
to his will. If we are weak, he will strengthen us;
if we are strong, he will make us yet stronger.

"Gracious is the Lord and righteous,
Yea, our Lord is merciful.
It is better to trust in the Lord,
Than to put confidence in men."

"It is better to trust in the Lord,
Than to put confidence in princes."

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses;
But we will make mention of the Lord our God."

DEPENDENCE 87

"They that trust in the Lord
Are as Mount Zion which cannot be moved, but abideth
forever."

"As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,
So the Lord is round about his people."

Be dependent? Yes. Be likewise dependent
on self? Yes, though with caution. On God?
Yes; without reserve, and with absolute confidence
that he will render help in every time of need.

VII

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY AS
FACTORS IN LIFE

So CLOSELY interwoven are the many and various
elements which make up Hfe that most of us fail to
recognize the complexity which sober thought shows
us to exist, and consequently to make due allowance
for it. Life, even in its simplest forms, is complex.
Nor is this more true of physical than of social hfe.
In the case of both, the ancients were innocent of
any true comprehension of the facts. Their ideas
of physiology as well as of the relationships of Hfe were
crude and infantile. Where there is no adequate
knowledge of details there is, of course, a conception
that simpUcity exists ; and so it remained for modern
times to discover and to make known the utterly in-
calculable complexity of life, physical and social.

One sometimes wonders whether this additional
knowledge is to be recognized as gain or loss.
Whichever it may be, it is coming into our possession
with a rapidity which often bewilders us. This be-
wilderment, however, exists not merely because we
are for the first time beginning to comprehend this
complexity, but also because in our times the complex-
ity is being greatly intensified. The life of the ancient

8S

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY 89

peoples, even if it had been understood, would have
been a simple thing compared to the life which we
live. The century so soon to close has brought a
more marked advance in this respect than perhaps
any ten or twenty preceding centuries. That a still
greater complexity is something inevitable, no one
doubts. With the progress of civilization it is always
increasing. The Unes run out in still more numer-
ous directions. They become finer and finer, so as
to be almost imperceptible, though having real
existence. The possible combinations grow in num-
ber and form, and no one may even dream of the
end of this seemingly boundless development.
There is, therefore, no advantage to be gained from
opposing it. It is creeping onward quietly, but
irresistibly, and opposition will only increase, the
speed of its progress. Resistance to it would be
like the resistance of an isolated tree to the fierce
windstorm which tears it from its roots, or hke that
of the unprotected hut to the power of the advancing
river-torrent which swallows it and leaves nothing.
Nor, indeed, are we for a moment to suppose that
it is undesirable. The word ''development," just
used, furnishes us the explanation of it. For the
highest development there must be just such flexi-
biHty, such interweaving, such combination, such
complexity.

But what is the fate of the individual in this
complexity? Here is the practical question to

90 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

which we ought to make answer. If life in general
is thus complex, surely life in particular is a perplex
thing; a labyrinth or maze in which the individual
wanders now here, now there, without light and
without guidance, now up, now down; not knowing,
perhaps not even caring, what shall be the outcome.
It is for the individual to make the needed effort,
however great a struggle it may be, to find his place
in the midst of this complexity. How shall he know
where he belongs ? One of milHons, what is his
relationship to those about him? Aiming to ac-
compHsh the best thing for himself, what is his
attitude to those in whose midst he Hves ? But
whether right or wrong, whether conscious or un-
conscious, determined to find a place for himself,
to what extent shall he regard the rights of those
who are aiming for the same place ? Is not this the
practical issue of hfe — that external thing for which
every man strives who has ambition in him ? And
is not the higher issue only another phase of this ?
Various methods are employed; various routes are
followed ; but, after all, it is the essence of Hfe to find
one's place in this compHcated machinery of the
world, and thus to avoid, so far as may be, the dismal
perplexities, the uncounted miseries, of an aimless
existence. Does anyone suppose that his fellow,
however fortunate he may be, at last attains a posi-
tion in which struggle is no longer needed ? Does any-
one suppose that for any human being this perplexity

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY gi

ever has an end ? No man has Hved for whom hfe
was not this thing of doubt, of perplexity. Heaven
is nothing but the ehmination of this perplexity;
hell, its further intensification. In which direction
are we moving ? For we may well beheve that the
future hfe is but a continuation of that which we
deliberately choose in this hfe.

Yet back of this question hes another as funda-
mental and as important: How are we moving?
Indeed, the two questions are one, for if the method
is indicated, one is inevitably made cognizant of the
direction hkewise. There is a right and a wrong
poHcy of hfe. Failure, in general, is due to an
inabihty to grasp the right pohcy. In this policy —
and I am now speaking only of the method of hv-
ing — there are two elements, both of which are ne-
cessary, both of which contain promise of good out-
come; either of which, when exaggerated, brings
ruin and disaster. Has it occurred to you that the
dividing line between good and bad is very diffi-
cult to draw; that the character of the pohcy is often
determined, not by what it is, but by the extent to
which it is carried; that mistakes are made, not
simply in going, but in going too far or not going
far enough ?

Remembering, now, this comphcated maze in
which every human being finds himself moving in
one direction or another; remembering that every
action has to do with the actions of others, every

92 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

thought connects itself with others* thoughts; re-
membering that all possibilities are wrapt up in the
kind of combinations made; that one cannot remain
alone; that there is no such thing as isolation; that
every effort must be put forth to find the particular
place in this great labyrinth which the individual
was intended to occupy, a place possibly near at hand
or possibly far removed — picture to yourself the man
who refuses to put forth effort to find this place, who
fears to come in contact with other forms of life,
and so far as he may, stands still; who, finding him-
self in a certain groove, remains fixed and gradually
becomes hardened, impervious to influence; who
hears nothing, sees nothing, merely exists; who,
being out of place and unable to find a place, is
consequently out of connection with all about him,
and so constituted that those who would naturally
come into relationship with him are injured by con-
tact with him; who has become callous and unsym-
pathetic, out of touch with those about him except for
harm; who is unable to assist or direct others to the
place in the maze which they ought to occupy; who,
indeed, actually prevents others from taking the
place which is really theirs. What element in the
true policy of life does this man lack, or what ele-
ment does he possess which makes his life a failure ?
Remembering, further, that each Hfe among all
lives has its part, that this part is a unique one,
and that the player of it must do a particular thing

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY 93

in order that it may contribute its share to the whole
and be in harmony with all; remembering that any
failure on the part of one life affects all, and that
life itself is too short in any single case to permit
many parts to be assigned to a single hfe, even if
they are fittingly assigned ; remembering that it takes
time to fit one's self into one's surroundings, even
when the supposition is that one has found one's true
place, and that skill also is required in order that
the adjustment of each part to other parts may be
complete — picture to yourself that other man who
in each successive month or year imagines that his
work is something different from that which he has
been pursuing; who imagines that his neighbor's
place is that which he was intended to occupy, and
forthwith makes effort to secure that place; who
today is here, tomorrow there, moving from one
point to another, regardless of the fact that he is one
of many and must connect himself with others of
his group in order that the work of the group may
be successful; who jumps from this path to that,
httle appreciating that he is perhaps going farther
and farther away from the true path; who does not
seem to understand that he is minghng and con-
founding that which, though complicated, was defi-
nite and distinct; who finds himself, when he stops
to consider the situation, moving in a circle, and not
in a direction which would have indicated progress;
who is ready at any time and under any circum-

94 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

stances to change or modify his course, moved as
he is by any wind that blows. What element in
the true policy of life does this man lack, or what
element does he possess, which makes his life a
failure ?

I have used general terms because I did not wish
to specify any one of the many realms of life's
activity. One's policy will probably be the same,
whether in business, political, or religious life. For
the sake of this general application, I may be allowed
to use general terms with which to designate these
elements in the pohcy of life. In one of the cases
described there was a fixity and rigidity, a self-
satisfaction and unwillingness to put forth effort, a
lack of fiexibihty. Here belong one-half of life's
failures, the occasion of the failure being an un-
warranted certainty that what one has is all that is
worth having; that what one knows is the whole
truth; that what one does is the right thing to do;
a certainty based upon lack of sufficient evidence;
a certainty involving immense risk to everyone pos-
sessed by it.

The dangers of certainty are many and serious.
The feeling of certainty begets a contentment which
dwarfs and stunts the life and soul of man; an in-
difference to truth which condemns before its utter-
ance every new form of statement, every new phase
of conception; a fixity of thought which soon comes
to be obstinacy and prejudice; a lack of sympathy

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY 95

which dries up the heart and starves the intellect;
a literahsm which shrivels and destroys. This, we
must grant, is the most natural and most common
tendency of human life. It is from the lethargy
growing out of this that we must free ourselves, if
the race as a race, or if individuals of it, are to ac-
complish the great mission of the Almighty. The
results of this tendency have presented themselves
to every thinking man or woman. The disposition
to shut one's eyes to the facts about him, to accept
without sufficient evidence that which is presented,
to fail to hold these things subject to verification, is,
alas, too common a characteristic even of the leaders
of our times. God forbid that I should say any-
thing which would seem to be harsh! But when I
see on every side of me the monuments of the past
revered as if they had been handed down by God
himself, actually erected into gods for worship,
treated with a reverence and a holy fear worthy of
something higher and better, my heart sinks within
me at the proneness of men's minds to stand still —
a tendency as great as is the proneness of the sparks
to fly upward.

But the element of uncertainty in life is even more
mischievous. Its presence leads to a shallowness
painful in its weakness; to an inabihty to grasp
truth even in the simplest form; to a flitting hither
and yon without purpose and without result; to a
dangerous radicalism, because of the lack of strength

96 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

to resist that which is plausible, though false; to an
ignoring of the lessons of the past and a blindness to
the real possibilities of the future; to a failure to
appreciate the existence of great and fundamental
principles in accordance with which life and all that
goes to make up life shall be regulated. The lack
of honest convictions on important questions is a
source of uneasiness and disquiet. It must lead to
abject dependence upon others and an utter aboli-
tion of that feehng of independence which should be
the characteristic of every man. What more pitiable
spectacle than that of a man who never knows what
he himself thinks; whose hfe is one of creduHty and
skepticism, of inconsistency and unfaithfulness ?

Here belong the other half of life's failures, their
occasion being an utter uncertainty as to what one
should think or should do, or should be; instabihty
of character, for which no better symbol can be
found than that applied by Jacob of old to Reuben —
"unstable as water." In one's contact with men he
finds many possessed of high qualities and great
ability whose lack of stabiUty makes a life, that
would otherwise be most successful, an utter failure.
The absence of a continuity of purpose, the inabihty
to adhere to a plan of action, counterbalance all else
and condemn them to darkness and despair, pro-
vided they have a disposition serious enough to lead
them to understand their condition. It is one's busi-
ness, and I think I may say one's chief business in

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY 97

life, to succeed; to avoid the probability, and indeed
the possibihty, of failure. The work which we do in
school and college and university is intended to re-
duce the chances of failure, or, if you please, to
increase the chances of success. It is not impos-
sible, of course, for a college man to fail. If, how-
ever, he has been able to read aright the commission
which has been given him by nature — and nature,
that is God, has given a commission to every man
before his birth — he will have attained ideals which
will enable him to understand this compHcated sys-
tem in which he has been placed and to overcome
the perplexities of the situation.

The ideals of a university man in his efforts to
advance himself, and in his attitude toward those
about him, should be the highest. He must steer
clear of the dangers of certainty as well as those of
uncertainty; and he of all men knows that the world
is making progress, and that the best Hfe is that
which is Hved in its own times rather than in those
of a past generation. There must be strong convic-
tion, and sturdy adherence to a well-founded opinion,
if anything is to be accompHshed. How, now, shall
he adjust himself to these two elements, each of
which contains some truth; either of which, as has
been said, when exaggerated brings disaster? He
should first of all repudiate mere partisanship. He
must be an independent, whether in matters of reh-
gion of or poHtics. He must not be a sectarian in

98 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

religion, a party politician in politics. Such adher-
ence to political or religious creed of the past, because
of historical or local influence, cannot be justified.

This does not mean that he shall not work in
connection with that religious denomination or with
that political party which seems to him, upon the
whole, best adapted to his needs and necessities, as
well as to his conceptions of truth. But the religious
denomination or the political party will be the means
employed by him to serve God and his country, not
the end of that service. He will put aside the pre-
conceptions of the local atmosphere which he has
breathed, and endeavor to reach for something
higher. But he will not, if his training has been
scientific, throw away what he has obtained before
securing something which shall serve as its substi-
tute. He will above all things go beneath the sur-
face and aim to understand the foundations of
things; for he will soon learn that it is only upon
strongly built foundations that later work of substan-
tial character can be estabhshed; or, to change the
figure, that, if his roots grow deep down into the
soil the tree will grow above and beyond the narrow
limitations which otherwise might have been set,
and that the tree with roots reaching far down is the
tree which stands firm and is less disturbed by the
storm. He will live and think and act in accordance
with principle rather than according to rule. And
here, after all, lies the great difference between the

CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY

99

strong life and the weak. There are laws and prin-
ciples which govern our lives, and the Hfe that dis-
regards these suffers. The petty rules and regula-
tions of one class or another signify nothing, accom-
plish nothing. They are of use only, if at all, for
training where the mind is not yet developed, or is
always to be weak.

