Writing on the clouds

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WRITING ON THE
CLOUDS

BY
ARTHUR NEWMAN

BOSTON

SHERMAN, FRENCH b' COMPANY

1910

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PEN

ASTCR, LENOX AND
TILDLiI FJUN'OATIONS.

R 1s)11 L

ght, 1910

CH & Company

FOREWORD

Ad majorem gloriam Dei.

"That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you."

Thus the Apostle John begins a letter to his
fellow believers and to his fellowmen, knowing
that to a word thus attested they would give heed.

We ourselves listen when one sincerely and out
of a full heart tries to tell, though with stammer-
ing speech, what great things he has found to
help in God's word, and in the gospel of Jesus
Christ our Lord. A. N.

CONTENTS

PAGK

I. Writing on the Clouds . . 1

II. Luke's Foreword .... 6

III. V. D. M 1^

IV. The Silences of Jesus ... 20
V. The Hot Spring in the Wilderness 29

VI. Individuality and Inspiration . 36

VII. The Studio of the Soul . . 44*

VIII. Three Epochs in the Life of a

Young Man .... 52

IX. The Towns Clerk's Tribute . . 58

X. The Commonwealth Idea . . 65

XI. Victory over Vicissitudes . . 71

XII. The Soul's Silence unto God . 78

XIII. The City of Three Dimensions . 83

WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

United States Signal Service men accomplished
a remarkable feat when from a mountain peak in
Colorado they sent a message which was read by
observers on a mountain summit in Utah, one
hundred and eighty-three miles away. By means
of a mirror sunlight was flashed upon the clouds
in the code signals sent thus because, by reason of
the curvature of the earth, the peaks were mutu-
ally invisible.

In a striking way this becames typical of much
of our best service to our fellow men. Many
things we do for them which we can see them re-
ceive, enjoy and profit by. But our highest min-
istries are as these writings on the clouds, for
their effect we do not at the time behold. The
religious teacher when he speaks to his hearers;
the statesman addressing his fellow citizens; a
teacher facing a class; the parent counselling a
child; the pages sent forth from the printing
press ; these are as messages on the clouds, for we
know not whether our words are noticed, and if
heeded, whether these are understood and will
avail. As a rule we talk and write by faith, not
by sight.

The light used in the manner referred to was
mirrored not manufactured by man. We come

1

2 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

to know that this also is typical. Original
thought is very rare. We are transmitters not
originators of ideas, plagiarists although' un-
consciously. It is interesting to trace the history
of inventions, and see how these have been antici-
pated, and to follow back the course of an idea or
a phrase. We are continually repeating what
others have said or written and which has im-
pressed itself on our mind. Even in the highest
realm this is true. "Let your light shine before
men," said Jesus, but it was reflected light, not
originating in them, for beholders would glorify
the Father.

It is worth our while to remember this. For
when we have yielded to the instinctive impulse to
speak what we think or feel; when we try to tell
our best thought to others in the hope that they
may be benefitted thereby ; when we oftimes won-
der, since no response comes and no result is seen,
whether the utterance was of service after all,
we are helped and encouraged to recall that our
own thought was once a writing on the clouds by
others, who also wondered if they had accom-
plished aught, who never knew that it was re-
ceived; that very message really which now we
in turn are flashing on.

Recently the story was told of a naval officer
on a warship who saw electric light signals on the
clouds, and became curious to know what it
meant. He found, to his astonishment, that a
sailor on another ship was thus sending skyward

WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 3

a prayer for divine help in a dreaded ordeal,
which was to come the next day. In the sim-
plicity of his faith the seaman thought thus to
attract the notice of God, and insure attention to
his earnest desire. All unconsciously he was, in
this way, reminding others how genuine and how
deep is the instinct of prayer, and by the unique
method he adopted, in the utterance of his re-
quest to the Lord, he has brought forcibly into
view the fact that prayer seems usually a writing
upon clouds.

For it is a word spoken into the great silence.
No one seems to hear or care ; no result as we usu-
ally feel appears to follow. If God ever hears or
heeds that message we do not know it. We may
think he does, we may hope he does, we may be-
lieve he does, but we do not know. If prayer were
only like telephoning when we know the person
we speak to is surely listening, even though un-
seen. Thus we all feel, and we can only fall back
upon the great instinct of our souls. As we can-
not but speak what is the great truth to us,
whether others appear to heed or not, feeling sure
that faithful witness is not in vain, so we utter
our praises and our petitions to the Most High
assured that the Lord must know and act. That
mighty instinct has been implanted in the soul
of man by his Maker, and he who is thus the In-
spirer must be the Hearer of prayer.

We are all wondering at times what we shall
do in heaven. Very little has been revealed, but

4 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

we may be sure that when our powers are then
perfected, and when all things are open to our
view, we shall then have slowly unfolded to us all
that entered into the formation of that marvellous
composition which we call our character; and we
shall learn whence and how our opinions and be-
liefs and knowledge came. The tracing out of
all this in its intricacies and shadings will be an
endless occupation of continual interest and sur-
prise. We have a foreshadowing of it in the
reminiscences of venerable people respecting the
influences that shaped their youth, whether these
recollections are in the form of disconnected con-
versation, or the carefully written-out story of
one's life. On the verge of eternity they do this
instinctively and we expect it from them.

Then too we shall not only fully know how we
came to be what we are, but we shall be permitted
to see clearly and in detail what we have done for
others, not only precisely how we have influenced
those with whom we come into personal contact,
but how through them our influence has widened
out and gone on through generations that fol-
lowed. We feel down in our hearts that all this
ought to be made known to us sometime and some-
where and it will be heaven to see it at last in its
fulness and detail.

Moreover we feel that then and there we shall
know how prayers have been answered. There
must be a record of each of these and also the re-
sult of each. What will it be to have access to

WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 5

such a record and to study out this in uttermost
detail, finding new marvels continually of the
glory and wisdom and power and grace of God in
these complete and authentic disclosures of the
secret things of Government. The saints of God
shall shine like the stars in their glory, and as
eternal years move on we shall come to know this
host, which no man can number, as co-ordinated
into a system where the relation of each to the
other is clearly seen at last, and God shall be aU
in all.

II

LUKE'S FOREWORD

The preface of a book is commonly left un-
read, and we usually pass over the opening words
of the Gospel written by Luke. Scholars may
tell us that in writing it he uses classical Greek,
and conforms to the method of Herodotus and
Thucydides, and thus shows himself to have been
an educated man. But we are too much interested
in his account of Jesus to pay much heed to what
he tells before it respecting the parentage of John
the Baptist.

Yet we do well to read carefully his measured
and weighty preliminary words :

" Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw
up a narrative concerning these matters which have
been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them
unto us, which from the beginning were eye wit-
nesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to
me also, having traced the course of all things ac-
curately from the first, to write unto thee in order,
most excellent Theophilus; that thou mightest know
the certainty of the things wherein thou was in-
structed."

