The secret of successful life

THE SECRET OF
SUCCESSFUL LIFE

WILLIAM W. Mc LANE

LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

APR 11 1918

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THE SECRET OF
SUCCESSFUL LIFE

WILLIAM W. McLANE, D. D., Ph.D.

Author of ''Evolution in Religion/' etc.

ARTIetV6RITAntt1

BOSTON

THE GORHAM PRESS

MCMXVIII

APR II ]

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Copyright, 1918, by Richard G. Badger

All Rights Reserved

MADE IN THE UNITEH) STATES OF AMERICA

The GpRHAM PRE9S, Boston, U. S. A.

PREFACE

'Tp HE science of life is the supreme science. The
art of living is the finest of fine arts. One who
knows what is essentially good, and gains it, and
who knows also what is of permanent value, and ac-
quires it, possesses that science, and practices the art
of living.

Men wish success in life. Men seek such things
as gratify desire, save from suffering, and give a
sense of security and the joy of possessing power.

One who studies himself must know that his real
life, his pleasure and his power alike, consists in
feeling, affection, thought, desire, choice, and power
of action. What adds to these, increases life ; what
lessens these, destroys life.

Whatever will make a man normal in feeling,
sweet in spirit, pure in affection, clean in imagina-
tion, vigorous in thought, wise in choice, calm in
contentions, serene in storms, brave in danger, pa-
tient under provocation, resolute in disappointment,
constant in purpose, and hopeful of the future, is of
extreme value in the promotion of life.

"Know thyself" is an old Greek proverb. One
may well begin to learn the way of life by a study
of himself. Man should heed his deepest hunger.
He should give hospitality to his highest desire. He
should accept and cultivate his most intimate and
enduring relations.

Man is a soul. He has a body. He exists in re-
lationship. He lives in a state whose laws are bio-

4 Preface

logical and must be interpreted by the action of
vital laws.

Fifty years ago, an eminent teacher of theolog}^
was accustomed to give as the method of study this
formula: "Is there a God? Has God spoken?
What has God said ?" A more modern and a more
scientific method of procedure would follow this
method of inquiry: "Is there a man? Has man
spoken — and spoken out of his heart? Has an an-
swer come to man from the heart of God?"

Therefore, in the following pages, the reader is
directed to the study of man himself, to those evi-
dent laws under which man lives, to the cry of the
human heart, and to the answer which has come and
still comes to that cry.

Human life viewed in various aspects is a pang,
a prayer, a promise, and a prophecy.

W. W. M.

Leoniinstei', Mass.,
January, 1918.

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I Hunger 9

II Bread 24

III Growth 39

IV Man's Place in Nature 58

V Cooperation 79

VI The Incarnation 94

VII The New Birth 117

VIII Love as an Atmosphere 137

IX Faith 151

X Obedience 169

XI Neglect 186

XII Eternal Life 202

THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL LIFE

The
Secret of Successful Life

CHAPTER I

Hunger

A STONE never hungers. A stone never grows.
"^Hunger belongs to life. The quality of hunger
is an index of the grade of life.

In the city of Naples, on the shore of the beauti-
ful bay, is an excellent aquarium. One day, in this
aquarium, standing by a glass tank, I saw in the wa-
ter what looked like fine sea-weed with stem, branch
and frond. As I looked with admiration on this
beautiful form, I saw one slender branch and then
another, touched by no breath of air or wavelet of
water, shoot out slowly like an arm, close like
a hand, and then draw back again having grasped
something which was invisible to me. I knew by
that one action that the object on which I looked
was not a plant but an animal. That one act re-
vealed a certain dim consciousness and automatic
power, lifted the seeming plant out of the kingdom
of vegetable life into the kingdom of animal life and
showed to me its kinship with birds and beasts and
even with myself. I had found a remote and lowly
cousin.

On the shore of the sea at low tide, one may see

what look like acorns or brown buds clinging to the

rock. When the tide comes in bringing delicate

jelly fish and atoms of animal substance, these brown

9

lO The Secret of Successful Life

buds open, like the petals of a flower, and throw out
tentacles which grasp minute portions of animal sub-
stance and enclose them, giving evidence thereby
that they feed on organic matter, as animals feed,
and not on inorganic matter, as plants feed. The
food which these anemones crave and eat, indicates
the grade of their life.

Naturalists say that the first expression and indi-
cation of animal life is irritability or sensitiveness to
impressions, as a hand is sensitive to a substance
which may be touched, or as an eye is sensitive to
sunlight. One may also say that the first distinct
consciousness of animal life is hunger and that the
first volitional act of animal life is search for food.
That old woman who lying on her death-bed was
asked by her pastor what she had enjoyed most in
life, and who promptly replied, "My vittles," ex-
pressed the basal desire and the primal satisfaction
of every animal. Had this woman risen higher dur-
ing her long years of life, she might have stated
something other than "vittles" as giving most satis-
faction; but, in any event, it would have been the
gratification of some hunger. Hunger is the first
and the most imperative appetite of every body.
Hunger is the first and most permanent passion of
every mind. The gratification of hunger by ap-
propriate food is the condition of bodily growth and
of mental development. It is likewise the condition
of individual satisfaction.

If the plant-like animal which I saw in the aquar-
ium had failed to find food, it would have drooped
and died. It might have been surrounded by min-

Hunger 1 1

eral substances on which plants feed, but its inherent
incapacity to convert mineral substance into living
tissue, and its inability to find its own kind of food,
would have doomed it to speedy death.

Every living creature must find the kind and the
quality of food upon which its own nature may feed
and be satisfied if it attains perfection and even if
it continues to live.

Protozoa which multiply by gemination or divis-
ion, hunger simply for food; with food supplied
each protozoan reaches the limit of its possibilities.
But in all higher forms of animal life, the sexual
nature desires association and correspondence with
the opposite sex. It should be noted, also, that there
is a hunger whose source is not in the body but in
the soul, which craves not physical food but spiritual
communion, which expresses itself in the longing of
love and which is satisfied only by being loved.

In the animal kingdom below man, hunger seems
limited, mainly, to those desires which bear relation
to the preservation of the individual and to the per-
petuation of the species. I say, mainly, because
there is some love of beauty and of music to be found
below the grade of mankind.

Man, however, for whom many definitions have
been given, may be described as a hunger — growing,
vast, well-nigh insatiable. Hunger is the spring of
the manifold activities of man. Labor is performed
and endured in the hope that some hunger may be
satisfied by labor's product. Some may think that
men labor to give outlet and expression to an inher-
ent energy, but until men have acquired a habit of

The Secret of Successful Life

work, little work is done save in hope that there
will be a reward in some personal satisfaction. Few
persons enjoy solitaire. The zest of play increases
in games where there is a possibility of victory, with
its accompaniment of praise. Men toil for bread,
for shelter, for the comfort of pleasant surroundings,
for the gratification of esthetic tastes and for the
means of securing and preserving love. The lust of
possession, of place, and of power, has incited men
to adventure and to war.

What a history of labor, warfare, government,
art, literature, and religion may be read by the
traveler in the ruins, the monuments, the buildings,
and the present products of men around the Medi-
terranean sea. Men have invented instruments of
labor; they have fashioned weapons of warfare;
they have marched in phalanxes; they have fought
battles for possession of lands; they have contended
for praise of men; they have woven garments of
beauty; they have built palaces of splendor; they
have carved statues to delight the eye; they have
sung songs to charm the ear; they have written
essays and have printed books that the mind might
be fed both with fiction and with truth; they have
built altars and temples ; they have ordained priests ;
they have offered sacrifices and conducted religious
rituals that the troubled conscience might have peace
and the struggling soul might have rest. All these
manifold forms of production on the part of an
inventive, active, and aggressive civilization have
been for the purpose of feeding the hunger of the
body and of slaking the thirst of the soul. They

Hunger 13

have been wrought in order that the life of which
hunger is the cry might be complete.

Sometimes labor has been misdirected ; sometimes
labor has been expended for that which is not bread ;
sometimes men have spent their gains for that which
has not satisfied ; but the desires have been most
natural and the effort has been most significant. He
would be a singular and an unscientific man who
should affirm that any hunger has no true signifi-
cance and that what satisfies hunger may be a lie.
Hunger is fundamentally a cry for what is good ;
and that which really satisfies it is bread.

Deep in the heart of humanity is a hunger, per-
manent and persistent, which no material bread,
no physical love, and no human ministry can satisfy.
This is a hunger for God. It is a longing for the
presence, the help, and the approval of the living
and loving God. There may be individual men who
have not felt this hunger or who, more likely, hav-
ing felt, have not understood what it meant and
what it asked. All men, however, feel dependence,
weakness, and need. Some men, like a hungry child
grasping greedily and finding that which is not
bread, are vainly trying to satisfy themselves on
material things and to renew their strength from
physical sources, only to find at last that they are
not satisfied, and sometimes to find that what they
have eaten is not bread but poison.

The witness of generations is better and more
trustworthy than the opinion of individual men.
That which belongs to men, as men, apart from
learning, culture, and philosophical reasonings, is

14 The Secret of Successful Life

most true. The native instincts of the heart and
soul are genuine and seek after reality. Men, as
men, feel their need of God. Out of desert places
where nomadic tribes wander, is the cry, "O that
I knew where I might find Him." Out of the for-
est where the hunter seeks his game, out of the sheep
fold where the shepherd watches his flock, out of
the tent where the soldier prepares himself for bat-
tle, comes the cry, "My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God." In the ancient, oriental Veda one
may read : "Thirst came upon the worshipper,
though he stood in the midst of the waters." Even
out of the waters, the thirsty lifted up his cry : "O
hear this my calling, Waruna, be gracious now ;
longing for help, I have called upon Thee." How
suggestive of deep spiritual truth is this language of
oriental people! Though men live in the midst of
waters, yet there is thirst. They are like sailors
sailing or shipwrecked in a great ocean with water
all about them, still thirsting because that water
cannot slake thirst nor sustain life, still crying out
for the fresh water which the clouds of heaven may
give that they may drink and live.

This en- of mankind does not cease. Whether it
is expressed in a sigh or in a song, by sacrifice or by
prayer, it is uttered in every land, it is heard in
every language, it is repeated in every age.

Dr. Eastman narrating the ways of his people, the
American Indians, says: At dawn an Indian will
take his stand alone on the prairie or on a hilltop and
silently, adoringly, trustfully lifting his face towards
the sunrise, will seek the blessing of the invisible

Hung €7- 15

Spirit of life.

On Huntington Avenue, Boston, in front of the
Museum of Fine Arts, is a bronze statue of an
Indian sitting on a barebacked horse, motionless, si-
lent, with uplifted face craving communion with
God. This statue in such a place is suggestive of
the fact that to the modern man whose product is
the highest art, as to the primitive man whose frail
products soon pass away, light, inspiration, skill,
and power have their true source not in man himself,
but in the creative spirit whom we call God.

As we trace the history of nations recorded on
coins, in monuments, and in literature, we find
everywhere the symbols and the record of religion.
Images of deities abound ; granite temples are ex-
humed from the sands of Egypt; rude stone altars
were built on the rocky hills of Palestine ; the beau-
tiful ruin of the Parthenon crowns the acropolis of
Athens ; the Pantheon stands in the heart of Rome ;
stories of the worship of the Druids adorn the classic
page of Tacitus; the traditional mythology of the
Northmen awakens profound interest ; prayers,
hymns, and discussions of the deep things of the soul
are found in the literature of the farthest East.
Plutarch has said: "If we traverse the world, it is
possible to find cities without walls, without letters,
without kings, without wealth, without coin, with-
out schools, and without theatres; but a city with-
out a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayers,
and the like, no one ever saw."

Writers on the customs of primitive men tell us
that though such men are likely to be reticent on

1 6 The Secret of Successful Life

the subject of religion and their manner of devotion,
yet they have found no tribe without some sign or
emblem of worship. The signs may be crude, vague,
and even vain; but they are there. Modern trav-
elers would seek in vain for a land where there is
no church spire, no temple, no priesthood, and no
worship. All missionary propaganda would be an
utter failure were there nothing in the mind and
the heart of the men approached to respond to what
the missionaries teach.

All the most important events among civilized na-
tions are sanctified by religious ceremonies. Mar-
riage, birth followed by circumcision or christening,
the burial of the dead, the ritual of secret societies,
the inauguration of governors and presidents, the
coronation of kings and emperors, the opening of
parliaments and international conventions, are hal-
lowed by religious rites. Any custom which per-
sistently abides among men has some reality as its
basis and the continuance of any custom is evidence
of its value to men.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts in
New York City is a room devoted to the collec-
tion of musical instruments. These instruments are
of all sorts and from many lands. There are rude
horns, hollow reeds, wind instruments of great va-
riety, stringed instruments with two or more strings,
harpsichords, old pianos and drums. A man who
has heard the best of pianos played by Paderewski,
the finest of violins played by Kreisler, and who has
listened to the singing of Caruso, may find no mu-
sic in the blast of a ram's horn, in the shrill notes

Hunger 17

of a rude flute, or in the reverbations of a drum;
nevertheless, these rude instruments are symbols of
a musical nature and a visible evidence of the real-
ity of music and of its value to men. In like man-
ner, the altars, temples, and ceremonies of religion,
however crude they may be, are mute witnesses to
the religious nature of mankind.

A man of unbroken health, of great physical ener-
gy, of constant application to material business, and
of constant success therein, possibly may feel that
religion has no place in his life and that his nature
has no need of God. I say "possibly," for I do not
know that there is such a man. I never have met
him. But, if there is such a man, his unawakened
religious nature would be no more a proof of the
unreality of religion than the lack of ear and of
musical sensibility on the part of one man would dis-
prove music as a feeling and as an art; or than
colo^- blindness in one person would prove the ab-
sence of color in the universe. A friend of one of
the greatest singers, a prima donna of the last cen-
tury, said: "I never have perceived in A — the
least interest in the higher problems of mankind —
in science, politics, religion, not even in belles let-
tres/' But the absence of interest in these things
on the part of one woman highly gifted in one art,
did not remove them from human life, or lessen
their vital interest to multitudes of men.

Coins are an evidence of commerce; musical in-
struments are symbols of the musical nature of men ;
marriage is a witness of man's need of communion
with his kind in the mingltng of love and life; re-

1 8 The Secret of Successful Life

ligious ceremonies are outward and visible signs of
an inward craving on the part of man for fellowship
with God. Eucken in his work on The Problem of
Humanity has said : "Life assumes the character
of a yearning that soars above everything the world
has to offer." A modern philosopher has said:
"Not to feel evils is the greatest of all evils."

The worst lack which any man could have, would
be to have no hunger. Everywhere, hunger is the
primal condition, the sine qua non both of knowl-
edge and of growth. The new-born babe instictive-
ly seeks the mother's breast and through that breast
finds the mother to be the fountain of life, the
shelter of love, the heart of comfort, the soul of
sympathy, and the source of strength through needy
years. Beginning with physical hunger and mate-
rial supply, a babe growing to manhood learns to
know the mother's heart and soul through the rich
supplies of her love. A man coming to the period
of adolescence finds it not good to be alone. He
hungers for the love of a mate. He finds in mutual
love which issues in marriage, one of the chief con-
summations of human relationship.

Now, hunger for God, a hunger which craves for-
giveness when there is consciousness of sin, favor
when there is need of friendship, strength when
there is weakness, comfort when there is sorrow,
and hope of life when the shadow of death falls, is
the one great, growing hunger in the heart of man
which no bread springing from earth can satisfy and
which no ministry proceeding from human hearts
can meet.

Hunger 19

John Fiske in his work, Through Nature to God,
has said: "Of all the implications of the doctrine
of evolution with regard to man, I believe the very
deepest and strongest to be that which asserts the
everlasting reality of religion." Professor Carpen-
ter in his work on Mental Philosophy has said :
"The only sound basis for religion consists in man's
own religious consciousness; since it is impossible
that any revelation should make a man religious
whose inner nature does not respond to its teachings,
as that any instruction should make a man a mu-
sician, who has not a musical ear." Saint Augus-
tine uttered a great truth when in addressing God
he said: "Thou madest us for Thyself and the
heart is restless till it rests in Thee." It is true
that even in the pursuit of religion, men may spend
their money for that which is not bread and their
labor for that which does not satisfy ; but the pursuit
evinces the hunger, and the labor shows the will-
ingness of men to make effort to find the bread of
life. In the thought of men altars are a way of
approach unto God, sacrifices are means of securing
divine favor, priests are agents for intercession, pray-
ers have power to bring divine help. Where un-
worthy means of approach to God are used, or
where worthy means are used m a mistaken mode,
nevertheless, they attest man's conscious need of
God. Failure in the means or in the method
of approaching God, may suggest the necessity of
a revelation and a gift of grace from God to man
in order that there may be true knowledge, pure
worship, and eternal life.

20 The Secret of Successful Life

No man will know himself aright or gain real
success in life unless he gives heed to his hunger. A
superficial hunger, which is some craving of the
flesh, never should be permitted to suppress the deep-
er hunger, which is a craving of the spirit. The
hunger for bread which comes from earth never
should be permitted to become so imperative as to
make one forget the hunger for bread which comes
from heaven. It is natural for a babe to hunger first
for the milk which flows from a mother's breast ; but
it would be pitiful and painful, if in all the years of
life a child never should hunger for the love which
flows from a mother's heart. That child would be
abnormal, incomplete, and unworthy who never
should know, or trust, or be grateful for a mother's
love. It is natural for a man to seek that bread
which will satisfy any physical or mental hunger;
but that man is abnormal, incomplete, and unworthy
who never feels, or trusts, or praises, the love of
God.

It takes air as well as water, sunshine as well as
soil, heaven as well as earth, to produce a flower
with fine form, vivid color, and sweet fragrance. In
like manner, it takes not only earth and men but
the light of truth, the warmth of love, and com-
munion of the Spirit of God to make and perfect
a man.

You will do irrevocable injustice to yourself and
you will insure failure instead of success in life, if
you do not heed the craving of your heart, give place
to conscience, and obey those impulses which prompt
you to seek communion with the living God. Many

Hunger 21

fail not by the choice, at first, of things which are
wicked and worthless, but by putting things good
in themselves and in their place before things which
are better and which are essential to a complete
character. By the choice of something good in itself
but not the highest good, men lose the best. Many
persons, for the sake of something which they wish
very much at the time, somether the cry of the heart,
silence the voice of conscience, grieve the Spirit of
God, and fail of eternal life. This is just what
Jesus saw and against which he warned men. Jesus
bade men heed the deeper things of their own nature
and put the higher things of life first. He charged
men not to make material good a matter of first im-
portance. He warned them against the danger of
keeping the thought fixed on things to eat and to
wear. He called them to seek first the kingdom
of heaven. He urged them to love and to do good.
He commanded them to trust God. He assured
them that the things needed for the lower life would
be given them. He said that the higher life is of such
value to the world and of such worth in the sight
of God that, as the lilies are clothed in beauty and
the birds are bountifully fed, all needed supplies
are given to God's spiritual children.

Men err by reversing the order of Jesus. Men
place the demand for bread for the body first and
bid the soul wait till a later time. The result is
that, as an appetite may be lost — an appetite for
bread, an appetite for music, an appetite for love —
so the hunger and the desire for God may die. This
is lamentable.

22 The Secret of Successful Life

A moment's thought will convince you that man
is a dependent creature. He is unable to live with-
out air, unable to expand in thought without the
touch of other minds, unable to become complete
without love.

The life of a man absolutely depends on some
power greater than himself and greater than his
fellow men. And where should the creature of a
day rest rather than upon the Eternal? Where
should the weak seek and find strength rather than
in the Strong? Where should the imperfect look
for completion rather than to the Source of perfec-
tion? Where should he whose life so easily fails
turn for immortality rather than to Him whose life
is self-existent and everlasting?

And where else should God who is a spirit in
essence and love in quality, deign to dwell rather
than in the human heart? If God is in the universe
creating, keeping, clothing, and beautifying things
inanimate, things without intelligence, without con-
science, without love which can never know Him
and never love Him, how much more should He
dwell lovingly and graciously with human souls
which feel their need of Him and which give Him
love and praise? "Neither stars, nor sea, nor smil-
ing nature hold God so intimately as the bosom of
the soul." In the soul itself, a sense of dependence,
of emptiness, of yearning for approval, of longing
for favor and love may grow into a great hunger
which voices itself in the language of the psalmist:
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so
panteth my soul after Thee, O God." The testi-

Hunger 23

mony of those who have thus cried, in all ages, is to
the effect that God hears the cry of the hungry,
answers the need of the distressed, impresses the kiss
of forgiveness upon the contrite, and renews the
strength of the soul which waits on Him.

The witness of all past generations agrees in the
instruction given to the men of each succeeding gen-
eration. 'Tut thou thy trust in the Lord, and be
doing good; leave off from wrath, and let go dis-
pleasure, else shalt thou be moved to do evil. Com-
mit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in
Him. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as
the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday."

Jesus teaches that hunger is the condition of sat-
isfaction; that humility is the condition of exalta-
tion; that poverty is the condition of possessing
wealth. Let, then, a sense of sin impel you to seek
forgiveness; let a sense of weakness lead you to the
source of strength; let sorrow find a fountain of
comfort; let fear of death lead you to Him who
gives eternal life. Any condition or circumstance in
-life which awakens a longing for the knowledge of
God and for communion with Him is a blessing.
The history of mankind, personal experience, and
the deep sense of need in the heart itself, all assert
man's dependence upon God unto whom man's de-
sire should flow. Therefore, in making an inven-
tory of your assets, do not fail to include your
hunger. That of all things may prove the condition
of a perfect life. Jesus has said: ''Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they
shall be filled."

CHAPTER II

Bread

A FEW years since, in the city of New York, on
"^^One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Street, in a
hall used for an exhibit of the effects of tuberculosis
and the means of its prevention, was a sign with this
inscription: "You can live three weeks without
bread; you can live three days without water; you
can live three minutes without air." This sign was,
approximately, correct in its time measurements; it
was entirely correct in its truth. A man may live a
little longer without bread than without air; but
bread, as well as air, is essential to the continuance
of life.

Ben Akbar halted his camel in the desert whither
he had wandered apart from his caravan. He lifted
his eyes and, faint from hunger and thirst, looked
longingly over the billowy sands glowing like gold
in the level rays of the slowly sinking sun. The
strength of his camel was spent and Ben Akbar
knew that his own thirst would leave him prostrate
and dying before another day would close. He sur-
veyed the horizon, sweeping almost the entire cir-
cumference of the visible circle without seeing any
sign of life. He was ready to surrender himself to
certain death when, in the southeast, he saw dimly
against the sky, dark tufts which his keen eye knew
to be the crest of palm trees. Ben Akbar with a
glad heart urged his weary beast forward encour-
24

Bread 2$

aging him with a voice of hope. As the sun sank
and twilight deepened, he arrived at an oasis with
its fountain of water, its palms, and its fruit. Ben
Akbar dismounted from his kneeling camel, threw
himself prostrate in prayer, and then lifting his eyes
heavenward in gratitude exclaimed, "Allah, I thank
Thee." He had found the water and the bread
which would sustain life.

On the plains of Egypt, I have seen lines of veiled
women wending their way to streams fed from the
Nile to find water for their daily need. The trav-
eler in Palestine may see women leaving a village
and ascending a hill where there is a spring, or
descending into a valley where there is a well, to
draw water for household use.

One of the most pathetic sights in a great city
is a bread line of men out of work, standing at the
hour of midnight by a great bakery to receive the
loaf of bread offered each man in line. Many
things these men may do without. Bread they
must have, or die. Shelter may be of the slightest,
clothing may be of the poorest, and in some climates
these could be dispensed with altogether; but bread
men must have. Bread and water are necessaries.
They are the indispensable substances on the table
of the poor. They are the essence of every feast on
the table of the rich. The most sumptuous banquet
may be varied, beautifully decorated, highly colored,
and finely flavored ; but, in its base, it is just bread
and water.

There are other men athirst besides travelers who
like Ben Akbar thirst in a desert. There are other

26 The Secret of Successful Life

lines of needy women besides those who seek water in
Eg}Pt or Palestine. There are other lines of men
quite as impressive and as significant as the bread
line at midnight in a great cit}*.

The long lines of pilgrims to Benares, to Mecca,
and to Jerusalem; the lines of men and women
threading the streets to the cathedrals of Rome,
Milan, and Paris; the lines of worshippers filing
into churches in cities, towns, and villages on Sun-
day, are suggestive and significant. All these peo-
ple are seeking something. They are seeking some-
thing for the soul. It may be said that worshippers
frequently have beeen ignorant ; that they have been
superstitious ; that their conceptions of the Deit}'^
have been gross ; that the means they have used
to obtain a blessing have been fanciful and fictitious,
and all this may be granted ; but a conscious want
was there. They have sought after God. They
have sought ignorantly, if you please, but they have
sought after God. if haply they might find Him. The
ignorance and the darkness have been in them and
not in God. But surely it is want and the search
and the cr>' which God sees and knows and answers.
Doubtless many an ignorant worshipper whose soul
has felt its deep need, has been supplied with the
grace which has ministered to his life. Many a
man who knew not God intelligently will know,
ultimately, that in reality he had found Him. God
saw the need and heard the cr>' and answered. A
mother does not wait for clear intelligence, correct
language, and a courteous request before she will
answer the cry of her child. Though the child be

Bread 27

but an infant crying in the night, "and with no
language but a cry," yet the mother's ear will hear,
her heart will answer, and her hand will help. If
God should make clear knowledge, correct language,
and good form the conditions of answering the need
of such as seek Him, then, His love would be less
than a mother's.

Tehan, the Indian, speaking of his foster mother
whose breast had been his refuge, whose teepee had
been his home, and who had thrown her own garment
around his shivering body, when in the cold winter
their teepee had been burned and they had been
driven into the wild by cruel white men, said of his
hopes for her who worshipped the Great Mystery,
impelled thereto because she felt her dependence and
longed for help, "I cannot believe that the hunger
of the heart is made for famine, but rather that a
divine hand will stoop to satisfy."

If the vision of the seer of Patmos is true, if
tribes of every language worship around the throne
of God, then, thus far in the world's history, God
must have been hearing the cry, answering the
prayer, and supplying the need of all who in sincerity
have called upon Him. What are land, language,
form of expression, and intellectual conception even
in comparison with the inner spirit of craving and
of devotion, of faith and of hope. A psalmist has
said with exquisite truth: "The Lord is nigh unto
all them who call upon Him, to all that call upon
Him in truth." Surely this is in keeping with in-
finite love. Religion would not remain in the world
did it not bring relief to the troubled conscience

28 The Secret of Successful Life

and renewal of strength to the fainting heart.

Worshippers in Christian churches who continu-
ally seek to commune with God would be both ig-
norant and foolish if year after year and generation
after generation they continued a practice which
affords no benefit.

Men pursue nothing else which yields no pleas-
ure and no profit. Granted that education from
childhood, habit, and social concourse may have
some influence in maintaining churches these alone
would not suffice for their continuance. People do
not go to church for entertainment, they can find
that better elsewhere. They do not go for intellec-
tual gain; the intellect, now has many means of
gaining enjoyment and information. They do not
go for social pleasure, they can enjoy their friends
more elsewhere. The question often is asked, ''Why
do men not go to church?" The question had bet-
ter be asked, "Why do men go to church?" There
is no other institution in country, village, and city
which holds its place so continually and so firmly as
the Christian church. It is because the soul is
strengthened and the heart is fed that people attend
the services of the church. People who hunger
gather around a table and eat and know that their
strength is renewed. People who are disheartened
by adversity, hear the promise of some able person
to come to their relief, and discouragement passes
away and hope fills the heart. People who love mu-
sic frequent a concert and listen to music and their
souls are satisfied. In a like manner, people find
that the worship of God and the promises of his

Bi-ead 29

word revive faith, love, and hope in the heart, and
that waiting on the Lord, they renew their strength
and are satisfied. This experience is as real as any
other experience in life. Any man who thinks for a
moment knows well that faith, love, and hope are
the great inner motives of the soul. What lessens
them, makes a man weak; what strengthens them,
makes a man strong. The response which comes to
the man who waits upon God is a response which re-
news a man's strength.

The Christian Bible also answers to the need of
man. It is a book much of which needs an inter-
pretation; but it is a book whose revelation of di-
vine love is so plain, whose promises are so definite,
and whose precepts are so practical that it affords
comfort, hope, and guidance to every man who be-
lieves. The bible is not the same book to every
man. The bible of one man may be bound in Rus-
sian leather, with flexible back, gilt edges, and fair
pages as clean as when it came from the bindery. To
that man, the bible is ancient history and Jesus is a
tradition. The bible of another man may have a
broken back, thumbed pages, many pencil marks and
the blisters of tears. To that man the words of
the bible have been spirit and life. Through that
book, some soul has found the fountain of living
water, some heart has found the bread of life. The
bible, like a well-spread table, affords to every age
its appropriate food. From its pages, according to
the time of life and the need of the heart, youth,
manhood, and age find instruction and inspiration
and comfort.

30 The Secret of Successful Life

Jesus has said that he who drinks at an earthly
fountain will thirst again, but that he who partakes
of the living water will find it to be in himself a
continual source of refreshment and of power. They
who have tried it have found Jesus' words true.

We already have noticed that the lack of any
hunger or desire for certain things, such as music
or marriage, on the part of some persons does not
disprove the existence of that hunger in other per-
sons nor invalidate the reality of the source of its
gratification. What is common to men everywhere,
what is found among all races, what exists in all
conditions must be a reality, even though there may
be some individuals who know nothing of it. It
is more just to call such individuals abnormal than
to call the great mass of mankind abnormal. The
hunger of the soul for spiritual light, love, and
guidance, and the cry of the soul for God are
evinced by all sacred monuments, by all liturgies,
by all private devotions, and by the sacred scenes
and sayings of all literature.

Let it be noted that in the course of nature, there
is no hunger, beneath the hunger of the soul for
God, which does not find its appropriate bread.
There is food to fill every physical hunger, beauty
of form and color to delight and satisfy the eye,
music to charm the ear, truth to sustain the mind,
friendship to gratify craving for companionship,
domestic love to rest the heart. Some creatures may
be born without common desires or without the
organs to gratify those desires, or they may fail to
find what their nature craves, but these are excep-

Bread 31

tional creatures, defective or unfortunate. The
normal rule of nature is that every hunger finds its
food. Shall, then, the deepest hunger of man have
no corresponding bread? Shall the highest desire
of the human soul remain unsatisfied? That would
be a mockery of man so unspeakable and so disas-
trous that for its existence man never could forgive
nature or nature's Creator. God himself must an-
swer the hunger of the soul.

It is true that some persons want a God who
provides chiefly for the body. Some are yet in the
religious state of the primitive Israelites to whom
promises of food, rainment, and material prosperity
were of primal value. Some are babes in the life
of the spirit. Some are only children in the higher
life. But in the things of the spirit, as well as in
the things of the mind, the highest character must
be the best example of the true nature and the nor-
mal possibilities of man.

Jesus promises three things to men. They shall
know the Father; they shall be free; they shall
have power. They shall know God as the source of
the most perfect purity and the most permanent
peace. They shall be free from bondage to the lusts
of the flesh, the customs of worldly society, and the
domination of things. They shall have power to
overcome evil, to exercise self-control, to do the will
of God, and to gain greatness of character. The
annals of Christian history contain a catalogue of
a legion of men who have been set free from sen-
suality, like Augustine; from timidity, like Peter;
from self-righteousness, like Paul; from love of

32 The Secret of Successful Life

pleasure, like Francis of Assisi. The number who
have been exalted in affection, purpose, and power,
like Livingston, "Chinese" Gordon, William Booth,
and many more would make an army. Let me has-
ten to say that for every man who becomes distin-
guished and known as a Christian hero, there are
scores and thousands who in spirit find the same
experiences and attain equal greatness of character,
but whose position is such that their names are not
published. Their names, however, are written in
The Book of Life. It requires heaven as well as
earth, sky as well as soil, sunshine as well as mineral
substance, to produce and to perfect, physically, any
life in this world. It is most natural, therefore, that
it should require heaven as well as earth to perfect
a man, and that which makes a man complete, is
indeed bread.

Jesus gives a threefold description of bread for the
soul. In contrast with bread which springs from
earth, he calls it Bread from Heaven. In contrast
with every fair but false bread by which men try to
satisfy the soul, he calls it True Bread. In contrast
with every bread which leaves men to hunger again
and again, he calls it Living Bread and Bread of
Life.

The soul of man must live by life. Man needs
the light of a living personality to guide; he needs
the warmth of personal love to quicken and expand
his affections; he needs the comfort of personal com-
panionship to cheer and sustain ; he needs the per-
sonal inspiration of a divine presence and power to
make him perfect. All that men need is revealed,

Bread 33

manifested, and mediated to men in Jesus, the
Christ. He is the perfection of spiritual truth,
the fulness of love, the source of inspiration. He is
indeed the bread of life.

Jesus gives to men who believe in Him a vivid
conception of God's love and care, sweet submission
to God's will, cheerful obedience to God's laws, rest
in God's love, communion with God's strength,
abiding hope in the fulness and constancy of God's
goodness, and rich experience of God's grace. The
spiritual inspiration and fulness of life which Jesus
gives, keeps the moral intelligence clear, the con-
science keen, the will strong, love ardent, courage
constant, and hope bright. The man who is thus
fed, is made sufficient for the conditions and the
changes and the duties of life. In such a man faith,
hope, and love ever abide.

Jesus says: "If any man eat of this bread, he
shall live forever." Professor Drummond has said:
"One of the most startling achievements of recent
science is a definition of Eternal Life." Science
postulates eternal life as depending upon perfect
correspondence with an eternal environment. Sci-
ence, however, knows no way of obtaining such
correspondence. Science cannot give eternal life. Sci-
ence knows only those things which in themselves
are subject to change. Science may indeed suggest
the need of some eternal life with which man may
come into correspondence, but it has no means of
discovering or of revealing such a life. It is only
spirit which can know spirit, and spiritual things
must be spiritually discerned. Hence the necessity

34 The Secret of Successful Life

of man's consulting his own soul to know its needs
and trusting his soul's instincts to find some source
of supply for his needs. Jesus has given the com-
pletest answer to the hunger of man's heart. Jesus
reveals an eternal Spirit and shows the way of eter-
nal life. Jesus says: "This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee the true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou has sent." The knowledge of God is
used by Jesus in the Hebrew sense of the term. This
is knowledge based on personal experience derived
through communion. It is knowledge of the soul
rather than of the intellect, of the affections rather
than of the reason. But it is knowledge none the less
true. This knowledge to him who possesses it, is
eternal life.

All life in this world is conditioned both as to
its growth and as to its continuance. No form of
life will grow without food — without an influx of
that which sustains it. This is true of the body, of
the mind, and of the affections. The body must
eat to live ; the mind must find truth to be strong ;
the heart must dwell in love. Who could remain
loving if there were no person in all the universe to
love him? The continuance of any life depends
on its ability to keep in correspondence with that
which maintains it. A man in the course of time
loses his power to feed upon the things of earth.
Science and Scripture both affirm that visible and
tangible things are subject to change and will pass
aw^ay. The present form of the universe will pass.
If a man could continue in correspondence with it,
nevertheless, he would at last cease to be. Jesus has

Bread 35

said that a soul may be in such correspondence with
God who "hath immortality" that it may live for-
ever. Saint John, the interpreter of Jesus, has said :
"The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
That is to say, both the outward form of visible
things and the inward desire for them are transient
and must pass; but God abides and the desire for
Him uniting the soul to Him in holy communion
in love gives to man the condition of eternal life.

There is a quality of life belonging to the believer
in Christ which in its disposition, desires, and ex-
pression is superior to any form of life below it.
This life is called spiritual. It resembles a life of
morality, but greatly differs from it. A man may be
moral from selfishness; he can be spiritual only by
love. Eternal life differs from a merely moral life, as
love which is altruistic differs from love which is sel-
fish, as generosity differs from exchange, as devotion
differs from duty, and as the life of Jesus differed
from certain men of his time who trusted in them-
selves that they were righteous, and despised others.

The men who gathered about Jesus and became
his disciples may serve to illustrate the change which
comes to men in the reception of spiritual life. The
disciples when they first came to Jesus were good
men in the usual acceptance of goodness. But it
required a great change to bring them into such
companionship with Jesus as made them men of like
spirit to Him. At the first they believed in Jesus
as a deliverer from certain social and political con-
ditions rather than as a giver of spiritual life. They

36 The Secret of Successful Life

looked for his kingdom to come ; but it was to be a
kingdom of political power and dominance existing
for Israel and not for the world. They wished
for themselves places in that kingdom, but places
for their own honor. Selfishness rather than love
was dominant. They would keep children from the
presence of Jesus; they would silence the cry of
a troubled woman ; they would send hungry multi-
tudes away ; they would call down fire of vengeance
upon an offending village.

They prayed for the coming of the kingdom, but
a kingdom for themselves. These men, under the
tuition of Jesus, were greatly changed. They re-
ceived the words of Jesus and found them to be
spirit and life. They fed upon Jesus and found
Him to be living bread. They learned to love as
Jesus loved, condescendingly, generously, serviceably.
They received freely, they gave freely. They ob-
tained power, they used power beneficently. Their
patriotism expanded into philanthropy , Tines of racial
demarcation disappeared ; obligation to men was
measured by opportunity and power; they lived,
like the Master, to do good. They received the
spirit of Jesus and were uplifted, transformed, and
made children of the Highest. They lived in com-
munion with God ; they ministered to men in love ;
they rejoiced in the life eternal.