Do you think that I have not had in mind in
these few words the religious life and its influence,
and the contribution which rehgion makes to this
complexity of situation and perplexity of life? I
answer that in my own mind I have thought only of
the religious. But it is easier to present rehgion in
the concrete than in the abstract and so, in closing,
I present to you the concrete example of one who
knew, as no other man has known, the complicated
structure of the universe and man's peculiar relation
to it ; who experienced, as no other man experienced,
the perplexities and bewilderments and wretched-
ness of this our hfe upon earth; who steered his way
through the midst of all the dangers which attend
the hfe of one standing firmly for his convictions;
who represented to the world new thoughts and new
conceptions, and who gained reproach and death
because of his lack of adherence to the old; who
trampled upon the behefs of his time, repudiated the
teachings of his fathers, introduced the sword of con-
tention among his brethren, climbed high above the
narrow and inconsiderate prejudices of his country-

loo RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

men, reached far down beneath the surface to dis-
cover and to proclaim principles, the adoption of
which should shake to their very foundations the
institutions of the world. Who was this man?
Jesus Christ — the ideal of a humanity into which
divinity had been breathed ; in whom the complexity
of life is lost, unity and simplicity taking the place
of it ; in whom the perplexities of life find their solu-
tion.

Do we know this man Christ Jesus ? For not to
know him is not to know the true philosophy of his-
tory, and to be ignorant of the very purpose of our
existence. We, who have gathered here this after-
noon, are students. Let us see to it that we remain
students. And may I suggest, what surely has been
suggested many times before, that one subject of our
study during what is left us of Hfe, indeed the subject,
shall be this perfect exempHfication of the life and
character of an educated man; and that the purpose
of our study, as well as the purpose of our lives,
shall be not to treat as known that which is uncer-
tain, and not to hesitate in respect to that which is
certain.

VIII
OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES

We are all interested in the progress and growth
of the principles of Christianity. There may be
differences among us in respect to the appHcation
of some of these principles; but in reference to their
substance, and in reference to the importance of
promulgating them, we are agreed. We are all
likewise interested in the work of higher education.
As instructors and students, as parents and friends,
we are closely connected with a great cause — one
only less important than that of Christianity itself,
a cause which, indeed, may not be separated from
the highest Hfe and teaching of Christianity. But
we have noticed that at times, and in the case of
certain individuals, perhaps even in ourselves, there
has arisen what may have seemed to be a conflict
between these two interests — the religious and the
intellectual life.

At times in the history of the church, men have
reached conclusions in their investigation of great
themes which have been adjudged irreconcilable
with the creeds of the church, and these men have
been made to suffer, even death. At certain periods
in the history of some of our denominations, the

I02 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

people as a whole have been afraid of higher learning
and have frowned upon it. And the day of this evil
is not yet entirely past.

But what I wish to speak of here are certain
difficulties into which those who are engaged in
higher studies sometimes fall. They are especially
the difficulties of university men and women,
although many outside of the university circle have
to struggle with them; for is it not true that men who
think, whether in or out of the university, belong to
one great family ?

The first one is the disposition to doubt, a dispo-
sition which characterizes most men, whatever may
have been one's Christian experience, or even if one
has had no such experience. The time when we
first began to see things from the new point of view
may have been very definite — so definite that we
can remember the hour and place when our thoughts
were turned, and our lives began to be different; or
the experience of change may have been so gradual
as to be almost imperceptible; or we may still be
looking forward to that time ; but in every case there
have been difficulties, and there are doubts. I use
the word broadly.

This Christian life is a strange thing; with some
of us it is comparatively easy and bright ; with others
gloomy and hard. We pass through what is utterly
incomprehensible; we grow uneasy; it is so dark at
times that we seem almost to have lost the light;

OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 103

but the experience of those unfortunate ones who
never have had even a faint ghmpse of this Hght
which Hghteth the world must be darker and more
wretched still.

But these intellectual difficulties are certain to
exist. No man who really thinks can escape them.
It has sometimes seemed to me that to think and to
doubt were synonymous. Certain it is that in pro-
portion as a man thinks, in that same proportion
questions arise the answers to which are often hard
for him to discover. And since it is the chief busi-
ness of the student to think, he need not be surprised
if doubts crowd in upon him thick and fast. If
one's reading does not lead him to think and to ask
the wherefore of things, the why this is true, if it be
true, and the why this is false, though always beheved
to be true — it would be better for him not to read.
If one's reading has taught him to think about
the classics, and about art, about science, and about
history, and has not also led him to think (and I
mean by the word ''think" the asking of questions,
the testing over again of truth supposed already to
have been tested, the interposing of a doubt as to
this or that thing not yet based on sufficient evidence)
— if, I say, one's reading has not led him to think
about the great questions which are connected with
our rehgion and our faith, that reading or study has
been in part a failure. You must not misunderstand
me when I say that unless your intellectual work

I04 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

has taught you to doubt, at least to an extent which
will compel you in self-defense to make inquiries
the result of which will be the furnishing you a basis
on which to rest an intelHgent faith, that intellectual
work has not yet gone far enough. Although you
will meet difficulties, if you think, do not, I beg of
you, stop thinking because you are afraid of diffi-
culties. They are certain to exist.

In the great majority of cases, these difficulties
are independent of a true profession of Christianity.
Thus you are not to suppose that because of their
existence you cannot become a Christian, or that,
having become a Christian, they will cease to exist.
They exist before, during, and after the change of
heart. Your faith in the essential verities of Chris-
tianity is largely independent of them. Let us sup-
pose that you and I are Christians. Certain diffi-
culties of belief arise — the same difficulties for both
of us. You will probably settle yours, if at all, by
one method, and I mine by another; the result will
be one thing in your case, and quite a different
thing in mine. We are, however, both satisfied. I
may think that you are wrong, and you may think
that I am wrong, as to this specific point; but our
faith is the same. And so, all about us. Christian
men are settling their difficulties of belief in many
different ways; and, notwithstanding these differ-
ences, faith remains unaffected.

Nor is this all. These intellectual difficulties

OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 105

may continue to exist without being settled in any
way, and still one's faith may remain unaffected.
Faith in Jesus Christ and in the Hving principles of
Christianity is not bound up or in any vital way con-
nected with the outside intellectual difficulties which
are all the while presenting themselves to us. You
have your difficulties; some one else has other diffi-
culties. The result should not and need not affect
one's active Christian Hfe.

But suppose that you are not a Christian; are
you waiting until all difficulties have disappeared?
If so, you will wait until the end of life. If some
good friend labors with you until he has persuaded
you that these difficulties have been removed, and
begs you now to accept the Christ, he is deceiving
you; it is not so. Do not allow yourself to be thus
deluded. Many of these perplexities will continue;
but if your faith is real and simple, they will grad-
ually become less and less significant, until by falling
into their proper places they will leave you undis-
turbed. Be sure, thus, of this: if you wait until you
are argued out of these doubts, you will wait long
and hopelessly.

And now, as to the solution of these difficulties.
I insist that they are independent of our Christian
life and activity; that we may be good Christians,
and may rest in peace of soul, without having settled
them. But do not think that therefore I advise
you to let them go unsettled. That would be to

io6 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

stop thinking; and to do that you must cease to be
a student. You cannot pursue any line of investi-
gation without coming into contact with Bible
thought. If you are an honest thinker, you will be
compelled to make an effort to reach definite con-
clusions.

Nor must we leave the resolving of these questions
to the men who deny the existence of a God. They
are not to be left to be decided by the rationalistic
skeptic. It is the province of the thinking Christian
to discuss, and in due time to settle, them. And so,
my friends, although these questions are separate
from a simple faith, it is your business to grapple with
them and to settle them, in so far as they can be
settled through honest thought and work. But in all
such work it is to be remembered that first comes the
effort to cultivate a Christian life, and that the diffi-
culties stand second.

Just here someone may raise an important con-
sideration. "How," he asks — and I understand
him to ask it honestly — "How can I profess to accept
that about which I have doubt ? A Christian life
is inseparably connected with a full acceptance of
Christian doctrines. If I cannot accept the doctrines,
how can I lead, or profess to lead, the life ?"

I answer : I know that life and conduct are affected
by opinion ; but I know also that the doctrines neces-
sary to be accepted by him who would lead a true
life, are not many, nor abstruse. I remember that

OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 107

the men and women of our Lord's times who accepted
him, and in him found rest and peace, were not
loaded do\vn with theological systems; and, still
further, that their theological beHefs, so far as they
held such beliefs, were made up largely of the
ephemeral notions and ideas of their day. The sum
and substance of the Christian faith is found in two
words, "Follow me." The behef in this or that
thing may be important; it is not essential. The
simpler one's faith, and the more childhke, the more
helpful and satisfying it will prove to be. Again,
therefore, I urge you, do not hold back because this
or that thing is not clear, because this or that thing
cannot be accepted. Do not be all intellect; allow
yourself to be moved, at least to some extent, by
your heart.

But I have drifted somewhat away from the
question of the solution of these difficulties. Let
me tell you, out of my own experience, that during
several years before personally accepting the Chris-
tian faith I studied the Bible earnestly and carefully
for the purpose of discovering that which would
enable me to convince others that it was only an
ordinary book, and very ordinary at that. I could
not, if I would, here tell you of the work of those
years — years spent in finding, not in settling diffi-
culties. The work was. of course, superficial, and
my point of view altogether wrong; but those diffi-
culties were still there, when, after a while, I began

io8 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

to see some faint rays of coming light. And as the
light grew brighter the difficulties did not diminish
in number or in character. I desired to be a Chris-
tian, but no man told me what I now know, and
what I beg you to hear from me, that I could first
become a Christian and settle the difficulties later.
I went forward ; yet the difficulties remained. What
could I do with them? Only one thing: take up
again the study of the Bible, this time going deep,
and working from a different point of view; and it
was not long until I discovered two things: that the
difficulties were in some cases altogether imaginary;
and that from the new point of view, and with the
more scientific study, principles could be found
which, if followed out, gave to the whole case a
different aspect.

This, then, was my experience; and among others
I have found that perplexity is due almost always
either to ignorance of the representations of the
Bible or to a misunderstanding of its contents. The
man who will study it honestly and fearlessly, regard-
less of the mass of rubbish which tradition has
gathered about it, but, at the same time, with a spirit
of true reverence, will find his imaginary difficulties
vanishing one by one ; he will find his real difficulties
assuming a new and more manageable shape. He
will find great and fundamental principles, of the
truth of which he will be so confident that his feet
will seem to be standing on a rock, which doubt
cannot shake.

OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES 109

Do you believe the Bible, asks someone, because
of what is in it, or do you believe what is in it because
it is in the Bible ? How should one answer these
questions ? I would answer yes to both questions.

When I compare the early chapters of Genesis
with the similar stories in other literatures, and note
the spirit and purpose of one in contrast with the
spirit and purpose of the other; when I compare the
history and psalms of the Old Testament with the
history and psalms of the old Assyrians ; when I study
the story of the life of Christ, a story beside which
no other story may be placed; when I see what the
Bible has done for humanity and what it is today
doing — I can say most strongly, I believe the Bible
because I find it to be a collection of books that have
stood the test of time.

But let me turn it around. I believe also what
is in the Bible because it is there. To be sure, I
reserve the right for myself to decide that one book
of the collection has more of religious truth in it
than another. Who, for example, would deny that
the ninetieth psalm was not more helpful than the
first chapter of Chronicles ? I reserve the right
also to decide whether this or that book is really
to be taken as one of the collection. Luther exercised
this privilege. Why should I not enjoy it also ? I
reserve the right, still further, to decide for myself
in what way I shall interpret this passage or that.
When I read:

no RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LEFE

"The mountains skipped like rams,
The little hills like lambs,"

I am at liberty, to believe that it is poetry and not to
be taken literally. So likewise when I read,

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,
And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon !
And the sun stood still and the moon stayed.
Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies,"

and see that it is poetry, as it is shown to be in the
Revised Version, and that it is obviously quoted
from that ancient collection of poetical pieces, the
book of Jasher, I understand that I may beheve the
Bible, without believing at the same time that the
sun and moon stood still.

Thus I find upon investigation that if it be prop-
erly interpreted, what the Bible says is true; I could,
therefore, easily believe that the things which are
in it are true because they are there.

But I do not wonder sometimes that some of our
students and investigators have thrown the Bible
aside. Here is the situation : In childhood they were
taught ideas concerning the Bible which were in
keeping with their abiHty to comprehend the subject.
As the years passed, the childish conceptions relating
to other subjects were displaced by more mature
conceptions ; the child grew to be a man. As a man,
however, he is unable to accept the teachings given
him when a child. And, meanwhile, he has not
been given other, better, and more mature instruc-

OUR INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES iii

tion. The old is gone; there is no new to take its
place. This is the explanation of a large part of the
skepticism in the world; and the responsibiHty for it
rests upon those who have given direction to the
curriculum of instruction:

But I have only talked about difficulties in general.
This is not the time to discuss questions of miracles,
or the question of inspiration, or the question of the
incarnation, or any of those subjects which are
ordinarily supposed to cause us most perplexity. I
have limited myself to talking about the question
as a whole, and all that I have said may be summed
up in very few words:

1. Have your difficulties; go on having them;
suspect that something is radically wrong when you
cease to have them.

2. You who have not yet accepted as your friend
and guide the Christ who Hved and died for all men,
do not wait for a time when these difficulties will
grow less. Until you take this step, you may hope
for nothing. That step taken, all the rest, in time,
will follow.