We thus learn that even then many written
accounts of the words and work of Jesus were cur-
rent. These were not primarily to make him more
widely known, doubtless, but it was felt that this

6

LUKE'S FOREWORD 7

wonderful biography should not be stated in the
unweighed words of ordinary utterance, nor con-
fined to traditions likely to be distorted by the
treachery of human memory. Both for the sake
of those who had known Jesus personally, and for
the sake of contemporaries who had never seen
him, and much more for the sake of generations
to come, such written records were instinctively
deemed indispensable. From this preamble we
infer that many of these accounts were discon-
nected and fragmentary, much like collections of
anecdotes. Therefore Luke says he would write
"in order," giving an account not only accurate
but in due sequence.

But the great thoughts in this preface: the
solemn and earnest purpose of the writer as he
took pen in hand; the proof that he began, con-
tinued and ended his work in prayer for guid-
ance; the evidence that he was expectant of and
conscious of special assistance from on high which
would give his work distinct and supreme value;
this is expressed in the very last word in the
Greek preface to which all leads up: "the cer-
tainty." "Accurately" he had traced all things ;
certainties he wrote down.

The Evangelist recognizes that the human
mind craves certain knowledge. Peradventures,
probablys, possiblys, we have a plenty. Opin-
ions on all things in heaven and on earth abound,
not only in conversation but in the schools and on
the printed page. Human opinions are bewilder-

8 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

ing in their mass, their variety, their vagaries,
their contradictions. From the reading of the his-
tory of philosophy a man is likely to rise with the
cynical question of Pilate on his lips: "What is
truth?"

Luke as an educated man knew this, and there-
fore he thus begins his book. The reader was not
to question whether Luke was right. He was only
to concern himself to understand what he wrote
and to know the Christ whom he portrayed. It
need not be said that this therefore is a unique
preface. No ordinary man in his senses could
write such words and make such amazing claims.
The writer would not have said this as he began a
treatise on medicine. Flesh and blood presented
mysteries then as now to the ablest minds. But
Luke does not hesitate to affirm that his following
account of a far transcendent mystery, "the
Word made flesh" was absolutely true.

This preface implies that Theophilus needed
such a book and had a right to it as a seeker after
truth. Will we allow that Theophilus was a
privileged person ; that he had claims on the All-
wise and All-gracious Father more than we have ;
that he had needs really differing from ours ? The
very fact that this book has been saved out of the
wreck of ages, and that it comes down to us prac-
tically unchallenged as the Gospel Luke wrote, is
an answer. We need such a book as much as this
man did. Traditions are as unreliable now as
then. Opinions of men still are tinged with error.

LUKE'S FOREWORD 9

If Grod inspired Luke to give this disciple a writ-
ing, in the reading of which he might attain unto
the certainties of faith, surely that same book
ought to be saved and secured to give certainties
to our souls as well. Therefore the preface does
not seem absurd in its claim, but rather promis-
ing what we feel we can rightfully expect.

Furthermore it brings out the great distinction
between reason and revelation. It was not for
Theophilus by long and patient reasoning to de-
termine what God ought to say and do, and thus
invent a Gospel. It was for him to hear God's
Gospel; to be told certainly what God had said
and done in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

The earliest use of the reason of man in deaUng
with this large and decisive question we find in the
account of the temptation in Eden. No matter
what particular view we may take of the narra-
tive it is thoroughly true to human experience.
"Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden?" The true question was:
"Did God say so?" That however was deftly put
aside. The finite mind was invited and urged to
consider and decide whether it was likely He said
this. Then temptation came and error followed.

The case is typical. If it is our desire and pur-
pose to determine for ourselves what God prob-
ably said and did we may expect Him to leave us
to our own devices to find out if we can. That is
rationalism. If it is our longing and hope to
know what God wants us to believe and do ; if we

10 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

use our reason humbly and sincerely to know this,
our instinctive conception of the Heavenly Father
makes us feel sure that He will find a way to lead
us to the great certainties. The reason will not
only be inspired to declare the truth to us, but
our reason will also be inspired to discern it. The
assurance of Jesus which Luke records must be
true. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
unto them that ask him ?"

Beatitudes are based upon certitudes. The Ser-
mon on the Mount opens with announcements of
blessings and it ends with the reference to the
house built upon a rock, against which swirling
winds and waters beat in vain. That firm founda-
tion on which happiness securely stands is theirs
who hear and do my words, Jesus said. To make
this foundation known to men Luke wrote this
Gospel as he tells us at the outset of his work.
How the purpose of that preface was fulfilled, as
he looked back on the completed record appears in
the opening words of the Book of Acts : "The for-
mer treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all
that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until
the day in which he was received up." Calm
in the assurance that he could tell the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth concern-
ing Christ, he knew with certainty when his tes-
timony was finished that his testimony was true.

Referring to those other accounts of the life of

LUKE'S FOREWORD n

Jesus mentioned in this preamble, an old writer
quaintly says: "Luke had no authority to sup-
press these other gospels ; nor doth he reprehend,
or calumniate them; but he writes the Truth
simply, and leaves it to outwear falsehood; and
so it hath." A striking illustration of this is
given by Henry M. Stanley.

He tells of his visit to the court of Mtesa,
King of Uganda, and of the interest shown by the
African monarch in all that his white visitor had
to tell him. Particularly was he interested in
what Stanley had to state about the religion
made known in the Scriptures. Their intercourse
was interrupted for several months, and when re-
sumed, Stanley took up the themes which he had
endeavored to make clear. They felt that they
needed a Bible, and so he set to work to translate
the most important parts of the Scripture for
them. But he says he gave them the Gospel of
Luke entire. Thus this able and practical man
selected this Book as the best possible account of
our Lord for the instruction of an inquiring mind
under such circumstances. And the marvelous
triumph of Christianity in Uganda may in no
small degree be attributed to this Gospel of the
certainty concerning Christ.

Ill

V. D. M.

In a country cemetery there is a memorial stone
on which the name is followed by the three let-
ters, "V. D. M." Used as we are to honorary
titles and their abbreviations, these letters are
unique and in most minds probably awaken sur-
prise. The questioner would learn that they stand
for the Latin phrase meaning "Minister of the
Word of God." This is obviously not a college
degree, nor is it confirmed by church authority.
It can only mean the designation of a character.

We feel sure that this man would have agreed
with Professor Baldwin of Yale, who has been
called a most successful teacher of the art of com-
position, when he declares that he who would learn
to write English well must study the literary art
in the Enghsh Bible. This minister of early days
would be in full harmony also with Professor
Phelps of Yale, who insists that "the English
Bible combines the noblest prose and poetry with
the utmost simplicity of diction." And he would
have heartily subscribed to the declaration of Pro-
fessor Gardiner of Harvard when he says : "Much
reading of the Bible will soon bring one to an
understanding of the mood in which all art seems
a juggling with trifles, and an attempt to catch
the unessential, when the everlasting verities are

12

V. D. M. 13

slipping by. The silent, unhurrying rumination
of the East makes our modern flood of literature
seem garrulous and chattering; even the great
literature of the Greeks loses beside the compres-
sion and massiveness of the Old Testament."