Christianity is not a higher morality, though it
gives higher standards of morality. Christianity is
a loftier faith and a purer love. Christianity is a
disposition, a desire, a purpose, a setting of the will,
an efflorescence of goodness, a rich fruitage of

Bread 37

righteousness. "The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance." Christianity is a quality of
soul which is beautiful in the sight of God.

There are conditions and experiences common to
saint and sinner alike as long as they are in the
world, but there are differences in the saint and the
sinner in relation to the things which are common
to both. Temptation comes to the saint as to the
sinner; but the saint gains a victory; to him temp-
tation is opportunity; he faces a stairway which
leads upward. Trouble comes to the saint as to
the sinner; but the saint has comfort; to him
trouble finds a center of inward peace. Sorrow
comes to the saint as to the sinner ; but the saint has
comfort; his sorrow is followed by joy. Victory,
peace, comfort, and joy are Christian experiences.

Strength of soul which comes by faith and which
expresses itself in love; strength which makes the
will firm and which keeps hope constant; strength
which comforts the heart and gives joy to the spirit
is as real an experience in human life as is strength
which comes to a hungry and thirsty man when he
drinks and is refreshed, and eats and is renewed.

All that any man needs in order to know the
reality of heavenly bread and the certainty of eternal
life is to partake of that bread and to lead that life.
The conscious life of any man is his real life. What
a man experiences, he knows. What a man has in him-
self, he possesses. We may say, now, with the same
assurance as men who wrote in the first Christian
century: "We know whom we have believed. We

38 The Secret of Successful Life

know that we have passed from death unto life. We
know that we are children of God. We know God
and knowing Him we know that we have eternal
life."

CHAPTER III

Growth

npHE frost-ferns on my dining room windows
'*• formed as by fairy fingers on a cold night, rival
in beauty the flowers on my table; but they lack
color and fragrance, and are soon gone.

The frost-ferns on a window pane of a winter
morning are formed of small particles of water de-
posited upon the glass and frozen together. The
ferns in a forest are formed of particles of mineral
substance which have been changed by a vital force
into living tissue and woven together from within.
The former increase by accretion; the latter, by
growth. The former is inorganic, the latter is or-
ganic. The substance of the former is held in place
by adhesion and will dissolve at the touch of the sun.
The substance of the latter is pervaded by a myste-
rious force called life and must die before it can
be dissolved. The former may be formed in a night
and dissolved in a day. The latter is the result of
a long process of growth, and will endure so long
as the vital force endures. The element of time
and of transformation both belong to a living entity.
No living thing is perfect in its inception. Perfec-
tion is the result of a process of growth.

Teachers of religious truth have been singularly

blind to this scientific fact. They have taught that

man was created originally perfect. They have also

taught that a renewed man might suddenly become

39

40 The Secret of Successful Life

perfect. The Westminster Confession of Faith
states the theological opinion which was long cur-
rent in respect of man in these words: "After God
made all other creatures, he created man, male and
female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued
with knowledge, righteousness and true holiness, af-
ter his own image." And of the renewed man, the
Shorter Catechism says: ''The souls of believers
are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do
immediately pass into glory."

A man of scientific turn of mind accustomed not
to lay down preconceived propositions but to look
candidly for facts which present themselves to the
mind might ask, "How can a creature be created
complete in knowledge which is an acquire-
ment, or perfect in holiness which is an
achievement?" He might also ask, "How
can a soul become perfect in holiness by vir-
tue of the fact of death, which is the separation of
the soul from the body, even though that soul passes
into glory?"

Until recently, teachers of religion, like teachers
of philosophy and of literature, were not scientific.
Their method was not inductive. They laid down
propositions based often on literal statements of the
scriptures and then sought to maintain them against
all disputants. They did not compare carefully
either the statements of the scriptures or their own
statements with the facts of nature and of life and
so they misunderstood God and misinterpreted man.

This habit of mind may be illustrated by the fol-
lowing incident. In looking through a theological

Growth 41

library at one time, I found an old book containing
this statement: "When God created trees, they
were perfect and crowned with ripe fruit ; for God
would not make any incomplete thing."

This statement of a private individual may serve
to illustrate the difference between the ancient me-
chanical theory and the modern vital theory of cre-
ation. God is continually making trees before the
eyes of men, but God never makes a tree in the man-
ner described by this author. The trunk and branch
and blossom and fruit of a tree are all the result of
growth. What God does is this. He infuses a
force which we call life into an atom of matter, and
the growth of a tree is the result. But to our
author, this was not a matter of any moment. Like
theologians of a past period, commonly, the author
started with a certain conception of God and with
an assumed principle of his action and with these
mental concepts he constructed a system of creation,
a process of history, and a doctrine of final things. A
perfect man as the head of the human race was a
part of this system. A moral disaster on the part
of this man involving the character and moral
standing of all, men was one chief fact of human
history. This fact made necessary the gracious re-
lation of God to men which is revealed in the gospel
and made possible the salvation which men thereby
attain.

But man, as we know him, starts life in infancy,
a creature undeveloped and incomplete in body,
mind, and character. However the first man may
have come to be, to the scientific mind, he must

42 The Secret of Successful Life

have begun life in mental infancy and in moral
childhood. Knowledge is the result of learning.
Moral character is the result of choice and achieve-
ment. Sinlessness on the part of a first man, even
though he be the head of a race, would not mean
holiness. Sinlessness is negative. Holiness is pos-
itive. Holiness is the result of temptation resisted,
good chosen, and righteousness attained. A first
man, as much as any of his descendants, if he is to
possess the heavenly life, must have the illumination
of heavenly light, the quickening warmth of heav-
enly love, and the inpiring power of the heavenly
Spirit. Jesus has said: "Except a man — [not a
bad man only, but a man] — be born from above, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."

Whatever might take place in a hypothetical
world, in the world as we know it, perfection of
any kind comes through growth. Man is no excep-
tion to this rule. Man differes from creatures be-
low him only in the potencies of his nature and the
possibilities of his character.

The growth of man is conditioned upon hunger,
made possible by bread, and accomplished by accept-
ing bread and by assimilating it. Bread is absolutely
essential to growth. Trees grow by absorbing
chemical substances, by transforming them, by assim-
ilating them, and by adding cell to cell until trunk,
branch, and leaf are complete. An animal body
grows in a similar way. Bread is absorbed, trans-
muted into blood, assimilated, added to the cellular
substances of the body and converted into tissue
of muscle and nerve until the body attains its full

Growth 43

physical perfection.

Mental growth is similar. A body in a vacuum
would die. A mind isolated and kept apart from all
things with which a mind may hold commerce and
communion, would never grow. We scarcely can
conceive of its continuance. But as the mind stim-
ulated by its inherent hunger, puts forth effort and
through the eye sees and through the hand feels
material things, and remembers their form and
quality, it gains in power of seeing, feeling, and
knowing things. As a mind responds to other minds
which appeal to it, as a mother's glance and smile
and voice appeal to a baby, the mind grows. The
vision becomes more clear, discernment more keen,
grasp more firm, judgment more accurate, memory
more retentive, reason more subtle, and the power
of the will more absolute and constant. All methods
of education from the nursery to the kindergarten,
from the public school to the university prove this
truth.

A mind with little hunger and with little spon-
taneous action never will become a great mind.
Why? Because it is too feeble to feed, therefore it
cannot grow. A great mi^nd follows growth.

As it is with the mind, so it is also with the moral
nature. Deeper and more important than the intel-
lectual preception and comprehension of things is
the feeling which is entertained in respect of relation
to persons. A sense of the presence, a consciousness
of the individuality, and a regard for the rights of
other persons are both a cause and a consequence of
social converse with other persons. Even language

44 The Secret of Successful Life

testifies to this fact. A boor is a rustic whose lonely
life has left him rude so that the roughness of his
nature grates on sensitive souls. A civil man is a
civeSj a citizen, whose daily intercourse with other
persons has smoothed away the roughness of his
nature and made him an agreeable companion. The
polite man and the urbane man, as the words indi-
cate, have acquired refinement of manner and gra-
ciousness of speech from dwelling in a city. The
courteous man has acquired his pleasing bearing
and address from frequenting a court graced by
kingly presence.

The spiritual nature of man, which is his inner
disposition especially in relation to the spirit of the
universe which we call God, grows by communion
with those qualities of God, however they may be
revealed, which evoke love of spiritual goodness and
greatness. Appreciation of truthfulness, reverence
of holiness, love of goodness grow by feeding upon
those qualities until the soul is enamored of them
by long gazing upon their sweet lovliness. Wor-
ship which is waiting upon God and thinking upon
His majesty, power, goodness, and grace until the
soul is aglow with adoration, faith, and love, is one
chief means of spiritual growth. Only men who
thus waited in contemplative worship, could have
produced the finest psalms and the loftiest ascrip-
tions of praise found in the psalms and the prophe-
cies of the Old Testament. The contemplation of
the glory of God as exhibited in the heavens, of his
goodness as shown in the constant beneficence of
nature, of his grace as revealed in Jesus, tends to

Growth 45

evoke such qualities of reverence and gratitude and
faith as make the soul strong in its adherence to
righteousness.

A physical nature feeds upon material food, a
musical nature feeds upon music, an esthetic nature
feeds upon beauty, and a religious or spiritual nature
feeds upon spiritual excellence. We love, because
we first are loved. This the writers of the Bible un-
derstood when they used such expressions as the fol-
lowing: "O taste and see that the Lord is good."

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money ; come yt, buy
and eat. Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye
that which is good." So Jesus, also, speaks of bread
and water of life.

A soul, like a mind, will grow by that upon which
it feeds. A mind which concerns itself with the
science of mathematics will think in terms of mathe-
matics. A mind which thinks upon commercial
values and measures every thing by such values, will
become commercial in its tone and thought. A mind
which thinks upon things political will become a
political mind. A mind which thinks of moral
values will grow morally judicious. In like manner,
a soul which feels the impress of moral excellence
and beauty will grow more sensitive to moral qual-
ities. A soul which dwells in love and feels love's
embrace will grow loving. A soul which contem-
plates mercy will grow merciful. A soul which,
dwells, voluntarily, in an atmosphere of envy, hate,
and revenge will grow unmerciful, unloving, and
cruel.

46 The Secret of Successful Life

Jesus recognized this fact in his method of teach-
ing. He revealed to his disciples the character of
the Father who is merciful to the ill-deserving, kind
to the unthankful, and gracious to them who believe
and obey Him. Jesus bade them be like the Father.
Their character would be formed by contemplation
of the divine character. They would grow into the
likeness of God by the worship of God.

That which Jesus prescribed to his disciples as the
method of growth has been abundantly shown in his-
tory to be the way by which men have grown. Je-
hovah gave Moses a vision of Himself upon a mount
when He passed by and proclaimed Himself "the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth." Moses hav-
ing seen the vision and heard the voice, returned to
the base of the mount with a shining face and with
a loving heart which bore in patience the rebellious
children of Israel. Jehovah gave to Isaiah in the
temple, a vision of his holiness. Isaiah beholding the
vision was first conscious of his own unclean lips,
next, sensible of pardon and peace, and then, will-
ing to go forth and call Israel to repentance and
righteousness. The vision of Jesus which Saul
beheld on his way to Damascus first filled Saul with
fear and then with faith. Having seen a vision of
Jesus whom he persecuted, Saul was willing to be
led by Jesus in a long life of sacrifice and service.

Saint Augustine whose remarkable experience of
deliverance from sin and from doubt, and whose
confirmation in faith and righteousness made him
a most remarkable witness to the transforming pow-

Growth 47

er of divine grace, has given a beautiful testimony
of the power of God both to save and to satisfy
the soul. Augustine has said: *'Too late loved I
Thee, O thou beauty of ancient days. Thou wert
with me, but I was not with Thee. Things held
me far from Thee. Thou didst call and shout and
burst my deafness. Thou didst flash, shine, and
scatter my blindness. Thou didst breathe odors, and
I drew in breath, and pant for Thee. I tasted and
I hunger and thirst for Thee. When I shall with
my whole self cleave to Thee, I shall nowhere have
sorrow or labor; and my life shall wholly live as
wholly full of Thee." Again Augustine says: "Not
with doubting but with assured consciousness, do I
love Thee, Lord. But what do I love, when I,
love Thee? Not the beauty of bodies, nor the fair
harmony of time, nor the brightness of light so
gladsome to our eyes, nor sweet melodies of varied
songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers and oint-
ments and spices, not manna and honey, not limbs
acceptable to the embracements of flesh. None of
these do I love when I love my God ; and yet I love
a kind of light, a kind of melody, a kind of frag-
rance, a kind of meat, a kind of embracement, when
I love my God, — the light, the melody, the frag-
rance, the meat, the embracement of the inner man:
where there shineth unto my soul, what spaces can-
not contain, and there soundeth, what time beareth
not away, and there smelleth, what breathing dis-
perseth not, and there tasteth, what eating dimin-
isheth not, and there clingeth, what satiety divorceth
not. This is it which I love when I love my God."

48 The Secret of Successful Life

Augustine's intellectual opinions in the matter of
theological thought, were sometimes remote from
modern thought, but his spiritual experiences of
divine love and grace were true for all time. As
Augustine's body had found delight and satisfaction
in the light, beauty, melody, fragrance and food of
nature, so did his soul find delight and satisfaction
in the light and love and grace of God.

There is provided, in this universe, food for the
soul as well as food for the body. But there is a
difference between food in its relation to physical
being, and food in its relation to spiritual being.
The difference is this: A physical nature transforms
the food which it receives into substance like itself;
a spiritual nature is transformed by the food which
it receives. Sheep and cattle and horses feeding in
the same pasture and drinking of the same brook
change the grass and water into the substance of
sheep and cattle and horses. The quality of food
eaten by a physical body determines only in a small
degree the quality of that body. Coarse food can-
not make a fine body coarse, nor fine food make a
coarse body fine, save in a very limited degree. But
the spiritual food upon which a soul feeds will make
that soul something worse or better than it was by
nature. A boy whose hero is a bully will become
like a bully; a boy whose hero is truly brave, will
become brave. A girl whose goddess is Venus will
become vain; a girl whose goddess is the Virgin
Mary will become a humble handmaid of the Lord
to do his will.

A man or a nation will grow like that which is

Growth 49

worshipped. The Greeks loved physical beauty and
adored divinities of physical perfection. The Greeks
in art, in bodily form, and in manners, aimed to
produce physical perfection ; but the Greeks, in mor-
als, fell below some ruder nations. The Romans
worshipped power. Jove and Mars were mighty in
the thought of Rome. The Romans framed laws,
organized armies, and established and maintained an
empire by force. Some modern nations worship
wealth and excel in methods of gaining wealth rath-
er than in the practice of morality. That which
men regard as the highest good will inspire both
their thought and their action, and so determine
character.

It is well said, in every sense, that a man's re-
ligion is the chief fact in regard to him, Thomas
Carlyle has said: "The thing a man does practic-
ally lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning
his vital relations to this mysterious universe, and his
duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the pri-
mary thing for him, and creatively determines all
the rest. That is his religion." What a man wor-
ships— thinks of as best, adores, loves and would
possess — is the most important thing in the forma-
tion of character.

One has caricatured the saying, "An honest man's
the noblest work of God," by the sentence, "An
honest God's the noblest work of man." But man
never has made an honest god. Every god of whom
man is the creator has borne so great likeness to man
himself that he has proved immoral. No deity of
all the pantheon of the pagan world has been able to

50 The Secret of Successful Life

endure in the presence of the God and Father of
Jesus. Only the God who has revealed himself in
the person of Jesus endures as the supreme object
of men's worship. The worship of that God alone,
can make men perfect.

It has been suggested that as man improves him-
self, his conception of God improves, and therefore
the God of Christian people is the product and re-
sult of man's growing morality. But, historically,
this is not true. Man did not become holy first and
then think of God as holy. But on the other hand,
there came to man, in some way, the revelation and
the command of God, saying, "Be ye holy, for I am
holy." The history of the Old Testament makes
plain the fact that a holy God as the object of wor-
ship was the source of improvement in the spirit and
in the morals of the Hebrew race. When the He-
brew people worshipped some other god than Je-
hovah, they always declined in morals.

The history of Christianity proves even more
clearly than Hebrew history that the order of de-
velopment is from God to man and never from man
to God. The disciples of Jesus did not become
holy, loving, large-minded, merciful, and gracious to-
wards all men; and then conclude that God is like
that. No ! It was a new conception of God which
changed the conception of the disciples in respect of
themselves, their relation to other men and their
duty to the Gentile world. Their theology deter-
mined their sociology. That has been the order of
growth ever since.

It was the fact that God is no respecter of per-

Growth 51

sons, revealed to Peter, that made him willing to
preach the gospel to the Roman captain, Cornelius,
and to baptize him. It was the fact that God had
made of one blood all nations, that impelled Paul
to regard all nations as worthy to receive the gos-
pel of divine grace. It was conviction of the fact
that, in the divine judgment, "There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female," that made Paul welcome
to equal privileges the slave, Onesimus, and his mas-
ter, Philemon ; receive to equal privilege Aquila
and his wife Priscilla; and give the right hand of
Christian fellowship to his Jewish countrymen and
to the Roman soldiers of Caesar's household. It
was the fact that God loved men with a love which
would make sacrifice to save, as exemplified in the
life and death of Jesus, that made the apostles will-
ing to become martyrs and to lay down life itself
if, thereby, men might be saved. Had the disci-
ples believed that Jesus was only a man, like them-
selves, and that he had died an involuntary death as
a victim of Jewish fanaticism, they never would
have been constrained to accept death so willingly.
In that case, neither the death of Jesus nor their
own death would have had any appreciable effect
upon the character and destiny of men. Martyr-
doms— of which there had been many — until the
time of Jesus, had not made men holy nor loving.

It is true that as centuries have passed and an
increasing number of men have become Christians,
the moral standards of society generally have risen
and the standards of Jesus have been measurably

52 The Secret of Successful Life

adopted. But it is not true that because society
has been growing better, the conception of God
has risen. The reverse of this is true. A better
understanding of the teachings of Jesus and of the
character of God as revealed in Him, has preceded
the higher moral teachings and the more Christ-
like character of men. Were this not the case and
were the increasing goodness of men the cause of the
worship of a holier God, then the New Testament
ought to have been replaced by this time by a better
text book ; then, higher and holier teachings of the
character of God than those of Jesus ought to have
been given; then, Jesus Himself ought to have been
supplanted by a more divine Messiah. But this
has not happened. Two things are very significant
as well as very true. Men still refer to Jesus as
the supreme teacher of spiritual and moral truth
and confess that the God whom Jesus reveals is
worthy of the holiest worship, the most ardent love,
and the most devoted service. Men who drift away
from Jesus and his teachings, commonly deteriorate
in spirituality and in morals.

Another great fact is worthy of notice. The
number of men who worship a holy God and who
follow a loving life is increasing in the world, yet,
in the thought of men, God is no more holy, faith is
no more firm, love is no more fervid, devotion to
duty is no more complete, and character is no finer
with modern men than with some men of the first
Christian century. Men have not passed beyond
the teaching of Jesus who said : "Ye therefore shall
be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Growth 53

Jesus is the first and the final teacher of men in
the sphere of the spirit. They who follow him
with believing mind, trustful spirit, and obedient
will, are disciples in the school of Christian living.
Their own experience tests and proves the great
fact that the words of Jesus are spirit, and that he
himself is bread of life.

The conditions of growth ought to be carefully
noticed and complied with. Jesus lays emphasis
on disposition as the primary condition of learning
and of growth. His blessings are for "the poor in
spirit," "the meek," "the merciful," "the pure in
heart," and for such as "hunger for righteousness."

The purpose and the practice of life are of essen-
tial value in the estimation of Jesus. "Every one
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." "He
that doeth truth, cometh to the light." One who
would grow must be willing to put away evil and to
cultivate good.

Jesus calls attention to sincerity of heart and
obedience of will as necessary to growth. Jesus
says: "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall
know of the teaching whether it be of God."
"Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is
in heaven, he is my brother, and sister and mother."

The effort of Jesus is to touch the inner springs
of emotion and action. He is more concerned with
feeling than with intelligence. He knows that
life is fed and trained by life. Jesus spoke to men
in parable and in picture and tried to lift their minds
from the knowledge of what is best in men to what

54 The Secret of Successful Life

is good in God. Jesus never pointed men to the
"fixed laws" of nature to instruct them in regard to
what they might expect of God. Jesus ever point-
ed men to the promptings of love and bade them find
the ways of God who is a spirit in the way of the
spirit of man.

If Jesus would encourage men to pray, he told
them of an unjust judge who avenged a widow who
came continually to him for justice, avenging her
because of her insistence ; of a neighbor who would
rise at midnight and give bread to his friend because
of his need and importunity; of a human father
who would not give a stone to a child who asked
bread ; and of the fact that the Father in heaven
knows men's need before they ask him. He empha-
sized God's willingness to answer prayer by assert-
ing that "much more" than men, God will hear
and see and know and answer prayers by giving
good gifts.

Jesus instructed men in a knowledge of the mer-
ciful and gracious ways of God, that men may both
depend on his mercy and become themselves merci-
ful. Jesus pointed men to a woman sweeping her
house to find a lost wedding coin, to a shepherd
leaving his fold to find one stray sheep, to a father
falling on the neck of a returning prodigal son with
full forgiveness and bountiful welcome, and bade
men see in these pictures an illustration of the loving
spirit of God.

Jesus tried to persuade men to put away needless
anxieties and hurtful fears by assuring them that
men who live in faith and walk in love are more

Growth 55

to God than the flowers of the field which he clothes
in beauty, and more than the birds of the air which
he feeds with widespread bounty.

Jesus tried to teach men how to grow unto per-
fection by reminding them of the character of God
who loves, blesses, and does good simply because
such is his nature, even as it is the nature of the
sun to shine beneficently. Jesus bids men love
and bless and do good in like manner that they may
be the children of the Father who "makes his sun
to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust."

Jesus teaches that the law of life for the disciple
is the same as the law of life for the Master. "This
is my commandment, that ye love one another, even
as I have loved you." Jesus also teaches that the
disciple should be satisfied to be like the Master in
the experiences of life. "It is enough that the dis-
ciple be as his master and the servant as his Lord."
One who would follow Jesus and be like Him must
conform to the conditions of growth.

Three things constitute the conditions of growing,
namely, atmosphere, food, and exercise. The social
atmosphere in which you dwell is of first impor-
tance. You may perceive easily the effect of an
atmosphere upon your sdul. If you are in busi-
ness and experience sharp competition and shrewd
dealing, then, that influence may easily lead you to
cherish the same shrewd and selfish spirit. If you
have suffered wrong and your mind dwells upon the
wrong until its bitterness is constant, then, very
easily a spirit of resentment and of revenge may be

56 The Secret of Successful Life

awakened in you. If you live amid suspicion and
jealousy, a blight may readily fall upon generous
affections. On the other hand, association with the
just, the generous, the charitable, the kindly, and the
serviceable tends to awaken generous and kindly
feelings within your own breast.

Jesus' purpose is to lift you by his own great love
into a high and pure atmosphere where you may
consciously dwell in the light and warmth of God's
gracious goodness. If you keep yourself in
the consciousness of God's great love for
you, then, the lovelessness which you may
sometimes meet among men will not so chill
your own affections as to blight and destroy them.
The injustice of men will not turn you from the
path of rectitude. The evil of men will not prevent
you from doing good. The love of God will keep
you warm in affection, sweet in disposition, calm in
life's commotions, courageous to bear, and strong to
do the things demanded by your relations and by
your opportunities. If you feed upon the truth of
God as revealed by Jesus, your soul will not fail
nor faint, and as your days demand, so shall your
strength be.

That which Jesus would have you learn is the
quality of spirit in which to live. He would culti-
vate the soul rather than inform the intellect. All
intellectual information furnished by Him is for the
cultivation of the soul. You must exercise, volun-
tarily, the choice of things pure and true and good.
You must put away feelings which would make you
unlike Christ. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and

Growth 57

anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice." You must cultivate the
graces of the spirit and "be kind, tender-hearted,
forgiving, even as God for Christ's sake hath for-
given you." Thus you will grow by exercise. You
will control your spirit, you will cast out evil, you
will resist temptation, you will increase in love, you
will be an embodiment in living form of the pre-
cepts of Jesus. Growing in such ways, you will
become like Christ and will be numbered among the
citizens of his great and glorious kingdom. The
symbols of the Book of Revelation such as the white
robe, the palm, the crown will fittingly express the
purity, the victorious strength, the royal dignity,
and the worth of your character.

I

CHAPTER IV

Man's Place in Nature

S man, naturally, a finality or a potentiality? Was
man complete in intelligence and character, when
he first appeared upon the earth, or was he a crea-
ture made to be completed? The doctrine taught
by theologians for centuries has been that man, at
first, was a finality. Adam was created perfect ; in
intelligence and moral endowment, he was the res-
plendent image of the Creator. So recent and so
eminent a theologian as the late Charles Hodge of
Princeton has said: "Man was originally created in
a state of maturity and perfection." "It is common-
ly said by theologians that the body was created
immortal and impassible." "With regard to its
immortality, it is certain that if man had not sinned,
he would not have died." A moral catastrophe fol-
lowing an act of disobedience has made mankind
degenerate. Sin, pain, suffering, and death are
all consequences of the fall of man. Salvation is
largely the restoration of man to his primal and
normal condition.

Nothing could illustrate more clearly than such
statements, the utterly unscientific habit of mind
which prevailed in the church as well as in the world
when the creeds which we have inherited were
formed. Theologians failed to look upon life as it
lay before them, but read the letter of the scriptures
without perceiving the spirit. A man, though he
should be made at once with a perfect body and a

58

Mans Place in Nature 59

full-sized brain, could not be complete in knowledge
which is an acquirement, nor in holiness which is an
achievement. The body of a man, by its very con-
stitution, is capable of pain and, in a world like this,
must suffer even though there be no sin. Death,
also, was in the world before man appeared upon it,
and death is a destiny awaiting every material body
born in the world. Physical death is a part of the
orderly process of nature.

Sin and suffering and the death entailed thereby,
must be studied apart from the physical laws which
dominate the life of all animal creation including
man, except where sin is in violation of a physical
law.

Theologians have been philosophers and not sci-
entists. They have followed a deductive and not
an inductive process of reasoning. They have read
the story of creation in Genesis and they have inter-
preted it by Saint Paul's use of Adam as a type of
Christ. They have pressed Saint Paul's illustration
to extreme limits. They have made Adam as much
a destroyer of his race as Christ is a Saviour.

The book of Genesis, however, is a book of begin-
nings. It is not a scientific book. It states facts. It
does not describe processes. It is an imaginary
painting, not a photograph. It is poetical, pictorial,
and parabolic according to the genius of the Orien-
tal people who wrote the Bible.* Its purpose is relig-

*See an excellent article on The Oriental Manner of
Speech, by Abraham Mintrie Rihbany, in The Atlantic
Monthly, April, 191 6.

6o The Secret of Successful Life

ious, not scientific. **God created the heavens and
the earth." The fact not the method of creation is
affirmed. "God spoke" — put forth power — and
light, atmosphere, land, plants, animals and, finally,
man appeared. The purpose of all this is to show
God's relation to the things that are. Man is more
than a result of chemical processes. Man is a living
soul, an image of the Creator. The image is an etching
faint rather than full, potential in its promise rather
than perfect. If Adam is compared with Jesus, who
is said to be the image of the invisible God, the
embryonic character of Adam's likeness will be
apparent. Adam was created to be developed. It
was possible for him to choose his course, to know
good or evil by experience, to develop or to degen-
erate, to live or to die.

Such is the picture of Genesis. Its simplicity and
purity, its freedom from exaggeration, and its relig-
ious suggestiveness make it superior to other similar
traditions of the Semitic race. That parental choice
and conduct afEect the character of descendants and
transmit qualities and tendencies is obvious. The
fall of man and original sin are matters of vital
truth, but they have been pressed altogether too far.
They have been so presented as to give God a quality
of judgment, a method of conduct and a severity of
punishment which if practiced by any man or nation
would call forth condemnation. Saint Paul's use of
Adam must not be so pressed as to pervert the simple
facts of Genesis, or to deny the facts of history.
Genesis seeks, in the pictorial language of primitive
people, to tell how man began to be. Saint Paul is

Mans Place in Nature 6 1

concerned, chiefly, to show how man may be com-
plete in Christ.

It is more important for us to know what man
is now, than to imagine what he may have been in
the beginning. It is more valuable for us to take
Jesus' estimate of man than to take an opinion based
upon some interpretation of the narrative in Genesis.

Jesus most obviously regards man as a candidate
for a kingdom. He came preaching the nearness of
a kingdom which he called the kingdom of heaven.
He bade men strive to enter that kingdom. He
said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God."

Potentially, a grain of corn is a possible plant;
but except a grain of corn be begotten by the vital-
izing power of sunlight, it cannot be a stalk of corn.
Potentially, an egg is a possible bird ; but except an
egg be quickened by the brooding warmth of a
mother, it cannot be a bird. Potentially, a child in
the matrix is a possible man ; but unless the child be
born into the larger world of air and light and
action, it cannot be a man. Potentially, according
to the teaching of Jesus, a man is a possible son of
God ; but unless a man is quickened by the Spirit
and brought into communion with God, he cannot
be a son. Jesus regards man as naturally a germ to
be quickened, an embryo to be developed, a child to
be born, a creature of earth to become a citizen of
heaven. This is quite in accord with the course of
nature and with the ascending orders of life.

In the ascending grades of living beings, there is
always something added in each new kingdom. A

62 The Secret of Successful Life

crystal has a form shaped by nature's forces and it
has beauty in some respects quite equal to the
beauty of a flower ; but there is something in a
flower which is not in a crystal. A crystal is in the
mineral kingdom, a flower is in the vegetable king-
dom. A flower has a form and a beauty something
like the form and beauty of a sea-anemone; but a
sea-anemone, as it opens itself on the face of a rock,
has something which a flower does not possess. A
flower is in the vegetable kingdom, a sea-anemone
is in the animal kingdom. An animal has appe-
tites and affections such as are found in man; but
there is something in man which marks him as be-
longing in a higher range of life than an animal.
There is something in man which impels him to seek
after God, if haply he may find him. This may
not be sufficient of itself to lift man out of the ani-
mal kingdom, but it differentiates man from all
other animals. It makes possible man's emergence
from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of
heaven.

It should be noticed, also, that in every advance
from one kingdom to another, some power from
above uplifts and transforms the lower. The lower
never emerges by its own force into a high-
er kingdom. Whence this power comes, we
know not. That it does come and that
it works a great change we do know. Jesus
says: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every
one that is born of the Spirit." The fact that some-

Mans Place in Nature 63

thing has been produced in man is as manifest as the
fact that the wind has passed and produced a change
on the face of nautre.

It is written in the gospel that there is a light
shining in the world, a life coming to the race of
men, a breath of a spirit from heaven, an influence
divine, and that they who receive this light and
breath, receive power to become sons of God. They
''are born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Saint
Paul says: "They who are after the flesh, do
mind the things of the flesh ; but they who are after
the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." He also adds:
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God." Saint Paul also says in con-
nection with his doctrine of the resurrection: "How-
beit that is not first which is spiritual (pneumatical)
but that which is natural (psychical), and after-
ward that which is spiritual." "The first man is of
the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that
are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they
also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the
image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly." It is scarcely needful to add that
Saint Paul is speaking of those who have known the
heavenly birth of the Spirit. Speaking to such per-
sons, Saint John also says: "Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we
should be called the sons of God: therefore the
world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth

64 The Secret of Successful Life

not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is."

Such, briefly, is the general tenor of the teaching
of the New Testament. Man is not a finality and
never has been. Man is a potentiality and has
been such from his creation. Man begins life as
part of the animal kingdom, but with a receptive
capacity and a latent power which make possible
action upon him by the Spirit of God whereby he
may be lifted into a higher kingdom called the king-
dom of heaven and the kingdom of God. How this
takes place man no more knows than he knows
how life begins anywhere. The process of chang-
ing man is as secret, subtle, and strong as the
process by which life once begun is quickened by the
warmth of sunlight or by warmth of maternal love
or by mental action and influence, and transformed
into something of higher quality and nobler form
and fairer beauty. That such a change does take
place, may be known by the results; just as the re-
sults of life may be known anywhere. The quality
of the new life is the important thing by which its
grade may be known. Wherever spiritual love and
purity, sweetness and strength, devotion and
righteousness are found, there the life exists. Some
persons evidently grow in this life from childhood.
They are known of God and, in the Hebrew sense
of communion, they know God from infancy. Oth-
ers evidently begin this life at a definite period and
with marked experiences.

The change of the natural man to the spiritual

Mans Place in Nature 65

man is most perceptible and most impressive when the
change takes place in those who have been dom-
inated by that selfishness and self-seeking which
belong to the natural man. Such changes are
frequent and well defined. One day Peter is
a fisherman, a disciple of Jesus but a disciple
with an intense conviction that only Jews will
obtain Jesus' salvation and participate in his king-
dom. The next day, Peter is an apostle of love,
giving the right hand of fellowship to a Gentile
soldier of the Roman army and declaring the great
fact that "God is no respecter of persons, but in
every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is accepted of Him." One day, Saul
of Tarsus is a self-righteous man, breathing out
threatenings against all who believe in Jesus and
proceeding to Damascus to arrest any believers who
may be there. The next day, Saul has become
Paul, an apostle; and in Damascus is preaching
Jesus as the Saviour of man. The change in the
man was not only a change of opinion but a change
in the spirit of his life. One day, Augustine is
teaching rhetoric and revelling in sexual lusts. The
next day, Augustine is living in regal control of the
flesh and teaching spiritual truth. One day, Fran-
cis of Assisi is enjoying his father's wealth and
spending it on the pleasures of youthful society. The
next day, Francis is giving up all wealth and all
pleasure of the world that he may serve Christ
and enjoy the pleasures of spiritual society. One
day, John Bunyan is a profane tinker. The next
day John Bunyan is a dreamer of immortal dreams

66 The Secret of Successful Life

and a writer of a book which next to the bible was
long to be the most useful book in all Britain. One
day, Jerry McCauley is a companion and a partner
of thieves. The next day, Jerry McCauley is a
preacher of righteousness, saving men such as he
had been. One day, Delia, "The Bluebird of Mul-
berry Bend," is a harlot on the streets of New York.
The next day, Delia, won by a kiss of Christian
love, is walking the same streets in saintly purity,
seeking to save the fallen.

The changes from a life in the flesh to a life
in the spirit, are so numerous and so marked, and
there are, now, so many who in pure love and
holy ministry walk in the ways of Christ, that the
fact of a higher life for men is most manifest. He
who doubts it, would doubt the light of a star. He
who denies it, would deny the finest flower bloom-
ing in any garden on earth. He who does not de-
sire it for himself, shows his lack of desire for what
is finest and best in men.

Salvation has been preached and is still often
preached as deliverance from a calamity — from the
results of a fall. Salvation, more properly, is deliv-
erance from a condition. Where there has been the
calamity of a fall, of course, there must be deliver-
ance from that ; but deeper than that, is deliverance
from a natural condition. Man must be saved from
an earthly and animal state of life. He must be
saved from a life which is limited to the sphere
of the bodily and animal senses. In this sense, man
always needed salvation. Adam, as much as any
of his descendants, needed salvation. Jesus says:

Mans Place in Nature 67

''Marvel not that I said, *Ye must be born again.' "
The "must" — the necessity — in Jesus' estimation, is
primarily not because of sin whether of Adam or of
any individual, but because "That which is born of
the flesh, is flesh." Jesus regards salvation as gener-
ation and birth into a higher state wherein the spirit
is supreme.

It is true that Jesus came to save people "from
their sins." But it is equally true that Jesus saves
from sin by lifting men into a higher life wherein
their desires and their choices are for things true
and holy. Salvation, in the opinion of many, is
deliverance from punishment and forgiveness of
sins; but, in Jesus' opinion, salvation is the recep-
tion of a new power from above whereby men be-
come children of God and delight to do his will.

It is true that Jesus began his preaching by
calling men to repent. But it should be noticed
that the reason which Jesus gave for repentance was
that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It was
not impending punishment but open opportunity of
the heavenly life which Jesus urged as the motive
of repentance. Jesus says: "God so loved the
world that he gave his Son that whosoever believ-
eth in Him might not perish." Jesus says that the
man who believes on Him "hath eternal life." Men
escape from perishing by accepting eternal life. It
is true that there is forgiveness where there is guilt
and deliverance where there is danger of destruction,
but forgiveness and deliverance accompany the re-
ception of that "grace of God which brings salvation
and teaches how to live."

68 The Secret of Successful Life

The sin which Jesus specially notices and con-
demns is the sin of refusing to be saved. Men are
not condemned by Jesus because they are down, but
because they refuse to rise. "This is the condem-
nation that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light." *'God sent not
his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved." "He
that believeth on him is not condemned: but he
that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God." The condemnation is not for what
a man has done in sinning, but for what he fails to
do by not believing.