3. You who have cast your lot with the church,
remember that these difficulties need not, must not,
interfere with your Christian work and life. It is
a mistake to suppose, as many do, that when diffi-
culties begin to arise, and faith to grow weak, you
should forsake communion with God and association
with his people until your faith grows strong again.

112 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

This, of all times, is when you need such help as only
prayer and Christian activity can furnish.

For relief from difficulties of every kind, whether
of life or thought ; for a help which may always be
obtained ; for a rock on which firm standing-ground
may be gained — go to the Bible ; not as to some talis-
man possessed of magic power, but as to a book con-
taining story after story which tells of God's dealings
with man; to a book containing precept upon pre-
cept, richer in truth than any other of the world's
possessions — a book which will guide your thought
unfaihngly to the only source of wisdom, to the
source of all wisdom — to God.

IX

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE AN
EPITOME OF LIFE

Everything repeats itself. The experience of
today is only that which happened yesterday; and
our experience of yesterday was much the same as
that of men who lived six or seven thousand years
ago. The child before birth repeats every stage
of that long ascent from the lowest life to the highest
which culminates in man. The child after birth
repeats every stage of that long process by which
primitive man has become civilized man. The
college life, with its temptations and struggles,
with its successes and failures, with its ambitions and
despairs, is an epitome of that larger life which
men are said to live when they go out into the world.
The fact is, of course, that when one enters college,
he enters the world, and Hfe in the world is only the
repetition over and over again of the life lived in
college. If men and women could only be made
to see this when they first enter college, how different
would be for most of them their college hfe.

But now the question presents itself to those of
us who are soon to leave the University precincts,
and take up work in another and different atmos-
phere : What have we come in contact with here
113

114 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

in this environment that will be repeated in the new
situation? What is it that we have had which we
shall experience again many times in later life ? If
I mistake not, one of the most striking things in
the life of the great majority of students is the nature
of the difficulties with which they are called upon to
contend. These difficulties vary in number and in
character as they do in Hfe itself.

Some have had to fight against poverty. And
to one engaged in this battle the obstacles which
confront him seem at times insurmountable. To
go through college under these circumstances is to
be deprived of even the most reasonable recreations;
to separate oneself from others, for lack of means
to share the necessary expense of even a simple
social life; to sacrifice the very necessities of living;
to submit to what, under other circumstances, would
be constant humiliation. Yet this struggle is under-
gone by a larger proportion of our numbers than
is ordinarily supposed; and in many instances the
struggle is more severe than the facts, as seen by
those on the outside, would seem to indicate. The
result of the struggle with poverty usually is either
discipUne of the highest character or death; not
infrequently both.

With others the obstacle which stands in the path
of progress is ill-health. Strangely enough, the
author of existence has not always seen fit to adapt
the body of man to the vigor of his mind; and so,

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 115

many of us suffer in long-continued agony because
the body will not fulfil the mandates of the brain;
because we see as if within our very grasp possi-
bihties of life and living which, after all, are as far
from realization as heaven is from earth. This
constant failure to attain what in all reason might
have been expected disheartens us. The struggle
is indeed maddening; the sense of disappointment,
keen and ever-present.

And often both these things — a lack of means
and a lack of health — are coincident. In such a
coincidence the case would seem to be hopeless;
and yet even this combination the human will is
sometimes strong to combat and conquer. But
great and varied and numerous in college life as are
those difficulties which have their origin in lack of
means and in ill-health, and sad and pathetic as is
the result of the struggle in many cases to overcome
them, there are other conditions which give rise to
difficulties greater and more numerous, with results
sadder and more pathetic.

There are sometimes found within the university
circles those to whom nature refused to give a strong,
vigorous mental equipment; those who are styled,
in common conversation, slow and dull. Conscious
of the fact that nature has thus despoiled them;
realizing that every forward step costs them twice,
or even ten times, the effort required of others about
them; knowing that, at the best, only a mediocre

ii6 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

attainment is possible, these souls plod on and on
day after day. In these cases the difficulties of
progress are magnified tenfold, since for them every
hill is a mountain. To feel during each moment of
existence that for oneself only this little thing is
possible, while for that other nothing is quite impos-
sible, is to have one's life, whatever kind it be,
enveloped in a cloud of darkness the density of
which will be appreciated only by those who, once
swallowed up in it, have passed beyond into an
atmosphere of comparative clearness and rarity.
It is here that strength of will is developed — the
determination to do or die. Many, to be sure, give
up the struggle in an early stage; many others fight
as with death itself, and in the end triumphantly
win the battle.

I wish, however, to mention still another source
of difficulty which confronts men and women in
the college life. I have referred to lack of means,
to lack of physical endowment, and to lack of intel-
lectual equipment ; I have in mind now lack of strong
moral purpose, or, more briefly, lack of character.
I may not here consider how this deficiency has arisen
— whether by heredity, or from the sin of early youth
long since put aside, or from an evil habit still prac-
ticed. Nor do I wish to refer to those men and
women who are sunk so low in depravity that they
are unconscious of being in depravity, or who, being
conscious, justify themselves. I am thinking rather

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 117

of that one whose ambition is to be good and to do
good, who knows what good is, and who really seeks
it ; but who is nevertheless morally weak ; who cannot
withstand temptation; who, now and again, in spite
of honest effort, in spite of the influences with which
friends seek to surround him, falls; and who, when
he has fallen, is conscious of his degradation.

This man or woman may or may not have ample
means for the prosecution of his work, he may or
may not have the blessing of a good physical consti-
tution, he may be brilHant or he may be dull; at all
events, he lacks moral purpose, his conduct is not
guided by moral principle, and he knows what his
lack is. For this man, just in proportion to the
degree of his consciousness of his shortcoming,
life is a torture. A merciful providence has decreed
that in most instances in which there is moral defect
there is a lack of consciousness of the defect. But
this is not always the case. The struggle of a soul
tending thus to fall, and apparently too weak to
resist the impulse, is a struggle far more pathetic
than any to which reference has thus far been made.
When the downfall is one which takes on outward
significance and is apparent to all eyes, the man
soon leaves college; but often this lack of character
does not assume an objective form; it may manifest
itself in secret sin, and so the man goes on and on,
now rising superior to it, now again falling. The
details of such a contest are known only to himself

ii8 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

and God ; except when, by the keenness of his suffer-
ing, he is impelled to lay bare to some friend the
secrets of his life and heart. It has been my privilege
to hear the confession of many a soul thus burdened
and to see the pressure relieved in part by such con-
fession.

If, then, the story which we hear almost every
day of some worthy student's lack of food is sad;
if the picture of disease, and sometimes of death
itself, seen on the face of one striving for intellectual
advancement, is still more sad; if the desperate
determination, hopeless yet full of confidence, of
those whom nature has, as it were, branded with a
mark that tells of something lacking which neither
money, nor love, nor work may supply — this dogged
determination to fight at all hazards and at every
cost — is pathetic ; how much more sad and pathetic,
indeed how truly pitiful, is the struggle of the man
who has been denied the strength to maintain him-
self in the path in which he knows he ought to walk
— the path of moral rectitude ?

These difficulties I mention are, however, not the
only ones that you have encountered in college and
university life. Some of you have had too large an
allowance of money. Some of you have found the
very vigor and physical strength with which nature
endowed you a source of trouble and difficulty. In
many cases it is brilliancy of intellect that proves a
man's ruin; and sometimes it is the effort to be con-
scientious that brings the most bitter sorrow.

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 119

These, I repeat, are not the only difficulties to
be met with in college life ; but they are the chief ones
and are typical. Not all of you have had to contend
with these difficulties; but there are few men or
women who leave the university without having
fought some of them. And these are precisely the
difficulties you will continue to encounter in the days
to come. Your weakness or defect, whether material
or physical, whether intellectual or moral, is certain to
disturb you in the future. You have been poor in
this world's goods today; the chances are that this
poverty will be your constant companion. If you
are to practice law, you must face the fact, apparent
on all sides, that the average lawyer is scarcely able
to support himself. If it is the ministry, you are
told that the average salary of a minister in the state
of Illinois is less than five hundred dollars a year.
Are you to be a physician? Then the number of
young physicians who actually starve while they are
waiting for a practice to grow up is appalling. Is
business your choice ? More than 90 per cent, of all
busmess undertakings fail. Is it the teaching pro-
fession ? Listen to the cry which goes up every day
from the hearts of the teachers of Chicago for an
increase of remuneration — a cry entirely justified;
and yet Chicago teachers are among those who
receive the highest salaries paid in the profession.
Whatever the field of work, then, which you may
decide to enter, the gaunt specter of poverty will

I20 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

pursue you. The experiences of one period of life
are but repeated in another. I would have you
remember, however, that the experiences of your
college life have prepared you to meet these very
conditions. It is well that your mind has been
broadened, that your taste has been cultivated,
and that your capacity for enjoyment has been
increased. It is also true that in college you must
have learned some self-denial and self-sacrifice;
you have been disciplined to some self-restraint;
you may have acquired entire control of self. You
are an example of the law of the survival of the
fittest. Many once among you, weakened by
their terrible discipHne, have fallen by the way;
you have been strengthened, and with the strength
and courage growing out of many victories you will
be able to take your place in the world and main-
tain yourselves, when otherwise you would have
failed. You will find the same difficulties in the
outside world that you found here; but you will
not find the same helpful shelter that has been
afforded you in the college environment. To be
sure, you no longer need this, for you have acquired
a strength of your own, on which you must hence-
forth rely.

This same principle holds good, as well, for those
in the college who have been battling other diffi-
culties, and who, as is indicated by the honorable
completion of the college life, have in a measure

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 121

triumphed over them. If you have reached this
stage of Hfe, and have not yielded to a dread disease,
nor been discouraged and deterred by lack of bril-
liant endowment, nor discomfited in your struggle
with evil habit or weak moral purpose, you enter
upon the next stage of life with a capital of
strength which, if not drawn upon too unguardedly,
will continue to grow, and with the gradual
accumulations of interest, will soon become a per-
manent insurance against failure. This means
success; for success simply consists in always
maintaining a reserve, whether of money, or intel-
lect, or spiritual power; and in allowing that reserve
to increase. Every m.an who finishes rightfully
the college or university course is a man who has
saved more of his income than he has spent, and
with this balance to credit he goes on practically
as before. The difference is that he has a balance
to credit. If you have no balance to credit, you
are slipping through college without the right to
do so. Your future will be determined by the
amount of this balance to credit; because this
balance represents the foundation on the basis of
which you are to work; it is the capital which you
are to keep invested; it indicates the measure of
the discipline which you have secured. It may
be capital in money, in physical strength, in intel-
lectual power, or in moral force. It may include
some of all. But however large or small it is, and

122 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

whether of one kind or another, husband it, and
with it go on fighting as you have been fighting.

In your college and university life you have found
many restrictions. Even in those institutions in
which the largest liberties are given — and we think
that this institution is one of them — there are restric-
tions, and rules, and regulations. Some of them,
doubtless, are unnecessary; some, unquestionably,
are only the outgrowth of the mind-wandering of
some high or low official. But, after making allow-
ance for all such, there exists a residue of '^red
tape," of form, of conventionality, which it has
been found necessary to observe. There has been
a certain routine, unpleasant perhaps in some of
its features, which all have been compelled to follow,
even though every effort has been made to adapt
the details of the institution's policy to the needs
of the individual. This kind of thing, however,
is what you will find all about you in life when you
are outside of the university walls. This is what
some persons of a peculiar cast of mind occupy their
lives in opposing — I mean, the ordinary conven-
tionalities of life. The man who has never enjoyed
college life scarcely knows what it is to breathe an
atmosphere comparatively free; for soon or late
you will learn that the restraints and restrictions
and conventionalities observed during college life
are as nothing in comparison with those of profes-
sional and business life, and those of life at large.

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 123

It is because college life, even when strictly
regulated, partakes so much of what is some-
times called "the Bohemian," the "do as you like"
element, that men in after-years invariably look
back upon the days spent within the precincts of
their alma mater as the happiest of their lives.
Constantly, and sometimes very roughly, you will
find your head set directly against the high and inex-
orable wall of some kind of conventionahsm.

It is unfortunate for the reputation of institutions
of higher learning that too large a proportion of
those who have enjoyed the privileges of freedom
accorded in these institutions have fancied that
they might do away with much, if not all, of this
necessary conventionalism. These representatives
of ours, deploring the fact that they might not live
without reference to the happiness and comfort of
others, have so ordered their living that the very
freedom of the university life has injured them as
members of society. In general, of course, the
university Hfe has had the other effect. One of
its greatest lessons has been aptly described by the
Psalmist who, though he never knew of a university
in the modern sense, was certainly well informed
concerning the purpose of a religious society:
" Behold how beautiful and how fair it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity."