Deeper chords would have been struck in his
heart by this careful and loving tribute to the
Scriptures by Dr. Henry Van Dyke: "How won-
derful, how supreme is the Bible as an utterance
of life in literature ! What range, what mastery
of literary forms ! The thoughts breathe with in-
spiration, the unconsumed words bum with the di-
vine presence, the figures live and move." For
this man found the life which is in God, and of
God, regnant and radiant in the Book Divine.

Those three letters give us pause, while we
consider, not only what they stand for, but what
they mean in this time of Bibles by the million,
and books about the Bible by the hundreds. Bible
study is widespread and helps thereto abound. In
the very multiplicity of these there lurks a peril
which may not be overlooked.

A thoughtful and scholarly man remarked that
the only way to appreciate, enjoy and be helped
by a poem of value was to take time and pains to
form a mental picture called forth by the inci-
dents, descriptions and picturing words it con-
tained. Those who have done this know what a
mental delight and enrichment come thereby.
This is the way to read the Bible. "Understand-
est thou what thou readest," said one to a person

14 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

busy with a sacred volume, as the Scriptures tell
us. That had nothing to do with questions of
criticism, high or low ; nor with theological spec-
ulations, nor with bearings ecclesiastical. It had
reference to the real value of Bible reading to a
mind in humble and hearty contact with the Di-
vine Mind as thus expressed, and flooded with
light and filled with energy as a result.

Few things are more touching and instructive
in this connection than the story of the man who
came to the room where the famous picture of
"Christ before Pilate" was on exhibition. Gruffly
he asked of the person at the door where Christ
was. When she grasped his meaning and directed
him where to go, he turned to give a cursory
glance at the painting. He paused before it as-
tonished; fixed an earnest gaze on the canvas.
Soon he took off his hat. Still he remained star-
ing spellbound at the scene portrayed, and after
a time he came slowly and reverently out, saying
to the custodian as he passed, that he had come
only because his mother asked him to. "Now,"
he fervently exclaimed, "God helping me, I'll be
a better man." That is the way in which the
Word of God was meant to minister to us in its
reverent reading. We must not allow any one or
any thing to come between us and that power,
unwasting, unvarying, inspiring, which resides in
the Bible.

Emerson said : "Discharge to men the priestly
office, and, present or absent, you shall be fol-

V. D. M. 15

lowed with their love as by an angel." Thus we
know this man felt whose memorial stone becomes
so suggestive. The Word of God which had
found entrance into his life must find utterance
through his lips, and his conduct. What he had
been taught he must transmit. He could not rest
until other men looked up at his bidding to be-
hold the vision glorious. If Moses and David and
Isaiah and Paul and John had ministered to him,
he must in turn minister to the men and women
about him; a priest not by the laying on of hu-
man hands but by the anointing from on high.

This servant of the truth lived in the days of
the old-fashioned pulpit, "the swallow's nest," as
Mr. Beecher once humorously said; the narrow,
box-like structure, reached by winding stairs and
carefully closed with wooden doors. In sharp
contrast to it is the pulpit of today, a simple desk
standing on a platform as nearly as possible on a
level with the pews. The preacher of today is a
man among men; recognized as a factor in the
life of his time as is indicated by the position
which he occupies by their arrangement when he
speaks to men. Because he has by nature unusual
religious insight and wealth of religious ideas;
because he has enjoyed special opportunities for
the study of religious truths in their essential na-
ture and true connection ; because he is sufficiently
detached from ordinary affairs clearly and
broadly to understand men and the times ; because
he has the gift of effective utterance and well

16 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

marked leadership in all that broadens, deepens
and enriches life, his fellows accept him as to them
a minister of the Word of God.

This is a ministry not confined to any class set
apart by human hands. The aged pilgrim Whit-
tier describes was a minister of the Word of God,
whether he had been ordained or not. And that
ministry in its activity and efficiency is open to
any who feels its privilege and power as the
poet pictures it :

"" O, lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer luster
flings,

Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown on
the lofty brow of Kings, —

A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue
shall not decay,

Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, and a bless-
ing on the way.

A small and meagre book from his folding robe he

took.
Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price ; may it prove

as such to thee ;
Nay — keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word

of God is free.

The hoary traveler went his way, but the gift he

left behind
Hath had its perfect work on that high-born

maiden's mind.
And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the

lowliness of truth.
And given her human heart to God in its beautiful

hour of youth."

V. D. M. 17

Dr. John Hall of New York was called the
Apostle of Common Sense. Why this designa-
tion was given him is well illustrated by the re-
mark of a man of the world, who said he always
made it a point to hear Dr. Hall preach, when he
happened to be in the city. And when asked the
reason, he replied: "He always makes me feel like
a fool if I do not agree with him." We remember
that when this widely honored and useful minis-
ter delivered the late Lectures on Preaching, he
entitled them : "The ministry of the Word." The
title summed up his idea of the preacher's work:
to get at and give out the true meaning of the
Bible, in plain, practical, common-sense speech.

To do this is to be in the true Apostolic Suc-
cession. First among the writers of the New Tes-
tament Luke uses the phrase, when in the preface
to the Gospel written by him, he speaks of those
"who were eye witnesses, and ministers of the
word." That the Apostles thus conceived of
their work appears in their statement just before
the choice and consecration of the deacons of the
church: "We will give ourselves continually to
prayer and the ministry of the word." That was
service for the Princes of the church ; demanding
unremitting and strenuous activity of mind and
soul from men inspired. The great sermon of
Peter on the Day of Pentecost shows what this
means, abounding as it does in quotations from
the Holy Scripture; explanations and applica-
tions of these, and in allusions to facts about

18 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

Jesus, which Luke for instance, afterward wrote
down that men of the day who never saw Peter,
and men of all time might have a sure word of
truth.

Such a ministry of the word is in one sense
simple. In another it puts the heaviest possible
demand upon every faculty of the most gifted
intellect. As the small filament of metal glows
when a powerful current of electricity is crowd-
ing the narrow channel in its swift passage so the
brain of man is put to its greatest test when it re-
ceives and transmits the thoughts of the Infinite
Mind. Dr. Jowett of Birmingham has given his
personal testimony to this effect in a recent ad-
dress before an English Church Council, when he
said:

** When I turn to apostolic witness and preaching,
I am growingly amazed at the fulness and glory of
the messages. There is a range about it^ and a vast-
ness, and a radiance, and a colour which have been
the growing astonishment of my latter years.
When I turn to it, I feel as though I am in an Al-
pine country, majestic heights with tracts of virgin
snow; suggestions of untraversed depths with most
significant silence, mighty rivers full and brimming
all the year round, fields of exquisite flowers
nestling beneath the protecting care of precipitous
grandeur, fruit trees on the lower slopes, each tree
bearing its fruit in its season, songs of birds, mov-
ing air, awful tempest."