This conception of salvation should give men a
new conception of sin. It is very noticeable that
Jesus did not judge harshly, men who were under
the domination of natural appetites. It is, likewise,
noticeable that Jesus did not demand morality as a
condition of entering his kingdom. This was not
because Jesus approved of physical vice, but because
He saw that freedom could come only by a spiritual
liberation. Jesus did not require morality in pros-
pective disciples for the reason that the morality
demanded in his kingdom could be produced only
by the force of a higher life. Sin is commonly
regarded as some feeling, word, or act which is evil.
But sin is a mistake, a wrong choice, a misdirection
in living, a failure. The great sin which destroys
men is the refusal to accept the higher life. Adam
chose the fruit of the tree of knowledge of evil,
rather than the fruit of the tree of life. Adam

Mans Place in Nature 69

degenerated. Adam's descendants choose the things
of the flesh and the knowledge of evil rather than
the things of the spirit and the knowledge of good.
They too degenerate. Degeneration among men
is as common as development.

I take it that had the first man chosen to ascend,
he would not have fallen. Now, however low men
have fallen, the grace of God can lift them up.
"All sins shall be forgiven" unto the sons of men,
says Jesus. He who believeth shall be saved. This
is the gospel.

However high a man may be by virtue of his
birth and by culture in the refinements of polite
society, that will not save him. Birth, education,
culture, politeness — all good things indeed for the
world — will not lift any man into the kingdom of
heaven.

What God desires in a man are qualities of the
spirit which belong to a heavenly kingdom. What
God requires in man is faith in Him, however
revealed to man, and especially faith in Him as
revealed in His Son where that revelation is known.
What God looks for as evidences of the true life of
man are reverence, faith, gratitude, love, obedience,
devotion to truth and to the law of love especially
as that love shows itself in the life of Jesus. These
qualities of character are said to be fruits of the
spirit. They grow not from earth alone, but from
earth as kissed and quickened by the touch from
heaven. As flowers and fruits are the product of the
earth and the physical heaven, so these graces are
the product of human nature quickened and made

yo The Secret of Successful Life

perfect by the touch and power of the Spirit of God.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem-
perance." If these are not found in a man, then,
however much of decency and morality there may
be in human relations, condemnation must be pro-
nounced.

Is not this the law of judgment of all life in this
world? If the tree of a husbandman does not bear
fruit, he will dig about it, fertilize it, and give it
every chance of sunshine and shower. Then, if it
bears no fruit what will he say? "Cut it down;
why cumbereth it the ground." A fig tree with
leaves and no fruit is a failure as a fig tree.

Is not a student dropped from his class in college
simply because he refuses to learn? He may point
to his good clothes, to his politeness, to his decent
habits, to his freedom from vice, nevertheless, in
the world of scholarship for whose service a college
exists, if he will not learn, he is condemned. Is not
a soldier dismissed from the ranks if he will not
drill with his company? No decencies of private
life can make him a soldier when his individuality
is so pronounced that he cannot be subject to the
will of his commander and made one of a company.
Does not a clerk lose his place in the world of busi-
ness if he proves incompetent? In all the higher
ranges of life in the world, failure to accept a
privilege, to improve an opportunity, to fulfill an
obligation, and thereby to rise into a higher state of
life in learning, or in art, or in official position, or
in the esteem of men, debars one forever from that

Mans Place in Nature 71

higher place or that higher life. This men rec-
ognize in all civilized society.

Only in things of the spirit and in things of the
kingdom of God, do men flatter themselves that they
can secure welfare and obtain the rewards of the
kingdom of heaven, while neglecting the conditions
upon which such things rest. Men, who in their
generation are eminently wise and prudent in respect
to things of the world, are singularly blind in respect
to the laws of the life of the spirit and indifferent
to the judgments of the kingdom of God. And
because, while they are blind, they say, "we see";
therefore their sin remaineth.

The sin of Jerusalem, in the days of Jesus, was
that the people would not see and learn the things
which made for their peace. The sin of the Jews
was that they would not come to Jesus that they
might have life. The sin of men of the world is
that they will not come unto the light; but prefer
the darkness. This is as though a grain of corn in
the earth should refuse to receive sunlight, as though
an egg should resist the warmth which would
quicken it into a bird, as though a child in the mat-
rix should refuse to be born. It is the refusal of a
soul to respond to the light, and love, and opportun-
ity given by God, and so to reject the power which
would so act upon it as to quicken it in spirituality
and perfect it in righteousness.

The question may be asked, If God is omnipotent,
why does he not regenerate every man? This ques-
tion, in thought, confuses material and moral things,
and fails to distinguish between physical and spirit-

72 The Secret of Successful Life

ual power. An act of physical power can lift a
grain of corn and transplant it, but it cannot give
a grain of corn life. The vitalizing power of sun-
light differs from a power which simply can change
the position of a grain of corn in space; sunlight
produces change within the corn itself. A man with
physical power can lift a child and transport him
from place to place in space; but such power can-
not persuade a child to love or to perform an act of
righteousness. A power which produces righteous-
ness must act within the soul of the child and impel
him to choose righteousness for himself. A power
acting like a physical force to compel a man's moral
action would destroy a man's liberty. That liberty
God has given to man and He does not propose to
destroy it.

The Spirit of God acting upon the soul of man
can move man, as one mind can move another
mind, to see and to feel righteousness; but the soul
of man must choose righteousness for itself. Herein
lies the agreement of Calvinism, which ascribes sal-
vation to the grace of God, and Arminianism, which
ascribes salvation to human choice. There can be
no stalk of corn if sunlight from heaven does not
come to a grain of corn to quicken it; there can
be no stalk of corn unless the grain of corn responds
to the sunlight. There can be no salvation, in the
sense of being born into the kingdom of heaven, if
the spirit of God does not come to the soul of man to
quicken it with life from above; there can be no
salvation, unless the soul of man responds to the
inspiration of the spirit. This is the deep convic-

Mans Place in Nature 73

tion of the Christian church. The hymns and the
liturgies of the church ascribe salvation to God
and give thanks for grace divine. The judgment of
the scriptures and the judgment of the church alike
condemn men who are not saved, because they have
refused to accept salvation.

Man's place in nature gives him the singular
capacity to receive life from God and to hold com-
munion with Him. God's grace gives to men the
opportunity to receive such grace and to enjoy such
communion. Man's choice accepts or rejects such
communion. This agrees with the conditions of life
in the orders of creation below man. This accords
with the teaching of scripture respecting man. The
divine attitude and the human action are thus ex-
pressed in the Bible: "I have called, and ye refus-
ed." "I am come that they might have life." And
"ye w^ill not come to me that ye might have life."
But he that believeth, loveth, obeyeth hath eternal
life.

This is man's place in nature. Man stands at the
head of creation as now constituted in this world.
He is superior to everything else. He has dominion
over the creatures beneath him. But man stands at
the entrance of the kingdom of heaven. He is poten-
tially a child of God. He is a possible heir of God.
Scientists admit that further development for man
must be along spiritual lines. As an animal, he is
complete. As a spirit he is to be completed. Jesus
teaches that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He
bids men strive to enter that kingdom. As men
enter a kingdom other than the kingdom of their

74 The Secret of Successful Life

birth, by naturalization, by accepting the govern-
ment, laws and institutions of that kingdom, so men
enter the kingdom of heaven by faith and obedience.
The kingdom of heaven is within them and they are
in the kingdom of heaven.

The spiritual difference between men arises from
the fact that some enter the kingdom just above
them and some choose to remain in the kingdom of
the world. Saint Paul defines the two classes by
saying that the lower class walk after the flesh and
the higher class walk after the Spirit. They may be
distinguished by this fact: "They that are after the
flesh mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are
after the Spirit — the things of the Spirit." The^
sad fact remains that "the mind of the flesh is
death"; and the blessed fact remains that "the mind
of the Spirit is life." In Saint Paul's conception,
men who continue under the control of the flesh
and care only for the world are under a law which
leads to death ; and they who yield to the Spirit are
under the control of a law which leads to a contin-
uance of life. That is to say, the one class belong to
the present changing and transient order ; the other
class have risen into an abiding order of spiritual
existence. The life of the former class is fed from
the earth which must fail ; the life of the other class
is fed from God who endures. The former class
belong to a temporary state ; the latter class belong
to an eternal state.

The dividing line between these two classes may
be invisible to man. The difference between the
class below and the class above the dividing line

Mans Place in Nature 75

becomes more positive and distinct as the distance
from the line increases. This is in accord with the
development of life everywhere. Likenesses in liv-
ing things which are similar exist in the earlier
stages of growth and unlikenesses appear in the later
stages. Wheat and rye, at first, as they stand in a
field, look alike to an inexperienced eye; their dif-
ferences are plainly visible at the harvest time. An
oak and a maple, as they emerge from the ground,
seem quite alike; they are quite unlike when full
grown. The embrj^o of a dog and the embryo of a
child, biologists say, look alike at certain periods be-
fore birth; their differences are great after birth.
A child of small intellectual power and a child of
great intellectual power may seem much the same
for the first few months or years of life ; but the
differences between them are very marked as time
advances. The saint and the sinner may seem much
the same to those who see only the outward expres-
sion and whose standards of measurements are those
of the parlor and the market-place; but the inward
difference is there and the outward expression will
become more and more marked with the passage of
time. In intelligence, morality, politeness, and ac-
tions pertaining to the present world, the citizens of
the world and the citizens of the kingdom of heaven
may seem alike to the untrained eye. But in spirit-
ual insight, moral feeling, quality of thought, purity
of affection, loftiness of aim, and purpose of living
they may be widely different.

Morality is freedom from vice and crime and
from offensive attitude and injurious action on the

76 The Secret of Successful Life

part of men toward one another. Spirituality is the
attitude and action of a soul towards God and to-
wards the inner heart of things. A man who lives
under the conditions of moral life which prevail to-
day may have higher standards of conduct than
the standards of a man who lived in the days of
David. But it is possible that a man of the days
of David, in point of spiritual sensibility and in
aim and purpose of life, may have been a better
man than a man of seemingly higher moral charac-
ter to-day. A man reared in a cultured home may
have finer manners than a man reared among rude
people; but the man of ruder speech and action
may, possibly, have a finer spirit than the more cul-
tured man. A man must be judged by his inner life
and not by his manners. Culture is largely the
product of social opportunities; character is the
product of choice and affection.

We know that in every class of society and with
every degree of culture, there are men who are ac-
tuated mainly by the thought of self and there are
men who are actuated by the thought of God. There
are men whose aim in life is to please themselves,
and there are men whose aim is to please God.
There are men whose prayer, if they pray at all, is
that God may do for them what they will; and
there are men whose prayer is that they may do
the will of God. There are men whose efforts
are directed wholly to the securing of such things
as wealth, position, and power, and there are men
whose efforts are expended in loving and useful ser-
vice. There are men who sacrifice the inner life

Mans Place in Nature 77

of the soul — such as love, truth, and justice, — for
outward gain; and there are men who suffer the
loss of outward things that they may keep the spirit
true and pure. There are men who sell their souls
to buy the world, and there are men who lose the
world to save their souls. The former serve self,
live in the flesh, and live for the world ; the latter
serve God, live in the spirit and for the kingdom
of heaven.

The fundamental distinction between men lies in
their thought of themselves as made for themselves,
or as made for society. The essential character of
men is determined by their sense of obligation to
live unto themselves or to others. The rank of men
is determined by the fact that they live to do their
own will, or to do the will of God. Carlyle has
said most truly: "A man's religion, not what he
professes as a creed, but what he does absolutely
think of himself in his relation to God and the
world and to men is the most important thing about
him."

The soul of all evil — though evil takes so many
forms in choice and action — is selfishness. The
soul of all good — though good takes so many forms
in choice and action — is love. Love bows to a su-
perior. Love walks in equity with an equal. Love
stoops to an inferior. Love worships God. Love
deals justly with man. Love shows mercy and
confers grace where there is need.

The natural man simply holding his place in
nature and holding that place for himself, makes
himself, in his thought and love, the center of the

78 The Secret of Successful Life

universe. The spiritual man makes God the center
of his thought and love, and so the center of his
universe.

The natural man puts forth his tentacles of desire,
thought and volition to gather for himself, and so
infolds himself in loneliness, in darkness, and in
death. The spiritual man puts forth his tentacles
of aspiration, love, and will in worship and in de-
votion to love and to duty, and so unfolds himself,
dwelling in light and love immortal. So the spirit-
ual man fulfills the eternal purpose of God.

CHAPTER V

Cooperation

f^ UTSIDE the windows where I write, lie gar-
^^ dens, orchards, green fields, and hills covered
with forest trees. The seeds in those gardens, or-
chards, and distant hillsides would never have ger-
minated and grown if there had been no sunshine,
no showers, and no air. The physical heaven and
the material earth cooperated to make those plants
and trees. Substances of the soil, breath of the air,
warmth of sunshine, and colors of light, are all in-
wrought in the forms and beauty and fragrance of
the vegetable kingdom.

In those gardens and orchards, man also has
cooperated with nature in bringing plants and trees
to perfection. The world is so made that man may
be a co-worker with his Creator. Beneath man, no
animal cooperates with nature to change or to im-
prove her products. Fish swim in waters, but they
do not change the course of rivers. Birds gather
seeds and, in an involuntary way sow them ; but
they do not improve the original plants. Beasts
roam the forests, but they do not change the for-
est into a harvest field. Man, however, by his
knowledge, care, and skill, changes a purely natural
product into something superior and finer. The
Jacqueminot rose, the full-blown Chrysanthemum,
and the generous, golden sunflower, are the result
of man's care and toil. The name of the Concord
79

So The Secret of Successful Life

grape reminds one of the place where it originated,
and the Baldwin apple preserves the name of the
man who produced it. The fame of Burbank
has spread across a continent from the wonders he
has accomplished in producing new and improved
forms of flowers and fruits. It has pleased the
Creator to take man into partnership with himself
in this great department of creation, that without
man the highest perfection should not be attained.

According to the story of the book of Genesis,
man was placed in a garden "eastward in Eden to
dress it and to keep it." And by this keeping and
dressing, the garden bloomed in fairer beauty, and
the man grew in intelligence and skill.

Not alone in the vegetable kingdom, but also
in the animal kingdom, man cooperates with nature.
Such animals as have been domesticated by man, are
larger and finer than any of their kind found in a
wild state. Durham cattle have attained their
size; Jersey cattle, their beauty; and merino sheep
the fineness of their wool; under the care of man.
Percheron horses have gained their fitness for draw-
ing loads ; English horses, their gentleness and spir-
it; and Kentucky trotters, their speed, from gen-
erations of careful training at the hands of man.

But above this, and more to the credit of his
genius and power, man has been made a partner
with the Creator in the making of himself and his
fellow men. By his efforts in the cultivation of
plants and animals, man has improved them and
has also improved himself. He has gained in self-
control, power of mental concentration, kindness,

Co-operation 8 1

gentleness, and the qualities of a gracious life. Men
have risen in the scale of being by the love, in-
struction, and inspiring influence of the higher men
of the race acting in wide reaches upon lower men.

Schools, colleges, and churches all rest upon the
fundamental principle that the lower must be served
by the higher. It is by cooperation in education, in
worship, and in ideals, that the race of mankind
rises. Our civilization is the result of the continu-
ous impartation and preservation of the best any
man has acquired in thought, knowledge, culture,
and character. For the preservation and perpetu-
ation of the best of any generation, books are print-
ed, libraries founded, schools conducted, and the
elaborate machinery of education and civil govern-
ment are established among men. The man who
would receive most during his lifetime must be con-
tent to be served by those higher than himself. The
man who would do most during his lifetime must
consent to serve.

There are two forms of service in the world;
service from compulsion wherein the weaker serves
the stronger from fear and necessit)^ and service
from love, wherein by an inward impulse the strong-
er serves the weaker. The former service degrades ;
the latter service elevates. Nothing is morally worse
for both master and servant than slavery. Nothing
is more beneficial than that relation of faith and
love by which the lower receives the ministrations
of the higher. Writers on social history sometimes
justify slavery as a historic fact by claiming that
slavery has been the means of training men in the

82 The Secret of Successful Life

habit of continuous labor and has, thereby, induced
greater skill, efficiency, and character. There may
be a measure of truth in this claim. The black
slaves in the United States, in language, intelligence,
and moral character reached a higher plane than
their ancestors attained in Africa. Slavery in a
measure civilized them. But the black people in the
United States who, in the last fifty years, have been
served by a host of white teachers quickening their
intelligence and training them in manual skill, have
risen to a much higher grade of life than their ances-
tors who were slaves. The native tribes of South
Africa who have been taught and trained by the
loving ministry of missionaries have advanced in
intelligence and efficiency far beyond what they
would have achieved through any system of slavery
and compulsory labor. It should also be noticed
that no race ever has risen in slavery to the height
to which men have risen in freedom. There must be
the free choice of reception of service by faith, and
the free choice of service in love, for the best devel-
opment of mankind.

The highest life ever lived on this earth was a life
of voluntary service. Jesus said of himself: "I
came forth from the Father and am come into the
world." "I came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister." "I am among you as he that serveth."
Jesus revealed the great fact that the law of love,
the law of service, is a law of the kingdom of
heaven. Prior to the time of Jesus, men conceived
of God as a Ruler; they hardly imagined that God
stooped to serve.

Co-operation 83

The law of love is a law which God Himself
obeys. Does not the act of creation place the Cre-
ator in some relation of obligation to the creation?

Does not the gift of life impose some obligation
in respect of the care of life? Does not parentage
carry in itself a sense of obligation to offspring? Par-
ents placed on an otherwise uninhabited island
where there is no government to impose laws and
where there are no policemen to enforce laws, would
feel in themselves a sense of responsibility, demand-
ing service to the children born to them. In all
parental life, the nature of the parent binds the par-
ent to seek the welfare of the child.

If God created man capable of communion with
himself and needing that communion for his com-
pletion; then, surely, God is under obligation on His
part to give such communion to man. God's own
nature and law of life and purpose bind Him to ful-
fill that obligation. If man cannot be a complete
being without God, then God is compelled to give
Himself to man. This indebtedness is recognized in
the Bible.

Throughout the sacred scriptures, God insists,
continually, on the fact that He is striving to ful-
fill the indebtedness of His own love to men. Over
and over again, God is represented as declaring that
He has loved, sought, called, reached out His hands,
and tried in every way to save and bless men. And,
if there is failure, it is attributed, constantly, to the
fact that men refuse to see, hear, heed, receive, and
know the grace of God. The revelation, in the gos-
pel, is the supreme manifestation of this impulse

84 The Secret of Successful Life

and compelling love on the part of God. "For God
so loved the world that he gave His only begotten
Son, that whoso ver believeth in Him should not per-
ish, but have everlasting life."

God becomes the supreme servant of man. God
condescends to love, visit, renew, inspire, and lift up
the man of humble heart, trustful spirit, and obedi-
ent will. This accords with the law of life under
the care of man. If plants and animals, in nature,
reach their highest development under the loving
care of man; is it strange that man is to reach
his highest development under the care of God?
If life from the kingdom just above the mineral
kingdom, or life from the kingdom just above the
vegetable kingdom, touches that which lies in the
kingdom just beneath and lifts it into the kingdom
above; is it not natural that life from the spiritual
kingdom of heaven should touch the life of man and
lift it into the kingdom of God? This, according
to the gospel and the New Testament teaching, is
precisely what is being done.

Man's greatest achievement here, as elsewhere,
lies in cooperation with God. Man's greatest achieve-
ment in mechanical affairs is accomplished by placing
his machinery so that the forces of wind, water, elec-
tricity, and gravity play upon that machinery until
it moves in accord with nature's forces. Man's
greatest achievements in the sphere of morals and
spirituality are accomplished by placing his affec-
tions, intelligence, and will in obedient accord with
God's love, thought, and will in the world. Great
deeds are wrought not so much by great effort as

Co-operation 85

by complete surrender to the will of God. The love
of God constrains the man who yields to it. As a
rolling river carries on its way all smaller streams
which flow into it, so God's great love and power, in
things of the spirit, carry along the love and thought
of every man who surrenders to them. This is what
Saint Paul meant when he said: "The love of
Christ constraineth me." Saint Paul had been serv-
ed and saved by God. This fact brought him under
the control of the law of God in his relation to un-
saved men. Saint Paul said of himself: "I am a
debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians;
both to the wise and to the unwise." This indebt-
edness did not arise from any service which had been
rendered to Saint Paul by the Greeks or Barbarians.
The obligation rested upon Saint Paul not from
any service rendered him, but by the ability con-
ferred on him to render service. He had become a
child of God through faith in Jesus. He had
experienced the divine love in the pardon of his sins
and in the gift of a new life. He who had received
so much from God owed something to men who had
received less. It was an obligation imposed by love.
It was the indebtedness of power possessed. It was
the ability to confer a benefit which impelled him
to seek to confer that benefit. This is the law of
life in all men who truly live with God.

The two greatest qualities of soul and heart are
faith and love. Faith is that attitude of the soul
towards God which makes the soul of man recep-
tive to the power which God stands ready to confer.
Love is that quality of the heart which impels a

86 The Secret of Successful Life

man to worship God and to serve men. Without
faith it is impossible to please God or to be saved.
Without love, it is impossible to fulfil the divine law
of life. Faith places the soul of man under the tui-
tion and guidance of God. We may say as plant
and animal arrive at the highest perfection through
faith in man and obedience to him, so man rises to
highest perfection through faith in God and obedi-
ence to Him. According to the New Testament it
is to the man who believeth, loveth, obeyeth, that the
promises of God are given. All things are his, for
he is Christ's and Christ is God's.

Nature itself, properly interpreted, teaches men
the law of love. The struggle for existence is not
so much a struggle for personal and individual exis-
tence, as a struggle for the existence of others. A
child begins life in instinctive faith in maternal
love, and a child's knowledge of that love is intui-
tive. A child learns early to love its immediate
family and to live in active cooperation with its
family. A child soon learns that its welfare, its
pleasure, and its success, lie in the keeping of the
family or the tribe. The mistake which men have
made in their history is in limiting good will to
the tribe or the nation, and in regarding all who
live without that limit as enemies. But the percep-
tion of diversity of natural talents and skill which
results in division of labor, the practice of trade
which issues in commerce, and the necessity of deal-
ing with wider groups than the family or tribe,
reveal to men a larger relationship. The establish-
ment of government and the enactment of laws

Co-operation 87

which at first mainly forbid injuries, but which soon
enjoin duties also, train men in the perception and
knowledge of the fact that individual good is best
secured in cooperation with other men. The in-
creasing areas within which wars are impossible and
within which entire freedom of travel and trade
exist, the increase of international and world-wide
trade, and the establishment of international law
by which nations are to be governed, all indicate
increasing knowledge that in common faith, mutual
good-will, and widespread cooperation, the highest
welfare of men is to be attained. To him who can
see into the heart of things, this shows that the law
of love is the divine order of life as revealed in the
very constitution of society. Distrust, hatred, and
injury, such as mark a period of wars, lead naturally
to degradation, destruction, and death. The bene-
fits which are supposed to have followed wars arise
either through the perception and knowledge of a
higher form of civilization and life, such as an invad-
ing people may get from travel as in the case of the
invading Goths or the crusaders who returned home
with new ideas of manufacture and learning, or else,
the gains which follow wars, arise from the increas-
ed activities which war has demanded or made neces-
sary. The real gain, comes from increased
knowledge, inventive skill, and practical applica-
tion of quickened intellect and trained cooperative
power to the practical affairs of life. Gain to men
never comes directly to mankind through individ-
ualism and destruction, but only indirectly. Gain
comes directly through socialism and construction.

The Secret of Successful Life

The law of love, which is the way of mutual
good-will and mutual service, is the law of life for
mankind. This fact is coming to be understood as
never before. This is partly because men see the
advantage of cooperation in all lines of effort. The
age of individualism is passing. The age of dem-
ocracy in politics, of combination in business, of
cooperation in social service has come. Large em-
pires and republics, international law, world-wide
commerce, increasing control and oversight of pri-
vate business, sanitary legislation, public education,
increasing social cooperation, and many other things
all reveal the practical operation of the principle of
love in the world. The individual man counts for
little alone; he counts for much with others. The
chief value of a man to himself and to the world,
consists in his being a member of society. Even in
the highest form of human life this is true. Indi-
vidual salvation is essential for entrance into the
kingdom of heaven. But even individual salvation
is perfected by one's becoming part of a renewed
society. The best things now, as in the ancient econ-
omy of grace, are withheld from men for a time
because an individual without others cannot be made
perfect.

As one may think God's great thoughts after
him in scientific knowledge, in mechanical motions,
and in artistic forms, so one may think God's great
thoughts after him in the ways of spiritual mo-
tives, social relations, and serviceable activities in
life. The eternal life and the divine law of love
are declared to be revealed in Jesus; they are cer-

Co-operation 89

tainly illustrated in his words and works. The
true life of man is secured by fellowship with Jesus.
There can be no truly successful life to any man
apart from that faith which brings divine power
into him, and apart from that love which leads him
to worship and to serve.

Jesus lived among men as one who served, and
he bade his disciples live in the same manner. Their
relation to Him must be vital, like that of branches
to a vine; docile, like that of pupils to a teacher;
submissive, like that of servants to a master; obedi-
ent, like that of subjects to a king. As the Father
loved Jesus so He loved His disciples; as He loved
them, so they were to love ; as He had lived, so they
were to live; as He had served, so they were to
serve. They had received freely, they were to give
freely. They had obtained power, they were to use
power. They were to heal the sick; to cast out
demons ; to preach the gospel ; and to bring the
kingdom of heaven to pass.

Whatever one may think of the original gift of
power to the disciples by which they wrought
changes in the world miraculously ; it is evident that
in the long course of Christian history, demons have
been cast out, disease has been conquered, minds
have been made sane, and love has been generated in
the hearts of men by slow processes working accord-
ing to the laws of the spirit rather than by miracles.
Those who have followed Jesus in love, have added
their contribution to the sum of human welfare;
even when they could not point to specific cases
wherein changes were wrought by power proceeding

90 The Secret of Successful Life

from them. The loving heart and kind spirit, like
unseen flowers which breathe their fragrance on the
passing air, sweeten and perfect the society of hu-
man kind. All such persons fulfill the divine con-
dition of a growing and perfect life. They obey,
though unconsciously, the apostolic command,
"Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling; for it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure." They
become "workers together with Him." They live
in the divine light, walk in the divine love, and
fulfill the divine will in feeling, thought, purpose,
and expressed power of their life.

No life can be successful unless it conforms to the
divine requirement of communion. Any life to be
successful must commune both with God and with
men by receiving and by imparting. Any person
who attempts to be simply receptive and absorbent,
to partake of the good gifts of God and to make no
effort to serve God and man, will fail in the end.
The self-centered, selfish, absorbent life will become
diseased in affection, perverted from the truth in
thought, debased in purpose, enslaved in will ; and
so, both by its own action and by the laws of the
kingdom of spirits, will be separated from the cur-
rent of the divine life and will be thrown at last like
flotsam, on the shores of time, and will have no
place or part in the eternal kingdom.

On the other hand, any life which accepts the
will and the way of God as that will and way
are revealed in the constitution of nature and in the
enlightened conscience, and which expands and ex-

Co-operation 91

presses itself in love will grow sweet in spirit, pure
in affection, true in tenor of thought, generous in
sympathy, rich in graciousness, and large in influ-
ence and in service. Such a life will move in the
current of the divine life in history, and will have a
place and a part in the eternal kingdom.

The particular sphere of life in which one finds
himself, may not be of his own choosing; but the
spirit in which one wills to live is his own. Every
man must control his own feelings, cherish his own
imagination, think his own thoughts, sing his own
song, paint his own picture, build his own house,
and complete his own work. The place of his birth
and the material given him with which to work
are not of man's choice; but what he will do with
the material at hand is his own choice. A man's
purpose is his own; if there is a flaw in the mate-
rial given him which mars the work, he is not re-
sponsible for that. A man is measured by what he
attempts to do. When that attempt is according to
the divine will, then he is a workman together with
God. If conditions arise which check and limit the
expression of the power which is within him, then,
like the King of Israel who desired to build a house
to the honor of God, but could not ; he will be
praised for what was within his heart.

Love, however, is irrepressible and where love ex-
ists there will be found some mode of expression. A
life inspired by love will come to blossom and to
fruitage. In the sphere of the spirit, love can
know no final failure. The divine blessing, accord-

92 The Secret of Successful Life

ing to Jesus, is pronounced not upon him who has
accomplished some visible thing, but upon him
whose spirit is right. The humble, the pure, the
loving, the merciful, the gracious are blessed.
One's union with the divine kingdom is not depen-
dent upon his visible achievement, but upon his love.
"Every one who loveth is born of God and know-
eth God."

The flower growing in the field cannot tell how
much of the force which builds it up is rising from
the soil, and how much is flowing from the sun-
shine; the ship on the sea cannot tell how much of
the force which impels it comes from the waves of
the ocean, and how much is from the winds of
heaven; the child in school cannot tell how much
of his increasing intellectual power is due to his own
effort, and how much is due to the inspiring influ-
ence of his teacher; the soldier marching to battle
cannot tell how much of his courage is his own, and
how much comes from the companionship of the
marching army; and the man who is cooperating
with God cannot tell how much of his power is his
own, and how much is directly and indirectly from
God ; he can know only that he is growing in love
and in power of ministry, in peace and in joy of ser-
vice, in worship and in delight in doing the will of
God.

A scheme of world history, such as is made known
to us in the constitution of the world, in the gospel
of grace, and in the promises of great things yet to
be, makes possible to men participation in the prog-

Co-operation 93

ress and in the results of such history, and affords
to men opportunity to become great through faith
and love.

CHAPTER VI

The Incarnation

npHE marvel of spring when fields which have
been brown are clothed in living green, when
flowers like arbutus and violets and dandelions ap-
pear, when trees so recently bare and seemingly dead
are clothed with delicate green leaves, when blos-
soms white as driven snow and pink as a baby's
,hand crown the orchards in profusion is an annual
miracle. To the man of seeing eye and discerning
mind, this wealth of vegetable life and beauty is
a revelation of the wisdom, intelligence, and power
of the Creator. It shows something of which the
mineral kingdom has not spoken. It reveals much
of God ; but it leaves much unrevealed which the
heart would gladly know. Men beholding all this,
still seek after God if haply, by the spirit, they may
find Him and finding Him, by the spirit, may be
satisfied. There is needed a more complete revela-
tion of God than nature affords.

We cannot say that all power is life, but we can
say that all life is power. In our world, at least,
power expresses itself in material movements, by
changing the position of material things or their
relation one to another. Power, thus, expresses it-
self by what may be called an incarnation of force.
When by an act of my will, I lift a book from a
desk, the movement of that material thing is the

94

The Incarnation 95

visible expression of the power of my will. Emo-
tion, thought, and will clothe themselves in mater-
ial form.

Music is a spiritual emotion, but music clothes
itself in air, shapes the air in billowy waves which
throb and thrill with feeling, enters the open ear,
and touches the listening soul until that soul throbs
and thrills with the same feeling. IVlusic is a uni-
versal language.

Thought is a mental emotion, but thought clothes
itself in vocal or in written speech and, thereby, be-
comes perceptible to ear or eye, and so intelligible
to a receptive mind.

Love is a feeling, an affection of the heart, but
love embodies itself in smile or in sigh, in tone or in
tear, in touch or caress and, thereby, makes itself
known and felt.

All life in this world, from the life of the lowliest
flower to the life of the highest man, is known
through an incarnation, and by means of physical
expression. But life itself is something other than
the material in which it is embodied and through
which it is expressed.

Chemically, the material may all be there and
yet there may be no life. Chemically, the material
in which life has dwelt may all remain and yet the
life may be gone. That which is lacking in the
former case and lost in the latter case, is the soul
of what lived. What that soul is, no man knows.
In the study of biology, by sight and touch and by
knife and microscope, I found that life itself always
eluded my touch and sight. Life is a mysterious

96 The Secret of Successful Life

force which seizes, moves, and changes the material
in which it is embodied. Life, also, has its own
peculiar quality independent of the material in
which it dwells. Two trees may stand in the same
field, may feed on the same soil, may drink the
same showers, may bask in the same sunshine, and
yet may differ radically in form, flower, fragrance,
and fruit. Everything else being the same, that
mysterious somewhat which we call life must make
the difference. We classify vegetation according to
form, fiber, blossom, and fruit. We classify animals
according to disposition, intelligence, and habits of
life. In such classification, man easily stands at the
head of creation. Men differ immensely from one
another. The difference in intelligence, morality,
and spirituality between the lowest specimens of
primitive and barbarous men and the highest types
of civilized and cultured men is very great; yet
there is no difficulty in classifying all men in the
family of mankind.

One person alone has appeared among men with
such a heart of holy love and such a spirit of
supreme service that men have found difficulty in
classfying him. Jesus alone has transcended ordin-
ary classification. Who Jesus is, is a question whose
solution men sought and still seek. Men of the
time of Jesus did not find Him to be a product of
His race, or age or environment. They said that he
was an old prophet returned again; or a modern
prophet, like John the Baptist, risen from
the dead ; or a superiorly gifted prophet ;
or a demonized man; or a son of God in

The Incarnation 97

some special sense; or "The Son of the living God."
For nineteen centuries, men have found Jesus to be
singular, unique, supreme in the sphere of the spirit,
and their most common conclusion has been that he
is the Son of God.

This title, historically and according to the rec-
ord, was not given to Jesus by men because of an
angelic announcement at his advent, nor because of
singularity of birth, nor because of claims put forth
by Jesus himself; but because of the impression
made by his life on the minds of them who knew him
best. Jesus did not begin his public life by announc-
ing singularity of birth and divinity of nature. Jesus
simply lived his life and let it speak for itself. A
rose does not declare its beauty, it simply blooms;
it does not announce its sweetness, it simply breathes
it on the air. So Jesus simply lived His life, spoke
His words, did His works and, then, men called
Him the Son of God. When, near the close of his
life, in answer to His own question ''Who do you
say I am?" those who had accompanied Him most
intimately exclaimed in a burst of admiring faith,
"Thou art the Son of God" ; Jesus pronounced that
conception as a blessed one. He said that concep-
tion of Him did not arise from human superstition,
but from divine revelation of the Father. He said
that definition proceeded from inward illumination,
spiritual vision, and true knowledge. He said that
on that truth He would build His church. And a
little later He said to men of such faith, "He that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father."
The impression which a man leaves on the minds

98 The Secret of Successful Life

of men and on the world, reveals what he himself
has been. Mention Phidias, and you think of sculp-
ture; mention Raphael, and you think of painting;
mention Newton, and you think of science; men-
tion Beethoven, and you think of music; mention
Jesus, and you think of God. The impression which
a die makes, shows what the die is. The impression
which a man makes, shows what the man is. The
impression which Jesus made on the minds of men,
and which he continues to make, is not a new
thought of men but a new thought of God.

This is worth considering. Think of it. It was
not a new thought of the value and meaning of man
which led the apostles to adopt the life of evan-
gelists and missionaries. It was new thought of
God. God loved the world — not the Jews only —
and so they should love the world. "God hath
showed me," said Peter to the Roman captain,
Cornelius, "that I should call no man common or
unclean." Therefore, Peter was willing to give
the hand of fellowship to the Gentiles, and welcome
them into the church. The conceptions of the apos-
tles were so changed that they said: "In point of
classification, opportunity, privilege, there can be
'neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free,
neither male nor female.' " "God's love," they
said, "has been shown in the life and sufferings of
Jesus, and his love constrains us. We are will-
ing to live and to suffer for the salvation of men."
It was God's love, God's judgment of men, God's
action, and God's effort which impressed them and
made them willing to put away former thoughts and

The Incarnation 99

to live as the love of God had lived in the person
of Jesus. God loved the world, and they, too,
should love the world. God's love as it had ap-
peared in Jesus, had given itself for them, and they
should love as He had loved.

That which the apostles first preached as revealed
and published in the life of Jesus was not new
ethics or a new sociology, but a new theology. They
preached the Father who had revealed Himself
through a Son. "In former times," they said, "God
spoke to our fathers in prophets, but now He hath
spoken to us in a Son." They worshipped God
not as King, but as Father. They obeyed God not
as servants, but as sons. As a result of this faith
and this worship, they taught that the distinctions
which had existed between men were fortuitous and
should be abolished. They taught that men should
be brothers. Their sociology followed their the-
ology.

In all this description, there is no intention of de-
nying or making little of any statements of the
New Testament respecting the conception and birth
of Jesus, but only the intention of emphasizing the
greatness of His personality. Jesus' character
showed love; His works, power; His words, spirit
and life. The effect of Jesus' life upon men was
to make them new creations in love, purpose, and
power of holy living. The efEect of Jesus' life was
such that men felt that He could not be accounted
for by the common lines of heredity, education, and
environment. Jesus' life was so full, so rich, so
life-giving that men felt that it must spring from

lOO The Secret of Successful Life

some higher source than the lives of other men.

How that life came to be, like the coming of all
life, is a mystery. Life was not, life is. Whence
it comes, who knows? How it comes, who can
tell ? The ordinary processes of sowing seed and of
physical generation, the growth of plants and of
bodies is something known, — but life itself, in its
origin and nature is unknown. Life is the name
we apply to that secret, silent, 'potent power which
vivifies, shapes, and completes any living thing.

All life is of God. He is the living essence in the
universe. He is the giver of life. His touch vivi-
fies. His breath quickens. His spirit imparts in-
telligent and moral life. He speaks, and things
grow.