This living together of brother and sister employed
in the one work of search for truth, older and younger

124 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

working side by side, each contributing his part to
the work as a whole, is a picture of that ideal Hfe
in which every man and every woman will work in
the spirit of brotherhood. The few occasions when
the younger brotherhood in the university finds
itself at variance with the older, the few restrictions
which here and there are placed by the older brother-
hood upon the younger — these will prove to be but
survivals of ages long past, and themselves will
disappear in that joyous time which will first be
reaUzed on earth in the college environment — the
time when all men shall see, as they walk shoulder
to shoulder, that the restrictions their alma mater put
upon them were but part of their preparation for
the still greater ones of the life in the larger world.

But difficulties and restrictions make up only
one side of the life which you have been living here
in the university. There is another side, the ele-
ments of which will be found also to repeat them-
selves in the life outside. I may speak of only two
of these.

The following statement I hold to be Hterally true:
In the college as in no other circle among human-
kind do the members show so consistently and so
fully a true appreciation of each other's efforts; in
no other circle are the members so alert and so
magnanimous in their appreciation of the successes
of their fellow-members. When one of you has
shown special excellence in class-room work, there

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 125

were several ways of having that success noted, of
recognizing it, and of proclaiming it to every other
member of the brotherhood. Honors and prizes,
scholarships and fellowships, are only the expression
of appreciation. The same is true in athletic work,
though here indeed appreciation goes even too far;
and there arises something which too closely resem-
bles hero-worship. Nor is this appreciation con^
fined to the student ranks. Among the instructors
it takes the form of promotion and honors. Still
further, this appreciation is by no means limited to
ofi&cial recognition; the largest part, and the part
most esteemed, is that which is expressed so fre-
quently in a word spoken privately, or perhaps only
in the glance of the eye or the pressure of the hand.
This it is that makes life worth Hving. It is not
praise that most men long for, but rather the word
or the sign of appreciation ; and sooner or later every
man in the university circle who does aught to make
him worthy of it receives it. There may be delays
growing out of misunderstanding; but in time true
worth will be seen and understood for its real value.
How is it now in the world outside ?

I cannot count myself among those who believe
that in general the world fails to judge a man at his
true worth. The world, of course, makes great
blunders. Not a little of its appreciation is lav-^
ished where it does not belong; and there are too
many the true estimate of whom comes after long

126 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

lapse of time. But, in spite of occasional blunders,
the majority of which time corrects, the world in
general treats a man according to his deserts. To
hold any other view is to adopt the philosophy of
pessimism. But the words ''in general" are very
indefinite. The question is: What may you expect
in the way of appreciation? I answer: You will
receive it if you deserve it, and if you need it; if
you give it to others when it is deserved and needed ;
and if you do not indicate that you are reserving to
yourself all of it that your nature is capable of
expressing.

It may be, you will not deserve it. This will
certainly be true if you are one of that class of per-
sons who never see in others anything worthy of
appreciation; it will be true likewise if you are
thought by others to be too appreciative of yourself.
It is just here that college training shows its worth;
the college-trained man, however successful he may
be, never boasts that he is a self-made man. The
college training is expected to teach two things: the
satisfaction which one feels in being shown apprecia-
tion. And this should serve as a constant incentive
to exhibit appreciation of the work of our fellows,
in the proper form and under suitable circumstances.
But college training is supposed also to teach one
such a sense of humility as to make undue self-
appreciation impossible.

In mingling in the world, however, do not allow

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 127

your college experience to lead you to expect this
expression of appreciation to an undue degree.
Remember that the circle is larger; that the atmos-
phere is colder; that the contact is not so close;
that competition is greater; that the prizes are not
so numerous in proportion to the number of con-
testants ; and that the number of fellowships is small
absolutely. Remember, too, that the course is
longer than that of three or four years, being some-
times thirty or forty, or even fifty; that it is for the
most part in a single department ; and that the honor,
the mark of appreciation, may come only at the end.

And though all these things must be kept in mind,
we may nevertheless be assured that true work and
true worth will sooner or later be recognized at its
market value. More than this we cannot ask;
for in the exchange of life artificial values do not
long maintain themselves.

There is one thing now about which I desire to
say a word. Whatever else your college life has
been to you, whatever else you have found in it,
one thing has stood out more prominently than any
other. In this thing, poverty has been forgotten;
by it, physical and intellectual weaknesses have
been corrected; and through it moral purpose has
been incited. In connection with this, there has
been no restraint, no restriction. It was this thing
which itself, more than all else, has developed in
your hearts the spirit of appreciation. There is

128 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

no word in the English language which serves in
so true a sense as a synonym of college or university,
not even the well-worn word "discipline," or the
still more common word ''education." That for
which college and university stands above all other
things is opportunity.

A college life is opportunity — opportunity to
grow with the smallest possible number of obstacles
to growth. This is true even for those of you who
have had to encounter the largest number of obstacles.
You could have found no other place so free from
obstacles. College life is opportunity — opportunity
to free oneself from the bonds of ignorance; bonds
which seem almost hopelessly fastened upon us;
bonds which many of us, indeed all and the very
best of us, are able to remove only in part.
College life is opportunity — opportunity to discover
what the great God has placed within us in the way
of mind and heart ; a discovery essential to life itself,
and yet one which so many fail to make; and the
consequence of their failure is something worse than
death. College life is opportunity — opportunity
to see the world of the past and of the present, and
from this sight to learn how best one may enter it,
and become a part of it in the future; opportunity
to note the mistakes of men and the blunders of
nations, and to profit thereby; opportunity to learn
the laws of God, which are the laws of life.

But however true all this is of the college and

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 129

university, it is just as true of the life that comes
after the university. All Hfe is opportunity. What
you have found in college you will find now in the
life that follows. The opportunity may, to be sure,
have lost something of its freshness; it may no
longer seem so attractive; realism may have taken,
the place of the ideahsm of early youth. Yet the
opportunity still remains. The world is organized
upon a single principle, viz., to furnish opportunity
for effort.

There have been moments in our lives when we
have thought ourselves to be standing, as it were,
before a high and immovable wall; but after a time
the wall apparently vanished, and we have been able
to look far and wide, and indeed to roam almost at
will in the fields beyond.

There have been times in our national history
when darkness seemed to have settled down upon
us, so dense as to render fatal every effort to act;
but in each instance the darkness has passed away,
and the sunshine afterward has been all the brighter
because of the darkness which preceded it.

There have been periods in the world's history
when seemingly everything was at a standstill;
when progress of every kind was arrested; when
individual and nation, so far as man could see,
were impotent ; but such periods have always proved
to be the precursors of reform, or revolution, and
are now regarded as most important periods in the

130 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

world's progress — the periods, indeed, of highest
opportunity.

The Hfe of individual, of nation, of race, has no
moment in which opportunity is denied it. Life
and opportunity are synonymous; it is only in death
that opportunity ceases; and perhaps death itself,
if rightly interpreted, is the greatest opportunity
of all.

Do not, then, be over anxious. The opportunity
which you have already found will continue yours.
And there never was a period in human history
when opportunity was greater or more glorious
than it is today.

My friends, let me repeat what I said in the
beginning: You will find in the next period of your
lives just what you have found in this which is
closing — difficulties and restrictions without ques-
tion, but also appreciation of true worth, and oppor-
tunity to live and grow. If this be true, it behooves
us to battle on against the difficulties; to make all
proper and consistent effort to meet the demands
made upon us as members of society; to cultivate
a true appreciation of all that is high and good and
noble; and to regard every movement in Hfe as an
opportunity to be employed for that which heaven
will regard as something holy.

When the next great change in life shall come,
and we stand on the other side, we shall find, if our
great teachers have correctly informed us, no diffi-

THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 131

culties and no restrictions. Every act will be worthy
and noble and deserving of approval; and every
moment of every life will be an opportunity supreme.
May the God who has us in his keeping grant
that we may prepare ourselves for this life beyond
by living, as we may live it, the life that is still ours.

X

RELIGIOUS BELIEF AMONG COLLEGE
STUDENTS

It would be curious, and something very sad,
if the institutions founded by our fathers as training
schools for Christian service should come to be
centers of influence destructive to that same Chris-
tianity. The first purpose of the college was the
defense of Christianity, together with the education
of men to foster its interests. No one will deny
that this purpose has been most effectively realized
during the past two centuries of church and college
history.

But what is the situation today ? Is it true that
there has been a remarkable decrease in the actual
teaching of Christian truth, while a large and grow-
ing emphasis has been placed upon the teaching
of branches altogether devoid of religious character ?
Yes. Is it true that of the students who enter
college only a meager few look forward to Christian
service of any kind, the larger number having, as a
matter of fact, but the slightest possible interest
in religious matters? Yes. Is it also true that
many college men who might otherwise enter the
ministry turn aside to teaching, or to business, or
perhaps to some other line of work because of the
Z32

RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN COLLEGE 133

influence of the purely technical instruction given
in the colleges? Yes. Is it certainly a fact that
many men and women who entered college as
Christian workers in their home churches take
little or no active part in church life after they have
completed their college work? Yes.

If, now, all this is true, or even half of it, one
need not be surprised to find the feeling frequently
expressed throughout the religious world that
college education is tending to decrease Christian
faith, and that institutions founded and conducted
for distinctly Christian ends are, in fact, educating
their students away from the church; in a word,
that religious skepticism is increasing in our colleges.
Is this conclusion to be accepted? The answer
now is: Yes and no.

It seems certain that two tendencies are constantly
discernible. The first is that many men and women
in their college life grow careless about religious
matters, and in some cases actually give up, or
think that they give up, Christianity. This class
of persons will, of course, include those who before
they entered college either had no interest in religion
or were hostile to it. There has been a pecuHar
and a fatal lack of proper religious instruction for
the young during the past twenty years, and we are
just beginning to feel its terrible effects.

But there belong also here the cases of those
who in the course of their college studies are led to

134 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

question the truth of the teaching received in early
years from teacher, parent, and even pastor. This
teaching, however true or false, was accepted on
the basis of authority. The scientific attitude of
mind cultivated in most colleges as well as univer-
sities distinctly opposes the acceptance of truth on
the basis of another person's authority. The college
student passes through an evolution both intellectual
and moral. He is taught to question everything.
He is brought into contact with men who are investi-
gating problems in every department of thought —
problems supposed by the rank and file of humanity
to be settled, or else of the very existence of which
the ordinary man is quite ignorant.

This same questioning attitude must inevitably
include matters of rehgion. Difficulties are certain
to arise, and unless during this period the young man
or woman is brought under proper and appre-
ciative influences, and the right kind of assistance
is given, skepticism is liable to pass over into
infidelity. The question of miracles, which to
many minds presents no difficulty, to the young
man or woman under the influence of scientific
study becomes a matter of very serious importance.
Unless such students are helped to see the true rela-
tion of the bibhcal narratives to Christianity, it is
almost an invariable rule that they pass through a
period of great religious depression and uncertainty
which in some cases results either in a religious

RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN COLLEGE 135

indifference or in a half-cynical contempt for the
teaching of the church.

Then, again, experience shows that besides the
college students who do give up entirely their faith
in God — and there are very few of these — there is
an increasing number of those who with more or
less good judgment are training themselves to dis-
criminate between what they regard as the essential
and the unessential elements of religion. The effect
of the college environment is to produce this habit
of mind. Nor is it difhcult to see why it should.
Education that does not help a man thus to dis-
criminate is a poor education.

Yet in this separating of the two elements of
rehgious faith, the college student is almost certain
to include among those elements which he judges
to be unessential, matters which many persons deem
essential. From the point of view, therefore, of
such persons, these college men are infidels. But,
after all, such a charge is in most cases too sweeping.
That ebulhtion of omniscience which at some time
in their career marks all college students hardly
demands so severe a term. The influence of scien-
tific study is, therefore, on the whole not unsettling,
but constructive. If men believe fewer things, they
beheve fundamental things more intensely. If they
question, it is for the sake of finding true answers,
and, finding these answers, they go on to even larger
truths.

136 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

^Thus we are led to the second answer which we
must give the question. Does college education
lead men into infidelity? No.

If we mean to define infidelity as a general dis-
trust of the existence of a divine being, a downright
denial of immortality and of the truth of the gospel,
and a refusal to bring one's life under the teaching of
Jesus, I maintain that infidelity, so far from increas-
ing, is rapidly decreasing. A comparison of the
rehgious condition of the older colleges today with
that of the same institutions fifty years ago will show
indubitably that there is in them today a far more
sturdy behef in the fundamentals of the ' Christian
religion. Further than this, there is to be found today
religious interest in our colleges which is absolutely
unparalleled. It is not only that Young Men's and
Young Women's Christian Associations are more
prosperous and more influential than ever before,
but the colleges themselves are awakening to
their responsibihty for the religious life of their
students. Everywhere we see the establishment of
chairs for biblical instruction; the formation of Bible
departments; the institution of preacherships espe-
cially adapted to the needs of the college mind ; the
outgoing of the earnest life of the students in college
settlements; great conventions of college men and
women under the direction of religious leaders.
The college student who grows up among these
influences is already making himself felt. From

RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN COLLEGE 137

all quarters come repous of the awakening of reli-
gious earnestness becau:^e of the energy and broad
vision of educators and si^^dents. And the Religious
Education Association, which has just begun its
work under such auspicious circumstances, would
ten years ago have been impossible. It is unques-
tionable that the life of students today is more
natural, more wholesome, more pure than in any
previous period in the history of education. This
fact speaks volumes.