It is this "note of vastitude, this ever-present
sense and suggestion of the infinite" which the
speaker emphasized as characteristic of the true

V. D. M. 19

preaching in every age, finding themes of endless
variety, depth, energy, breadth, compassion and
uplift in the Bible.

IV

THE SILENCES OF JESUS

What men say, and their voluntary silence as
well, when they are entering the valley of the
shadow of death have ever been noted with pe-
culiar care and interest. This is specially true
when we study not only what Jesus said and did,
but what he refrained from saying and doing as
he was under the shadow of the cross.

His significant silences on that last day of life,
at critical moments, the Gospels faithfully note
and thus duly emphasize.

Among the great experiences of life is a view
from some lofty place of a broad and varied land-
scape spread before the eyes in all its charm of
forest and field, hill and river, scattered home-
steads and clustered houses, all brightly illumined
by the sunlight. Sometimes the foot may dis-
lodge a stone which, bounding to the edge of the
cliff, disappears, and after an interval a dull
crash is heard, telling of its final fall to the val-
ley below, and with a thrill one realizes the depths
close at our hand, into which a plunge would be
so easy and so destructive.

We read that Jesus was crucified between two
robbers, and the heart rejoices at the wondrous
assurance he gave to one of them, writhing in the
agonies of a cruel death, of Paradise close at

THE SILENCES OF JESUS 21

hand, unto which he should go with Jesus that
very day. But what of that other wicked man?
That omission is marked. To him Jesus never
spoke a recorded word. We feel sure he never
could have said a word to him, for the failure to
record it if uttered would be inexplicable on any
theory of inspiration. God would never have left
men to anxious misgivings if there had been any-
thing to tell them of assurance respecting this
man. Our rejoicing over that penitent man, to
whom came a great hope in his last hours is asso-
ciated with a thrill of awe and fear, as we think
of a wretched, impenitent soul, going into eter-
nity, stained with crime, dying by the very side
of the Savior of men, but to whom not one syl-
lable was spoken by the Lord Jesus.

The perplexed and politic Roman governor,
before whom Jesus was arraigned, seized the op-
portunity offered, when he heard that the pris-
oner was a Galilean, to send him for trial by
Herod the Tetrarch, who was then in Jerusalem.
Thus Pilate would get rid of a difficult case, and
pay a compliment to the Jewish Prince with
whom he had been at variance. Our interest is
roused as we consider that meeting between Jesus
and the man whose hands were stained with the
blood of John the Baptist, and who had threat-
ened to kill Jesus himself if he could get him in
his power. As stern John Knox spoke out in
faithful rebuke and upbraiding at the gay and
worldly court of Queen Mary ; as Paul "reasoned

22 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

of righteousness, and temperance and the judg-
ment to come before profligate Felix; as Nathan
the prophet denounced his sin to David the king ;
so should we expect Jesus to speak in burning
words to this man and his courtiers on an occa-
sion like this. But the Savior maintained abso-
lute silence. Herod was in the presence of Christ
but he never heard his voice.

Those awful silences of Jesus are to be sharply
noted and taken account of when we make up our
creed. For however men may criticize the creeds
in Christendom, and the making of creeds at all,
each person has some sort of a creed, even if it
consist mainly in the denial of accepting any
creed. Our eyes are fixed upon the penitent rob-
ber and the Paradise to which he was going.
What of the other man.? What of another atro-
cious sinner whom Christ met that very morning
and to whom he would not speak ? These are facts
which we must face, and fit into our creed; with
their appalling reminder of the depth of possible
human depravity ; what impenitence and hardness
of heart may become ; and with which there is not
a faint suggestion that Jesus tried to deal.

"Remember Lot's wife" the Master once said,
and He referred to the woman who turned away
to destruction from the very side of rescuing
angels of mercy. Jesus recalled that to remind
men that others might do likewise, and harden
themselves beyond the possibility of salvation.
It means this or it means nothing. The Teacher

THE SILENCES OF JESUS 23

come from God surely was no rhetorical trifler or
religious enthusiast whose words wandered from
facts.

When Jesus was arraigned before the Jewish
Supreme Court the forms of legal procedure were
observed. A formal charge was made against the
prisoner and corroborative evidence was sought.
None was forthcoming that would stand the test.
The judges were in a quandary. The condemna-
tion of the accused man had been determined upon
yet they would have the decision based on proper
evidence. Finally they demanded of Jesus what
he had to say in his own defence. The prisoner
maintained silence. He knew as well as his
judges that there was no case against him, and
therefore no defence was necessary. We marvel
at his perfect poise under such circumstances.
Where any one would have spoken eagerly and
riddled the charges with burning and scathing
words Jesus said nothing. We remember, as they
ought to have remembered, that mark of the Mes-
siah as Isaiah says: "He was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." His
silence was a fulfillment of prophecy.

The Court was infuriated at his calm demeanor,
and finally the High Priest put the prisoner on
the witness stand. He administered the oath and
put the question in the solemn words: "I adjure
thee by the Hving God, that thou tell us whether
thou be the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Almost any man would have spoken when it was

24 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

plain that the case against him had broken down
and demanded honorable and instant acquittal.
Any man would have been paralyzed with horror
and amazement when confronted with such a mon-
strous imputation on his sanity as the High
Priest's word conveyed. But Jesus instantly
broke silence with the calm words : "I am."
Breathlessly the crowded court had watched him
and awaited his answer, and for an instant the
room was quiet as men heard that reply. They
knew and Jesus knew exactly what the question
meant and what the answer meant. They had
charged him with making himself equal with God.
Now in open court he was publicly asked if that
charge were true and men heard him, in the most
solemn, most explicit, and most emphatic way de-
clare that he claimed that dignity and glory.
And while the court room was still he went on to
mention a prophecy of Daniel which they ac-
cepted as referring to the ^lessiah, and told them
of the day at hand when they should see "the Son
of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven." That prophecy
he applied to himself.

Recovering themselves from the awe his words
caused, the court unanimously condemned the
audacious blasphemer, and hurried him to the Ro-
man Governor for condemnation and punishment.
Pilate at first proposed to leave the matter to the
Jews, but when he learned that it was a case de-
manding capital punishment he took it up. His

THE SILENCES OF JESUS 25

first question of the prisoner was whether he was
the King of the Jews, but the Roman judge was
disconcerted when the prisoner proceeded to cross-
examine him. Jesus demanded whether Pilate
asked this from what he himself knew of him, or
whether someone else had said so. At the very
start Jesus was fixing Pilate's personal responsi-
bility, and so when the Governor hastily dis-
claimed any personal knowledge in the matter,
Jesus calmly went on to state wherein his avowed
kingship consisted. But Pilate brusquely indi-
cated that he knew and cared little about the truth
Jesus referred to as the basis and bond of that
kingdom.