But with every stage of increasing life, something
is added which was not before. There is something
in vegetation which was not in the mineral; that
something is life. There is something in an ani-
mal which was not in a plant ; that is more life.
There is something in man in capacity and possibil-
ity which was not in the animal; that is still more
life. There is something in Jesus which was not
in man; that, too, is more life. Man, in respira-
tion and the circulation of blood, is akin to vegeta-
tion; and, in nervous structure and feeling man is
akin to the whole animal kingdom; but there is
something in man which is not in the vegetable nor
in the animal below man. Jesus in physical and
psychical nature is like man and akin to him : but
Jesus in moral and spiritual nature transcends man.

"The invisible things of God," says Saint Paul,

The Incarnation lOl

"are clearly seen being perceived through the things
that are made, even His everlasting power and di-
vinity." Power is seen in the roll of a locomotive,
and power is seen in the revolution of a world. Wis-
dom is seen in the construction of a watch, and wis-
dom is seen in the construction of a plant. But who
can tell from a locomotive what is the moral char-
acter of its maker? Who can tell from a watch
what is the ruling principle of the man who made
it? Who can tell from the material universe, so
expressive of intelligence and power, what is the
moral character of its Creator? How shall love,
mercy, pity, compassion, and grace, if they be in
God, be made to appear to men ? The sun does not
change its face whether its beams brighten or burn
the face of man. The sea does not change its swell
or its sound whether it carries the ship of man on its
waves or swallows that ship in its depths. A gen-
eral benevolence may appear in the course of na-
ture, but specific love is never shown. How shall
a God of love who, loving, obeys love's great law of
sacrifice be made known?

The New Testament says: "God so loved the
world that He gave His Son for men." It also
says: ''Hereby know we love, because He laid
down His life for us." Jesus has revealed what
nature has not spoken and cannot speak. After
Jesus' revelation was given, then, an account of His
coming into the world could be given. This we
have in the New Testament.

Perhaps it had been as well if the Greek mind
never had attempted to define the person of Christ.

I02 The Secret of Successful Life

Light, life and love are indefinable. They may be
described, but they transcend definition. Christ
loved the world and became the light of the world
and the life of the world ; but, like light and life,
He cannot be defined. But men naturally desire
definition. Much that has been written about the
person of Christ has been an attempt to make a
mystery comprehensible to the human mind. Men
have described Christ as "the God-Man" consist-
ing of two natures, in one person, subsisting side
by side, like oil and water, each with its own quali-
ties and its own actions, but ever distinct. The
simple statement of the New Testament, namely,
that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
himself," is better. This is a statement of fact.
What Christ is, is of value. How he came to be,
might be left unknown or to be known later.

However, if men seek an explanation of the
source and method of the life and character of Jesus ;
it seems to me, there is no more simple, natural, and
scientific setting forth of the case than that given by
Saint Luke in the introduction of his gospel.

There is a disposition on the part of many to
deny or to doubt the story of the birth of Jesus as
related by Saint Luke. This arises largely, I
think, from certain teaching of modern times which
tends to create a feeling that, since the first creation,
nothing new or extraordinary has happened in the
world. But Jesus is something both new and ex-
traordinary. Much is made of the fact that, with
the exception of Matthew and Luke, none of the
other New Testament authors tell the story of the

The Incarnation 103

birth of Jesus. But we must remember that the
Fourth Gospel according to John says: That "the
Word which in the beginning was with God and
was God became flesh and dwelt among us." The
First Epistle of John says: *'The life was mani-
fested, and we have seen it and bear witness and
declare unto you the eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested unto us." The author
of The Epistle to the Hebrews says: '*God having
spoken unto the fathers in the prophets hath spoken
unto us in His Son whom He appointed heir of all
things, through whom also He made the worlds."
Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, says:
"In Him were all things created in the heavens and
upon the earth — all things have been created through
Him, and unto Him: and He is before all things
and in Him all things consist." The denial of the
truth of the narrative by Saint Luke does not sim-
plify matters, or leave any explanation of a method
by which such an "eternal life" and transcendant
person became incarnate and lived among men.

Saint Luke's statement seems to me, personally, the
most simple and the most satisfactory account of the
person of Jesus, the Christ, which ever has been
given. A few facts concerning life as we know it
are worth noticing in this connection. Life is a
mysterious something which shapes and rules every
living creature. In the case of animals and men —
whatever may be the life of each physical cell — even
if we regard an animal body as a community of
cells — the unifying force which makes one plant or
one animal, and gives continuity to the life, is the

104 The Secret of Successful Life

soul. The body continually changes, but the soul
constantly remains. The psyche in beast and in
man is the formative power which shapes the body,
determines the actions, and makes the character.
Each creature is like its prenatal disposition, that is,
its psyche or soul. A bull dog whose nature is to
seize and to hold on, has a body and jaws suited for
that purpose. A hound is moulded before its birth
for the race. A deer and an elephant, a draft horse
and a race horse, are shaped by an inner nature and
each animal is fitted for the life it must lead.
Among men, character is like the physique, because
the character forms the physique. Every gifted and
great man is endowed before his birth and is ordain-
ed to be poet or painter, sculptor or scholar, prince
or prophet, before his birth. Whether men claim
the power to read character from the head, from the
features and expression of the face, or from the lines
on the hand, the claim is based upon the physical
correspondence with the inner life.

Through the body, life is revealed and we see it,
read it, and know it. A German philosopher, Scho-
penhauer, in his treatise on The World As Will
and Idea, writing on heredity and with no thought
of Jesus in mind, makes these suggestive statements:
"If now we cast upon this problem, the light of our
fundamental knowledge that the will is the true
being, the kernal, the radical element, in man ; and
the intellect, on the other hand, is what is secondary,
adventitious, the accident of that substance; before
questioning experience we will assume as at least
probable that the father as sexus potior and the pro-

The Incarnation 105

creative principle, imparts the basis, the radical ele-
ment of the new life, thus the will and the mother,
as sexus sequior and merely conceiving principle, im-
parts the secondary element, the intellect; that thus
the man inherits his moral nature, his character, his
inclinations, his heart from the father, and, on the
other hand, the grade, quality, and tendency of his
intelligence from the mother. Now this assumption
actually finds its confirmation in experience; only
this cannot be decided by a physical experiment upon
the table, but results partly from the careful and
acute observation of many years, and partly from
history."

This theory may not be capable of proof, but it is
suggestive in relation to the common theory of the
Christian church in respect of the person of Jesus.
In Him, derived from His mother, feeling, thought,
emotion and passion in all ways are most truly hu-
man and common to men ; and the spiritual quality
.and moral tone of His life are truly divine and coin-
cide with what is in God the Father.

Now in this connection, let us read the story given
us by Saint Luke. He says that he traced carefully
all things from the first so as to give the earliest
traditional belief concerning the birth and life of
Jesus. Saint Luke tells us that the angel in declar-
ing to Mary how the promised Son should come,
said : "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the
power of the Most High shall overshadow thee:
wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten
of thee shall be called the Son of God." This may
be translated, ''That which is to be born, shall be

io6 The Secret of Successful Life

called holy, the Son of God."

God is a spirit, and the soul of Mary, touched
and filled by the Spirit divine, was the immediate
source of that soul, that living essence, which filled
and formed the living germ from which the body of
her child grew, and that child thus begotten and
born was the embodiment and the expression of the
eternal life and of the divine love. So the divine
life imparted itself and centered itself in humanity.
So the child, one in life and one in personality, hu-
man in condition and divine in disposition, entered
the world and was called the Son of man and the
Son of God. In appetite, passion, intellect, and all
elements of human nature He was the brother of
men. In spiritual quality and moral tone. He was
the Son of God. So God was in Christ who became
thereby the image of the invisible God. So the
divine life in its spirituality dwelt in Him, and was
revealed through Him.

I venture the above suggestions as being in accord
with what we know to be true with respect to the
relation of the soul and the body in the animal
kingdom, as being in accord with respect to much
that we know to be true of man in natural generation,
as being in accord with the promise made to Mary
by the angel, and as being true with respect to the
revelation of God made in Jesus Christ.

I do not make these suggestions ex cathedra as a
philosophy which another must accept. I make these
suggestions tentatively as a possible theory which
may relieve the minds of some persons who accept
the New Testament record, but are troubled because

The Incarnation 107

of ideas suggested by the material side of physical
birth. I do not claim to explain a mystery, but only
to put forth a suggestion which seems a reasonable
interpretation of the manner of the incarnation.

In Jesus there was a life which in its spiritual
quality, expression, and power, men felt and still
feel to be superior to all other life in this world.
Had the life of Jesus in its source and in its quality
been just the same as the life of every man; had the
beauty and the power of the life of Jesus been due
simply to the fact that He willingly received more
fully of the divine spirit than other men ; had Jesus
merely illustrated what is possible for other men;
then, ere this time, He should have been equalled by
other men. But Jesus remains apart, distinct and
supreme. Men see in Him, and not in His disciples
of any age, the image of the invisible God. Men
do not look to any of His disciples, but to Him for
the gift of life. Men give praise, not to any of His
disciples, nor to the entire body of believers, but to
Him for salvation. Were Jesus simply the first
among many, this could not be the case. Others
would share His position in the thoughts of men and
share also His power and His glory. Men never
think of placing Paul, nor any other person in the
place of Christ.

This unique and transcendent position could not
be held age after age, were there not something in
Jesus to justify it. Men who cannot tell in any
single instance whence life comes, nor how it comes,
nor what it is, but who in every instance know it
and designate it by what it does, need not be sur-

io8 The Secret of Successful Life

prised at the inexplicable mystery of the life of Jesus.
They need not be surprised that the church, with
well-nigh universal uniformity, has held fast to the
doctrine of divine incarnation. The church which
believes that God has spoken in many prophets by
inspiration believes that He has spoken more vitally
in a Son. The church believes that he who sees the
Son, sees the Father who sent Him. This knowl-
edge of God, however, is not primarily an intellec-
tual knowledge which one may measure and mark
limits and comprehend as one may know a material
thing. It is, rather, the knowledge of faith and love
which sees and feels and enjoys as a growing child
sees and feels and enjoys a mother. It is a knowl-
edge of the heart.

It is the moral nature of God, His sentiment,
feeling, and will towards men, which Jesus makes
known. Save the one statement that God is a spirit,
Jesus says nothing about the metaphysical nature
of God. Jesus tells what God does in making the
sun to rise and the rain to fall upon good and evil
men alike; what God feels in that He loves the
world; what God suffers in that He loves with
sympathy ; what God knows in that He knows the
need of every saint ; what God hears in that He
listens to the cry of the needy; what God wills in
that it is His will to save and to keep every trustful
soul which seeks Him. Jesus' revelation is not de-
signed to satisfy the curiosity of the mind, but to
meet the need of the humble, penitent, and trust-
ful heart.

What a man may know by intellectual perception,

The Incarnation 109

analysis, and reasoning, is always inferior to the man
himself. What a man may know by trust and love,
and by communion and obedience is superior to
himself. The world by wisdom — that is by intellec-
tual acumen and apprehension — knew not God and
knows Him not. The world by wisdom will never
know God's Son, but he who by faith knows the
Father, will know the Son, and he who by love
knows the Son will know the Father.

It is not by arbitrary choice and unreasonable
action on the part of God, but by nature of a trust-
ful spirit and a teachable mind that things hidden
from the wise and prudent are revealed unto babes.
A child is not the equal of a philosopher in intellec-
tual acumen and knowledge, but, in the sphere of the
spirit, 'things which are hidden from the philosopher
may be revealed to the child because he is using the
proper organ. One can never perceive light by
the ear, or learn music by the eye, or know the
things of the spirit by the intellect. "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;
for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things." It is
true that one may learn the symbols of music by the
eye, and that he may state by the intellect things
which are known by the heart; but music itself
must be learned by the ear and the things of the
heart must be known by the heart itself. The man
who loves, knows God ; because God is love.

Jesus praised Peter, when Peter called Him "The
Son of God." Jesus promised to build His church

no The Secret of Successful Life

upon this fact and on this confession. But there is
no record of Jesus' requiring a definition of His
person as a condition of receiving healing from sick-
ness, or salvation from sin. What Jesus did require
was faith, that is, belief in His ability to help and
in His power to save. According to faith, the bless-
ing came. Unbelief was the only limit. The limi-
tation was in man, not in Jesus. In some places,
Jesus did not many mighty works, because of their
unbelief. To one who sought a blessing from Him,
Jesus said, "All things are possible to him that be-
lieveth."

The leper who knelt at the feet of Jesus needed
only faith to say, "Lord, if Thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean," to feel the power of the cleansing
life. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus'
garment needed only faith to say, "If I but touch,
I shall be healed," to be made whole. The sinful
woman who wept over the feet of Jesus as He
reclined at table, needed only faith to believe that
He would pardon to hear Him say, "Thy sins are
forgiven; go in peace."

Zaccheus, the publican of local ill-repute, needed
only the faith which would grant hospitality to Jesus
to hear Him say, "This day is salvation come to this
house." The penitent thief on the cross needed
only faith to lay the bruised and broken remnant
of a misspent life on the breast of Jesus to hear
Him say, "To-day thou shalt be with Me in para-
dise."

According to the record given in The Acts of the
Apostles, the apostolic church required, as a condi-

The Incarnation iii

tion of church membership, three things, namely:
repentance from sin; belief that Jesus, whom men
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, is the
Son of God; and belief that through Him forgive-
ness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit are given
to them who believe. Baptism was the symbol of
the washing away of sins and the Lord's Supper
was the visible pledge of spiritual communion. No
verbal statement of the manner of the incarnation
and of Jesus' advent; no definition of the meta-
physical nature of Jesus' person; no theory of the
method of his atonement ; no description of the
processes of the new life was demanded as a condi-
tion of discipleship and of membership in the church.
This was both wise and well.

Few men, in any department of life, care for
scientific knowledge or for philosophic statement of
the nature and relation of the things with which
they deal. Practical knowledge is what most men
desire and what they use. Scientists and philoso-
phers, however useful, are few in number. Most
men believe in the things which they use without
scientific knowledge of them and the practical ends
of life are well served. This is quite as true in
spiritual, as in material, things.

It is natural for men, especially for some men, to
formulate their thought of what they have learned
and experienced, and creeds are a natural expres-
sion of Christian belief. A creed stated in simple
language and used for liturgical purposes may be
valuable. But a creed used as a fence to exclude
from the communion of the church is a mistake.

112 The Secret of Successful Life

Truth preached for purposes of instruction and in-
spiration is valuable, but the creed of a man must
be a growth of his own experience, whether he
states that creed in his own language or in the
language of another.

It has been a mistake for men to formulate an in-
tellectual and philosophical creed, — like the Atha-
nasian creed, for example, with its fine distinctions
of the persons of the Trinity and of the person of
Jesus Christ, — and to make the acceptance of its
propositions a condition of receiving salvation. This,
as in the case of the above creed, has been done,
"Whosoever will be saved; before all things it is
necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which
Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled :
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

The Greeks, with their love of philosophical spec-
ulation and of scientific analysis, gave to the church
that habit of mind which produced the Ecumenical
creeds. The Romans with their love of law and
power gave to the church that complex organization
which issued in the papacy. The Reformation
broke the authority of the latter for the Protestant
churches; but the Reformation retained the philo-
sophic method of the former and imposed elaborate
creeds upon Protestant churches.

After centuries of contention, division, and expe-
rience, the Protestant churches are slowly coming
back to "the simplicity which is in Christ." In re-
ligion, the heart is more than the head. Valuable
as clear conceptions and even definitions are, it is not
intellectual knowledge of truth stated in philosoph-

The Incarnation 113

ical terms, but faith in a Person which secures sal-
vation, and love for persons, which fulfills the law
of Christian living. Jesus has given faith, which
is trust, and love, which is devotion, the supreme
place in the Christian system and in the soul of man.
Jesus has declared that faith is the condition of sal-
vation, and that love is the expression and fulfill-
ment of salvation. Faith, therefore, entitles a man
to membership in the Christian church, and love is
the evidence of his worthiness for such member-
ship. This the church is coming more and more to
see and to accept. This fact does not arise from
a denial of the faith even in an intellectual form;
but from that love which admits gradation in
knowledge and which permits differences of opinion
in the sphere of the intellect, where men seeing in
part and knowing in part, always have differed and
always will differ, and which asserts that the basis
of Christian union is a common faith in a com-
mon Lord and a common love as the motive of
righteous living.

This is what the church must come to in prac-
tical unity, if there is to be efficiency in a community
where there should be only one church. This is the
condition to which the church must come, if there
is to be united power in withstanding the evil which
is in the world. This liberty must be allowed, if men
are to be permitted to think. It must be allowed if
the best thinkers are permitted to lead. It must be
admitted, if men trust the truth. It must be admit-
ted, if we believe with Jesus that "every one that
is of the truth cometh to the light, and that every

The Secret of Successful Life

one that loveth, knoweth God."

Certain results have followed the revelation of
God in Jesus Christ, and, historically, have followed
the course of the gospel of grace.

First, polytheism has passed and is passing away.
Whatever may be said of polytheism as an attempt
on the part of men to give expression to their con-
ception of the divine being or of divine beings, it re-
sults, always, in crudeness of worship, in carnality
of life, and in destruction of belief in human broth-
erhood. Where each race or tribe has its own god
or gods, there can be no true unity among men. The
preaching of the gospel has been followed, always,
by the passing away of polytheism. Its temples have
fallen ; its altars have crumbled ; its idols have dis-
appeared. Throughout Christendom, men have
come to believe in one God.

Second, through the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ, men have come to believe in God as a
Father. The imperial idea of God gives place
to the paternal idea of God. This does not mean
that the conception of divine power has passed away,
but that power is infused with love and adminis-
tered in grace. There is more power, in some ways,
in the family than in the state ; in a father than in
a king, but the administration is different, and its
design in love is more apparent. Throughout
Christendom, men's idea of God is that of a
Father.

Third, following the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ has come the conception of human brother-
hood. Slowly, alas, too slowly, is brotherhood be-

The Incarnation 115

lleved and practiced ; but it is coming. It has been
coming ever since Jesus taught men to pray saying,
''Our Father," and taught them to love as He loved.
Nothing was more marked in the church in the first
instance than the passing of Jewish narrowness and
the admission of Gentiles to brotherhood in the
church. Men who had been unwilling to eat with
Gentiles saw that God would have them call no
man unclean because of his race or nationality. If
God is one and loves the whole race of mankind,
then, men must love their fellowmen everywhere.
Slowly, this fact has been received as a doctrine, and
more slowly has it been admitted in practice ; but its
reception as a truth is gaining rapidly now and is be-
coming an obsession in many minds. It must prac-
tically rule the world. It is a truth which came
with Jesus and it must rule where he is King. It
must be held that He who does not love men, can-
not love God.

Fourth, following the revelation of the law of
love as the law of life in Jesus Christ, has come the
belief in the law of service for all men. Service
always has been in the world but, too frequently,
it has been the service of the many to the few and
of the weak to the strong. It has been a servile
service from which strong men have sought exemp-
tion. But since Jesus lived as one who served and
showed that service is the law of life to which
even God himself is subject, service has been seen
as a liberty of love which glorifies. Strong men
may well yield obedience to this law. This law of
life is now recognized in all Christendom. Service,

Ii6 The Secret of Successful Life

like efficiency, is now one of the most common
words, and expresses a common conception of life.

Service has long been demanded of certain classes
of men. The preacher, the physician, the teacher,
who will not give life to the utmost, has long been
condemned as unworthy of his profession. This
demand of service is spreading. Indebtedness is bas-
ed upon ability. Obligation rests on opportunity.
The king who rules for himself and not for his
people is deemed unworthy of his crown. The man
of wealth who keeps his wealth for himself and who
does not share it with his fellowmen and leave it for
their benefit, is unhonored. The man who knows
Christ must be Christlike in his living. Had not
Jesus, as the Son of God, revealed this law as the
very law of the divine life, men would not have
learned to love as He loved. These four great
facts and forces, namely : belief in one God, faith in
God as a Father, the thought of men as brothers,
and obedience to the law of love in service, all have
resulted from belief in the incarnation and the revel-
ation of God, the Father, in Jesus Christ the Son.

CHAPTER VII

The New Birth

A YELLOW butterfly glowing in the sunshine,
"^^ flying swiftly through the air, lighting daintily
upon flower after flower, and sipping honey from
delicate cups, is quite unlike a caterpillar of which
it is the secondary and completed form. One won-
ders if the voracious caterpillar creeping slowly on
the ground, eating greedily, and casting away skin
after skin to make way for a new one, ever imagines
the change of which it is capable. By a metamor-
phosis during which the natural life undergoes
changes which lift it and which fit it for a higher state
of existence, the caterpillar undergoes a renewing pro-
cess which makes it more beautiful in form, more
dainty in taste, and more refined in the manner of
its life. It is the same life in essence, but a higher
life in its purposes and in the use of its powers. The
caterpillar when it becomes a butterfly is refined,
beautified, and physically glorified.

The butterfly is a physical picture of a psycholog-
ical change which may take place in man. "The
caterpillar, towards the end of summer, waxeth vola-
tile, and turneth to a butterfly," says Bacon. Man,
likewise, as his life progresses, should cease to be
essentially carnal and should become spiritual. A
man should become new by the regeneration of his
soul, transformed by the renewing of his mind, and
117

Ii8 The Secret of Successful Life

beautified by the pervading power of holy love.
With the butterfly, that is not first which is volatile,
fitting it for flight in the air, but that which is
gross, fitting it to creep upon the ground. With
man, also, as Saint Paul has so well said: "That
is not first which is spiritual, but that which is
natural or psychical, then, that which is spiritual or
pneumaticaW That which takes place in the but-
terfly is a metamorphosis, a change of form, wrought
by action of natural life in relation to the earth.
That which takes place in man is a regeneration, a
change of spirit wrought in him by the power of a
spiritual environment. The butterfly, by the action
of a natural power, is lifted to a little higher place
in the kingdom of earth. A man, by action of a
supernatural power touching him within, is lifted
into a higher state called ''the kingdom of God."
The metamorphosed butterfly still draws its life
from the things of earth. The regenerated man
draws his life from the kingdom of heaven. An
inspiration fills him with moral motive and spiritual
excellence. Jesus says: "Except a man be born
from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The word gennao used here in the New Testament,
means both to beget, like a father, and to bring
forth, like a mother. It may refer to the beginning
of life, as in conception, and, also, to a change of life,
as at birth. Both meanings are included in Jesus'
words. He affirms that life must be imparted by
the Spirit and that life must be lived within the
environment of "the kingdom of God." Both uses
of this word gennao occur elsewhere in the New

The New Birth 119

Testament. Men who experience the change
wrought in regeneration are said to be "begotten of
God," to be "born of God," and to be "sons of
God." This is the destiny for which man has been
created, but he may fail of its fulfilment. A cater-
pillar is made to become a butterfly, but a caterpillar
may fail to reach this consummation of its existence.
A man is born into the world to become a son of
God, but a man may fail to reach this consumma-
tion of his creation by failing to find and to fulfil
the conditions of a completed life. If it were left
to a caterpillar to choose whether it would become
a butterfly, it might refuse to accept the change. It
might prefer to remain a caterpillar. Man is a crea-
ture with power of choice and with liberty of choice.
A man cannot lift himself into the kingdom of
heaven; but a man may resist the power which
would lift him into that kingdom; he may prefer
to remain wholly within the communion of things of
the earth.

Several years ago, Professor Drummond called
attention to the fact that a change from one king-
dom to another kingdom in the ascending scale of
being is accomplished, always, by the entrance into
the lower kingdom of a new and transforming force
from above. The mineral never can transform itself
into a vegetable, nor can the mineral kingdom, of
itself, produce a vegetable. A seed in the soil is the
beginning of the transformation of mineral subs-
tance into vegetable substance, and the source of a
vegetable product. Whence life first came, no man
knows save by faith. But we do know that one

120 The Secret of Successful Life

form of life and being cannot lift itself into a higher
kingdom. Accepting this scientific fact, Professor
Drummond has said: ''The world of natural men
is staked off from the spiritual world by barriers
which never yet have been crossed from within.
No organic change, no modification of environment,
no mental energy, no moral effort, no evolution of
character, no progress of civilization, can endow any
single soul with the attribute of spiritual life. The
spiritual world is guarded from the world next in
order beneath it by a law of biogenesis — except a
man be born again, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Except a mineral be born from above —
from the kingdom just above it — it cannot enter
into the kingdom just above it. And except a man
be born from above, by the same law, he cannot
enter the kingdom just above him."

Let it be noted, however, that there is this
important difference between a mineral and a man.
The mineral has no will. Any change on the part
of a mineral is without volition on its part, without
resistance, and without choice. A man has will. A
man cannot regenerate himself. He cannot lift him-
self into the kingdom of heaven ; but he can neglect
and he can resist the action of the force which
would life him into that kingdom. A man cannot
live without air in the kingdom of the earth; but
a man may resist air, refuse to breathe, and so die.
A man may resist and refuse the vivifying breath of
the kingdom of heaven, and so fail of heavenly life.
This is the constant teaching of the scriptures. This

The New Birth I2l

is the reason that men are said to be renewed and
saved by the grace of God, and the reason they are
said to be held responsible and guilty for their fail-
ure of salvation. This, according to the New Test-
ament, is the cause of the divine condemnation of
unsaved men. God is represented, in the scriptures,
as coming to men, being present with men, seeking
to renew and save and perfect men. Men are rep-
resented as resisting God and refusing salvation.
Wisdom calls and men mock. Light shines and men
love darkness. The Son of God comes and would
save and men will not accept salvation. The Spirit
woos, and men resist and reject the saving power.
Therefore, they are in darkness, without light, and
doomed to die. This has been the history of man-
kind from the beginning, on the downward side of
carnality, worldliness, and wickedness. Adam chose
to go downward not upward, to live in the flesh not
in the spirit, and so lost Eden. Some men have
been doing the same thing ever since. Men live
under varying degrees of light and of opportunity;
but the ultimate condemnation of men always rests
upon the fact that they have refused to be saved.
They have refused to go up. Therefore, the con-
demnation comes because they have not the life of
the spirit which is love. They have not given bread
to the hungry, nor water to the thirsty, nor ministry
to those in need. They have lived in the flesh ; they
belong to the world ; they have no part in the king-
dom; their names are not written in the book of
life. This condemnation on account of something
negative, on account of what men have not and are

122 The Secret of Successful Life

not, is in keeping with the judgment of life every-
where.

When this truth is more clearly seen than it has
been seen, evangelists will not direct their anathemas
so primarily against the drunkard, the adulterer, the
thief, and the persons who frequent places of amuse-
ment as though these were sinners par excellence;
preachers will not single certain sins as the con-
demning ones to the comfort of a moral, self-right-
eous and self-satisfied congregation; but evangelists
and preachers alike will declare that the sin which
shuts the door of heaven and brings abiding con-
demnation is the sin of refusing to accept the higher
life.

This is not intended to say that immorality, vice,
and crime are not sins and do not bring consequences
of heavy penalty; but it is intended to say that the
absence of immorality, vice, and crime does not
constitute salvation. Freedom from vice and crime
will leave any man free from their special penalties;
but this mere negative goodness will not constitute
eternal life. What does a man do more than an
animal when he simply keeps himself temperate,
loves his mate, cares for his children, is decent in
habit, and well-groomed in body and mind? That
is simply to be adjusted to the world, that is simply
to live well in the present order, that is to get the
best for one's self under earthly conditions, and it
will receive its reward ; but that is not faith in
God, it is not fellowship with Christ, it is not living
in communion with the spiritual kingdom of heaven,
it is not loving as Jesus loved, it is not living as He

The New Birth 123

lived, it is not a service animated by loving self-
surrender to the will of God and to the sacrificial
w2iY of Christ. It has no part in the kingdom of
heavenly and holy love.

On the other hand, there is a life in this world
the opposite of this, namely, the life of those who
have chosen the upward side and have increased in
love and in devoted living. From the beginning,
some have chosen this life. Let them be called
saints, or sons of God, or children of the Highest,
or what you will; they have been lifted out of the
life of selfishness, self-seeking, self-indulgence and
neglect of things of the spirit, and they have been
lifted into the kingdom of love, worship, conse-
cration, devotion, generous sympathy, and altru-
istic service. Wherever they are found, they are
marked as being in spirit of a high order, children
of the upper kingdom.

The life of the new-born is a Christ-like life. As
an old writer has said:

"Though Christ be born a thousand times in Beth-
lehem
Yet if he be not born within thine own soul
His birth is all in vain to thee."

The Christ-like life is reverent, worshipful, trust-
ful, loving, self-sacrificing, and serviceable. It
transcends life in the flesh and in the world not,
chiefly, in the moralities of decent living, but in
the motives, purposes, choices, and activities of life.
A merchant who goes to a foreign country, though he

124 The Secret of Successful Life

deals honestly, which is good, simply that he may
gain riches for himself, is not animated by the same
kind of motive as a missionary who goes to the same
country, and lives self-denyingly, that he may give
the gospel to the natives. The one goes to a foreign
country to get for himself; the other goes that he
may give. This may serve as a picture to illustrate
the difference between the once-born man and the
twice-born man. Selfishness in some form is the
spirit of the once-born man, and self-enjoyment in
some way is the motive in his living. Love in some
form is the spirit of the twice-born man and service
in some way is the motive in his living.

This higher life, like every lower life, is silent
and secret in its inception and it reveals itself by its
various forms of expression. It has a breath, an
atmosphere, a tone, a touch by which its higher and
heavenly qualities are made known. It is a life
of the spirit, and it is spiritually discerned.

Jesus says this life comes from the Spirit of God
and belongs, in its development, in the kingdom of
heaven. It proceeds from a vital touch of the di-
vine Spirit, and it grows by communion with such
things as are in the kingdom of heaven. This is no
more mysterious than life elsewhere. An eagle in
the shell has a beak which may be strong, eyes which
may see, and wings which may sweep the air; but
in the shell the beak is weak, the eyes are without
sight, and the wings are without power. When the
eagle bursts the shell and enters the larger world of
light and air ; then, the beak grows strong, the eyes
become keen in sight, the wings beat the air with

The New Birth 125

power of flight, and the eagle is perfect of its kind.
So the soul of man touched, first, with vivifying
power and, then, born into the kingdom of heaven
becomes a complete soul and perfect after the divine
idea. The New Testament teaches that the pres-
ence and power of the divine spirit, like the pres-
ence and power of light and air in the physical
kingdom, are always in the world moving upon men
to give them this life from above.

In Freiburg, Germany, there is a celebrated or-
gan. One day, Mendelssohn visited Freiburg to
see this organ of which he had heard. He found
an old man, the verger, within the church. Men-
delssohn asked permission to play upon the organ.
This was denied him. But the great man talked so
intelligently and so lovingly of the organ that at
length the verger consented to let him play upon
it. Presently, the fingers of the musician began to
move caressingly over the keys and the church be-
came filled with such music as the verger never
had heard. He stood entranced, touched and
charmed by the sweet tones. He never had known
the capabilities of that organ. "Who are you?" he
exclaimed, as the music ceased, ''I am Mendels-
sohn," was the reply. *'And to think," said the
verger, "that I was unwilling to permit you to play
upon that organ." Man is like this organ. He is a
creature of great potential powers; but he needs to
be touched in his feelings and emotions, his affec-
tions and his choices, by a spirit which will bring
out all the possible good which is in him. We may
not know all the meaning of Jesus' words respecting

126 The Secret of Successful Life

the new birth, but we can know the truth of his say-
ing, ''That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." While
we must leave the inception of the spiritual life in
the silence and secrecy which belongs to the begin-
ning of all life, yet we know enough of the power
of spiritual touch and the method of spiritual cul-
ture to be well assured of the processes of spiritual
growth. We know that that which touches a man
only through his fleshly nature, never elevates him,
and that it frequently degrades him. We know,
also, that that which touches the springs of a man's
soul may make him a new creature ; it may elevate,
refine, and save him. Instances of this are numer-
ous, and a few may serve the purpose of illustration.

In one of George Eliot's books, Silas Marner, an
English weaver who has been crossed in love and
disappointed in business, shuts himself away from
his fellow men and lives alone plying his trade. He
saves his money until he comes to live for the gold
he may earn, over which he gloats in a perverted
love by night. Loving gold, he is debased by it
until he becomes a miser of narrow type. Suddenly
and unexpectedly, a little girl is left with him. In
caring for her whose beauty of spirit he discerns,
his captivity to gold is broken. He loves her with
the ardor of a strong heart. He becomes a man
dominated by love. That which is born of the
spirit is spirit, in him.

In the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, is
the original statue of The Greek Slave, by an Amer-
ican sculptor, Powers. A story to this effect is told

The New Birth 127

of this statue. When that statue, a figure of a
woman exquisitely formed and with a face of sur-
passing purity and sweetness, but chained as a slave,
was first exhibited in a window in Rome, a common
servant girl stopped to look upon it. Standing be-
fore that statue, she was struck by the purity and
beauty of one of her own class, a slave. She went
home, washed her face, combed her hair, and ad-
justed her dress to such neatness as was possible,
bay after day, she returned to look upon this figure
of a slave made beautiful by the purity of an inward
life, until she herself was transformed by its influ-
ence. It was not the marble, not the lines of physi-
cal beauty, but the conception of womanly purity,
modesty, and sweetness w^hich the artist had caused
to express themselves through the marble which
touched the soul of the servant maid, set her free,
and made her beautiful. It was spirit which spoke to
spirit. That which is born of the spirit, is spirit.

Recently, I heard a man condemn the popular
conception of the Virgin Mary as the embodiment of
beauty which has been held by the church in an
idealized manner. He proceeded to describe Mary
in terms of the physical form of a common peasant
woman of Galilee. His description may have been
photographically true, but it pained me. What has
there been in Mary which has held the mind of the
church to the high ideal of her? This: her purity;
her modesty when the angel spoke to her; her sub-
mission to the divine will, "Be it unto me accord-
ing to thy word;" her trust in facing a situation
which might blacken her reputation; her patience

128 The Secret of Successful Life

in waiting through long years for the revelation of
her son ; her wisdom, keeping all the great promises
in her heart; her supreme sufferings, ''Now there
stood by the cross of Jesus his mother," — these
are the great qualities which the heart has felt
and which may have prompted the imagination to
exaggerate her physical beauty. But what does it
matter? Is not the heart the chief element of value?
I doubt not but many a humble girl and many a
suffering woman kneeling before an image of the
Virgin have found there inspiration to purity, mod-
esty, trustfulness, patience, and heroism in suffer-
ing which have greatly blessed them. Is the trellis
on which a morning glory climbs, a matter of chief
value? Are not the flowers, bright in the sunlight,
what a man wants? Does God care greatly for
the ladder on which some soul climbs to get a
glimpse of beauty, if that soul is thereby beautified?
That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

At one time, passing through a ward of a hos-
pital, where it was my duty to minister to patients,
I came to a bed on which lay a stalwart Irishman
greatly afflicted and unable even to lie in a comfort-
able position. I expressed my sympathy for him in
his unusual sufferings. Turning towards me, he
said, "The Saviour suffered more for us, sor, and
we should be willing to suffer." This man's theory
of the nature and purpose of Christ's suf-
ferings may have differed from the opinions
of some others, but his vision of the suf-
fering Christ made him patient in suffering
and peaceful in pain. That which is born of the

The New Birth 129

spirit, IS spirit.

The heart is deeper than the intellect, and
prompts to higher living and holier character. Truth
received by the mind, must sink into the depths of
a man's nature where the sources of action are, if
it is to move and transform him. It is not abstract
truth, but truth embodied in living character, which
God uses to save men. God speaks in prophets.
God reveals himself in a Son. Life is saved and
trained by life. If a man cannot see beauty when
it is set before him ; then, he cannot be taught what
is beautiful. If a man cannot hear music; then,
he cannot be taught music. If a man cannot see
goodness when it is set before him; then, he cannot
be taught goodness.

Jesus used this method of teaching. He washed
the disciples feet and then bade them follow His
example in the spirit of humility and service. Jesus
loved men to the point of giving His life for them
and then bade His disciples love as He loved. Jesus
presented the Father to men in the regnant greatness
of His love and mercifulness, and then bade them
be merciful as the Father is merciful, and gracious
as the Father is gracious, and perfect as the Father
is perfect.

This was the practical method used by the
apostles. When Saint Paul would enlarge the Chris-
tians of Corinth in generous sympathy to the point
of giving liberally for the relief of poor saints in
Jerusalem, he said, 'Tor ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His

130 The Secret of Successful Life

poverty might become rich." When Peter would
comfort servants who suffered unjustly at the hands
of cruel masters, he said: "If when ye do well and
suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is accept-
able with God. For hereunto were ye called; be-
cause Christ also suifered for you, leaving 3^ou an
example, that ye should follow His steps." When
Saint John would call the disciples to heroism, he
said: **He laid down his life for us: and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren." By touch-
ing the souls of men by the mercy of God, by the
love of Christ, and by the heroism of his sacrifice,
the apostles who called men into His kingdom and
glory, sought to awaken similar graces in them.
That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

That there is such a thing as a spiritual regenera-
tion by which men are renewed and made new men
is a fact of experience and a fact of observation.
There are those who testify to the change which
has been wrought in them, and there are those who
bear witness to the great change which they have
seen in others. In the record in the New Testa-
ment, there is account of men who became new
with clearer knowledge of truth, with wider vision,
with more generous sympathies, and with more
altruistic purposes, and whose lives were spent in the
loving service of mankind.