InfideHty, let us thank God, so far from increasing
in the colleges, is being conquered there. In some
particulars the Christian faith is passing through a
transitional period, but it is not being destroyed.
Possibly it is growing less ecclesiastical, but certainly
it is growing more practical. Just as the modern
conception of education is growing unscholastic,
and is emphasizing life rather than information,
so the religion of the educated man is becoming less
based upon theological philosophy, more based upon
demonstrable truths, more determined to find
expression in better social conditions and larger
social sympathies. It would be a most disastrous
situation if the case were otherwise. To separate
the educated man from the religious man would
mean infinite loss to the world. Our colleges may
be less determined to support some peculiar view
of God and theology, but they are producing men
and women who are not content to live in a universe

138 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

in which there is no God. If education tends to
lead college students to adopt the shorter form of
every creed, it is teaching them at the same time
that religion is an elemental fact in human life, and
that no man can be thoroughly educated who does
not know the fear of the Lord.

Infidelity has always been, is, and probably
always will be, present in the world. The greatest
danger to which the church today is exposed, how-
ever, is not the infidelity of the college student, or
of the educated person, but that of the great mass
of men and women who are being estranged from
the church because of the unwillingness of Christians
to make the love of man co-ordinate with professions
of loyalty to a creed. It is too easy to distrust any
institution which teaches that one must love a God
he has not seen, but which does not lead a man to
love his brother whom he has seen.

The evils in the situation, then, so far as college
students are concerned, may in great measure be
avoided. Let me point out three things which the
remedy for these evils must include:

Better training and more of it in the earlier years.
Every academy, college, and preparatory school
should have an instructor of broad sympathies and
large knowledge whose entire time is devoted to the
work of preparing the boys and girls for the changes
through which in college life they are to pass; in
other words, a bibhcal chair, to be filled by one who

RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN COLLEGE 139

will anticipate the coming struggle, and provide
beforehand that which will be of service at the time
of the student's crises.

But, besides more and a better training, there
must be stronger preaching, and a different kind
than there has been during the college years. It
is absurd to suppose that the same kind of preaching
will satisfy, at the same time, the inquiring, anxious,
soul-disturbed student, and the self-satisfied, inert,
lifeless person of the same age in an ordinary church.
Nor will a single preacher meet the needs of any
considerable number of students. For different
temperaments and different points of view there
must be preaching of different men and different
sympathies.

And, finally, there must be specific teaching of a
definite character, adapted to individual needs and
necessities. This calls for chairs of Bible instruc-
tion in every institution. These chairs should be
filled by men who rank in scholarly ability with the
men who occupy the other chairs in the institution.
The religious side of instruction must not be ignored
or treated half-heartedly. The best talent is none
too good. For are not the interests involved the
very highest?

Let us not croak, then, about the amount of
infidehty now in our colleges. We may well be
surprised that it is not even greater than it is, when
we take into account the wretched conditions which

I40 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

exist as to the religious education of boys and girls
who have not reached the college age. We our-
selves, as parents and church members, are largely
responsible for such infidelity as does exist in college
since, in most cases, we have failed to take even the
most simple measures to prevent it. The college
can hardly be expected to repair the mistakes of the
home, or the teacher to overcome the indifference
or irreligion of the parent.

XI

BIBLE STUDY AND THE RELIGIOUS
LIFE

. I HAVE come with the sincere feeling that I have
for you a message. I may be unable to express
this message in forceful style, but I shall use my
utmost endeavor to make it definite. If it does
not seem to be new, at least you must agree with
me that, since the days of Jesus and the apostles,
men have not dehvered many messages altogether
new. Human effort has, in great measure, been
expended in ascertaining, explaining, and illustrating
that old, old message, the truth of which has become
more firmly established with each cycle of the years.
My message may, then, be imperfectly expressed,
and it may be lacking entirely in the new, the strange,
or the startUng; but I ask permission in advance to
assure you of two things: first, that the positions
suggested are those which I have tested by my own
personal experience — an experience, you will allow
me to say, of more than twenty-five years in Bible
study and Bible teaching; an experience Hkewise
including contact of the closest kind with young
men passing through almost every phase of life;
secondly, my purpose in presenting these points is
sincere, and honestly meant to be helpful. God
141

142 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

knows how many men in trouble and in misery it has
been my lot to meet, and in some small way perhaps
to help; too many, I can vouch to you, to permit me
to say a single word that would be other than helpful.

The phrase "personal experience" is inter-
changeable with two other phrases which relate to
the individual: "religious experience" and "religious
life." We have here, in fact, a specific use of the
word "experience," as applied to religious feeling.
It is something through which a man goes; some-
thing, perhaps, which comes to him — a feehng, an
emotion, though always more than this: it is a state
of being, a hfe in which, as Emerson has expressed
it, the "individual soul mingles with the universal
soul;" or, as it is more commonly put, in which the
individual soul comes into sympathetic touch with
God. And first I wish to remind you that this
religious life or experience may be regarded from
two points of view, one largely outward, the other
inward.

The outward expression of this experience is seen
in all that enters into worship. This the Psalmist
had in mind when he said: "Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his Holy Name ! "
This is the effort of the soul to express its feeling
toward the higher world of supernatural or divine
existence; an effort in some cases so simple and
unconventional that it passes almost unnoticed, in

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 143

other cases so elaborate and complex as to bewilder
and confound. The various acts of worship, whether
of sacrifice, prayer, or praise, symbolize in various
forms the inward thought. At times it is the thought
that makes effort thus to express itself; at other
times the expression leads up to the thought and
stimulates it to a higher achievement. As individual
temperaments differ from each other, as national
characteristics separate great bodies of humankind
from one another, so the outward expression of the
same thought frequently varies, and men find many
different ways of giving expression to the varied
religious thoughts which fill their souls. While
these outward forms, indicative of the rehgious life,
are all the time undergoing change and modification,
it is evident from the history of rehgious thought
that they are carefully to be observed, not merely
as we observe the conventionalities of social life,
but even more rigidly and more sacredly, because
they constitute the agency for the preservation of
that long and helpful experience of religious life
which has been transmitted to us from the begin-
nings of human thought.

But the rehgious Hfe finds outward expression
in another form — in the system of behef, or the creed.
It is important to keep in mind that creeds, as we
find them in the various rehgions, and in the various
historical stages of Christianity, are mere outward
expressions of the rehgious life, not the rehgious life

144 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

itself. Here, again, we find the same simplicity and
the same complexity as in the forms of worship.
But no one, in face of the facts confronting us every
day, would dare to assert that the religious experience
of any man is to be measured by the definiteness or
the completeness of his system of theology. Some
of the purest and noblest hves ever lived were largely
innocent of even the simplest knowledge of creeds
or theology. At the same time, it is a fact easily
capable of demonstration that life and character
are influenced in the highest degree by the nature
of the reHgious belief. In illustration of this, con-
trast the ancient belief in the bull as the representa-
tive of deity, and the revolting consequences which
ensued, with the more modern Puritan conception
of God and the sturdy virtue accompanying it.

What a childish thing it is, therefore, to raise a
hue and cry, as so many do, against creeds ? What
man is there that does not have a creed? His
creed is but the outward expression of his inner
thought. No doubt in our day less emphasis is
placed on the factor of belief than was done in former
times. A man's Hfe in civihzed countries is no
longer dependent upon his theological beHef. Nor
is his position in a particular body of the Christian
faith so definitely determined as it once was by his
special form of creed. This means simply that we
live in an age of toleration. But though men's
behefs are not so strongly contested, they are not
on this account any the less vigorous.

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 145

Still a third outward form of expression for the
rehgious Hfe is conduct or ethics, for we are told that
''pure rehgion and undefiled before our God and
Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in
their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world." The external acts of Hfe — that is, one^s
conduct in relation to himself and to his fellow-men —
constitute perhaps as clear an expression of personal
religious life as can be found. ''By their fruits ye
shall know them." The regular performance of
the various acts of worship in a given ceremonial
reveals some characteristics of one's religious experi-
ence; the sincere acceptance of this or that form of
dogmatic creed is also a token ; but much is left to be
discovered from a study of the ethical standard of
Hfe which a man holds up to himself. And in all
these ways you and I tell the world something of
that inner experience which we, as Christian men,
say we have passed through and are now living.

But we must ask ourselves this question: What
constitutes this inner life, this spiritual life, this reh-
gious experience of which the acts of worship, the
formulation of creeds, and the conduct of Hfe are
but the outward expression? What does it mean
to have one's soul in sympathetic touch with God ?
What, after aU, is actually to be understood as being
included in the second phase of our topic, personal
or rehgious experience? What is the very essence
of it? And, it seems to me, no answer to this

146 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

question can be sufficient that does not show the
spiritual Hfe to include these three elements : a con-
sciousness of sin, a fellowship with God, and a love
for God.

The religious experience must invariably include,
then, a consciousness oj sin. The depth of the
experience may most accurately be estimated as in
proportion to the keenness of this consciousness.
No modern expression of this feeling is more vivid or
more pathetic than that of the Psalmist of old :

There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation :

Neither is there health in my bones because of my sin.

For mine iniquities are gone over my head:

As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolish-
ness.

I am pained and bowed down greatly;

I go mourning all the day long.

For my loins are filled with burning;

And there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am faint and sore bruised:

I have groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

-Ps. 38:3-8.

When I kept silence, my bones wasted away

Through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:

My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity did I not
hide:

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah;

And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

—Ps. 32:3-5.

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 147

It is hardly worth our while to ask whether this
consciousness of sin is to be regarded as the recogni-
tion of a high estate once held by man, but long
since lost; or as the recognition of the survival of
animal conditions out of which in his ascent upward
he is gradually but surely being hfted. It is the
fact, not the explanation of the fact, which forms
a part of the religious experience. Do I feel this
awful, this terrible lack, in my own soul ? this falhng
short of the standard clearly fixed before my eyes ?
this tendency to be dragged downward in spite of
constant struggle ? this separation by an almost
impassable gulf from all that is high and pure and
holy? This is the question. And for my part, I
can conceive no true rehgious experience that has
not in it some such feehng. It will assume varying
forms with different individuals, and even entire
nations may exhibit characteristic features in their
experience of this feeling; but it will always be
present, and with it a corresponding longing for
truth and righteousness. The latter is but the com-
plement of the former. One is the negative, the
other the positive, side of the same phase of feehng.
To be sure, in some individuals the negative may
seem to be all that exists, but a closer study will
reveal at least the germs of that insatiable longing
for truth and righteousness as they are represented
in divinity.

In every true experience tiiere must likewise be

148 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

found a sense of fellowship with God, together with
that realization of divine aid in the struggle of hfe
which has brought comfort and consolation to all
who have experienced it ; in more common language,
trust in God's goodness and mercy. This phase of
the religious experience, which, however violent
and antagonistic may be the character of the imme-
diate situation, always brings calmness and peace,
is in striking contrast with that just described as
consciousness of sin. And, again, you will notice
that it is just in proportion to the strength of the
feehng of divine fellowship that one is conscious
of sin. It is the touch received from contact with
divinity, the appreciation of the divine character
— in other words, the consciousness of God — that
brings one to a proper sense of his own utter mean-
ness, his humble lowliness in the sight of his Creator.
But the sense of fellowship with God, and trust
in his goodness, do not constitute the highest form
of the rehgious experience. This was not all that
religious development had achieved even in Old
Testament times. There had come to some the
experience of love for God — not fear, nor merely
reverence, but a love represented to be like that of
son for father, or of wife for husband. Do you
recall how often the Old Testament prophets tried
to picture this idea, at that time so new to all about
them ? Was not God a father, and his true followers
sons? Are not the latter often described as chil-

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 149

dren that have rebelled, children that "deal cor-
ruptly"? and yet again as those whom Jehovah
draws with "cords of a man, with bands of love,"
for "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him." Was he not also a
husband, while the true believers, the church, were
represented as the bride, sometimes faithless and
adulterous, but after all to be "betrothed to Jehovah
forever in righteousness, and in judgment and in
loving- kindness, and in mercies and in faithfulness" ?
And then the bride would "know Jehovah." The
full significance of this word "know" can scarcely
be overestimated.