Then he went out and told the Jews that he
found no cause to punish the prisoner, but in-
stantly they broke out in furious denunciations of
Jesus, and when the storm had spent itself a lit-
tle, to the astonishment of the experienced judge
Jesus made no reply to it nor did he speak a word
even when Pilate asked him to make what defence
he pleased. The perplexed Governor now tried to
shift the matter to Herod's decision, and when
nothing came of that he proposed to scourge
Jesus and let him go. The Jews protested at once
and demanded that he be crucified. And when
Pilate asked on what they based that demand, they
answered: "We have a law, and by our law he
ought to die, because he made himself the Son
of God."

Pilate, the hardened man of the world, cynical

26 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

and sceptical, was startled as he heard that. Re-
entering the judgment hall, he gazed fixedly at
the prisoner and exclaimed: "Whence art thou?"
And Jesus answered not a word. Again we mark
that significant silence. As he had refused to an-
swer the priest's charges, he now refused to an-
swer the Procurator's question. And Pilate
roused by the refusal said: "Speakest thou not to
me.'* Knowest thou not that I have power to cru-
cify thee, and power to release thee.^*" All about
them were the evidences indeed of Roman power;
its symbols in the tribunal, its servants in the
mail-clad soldiers who represented the legions
that held the world in subjection. Power was the
pride and the passion of that masterful race to
which Pilate belonged.

Then Jesus spoke. He met that challenge of
Imperial Rome, whose Emperor was as a god,
with the words : "Thou couldest have no power at
all against me except it were given thee from
above." This prisoner dared to say that Pilate
was powerless in the presence of forces by which
he himself was protected and which he controlled.

The silence of Jesus before the priests is the
setting of his declaration that he is the Son of
God, with that added reference to prophecy which
came to them with peculiar force. They under-
stood him to say that he was the Christ, the Son
of God, and he meant them so to understand.
The silence of Jesus before Pilate is the setting of
the announcement of the dignity of the Son of

THE SILENCES OF JESUS 27

God, made with a reference to His power, which,
on the other hand, was of pecuHar meaning to his
heathen judge. It is impossible for us to conceive
how the Deity of Jesus Christ could have been
more clearly and more conclusively stated by him,
or under circumstances of more solemnity, and
forms of more significance. There is but one fair
interpretation, apparently, to put on his words.
Men speak of the divinity of Jesus, but say that
also with a certain plausibility and fitness of
Plato, Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Shakespeare.
We mean thus to say that these eminent men for
instance, have large wisdom, insight, force, eleva-
tion and breadth of character, in which there is,
to some degree, a manifestation of divine excel-
lence. Yet no one ever spoke intelligently of the
deity of these persons, or of any man. But Deity
Jesus Christ apparently referred to, and claimed
for himself, under those circumstances mentioned ;
actual and absolute worship he accepted as his
due ; the throne of eternal dominion he was to ac-
cept and occupy, sovereign undisputed.

One of the memorable addresses at the meeting
of the Church Federation in New York City sev-
eral years ago was given by Dr. Charles Cuthbert
Hall. At the outset in chosen words, slowly and
carefully uttered, he explicitly stated his belief
in Jesus as the Son of God, Very God of very
God. Every one knew that he made Christ in-
deed equal with God. He went on to say that it
might be permissible, however, to compare Jesus

28 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

with other moral and reHgious teachers among
men, and as it were, allow him to be numbered
with them as he himself had done in recently pre-
senting Christianity to the Oriental mind. For
it was his profound conviction that all thoughtful
and sincere seekers after the truth would in due
time see qualities in this Jesus that made him su-
preme, unapproachable, that there was logically
and spiritually no final pause for one who fairly
weighed the words and .deeds of Jesus Christ
until he was found prostrate at the feet of the
Savior, reverently saying, "My Lord and My
God."

THE HOT SPRINGS IN THE
WILDERNESS

Perhaps the most ancient folk song of litera-
ture is found in the Bible. It was doubtless sung
by the Hebrews at the well that gushed forth in
the wilderness of their pilgrimage, and in all like-
lihood was chanted for centuries afterwards by
their maidens as they gathered by their village
wells with their water jars. Then sang Israel
this song:

" Spring up, O well ; sing, ye unto it ;
The well which the princes digged.
Which the nobles of the people delved.
With the sceptre, and with their staves."

Samuel Longfellow has transformed this into
the final words of the hymn he wrote to the praise
of the Holy Spirit:

" Holy Spirit, Joy Divine,
Gladden thou this heart of mine;
In the desert ways I sing.
Spring, O Well, forever spring."

But long before the event commemorated by
this historic song of Israel, we find the Bible tell-
ing the story of Anah, whose daughter Esau
married. While he was in charge of the asses of
Zibeon his father, he found in the wilderness hot

29

30 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

springs, of which the fame spread far and wide,
ensuring to him enduring remembrance as their
discoverer.

Lasha, a place mentioned in the Book of Gene-
sis, and meaning "fissure" is perhaps a prose des-
ignation of this remarkable spot. In the Book
of Joshua we find a town named Zareth-Shehar,
meaning "splendor of the dawn," which probably
is a poetic name for this locality. And it can be
none other than the Callirhoe of which Josephus
speaks, and which PHny describes, famous as a
resort for invalids, like similar hot springs else-
where now whose curative power in certain diseases
is recognized.

Goethe closes the story of Wilhelm Meister's
Apprenticeship, in which he traces with master
hand the stages in culture and development of
character through which the young man passed,
with the significant words, "Thus Saul, the son of
Kish, seeking his father's asses, found a king-
dom."

The less familiar, but more ancient story of
Anah yields the same lesson. The Canaanite
youth, diHgent in the doing of duty, faithful to
the charge committed to him by his father, found
the marvellous springs which gave him reputa-
tion, and a mention in the imperishable record of
the Book of Books. It is as fresh and vivid illus-
tration of the reward that comes to him who does
his task, however humble, with fidelity and single-
ness of heart.

THE HOT SPRINGS 31

The account of that fountain about which
Israel clustered and chanted the song quoted fol-
lows right after the record of the people's sin,
and their deliverance by gazing in faith upon
the brazen serpent uplifted by divine command
among them. Jesus has forever made this mem-
orable and instructive, as he applies it to illus-
trate his ow^n work as Savior of men and which
w^e too must receive and appropriate by faith
alone. We are familiar with the Bible references
to the water of life. Here it speaks of the waters
of health. How the mention of the hot springs
in the wilderness, found by Anah, would become
luminous, were a Paul, with his marvellous in-
sight into Scripture, to take it as an illustration
of his words: "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the spirit of our God." What
might this incident yield if a John, who saw so
clearly the symbolisms of the Bible, used it, to
make plain his meaning when he wrote: "The
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from
all sin." For as Jesus recalls that the serpent
bitten w^ere instantly cured after the look of faith
in obedience to the Divine command, and bids us
infer that by looking to Himself in simple faith,
salva.tion comes to our sin-diseased nature; so
Paul and John plainly teach the cleansing and
curative power of the blood of the Atonement
upon him who simply believes.