The annals of the church contain the names of
many who were changed from an open life of fleshly
vice into a life of spiritual virtue. The historian,
Gibbon, who will not be charged with prejudice for
Christianity, frankly says, "The friends of Chris-

The New Birth 131

tianity may acknowledge without a blush, that many
of the most eminent saints had been before their
baptism the most abandoned sinners. As they
emerged from sin and superstition to the glorious
hope of immortality, they resolved to devote them-
selves to a life not only of virtue, but of penitence.
The desire for perfection became the ruling passion
of their soul."

In modern times, there are changes quite as
marked. Mr. Begbie, in Twice-Born Men, relates
the experience of men in Ceylon and in India. These
men have been accused by their fellow men of being
possessed by devils. Their spirit and manners give
every mark of demonical possession. Under influ-
ences of missionaries of the Salvation Army, some
of them become rational, quiet, and docile. Under
the spell of Christ they become very useful, giving
every evidence of a change of heart and soul. They
become entirely new men. The change is as marked
as in any case recorded in the New Testament. They
too give credit to Christ for the change.

Great changes in character occur, also, in Chris-
tian lands. Many who have been abandoned sin-
ners become eminent and useful saints. But it is
not in such changes that we need feel compelled to
look for evidences of the new birth. It is the quality
of the life and not its contrast to a former mode of
living which attests its spiritual character. Faith
and love and devotion mark the new life, though
one may have grown in it from childhood, and never
may have known another spirit. It is the quality
of life rather than any contrast to previous exper-

132 The Secret of Successful Life

iences which marks it as belonging to the heavenly
kingdom. Many have been led from infancy in the
footsteps of Christ. They exhibit the reality of a
Christ-like life among men. Faith is the ruling
principle in their life, and love is their motive power.
In such persons, the flesh is subject to the spirit,
the world is subjected to the kingdom of heaven,
purity is more than pleasure, truth is more precious
than gain, integrity is more than position, to do the
will of God is more than to please men, and to win
the praise of God is sweeter than to hear the plau-
dits of the world. The twice-born man does not
desire to possess personally, to own legally, and to
use selfishly, simply for himself; but he desires to
possess, to own, and to use for the glory of God and
for the good of men. The twice-born man does
certain things because they are godlike, such as the
Father does; he does other things because love
prompts the doing of them ; he does still other
things because the cry of need appeals to him. The
authority which he obeys is in his spirit; the law
is within his heart ; the deed is without gain to him-
self. As the sun shines because it is its nature to
shine; as flowers bloom and breathe their fragrance
on the air because they must ; as fruit ripens and
hangs ready for the hand which will pluck it; so
the goodness of the new man is spontaneous, free,
and beneficient. Like Jesus, the souls of such men
lie open heavenward for inspiration, and open earth-
ward to hear the cry of need. They are sons of
God ; they are servants of men ; they are living
souls whose love and ministry make an enduring

The New Birth 133

society possible. It should be remembered, always,
that the man who is born of the Spirit begins as a
babe in the kingdom of heaven. He is still in the
flesh ; appetite and passion may be strong within
him. But a new force is working within him to
subject every appetite and passion and power to the
law of God.

A modern woman who passed through the not
uncommon experience of seeking to find physical
health and mental comfort and ease for herself
alone, and who, intellectuality, passed through the
mists and twilights of New Thought and occult
searchings after philosophic truth ; relates her exper-
ience by saying, "When I say that I became a Chris-
tian, I mean to use the words of the evangelists, that
*I found Christ'; or to use the words that seem to
describe what actually happened, I was 'born again.*
This process of introduction took about three
months. It was cumulative in method and results.
It was by neither a reasoning nor an emotional pro-
cess that this knowledge (if one may use so cold a
word of so warm a thing) came, but a sort of grad-
ual stimulation of the soul; a fanning, as it were,
of the spark of Godhead within me till the life of the
soul took command of the whole life ; till the divine
spark burst into a 'consuming fire,' till that point
was reached where aspiration becomes realization.
*I lost myself and lost the desire of having my own
way, in the love of the way of Christ.' " This
woman might have said, as a man of an ancient time
said, "Christ liveth in me." That is to say, the
spirit which animated and controlled Christ, ani-

134 The Secret of Successful Life

mates and controls the person who is born of the
spirit.

''The difference between the spiritual man and
the natural man is not a difference of development,
but of generation." In the beginning, the difference
between a man of the world and a man of the
kingdom may be invisible to the eye of man. Indeed,
if by nature and by culture, the man of the world
is the finer man, he may seem to be the better man.
Along some lines, also, the man of the world may be
the better man. But, as in all life, the difference
will become more marked as time passes. The man
who is not conformed to the world, but who is being
transformed, will become visibly the better man. At
first, the difference is wholly within and hence hid-
den from the eye. It is a keener sense of God, a
spirit of trust in Him, a grateful heart, an obedient
will, a desire to submit to the will of God and to
obey that will, and an increasing power of love.
At last, when completed, it will be conformity to the
image of God and likeness to Christ. The divine
purpose in creation will be complete in Christian
character. ''Heaven lies about us in our infancy,"
a poet sang. But more truly, by far, heaven lies
about us in our age, if life has been spent in learning
the will and the way of God.

The sad thing which suggests failure of a suc-
cessful life on the part of some persons, is the fact
that they do not, by any voluntary action, place
themselves in contact with those places and persons
and means and forces which may awaken and culti-
vate the spiritual life. Some, indeed, seem sedu-

The New Birth 135

lously to avoid all such places and persons. Churches,
sermons, sacred songs, liturgies, societies for render-
ing Christian service, are all efficient means of cul-
tivating spiritual life. To some persons, these offer
no attraction; to some they are valuable for their
incidents, such as sociability, and not for their soul.
Some find them a means of grace and of growth.

How shall one who wilfully avoids all places
where music is heard or taught or practiced, grow
in musical nature and culture ? How shall one who
takes pains to avoid all places of art and beauty,
grow in esthetic nature and in the love of beauty?
How shall one who avoids all places and persons
suggesting God and revealing God, grow in the
likeness of God? That is impossible. To pursue
such a course is to turn deliberately away from light
and from spiritual life. A spiritual capacity unused,
like an unused physical power, will atrophy and be
lost.

But such persons as place themselves voluntarily
under the influences of such means and of such per-
sons as awaken a sense of truth and righteousness
and love, will grow continually. And a successful
life must ever come from following the way of Him
who is the truth and the life.

Look then on any vision which through art may
speak to you of purity and moral beauty. Listen
and hear any voice which through music speaks
to you of love and of worship and praise. Learn to
see and know on the page of literature, the saintly
characters which glow and are radiant with the
warmth of sweet sympathy, and which are regal in

136 The Secret of Successful Life

the greatness of a serviceable life. Behold the
matchless person of Christ as He stands out upon
the page of the scriptures until you are inflamed
with a desire to be like Him. Interpret the circum-
stances of life in the light of the divine purpose of
training of character. Yield ever to the inspira-
tions of the Spirit which touch the soul in many
ways to inspire goodness. Then, your years will
not be spent in vain, but you will find and you will
know the way of a truly successful life.

Love is a unifying force. Love unites man to
God and to men. Love saves. The loving man
lives. The life of love endures not by virtue of any
arbitrary decree, but because of its own inherent
nature. The life of love is eternal in its essence,
and the kingdom to which it belongs is an eternal
kingdom.

CHAPTER VIII

Love as an Atmosphere

"V/T OST days drop behind us into the common
^^■^ pathway of the past and are forgotten. They
have no distinguishing feature and, in memory, they
blend in indistinctness with many such days. Some
days are remembered because each is an anniver-
sary of an event of importance. A few days are
remembered for what they were in themselves. One
such day stands out vividly in my own memory. A
blue sky bright and unclouded, a pure air exhilarat-
ing like wine, mountain heights to be climbed with
joy, a wide view of an enlarged and beautiful
world, and simple physical and mental delight in
the mere fact of living made that day remain clear
and distinct in memory. It lives because it was a
day of full joyous, triumphant life.

The thing most essential and most valuable to
the life of any creature is atmosphere. The atmos-
phere which we breathe is not air composed of oxy-
gen and nitrogen alone, but air suffused with sun-
shine, moistened with vapor, and pervaded with
electricity. To plants and animals, the atmosphere
is, physically, the kingdom of heaven. It brings min-
istry from higher sources and from wider reaches
than the earth. The atmosphere may injure or it
may improve a living thing; it may nourish or des-
troy life. Plants are blasted in a cold atmosphere
and withered in a hot one. Plants grow where tem-
137

138 The Secret of Successful Life

perature, moisture, and light are combined in proper
proportions. Animals are affected by the quality
of the air they breathe, and mood and temper are
frequently the resultant effects of air upon a sensi-
tive organization. Men are wont to speak of air
as heavy, depressing, debilitating, and so injurious to
life, or as pure, exhilarating, and invigorating, and
so favorable to life.

The social atmosphere of a home is the most im-
portant factor in the life of a child. In an atmos-
phere of suspicion, distrust, anger, injustice, and
cruelty, it is impossible for a child to grow in faith,
sweetness, gentleness, and kindness. A child re-
produces the temper, speech, and actions of the
grown persons about him. Common observation of
the speech and conduct of children, confirms this
statement. Even in play, children will use the
tone and language of their elders. There is, of
course, a certain native and individual quality of
character independent of environment; but this is
modified in increased goodness or in intensified bad-
ness by the atmosphere in which a child lives. A
little girl is a moral blossom in the likeness of her
mother, and a small boy tries to reproduce the
speech and conduct of his father.

The moral and spiritual quality of a community
as shown in the speech, conduct, business manners,
amusements, and worship influence the mind and
habits of a growing child.

In so far as personal choice may decide the atmos-
phere which one will breathe, in so far, there is
individual responsibility. One may allow the

Love as an Atmosphere 139

milder or the more severe spirit of a home to dwell
in mind ; one may choose the companions who
awaken the baser, or the companions who awaken
the more refined feelings; one may cultivate the
desires and the actions of the worse or of the bet-
ter spirits about him.

Personal choice performs an important part in the
formation of character. But in so far as choice has
no place, as with the very young who are confined
to a limited and circumstantial atmosphere, environ-
ment is the chief factor in determining quality and
direction of life. The experience and observation
of societies who take charge of neglected and aban-
doned children, and who place them in homes, con-
firms this statement.

The religious atmosphere in which a soul lives is
of prime importance. Man is a religious being. He
has in himself a sense of divinity. He
believes in the supernatural. He is moved by faith in
or by fear of spiritual beings. He will be, or he
will become, like the god he worships. Men whose
heaven is peopled with gods such as Pope's couplet
describes :

"Gods partial, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes are rage, revenge, and lust,"

will indulge themselves in like passions. Fear has
played a great part in the religions of the world.
Fear which is reverent, which is filled with respect,
and which dreads to ofifend, is beneficial. Fear
which is simply apprehension of danger and injury,

I40 The Secret of Successful Life

is hurtful. Men too frequently have conceived of
gods after their own image and have regarded them
as essentially selfish, self-seeking, and self-indulgent.
They have worshipped them as beings whose anger
may be placated by sacrificial offerings and whose
favor may be purchased by costly gifts. Men,
through their vain imagination, have lived in an
atmosphere spiritually unhealthful and morally
baneful.

But Jesus has revealed God to men. The reve-
lation in Jesus did not create the divine character
or change that character, but made it manifest.
Jesus has made men acquainted with the
spiritual atmosphere in which they live.
Jesus' character is holy and loving. Jesus' dispo-
sition towards men is unselfish and benevolent.
Jesus' ministry to men is beneficent, giving health
and holiness. He that hath seen Jesus, hath seen
the Father. The revelation of Jesus is threefold:
God is a spirit; God is light; God is love. God
is a spirit in essence; God is light in action; God
is love in relation to men. Men by faith dwell in
God ; God by love dwells in men. Men by faith,
open mind and soul to God ; God by love enters
and enlarges the souls of men. "He that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

That which is wisest and best in men is used by
Jesus to interpret to men what is wise and good in
God. The farmer who sows good seed in his field,
the shepherd who seeks a lost sheep, the father
who forgives a repentant prodigal son, the father
who hears and answers the prayer of his child, the

Love as an Atmosphere 141

householder who amply rewards a faithful steward,
are all used to exhibit and illustrate qualities which
belong to the divine nature and which spring from
the one source — love.

God's love is not unintelligent, unregulated, and
misdirected sentiment. God's love is clear in vision,
wise in choice, intelligent in action, moving outward
in ministry and in control which will secure good.

The spiritual atmosphere in which the world of
men lies is love. This love has in it all the elements
of mercy, long-suffering, forgiveness, and grace
which meet the various needs of men. The prin-
ciples and practices of the divine government are
to be interpreted by love. They are essentially
benevolent; they are for good purposes; they are
for the welfare of the creature. The glory of the
Creator is not secured by any injustice to the crea-
ture. The good of the creature is not obtained by
any dishonor to the Creator. The principles of the
divine administration run along the lines of right-
eousness.

Evil, obviously, is incidental to creatures begin-
ning life in infancy to be educated in spirituality
and pain is part of the discipline of human life. But
evil is not pleasurable to God, and pain is not the
permanent inheritance of man. That punishment of
sin which warns and restrains the sinner for his own
welfare is benevolent; and that punishment of sin
which, like surgery, removes the incorrigible sinner
from a society which would be injured by his pres-
ence is likewise good. Divine love is not soft-hearted
kindness destitute of moral principle, but wise, intel-

142 The Secret of Successful Life

ligent, firm, and well-directed benevolence which
maintains the authority of right and of law, and
which sends suffering for the good which will ensue.

Permission given to a child to choose his own
way without control would not be wisdom but folly.
Granting a child limitless liberty, would not be the
act of intelligence, but of ignorance. Granting a
child every request would not be kindness but
cruelty. Withholding pain when pain would cor-
rect or chasten or call out heroic qualities, would
not be a favor but a futility. Diverting sorrow
when sorrow would sanctify, would not be a blessing
but a bane.

It is not possible to set every separate state of a
man or every kind of pain or every time of sorrow in
such a light that one may see all its relations and
interpret its meaning and show the good which must
follow, but it is quite possible to see the general
course of goodness in the world's guidance and
governance. There is, obviously, a benevolent pur-
pose in pain ; suffering evokes strength of soul ; sor-
row may soften, chasten, and serve to complete a
character. This world without pain and without
sorrow would be to a very great degree, without the
patience and the heroism, and without the sym-
pathy and the gentleness which now, are found in
it. There is also in the heart of mankind an abiding
hope of better things yet to be.

The physical atmosphere has its clouds and show-
ers, its currents and its storms, its electric displays
and destructions; but these all perform a beneficent
part in the promotion of health and welfare. In-

Love as an Atmosphere 143

dividual instances of injury and loss occur; but
these are incidental and, relatively, minor; they
are neither the common nor the permanent things.
They are but temporal. The gain far outbalances
the loss.

In the spiritual sphere, there are times of darkness
and trial, of suffering and sorrow, of pain and loss;
but to him who believes in the love of God, and
abides in that love, they conserve spiritual welfare.
This an apostle saw when he burst out in a glad
exclamation: "We glory in tribulations also know-
ing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience,
experience, and experience, hope." He teaches the
same truth when he writes, "Our affliction which is
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding
weight of glory." There are some things in human
experience, now, which are seen only as painful and
full of sorrow; but, says Saint Paul, "These are
temporal," and there are other things which follow
that are full of pleasure and of glory and these "are
eternal."

To him who knows God as revealed in character
in the person of Jesus, and who knows the purpose
and principles of the divine government as declared
in the gospel, there must be this interpretation of
human life. He who dwells in the love of God will
have a strength, a comfort, and a glorious hope in
the midst of all life's experiences which can belong
to none other. "Keep yourselves in the love of
God."

God loved when he made the world, and the con-
stitution of the world must be accepted as an expres-

144 The Secret of Successful Life

sion of his love. We should not expect the physi-
cal conditions of the world to be changed because of
the revelation of divine grace and our acceptance of
it, nor the laws of nature to be annulled because of
our prayers. In so far as we personally have neg-
lected the laws of the universe and have lived in
violation of those laws, we should expect change;
but the change must be in us and not in the laws of
nature or in nature's course. Labor, for instance,
must be accepted as a primary law of life. He who
lives in the love of God will perform his labor not
in the spirit of servitude, but in the spirit of sonship
and will make it a ministry.

The normal relations of human life which are
formed by men's appetites and affections have been
ordained in love. These relations are not to be
avoided but accepted. They give much satisfaction
and joy; they bring also much care and sorrow. But
it is, mainly, through the common relations and
common duties of life that the finest elements of
character are developed. Men by obedience in spirit
to the constitution of society, are enlarged in affec-
tion and in sympathy, and are fitted to be part of an
enduring social order. He who believes in the love
of God, and who sees that love expressed in the con-
stitution of the world and in the structure of soci-
ety, cannot think that labor is a penalty for sin or
that celibacy is superior to marriage, or that medita-
tion is better than action. The mode of life which
must be led by the many must be good rather than a
manner of life which may be led by a few.

A superficial survey of the history of mankind

Love as an Atmosphere 145

will show that by toil man is trained in self-re-
straint, self-control, power of concentration, and
power of application, and that by toil, man gains
both knowledge and skill. What most men have
learned has come through the necessity of a struggle
for existence, and the moral qualities of mankind
have been evoked and made strong through adapta-
tion to one another in the relations and mutual du-
ties of life.

Man is said to be nature's favorite. Yet, as
one has said : "How does nature deal with her fa-
vorite? She turns him out naked, cold, and shiv-
ering upon the earth ; with needs that admit of no
compromise; with a delicate frame that cannot lie
upon the bare ground an hour, but must have im-
mediate protection; with a hunger that cannot pro-
crastinate the needed supply, but must be fed to-day
and every day; and why is all this? I suppose, if
man could have made of earth a bed ; and if an ap-
ple or a chestnut a day could have sufficed him for
food ; he would have got his barrel of apples or his
bushel of chestnuts, and lain down upon the earth
and done nothing until the stock was gone. But na-
ture will not permit this."

Nature, which for animals provides food which
needs no cooking and which weaves garments for
them by the action of their own bodies, clothing
them in feathers or in fur, as climate and condi-
tions demand, and which makes them capable of
living without a house, or provides a house for them,
compels man to raise his own food, to weave his
own garments, and to build his own house. But

146 The Secret of Successful Life

with what result? This, namely, that while ani-
mals remain the same through the generations, men
sowing, spinning, weaving, trading, building house
and home, become farmers, artizans, architects, ar-
tists, sculptors, painters, musicians, scientists, philos-
ophers, poets, and, by inspiration, prophets. So it
comes to pass that not only through the gentleness
but through what seems the severity of God, men
become great. Now he who sees this result in the
course of nature and in the history of mankind, will
accept his place in the world, will use his power,
will perform his work and will do this with that
cheerfulness and strength and hopefulness which
come from the belief that his life is under the
rule of love.

The fact of moral evil also must be set in the
light of love if we are to understand it aright. Why
should a man be tempted to do wrong? Tempta-
tion is not a trap to catch a man and destroy him,
but temptation is a trial and a test. It is an oppor-
tunity to fall, but it is also an opportunity to rise.
He who when tempted refuses evil, rises as a bird
rises by beating the air with resisting wings. He
who is tempted, but without sin, proves thereby
the power of his manhood. But do not many fall,
rather than rise under temptation? Yes. But
within the soul of man, as nowhere else in the
animal world, there is a nature which feels remorse,
which regrets and repents and makes possible the
sundering of the soul from evil, and the renewal
of relation with the forces which make for righteous-
ness.

Love as an Atmosphere 147

Suffering also, in the ordinary sense of that word,
that is, in the mere enduring of pains which are
incidental to the human frame and to a man's rela-
tions to the world and to other persons, is a means
of heroism. That suffering which is endured on
account of one's own sins or on account of the
sins of others has in it the most powerful forces to
expand the soul in love. Of the greatest character
which has appeared on earth it is written, "He
learned obedience by the things which He suffered;
and having been made perfect. He became unto all
them that obey Him the author of eternal sal-
vation."

This eternal salvation comes to him who believes
and knows the love that God hath for us. Nature
lies about man waiting to minister to him with in-
spiring breeze and warming sun and renewing
forces. He who will receive the ministration of na-
ture, finds that his fainting body is revived, his
waning strength renewed, and power is given him
to finish his journey or to complete his task. God,
also, in like manner, is a living, present, all-embrac-
ing spirit waiting to revive, renew, and make strong
the soul of man. This is no mere Oriental
dream, no mystic imagination, no illusive hope.
This is a fact which is abundantly attested by the
most reliable men. It is a matter of experience.
Shepherds, soldiers, political leaders, statesmen, and
men also in the very ordinary walks of common
life have affirmed that they have waited upon
God and have been helped, have called upon
God and been answered, have trusted God

148 The Secret of Successful Life

and their strength has been renewed and
made sufficient. The sacred scriptures, the bi-
ographies of eminent men, and the hymns of the
entire church expressive of common experiences, all
bear witness to this truth. Humble persons have
asserted in the ears of those who have tried to com-
fort them that the grace of God has come to them
in their need like water of life and like comfort of
a mother's love. God indeed revives the heart of
the contrite, dwells with them who are of humble
heart, and renews the strength of such as wait on
Him.

The man who will search his own interior nature
must know that faith, love, and hope, in some form,
are the mightiest forces to keep his soul sane and
pure and strong. He who will try must know that
the love of God beyond anything else feeds these
forces. He who dwells in the love of God, knows
that he is guided in his counsels, strengthened in his
purposes, comforted in his sorrows, sustained in his
trials, and heartened at all times by the love of God.
This persuasion and belief is conducive to moral
power, mental sanity, and physical health. Salva-
tion physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, comes
from dwelling in the love of God. That love is the
only atmosphere in which the soul can live and live
eternally.

Success in life is considered by many to depend on
place and position, on the abundance of things with
which a man surrounds himself, on escape from
trouble and pain, and on the element of ease in liv-
ing. But there have been men humbled in position

Love as an Atmosphere 149

who have been greatly exalted in themselves. There
have been men who have suffered the loss of all
things who have made others rich. There have been
men bereft who blessed God in their bereavement
and who greatly comforted others. There have been
men who have passed long years in pain for truth's
sake or for love's sake who have inspired souls with
heroism. The fact that God loved them was to
such men exaltation, enrichment, companionship,
strength, and joy. The really successful life is the
life in which one learns the lessons which make him
pure, loving, constant, strong, patient, superior to
external conditions, and invincible in soul.

To the servant, like Hagar, and to the public
man and prophet like Elijah, in the desert places of
life, there may be met the angel of ministry and
there may be received the water and the bread of
life. If any man thirst, let him come. **Whoso-
ever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Life — life renewed daily — life strong to serve —
life brave to suffer — life full of sympathy — life
abundant in ministry — life which will never fail —
may be unto all who will believe and dwell in the
love of God.

There has been transacted on this earth a marvel-
ous ministry of grace, healing, and salvation. There
has been on this earth a wonderful history full of
the experiences of those who have found God all-
sufficient in the depth, tenderness, and strength of
his love. This ministry has been given in part for
our enlightenment, and this history has been written
for our learning that we through like faith might

I50 The Secret of Successful Life

know and enjoy the love of God. It is as Browning
wrote of Lazarus and the Arab physician who saw
and conversed with him:

"Whence has the man the balm that brightens all?

Indeed the especial marking of the man

Is prone submission to the heavenly will —

Seeing it, what it is, and why it is."

So the Arab physician writes to his friend :

"The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think?
So, the All-Great were the All-Loving too —
So, through the thunder comes a human voice
Saying, 'O heart I made, a heart beats here,
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself!
Thou hast no power nor mayest conceive of mine.
But love I gave thee, with myself to love
And thou must love me who have died for thee!'
The madman saith He said so: it is strange.''

CHAPTER IX
Faith

T N THE north of Scotland spanning a small
-*■ stream, is a stone foot bridge on the keystone of
whose arch is an inscription, "God and Me." The
stream itself is small in summer, but when swollen
by spring freshets, it becomes a raging torrent.
Many years ago, when the stream was crossed by
a footlog, a young girl lost her footing and fell into
the swollen waters. She felt herself being swept
down the current and she prayed to God to help
her reach the shore. In answer to her prayer, so
she believed, help came and she buffetted the oppos-
ing waters until she was safely landed. In return
for her deliverance, she promised that when she
should be able, she would build a bridge across that
stream. After .many years of labor, she was able
to redeem her promise and she built the bridge and
placed upon it the above inscription.

Had a vine held fast by its roots been floating
in the water when that girl fell and had her hand
grasped it, she would have been saved by faith in a
physical means of deliverance. Her faith, a mater-
alist would say, was well placed and justified. But
was not her faith equally well placed and justified
by its trust in a spiritual source of salvation? True,
no audible voice from the sky responded to her cry
and no hand from heaven was extended to help her
escape from the waters. But in answer to her faith,
151

152 The Secret of Successful Life

her soul was strengthened with confidence, and she
was nerved for her struggle and saved from a watery
grave. The soul is as real as the body, and strength
of soul is as much a support as strength of body.
This girl saved through prayer might have written
her experience in words of the psalmist: "He sent
from above, he took me, he drew me out of many
waters." So she felt, and the bridge is the material
monument to her belief.

In the matter of faith, this Scotch girl was not
exceptional. In the purpose of her faith, her exper-
ience was her own, but in the nature of her faith
and in its object, it was a common faith. In a recent
book upon the work of some American women who
have rendered most signal and valuable civic and
social service, the author says, in the preface: "In
almost every instance, they who have done so much
for the public welfare have stated that they believe
themselves to have been selected by a divine agency
for their particular work and accountable to the Di-
vinity for success or failure. The sense of a power
beyond themselves, impelling them onward, was gen-
eral. So was a great faith in the efficacy of prayer."
The author who claims that she herself is "not a
sentimental person" says, "The simplicity and sin-
cerity with which this belief has been shown have
made it impossible to doubt."

This testimony seems much like that of Saint
Paul who says of his own works and remarkable
life, "By the grace of God I am what I am: and
his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in
vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all:

Faith 153

yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
That faith brings power to withstand evil in a
wicked world, to work righteousness in the midst of
sin, and to meet and often to overcome physical
difficulty and danger, is a common experience of
those who lead the most saintly and the most service-
able lives.

Faith not only frequently gives deliverance from
danger and strength for service, but also patience
of endurance and hope of future good. In fact,
faith, gives hope when without it one might sink in
despair. Among the men imprisoned by Napoleon
I, was a man named Charney. This man wrote
his brief creed on the wall of his cell in the words,
"All things come by chance." It was a comfortless
creed. It gave no light to his mind and no cheer to
his soul. One day as Charney was walking up and
down the pavement, he saw a tiny blade lifting a
green tip from between the flagging. He was inter-
ested in it, as the only living thing around. He
cared for it, watered it, and watched it grow. In
return for his love and care, the plant became his
teacher. It blossomed, finally, in a beautiful flower,
rose-colored with white fringe. The man began
to think that such a life and such beauty could not
come by chance and could not flourish without lov-
ing care. It occurred to his mind that higher life
in this world cannot be the result of chance and can-
not come to its best without love and care. He
rubbed out the creed he had written upon the wall
and wrote instead, "He who made all things is
God." Light came to cheer his mind and a sense of

154 The Secret of Successful Life

love to comfort his heart as he thought that if God
could care for so tiny a flower in a prison and make
it beautiful, God could care for him. Incidentally,
Charney's love for the flower coming to the knowl-
edge of a little girl whose father was also a pris-
oner, was reported by her and, at length, reached the
ears of the empress and resulted in Charney's
liberation. But in the prison he had learned enough
to believe the words of Jesus, "Consider the lilies
how they grow." He had learned enough to believe
that if God cares for the flowers of the field much
more will He care for a living man who trusts Him.
Faith is given the first place in the New Testa-
ment as being the most essential thing in man. Love
may be the greatest thing in human character, but
faith is the most essential. Every normal child
begins conscious life in faith. The child does not
know love, but the child intuitively trusts love. It
is out of this trust that love grows in the heart of
a child. So is faith in God first in the heart of a
true man and out of his faith, love grows. "Faith
works by love." Notice the place given to faith in
the New Testament. Faith is said to be the condi-
tion of acceptance with God. "Without faith it is
impossible to please Him." Faith is declared to be
the condition of salvation, "He that believeth shall
be saved." Faith is distinctly said to be the active
principle of a saintly and heroic life. They who do
great things in the service of God, do them by faith.
"Through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, and obtained promises." Faith is said
to be the means of victory and of reward. "This

Faith 155

is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith." Jesus says of such victors: "He that over-
cometh, the same shall be clothed in white rain-
ment; and I will not blot out his name out of the
book of life, but I will confess his name before my
Father and before His angels." The lack of faith is
the cause of failure. Jesus turned away from His
own immediate country and "He did not many
mighty works there because of their unbelief."
When the disciples asked Jesus the secret of their
lack of power He said : "Because of your unbelief."
The blessings of healing, pardon, and power of new
life came as a result of faith. Faith, let it be un-
derstood, is not primarily or chiefly a mental con-
cept or an intellectual assent to statements of truth,
valuable as this may be; but faith is an attitude of
mind, a state of soul, a personal relation to a per-
sonal presence and power. The Augsburg Confes-
sion states this conception of faith in fitting words
by saying, "This word faith is taken in Scriptures,
not for such a knowledge as is in the wicked, but
for a trust, which doth comfort and lift up dis-
quieted minds." Faith is trust in a Person, a living
Presence, a ruling Power, an inspiring Spirit.
"God," says Jesus, "is a spirit and they that worship
Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
They who thus worship God revere Him, receive
Him, and obey Him. These statements are not de-
signed to discredit or to undervalue intellectual
knowledge of truth, which may be most valuable;
but to call attention to the fact, that intellectual
acceptance of statements of truth may be made

156 The Secret of Successful Life

where there is no obedience to the truth, and that
there may be the spirit of obedience where there is
little knowledge. These statements are also intended
to call attention to the fact that faith according to
the New Testament is a personal relation to a
personal God. Faith is the response of the soul in
its sensibilities and in its desires to the circumambi-
ant Spirit of Life.

Scientists now believe in a substance, like a lim-
itless ocean or vapor, like a universal atmosphere of
an ethereal nature, something invisible, imponder-
able, intactible sensibly, in which all worlds lie,
through which attraction passes, through which light
flashes, and in which all forces which pass from
world to world find their medium. In this name-
less and unseen somewhat, all things exist. Scien-
tists believe this not because of proof which may be
demonstrated like a problem in mathematics; but
because such a viewless and imponderable substance
gives a satisfactory physical basis for certain phe-
nomena in nature. So it has come to pass that sci-
entists accept belief in a physical environment simi-
lar to the spiritual environment in which many men
have believed, as affording a sufficient basis for the
spiritual phenomena which exist in the world. God
is a spirit by whose power all souls come to be, in
whose love all souls lie, and by whose life all souls
which attain complete life, find it. God, who is
invisible and intangible to the physical senses of
men but most real to the spiritual sense, is the one
living reality and the one source of life to men.

Jesus reveals to men not the metaphysical nature

Faith 157

of God but His moral qualities and His moral at-
titude toward men. Jesus declares that God is lov-
ing, merciful, gracious, sympathetic, and serviceable,
ever ready to save and to serve men, ready to make
them strong to overcome sin and death, and ready
to make them perfect in character such as is worthy
to endure.

Every man dwells in God in so far as his existence
is concerned, but the believing and loving man
dwells in God intimately in that he is open to the
influx of divine power which acts within the man,
inspiring love and holiness. The dying plant, and
the growing plant both are in the air, but their rela-
tion to the air differs. To the one, the air is mainly
external and will become wholly so when it is en-
tirely dead; to the other, the air is both external
and internal in that it is nourishing the plant that
grows. All men are in the air, but the air is also
in living men as the support of life. All men are
in God as the all-embracing spirit, but God is in the
soul of the man who has faith.

Faith is a state of soul, an attitude of mind, a
relation to the omnipresent spirit whom we call
God. Faith is the open eye which light may enter;
the uncovered ear to which the voice of the Spirit
may speak; the waiting heart which love may fill;
the trustful soul which the tides of spiritual force
may swell; the obedient will which inspiring grace
may make strong. Faith, whether in reception or
in action, is the response of the soul to God.

Faith is the condition of receiving spiritual pow-
er. It was power which Jesus promised to his dis-

158 The Secret of Successful Life

ciples when the Spirit should come upon them. It
was power which marked the change in those dis-
ciples when the Spirit came. They had power to
know and to interpret the revelation and the will of
God. They had power to see clearly, to think
truly, to love intensely, to speak boldly, to endure
bravely and to continue steadfastly in Christlike
service. This has been the quality and the result of
faith in all ages. Increased power, intensified from
some moral source, is the explanation of extraordin-
ary men of biblical history. The Spirit came upon
strong men like Samson, and they became stronger ;
upon skilful men like Bezalel, and they became more
skilful ; upon men fitted for political leadership like
Moses, and they became more capable; upon men
of poetical and musical gifts like David, and they
became more poetical and more musical; upon men
of spiritual vision like Isaiah, and they saw spiritual
truth more clearly and expressed it more beauti-
fully; upon willing and teachable men like the
apostles, and they increased in boldness and in
efficiency; upon men of heroic nature like Paul, and
they became invincible. The Spirit does not create
new faculties in men of faith, but it makes more
effective the faculties which they possess. The
prophet has a clearer vision; the poet, a loftier
flight; the singer, a sweeter tone; the man of ac-
tion, a more resolute will ; and the obedient servant
of the Lord, increased effectiveness. Evils are re-
vealed, righteousness is declared, judgment is deci-
sive, kingdoms of opposition to truth and righteous-
ness are conquered, and kingdoms of truth and love

Faith 159

are established by such men.

Men of common parts, by faith, partake also of
these same graces as higher men. They see and
appreciate things which higher men have said and
have done and in their place and to their degree re-
produce the same. After all, it is not the particu-
lar work which men do nor its greatness, as men
measure greatness; but the spirit in which men do
their work which makes them great. To men of
true faith, labor becomes a service of dignity, love
becomes the sweet spirit of home, and the common
round and trivial task of daily life are elevated and
glorified by faith.

They who learn to walk in love, to let the light
of Christian character shine forth, and to do all
things to the glory of God, are moving in the up-
ward pathway and belong to the spiritual nobility
of the universe, quite as well as men who by vir-
tue of greater talent or more conspicuous position
are marked and praised men.

The secrets of the heavenly kingdom are revealed
to the believing eye and the successes of the king-
dom come to the submissive soul. Things which are
hidden from the wise are revealed to the trustful,
and power which is lacking to the strong who strive
in their own strength is imparted to the weak who
obey the divine will. Let it be known, however,
that, "It is not intellect from which God hides
Himself, but selfishness and pride which may be-
long to taught and untanght, and darken the soul
of sophist or of clown."

"The differences," says James Martineau, "by

l6o The Secret of Successful Life

which God is revealed are in us, not in him ; in our
faculty of recognition, by no means, in his constancy
of action. His light is alive in the very hearts of
those who neglect or deny him ; and in those who
must own him is latent a thousand times for once
that it flashes on their conscious eye. It is he who
comes to us and finds us ; his presence rises of itself,
and the revelation is spontaneous. Our sole con-
cern is to accept it, to revere it, to follow it, to live
by it."

Certain results must inevitably follow that faith
which is a loving relation to a personal God. Faith
will deliver from that anxious care about the condi-
tions of life which causes fretting and which con-
sumes the strength of the soul by needless friction.
Take not anxious thought, says Jesus. The reason
for this freedom lies in the fact that the heavenly
Father knows the things that are really needed. It
goes without saying that, like a true father ; He will
provide them. Things imagined, much more than
things real, fret the souls of men. It is very sig-
nificant that Jesus specified to-morrow rather than
to-day, when he forbids anxiety. Faith brings free-
dom from fretting.

Faith, also, frees the soul from that foreboding
which brings fear. Fears arises either from a feel-
ing that strength will not be equal for the things
which must be borne or performed, or from the idea
that the things which may happen are uncontrolled,
or from the thought that the effect of the things
which may happen may be hurtful and inflict abid-
ing injury and loss. Faith, however, faces the fu-

Faith l6l

ture with the feeling that life is of divine appoint-
ment, part of a divine plan, and that strength v^ill
be equal to the demands; that the things w^hich
occur are not uncontrolled, but are set within limita-
tions; that any thing which may befall a believer
cannot render abiding harm; and that "all things
work together for good to them who love God."
Jesus bids men not fear even them who may kill the
body. Faith drives away that fear which hath tor-
ment. Faith is not blind to the fact that pain and
losses and sorrow may come, but these things are
seen in true perspective; they are set in right rela-
tion to other things ; they are not the great and en-
during things ; therefore they may be met with cour-
age and confidence.

Faith drives away doubt, despondency, and des-
pair. Many persons walk beneath a murky sky, live
in a depressing atmosphere, and suffer from des-
pair in the soul; because they lack sufficient faith.
To the mind of faith there is always a beneficent
power ruling for good, a supreme strength of right-
eousness invincible and bound to conquer, a certainty
of good in the long run. Faith receives the light
which streams through the cloud, breathes the upper
stratum of air, and looks to the far future where the
brilliant bow of promise rests on cloud and on land.
Faith keeps the angel of hope in the heart of the be-
lieving man.