Perhaps in these utterances the fuller emphasis
is on the love of God for man, rather than man's
love for God; but the latter is always included, and
finds ideal expression in the words of another psalmist
"I have said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, I
have no good beyond thee" (Ps. 16:2). Wherever
love for God exists, there is the corresponding feehng
of love for one's fellow-man. If the first four com-
mandments of the Decalogue deal with the attitude
of man toward God, the remaining six have to do
with his attitude toward his fellow-men. Hosea,
whose greatest thought is the love of God for man,
is no less urgent in his plea for the proper treatment
of one's fellow-men than was Amos, who viewed
the Deity chiefly as a God of justice. The attitude
of Jesus was clearly marked. After all, the greatest

I50 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

contribution of the new religion introduced by him
was the conception of love instead of fear as mani-
fested toward the Deity, love instead of selfishness
as manifested toward one's fellow-men. "But
now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; but
the greatest of these is love" (i Cor. 13:13).

The religious life, then, although expressed in
acts of worship, articles of belief, and standards of
conduct, really consists in a consciousness of sin and
a longing for truth; in a sense of fellowship with
God and trust in his goodness ; in a consciousness of
love for God as well as for one's fellow-men. The
religious life is a spark, more or less brilliant — a
spark of the divine Hfe in man. This spark may
have gone out ; or it may still be in existence, although
it no longer appears to the human eye. It may just
be growing warm and bright under the influence
of a breath blowing upon it, a divine breath; it may
be very bright and briUiant, giving warmth and
guidance to all who see it. Or, if we were to use
the figure of the seed, the germ, the thought would
be the same. The outward expression of this divine
element in the human soul may be indeed imperfect.
When we recall the history of individuals and of
nations; the cases in which even reason itself has
been dethroned as a result of the experience; the
instances in which immorality of the grossest type
has been associated with it; the wars and contro-
versies which are termed religious — the most bitter

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 151

of all history; when we recall the names of men like
David, whose hearts seemed right with God, whose
Uves nevertheless represent much that was utterly
degraded; and the names of other men whose lives
seemed pure and upright, who nevertheless have
shown utter disregard for all religious convention-
ahties — we ask ourselves whether in all this there
has really been evidence of the existence of rehgious
life. I answer: Yes, but the spark was shining
in different degrees of brightness, or perhaps already
so nearly quenched as to appear black; the germ
was exhibiting different stages of growth, or was per-
haps almost destroyed.

All this only emphasizes the truth that one's
conception of God, one's attitude toward him, is
the fundamental thing in life, whether it be that of
the individual or that of the nation.- Nations have
existed whose names have long been lost. Of some
nations only a name has come down to us. These
have done nothing for the world, have added nothing
to its history. They have maintained for a longer
or a shorter period merely the dead level of monoto-
nous existence. In the case of other nations the
very opposite is true. Separating themselves in
an early period from the environment of which they
formed a part, they have hfted themselves gradually
away from that environment to higher and higher
planes of Hfe and thought. It is the story of these
nations that makes up the world's history.

152 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

Of the many millions of human beings that have
lived, the mass are as if they had not existed.
There is no tangible evidence of their life. They
have been born, they have existed, and they have
died — this is all. There has been no contribution
to life or thought. In the case of some, however,
this does not hold true. Imbued with a spirit eager
to secure that which was higher, driven by an impulse
growing out of a desire to help humankind, con-
trolled by a power which they themselves could not
comprehend, these men have led the world in each
step of its progress. What now, in each case, was
the factor which differentiated the few nations from
the many, the few individuals from the masses ? I
answer: Their conception of God. In proportion
as this conception was true and clear and strong,
in that proportion did the nation or the individual
rise out of darkness into light; to that extent nation
or individual entertained true and clear and strong
conceptions of life and the relationships of life, of
death and the significance of death. In other words,
if we may point out the idea concerning God which
prevails in any nation, or is accepted by any indi-
vidual, there is furnished at once the key to the laws
of the nation, the habits of the individual, the litera-
ture of the nation, the soul of the individual.

If you would tell me, my friends, what you think
of God, or the relationship which you sustain to him,
I could determine the character of your religious

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 153

life — ^nay, more, the measure of your influence in
the world. Is it possible that you have no thought
of God ; that you have not come to realize the existence
of God and your dependence on him; that you do
not yet understand the goodness of God and his power
to inspire your soul ? Then, indeed, you are to be
pitied; for you are one of the vast multitude whose
hands have worked without avail. The great and
controlling influence needed in order that your work
shall count has been lacking. I do not have in
mind the meaning of the creeds, nor the work of the
churches. It is something higher and deeper — the
contact of the human soul with the power that created
it; the communion of that soul with the spirit that
continues its existence. Just as Ught and progress
have come into the world with the coming of the
truer conception of God, so Hght will enter the soul;
and the hfe of that soul will make progress with
the increasing appreciation of the goodness and
the greatness of God. ReUgious Hfe is largely
the outward expression of thought, and thought
is most ideal when it is thought of God. Let us
free ourselves, so far as we may, from the things
which fetter the spirit in its effort to come into
contact with the great spirit of which it is a part.
Let us break down the barriers which stand between
us and the God in whose image we were made.
Let us avail ourselves of every opportunity to grow
upward rather than downward. Let us earnestly

154 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

seek that higher hfe in which spirit meets spirit,
and the ideal of man's creation is at last attained.
What is it to be free ? It is to be in touch with
the Divinity. What is it to be strong? It is to
be a companion spirit of the Great Spirit. What
is it to be true? It is to be in harmony with the
truth of the universe, which is itself the reflection
of the character of God.

And now, what has Bible study to do with all
this ? What relation has been found to exist between
this inner and outer religious life, this personal
consciousness of sin and righteousness, of God and
his goodness, of love for God and for man — all this
on the one hand, and, on the other, the study of the
Bible ?

My question does not put on one side the rehgious
hfe and on the other the Bible. For the Bible is
of no more value to you in the struggles of your
rehgious experience than the trashiest ten-cent novel
— unless directly or indirectly you make use of it.
Do you remember that most interesting discovery
made in the days of King Josiah in Jerusalem, the
discovery of a long- lost Bible? Shaphan read it
before the king. "And it came to pass, when the
king had heard the words of the book of the law,
that he rent his clothes." Then there followed
that reformation, one of the most remarkable in
history, the reformation under Josiah. My point

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 155

is that an unused Bible, an unstudied Bible, is not
helpful. It is also true that a mere knowledge of
the contents of the Bible is insufficient. I know
men who can repeat entire chapters and even books
of the Bible, not to speak of verses, whose lives and
thought, so far as one can judge, remain wholly
uninfluenced by the knowledge. There is Hkewise
a certain scholastic knowledge which, so far as the
rehgious Kfe is concerned, avails little or nothing.
You will not misunderstand me. The most accu-
rate and extensive learning is needed in connection
with the archaeological, exegetical, and theological
examination of bibhcal material. But this may
exist and yet render but an indifferent service to the
man whose heart calls for consolation, whose soul
needs lifting up from the depths of misery and
wretchedness. It is therefore the Bible studied,
not the unused Bible, that is the subject of our theme;
and the Bible studied with special reference to the
rehgious hfe, not to archaeology, nor exegesis, nor
even theology.

The fact is that the exercise which we call study
is in itself a good religious discipHne. It produces
accuracy of thought, and this is only another phrase
for truth; it creates a desire for knowledge, and all
knowledge rightly considered leads to God. This
exercise of study, when it is taken up seriously and
honestly in connection with the sacred books that
form our Bible, is the highest function of the human

156 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

mind, and the function which produces the largest
and most valuable fruitage. For, if we regard the
matter closely, we perceive that Bible study is the
act of furnishing nourishment to the seed of divine
Hfe which exists in the individual soul; or, if we use
the other figure, it is the force which keeps alive the
spark of divine Hfe, increasing its brilHancy and
constantly adding to its power.

Let us consider this thought from three points
of view.

First, the spiritual life within us stands as much
in need of nourishment, of assistance in its growth,
as do the physical and the intellectual Hfe. We may
not say that the reHgious or spiritual life will take
care of itself, because it is divine. God has given
us bodies and minds, but they are so constituted
that they wiU starve and die, if not fed; the same
law holds good in the reHgious Hfe.

Second, everything which contributes toward
the legitimate development of the inner reHgious
Hfe will deepen and enrich one's personal experience
in aU of its phases, the outward as well as the inner.

Third, of all agencies which may serve as sources
of help in the training and strengthening of the
reHgious Hfe, the Bible, when studied, is the most
helpful, and, in a word, is indispensable. I shall
ask your attention in what follows to this third
proposition, omitting further reference to the first
and second.

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 157

Looking at the matter externally, and, as before,
from the point of view of worship, or the cultivation
of the devotional spirit, no literature, not even those
of Christian nations and of modern times, contains
such helps to prayer and praise and holy communion
with the spirit in and around us as do the pages of
the Bible. We reahze that for most of us the ritual
of ancient Israel has been supplanted by the simpler
ceremonial of New Testament times. But we do
well to remember that the old ritual, as it stands in
Holy Writ, was one used largely by Jesus himself; that
this ritual, complex and mysterious as it may now
seem to be, was, at one time, the honest and sincere
expression of the relationship of man to God and
of God to man, on the part of a people rightly called
holy, because they had been the agency chosen by
God himself for the revelation of himself to all
humanity. This ceremonial, expressing the reli-
gious Hfe, which was the divinely authorized pre-
cursor of the Christ, must contain rich food for those
who, like all the people of those times, have not yet
reached in their religious growth the higher things
of Christianity. Even behevers require different
kinds of food; some may be ready for the strong
meat of the gospel; while for others a better diet
will be found in the milk of an earlier stage of develop-
ment. I make bold to say that even today children
and many adults will be better nourished if they
take their food in the order in which God has seen

158 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

fit to give it to man; namely, first "the blade, then
the ear, then the full corn in the ear."

Furthermore, as a manual of prayer and praise
the old Hebrew Psalter still stands unsurpassed.
It is the highest and purest expression known to
man of the soul's communion with God. It has
for nearly twenty-five centuries served as the mouth-
piece of untold millions of God's saints, and is
destined, so far as we can see, to continue thus to
serve a suffering humanity for all time. Its adapta-
tion to human needs has been well summarized in
the following utterance:

What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms
are not able to teach? They are to beginners an easy and
familiar introduction — a mighty augmentation of all virtue
and knowledge in such as are entered before — a strong con-
firmation to the most perfect among others. Heroical magna-
nimity, exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom,
repentance unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries of
God, the sufferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the com-
forts of grace, the works of Providence over this world, and
the promised joys of that world which is to come, all good
necessarily to be either known, or done, or had, this one
celestial fountain yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease
incident unto the soul of man, any wound or sickness named,
for which there is not in this treasure-house a present com-
fortable remedy at all times ready to be found. ^

The same thought has been finely expressed by
another writer : —

He only who knows the number of the waves of the ocean,

and the abundance of tears in the human eye; He who sees

I Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V, chap, xxxvii, sec. 2.

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 159

the sighs of the heart before they are uttered, and who hears
them still Avhen they are hurled into silence — He alone can
tell how many holy emotions, how many heavenly vibrations,
have been produced and will ever be produced in the souls
of men by the reverberation' of these marvelous strains, of
these predestinated hymns, read, meditated, sung in every hour
of day and night, in every winding of the vale of tears. The
Psalter of David is Hke a mystic harp, hung on the walls of
the true Zion. Under the breath of the Spirit of God it sends
forth its infinite varieties of devotion, which, rolling on from
echo to echo, from soul to soul, awakens in each a separate
note, mingling in that one prolonged voice of thankfulness
and penitence, praise and prayers.

These quotations point to another fact of a
practical character. The study of the Bible, when
properly presented, is inspirational; for the intel-
Hgent acceptance and appropriation of its mater-
ials, incorporated into creeds, has moved and
controlled the greatest spirits of nineteen centuries,
and through them the civilized world. No great
man has wrought among his fellows, no nation has
made history, except under the influence and inspira-
tion of these books we call the Bible. Space permits
here no illustration; still we may recall how the
Roman empire passed into Christian hands, and
the great movements since — the Reformation, the
War of Independence, and even the French Revolu-
tion. This Bible of ours has been the incentive;
the truth gathered from its pages, even when mingled
with the false error of human interpretation, has
been the basis of the world's most helpful, most

i6o RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

efficient, and most startling forward steps through
all these ages. And it has happened thus because
this truth has entered into religious life and experi-
ence. If it has affected the life of men in days gone
by, if it is affecting their lives today, you may well
believe that you, as well as they, may receive inspira-
tion and direction; that the study of the Bible will
hft you to a higher plane of usefulness to your fellow-
men.

Still again, in this matter of life as men see it — I
mean standard of life, conduct — where else, pray,
than in the Bible is there to be found more vivid
presentation of Kfe as it should be Hved, or of life
as it should not be lived ? Where else is there given
more pathetic illustration of the consequences of
sin than in the story of David; or more definite
presentation of the rewards of righteousness ?