"How can these things be?" exclaimed that

32 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

astonished thinker, Nicodemus, when the Master
spoke to him of that change in man which we call
regeneration. The whole world echoes the ques-
tion. But it was not answered then, and it has
not been answered since. God has guarded well
the secret of the birth of man, and the new birth
of a human soul as well. For centuries keen and
equipped minds have assailed the problem, but
they can no more answer it fully and finally than
the least inquiring of believers. The wise men of
the world who study to know the beginnings of
life are like the man, of whom Jesus speaks,
who cast the seed into the ground. The seed
sprung and grew up, "he knew not how."

Men take up this calm, clear, unhesitating, un-
compromising statement of the disciple who was
close to the Master at the cross: "The blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
Instantly the question arises, "How can this thing
be?" Many answers to the question have been
given, and this very fact serves to show that the
Bible itself affords no clear answer. "It is im-
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sins," says the writer of the Epistle to
the Hebrews. Thus all thoughtful men must ever
have felt. But he at once goes on to say that "we
have been sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus once for all." This is incompre-
hensible likewise to the mind of man. The vicari-
ous sacrifice of Jesus Christ seems to be a plain
Scripture doctrine, but no one understands it.

THE HOT SPRINGS 3S

The most elaborate explanations leave a mystery
unsolved. We must fall back on the belief that
it is God's method of full and final atonement,
just as Abraham and David did when they of-
fered sacrifice as they were commanded. How
it availed they did not know. They simply did
as they were told and left the rest to God.

In the life of Mrs. Palmer there is mention
made of a remarkable address delivered by Mr.
Durant before the students and faculty of Wel-
lesley College, of which she was at the time one of
the professors. The old lawyer was an earnest
Christian, and he was devoted to the interests of
the young women, who came for an education to
the college he had founded, and Mrs. Palmer has
recorded the overpowering and thrilling effect of
his argument and appeal. His text was: "The
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from
all sin." That was central in the Gospel to this
man of acute and trained legal mind.

The personal testimony of a famous lawyer,
one of the master minds of America, may be re-
called, and in view of certain current speculations
respecting miracles as attesting the Messiahship,
his words have special significance. Daniel Web-
ster said : "I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God. The miracles which he wrought establish,
in my mind, his personal authority, and render
it proper for me to believe whatever he asserts ; I
believe, therefore, all his declarations, as well
when he declares himself to be the Son of God, as

34 WRITING ON THE CXOUDS

when he declares any other proposition. And I
believe there is no other way of salvation than
through the merits of his atonement."

And precisely on what that atonement was
based and what it was, is plain in his repeated
and emphatic quotation, in his last hours, of Dr.
Watts' familiar words:

" No blood of beasts, nor heifers slain.
For sin could e'er atone;
The blood of Christ must still remain.
Sufficient and alone,"

Josephus tells us that Herod, the aged and
blood-stained king, suffering from many and
agonizing ailments, came in his last days to Cal-
lirhoe, hoping that the baths in the hot springs
would give him relief. The remedial value of these
was recognized in that time, as the people of to-
day resort to the famous hot springs near Ti-
berias by the Lake of Galilee to avail themselves
of their attested curative powers. Long before
that Herod had marked also the beauty and mili-
tary strength of the place, and on a lofty rock he
had built a citadel of great strength and a palace
of much magnificence, while around it had grown
a city of considerable size and many attractions.

Herod the Tetrarch afterward ruled this re-
gion, and while in residence at the Palace, as Jo-
sephus records, he came into contact with his
prisoner John the Baptist. Into the dungeon of
the citadel the faithful witness bearer was thrust

THE HOT SPRINGS 35

to gratify the hatred of a wicked woman; and
while the neighboring palace was the scene of
royal feasting and revelry at the celebration by
the Court of Herod's birthday, in that darksome
cell this brave man died by the executioner's
sword.

John had come preaching in the wilderness the
remission of sins through the baptism of repent-
ance, and the consequent cleansing and renewal
of the life. Close by the hot springs in the wil-
derness, to which men were wont to come for cure
of their bodily ills ; which had been pouring forth
their healing waters for centuries ; and which to-
day continue in unchanged and undiminished flow,
rest and reward fittingly came to that great ser-
vant of the Lord, whose ministry found its true
close when he had pointed men to "the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world."

VI

INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION

Church Councils of our own time are not of
much interest unless matters of broad and gen-
eral concern come up for discussion and decision,
and such assemblies of an earlier day are import-
ant commonly to historians only. Yet the first
Christian Council becomes of instant interest when
the attention is directed to the remarkable way
in which its decision of the question in hand is
worded. "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and
us" the record reads.

Unmistakably then, the Holy Spirit is a Per-
son according to the view of those early Chris-
tians. They had been with Jesus, heard his ref-
erences to the coming of the Holy Spirit, and
knew fully about the event that makes Pentecost
forever memorable. This is their way of refer-
ring to Him as really present at that council as
much as Peter or any one recorded on the list of
members. A course of action may seem good to
a person, but not to an influence. That mode of
expression would be as absurd as to say that the
fall of a stone seems good to gravitation, or the
turning of a windmill seems good to the air.

They say at the outset of this decree that it
seemed good to the members of the council to send
certain persons to the Church at Antioch. That

36

INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 37

of course we understand. Then they go on to say
that the doctrinal decision they made seems good
to the Holy Spirit and to the persons present at
that time. However we may find a difficulty in
understanding the subject, this seems unquestion-
able that the Holy Spirit was considered as an
intelligent, individual personality.

Moreover, they meant to recognize the Deity
of the Holy Spirit. To them He was the Head
of the Church. They do not say this decree was
approved by the Father, nor do they affirm that
it was approved by the Lord Jesus. The Person
whose approval or disapproval was matter of su-
preme concern was the Holy Spirit, because the
Master had distinctly announced his coming into
the world, proceeding from the Father and the
Son, the authoritative teacher and guide of men.
There might be a blasphemy against the Spirit
of God, Christ said, and it was a sin beyond par-
don. This Person then was to be regarded with
reverence ; his office was to be honored, and unto
Him they were to pay the worship and devotion
which God alone could claim.

That seems to be a statement of the doctrine of
the Holy Spirit which this decree involves.

Jesus had said : "When the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even
the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the
Father, he shall testify of me; and ye also shall
bear witness, because ye have been with me from
the beginning." The men that heard that, as well

38 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

as we who read it, understood the Master to say
that the Holy Spirit would bear witness, and they
also should bear witness. Now this decree in har-
mony with that declaration meant that what the
Holy Spirit might think and determine was one
thing, and what they might think and determine
was another. The Spirit and the Council might
not agree. The point is that they did agree.
They were not only in accord with one another,
but they were in accord with Him. This and
this alone gave authority to their decree.