Faith, also, fastens itself in feeling, affection, de-
sire, and expectation upon the things which are best.
It is the intuitive nature of faith to see the best in
nature, in persons, and in God. Faith sees the

1 62 The Secret of Successful Life

things which are true, just, lovely, honorable, and
beneficent and believe that these are always good in
themselves and will insure good. The soul full of
of faith never fails, though it be set in the midst of
evil. "This is the victory which overcomes the
world, even our faith."

Faith, finally, makes him who possesses it like
Jesus Himself. Jesus was serene in the storm at
sea which filled His disciples with fear. Jesus was
calm in the midst of the angry crowd who thrust
Him out of Nazareth. Jesus was sweet in spirit
when men were soured in spirit in their contentions
about places and honors. Jesus was kind when His
disciples would have been cruel in their treatment
of the citizens of an inhospitable village. Jesus
was sane and judged the issue aright when His ene-
mies plotted to take His life and when the shadow
of the cross fell across His pathway. Jesus bade
His disciples, also, bear an untroubled heart because
of faith in God. "Believe in God, believe in Me"
was His prescription for the cure of heart trouble.

Many persons fail of comfort in life, exaggerate
evil, dread to-morrow and walk in weakness, because
they do not keep the soul stayed upon God. What
such persons need is to give hospitality to the truth
of God and they will find, as many have found,
that God is indeed a refuge, a fortress, a shield.
They will find that God is strength, salvation, and
a song. They who trust Him may be kept in per-
fect peace. They who wait upon Him, renew their
strength. They walk and are not weary, they run
and are not faint.

Faith 163

But one will say, "Look at the trouble or the sor-
row which has come to me!" Yes, but is it more
than the trouble or the sorrow which has come to
many of the saints of God? Has not Job, bereft
of all things, been taken as the abiding pattern of
patience? Or if Job be regarded as a creation of the
imagination, have we not known persons, like Job,
bereft of property, family, and health, who have still
blessed God and waited in patience for His deliver-
ance? Have not some of the greatest letters, like
Paul's epistles, and some of the greatest of books,
like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, come from the
pens of men imprisoned? Have not some of the
greatest of poems and of sermons been written by
men who were blind, like Milton and George Math-
eson? Have not some of the most helpful of hymns
been composed by men bruised by suffering and
sweetened by sorrow? Have not some of the most
useful lives which the world has seen, been lives
filled with personal suffering? No temptation or
trial can overtake persons who live to-day but such
as has been common to men. Faith has surmounted
them all. The prayer of the believing soul to which
passing years bring losses or wrongs or pains or
sorrows should be, "Lord keep me sane, sweet, and
strong."

No words have been used more commonly for
comfort, than the words of the Twenty-third Psalm.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Mr.
John R. Mott has analyzed the assurances of this
psalm as follows: I shall not want rest; "He makes
me to lie down in green pastures." I shall not want

164 The Secret of Successful Life

forgiveness; **He restoreth my soul." I shall not
want guidance ; "He leadeth me in the paths of right-
eousness." I shall not want companionship; "for
Thou art with me." I shall not want comfort;
"Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." I shall
not want food ; "Thou preparest a table before me."
I shall not want joy; "Thou anointest my head
with oil." I shall not want any thing in this life;
"surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life." I shall not want any thing in
eternity; "I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever."

To those who try and test this psalm in their own
life, experience will give such assurance of its truth
that they may say in the language of another psalm :
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life
from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy
desire with good things, so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagle's."

Faith is the soul of true greatness. It has been
well said : "There are two types of human great-
ness— the pagan and the Christian — the moral and
the religious — the secular and the divine. The
former has its root and essence in trying hard ; the
latter, in trusting gently ; the one depends on volun-
tary energy, the other on the relinquishment of per-
sonal will to cast every burden upon God. The
one chooses its own ends and elaborates the means;
the other, possessed by a God-given end, becomes its

Faith 165

organ and its implement, and simply lets it use from
day to day, the entire powers of the soul. There
is no instrument so tremendous in this world as a
human soul thus committed to what is diviner than
itself."

The pure in heart see God. They who love,
know God. They who obey, live with God. With
God there is ever the guidance of light, the sweet-
ness and the joy of love, the endurance and the vic-
tory of power.

One of three things must be believed. Either
this world is left to chance, or it is in the control of
fate, or it is guided by wisdom and unfailing power.
If the world is given over to chance, then one must
be driven by his own passions or by popular pas-
sions which may be like the waves of the sea and the
sweep of the wind without purpose and without con-
trol. If the world is controlled by fate, one must
surrender himself to forces of whose origin, nature,
and purpose he can know nothing. If the world is
governed by a God of wisdom, love, and power;
then one may trust the present, and quietly hope
for the future.

Cromwell once said, "One never mounts so high
as when one knows not whither one is going." The
man who in faith, answers the call of the spirit,
follows the gleam of holy light, and obeys the
inspiration of love, will find that he learns the
truth, walks in the light, fulfills the will of God,
and so is saved and safe.

Faith has been called a sixth sense. Faith is the
sense which sets a man in right relation to God and

1 66 The Secret of Successful Life

to the universe. ''What reason is to things demon-
strable, such faith is to the invisible realties of the
spirit world," says an Oriental writer. Reason is
richly rewarded in knowledge gained by exercising
itself on things demonstrable. Faith is richly re-
warded in experience gained by trusting spiritual
verities. Reason is rewarded by knowledge com-
prehended by the intellect. Faith is rewarded by
personal knowledge experienced in the soul. "Here-
by know we love."

**What is faith, but to believe what you do not
see?" said Saint Augustine. This accords with the
scripture which says that "faith is a conviction of
things not seen." But faith is, also, more than
this. Faith is to believe what the soul sees to be
beautiful, what the conscience affirms to be good,
what the heart in its purest impulses is impelled to
love. Faith is a power in the soul which enables one
to give up the inferior beauty, the lower good, the
baser reward, for what one sees to be higher.
To believe in a better country and to seek it, like
Abraham; to give up the wealth and the power of
the world for the soul's enrichment and the soul's
service, like Moses; to flee from the pleasure of
sense, when pleasure would be sin, like Joseph; to
respond to a call from God in the night time, like
Samuel; to see what great things one may suffer
for Christ and to choose them, like Paul; to face
impending martyrdom and to accept it, like Peter;
this is faith. Faith claims the promises of God and
finds them exceedingly great and precious.

Men of faith are not lifted out of the common

Faith 167

experiences of life, but through these experiences,
they come to what, to men without Christ, are
uncommon experiences. Sin is a common experi-
ence; but forgiveness is a Christian experience.
Temptation is a common experience ; but triumph
over it, is a Christian experience. Suffering is a
common experience, but patient waiting in hope is a
Christian experience. Sorrow is a common experi-
ence, but comfort is a Christian experience. Death
is a common experience, but persuasion of victory
and immortal life is a Christian experience.

Faith does not change outward natural condi-
tions, but faith tends to give health of body, sanity of
mind, and strength of soul. Faith cleanses the
affections, sweetens the disposition, sustains the will,
and increases the entire life of man. If physical
well-being, mental clarity and strength, spiritual
efficiency and the achievement of good, be con-
sidered success in life; then, the man of faith is the
man of success.

Faith, then, in brief, is the relation of the soul
in all its powers of feeling, thought, and will, to
God. Faith believes that God is the absolute Cause
and Creator of all things and so lives in Him. Faith
believes that the natural conditions of the world are
of God's purpose and appointment, and so accepts
them without question and without resistance, with-
out fretting and without fear. Faith believes in
God's wisdom and so accepts cheerfully the normal
and destined way, and finds that way good. Faith
believes in God's unfailing love, and so trusts Him
for all things needed. Faith believes in God's care

1 68 The Secret of Successful Life

and purpose for the individual and so submits to His
providence and obeys His law. Faith believes in
God's mercy, and so forsakes sins and forgets them
as belonging to a past from which there is free-
dom. Faith believes in God's grace, and so receives
from Him power to rise from a dead past to new
and higher life. Faith believes in God's power as
something to be imparted to man, and so faces duty,
difficulty, danger, and things which, like death, seem
to defeat the soul in the hope of sufficient spiritual
energy to insure success and victory. Faith believes
in God's eternity and so hopes in Him to have eter-
nal life. Faith sings ever in Saint Paul's immortal
paean: "I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
things present nor things to come, height nor depth,
nor any creature is able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

CHAPTER X
Obedience

r\ BEDIENCE is the way of peace and of power.
^^ Obedience escapes the hindrance of friction and
receives the inspiration of force. In inanimate na-
ture, every planet in the sky, every wave upon the
breast of the sea, every river rolling on its course,
and every particle of matter which enters into the
structure of any material thing, must obey the forces
by which it is touched and moved, if its destiny is
fulfilled. Here is no freedom but only submission.
This is the law of perfect form and of freedom from
pain and from deformity, in every animated physi-
cal body.

Obedience is the absolute condition of success in
human affairs. Whether one is in a hospital for the
healing of the sick, or in a school for the education
of the mind, or in a factory for the accomplishment
of some work, or in an army for military service;
one must obey those in authority. The prescriptions
of the doctor must be followed ; the lessons assigned
by the teacher must be learned ; the directions of the
foreman must be carried out; the commands of the
captain must be obeyed. Without obedience, the
business of the world would be disordered and de-
stroyed; with obedience, the business of the world
is performed regularly and good results are secured.
Among fallible men, one in authority may err in his
commands ; but, even with this possibility, none may
169

170 The Secret of Successful Life

venture to disobey — except in most extraordinary
instances and with clear vision — for, on the whole,
obedience is essential to the accomplishmen of life's
tasks.

In any sphere where there is unerring wisdom and
absolute authority, obedience must be universal.
Where a law of God is revealed, there the life of
man must move. As men obey God and so become
workers together with Him, they achieve their great-
est works and attain their highest good. One who
would attempt to walk without regard to the law
of gravity, or to swim without thought of the laws
of water, or to secure harvests without knowledge
and care of seasons, seeds, soil, and sunshine, would
absolutely fail. Men gain success only as they
think God's great thoughts after Him, work with
Him in agriculture and in manufacturing, move
with Him in transportation of merchandise, and
submit to Him in all the ways of physical busi-
ness. One may deceive and defraud his fellowman
in a business transaction and seem to gain; but no
one can deceive or defraud God. To attempt to
defraud God is to defeat one's self. Disobedience
to God is the destruction of one's endeavor. This
men recognize in the physical universe ; this men
should recognize in the spiritual universe.

Jesus, the highest revelation of spiritual reality
and the greatest teacher of moral truth, lays supreme
emphasis upon obedience. These are some of Jesus'
significant sayings: "Whosover heareth these say-
ings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man." **If a man love me, he will keep my

Obedience 171

words." **Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord,
Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven." **Whosover shall do the will of God, the
same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to ful-
fil it. Jesus reveals the spirit of that law which is
perfect trust in God and perfect love of men. Jesus
enlarges love beyond geographical and racial lines,
frees it from limitations which men had placed
around it, and makes it the universal principle of
holy living. Without love, a man cannot worship
God, or keep the commandments, or fulfil his duty,
or attain his destiny.

There is no department of life, save this of the
spirit, of which men think results may be attained
and rewards received without fulfilment of the con-
ditions on which they rest. But in the sphere of
spirit, some think the fruits of love may be obtained
without love and the rewards of righteousness may
be received without righteousness. This false and
injurious opinion arises from one of two sources. It
arises, sometimes, from the presumptuous thought
that the goodness of God will compel Him to give
good to men irrespective of character and deserts.
It arises, sometimes, in part, at least, from the
teaching long current that the righteousness of
Christ is a substitute for the righteousness of men,
and that the righteousness of Christ is imputed
rather than imparted unto men. Men have been
taught that they are justified by faith as one is
justified whose commercial debt has been paid by

172 The Secret of Successful Life

another, rather than that they are justified as a
branch grafted into a good tree is justified because
of the life that is in it, promising blossom and fruit.
The former conception led men to rest satisfied in an
imputed righteousness; the latter conception leads
men to seek to become perfect by the development
of the life that is in them.

Jesus received His name because He would save
His people from their sins, not in their sins. He
"hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God." "He died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto Him." The purpose
of Jesus' work was to the end "that the righeous-
ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Through
Jesus we are brought near to God, reconciled to
Him and made willing to do His will rather than
our own will. There can be no success in the
Christian life save as one conforms to this law of
obedience.

The call of God is a call for the heart of man.
The demand for faith is a demand for that condition
of mind which will make a man follow God in
thinking and in willing. The salvation promised
in the gospel is salvation from self-will unto delight
in doing the will of God. The saved man is a fol-
lower of Jesus who said, "Lo, I am come to do thy
will, O God." Jesus' prayer was, "Not my will,
but thine be done." When Jesus bids men come
unto Him for rest, He clearly indicates that rest will
be found only when they have learned of Him to

Obedience 173

possess a meek and quiet spirit. When Saint Paul
bids men live so as to be transformed by a renewing
of the mind, it is to the end that they may learn
by practice what is the good and acceptable will of
God. When Saint Paul bids men have in them the
mind which was in Christ, it is to the end that, like
Christ, they may not cherish pride, but may con-
descend to serve with a lowly mind and a loving
heart.

Salvation, as a possession, is the cultivation in
man of the moral qualities of God. The saved man
is the godly — Godlike — man. Practically, a man is
not saved because he is loved, but because he loves.
A man is not saved because he is forgiven, but be-
cause he is forgiving. A man is not saved by receiv-
ing mercy, but by being merciful. A man is not
saved by knowing sympathy, but by being sympa-
thetic. A man is not saved by knowing generosity,
but by being generous. The bestowment of mercy,
forgiveness, and grace upon any man is to the
end that he may have these same qualities in his own
character. Jesus bids men be merciful as the Father
is merciful ; to do good as the Father does good ;
and be perfect as the Father is perfect. This is the
goal of salvation. It is to be gained by the prac-
tice of the graces of the Spirit.

One who would succeed in the Christian life must
rise above the law of nature into the law of grace.
The impulses of the natural man may be regarded
as the law of nature. A man naturally thinks of
himself and thinks but little of others. Jesus says
a man rnust love his neighbor as hirnself. He must

174 The Secret of Successful Life

learn to consider his neighbor as himself and to re-
gard his neighbor as he regards himself. He must
not treat his neighbor in a way which would be in-
jurious to himself, were the places changed. A man
naturally seeks things for himself and measures them
by their value to himself. Jesus would have a man
seek the things which are profitable to others, and
value them by what they are worth to the world.
A man naturally invites to his home and to his
feasts, those who can repay the favor. Jesus bids
a man invite those who cannot repay. A man
naturally lends to them of whom he hopes to re-
ceive. Jesus bids a man lend to them from whom
he can receive nothing. A man naturally does good
to them who do good to him. Jesus bids him do
good to them who do evil to him. That is to say,
a man should do good spontaneously and without re-
gard to the actions of others. In all this, one is to
rise above the natural impulses of his own heart into
the sublimer state in which his impulses become holy
and godlike because they are genuinely unselfish and
loving.

Again, one must rise above the civil law which
regulates the conduct of a citizen. Many persons
tend to regulate much of their conduct according
to the civil law and to regard themselves as being
good so long as they are not violating the laws of
men. Jesus clearly teaches that His disciples must
rise into a higher state of judgment and motive.
The natural law of the heart of man impels him
when injured to inflict, in return, a more severe
injury. Naturally, a man will try to strike a harder

Obedience 175

blow than he has received ; to say a sharper word
than he has heard ; to repay in kind beyond what
he has suffered. Human law tends to restrain this
natural tendency and to limit punishment to retalia-
tion. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"
was the restraining injunction of the Mosaic law.
But Jesus says, "I say unto you that ye resist not
evil." Meet the angry word by a soft answer. Meet
the blow struck by non resistance. Meet even an un-
just demand by more than is asked. If the law or
the custom of the country will compel you to go one
mile with a traveler to show him the way, go with
him two miles. Do more than the law demands.
Now all this implies that the man who obeys the
higher law will not regulate his conduct by the com-
mands of the civil law which are usually negative,
nor by the actions of other men who may be evil, but
by the impulses of that great and gracious Spirit
which impels him to do good actively as the plan of
his life. Can this be carried out? Try it. When
one member of your family, having passed an un-
comfortable night, comes to your breakfast table
in an unhappy frame of mind and speaks a sharp
word, reply in like tone and you may easily have a
family quarrel. Return a soft answer and quarrel-
ing is impossible, and most likely the mind of the
irritated member of your family will be soothed.
Let one child who has been struck by another child,
return the blow, and there will be a fight. Let the
child who has been struck, refuse to return the
blow, and most probably shame will suffuse the
heart of the child who was angry. Let a neighbor

176 The Secret of Successful Life

do you a wrong, and repay him in kind, and you
will have double wrong in your neighborhood. If
opportunity offers, do kindness to the evil neighbor,
and a flame of fire will burn his conscience. The
principle of Jesus' teaching is that evil never can be
overcome by evil, but must be overcome by good.
Society never will rise high by the natural impulses
of the human heart and, by the negative statutes of
human law. There must be a deeper, purer, and
more perfect source of improvement.

The natural man is governed by the impulses of
his own nature, and lives in selfishness, doing good
or evil according as he thinks it will pay him. The
citizen lives with regard to law and refrains from
doing the things which will injure others. His
goodness is the absence of badness and, so far forth,
is gain. The social man lives with regard to his
own class ; he sends his invitations to feasts, lends
his money, and confers his favors, where like kind-
nesses may be returned to him. So far forth, the
social man is in advance, for he does good within
limitations; but he does this good because it will
benefit himself. The spiritual man lives in love,
learns to obey the new commandment and to love as
Jesus loved.

How did Jesus love? Did Jesus love men be-
cause they were really lovable? No. Jesus loved
because men needed love and because they might
become lovable. One may love a beautiful child
simply because he loves himself, and the beauty of
the child pleases him. One may love a child be-
cause the child needs love, and becaues love may

Obedience 177

brighten and bless the child. That is the way Jesus
loved. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me." What then? "I must bind up the broken
hearted, open the eyes of the blind, preach deliver-
ance to captives, and do good to men." What Jesus
had of spiritual endurement was for the use of love.

Jesus called unto Him His disciples and gave
unto them power. What then? "Go," He said,
"heal the sick, cast out devils, preach the gospel."
Power was for beneficent use. This is the law of
the kingdom. Whether a man's power is physical
strength, or mental vigor, or the faculty of making
money, or administrative ability, or personal influ-
ence, it must be consecrated and used so as to bene-
fit and not to injure men.

Slowly indeed has the world been coming to be-
lieve the words of Jesus, to realize the regal great-
ness of His spirit, and to know that the way of love
and of loving service is the way of peace and of
power. Certain individuals have caught the inner
meaning of Jesus' words, have believed them, have
lived according to them, and have become benefac-
tors in society. But these have been looked upon
as exceptional persons rather than as true examples
of Christian living. Many dissatisfied and unhappy
persons whose names stand upon a church roll and
who in many ways are good people, would find
life filled with new interest and zeal, with fresh hap-
piness and joy, if just where they are and in the
things they must do, they were to cultivate the spirit
of Jesus and love as He loved. An introspective,
self-centered, self-circumscribed life is the secret of

178 The Secret of Successful Life

the unhappiness of many people. Jesus in His daily
life did not follow a set program. He simply went
about doing good as the opportunity came. Much
that He did, in comparison with His person and
His power, was lowly ministry; but His spirit made
everything great. It is neither where you are, nor
what you do, but the spirit in which you live and
speak and act, that counts.

Very gradually, the light of this truth is dawn-
ing upon the minds of men. They are beginning to
see that all life is to be fulfilled in the spirit of
Jesus. The religious man is no longer the
man of a certain order of office, but the
man of a certain spirit. The laborer who
toils, the merchant who distributes, the cap-
italist who controls money, the statesman who di-
rects the course of political history, and the man in
any walk of life may live and must live in the spirit
of ministry, if his life is to fulfill the will of God
and so be complete and perfect.

There has been much false teaching, and, as a
result thereof, much misconception of the meaning
of labor and of business. This has tended to debase
the motives of men and to destroy pure morality. A
few examples may be noted. For centuries, the
Chritian church taught that labor is part of the
curse which followed the fall of man. Unfallen
man was a gentleman, a lord, who should live with-
out labor. Fallen man is a serf, doomed to toil as
a penalty for sin. Labor, therefore, could be only
servile in spirit and a form of life to be escaped.
Teachers of economics taught *'th? iron law pf

Obedience 179

wages," namely, that the natural wage to be paid
a workman was the lowest amount which the labor-
er will accept and on which laborers can be repro-
duced. Teachers of political economy taught that
the merchant who bought in the lowest market, sold
in the highest, and so obtained the greatest imme-
diate profit for himself, fulfilled the whole law of
merchandising. Apparently, it did not occur to such
teachers that this spirit and method discouraged
production, lessened the number of purchases which
a customer could make, lessened the wealth of the
world, and so limited the wealth of the merchant
himself.

Economists also taught bankers to exact the high-
est possible interest so as to enrich themselves. Such
teachers failed to see that they discouraged invest-
ments, lessened the scope of investments, and, in
the end, decreased the income even of the bankers
themselves. Political economists, both by the spirit
and the letter of their teachings, taught rulers to
regard their own interest first. The ruling class
considered themselves as divinely elected to live as
parasites upon society, rendering no equivalent ser-
vice for what they received.

All this the spirit of the divine kingdom inspired
by Christianity has- been changing and will yet
continue to change. As, historically, the struggle
for religious freedom led to the establishment of
political freedom ; so the doctrines of indebtedness
for divine grace, of the law of love, and of the obli-
gation of service, declared in the church, have been
leavening the world. The change wrought is of

l8o The Secret of Successful Life

value chiefly in the formation of character, but it is
also of immense value in contributing to the mater-
ial welfare of the world.

The laborer who learns to live in the spirit of the
carpenter of Nazareth, the laborer who regards labor
not as a curse but as a blessing, who measures the
value of his work not in terms of wages but in terms
of its worth to the world, becomes a free man whose
toil does not enslave but ennobles. The merchant who
learns to conduct his business in the spirit of Him
who came not to be ministered unto but to minister,
the merchant who regards the rights of the produc-
er from whom he buys and the welfare of the cus-
tomer to whom he sells, who allows a profit to the
producer and is content with a small profit from
the consumer, will find that he encourages produc-
tion and increases the number of things which his
customer will buy, thereby increasing directly the
wealth of the world and indirectly increasing his
own wealth. The banker who learns to live in the
spirit of Him who believes that He has freely re-
ceived and so should freely give, the banker who is
content with moderate interest which allows the
borrower to make a profit on his business, will
find that he increases the number of his customers
and the number of those who have money to place in
his bank for care and use, and so increases his own
business and profits. The statesman who learns to
live in the spirit of Him who says that he who serves
most is greatest, finds that by serving the people over
whom he rules, he increases their loyalty and the
security of his own power.

Obedience l8l

Men are beginning to see that both the welfare
and the wealth of the world are increased by obed-
ience to the law of Christ. Churches, colleges, and
universities are teaching a much more enlightened
science of life to the young than was formerly
taught. The change which has taken place within
the past forty years is most marked. Subjects which
scarcely would have been mentioned in a college
course forty years since, are now fully considered.
The churches no longer teach that labor is a penalty
but that it belongs to the natural order of the world.
Colleges teach, in the treatment of economics, that
the dignity, the rights, and opportunities of the
individual man must be regarded. Universities
teach that political economy is not simply "the sci-
ence of wealth," but the science of right living.

Experience, also, has shown the fallacy of much
past doctrine and the value of Christian principles
of living. "The iron law of wages" is past. Exper-
ience has proved that to give the laborer such condi-
tions of labor and of living as increase comfort and
inspire hope, is to increase intelligence, capability,
and efficiency. Governmental control of banking
with its effort to make money obtainable at low
rates of interest; the growing disposition of mer-
chants to be content with small profits and to de-
pend on large sales; public effort to obtain a mini-
mum wage and the legal regulation of hours and
conditions of labor, are all indications of the effort
to destroy injustice and oppression, and to make pos-
sible freedom both of labor and of capital within just
lines for the benefit of mankind in general. Sue-

1 82 The Secret of Successful Life

cess along these lines can be secured in full only
when, in addition to law, the spirit of service takes
possession of the hearts of mankind, and men strive
to do the best they can for one another in the work
and the business of life. Law, in the main, can
restrain only from certain violations of what is
right; love can compel obedience to what is right.

Jesus said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I
work." He who believes that the law of the
divine life is revealed in the spirit and the ministry
of Jesus, and who endeavors to obey that law in his
own life, will find himself able to fulfil that law.
He who sees the heavenly vision, and who hears the
divine voice, will be able to obey the divine law of
life.

There is a traditional story of Abraham which
will serve to illustrate this fact. "When Abraham
sat at his tent door, according to his custom, wait-
ing to entertain strangers, he espied an old man
stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age
and travel, coming towards him, who was an hun-
dred years of age. He received him kindly, washed
his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit
down ; but observing that the old man ate and pray-
ed not, nor begged for a blessing upon his meat,
Abraham asked him why he did not worship the
God of heaven. The old man told him that he wor-
shipped the fire only and acknowledged no other
god ; at which answer, Abraham grew so zealously
angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent,
and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an
unguarded condition. When the old man was gone,

Obedience 183

God called to him and asked him where the stranger
was; he replied, 'I thrust him away, because he did
not worship Thee.' God answered, 'I have suffered
him these hundred years, though he dishounored me ;
and couldest thou not endure him for one night,
when he gave thee no trouble?' Upon this, saith
the story, Abraham fetched him back again and
gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruc-
tion. Go thou and do likew^ise, and thy charity will
be 'rewarded by' the God of Abraham." It was the
knowledge of what God did that enabled Abraham
to love in most practical ways the man whom he had
regarded as loveless. Faith in God as revealed in
the gospel and the desire of fellowship with Him,
lead ever in the ways of right living. This ever has
been the method of the holiest character and the
highest service.

The New Testament insists on obedience as the
indispensable condition of spiritual well-being. He
that believeth not, he that loveth not, he that obey-
eth not, is condemned. "He that believeth not is
condemned." "If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be anathema." "They that obey not
the gospel, shall be punished with everlasting de-
struction." But on the other hand, it is written,
"Believe and thou shalt be saved." "If a man love
Me, he will keep My words," says Jesus. "He
became unto all them that obey Him, the author
of eternal salvation." These are among the plainest
promises of the New Testament.

Obedience must be in the spirit in that it is sub-
jected to the mind and the ways of Christ. All

184 The Secret of Successful Life

revelation is for knowledge. All doctrine is to make
possible fulfillment of duty. All ritual of worship
is for discipline in righteousness. Therefore, suc-
cess can come only through obedience.

Failure in Christian living comes more frequently
through lack of obedience than in any other way.
If any one is failing either in the strength or in the
joy of Christian living, he may well inquire whether
he is obeying the love and the law of Christ. One
who frets about the future is failing in faith in
God. One who cherishes an irritable and unloving
spirit is failing to dwell in the love of God. One
who does not endeavor to render some service is
failing to move with the moving power of God.
One who makes the acquistion of wealth the chief
aim in life, is failing to act with God in the supreme
purpose of living. One who is permitting the love
of pleasure to absorb thought and time to the neglect
of better things, is quenching the spirit and losing
the flame of devotion.

But he who trusts God for the future and obeys
Him in the present; who keeps himself in daily
consciousness of the love of God for him ; who
makes his daily living a daily service in whatever
he does; who uses increasing power of strength,
knowledge, or wealth as a means of doing good;
who, in all things, seeks to glorify God and to ben-
efit men, will find the peace of God possessing his
mind, the love of God warming his heart, and the
power of God making him strong. His face will
have a look of peace. He will have a certain win-
someness of nature. He will have unfailing power

Obedience 185

in himself. He will never want for joy.

No one can stand upon the sunny heights, where
heaven lies and where the overhanging sky is ever
clear, without absolute faith in God. No one can
be serene in the midst of the storms of life unless
his confidence is in Him who is above all storms
and without whose causative or permissive will,
storms cannot be. No one can be strong in the
midst of the duties, difficulties, disappointments, and
apparent defeats of life unless he is moving with the
divine spirit in ways of truth and love. If success
comes to any one in the way of Christian living, it
must come along the line of implicit obedience to the
will of God. To the man who obeys, all things
belong; for he is Christ's and Christ is God's.
To him, heaven will flash with beauty, earth will
bear rich bounty, men will become friends, and life
will enrich him as a child of God.

CHAPTER XI

Neglect

A N Oriental writer of proverbs and an observer
'^of the causes and the consequences of gain and
loss in life has said :

"I went by the field of the sluggard,
And by the vineyard of the man void of under-
standing,
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns,
The face thereof was covered with nettles.
And the stone wall thereof was broken down.
I saw and received instruction."

This was a wise man, for he walked with open
eyes; an observant man, for he saw the condition
of the field of the slothful and of the vineyard of the
man void of understanding; a man of discernment,
for he perceived that the cause of the sad condition,
was neglect. This fact of neglect as the cause of
grave consequence, many fail to see. This is espe-
cially true of the life and the welfare of the spirit.

There is a quiet assumption on the part of many
persons, that a man must make a positive choice of
evil and pursue it with zeal and steadfastness if he
is to be adjudged worthy of condemnation, and suf-
fer irretrievable loss. Is it not strange that with
all the patent facts of nature and of life, it has not
occurred to them that a man must make a positive
1 86

Neglect 187

choice of good and pursue it with zeal and stead-
fastness, if he is to be deemed worthy of commen-
dation and of abiding reward?

If a man enters this world at the summit of hu-
man character and attainment, then, of course, he
can descend from that summit only by a choice
which leads downward. But if a man enters the
world at the beginning of human character, a crea-
ture to be developed, then, he can rise only by
choice and action. Embryonic life everywhere is a
capacity of reception, a potential power, a possibility,
a promise. Everywhere, with plants and animals
alike, life is conditioned, and all that is necessary to
insure failure, is neglect. A neglected garden runs
to weeds; its few plants left from former cultiva-
tion deteriorate or die outright. A neglected field
yields no harvest. A neglected animal, though the
product of former care and culture, speedily reverts
to a lower type. Moles which have burrowed in
the earth, have lost their eyesight. Fish which live
in caverns, like the Mammoth Cave, become blind.
Minds unexercised become idiotic or insane. Neglect
everywhere tends to degeneration. Degeneration is
as common as development. The end of degenera-
tion is death.

One of the solemn and significant questions of the
scriptures is this: "How shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation?" The scriptures leave
the question unanswered, because the answer is
obvious. The word salvation, so far as it relates
to the means of securing that state, is the revelation
of divine love and the promise of redemption and of

The Secret of Successful Life

the gift of the spirit of life. The word salvation,
in so far as it relates to the acceptance of the means
and the achievement of character and life, means
a condition which man may attain. All that is re-
quired to fail of salvation, is neglect. This is in
full accord with the law of life everywhere. Neglect
on the part of farmer or gardner or fruit grower,
means the loss of possible gain and, ultimately, the
loss of all he had set himself to cultivate. Death is
quite as common as life, and more natural. "Life
is the sum total of the forces which resist death."
The preservation and the perfection of life every-
where are conditioned. Asphyxia is suspended ani-
mation resulting from interrupted respiration. If
an animate creature neglects to breathe, whatever
may be the cause, poison of the blood and cessation
of heart beat ensue, and the result is death. If a
living creature neglects to eat food ; weakness, faint-
ing, and death soon follows. All that is required
to insure death is neglect of the means of sustaining
life. Solitary confinement produces insanity. The
lonely life of many country people prior to the mod-
ern means of conversation by telephone and of travel
by trolley, resulted in a large number of cases of in-
sanity, especially among women.

It is in accord with all this, that faith, love, and
hope should fail, and the qualities of spiritual life
decay; if the conditions of their growth are not im-
proved. The neglect of the means of their develop-
ment insures their loss.

"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also
reap." This is an abiding law of nature. And, if

Neglect 189

a man sows nothing, he will reap nothing. Should
a man who sows nothing, reap a golden harvest of
wheat? Should a student who is indolent, reap the
rewards of scholarship? Would there be incentive
to arduous and high endeavor, if neglect of labor
and of study issued in the same rewards as effort
and diligence? In every sphere of life in which
things material and mental are concerned, men
recognize the rule and the justice of the law of re-
ward. They find the law a beneficent condition
of the development of that which is good, and an
incentive to effort which insures gain. Only in
the sphere of the spirit, do men claim that grace
should bring holiness and heaven to men, irrespec-
tive of their own choice and effort. Here alone,
do men think there should be a lawless world in
which eternal life should be given to all men. How
can this be? Law must rule here as elsewhere
in God's universe. The Son of God did not come
into the world to destroy law, but to fulfill it. He
does not save men by making them free from law,
but by enabling them' to fulfill law. This is the
covenant which I will make, saith the Lord: "I will
put my laws on their heart, and upon their mind
also will I write them." Obedience is not to the
letter but to the spirit of the law. The law here
as elsewhere is beneficent. It makes for good char-
acter and for a perfect society. It is a high law
because man is to have a high destiny. Great char-
acter could not be produced in a lawless world
where rewards are conferred without regard to de-
sert. Men are saved from sin, but not through

I90 The Secret of Successful Life

lawlessness. Forgiveness is restoration to the divine
favor, and is a most gracious act on the part of God.
But salvation which is the completion of character
in the likeness of God, is an achievement. Salva-
tion is accomplished by the acceptance of the con-
ditions of the spiritual life and by obedience to the
laws of the divine kingdom.

Men usually do not become bad by first choosing
some evil thing and pursuing it with zeal. ' Men
become bad by refusing to choose some good thing
and by neglecting to grow in the love of righteous-
ness. The man who pursues something good with
ardor, is not usually led into base sins. The old
adage that **Satan finds some work for idle hands
to do" rests on a very common law. Nature, it
is said, abhors a vacuum. Something will fill it.
Jesus relates a parable of a man out of whom an
evil spirit was cast, but into whom nothing good
entered. As a result, seven spirits more evil than
the first entered into that man and dwelt in him.
An uninhabited house becomes the abode of spiders
and bats and unclean insects. An imagination which
cherishes pictures of uncleanness and lawlessness,
leads to a lawless and unclean life. ''Keep thy
heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life." "Out of the heart," says Jesus, "proceed
evil thoughts, murders, blasphemies." The heart
which is not actively engaged in taking in things
true, pure, and good soon will be filled with things
false, impure, and evil. The tragedy of life pro-
ceeds from an empty and then from an evil heart.

Fineness of nature is marked by sensitiveness to

Neglect 191

impressions. There is a great difference in persons
in respect of sensitiveness in the senses of touch,
taste, smell, seeing, and hearing. The different
colors in the spectrum are made by the different
number of vibrations of light per second. Persons
who are color-blind cannot distinguish these differ-
ences, and so cannot distinguish colors. In the
sense of hearing, there is not only a natural differ-
ence in persons, but there is a great difference be-
tween the untrained and the trained ear. With
respect to pitch in musical notes, Preyer found that
unpracticed persons distinguish a difference of from
eight to sixteen vibrations as producing a distinct
difference in the sensation of pitch. It has been
said that, "The trained musician can detect by ear
a difference in quality between two tones of four
hundred and four hundred and one-third vibrations
per second."

This fineness of sensation in physical nature is
suggestive of the fineness of impressibility which
may be cultivated in the moral nature. Persons
who have not trained themselves to see, miss many
forms and many colors of beauty which delight the
mind of the man whose eyes have been trained to see.
Earth and sky glow with beauty to him whose eyes
have been opened ; all nature sings to him whose
ears, according to the fine Hebrew idiom, have been
uncovered.

The prophets and Jesus are absolutely correct
when they speak of men whose eyes have grown
dim that they cannot see, whose ears have grown
dull that they cannot hear, and who§e hearts have

192 The Secret of Successful Life

grown gross that they cannot know. So the su-
premely sad fact remains that men who are dying
in their spiritual nature, may be unconscious of that
fact. They only know that what some persons say
they see and feel, seems unreal to them ; and that
things which others speak of knowing, are to them
unknown. But they feel no loss, for sensibility is
either latent or dead. The whole upper sphere of
life may become an unknown world to men who
live in the lust of the flesh, in the lust of the world,
and in the pride of life. They only know that they
care nothing for those things which others love and
praise ; that those things seem to them unreal. Some
Christian people who live in the enjoyment of faith
in God and in communion with the Spirit, and who
delight in things divine, suppose that all other per-
sons equally may enjoy the things which they enjoy
and that, if they do not enjoy them, they should
know what they miss. But, in reality, things are
not missed when men become so blind that they can-
not see them and so gross that they cannot know
them. A man with no appreciation of music and
with no love for music, does not know what he has
missed, nor mourn his loss; but it is loss.

When God speaks of withdrawing from men and
of withholding His Spirit, He is simply expressing
what takes place, practically, when men refuse to
receive the grace which is offered them, and so lose
the power to receive it. There comes a time when a
grain of corn cannot be quickened by sunlight, a
time when an egg cannot become a bird, a time when
an embryo cannot become an animal. There is also

Neglect 193

a time when a body which has asphyxia cannot re-
ceive air, cannot be charged again with life, cannot
partake of food. That body has passed beyond the
limit of reception. Henceforth, it must be left to
the action of forces which dissipate and destroy it.