One may study history outside of the Bible and
fail to find anywhere a commingHng in any true
proportions of the various elements which make up
the rehgious life. Sin has made such headway
in the world that apparently no instance can be
found of a well-rounded rehgious Hfe perfect in
every particular. We look in vain for a nation that
has produced or expressed this ideal religious life.
We look in vain for an association or organization
of any kind that has furnished the world an experi-
ence that might be accepted as the true type. Indi-
vidual men have approached this ideal more nearly

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE i6i

than nations or organizations. But the men who
have reached the highest place in this effort of trans-
cendent interest to all humanity have, after all,
exhibited characteristics of weakness and evidences
of innate sinfulness which have made it clear that
humanity in itself may not attain this supreme
thing.

Does it follow, then, that the world has seen no
perfect example of this life? In order that the
world might have such perfect illustration of it,
an illustration which all men might see and study,
and by which humanity might be lifted to a still
higher plane than that which it had reached through
the divine help already furnished in other ways,
Jesus Christ was born, and therefore he lived and
taught and died. His attitude of reverence and
homage toward God, in its simplicity and sublimity,
in its prayerful dependence, and in its irrepressible
aspiration, was the perfect presentation of the true
worship, in itself, and in its relation to the other
factors which constitute the religious experience.
His teaching concerning God as Father of the world,
of humanity as a single, closely related family, every
member of which had responsibiUty for every other
member, his teaching of the kingdom of heaven,
and the ideal social life in which justice and peace
shall reign, constitute a creed from which nothing
may be subtracted; while the making of additions
to it, as history has shown, leads surely to confusion

1 62 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

and controversy. His life, in the perfection of its
purity, in the pathos of its self-sacrifice, in the lofti-
ness of its unselfish achievement, has furnished the
world principles which underhe and control all
right Hving. In proportion, therefore, as the worship
of nations, or of organizations, or of individuals,
is as sincere and honest as that of Jesus Christ; in
proportion as their belief is as broad and deep and
true as was his behef; in proportion as their Hfe is
as pure and self-sacrificing and lofty as was his life
— in just such proportion will nation, or organization,
or individual give illustration of the true religious
experience.

Suppose we grant, for the sake of argument, that
a man of earnest rehgious temperament might be
able to find elsewhere than in the Bible the material
which would serve him fairly well for purposes of
devotion, for basis of behef, and for standards of
ethical hfe. What shall be said in reference to the
material which will serve his purpose in the realm
of his inner rehgious life — the experience of the
consciousness of sin and the longing for righteous-
ness; the experience of a sense of fellowship with
God, and appreciation of receiving God's help in
time of trouble; the experience of love for God and
love for man ? Can the best material for the nour-
ishment of spiritual hfe be found elsewhere than in
the Sacred Scriptures ?

Let me stop here to answer a point sometimes

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 163

made against the necessity of Bible study. It is
said, with apparent plausibiUty, that, in one form
or another, our modern hterature contains all of
the bibhcal element really needed for the nourish-
ment of the divine life in man; that in the lines of
poetry and the discussions of philosophy, in the
treatises on ethics and the pages of history, one may
find a really excellent substitute for the prophecies
of Isaiah and his disciples, the utterances of the
sages, the ethical narratives of the Old and New
Testaments, the letters and discourses of the apostles
and their co-workers. Two replies may be made:
first, the very fact alleged shows all the more clearly
the power of the Scriptures, for if they possessed
not a special power and value given from on high,
their influence could not have permeated as it has
all modern literature; but, beyond this, it is to be
noted, the source of the wonderful influence thus
exerted is conceded by all to have been and to be the
Bible. In these days, ij never before, we are expected
to go to the original sources jor our information.
The one source, the only source, as well as the original
source, for help of the kind here considered is the
Bible. My friends, do not waste your time and
strength in the effort to find this most precious
material in a diluted form, when you can so easily
obtain it pure; and remember that the dilution of a
pure article is often only another term for adultera-
tion. It is not an uninteresting piece of work to

1 64 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

follow this or that author in his effort to reproduce
the truth of the biblical writings according to his
own fancy; but it is a far more profitable thing to
study the biblical writings themselves — writings so
strong and so helpful, and so necessary to man's
true life that even in their adulterated form they
have been found most valuable. I have a feeling
of profound pity for that minister of the gospel who
finds it necessary to place side by side with his text
or as a substitute for it, a quotation, however excel-
lent, from a secular writer.

Lack of time forbids me to consider separately
the three great ideas which constitute the controlling
thought of the inner spiritual life. Indeed, in what
has already been said I have largely anticipated
what I might say at this point. No one can deny
that in our Old and New Testament Scriptures we
find the fullest and clearest presentation of the char-
acter of God. We may interpret this revelation in
one way or in another; but whatever way we adopt,
the fact remains that the material to be interpreted
is bibUcal material. If God is himself the ultimate
source of all religious experience, it may surely be
predicated that the richest and fullest experience will
come, can come, to those only who best know him
as he has made himself known; to those only who
by such knowledge are in closest touch with him.
In the olden days the prophet Hosea repeated
pathetically the bitter complaint: "My people are

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 165

destroyed for lack of knowledge" (4:6); "they do
not know Jehovah" (5:4). In these modern days
men are even more foolish and go awhoring after
every absurd notion which the human mind can
invent. In very truth, they do not know the God
of the Scriptures; and why not? Because they
have not studied his character as it is revealed in
the Word, and in the flesh; or because they have
studied it, alas, through glasses so dimmed with
human error that the true light has been shut out.

This is true, likewise, of the two great corollaries
of the teaching concerning God — that of sin, and that
of man's relation to man. No man, good or bad,
has ever lived whose picture has not been painted
in Holy Writ. You cannot read many chapters
before clearly to your eyes your own portrait appears.
There is no sin so dam^nable, no virtue so exalted,
that it has not found full illustration in these sacred
narratives. You will find nowhere else so clearly
presented your own religious needs, your short-
comings. You will find no writings which, by their
insistence upon ethical ideals, appeal so strongly
to your conscience. You will find nowhere else
so definite a placing of responsibihty for sin upon
the individual. If you read sympathetically the
words of an Old Testament prophet, or of a New
Testament apostle, you will, in spite of yourself,
wonder at the deep and overwhelming sense of sin
which he exhibits. In other words, your own con-

1 66 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

viction of sin will be so deepened as to bring you by
reaction into that state in which you may assume
the right relation to your Maker. No other Htera-
ture will produce this effect, unless it be a literature
so saturated with biblical truth as in itself to repro-
duce the bibhcal thought.

Think, too, of the educative element in the records
of the lives of great leaders, now following the right
path, now turned aside; at one time crowned with
all the favor of a loving God, at another punished
with all the severity which characterizes an impartial
judge. I have already spoken of the unique life
pictured to us — the hfe of Jesus. This is the climax
of the whole; all else might perhaps be dispensed
with, so long as this remained ; and yet all else forms
the background on which this picture rests.

Let me then repeat: The study of the Bible is
to be thought of as the eating of food — food not for
the body or the mind, but for the soul. One may
at times find nourishment for his soul elsewhere
in diluted form. If it is desired pure and at first
hand, the Bible is the one source of supply. This
work of Bible study is indispensable, if one's religious
life is to be strong and sturdy and alert, and if it is
to be at all equal to the demands made upon it in
this world of struggle and temptation.

I desire to state in conclusion certain propositions
which seem to me to grow out of this discussion
and which belong to it.

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 167

In your study of the Bible do not expect to find
all portions of it equally helpful to you in your
Christian life. The Bible is for universal use.
If every part of it were of equal value to you^ how
narrow and provincial and even valueless it would
be for many others of your fellow-men I Its truth
is so presented that children may go to it with satis-
faction; the deepest thinker also may find that of
which he stands in need. This is the Bible's greatest
worth. Every stage of individual and national
rehgious development is provided for. The art in
all this, that which makes it possible, is something
far beyond human understanding. We cannot
fail to see that it is so, however futile our attempt
may be to explain how it is so. We know quite weU
why it is so; for otherwise it would not be what it is
— universal, the only collection of writings which
may seriously claim to be universal.

In your study of this collection do not lose sight
of the large amount of history in its content; and
keep in mind that every utterance of prophet, law-
giver, and sage, of disciple, apostle, and teacher,
has an historical basis; that is, it grew out of some
historical situation intended in the divine providence
to serve as the occasion of the utterance and as its
basis. An important historical event happens
among us in these days — the assassination of a presi-
dent, the rumor of war, the centennial of the birth
of a city — and the teachers and preachers seize this

1 68 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

as the basis for lessons in religious instruction. A
certain condition of things exists in this or that
country, a great awakening is needed, and from
every pulpit there comes the word of exhortation
and demand. Just so in ancient times. And if
by the study of sacred history we are able to dis-
cover the event or circumstance, the situation or
occasion, of a prophecy or a letter, whether it be
the approach of an invading army or the corrupt
condition of one of the churches of New Testament
times, a new light is shed upon the words; they take
on a new significance; they live, as they did not live
before. Too much cannot be said in favor of the
effort thus to connect the sacred words with the
sacred history which furnished their occasion. And
then, we may not forget that, after all, the events
were the principal thing. For example, the suffering
and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are his-
tory; that is, they are facts. Now, suppose no gospel
story of them had ever been written, would they
have altogether Ipst their historical value? And,
as such, would not the divine purpose sought for
in them have been accomplished? Is it not true,
then, that the historical fact back of the record is
the thing on which we must build our faith, the solid
rock on which we may take our stand ?

Some of us in our Bible study are troubled with
the so-called difficulties. I am afraid that the number
of such persons is too small. To be thus troubled

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 169

indicates two things: that one has actually been
engaged in study; and — take my word for it — no
student ever worked in any subject who did not
find difficulties. It shows also that the man is
honest. There is much that I should like to suggest
on this phase of our subject; for I have had very
sad and bitter experiences of my own along this line.
I wish, however, to make a single suggestion: Do
not, for the sake of all that you hold sacred, allow
the existence of intellectual difficulties to interfere
with the progress of your practical religious life.
Many men think that unless all their intellectual
problems are settled it is impossible to live a truly
rehgious life. A more mistaken notion never
entered a man's head. If you are a thinking man,
you will always have difficulties; new ones will
probably come forward even more rapidly than old
ones are settled. Be not too greatly disturbed by
these difficulties. If you are not yet a Christian,
do not put off becoming one until they disappear
Such a time will never come. Go forward in Chris-
tian work and service, follow the paths pointed out
to you so clearly in Sacred Scripture, and let the
difficulties be settled as your Christian faith grows
stronger and your Christian character becomes more
firmly estabHshed.

I cannot bring myself to forego just here a quota-
tion from one of the greatest of modem Bible students,
the late Professor Davidson, of Edinburgh. It is

i-jo RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

found in his Commentary on Job, in the chapter
containing Jehovah's answer out of the storm:

It is God who now speaks to Job; and in his teaching of
men he never moves in the region of the mere understanding,
but always in that of the rehgious Hfe. He may remove per-
plexities regarding his providence and ways from men's
minds: He does not do so, however, by the immediate com-
munication of intellectual light; but rather by flushing all the
channels of thought and life with a deeper sense of himself.
Under the flow of this fuller sense of God, perplexities dis-
appear, just as rocks that raise an angry surf when the tide is
low are covered and unknown when it is full.

It goes almost without saying that if your religious
life is based upon a study of the Scriptures, it will
be largely shaped by the way in which you handle
these Scriptures. There is no error of the human
mind or heart which has not supported itself by the
use of Scripture; for instance, here polygamy, there
slavery; here spiritualism, there — I might mention
twenty abnormal, absurd religious developments
which flourish in the very heart of our strongest and
most intelligent centers. The origin of all these
is false interpretation, failure to see aright the thought
intended to be conveyed by the sacred writer, and
an ignorance of God so great as to allow it to be
thought that such absurdities are pleasing to him
and represent aright his truth to men. The responsi-
bility, therefore, of interpretation is very great — so
great that in certain divisions of the Christian church
it is a privilege denied the ordinary Christian and

BIBLE STUDY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 171

granted only to those holding high ecclesiastical
position. There is in this a great lesson for us all;
and yet, it is better to have error stalk high through
the land than to deprive a single man of the privilege
of interpreting for himself and of accepting for him-
self the significance of the Sacred Writings. But
where privilege is granted, there responsibihty rests;
and you may never shift upon another the responsi-
bility which is solely yours.

It follows that one can weU afford to put forth
the greatest possible effort to secure in correct form
this food for the nourishment of his spiritual life.
The strange thing is that men who profess to value
this food so highly satisfy themselves with so small
an amount of it. The most serious act of hypocrisy
which a Christian can commit is to boast loudly on
the street corner, or on the housetop, of the value
and authority of the Sacred Scriptures, assigning
each and every word Hterally to the finger of God,
and then to accord to these same Scriptures less
thought and attention by far than he gives to the
daily newspaper. In how many Christian families
of the city of Chicago do you suppose the reading
of the morning paper at the breakfast table has
supplanted the morning reading of the Bible so com-
mon in these same famihes less than twenty years
ago? Every Christian man should face this ques-
tion: "Is the Bible what I have supposed it to be?
If so, it is for me to treat it differently, to make it

172 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

the subject of systematic study, and, through acquaint-
ance with it, to come closer to God; to know him
better, and, having this knowledge, to realize, as I
have not hitherto realized, my responsibility to my
fellow-men." No man need ever fear that he will
attain too large a knowledge of these sacred books.
It is promised many times in these same Scrip-
tures that to him who approaches God in this attitude
of mind the Holy Spirit, in turn, will come with
blessings of mercy and comfort and peace. This
promise, the saints of all ages assert, has always
been fulfilled. Let it be our prayer that it may find
large fulfilment in the case of every man or woman
who, in earnestness and sincerity, determines to
study this sacred volume in the future more carefully
more assiduously, and more systematically than
hitherto.