Instantly then this whole subject becomes of
pressing importance to all of us. For obviously
the matter of prime importance is for a man to be
able to say: "It seems good to the Holy Spirit
and me." That is not blasphemy. It is not fana-
ticism nor pretence. It is the privilege of God's
child and servant, and it really is all that gives
authority of utterance. Of course this may be
abused, and it has been grossly. That, however,
is no reason why we should question or deny a
privilege so glorious. We may turn impatiently
from the doctrine of a Pope who speaking in the
seat of authority surrounded by prelates is deemed
infallible. We may regard with scorn the devo-
tees of a Dowie or Mother Eddy. But the great
truth which stands out here in its sublime import
we may not turn from. The possibility of realiz-
ing it ourselves we ought reverently to contem-
plate and covet.

There is more involved. The neglect of this

INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 39

is disbelief in its highest form, and disability in
its most disastrous manifestation. Jesus points
this out clearly in his references to the ministry
of the Spirit of Truth. If dishonor is done to the
Father when we do not receive and obey his Son,
equal dishonor is done not only to the Father but
to the Son if we fail to receive and obey the Spirit
who has come in the stead of Jesus. Therefore
we must earnestly and painstakingly inquire what
this means, and how in the council chamber of our
own mind we may take action under such auspices
as these early Christians.

In the first place it was all so natural. After
considerable discussion of the subject, James, who
apparently was president, rose and quietly stated
the opinion he had reached. He had done this
after calm and careful consideration of all the
facts in the case, and he summed the matter up
as a judge might do. He did this without any
special manifestation of the import of it all, and
yet that opinion was afterward stated in the for-
mal decree as in accord with the mind of the
Spirit. He went into no trance ; he attracted no
attention in any way ; he was apparently utterly
unconscious of superintendence and guidance by
a Higher Power, yet that guidance he and all the
rest present afterward explicitly avowed. So far
as any one can see it was all as simple as our act
at any time, when we make up our mind and state
our conclusion.

It means then that in the ordinary operation of

40 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

our minds, our finite and fallible intelligence may
be in perfect accord with the infinite and infallible
Spirit of God. That is unmistakable if this rec-
ord means anything at all. The age of miracles
is past, we are told. But this is not a miracle. It
is only a fulfilling of the distinct promise of
Christ that "the Spirit shall lead you into all
truth." How the Spirit does this he did not tell
us. But since we know hardly anything as to
the way in which the mind acts, and cannot con-
ceive what the mind is anyhow, we need not delay
with that question. The important matter is, if
this great guidance is possible how is it to be en-
joyed.

We notice that this particular council was not
opened with prayer, as among us is the rule
with conferences, assemblies, convocations of a
religious character. Those men would have
deemed an opening praj^er to be as unnecessary as
to unitedly stand up and breathe. They habitu-
ally lived in an atmosphere of prayer. This was
not an unusual, occasional, or strenuous exercise
with them. It was as natural as to breathe. The
indwelling of the Spirit was then nothing strange
to men of that type. They lived continually in
the sense of the divine presence. Prayer was as
natural as conversation with each other, and at
the family hearthside. If the Spirit with diffi-
culty guides us it is because we make uncommon
work of prayer.

Then this council had no docket ; no need of a

INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 41

call to order by a presiding officer. Each man
knew the business in hand, and upon it he fixed his
undivided attention. There was no personality
in debate; no pride of opinion; no personal pre-
judice and rivalry; no ambition for leadership.
Each man was sincerely and humbly anxious to
know the truth about the subject in hand, and to
decide it aright. No wonder then that at the end
they could say: "this seems good to the Holy
Spirit and us." They fully retained their own
individuality, and personality in their accord with
one another and with Him.

We live in a day when the individual demands
the right to entertain, and to express his personal
opinion ; to say emphatically : "this seems good to
me." The modern world is, obviously intolerant
of the divine right of kings or priests authorita-
tively to declare. That lion statue in front of the
Parliament House in London means much in these
days, when the people of England demand gov-
ernment by those alone whom they choose to rep-
resent them. The German nation is beginning to
make the same demand, and even Russia is fol-
lowing in the same pathway. The right and duty
of individual judgment is the very corner stone
of most advanced modern civilization, and this is
all that concerns the man himself. At the vaga-
ries, the rashness, the unsteadiness, the passions
of popular sovereignty we are oftimes aghast.
We do not wonder that those are found who deny
that government can safely be entrusted to such

42 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

immature and unsteady hands. The condition
has come to stay, however, and the great leaders
of the world are those who recognize and strive to
guide this mighty movement.

That statue in the city of Paris representing a
lion guarding the urn, in which ballots are cast,
has a definite meaning as to the need of accurate
registry of the people's wiU thus expressed. But
not only must the ballot box be guarded. Those
who come to it must be guided. In its ultimate
analysis the voice of the people must be the voice
of God, if the voice of the people is to speak
wisdom and truth. In that view of the matter
this language of those ancient Christians has its
profound meaning for all time. The authority of
the Holy Spirit must be recognized and obeyed;
His guidance must be asked ; reverent dependence
on Him must be manifested if popular govern-
ment is to be a success.

At a great popular meeting in New York City,
held in Cooper Institute, the need of Sabbath ob-
servance was presented. One of the speakers al-
luded to Sabbath sanctity as due to the will of
God, whereupon scores of Anarchists and Social-
ists rose, and shouted disapproval. They would
tolerate no mention of God whatever, denying
Him and His rule. It was blood curdling to hear
those hoarse shouts from human lips. Practically
however, multitudes who would not join these per-
sons, repudiate His authority and guidance ; deem
it entirely unnecessary to seek His guidance in

INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 43

their affairs; see no connection between a Bible
and a ballot; feel not the priceless privilege of
prayer ; and stare in amazement at any who quote
the words of these early Christians uttered in this
instance as having any earthly significance now.

There is pressing need then for us to consider
precisely what this means; exactly what it im-
plies ; seek to reahze the same coincidence in our
own judgments with His, humbly co-operating
with the Holy Spirit in His broad work of teach-
ing, transforming, ennobling men that the mind
of the Spirit may be the mind of us all. For as
the compass needle oscillates till it finally yields to
the mighty and unseen magnetic current which
girdles the globe, so the mind of man swings to
and fro uncertainly in its opinions, till it yields
to the control of the invisible spirit of truth, and
comes to rest in a final rectitude of judgment,
which finds a sublime and simple statement in the
words, "it seemeth good to the Holy Spirit and

VII

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL

A psychologist must have somewhat of a poet's
gift, if his mental philosophy is not to be micro-
scopic and mechanical, and his enumeration and
co-ordinating of the intellectual faculties is to be
more than a mere cataloguing. David, the sweet
Psalmist of Israel, was a poet whose reputation
is established, and his knowledge of the heart and
mind, though perhaps not scientific in our view,
was both deep and real. An illustration of this
occurs in the remarkable language he used at
the end of life, when on the presence of a great
assemblage, he offered a prayer in which the
deepest desires of his soul found expression. "O
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fa-
thers, keep this forever in the imagination of the
thoughts of the hearts of thy people, and estab-
lish their hearts unto thee." By the heart he
meant the mind; by the thoughts he meant the
ideas in the mind, and by the imagination he un-
derstood the form or shape assumed by these
vague and undefined thoughts, when combined
into definite opinions. For the word he used
means the fashioning, shaping of substance, such
as may be done by the sculptor in his studio,
when the finished statue appears bodying forth
his thought.