This seems to be the condition of some souls.
They cannot be touched by sermon, by song, by
gospel story, by the presence of a holy life, or by the
touch of tender and yearning love. They are dead
so far as spiritual things are concerned. We do not
like to think that this is so, but we know that there
are those on whom Christian truth and love and life
make no impression. The sacred scriptures pro-
nounce such persons dead in sin. This is the su-
preme danger to which men are exposed. There is
need of all the warnings which may be given to lead
men to see the danger of refusing to accept divine
grace and to choose the means and the way of life.
Would that all men could be made to see that
danger lies primarily and chiefly in neglecting the
things which are true and good and which make for
life !

It is neglect which Jesus emphasizes. In the
teaching of Jesus, the man who neglected to put
on the wedding garment was judged unworthy of
the wedding feast; the man who neglected to put
his talent with the bankers was deprived of that
talent; the foolish virgins who neglected to take
oil with their lamps were excluded from the bride-
groom's house when the bridegroom came; Jeru-
salem which neglected the day of her visitation, be-
came a city for which there was left only lamenta-

194

The Secret of Successful Life

tion and tears; the men of Jesus' time were con-
demned because they neglected to come to Him
that they might have life. Accordmg to Jesus, con-
demnation comes upon men because ight has come,
and they love darkness. The loss which is irrepar-
able and final, is not because of original sin nor
actual transgression, but because men will not hear
and see and believe and so receive salvation. Men
are not finally lost because they have been sinners,
but because they have refused to be saved. 1 his
refusal, in most cases, takes the course of neglect.
The majority of mankind are not now and, perhaps,
never have been very bad in the sense of wickedness;
but many are indifferent to the things of the spirit
They live in the flesh; they love the world; they
neglect the opportunities which God gives them;
they refuse the call to the higher life; they belong
to a temporal and transient order. The neglect of
salvation is the crying sin of the world.

Who can tell how much is lost out of .the heart
and life of the man who neglects salvation? 1 o
him, the heavens shine with sun by day and with
stars by night; but they shine only to warm his
fields and to guide his steps; they do not declare
to him the glory of God who made them. To him,
flowers bloom in brilliant beauty, and harvests wave
in golden splendor; but no harvest ever speaks to
his soul of the goodness of God who feeds men,
and no bush burning in glowing colors ever declares
to his soul a message from the invisible Spint oH ife^
Never with uncovered head does he bow before the
heavens above, nor with unsandaled feet turn aside

Neglect 195

and wait before flower and field for a message from
the divine. To him, prayer is an unknown tongue,
or if he prays, it is in the spirit of the Pharisee of
whom Jesus said, "He prayed with himself." If
petitions are ever on his lips, they are for something
which God may give to him and never that he may
learn and do the will of God. Prayer, to him, is a
breath of selfishness wafted heavenward, and never
the opening of his soul to the inspiring breath of
God.

To the man who neglects the higher life and who
lives in the lower spheres of being, love is likewise
self-centered and limited. The natural man loves
himself, and he loves all other things embraced in
his affections for himself. He loves for what the
object of his love may bring to him. His parents
are almoners of bounty. His wife is a source of
delight. His children are means of personal pleas-
ure, or means of perpetuating his plans, when his
own power fails. His fellowmen are instruments of
service. The love of a selfish man never outruns the
limits of his own personality. His love is never lost
in the life of another as a stream is lost in joining
a river, or a river is lost in the sea. The center and
the circumference of love are in the man himself.
The love of Christ never constrains such a man.
He is never lost and carried onward by that great,
warm current of love which issues from the heart
of God. The stream of his affections never bears
him heavenward.

The natural, psychical man neglects the means of
salvation. Neglect of the means of rising, means

196 The Secret of Successful Life

falling. Neglect of the way of expansion, means
contraction. Neglect of the means of growth, means
atrophy and decay. Neglect of the way of life,
means death. He who has eyes to see, may read
this law written on every hand. This law is writ-
ten in the garden, in the field, in the forest, in the
shop, in the school, and in the church. Neglect in
the garden, means weeds; in the field, no harvest;
in the forest, decay ; in the shop, loss of skill ; in
the school, ignorance ; in the church, spiritual de-
cline and moral deterioration. He who sees this,
easily may know that a man must awake, learn the
truth of God, receive His grace, and do His will,
if he would win life.

The fact that salvation is of grace, no more de-
prives man of freedom and opportunity than the fact
of selection in nature deprives plant and animal of
the means of growth. Selection means the survival
of such plants and animals as fulfil the conditions
of growth. In all education, save the education of
the soul, the necessity of diligence is recognized. If
children were left to follow their own natural in-
clination, many never would go to school, or acquire
knowledge and skill. Until a child is sufficiently
developed to choose a course of training for himself
and stick to it, parents compel discipline. Some
compulsion in learning the things of the spirit would
not harm a child. A grown man must choose for
himself those means of information, inspiration, and
growth which experience has proved to be helpful.

Prayer, public worship, and sacred music; such
familiarity with the New Testament as will saturate

Neglect 197

the mind with its truth and spirit; the habit of
thinking of God and of relating Him in thought
with the course of one's life; the companionship of
devout persons; voluntary choice day by day of
such feelings and acts as are like the feelings and
acts of Jesus; cultivation of a spirit of aspiration
after better things ; participation in movements
which have for their purpose the moral and spiritual
improvement of mankind, — all tend to cultivate a
spiritual and religious character. The daily habit
of reverence toward God, of thoughtfulness toward
men, of a disposition to fulfill the labor of each day
in the spirit of Jesus "who went about doing good,"
and consecration of the will to the service of God, —
all tend to educate the character and to make it com-
plete in holiness. The man who uses these means
will not fail to receive power, to gain in faith and
love, and to grow in grace until he becomes a perfect
man in Christ.

The wilful neglect of any of these means of good,
will result in the loss of power of good. The
neglect of all of them will result in the loss of the
desire of goodness. Neglect of prayer is followed
by forgetfulness of God ; neglect of public worship
increases the spirit of self-indulgence; neglect of
familiarity with the New Testament leaves the mind
in the common habits of thought which pertain to a
worldly life; neglect of cherishing voluntarily a
Christian disposition is followed by a lax and morally
weakened tone of mind ; neglect of participating in
efforts to make the world better, leaves a soul grow-
ing indifferent to the highest welfare of mankind

198 The Secret of Successful Life

and increasingly self-seeking and worldly. The
heart in which love does not glow, will become a
heart chilled into lovelessness.

Demas deserted Saint Paul because he loved this
present world. Any man who falls away from the
worship of God and from conscious work for Him,
if he will candidly trace his course, will probably
note the fact that his departure began in some
neglect. Some duty neglected, left him more
inclined to place self first in his own affections;
some means of grace neglected left him more self-
indulgent; some failure to coooperate in carrying
on the kingdom of God, made more easy over him
the domination of the world ; the neglect of the
things of the spirit, let him sink gradually into sub-
jection to the things of the flesh. Neglect of good
submerges a man in the kingdom of evil. And the
man who never has risen, if he could discover the
cause of his decline to lower and lower moral states,
would discover the source of his fall in a prior re-
fusal to rise.

The greater part of the things for which men
to-day neglect the cultivation of the soul, are not
bad in themselves. Some of them are good. But
for sake of what is relatively good, men may lose
what is better; and for things good, men may lose
things which are best. For example, physical ex-
ercise and the joy of motion in space are in them-
selves good, if not carried to the point of dissipa-
tion ; but they minister mainly to the body, and but
incidentally to the mind ; they have no ministry for
the soul. The pleasure of entertainment whether

Neglect 199

by pictures, plays, or social fellowship may be inno-
cent in themselves ; but they serve merely to divert
from serious thought and toil; they lead for a time
to forgetfulness of the things which make life a bur-
den; they give a certain relaxation and relief, and
so far forth are good; but they add no solid gain
to a man's powers. Mere rest, whether of body or
of mind, may renew, but cannot increase strength.
Inspiration increases strength.

The strength of a man is primarily in his soul.
Faith, love, aspiration, and hope are real power. Let a
man compare his strength when hopeless with his
strength when some great hope fills his soul. Let
a man compare his strength when he is in doubt, or
in fear, with his strength when some great faith
possesses him. Let a man compare his strength
when he feels unloved, or when he is without love,
with his strength when he is conscious of being de-
votedly loved, or when he ardently loves some one
for whom he would even die; and he will know
the power of love to make strong. The hope of fu-
ture good, though that good can be obtained only by
self-denial and hard toil, makes a man strong in
courage, fortitude, and patience. These are facts
which any man may verify in his own experience.

Now the faith, hope, and love which Christianity
gives to a believing man have power beyond any
thing else to hearten, comfort, sustain, and cheer the
souls of men. These give true success in life. "Hast
thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the ever-
lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giv-

200 The Secret of Successful Life

eth power to the faint ; and to them who have no
might He increaseth strength. Even the youths
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Men may endure much hardship because they
cannot escape it; but only a believing man can
write, "We glory in tribulations." A Christian
man can write thus, because he can also write, "We
faint not; though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ;
while we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen : for the things
which are seen are temporal; but the things which
are not seen are eternal."

This is a matter of personal experience. One
may test the truth of it here and now. The charac-
ter and works of them who truly believe, testify to
its reality. Any man may prove it for himself.

The sad thing in life to-day, and life's greatest
tragedy, lies in the fact that for sake of things which
in relation to the bodies of men are good, many neg-
lect the higher things which minister to the spirit
and which are best. They drink only at earthly
fountains. They eat only bread which springs from
the ground. They wait only on the ministry of men
for amusement and for rest. They enjoy only the
things which are from beneath. What will it profit

Neglect 201

them if they gain the whole world and, by neglect,
lose their own life? When physical energy wanes,
when mental vigor declines, when the things which
feed the body fail, when men can no longer enter-
tain or amuse or instruct; what remains to sustain
life? It stands written and men should read and
heed, "The world passeth away, and the lust there-
of: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for-
ever."

CHAPTER XII

Eternal Life

T F a man die, shall he live?" is an ancient ques-
-*■ tion. If a man die should he live? is a modern
question. Scientific biology has disclosed the fact
that all life in this world is conditioned. The law
of the survival of the fittest has declared the fact
that only a living being which fulfils the conditions
of growth and perfection is deemed, by nature,
worthy of continuance. These facts suggest two
questions. The first is this, Is man an exception to
this law of biology? The second is this, Is eternal
life, irrespective of the character and condition of
that which lives, a boon to be desired?

In an attempt to answer such questions, a man
who feels the limitations of his vision and of his
knowledge, must speak with becoming modesty.
Nevertheless, the man who has the spirit of a seer
and who looks upon the world with open eyes, must
report what he sees; and the man who has the
mind of a disciple and who listens with open ears to
the words of Jesus, must report what he hears.

The seer who with open eye, clear vision, and
keen insight looks upon the world of animate things,
must see that every living thing, physical, mental,
spiritual, which does not fulfill the conditions of
growth, development, and perfection, degenerates,
decays, and dies ; that which fulfils the conditions of
202

Eternal Life 203

growth, development, and perfection, of its kind,
continues to live to the full limit of its possible dur-
ation. We may say, in the world of nature, the liv-
ing thing which believes — that is, receives — feeds —
that is, appropriates — and works — that is, exerts its
powers normally — lives ; and that which does not re-
ceive, feed, and work — dies. This is the law of
nature. Nature is the expression of the mind and
will of God.

The disciple, who listens to the words of Jesus,
must hear him say, "I came that they may have life,
and may have it abundantly." "I am bread of
life." "He that believeth hath eternal life." "He
that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent
Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judg-
ment, but hath passed out of death into life."

Obviously, also, as specifically stated in the New
Testament, "He that believeth not hath been judged
already." He is under condemnation. He remains
in a state and under a law whose issue is death.
"Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

According to Jesus, eternal life is first of all a
kind and quality of life which may exist here and
now. It is a present possession. It is a life which,
by faith, feeds upon God; which, by love, fulfills
the will of God ; which glows, in beauty, with a cer-
tain divine glory. It is a life, therefore, which has
the quality of continuance, and which deserves im-
mortality.

To the disciple, the words of Jesus are a final
authority. Jesus surprised and startled men by
His use of paradox. What He said seemed to con-

204 The Secret of Successful Life

tradict what they saw. What He promised, seemed
to them opposed to their experience.

For example, their Proverbs which garnered the
practical knowledge of the ages, taught that if a
man honors the Lord, his barns shall be filled with
plenty and his presses shall overflow with new wine.
But Jesus lifted up his eyes, looked upon men and
said, "Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the king-
dom of God." Jesus said, "A man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he pos-
sesseth." Men had been taught to have special re-
gard to the means of securing prosperity, and so
saving their life. Jesus said, "Whosoever will save
his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his
life for my sake, shall find it." Jesus said that
not outward possessions but inward state, decided a
man's security and determined his destiny.

Jesus saw only two great passions and principles
of character and conduct. These are selfishness and
love. According to the teachings of Jesus, all sins
are rooted in the former; all righteousness springs
from the latter. According to Jesus, selfishness seeks
to gather abundance for self. It fails to see that life is
more than meat and more than raiment. Selfishness
separates a man from God. If selfishness acknowl-
edges God at all, it desires Him only as a servant
who may minister things for the increase of wealth
and grant pleasures for personal enjoyment. Selfish-
ness separates a man from other men. Selfishness
causes a man to make use of other men only for his
own pleasure and profit. Selfishness means separa-
tion, for it withdraws a man from God. Selfishness

Eternal Life 205

means starvation, for a man cannot live upon things.
Selfishness means strangulation, for a soul may be
smothered by the abundance of the things which
have been gathered. Therefore, Jesus asks the
pertinent question : "What shall a man be profited,
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his life?"

According to Jesus, love is self-forgetful, self-
denying, and serviceable. Love, therefore, is the
one passion and the one principle by which Jesus
is sure that men belong to His kingdom. Jesus jus-
tified His forgiveness and reception of a sinful wo-
man "because she loved much." Faith, Jesus said,
saved her; but love was the evidence of that faith.
Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my
words: and My Father will love him." Jesus says
that in the final judgment of men, He will welcome
into His kingdom all who have shown a heart of
love by their gifts of bread, clothing, visitation, and
ministry. According to Jesus, sinners are forgiven,
saints are trusted, and men are eternally rewarded
on the basis of love.

No life, therefore, seems to Jesus to be a success,
whatever may be the place and the wealth and the
pleasure which it has gained, if in gaining those
things, love has been strangled or smothered or lost.
What will the things gained profit, if the life is
lost? It stands written in nature, in human life,
and in the sacred scriptures, "He that loveth not
abideth in death." It stands also written, "He that
abideth in love, abideth in God, and God abideth
in him." That is to say, the loveless man lives in
the sphere of things which are transient and which

2o6 The Secret of Successful Life

pass away. The loving man lives in the sphere of
things eternal, which endure.

"The wages" — the natural reward — "of sin is
death ; but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Jesus Christ our Lord."

Nothing could be more simple, direct, and intel-
ligible than the teaching of Jesus and His disciples
with respect to the consequences of unbelief and
faith, selfishness and love, sin and righteousness. The
end, in the one case, is death ; the end in the other
case, is life. No words and no facts are more sharp-
ly contrasted and more easily understood than death
and life.

The Christian church, as an organization, long
since departed from the teaching of Jesus. The
church long since adopted a human philosophy of
the nature of man, and claimed for man immortality
by virtue of his being man. Happiness and misery,
pleasure and pain, triumph in glory, and torture in
fire, have been taught by the church as the reward
of righteousness, on the one hand, and, on the other,
as the penalty of sin. Some portions of the church
latterly have turned the fire to a figure, but to a
figure not of cleansing or of destruction — the two
things which fire will do — but to a figure of tor-
ture. Some portions of the church now are simply
silent on the subject.

An opinion which has been held by a large
body of men and current for many years, should
be treated with respect and deemed worthy of
candid consideration. An opinion long prevalent
should not be rejected without sufficient reason.

Eternal Life 207

An opinion, however, let it be remembered, often
has been formed by unobservant and unscientific
men, and, once formed, has been held because it is
an accepted opinion. An opinion, also, sometimes
has been accepted because of the authority of some
great man who has endorsed it. But the several
opinions of a great man are not all equally worthy
of credence. For example, for a thousand years or
more, the name of Augustine gave authority to any-
thing which he taught, although — great thinker
though he was — some of his teachings set in the light
of modern scientific knowledge are altogether false.
An opinion often is held because it has been instilled
into the mind in childhood and is retained without
investigation and without evidence. This has been
true of doctrines of the church, the questioning of
which has been regarded in some quarters as denial
of truth itself. I have known ministers to affirm
that they would continue to teach what is most ob-
viously false, because they had been taught it and
had themselves taught it. This illustrates the habit
of an unscientific and unthinking mind. Such a
mind is parrot-like, repeating what it has been told.
I have great respect for the Christian ministry;
but, in candor, I must say that it contains some
minds like this.

An opinion which has come to be accepted by the
majority of men in any country, is held without
question by most persons ; for most persons, do not
think. For example, the Ptolemaic theory of the
solar system was long current and concurred with
the superficial observation of men who did not

2o8 The Secret of Successful Life

think, but that theory was entirely false. Men long
held the opinion that the earth and the heavens were
created in six days of twenty-four hours each, be-
cause the writer of tho book of Genesis, in giving
a pictorial account of creation, described it as made
in six days. It is known, now, that this account
of creation is not a scientific treatise and that the
earth was produced by a long process.

In an old bible in the Congressional Library in
Washington, I saw a picture of the creation of Eve
which was drawn according to the ideas of the
artist. The Creator was shaping Eve, mechanic-
ally, as a sculptor might mold in clay, and drawing
the body gradually from the side of Adam. For a
long time, the creation of man was considered a me-
chanical formation of the human body, which being
formed was, then, infused with life. Men who be-
lieved this, neither saw nor thought scientifically, or
they would have seen and would have known that
God is continually making bodies, and that no body
of any living thing, from the daintiest flower to the
largest tree, from the tiniest insect to the most per-
fect man, is ever made save by a force of life which
in seed or germ weaves and fashions every part
from within.

The habit of mind which prevailed in the world
until late years was not scientific. Men, generally,
did not look patiently upon actual processes and
did not form opinions slowly from the data^of facts.
Most men accepted things as they seemed to be
on first view. Men were superficial in matters of
physical science, and superstitious in matters of re-

Eternal Life 209

ligion. Men read the letter of the scriptures, and
often failed to perceive the spirit. Hence, the
theory that the sun revolves around the earth w^as
accepted because it looked that way. The theory
that physical death is the penalty of sin was held, be-
cause the scriptures say that Adam was told that if
he ate forbidden fruit, he would die. With such
a habit of mind, opinions were accepted and held,
which with the habit of tracing consequences
to their cause and in the clear light of
scientific knowledge, cannot be believed. Mod-
ern men, while retaining faith in the spirit of much
ancient doctrine, must reject its letter. The mod-
ern man unavoidably asks, "What is God actually
doing in the world?" He also asks, "What do the
scriptures which speak for God say and mean?"

The natural immortality of man has been taught
in the church since the third and fourth centuries
of the Christian era. At that time, men who had
been educated in Greek philosophy and trained in
Roman law, became the leaders of Christian
thought. Many facts of life were quietly ignored.
The scriptures were interpreted by men who ap-
proached them by a preconceived philosophy of the
nature of man. The terms, life and death, than
which no two words could be of plainer meaning
and no two states more vividly contrasted, were
interpreted as merely figurative modes of expression
and, in respect of the soul, spiritual states. Their
teaching came at length to be the common opinion
of the church. The truth of that opinion may well
be questioned at the present time. It is certainly

2IO The Secret of Successful Life

well to observe what science sees and to listen to
what the scriptures say.

Scientific men who study man as an animal of
the order mammalia, do not find in his natural con-
stitution evidence of immortality. The feeling that
one canot die, of which some speak, if examined
closely, will be seen to be simply the feeling which
a living creature when full of life has, namely, a
sense of living. The living thing when full of its
natural power, cannot conceive of itself as dead. But
when physical and mental strength both are fast
ebbing away, one can conceive of himself as dying.
Any argument for the natural immortality of man
— as man — from the unity of his life and the indis-
solubility of his soul, could be used with equal pro-
priety to prove the natural immortality of any ani-
mal with power of affection, memory, and volition.

Certain philosophers, also, who have studied man
in his mental and moral nature, confess that by
virtue of his failure to conform to the conditions
by which souls live or to set himself in right rela-
tion to society, man may die. Immanuel Kant says,
"The soul may cease to be by inanition," by fading
out as the flame of a lamp fades from want of oil.
A later philosopher, Hermann Lotze, says, **In-
destructibility would include, not merely immor-
tality after death, but also unending pre-existence
before the present life; and with the latter, we
neither know how to make a beginning, nor do we
find in our experience any evidence for such a pre-
vious life." Lotze also says, "Touching immortal-
ity, in general we simply hold the principle to be

Eternal Life 2ii

valid that everything which has once originated will
endure forever, as soon as it possesses an unalterable
value for the coherent system of the world ; but it
will, as a matter of course, in turn cease to be, if
this is not the case." The immortality of any crea-
ture cannot be considered simply by seeing that crea-
ture in itself, but in seeing it in its relation to a sys-
tem and a universe of which it is a part.

Scientific men and philosophers who see clearly
the limitations of development and of continuance
on the physical side, and who see also the unmeas-
ured possibilities on the moral side, conclude that
any further gain to be made in the animal creation,
must be along moral lines. They admit the need of
immortality to complete what seems to be, now,
great incompleteness both on the part of the individ-
ual and on the part of human society. Certain
scientists, like Sir Oliver Lodge and others, hope
to be able through psychical research to find proof
of the immortality of the soul. With them, how-
ever, as with all men, belief in immortality must be
a matter of faith and hope.

If we turn to the sacred scriptures which record
the revelation of the character of God and of his
will respecting man and which record, also, the life
and resurrection of one called the Son of Man, who
conquered death and who brought life and immortal-
ity to light; certain facts appear to him who will
see.

The first fact which appears in the scriptures is,
that touching immortality, most of the books of the
Old Testament are silent. In the account of the

212 The Secret of Successful Life

creation of man given in Genesis, it is said, God
breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life (He-
brew lives) and man became a living soul. Ac-
cording to this ancient account of creation, man's
life, like all life, was conditioned. Two trees grew
in man's garden. The fruit of one tree was the
symbol of life. The fruit of the other tree was the
symbol of death. Man was given the choice of the
way of life or of the way of death. He had access
to both trees and power to eat the fruit of them ;
but he was forbidden to eat the fruit of one tree
through which would come knowledge of good
and evil. Obedience or disobedience was left to his
own free choice. Man could follow the way of
faith or the way of unbelief, the way of obedience
or the way of disobedience; he could go up or fall
down; he could live or he could die. Life and
death were possibilities.

The death threatened was more than physical
death. Physical death was in the world before the
advent of man. Physical death is part of the order
of nature and not the penalty of sin. In a world
where animals propagate rapidly, as on the earth,
death is a necessary part of the order, or life could
not be sustained. The physical constitution of man
in all his organs and in the injuries and diseases to
which he is exposed, is precisely the same as the con-
stitution of the higher animals. If they naturally
die, so must man — as man — die. What is threat-
ened as the penalty of unbelief and disobedi-
ence is a second death. "In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die." The Hebrew words

Eternal Life 213

are more suggestive of the truth. Literally, these
are, "Dying thou shalt die." Disobedience would
be followed by a process of decline which would is-
sue in death. The death threatened is greater than
physical death. "Thou shalt die." The matter is
left with this simple but significant statement. The
story of the temptation and fall of man is the most
suggestive of possible immortality of anything found
in the earlier part of the Old Testament.

The promises of the laws of Moses and of the
Levitical code relate to the present world. Obedi-
ence to the law would issue in health, prosperity,
and long life. Disobedience to the law would
issue in disease, adversity, and premature death.
The law knew nothing of future rewards and pun-
ishments. The horizon of the earthly life was the
boundary of knowledge.

In the historical portion of the Old Testament,
the man who died, slept with his fathers ; if fortun-
ate, he was buried in the sepulcher of his fathers.
Dust slept with kindred dust, and no light was cast
beyond the grave.

In the poetical and prophetical books of the Old
Testament, a few brief passages express a hope of
immortality. In the book of Job, in the nineteenth
chapter. Job expresses his hope by saying, "I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and will stand upon the
earth, and after my skin is destroyed, then without
my flesh shall I see God." In the sixteenth psalm,
the tenth verse, the psalmist voices his hope in the
saying, "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol;
neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corrup-

214 The Secret of Successful Life

tion. Thou wilt show me the path of life ; in Thy
presence is fulness of joj^ ; in Thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore." In the book of Daniel,
the twelfth chapter, it is written: "And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
sortie to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever-
lasting contempt."

There is also a suggestive passage in the last book
of the Old Testament. In the fourth chapter of
Malachi, there is a striking indication of the final
difference to be made between the righteous and the
wicked. A day will come in which there will be
discernment "between the righteous and the wicked,
between him that serveth God and him that serveth
Him not." To the former, that day will be like
the light of the sun, healing, and life-giving. To
the latter it will be "as a furnace of fire" which will
consume them as stubble, and, like worthless trees,
burning them up "root and branch." This is prac-
tically all the light cast by the Old Testament upon
the future of man.

The second fact to be noticed is that the teachings
of the New Testament on the subject of immortality
are clear, quite consistent, concise and conclusive.
By the time of Jesus the Jews held a clearer concep-
tion and a firmer faith in a future life than had been
held in an earlier period. Jesus, as was His wont,
cast His teachings in language and in literary form
which would be intelligible to the men of His times.
Their conceptions and their figures of speech gave
form and color to the teachings of Jesus, but the es-
sence of the teaching was His own. The teaching

Eternal Life 215

of Jesus as we shall see, is explicit.

There are four great facts touching immortality
stated in the New Testament. The first fact is
this: 'God only hath immortality." (I. Timothy
6:16). The entire passage show^s that the affirma-
tion is made of God the Father who alone hath
immortality. He is the eternal and self-existent
One. the Possessor and the Giver of life.

The second fact is this: "As the Father hath
life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son also
to have life in Himself." (John 5:26). It should
be noticed here that even in the case of the Son, life
is the gift of the Father.

The third fact is this: God having given life to
the Son, has made that Son to be the giver of life to
men. This Jesus clearly affirms. "For as the
Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even
so the Son also giveth life to whom He will."
(John 5:21). Jesus says of Himself: "I am the
life." "I came that they may have life." "I am
the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on
me though he die, yet shall he live." In the six-
teenth verse of the third chapter of the gospel by
John is found that greatest of all gospel declara-
tions: "God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish, but have eternal life." It should
be noted that the contrast here is between perishing
and eternal life.

The fourth fact is this: eternal life is not the
natural possession of man, but the gracious gift of
God. In the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ro-

2i6 The Secret of Successful Life

mans, it is said: ''The wages of sin is death; but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ
our Lord." Here the contrast is between opsonia,
wages, a merited or natural consequence and re-
ward, and charis?na, a gift of grace, free and un-
merited.

Could anything be more plain than these four
statements? "God only hath immortality." "God
hath given to the Son to have life in himself."
"God so loved the world that He gave His Son that
whosoever believeth m Him should not perish, but
have eternal life." "The wages" — the natural re-
sult— "of sin is death ; but the free gift of God is
eternal life."

It should be noticed that the teachings of Jesus
and the apostles are along this line always. Jesus
claims for Himself that He is "life," and "living
bread," and the giver of "living water," and "the
resurrection and the life," in whom, if a man be-
lieves, he shall live forever. In vain would we
search through the words of Jesus to find any pas-
sage where He teaches that He came to deliver men
from misery and confer upon them happiness. Sin
and death are the things from which Jesus saves
men. Love and life are the things for which He
saves them.

The apostles teach the same truth. In the con-
clusion of the gospel according to John, it stands
written: "These" (the things selected and placed
in this book) "are written that ye may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believ-
ing ye may have life in His name." And in his

Eternal Life 217

first epistle John says, ''And this is the record, that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of God, hath not life."

Saint Peter, likewise, in his first letter, gives
thanks to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, hath
begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrec-
tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time." Evidently
this hope of immortality was given to Peter in
Christ. It was given him through the resurrection
of Jesus. He did not hold this glorious hope as a
man, but as a Christian man.

Saint Paul, speaking of the divine economy em-
bracing all dispensations says, "God, who will ren-
der to every man according to his deeds," will give
"to them who by patient continuance in well-doing
seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life." (Romans 2:6-7). This eternal life, accord-
ing to Paul, is not the natural possession of men but
is given as a result of their seeking it. Eternal
life is a possibility; it may become an actuality by
faith. Again, Saint Paul says, in speaking of the
resurrection: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and the mortal must put on immor-
tality. So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on

2i8 The Secret of Successful Life

immortality, then shall be brought to pass the say-
ing, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' "

Why multiply passages? The words of Jesus
and John and Peter and Paul are concise and con-
clusive. Only a preconceived opinion of the na-
ture of man which blinded the mind to the natural
meaning of the words of scripture and which forced
a figurative meaning upon the plainest of words
could have kept the church in ignorance of the truth.
As light is colored by the glass through which it
streams taking the colors of the windows of a cathe-
dral which it floods, so divine truth is affected by
the preconceived opinions of minds into which it en-
ters. But as minds become open and clear, truth
is seen in its clear white light. Only unwilling-
ness to see the truth can hold the minds of men to
ancient falsehood.

Jesus was accustomed to teach the people in para-
bles. A parable is a picture or story wherein, by
things known, men are given some knowledge of
things hitherto unknown. A parable by its nature
is designed especially for the instruction of un-
spiritual men. Jesus says, "Here is something
which you know. Now the kingdom of heaven is
like this" A parable usually is intended to teach
just one thing and should not be pressed beyond its
natural meaning. It has been said that a parable
and what it is intended to illustrate, are like two
globes which touch only at one point.

In the several parables recorded in the thirteenth
chapter of the gospel of Matthew, there are two
which reach to the final judgment of men. These

Eternal Life 219

are the parable of The Wheat and Tares and the
parable of The Net and Fishes. In the harvest,
wheat and tares are separated. Wheat is for the
garner; tares are for the burning. Jesus says, "As,
therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the
fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The
Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they
shall gather out of His kingdom all things that
offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast
them into a furnace of fire. Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their Father."

So likewise, when the net was brought to shore,
the good fish were gathered into vessels, the bad
were cast away. Jesus says, "So shall it be in the
end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and
sever the wicked from among the righteous, and
shall cast them into the furnace of fire." Ob-
viously, fire is not for torment but for destruction,
and destruction is based on worthlessness.

Four other parables of judgment are recorded in
the gospels. In the parable of The Ten Virgins,
the five foolish virgins who took no oil and who
were late, were excluded from the marriage cele-
bration. In the parable of The Talents, the man
who wrapped his talent in a napkin and made no
gain was deprived of his talent. In the parable
of The Ten Pounds, likewise, the man who wrap-
ped his pound in a napkin and gained nothing was
deprived of his pound. In the parable of The Mar-
riage which a king made for his son, the man with-
out a wedding garment was cast out. There is one

220 The Secret of Successful Life

parable in action, namely, that of The Withered Fig
Tree. The fig tree whose leaves gave promise of
fruit but which bore no fruit, was withered.

In the account of the judgment of the nations giv-
en in the twenty-fifth chapter of the gospel by Mat-
thew, Jesus says that from among the nations. He
will welcome all who have lived lovingly and that
He will condemn all who have lived selfishly and
have rendered no service. The former He will
welcome into His kingdom. The latter He will
send away. "These shall go away into eternal pun-
ishment" (literally into the eternal cutting off as
branches pruned from a vine) ; "but the righteous
into eternal life." This is the common thought in
the New Testament : the one class shall be cut from
life ; the other class shall possess life.

But one may say, do not the scriptures speak of
the continuance of the souls of bad men after this life?
Yes. But that continuance is prior to the consumma-
tion of this world's history ; that is not the last state.
A body continues after death, but it continues in a
state of dissolution which decomposes it into its
original elements until it is no longer a body. A
depraved soul may continue after death but under
laws which will destroy it. Jesus says to His dis-
ciples: "Fear not them who kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, in
gehenna."

The parable of Dives and Lazarus may be re-
ferred to as teaching future punishment in the form
of pain. But that parable was spoken in language

Eternal Life 221

which would appeal to Pharisees of Jesus' time. It
certainly teaches future punishment of selfishness
and sin; but it does not reach out into times
beyond the final judgment. It cannot be referred
to as a proof of endless torment or of eternal life
in sin.

One may say, Do not the scriptures teach that the
wicked will have their place in gehenna^ in the fire
belonging to that place? Yes. But it will be well
to know what gehenna meant in the days of Jesus.
Gehenna is the Greek form of the words Gah Hin-
nom. This, in Hebrew, was the valley of Hinnom.
This was the narrow valley which skirted Jerusalem
on the south. In that valley, in times of idolatry,
idolatrous Israelites burned their children in the fire
to Moloch. The valley, in later years, became the
common lay-stall of the city where the dead bodies
of criminals, the carcasses of animals, and every
kind of filth was cast to waste away by natural
decay, or, according to late authorities, to be con-
sumed by fire. Decay, however, is simply slow com-
bustion.

Bodies were thrown into Gah Hinnom, not for
purposes of punishment but for destruction. The
Jews in the time of Jesus employed this place as a
symbol of the place into which the wicked finally
would be cast. Obviously, they could not regard
this place as symbolizing pain, but as setting forth
the idea of dissolution and dissipation into nothing-
ness. Jesus took up this name in common use and
employed it to designate the fate of the unbelieving
and wicked. Surely the most natural meaning of

222 The Secret of Successful Life

such a name and such imagery is not torture but
destruction. Jesus compares the wicked to tares, to
fruitless branches, to things of utter worthlessness.
The effect of fire depends on the substance on which
it fastens. Fire purifies gold. Fire consumes tares.
Jesus says the wicked are tares.

In addition to the teachings found in the gospels
and in the epistles which have been given in fullness,
there is found in the book of Revelation a brief
description of the judgment. The "dead great and
small stand before the throne." The books are
opened. Another book is opened which is the book
of life. "The dead are judged out of the things
which are written in the books." They are judged
according to their works. "And the sea gave up
the dead that were in it ; and death and Hades gave
up the dead that were in them : and they were judged
every man according to their works. And death and
Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the
second death, even the lake of fire. And if any
was not found written in the book of life, he was
cast into the lake of fire."

Dean Alford says in commenting on this passage :
"Hades is death's follower and the receiver of his
prey. The punishment of sin is inflicted on both,
because both are the offspring and bound up with
sin. This is the second death, the lake of fire. As
there is a second and higher life, so there is also
a second and deeper death. And as after that life
there is no more death, so after that death there is
no more life."

J^otice now in this final statement of the New

Eternal Life 223

Testament that not only they whose names are not
written in the book of life and who therefore are
worthless and wicked, but death itself and also
Hades are all cast into the lake of fire, and so suffer
destruction. Life alone, life holy and worthy, sur-
vives and reigns.

Pain as punishment holds very little place in the
New Testament. Torture as a divine delight has
no place whatever. That teaching was introduced
into the Christian church from pagan sources. This
I shall show later. The god of the doctrine of
eternal torture was Moloch and his kind, and not the
God and Father of Jesus the Christ.

I already have stated that a change came into
the teaching of the church when men, controlled in
their thinking by Greek philosophy and by Roman
law with its imperial ideas, became the leading
teachers of the church. I am not writing a history
of Christian doctrine and must, therefore, refer the
reader to treatises on that subject or to the writings
of the church Fathers. However, for the benefit of
such persons as may not be able to refer to original
documents, I shall give a few quotations which will
serve to show the earlier and the later teachings in
the Christian church. The reader will mark that
the earlier writers follow the simplicity of the New
Testament and the later writers elaborate their
philosophy of the nature of man and their theories of
the physical and eternal character of punishment.

In The Epistle of Barnabas whose date is about
the year 100 A. D., we read as follows: **Thou
§halt be simple in heart and rich in spirit. Thou

224 The Secret of Successful Life

shalt not join thyself to those who walk in the way
of death. The way of darkness is crooked; for it
is the way of eternal death." Again, we read : "He
who keepeth these," (the judgments of the Lord),
"shall be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he
who chooseth other things shall be destroyed with
his works."

Theophilus of Antioch, who belonged to the first
half of the second century, writing of the nature
of man says: "But some one will say to us, Was
man by nature mortal? Certainly not. Was he,
then, immortal? Neither do we affirm this. He
was by nautre neither mortal nor immortal, but ca-
pable of both. If he should incline to the things of
immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he
should receive as reward from Him, immortality.
But if, on the other hand, he should turn to the
things of death, disobeying God, he should him-
self be the cause of death to himself." Such is the
tenor of the teaching of the men who immediately
succeeded the apostles.

In the third and fourth centuries, though some
writers follow the earlier simplicity, a change ap-
pears. TertuUian, who wrote about the beginning
of the third century, speaking of final rewards says:
"After the resurrection, the servants of God are for-
ever with God, and clothed upon with the proper
substance of eternity; but the profane and all who
are not true worshipers of God, in like manner shall
be consigned to the punishment of everlasting fire."
TertuUian, then, proceeds to argue that this fire,
so far from destroying like ordinary fire, "from its

Eternal Life 225

very nature ministers to their incorruptibility."
That is to say, it tends to make them indestructible.
According to Tertulian, the wicked, like volcanoes
which burn and last, will endure in flames for-
ever.

Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa,
lived in the latter part of the fourth and the early
part of the fifth century. He was a man of great
ability and of wide influence. He knew but little
Greek and no Hebrew. He was a Latin writer domi-
nated by the idea of Roman imperialism. He inter-
preted the divine government after the analogy of
imperial Rome. To him the kingdom of heaven
was not ruled by biological laws but by laws like a
political empire. Augustine laid supreme stress on
law and authority and the sovereign and indepen-
dent character of the ruling powers. His teachings
gave direction to the theological thought which pre-
vailed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Augustine, in his treatise on The City of God,
one of his two greatest works, wrote as follows:
*Tor to what but to felicity should men consecrate
themselves were felicity a goddess? However, as
it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, to what God
but the Giver of happiness ought we to consecrate
ourselves, who piously love eternal life, in which
there is true and full felicity? For we mean by
eternal life, that life where there is endlessness. For
if the soul live in eternal punishments, by which
also those unclean spirits shall be tormented, that
is rather eternal death than eternal life. For there
is no greater or worse death than when death never

226 The Secret of Successful Life

dies. But because the soul from its very nature,
being created immortal, cannot be without some
kind of life, its utmost death is alienation from the
life of God in an eternity of punishment. So, then.
He only who gives true happiness, gives eternal life,
that is an endlessly happy life."

The change from the simple teachings of the New
Testament and of the Apostolic Fathers is here ap-
parent. Almost all the terms in common use for
fifteen hundred years are found in the writings of
Augustine. The natural immortality of man, felic-
ity as the hope of the human heart, happiness and
misery as the rewards of faith and of unbelief, a
happy heaven and a hell of physical torment, a death
which is simply alienation from God and literal
fire consuming but not destroying, are all found
in the writings of Augustine.

Augustine argues that there are material bodies
and animal bodies which can continue to exist in
fire. He produces these arguments in order to
prove the possibility of eternal physical torment. He
rejects as untenable, the doctrine of those who
consider fire as a figure of speech and who hold
that the punishment of sin is ''the anguish of a
spirit repenting too late and fruitlessly." He makes
mention of "Animals which live in the midst of
flames, and worms which live in springs of hot
water."

He says: "If, therefore, the salamander lives
in fire, as naturalists have recorded, and if certain
famous mountains of Sicily have been continually
on fire from the rernotest antiquity until now, and

Eternal Life 227

yet remain entire, these are sufficiently convincing
examples that everthing which burns is not con-
sumed. As the soul too is a proof that not every-
thing which can suffer pain, can also die."

Again, he says: "It is absurd to suppose that
either body or soul will escape pain in the future
punishment, yet, for my own part, I find it easier
to understand both" (that is the fire and the worm
of which he has been speaking) "as referring to
the body, than to suppose that neither does. I think
that Scripture is silent regarding the spiritual pain
of the damned, because, though not expressed, it
is necessarily understood that in a body thus tor-
mented, the soul also is tortured with a fruitless
repentance." He further adds: "I have already
sufficiently made out that animals can live in the
fire, in burning without being consumed, in pain
without dying, by a miracle of the most omnipotent
Creator, to whom no one can deny that this is pos-
sible, if he be not ignorant by whom has been
made all that is wonderful in all nature."

So enamoured is Augustine with material fire as
the fitting means of torment that he suggests that
even devils — who evidently puzzle him a little —
may possibly have bodies. He says, "Perhaps, as
learned men have thought, the devils have a kind
of body made of that dense and humid air which we
feel strikes us when the wind is blowing." But, if
this is not the case, still devils can burn. He says:
"Therefore, though the devils have no bodies, yet
their spirits, that is, the devils themselves, shall be
brought into thorough contact with the material

228 The Secret of Successful Life

fires to be tormented by them. That hell, which
also is called a lake of fire and brimstone, will be
material fire, and will torment the bodies of the
damned, whether men or devils, the solid bodies of
the one, aerial bodies of the other."

The reader can easily judge for himself, from
the above quotations, whether the doctrine of hell
and of future punishment which was taught by the
church during the Middle Ages and which was
preached commonly since the Reformation until
recent years came from the New Testament. A few
facts are, historically, very plain.

I. Torment is not emphasized in the New Tes-
tament as the punishment of sin.

II. Torment is emphasized in the teachings
of much of the world apart from Christianity.

III. The doctrine of eternal torment was in-
troduced into the teaching of the Christian church
by men whose minds had been filled with ideas of
pagan philosophy and doctrine.

To the student of religions, it is quite apparent
that the doctrine of torment and descriptions in
vivid colors of physical punishments are derived
from pagan and not from original Christian sources.
A few quotations will serve to illustrate this.

Buddhist descriptions of the punishments of
those in hell portray them as undergoing various
forms of torture. "Some are among fabled moun-
tains ; some are upon the shores of a great sea ;
one place is a place of terrific darkness ; another is
a place of red-hot iron ; another contains pits of
burning charcoal; another is a dense forest whose

Eternal Life 229

leaves are sharp swords; another is a place paved
with iron spikes." Everything is painted as vividly
as in the hell of Dante.

Homer who, doubtless, popularized the thought
of his time among the Greeks, as Milton described
the thought of his day, describes Tartarus as "A deep
gulf beneath the earth, with iron portals and a
brazen threshold, as far below Hades as heaven is
from earth."

The Northmen of Scandinavia believed that evil
men should be banished from Valhalla, the palace of
immortality where the souls of heroes dwell, "and
that perjurers, murderers, and they who seduce
men's wives shall wade through thick venom
streams in Nastrond."

Ximenes, in his hidian Chronicles, gives the des-
criptions of hell which he found among the Ameri-
can Indians. "Hell is a house of darkness; a house
of unendurable cold ; a house of tigers which lacer-
ate the inhabitants; a house of bats which cry ter-
ribly and fly wildly about; and finally a house of
edges of knives."

The above quotations from widely different
sources seem to indicate a disposition on the part
of primitive and unchristian men to ascribe the
cruelty common to men to the character of
God, and to conceive of punishment in terms of tor-
ment.

Certain influential writers of the early church,
retaining apparently something of this primitive dis-
position and controlled, in part, in their thinking by
pagan thought, misinterpreted some expressions of

230 The Secret of Successful Life

the New Testament with respect to punishment,
and misunderstood and misused the figure of fire
which occurs in the parables and the teachings of
Jesus. Some of these writers gave free scope and
vivid expression to their imagination in portraying
the punishment of sinners in the department of
Hades known as Tartarus.

Tertullian, a fierce and barbarous sort of Chris-
tian, depicts ''Illustrious monarchs, world's wise
men, philosophers, and poets trembling before the
judgment seat and burning in fires; tragedians, play
actors and wrestlers dissolving in Hame, glowing in
fire, tossing in fiery billows for rejecting Christ and
for sin."

Hippolytus describes a place of unquenchable fire
where the unrighteous and those w^ho believe not
God shall endure endless punishment. "No sleep
will give them rest ; no night will soothe them ; no
voice of interceding friends will profit them ; but
to the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal pun-
ishment.''

Lactantius says, "The wicked will again be
clothed with flesh, yet it will not be flesh like this
our earthly body, but indestructible and abiding for-
ever that it may be able to hold out against tortures
and everlasting fire."

In later times, the paintings of artists such as ap-
pear in pictures of the latter part of the Middle
Ages and the poems of such great poets as Dante,
in his Inferno and Milton in his Paradise Lost,
added to the popular belief in the torments of the
lost. So the doctrine of eternal torment as the pun-

Eternal Life 231

ishment of sin became incorporated in the theology
and the teachings of the church.

Pain does not hold the place in the punishment
of sin in the New Testament, which it has held in
historic theology. The New Testament clearly
teaches that sin merits and will receive punish-
ment. There are "many stripes" and *'few stripes"
inflicted according to knowledge and desert; men
are "rewarded according to their works;" but these
punishments belong rather to the discipline and
training of life and precede the final consumma-
tion. "There is a sin," says Jesus, "possible now
which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world,
nor in that which is to come." The time limit,
when punishment shall no longer belong to the dis-
ciplinary process of life, but shall become purely
destructive, is not revealed to us.

God and holiness, truth and love, will be no more
attractive and lovable in any other world and
state than now. It would be a mistake, and con-
trary to the tenor of the scriptures, to imagine that
the future holds better conditions and possibilities of
salvation than the present. But, evidently, it is not
the incident of physical death which may happen at
any time and at any age, but the personal and per-
manent choice of every soul which decides destiny.
The ultimate end to the unbelieving and the wicked
when the chastisements of God have failed to lead
to repentance and the grace of God has failed to
save, is death. Not pain but perdition is the end
of sin.

Torment does not honor and maintain the law,

232 The .Secret of Successful Life

nor satisfy God, nor even by an exhibition of "jus-
tice," cause the saints to "rejoice" and "excite them
to joyful praises," as so late a theologian as Jonathan
Edwards taught.

It is the worthlessness more than the wickedness
of selfish men which is emphasized in the New Tes-
tament. The sinful are foolish, like the foolish
virgins; they are slothful, like the man who wrap-
ped his talent in a napkin ; they are indifferent and
obey not the gospel; they have no future worth,
like fruitless branches and like tares; they are
objects of divine condemnation; they are children of
(jehenna; they are sons of destruction.

The punishments of sinners correspond to their
characters and may be summed up under five heads.
The punishment of sin is exclusion. The foolish
virgins are excluded from the marriage celebration;
sinners are excluded from heaven. The punish-
ment of sin is privation. The talent of the sloth-
ful man is taken from him ; power and opportunity
are taken away from the sinner. The punishment
of sin is degradation. The man without a wedding
garment is cast out from the feast ; sinners without
the character which divine grace offers, are cast out
into darkness. The punishment of sins perdition. The
wicked are like chaff, like fruitless branches, like
tares, fit only to be burned. The final punishment
of sin is said to be apoleia or perdition, olethros or
destruction, a place in a lake of fire, a second death.

Now as science does not discover, nor philosophy
prove, nor revelation teach, the natural immortality
of man, the very significant words and symbols of

Etertial Life 233

the New Testament must be interpreted in their
ordinary and natural meaning, and we must accept
as a very simple statement of fact the declaration
of the New Testament, namely, that "the wages of
sin is death." Death, like life, is a merciful pro-
vision of infinite love.

No more unscriptural and unworthy conception
of punishment could have been devised than that
which presents it as an act of wrath inflicted mainly
to satisfy the injured feelings of an offended Deity.
That is a conception of unregenerate and unchris-
tian humanity unrelieved of its pagan character. I
once heard a preacher of some popular power com-
pare the result of punishment in the mind of God
to the efifect of punishment on the minds of men
whose desire of vengeance has been satisfied by the
violent execution of a murderer. The men have
given expression to their feeling of anger and lust
of vengeance, and so are satisfied. In like manner,
said the preacher, God satisfies Himself by the pun-
ishment of men. He added to this caricature by
affirming that God could not pardon sin until He
had satisfied Himself for vengeance by the literal
punishment of His Son. That God will be satisfied
in Himself with all His acts towards men, we may
well believe. But the satisfaction of the God and
Father of Jesus will not be the satisfaction of an
irate father who has whipped an erring son, and
has, thereby, relieved himself of his anger. The sat-
isfaction of God will be that of a father who has
suffered for his erring son, and who has done his
best to reclaim him. The satisfaction of God will

234 The Secret of Successful Life

be that of a father who, if he leaves a wilful son to
his fate, does so because, under the beneficent laws
of life, it is inevitable and it is best.

Punishments in nature are for two purposes, me-
dicinal and surgical. Punishment first administered
is medicinal and designed to save the sinner. Pun-
ishment, when the sinner cannot be saved, is sur-
gical and designed to save society. The first pun-
ishments of sin, if heeded, are admonitory, salutary,
and saving. Later punishments are destructive.
This is clearly seen in the effects of physical vices.
The first pains are admonitory and, if heeded, cor-
rective. Where correction is refused, they become
destructive. The vicious man is taken out of so-
ciety. His removal is beneficent.

Punishment on the part of wise and loving par-
ents, is intended to save the child. Where the child
will not be saved, that punishment which excludes
him from home is intended to save that portion of
the family which is, as yet, uncorrupted.

It is worthy of note that as society moves farther
away from those conceptions of government, law,
and punishment which have descended from pagan
times, and as it incorporates the teaching and the
spirit of Jesus into civil legislation and the admin-
istration of law, society loses the desire simply for
vengeance, on the sinner and uses punishment, first,
if possible, to save the offender, and, then, if that
cannot be done, excludes the incorrigible offender
from its presence to save society itself. The refor-
matory for children; the indeterminate sentence for
criminals; the gift to a discharged prisoner of an

Eternal Life 235

opportunity to choose and to follow some useful
career, all indicate the modern conception of pun-
ishment.

Human society, by its present practice, affirms its
practical belief in conditional immortality within
the limits of this present life. That the privilege
of remaining in relation to human society as a free
member of it is conditioned upon worthiness, is the
practical belief of men nowadays. The man who
will not accept the common customs of society and
obey its laws is first punished as a means of restraint
and of reform ; and, when reform is impossible, he
is excluded from society. This is, also, the prin-
ciple of the divine government.

All physical life in this world from the tiniest
flower to the most perfect animal is conditioned. All
physical development and the avoidance of death, de-
pend on the fulfillment of the conditions of life.
All mental and all moral growth are, likewise, con-
ditioned. If the conditions are not fulfilled, there
are degeneration and decay of mental and moral
power.

Conditional immortality is the doctrine that man
is created capable of immortality. Man's posses-
sion of immortality depends on his fulfilling the con-
ditions. Men live under various circumstances of
light, knowledge, and opportunity. Their attitude
of mind and heart towards light, their desire of
knowledge, or their lack of desire, their improve-
ment or neglect of opportunity, are the important
human elements. According to the New Testa-
ment, eternal life is given to them who diligently

236 The Secret of Successful Life

seek it ; eternal life is given to them who, having
the light of nature only, the voice of conscience and
the touch of the spirit of Jesus whom they have not
known, live in love; eternal life is given to them
who having the gospel, believe on the Son of God.

Saint Paul expresses his thought of the condition
of condemnation in his words to the Jews of An-
tioch in Pisidia when he said: "It was necessary
that the word of God should first be spoken to you:
Seeing ye thrust it from you and judge yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gen-
tiles."

Jesus expresses the condition of commendation
when He says, "Every one that doeth evil hateth
the light, but he that doeth the truth cometh to the
light." Again Jesus says, "Every one that is of the
truth, heareth my voice." In His account of His
judgment of the nations, Jesus says that He will
welcome all who live in love and so possess His
spirit, though they have not known Him in person
or by name.

The truth-loving mind, the receptive soul, the lov-
ing heart are the conditions in man, anywhere and
in any age, of receiving the reward of eternal life.

Conditional immortality differs from annihila-
tion. Annihilation, strictly speaking, is an act of
reducing to nothing. The word carries with it the
idea of putting forth power to destroy. It conveys
the conception of crushing out of existence some-
thing which, let alone, would continue. Condi-
tional immortality, on the contrary, conveys the idea
of a life dying out of itself for want of the fulfill-

Eternal Life 237

ment of the conditions of continued living. It is
like a flame fading and dying, because it fails to
feed upon oil. It is, as Kant suggests, a soul dying
from inanition.

Three views, at present, are held respecting the
final destiny of men. There is the common opinion
that man is created immortal and his destiny is to
live forever in happiness or in misery. There is the
opinion that man is naturally immortal and, in
some way, by the grace of God, all men will escape
from sin and exist forever in felicity. There is the
opinion that man is created capable of becoming
immortal, and men will cease to be or live forever,
according. as they reject or receive the grace of God.

With respect to the first view, ancient and wide-
spread as it is, let me ask : Can any sane man suf-
fering agony from toothache or neuralgia or acute
indigestion or filled with unspeakable anguish in his
soul, really believe that a man should and can and
must exist forever in untold misery and unspeakable
pain? The men who have preached this doctrine
have had no vivid conception and realization of
what it meant. It was a far-away suffering which
they did not feel. A God who would create a
being like man, place him in a world like this, give
him a little span of three score and ten years and,
then, for failure to live righteously during those
years, would consign him to an eternity of unre-
lieved torment, could not be worshipped.

If a man like Jonathan Edwards, for instance, had
not been under the domination of a system of belief
in which man was simply a means of maintaining

238 The Secret of Successful Life

that system, and if he had observed his own chil-
dren, known his own neighbors, and studied his own
heart, could never have preached some sermons
which one must wish never had been printed.

With respect to the second view, namely, that
of universal salvation, personally, I should be only
too glad to believe it true. But I cannot blind my
eyes to the laws of life to which I have called atten-
tion; I cannot refuse to see that Jesus in His para-
bles and plain statements declares that the laws
of the divine kingdom are biological laws ; I cannot
remove the impression of the pictures which Jesus
portrays, nor change the meaning of the words He
uses in speaking of final things.

One would think that a doctrine so full of hope
as universalism would crowd the churches of those
who preach it. But they are not crowded nor
greatly multiplied. Much as men like myself might
wish that it may be well hereafter with all men, the
intellectual vision of men is too clear, the moral con-
science of men is too keen, and the evidence in the
resultant facts of choice and conduct is too plain,
for men to entertain the thought that faith and un-
belief, love and selfishness, obedience to divine law
and disobedience, will sometime issues in the same
result. Ian Maclaren has said in a sermon on
Judgment According to Type, "We have a robust
common sense of morality which refuses to believe
that it does not matter whether a man has lived like
the Apostle Paul or the Emperor Nero." It is said,
however, that the issue of well-being comes through
repentance at some time.

Eternal Life 239

A single act of sin, like David's adultery and its
consequent crimes; or like Peter's denial of Jesus,
may startle a soul and show its weakness and lead
to that repentance which pens penitential psalms or,
in darkness, weeps bitterly, and so may occasion
the rebound of a virtually healthy soul from sin.
But, while this is true, the plain fact remains shown
on every hand that a course of sin wilfully chosen
and followed naturally and inevitably dulls the
conscience, darkens the moral vision, hardens the
heart, and leads a soul in the way of death. The
law of sin is not a law which works life but death
rather. There are seemingly men now, such as
Saint Paul speaks of, **Who are past feeling." And
the scriptures plainly speak of a time, whatever may
be the deciding cause, when it is too late to repent, a
time when the day has gone and the night which
will know no dawning, has come.

With respect to the third view, that of condi-
tional immortality, a few things may be said. It
is in accordance with the laws of nature regulating
all life in this world within the time limits of each
kind of life. It is in harmony with the doctrine
of the survival of the fittest. The fittest, in this
case, is not the strongest in a militant way, but the
best. It is that which has fulfilled the conditions of
life and so is worthy to endure. It is in accord with
the teachings of Jesus. Jesus does not compare the
divine kingdom with an imperial kingdom, as Ro-
man theology does, but with the biological king-
dom of earth. All through nature, anything hav-
ing life which fails to fulfill the conditions of living

240 The Secret of Successful Life

and to attain its fitting destiny, within the possible
limit of time allotted it, decays and dies. Why
should the life of highest potentiality, having the
possibility of eternal existence, be an exception to
this law? One would think that failure here would
be most offensive to the Creator. One would think
that, beyond anything else, such life should be sub-
ject to the law of death.

Why a man, who has been given by his Creator
exceptional potential powers, great possibilities, and
a chance of choosing the way of eternal life, but
who refuses to choose that way and so becomes, at
length, a being of no pleasure to himself, of no value
to society, of no delight or use to God, should live
forever, does not appear.

Speaking for myself, I must say that I cannot
feel nor think, whatever I may do and be, that I
ever could be reconciled to any so-called divine jus-
tice which would consign me to everlasting torment
or to hopeless remorse and unavailing regret. But
I could feel and think that having been given life
and its possibilities; if, in the judgment of the Crea-
tor from whom life is derived and by whom it is
sustained, I were of no value to the coherent sys-
tem of the social and moral universe, I should cease
to be. There would not appear to me any injustice
in such a judgment.

As to eternal torment, it should be noticed, that
a man who, being injured in any way by another
man, and who having power to do so, should take
the man who injured him and imprison him and vol-
untarily inflict on him daily torture for the sake of

Eternal Life 24]

punishing by pain, and who should continue this so
long as his enemy could possibly live, would be re-
garded as an immoral monster. What would be
immoral and unjust in man, cannot be moral and
just in God.

It may well be asked again. Why should any
creature contiue to exist when he has failed of the
ends of its creation? When it is no pleasure to
itself? When it is of no value to others? When
it is nothing but an offense to its Creator? By the
most common laws of nature that a living thing
which does not fulfill the conditions of its continu-
ance, growth, and perfection, declines, decays and
dies. Nay more, the very forces which build up a
living thing, destroy a declining and dying thing.
Sunlight, air, and showers feed a growing plant,
but consume a decaying plant. A mind unexer-
cised loses its powers of acquisition and expansion,
and sinks to idiocy. A moral nature misused, loses
moral discernment and affection. A wicked man
who says in his heart, "There is no God," has be-
come insensible to God and has lost connection,
inwardly, with the source of life, Why should the
touch of God, without, continue to preserve him?
How can he continue to live? Why should he
continue to live?

"No, no, the energy of life may be
Kept on after the grave, but not begun;
And he who flagged not in the earthly strife,
From strength to strength advancing — only he,
His soul well-knit and all his battles won,
Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life."

242 The Secret of Successful Life

Mr. Charles Darwin, in closing his treatise on
The Descent of Man, says: "For my own part, I
would as soon be descended from that heroic little
monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to
save the life of his keeper ; or from that old baboon,
who, descending from the mountains, carried away
in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of as-
tonished dogs — as from a savage who delights to
torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, prac-
tices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives
like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the
grossest superstitions."

In writing on the ascent of man, one may say:
The dog, who, though hungry, will suffer rather
than touch his master's dinner which he guards;
who will loyally serve his master even when that
master is unkind ; who will brave danger and fight
and die in his master's defence, seems more loving,
moral, and noble than the man who will allow his
wife and children to suffer the pangs of hunger;
who will treat with cruelty those who are kind to
him; who will beat his children and permit them
to die for want of attention that he may indulge
himself through lusts in grossest vices. Why should
such a man — because he has been made a man with
a man's possibilities — continue to live forever, when
he has sunk below the level of the monkey and the
dog? Why should the latter die because they are
animals, and the former live simply because he bears
the form of a man?

In fact, a man without love as the dominating
motive in his life is like a sunbeam without heat,

Eternal Life 243

if he is simply moral. He is like a rose without
fragrance, if he is simply physically clean. He is
like grain which has rotted, if he is grossly de-
praved.

Again, I repeat the question. Why should a man,
who in point of love and morals is worthless, who is
of no pleasure to himself, who is of no use to oth-
ers, who is no delight to God, continue to exist for-
ever? For God to maintain such a life by the
mere exercise of His power would be a misuse of
power, for it is not a beneficent use. For God to
force a sensitive, living creature to continue to live
simply that He may suffer pain forever, would be
an act of continued cruelty. Death, in such a case,
is a merciful event, administered in loving kindness
by infinite love.

Eternal life, on the other hand, is the greatest
gift of divine grace, the reward of faith, the pos-
session of love. Three terms are used to express
the idea of eternal life. These are incorruptibility,
immortality, and eternity. According to the New
Testament those who believe "have been begotten
of incorruptible seed"; they have "a living hope
of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fadeth not away" ; their present condition must
be changed so that ''this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortal-
ity"; and "when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im-
mortality ; then shall come to pass the saying that is
written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory' " ; then,
they, who "by patience have sought for glory and

244 The Secret of Successful Life

honor and Immortality, shall have eternal life."
These words: incorruption, immortality, and eter-
nal in their various forms as nouns and as adjectives
are the exact equivalents of the Greek words which
they translate. A metal which cannot corrode, a
vegetable fiber which cannot decay, a consciousness
in thought which cannot cease, must be eternal. An
incorruptible, immortal, and deathless man must
live forever.

Scientific students of human evolution and his-
tory, recognize the fact that further development of
mankind must be along moral lines. They also
recognize the fact that a future life seems to be
necessary to complete what is so imperfect and so
broken here. Professor Henry Drummond has said,
"One of the most startling achievements of recent
science is a definition of eternal life." Herbert
Spencer said, "Perfect correspondence would be per-
fect life. Were there no changes in the environ-
ment but such as the organism had adapted changes
to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency
with which it met them, there would be eternal
existence and eternal knowledge."

Charles Darwin writing on The Descent of Man
concludes his book by sajdng: "Man may be ex-
cused for feeling some pride at having risen, though
not by his own exertions, to the very summit of the
organic scale ; and the fact of his having risen, in-
stead of having been aboriginally placed there, may
give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the dis-
tant future." What that distant future may have
embraced in Mr. Darwin's mind, I do not know;

Eternal Life 245

but even if, in his own thought, it had reference to
the advance of the race, it is suggestive and serves
to give hope of a still greater future.

Science, however, which furnishes a definition
of eternal life, does not inform us how to fulfil those
conditions. Science which sometimes expresses a
hope of a future life is not able to affirm it. Jesus
Christ, alone, who abolished death, has brought life
and immortality to light. Through Him, eternal
life is the gift of God to man. As many as receive
Him to them gives He the right to become children
of God. The Son of God became the Son of Man
and so, by virtue of the assumption of flesh, brother
of men by incarnation. The sons of men become sons
of God, by faith, and so brothers of Christ by
regeneration.

Jesus has said, "Whosoever shall do the will of
God, the same is my brother and sister." Saint
Paul has said, "As many as are led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God." Saint John has said,
"Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is
not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know
that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like
Him ; for we shall see Him even as He is."

Eternal life is, then, first of all, a kind and qual-
ity and grade of life. Its beginning is here; its
completion is hereafter. Its character is now man-
ifest; its consummation and its glory are yet to
appear. Eternal life is a life of faith in God ; it is
a life of love for Christ; it is a life of communion
with the ever-living Spirit. It is fed from unfailing
sources. The eternal life lives because God lives.

246 The Secret of Successful Life

It loves because God loves. It Is mericful because
God is merciful. It blesses because God blesses.
It is joyous because of the joy of God. It is un-
failing because God is unfailing. "They who wait
upon the Lord renew their strength." They know
that their strength has been renewed. The love
of Christ constrains them who believe. It seizes
them and bears them on its own gracious way as a
river seizes and bears on its way the smaller streams
which join it. The man in whom is eternal life
comes to think as Jesus thinks, and to love as Jesus
loves, and to do as Jesus does, and so grows into the
likeness of Jesus.

Christianity has suffered greatly in efficiency from
the diversion of the minds of men from this great
purpose of God in Christ. The church has taught
the gospel as a plan of salvation rather than as a
power of salvation. The church has conceived
of salvation as the adjustment of legal relations be-
tw^een God and men, rather than as the impartation
and perfecting of a new life. The fact of the new
life — it must be said in justice to the church — has
not been denied nor wholly lost sight of, but it has
been obscured. The result has been that men have
thought of the gospel as a sort of scheme and plan
of insurance — a condition, a covenant, a promise —
by belief in which men may escape future punish-
ment and secure entrance into heaven. But the
gospel is the revelation and the publication of God's
love to men, and the promise that he who believes
may live in that love. It is fortunate that of late
years, emphasis is placed upon Christianity as a life.

Eternal Life 247

It feeds indeed upon a creed, but it formulates itself
in character and in deeds.

Success in life comes from believing and appre-
hending the great facts of the gospel where that
gospel is known. Or success in life comes from
accepting the inspiration of the living Spirit medi-
ated through Christ who acts beyond the bounds of
the published gospel. There is no other true and
worthy success in life.

A Christian is not exempt from the ordinary con-
ditions which exist in the world; but a Christian
who has in him eternal life, has something in him-
self which transforms all things. A Christian has
temptation; but he has a way of escape from temp-
tation. To him temptation is an opportunity to
rise rather than to fall. A Christian has trials; but
he has gracious help which sustains him in trials,
and through trials, he is made strong. None but
a Christian can say, "We glory in tribulations." A
Christian has sorrow, but he has also consolation.
He sorrows not as the rest who have no hope. A
Christian has disappointments, but he has an abiding
hope of better things which God has provided. A
Christian must die; but to him death has lost its
sting and its victory. To be absent from the body,
is to be present with the Lord; to lose this body,
is to receive a better one; to depart from earth, is
to dwell in heaven; to leave things temporal, is to
enjoy things eternal. Therefore, if you would truly
succeed in life, you must believe.

Believe, and the sky will bend in beauty, and
glow with glory above you now. Believe, and the

248 The Secret of Successful Life

truth and the promises of God will illumine your
path and sustain your heart and strengthen your
soul now. Believe, and you will be filled with
peace and power, sanity and strength, sweetness and
love, hope and joy now. You will have the eternal
life.

But eternal life will find its fulfillment and its
fruition in the future, beyond the grave and beyond
the present order. No one can read the words of
Jesus to His disciples and not perceive that the
future and not the present was the object of hope.
No one can read the writings of the New Test-
ament and not perceive that the emphasis of reward
is laid not upon the present life but upon the future
life. The consummation of the kingdom is not upon
earth but in heaven.

The parables of Jesus point to a consummation.
Life is to be followed by a harvest time when good
and evil will be separated. Life leads on to a day
of reckoning when a report of stewardship and ser-
vice will be made. Life is to be succeeded by shar-
ing the victory and the reward, the blessedness and
the glory of Him with whom the saints have suffer-
ed. Saint Paul teaches that the distinctions between
men made by position, possessions, and conditions
are of little moment because they are so transient.
Sufferings are short, afflictions for a moment, and
possessions as though they were not in comparison
with the power and the possessions and joys of
eternity. The things which make this present life a
time of trial and discipline, of suffering and sorrow
will pass away. They will be replaced by a state

Eternal Life 249

in which pure love, perfect power, painless exercise^
congenial persons, and wholly suitable and adjusted
conditions will make living a delight. According
to the revelation of the New Testament, all things
which, at present, occasion pain and suffering and
sorrow will be eliminated and only such things
as occasion pleasure, peace, and joy will be found in
the heavenly home. There, the mind will know all
necessary truth. There, the heart will be satis-
fied with love. There, all the powers possessed will
find free exercise. There, the soul in all its great-
ness will be satisfied.

Who will compose the heavenly society? Will
it be limited to them who have heard and believed
the gospel? Surely not. Jesus has said: "Many
shall come from the east and the west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven." The revelation of God's
love in Christ does not create that love. The pub-
lication of the method of salvation does not make
the method. Sunlight floods many a valley before
the sun himself appears over the eastern hills. Sun-
light fills many a house from whose windows the
sun is never seen. The Son of God, who is the
Light of the World, sends His Spirit to many who
have not seen His face nor heard His voice. Jesus
says that every one who is of the truth will come to
His light and will hear His voice. The truth-loving
man will see and know and love Jesus when He is
revealed. The attitude of such a man is like the
attitude of the Gentile Cornelius who was ready
to believe the gospel and to confess Christ as soon

25P The Secret of Successful Life

as they were made known to him. Not intellectual
knowledge of a revelation which God has graciously
given, but a heart ready to receive that revelation
is what God first requires and approves. Not
knowledge but love is the sign of life.

Expressing the condition of eternal life in terms of
natural theology and natural law, Saint Paul has
said that the heavenly society will be composed of
all "who by patient continuance in well-doing have
sought for glory and honor and immortality." Ex-
pressing the condition of eternal life in terms of
action possible among all nations, Jesus has said that
the eternal society will be composed of all who have
lived lovingly and have given ministrations to them
in need and thereby have been followers of Him
who came not to be ministered unto but to min-
ister. Expressing the condition of eternal life in
terms of faith and knowledge, Jesus has said that
eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom
He has sent.

This is surely a broad enough basis of eternal life
for all men. All who bow before the majesty of
moral truth, however revealed ; all who believe and
obey the truth, however made known; all who
dwell in love and cherish a loving heart; all who,
like Jesus, have the spirit of service and who accord-
ing to strength and opportunity render ministry, will
have a place in that perfect and permanent society.

I am persuaded also that of those who live where
the gospel is published, there are many who, evident-
ly, are only babes in Christ. As flowers are set back
and chilled in the spring time and blossoming is

Eternal Life 251

delayed by an unfavorable atmosphere, so the lives
of many are limited by unfavorable circumstances.
The atmosphere in which they live is so cold, spirit-
ually, their own powers are so feeble, the burdens
of their life are so heavy that they are hindered in
growth. One may fain believe that many a har-
rassed man, and many a troubled woman having
lived under great limitations and with few oppor-
tunities but neither denying nor doubting the love
and wisdom of God but trusting in a very simple
faith, will blossom out in fair beauty of soul, like
a transplanted flower, when they are brought into
the light and love of Christ in a fairer world.

What the future life may be is not a matter of
knowledge but of hope.

An unhatched eagle has lungs fitted to breathe
the air, eyes which will pierce space in glorious vis-
ion, wings which will beat the air with strength, and
all the organs necessary for its life when it shall
leave the shell ; but the unhatched eagle cannot con-
ceive the form and nature of the world into which
it is so soon to enter; it could not conceive that
world even though its mind were awake and intel-
ligent. So we, though we possess all the powers
capable of entering and enjoying the future life, can-
not know now what its form and circumstance may
be.

The revelations given to us in the scriptures are
adapted to our present condition. They are por-
trayed in the imagery of things with which we are
familiar. They are suggestive and satisfying. These
revelations are worth our study.

252 The Secret of Successful Life

The future dwelling place, according to Jesus,
will be a father's house. A father's house is a home.
It is a place where one is loved for his own sake.
It is a place where every want is anticipated and
every desire gratified. It is a place of rest, shelter,
friendship, and joy.

The future dwelling place, according to Jesus,
will be prepared for men. "I go," said Jesus to his
disciples, "to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there
ye may be also." As a bride may trust her hus-
band to prepare a home for her, though it may be
beyond the sea ; so the believer may trust Jesus to
prepare a home for him, though it be far beyond his
sight. It will be a home prepared in every partic-
ular to meet the nature and the wants of those who
shall dwell there.

The future dwelling place is described as a city.
The children of faith, it is written, "look for a
city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God." "Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for
them a city." This is a "great city and a holy, hav-
ing the glory of God." This is a very suggestive
title and figure. A city is the most complete place
of abode for men which has been developed upon
earth. A city is the place of greatest safety, con-
venience, ministry, and comfort upon earth. A city
is the most completely organized society. A city
is a place where every want is anticipated, every
hunger fed, every taste gratified, and the social

Eternal Life 253

nature satisfied.

They who dwell in that future world shall be like
Christ and shall see Him as He is. Their bodies, it
is written, "shall be fashioned like unto His glorious
body." These bodies are described as incorrupti-
ble, strong, perfect, and immortal.

On the negative side, all the weaknesses, evils,
sufiferings, and sorrows of this present earthly life,
shall have no place and shall not be found. "They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ;
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat."
"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain."

On the positive side, they shall be clothed in
beauty and endowed with every necessary power.
They "shall be clothed with white robes," which
suggest purity and beauty. And "the Lamb which
is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and
shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."

The activities and occupations of the future life
are expressed by three significant terms. They wor-
ship. They sing. They reign.

They worship. Worship is the perception and
admiration of physical beauty and the perception
and adoration of spiritual excellence and glory. All
the works of God in the entire universe will be seen
in such clearness of vision that the perfection of
form and radiancy of beauty will awaken constant
delight and will evoke unceasing praise. God Him-
self in the surpassing excellency of His glory will be
so known and so loved as to evoke the joyful ador-

254 The Secret of Successful Life

ation of all saints so that they shall ever worship
Him as the angels worship who say: "Blessing,
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and hon-
our, and power, and might, be unto our God for-
ever."

They sing. Music is the language of the heart,
the utterance of the emotions, the voice of the soul.
Music speaks from the heart and speaks to the heart.
Music is alwaj'S pure. Song is music wedded to
words. Song is the feeling and voice of the heart
filling and expressing the thought of the mind.
Song, therefore, is the highest and the most perfect
expression and utterance of the whole personality.
Song gives vent and voice and harmonious and per-
fect form to all the feelings and inmost powers of
the saints. Hence, they sing, saying, ''Great and
marvelous are Thy works. Lord, God Almighty;
just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints.
Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy
name? for Thou only art holy."

These songs of the saints in the future life and the
heavenly world will be like the voice of many wa-
ters. In them, will be such sweetness and such
unity that it will be as though the languages of
every land and race speak in perfect harmony.

They reign. Reigning suggests the exercise of
power put forth in wisdom and in masterful ways.
They who reign will find expression and scope for
all their powers. Much of the greatest enjoyment
in life comes through the use of power. Power in
that future life will not be wasted and lost and leave
weariness; but power will be put forth in wisdom

Eternal Life 255

and with delight, and will be used in regal and
kingly ways for ends beneficent and good. Men
will think and act and achieve with intelligence, ef-
ficiency, and joy. **For the Lord God giveth them
light: and they shall reign forever and ever."

These figures of worship and song and reigning
suggest that the eternal life, in its immortality, will
be free from weakness, from weariness, and from
pain. They suggest, also, that love and thought
and the power of will shall find expression in ways
congenial, delightful and full of joy.

All who by faith have received God's greatest gift
of eternal life in Jesus Christ and who, through that
life, have controlled the flesh, and have overcome
the world, and have conquered death will find, at
last, that they have achieved success and are satis-
fied.

They who by faith in Christ learn from Him the
spirit of sonship will be heirs with Him of God's
glorious creation. All things are theirs; for they
are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

They will be a joy to themselves. They will be
satisfied with their society. They will rejoice for-
ever in the light and love of God.

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