XII
AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD

The world has had sixty centuries of history.
How many centuries of Hfe man lived on earth
before the dawn of history we can only guess, as
new discovery pushes back still farther the date
of history's beginnings. These sixty centuries fall
quite naturally, and with a peculiar symmetry,
into three divisions of about twenty centuries each.
During the first twenty the great civilizing forces
came from the fertile region of the lower Euphrates
and the Tigris, Babylonia — a country whose petty
kingdoms were first organized into an empire by
Sargon of Accad 3800 B. C; a civilization which,
through two thousand years or more, pervaded and
uphfted the countries west of the Mediterranean.
Egypt all this while was developing a second civiliza-
tion, but the aggressive spirit seized her much later.

The end of the twentieth century B. C. was
marked by the movement westward through Meso-
potamia to the Palestine seaboard of a group of
nomadic tribes under Abraham, one of which, in
the providence of God, was to bring to humanity
the true conception and apprehension of a personal
God. These twenty centuries of Babylonian civil-
ization on one side, and Egyptian civiHzation on
173

174 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

the other, had furnished the preparation of Syria,
and of those who were to be Syria's inhabitants,
for the great work which was to follow. It is true
that after this both Babylon and Egypt flourished,
but their real work had reached its culmination,
and their continuance only assisted the later steps
in Syria's development. Babylonia was the great
power in the first twenty centuries, Syria in the
second. The close of the first saw the coming of
the Hebrew tribe under Abraham's leadership; the
close of the second was marked by the coming of
the Son of man, the ideal Hebrew, to whom Syria,
with sore travail, at last gave birth. The work of
centuries of Greek and Roman history was but a
contribution to this, the crowning event of forty
centuries.

The third period of twenty centuries is but now
drawing to its close. The Hebrew, though not born
as a nation till nearly half the period had passed,
was the central influence of the second period. In
this third period the central figure has been Eng-
land, although in her case, too, a good portion of
the period had elapsed before she took her place
among the nations. Babylonia, Syria, England!

Another great period is just being ushered in,
which promises to eclipse its predecessor even as
that predecessor eclipsed those that preceded it.
The fines separating these great periods are not
sharply drawn. Perhaps we are already fairly

AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD 175

under way in the new period. A thousand years
from now men will be better able to determine.
In any case, we know, and the world knows, that
what Babylonia was in the first period, what Syria
was in the second, what England was in the third,
all this and more America will be in the fourth.

This westward movement has been synchronous
with the history of the progress of civilization. And
the history of civilization has been synchronous with
the development of a pure and true conception of
God, and of his relation to man.

Did God enter into this wonderful development
for the first time when Abraham was called ? And
did he take a journey into a far-off country when
Jesus Christ ascended into heaven? Was not God
acting throughout the period of Babylonian influence
just as truly as through the period which began with
Abraham and closed with Jesus? May we not
believe that he has been as closely identified with the
period which is now closing as with that which pre-
sented the Sacred Scriptures to humanity? The
Babylonian, Syrian, and English periods are passed.
The American is coming. Will there be new revela-
tions of God in this period ? Surely we may expect
them.. Does not the world know God in a new way
because of the events in the world's history during
the past two thousand years ? Does not the world
know God in a new way because of the dis-
coveries made by science in these latest years — dis-

176 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

coveries which teach us nothing, if they do not teach
of God and of his laws? It must be remembered
that the revelations which God has seen fit to make
of himself in the past have been accepted as such
by very few of those to whom they were first given.
The Christ himself was rejected by the mass of those
who saw and heard him. It has taken centuries for
most of these revelations to gain recognition as divine.

For myself, I am compelled to believe that during
these centuries words have been uttered and ideas
developed which later generations will recognize
as a revelation from God himself. What, now,
is the nature of this revelation which has not yet
been clearly discerned? and toward what does it
point? In Christ the Son we are accustomed to
say, and we believe, that God the Father revealed
himself. But it is also true that in him for the first
time ideal man and ideal humxanity were revealed;
and the discovery that such a revelation was given
is only gradually coming to us in these last centuries
of Christian progress.

The social rights, which aforetime had been
limited to a few lords and vassals joined in solemn
compact, were acquired by the great non-feudal
classes only at the breaking up of feudalism. It
was through the great political revolutions of Eng-
lish history that humanity learned that political
rights were not the grants of a sovereign in a charter,
as under the Norman kings, but the God-given

AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD 177

possession of the people themselves to be admin-
istered according to the will of the people. It was
in the Reformation that humanity began to appre-
ciate the true conception of religion as something
not to be mediated to men by other men of special
sanctity or authority, or by an institution of peculiar
divine appointment, but rather as the appropriate
prerogative of every individual.

I need not give further illustration. My point
is this : The contribution of these nineteen centuries
— in other words, the contribution of Christianit}^ —
has not been simply a better, truer knowledge of
God. Men knew very much about God before
Christ came. It has been a better, truer knowledge
of man himself, of whom men knew next to nothing
at the dawn of the present era. The powers and
rights which had supposedly belonged to classes
are now known to belong to individuals as such.
Every idea of individual right, as distinguished from
the privileges of caste or class or guild, has been
worked out into definite expression since the birth
of Christ.

This idea of individualism, of the paramount
dignity of the individual, has expressed itself, more
clearly and more specifically, in every advance of
civihzation. In the increasing effort to control the
powers of nature every man today is, potentially, a
thinker, a scientist; for to no man is there denied
the privilege of securing such control ; in the effort to

178 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

make provision for the conflicting claims of persons
with similar interests every man is, potentially, a
producer, an economist; in the effort on the part
of a constantly increasing number of persons to
secure the full enjoyment of the highest life every
man is, potentially, a co-operator, a citizen; in the
effort to secure the highest privilege, that of freedom
of opinion on. religious subjects, every man is, poten-
tially, a worshiper, a priest. Within the bounds
of the various fields, every man has come to be
recognized as by nature endowed with the power
of a freeman. This is the teaching of nineteen
centuries of Christian civilization; in other words,
of Christianity.

But, now, these ideas have been demonstrated
only "piecemeal, and incoherently, in separated
times and places." However clearly they may
have been taught in the new Testament, they have
not yet received their perfect demonstration in human
history. The question of individualism as a whole
is still on trial; the real test of Christianity's success
is still in the future. She cannot be said to have
achieved final success until her founder Jesus Christ
has been everywhere recognized. The arena in
which the great trial shall be conducted is America.
The old countries, with their traditions and institu-
tions which obstruct their performance of full human
functions by the masses, cannot work out the prob-
lems which confront us.

AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD 179

The history of the church during these centuries
is sufficient evidence of this proposition. Here
in this great country, provided by God himself
vi^ith all the facilities needed, preserved in large
measure by God himself from the burdens and
trammels of dead institutions and deadly traditions,
the consummation of Christian life and thought
will be realized. This is the message written on
every page of our nineteen centuries of history. It
is a wonderful and significant message.

Is its meaning appreciated? God is in the
world as of old. He may move slowly in further
revelations of himself; yet when the days are placed
together, each will be found to have furnished some
such revelation. And the days that are coming
will surpass any that have gone; except that one
day which saw God take the form of man, the day
which saw him live as man, and die as man, and
rise again as God. And of all that is coming,
America, broadly speaking, will be the scene of
action.

We remember that in Babylonia the masses were
only beasts in their filth; and we realize how much
more rapid the advance of true thought and life would
have been had the highest ideals permeated that
empire. We remember that Syria, and even Jeru-
salem, were rotten with the putrefactions of debauch-
ery and sin; and we can see that the battle waged
for centuries between the prophets and the people

i8o RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

would have brought much sooner the long-expected
Messiah, but for the fact that the time was not yet
come, the world was not yet ready.

Today we see the vileness of life even in Christian
England, and among her children in every section
of the world ; and we wonder how, with such vileness
at home, progress in heathen lands can be expected.
We need only to look at our own country to see how
burdened it is with vice and crime, with skepticism
and indifference. If, now, our faith is sure that
there has been committed to us this great mission,
shall we not purify ourselves ? Shall we not organize
ourselves as a nation for the work that lies ahead ?

Purification and organization, that is Christian-
ization. But the Christianity of the future will be
something different from that of the past. When
one thinks of the battles fought, the men and women
slain, the prisons filled, the crimes committed, the
closing of the door to efforts for progress, and the
closing of the ear to cries for help — all in the name
of Christianity — one may well be excused for sus-
pecting that, after all, not Christ but Satan has been
at God's right hand. How did this all come to be ?
Simply because of ignorance. The new Christianity
will have no room for ignorance. Education will
be its watchword. The ideal purification is a puri-
fication from vice and immorality, from sin of every
kind and from impurity; but it is more — it is a
purification (I use the word advisedly) from ignor-

AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD i8i

ance and prejudice, from narrowness of every kind,
and from intellectual dishonesty. What is needed ?
The gospel and education. The gospel, as it is
commonly understood (again I speak advisedly) is
not sufficient. It will free men from vice and
impurity; but, when thus freed, the converts would
better be permitted to die, unless they are provided
with an education which will free them from narrow-
ness and prejudice and dishonesty. But, happily
for humanity, the gospel has in itself, if only it be
permitted to exercise them, the elements which incite
to education; and, in the future, education will con-
stitute a larger part of the work of evangelization
than in the past, both at home and abroad.

The call to mission work in America is a call
from heaven. Can this be doubted by anyone who
reads the pages of history and is familiar with the
achievements of the last half-century ? It includes
a call to educate the Indian — poor outcast, for whose
extinction even Christendom itself has, by its attitude,
petitioned heaven. It is a call to the education of
the negro, anticipating thus by thousands of years
what by natural development would have been the
career of a downtrodden race.

It is a call to work out the problems of the city — •
problems appreciated many centuries ago, when the
sacred writer described the building of the first city,
and connected with it all the woes and wickedness
of advancing civilization; problems avoided by the

1 82 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

Rechabites of old, whose ancestor forbade residence
in cities because of the attendant temptation and
wrong-doing; problems which today appall the
stoutest heart. It is a call to take in hand and
organize that element which has not yet become a
true part of our American civilization, and which,
if Christianized and guided, will, by the intermixture
of blood, make America just what Palestine was;
which, however, if left to itself and its anarchistic
sociaHsm, will bring down speedy ruin on our heads,
and plunge us into grief more bitter even than that
with which civil war overwhelmed us.

It is a call to evangelize this great West of ours —
a land so boundless and so full of possibilities as to
make even reasonable calculation seem like visionary
dreaming. It is a call to establish here at home the
foundations for the evangelization of the world; for
if the world is to be evangelized, America must do
it ; and if America is to do the work of evangelizing
the world, she must first Christianize, that is, purify
and educate herself. America is the world's great
mission field, because of what she is, and because
of what she is to be. It is a call to train the boys
and girls in all our churches; for has not history
shown that he who is to lead must be trained ? If
as Christians, we are to make progress, we must have
our own leaders — leaders whom we ourselves have
trained. It is a call to equip all our academies and
colleges and theological seminaries, and to see to it

AMERICA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD 183

that the instruction given in these institutions bears
upon its face the mark of truth; has its roots in the
established principles of the faith.

America, then, is to be the leader of the world's
influence and thought during the next twenty cen-
turies, just as Babylonia, Syria, and England, each
in turn, has been leader during the past centuries.

But, more than this, she is to be the arena of an
intellectual, social, and spiritual conflict, in which
Christianity must vindicate itself against all opposing
forces — a conflict more serious than any which has
yet been waged. No man or woman in our num-
ber doubts for a moment the ultimate triumph of
our Christianity; but, in order that the triumph
may be decisive, in order that the agony of the strug-
gle may not be too greatly prolonged, let us use
foresight and farsight. Let us purge our ranks,
putting aside everything that will not be of service
in the conflict. Let us organize our forces, strength-
ening at every point the places of vantage-ground.
Christianity's contribution to the world is a single
thing, and a simple thing : to teach the meaning of
love ; for this includes God and humanity, each in its
relation to the other. The message has been received,
but the lesson has not been learned. Mankind still
lingers in the kindergarten. The lesson, though in
itself single and simple, is very complicated in its
appHcations. The Great Teacher is patient ; no one
knows better than himself the importance of funda-

1 84 RELIGION AND THE HIGHER LIFE

mental training. Centuries will pass; and gradually
humanity will come to recognize the significance of
love; gradually Jesus the Christ will come to reign
in the hearts of men. In this work of educating
humanity to understand God and itself, America is
the training-school for teachers.

Seminary-Speer Library

1 1012 01091 8003

Date Due

? » « ■• •

1

M/pr^,

JA22'53

„g)ir^'

f

/ rr