44

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 45

David understood well that thoughts are of
very little value or significance until these have
taken shape and form. What vaguely flits or
floats through the mind is of little import to us or
to others. Therefore what is done in the studio
of the soul becomes the matter of real importance.

This appeared in the personal counsel the
King had given to Solomon, his son and succes-
sor, whose brilliant and powerful intellect the
aged King had delighted to observe in its wide
activities and development. The marvellous men-
tal powers of the father his son had inherited,
with additional gifts of distinction. The paral-
lel to the two, perhaps, may be sought in vain in
family history. Solemnly David turned toward
the Prince in the presence of all the nobles and
great men of the realm and said: "And thou,
Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy
father, and serve him with a perfect heart and
with a willing mind; for the Lord searcheth all
hearts, and understandeth the imagination of the
thoughts."

David's hopes were bound up in the success of
Solomon's reign. To his hands a mighty sceptre
came; and the glory of the royal house was en-
trusted to him. All David's experience and learn-
ing; all his great personal powers to inspire and
broaden the mind; all the educative influences at
the command of a mighty monarch were utilized
to train and equip this splendid intellect, whose
depth and range and accuracy observant ones

46 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

noted even then with astonishment. All depended,
as the King knew and averred, upon the shape
Solomon's thoughts took.

This shaping was not like the making of a
molten image when the fluid mass of metal was
run into a mold. Neither was this to be a chis-
elling into shape as the skilful sculptor deals with
wood and stone which comes under his hand. But
rather as the human body assumes its normal
form; each part taking its due place freely and
naturally in the developed organism so the
thoughts were to take their due form. That each
faculty of the young Prince might be thus de-
veloped and co-ordinated was the father's aim
and study.

This could not come through any outward con-
straint. It must be an inward growth. That
was the real problem of education as David's lan-
guage shows ; then as now to every parent and
teacher. It involved a certain indifference to
those varying moods and ideas of a young mind,
with a supreme concern only about the way in
which these become fixed. Emphasis upon the
unessential frets, even infuriates a youth sub-
jected to it, while he may insensibly yield to the
wise teacher who quietly keeps what is all im-
portant in view. The check rein frets, while the
guiding rein gently used is not resented.

God's relation to this mental development
David emphasizes. The King would not live to
see the final form in which Solomon's thoughts

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 47

would be fixed, but the Lord would surely know.
Through the mind of this man the Spirit of the
Lord would freely go, observant of all its work-
ings, and beholding its final conclusions. What
others might guess at; what Solomon himself
might hardly be aware of, the Lord would fully
and accurately know. That the wise father im-
pressed on his son; and that absolute and unerr-
ing Divine judgment he bids him anticipate with-
out fear, because his thoughts had been ordered
aright.

The possibility of aberrations in such a wide
intelligence as Solomon's David must have fore-
seen, and against it his warning was given with
utmost impressiveness. The after events show
how that caution was needed. Brought up with
clear and decided views of religious truth, that
eager and eclectic intellect coming into contact
with the thoughts and theories of men, other
philosophies, other forms of worship insensibly
broadened to include things incongruous, and be-
come even sympathetic with what he once would
have abhorred. He became tolerant toward fea-
tures and forms of idolatry which his father had
abominated with all his soul, and against which he
earnestly sought to fortify his son. Liberal cul-
ture led Solomon to a liberal theology. He be-
came in a sense a man of the world; a mighty
prince and a broad-minded thinker at whose splen-
did and intellectual court philosophers of all
schools found welcome. His mind became a Pan-

48 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

theon: a very Parliament of religions. And Je-
hovah found false images in Solomon's mind on
pedestals alongside of that simple monument of
devotion, in which the glory of Israel's God had
once found representation peerless and alone, as
it ever did in the heart of David the King. That
splendid intellect had been allowed not only to
perceive, but to receive, harbor, and fashion
thoughts, erring and false, into forms that were
allowed to abide, and fatally pervert, divide and
degrade Solomon's soul.

This great king took all culture as his province
and his realm. The Bible lays stress on the
breadth of his intellectual sympathies and activi-
ties. The perils of free and wide ranging
thought could not possibly be more emphasized
than in the story of his errors. Liberalism led
him astray and left him with many false gods en-
throned in his soul. His father's words must have
come home to him often : "And thou, Solomon my
son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve
him with a perfect heart and a willing mind; for
the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth
all the imaginations of the thoughts." That di-
vine inspection we must welcome and be ready for,
and the divine judgment of the work of our minds
must ever be awaited and accepted as final. The
imaginations of our thoughts we must fling aside
as faulty and vain, however perfect these may
.seem to us or our associates ; if not in accordance
with the infallible standards of truth by which
God judges.

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 49

What the father said to his son, the King said
afterwards in a great assembly of his people in
that prayer which has been quoted. David as a
monarch could think of men in the mass, as well
as of individuals. He well knew that national
well-being depended on the forms which the popu-
lar thought assumed. This absolute king was
aware that public opinion was in the end supreme
and determinative. At the outset of his pubhc
life it had been his aim to inspire his defeated, di-
vided, demoralized fellow countrymen with great
national ideals and purposes; to unite them not
only under his sceptre but under the sway of
grand and fine ideas, and Israel had then become
a great kingdom. What he had done for his own
generation he sought to do also now for the gen-
eration to come; for he knew well that the glory
of the nation would depend, not on broad fields
and full granaries ; not on populous towns and
cities ; not on the opulence of nobles or the com-
fort of the people ; not on largely attended schools
of learning ; not on a veteran army whose banners
had ever led to victory. On the imagination of
the thoughts of Israel's heart all depended. This
alone gave the nation distinction. This alone
would insure success and stability.

The formation of public opinion awes us as we
behold it. When we see a great idea beginning to
take possession of the minds of men ; the idea of
emancipation in the hearts of the oppressed; the
idea of order and union to the disunited ; the idea

50 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

of justice and righteousness, where greed an<I
fraud have ruled; the idea of reform where evils
are recognized; the idea of devoting a nation's
power to the deliverance and development of
those downtrodden and dwarfed; the mind is
thrilled at the forces which are slowly taking
shape to such tremendous effect. Before our eyes
public opinion is forming irresistible in its move-
ment, massiveness and endurance. To trace and
point out such facts is the province of the his--
torian as distinguished from the mere retailer of
anecdotes, or the chronicler of current events. To
throw our energies into the creation and develop-
ment of such a sentiment is the supreme service
of every good citizen whose work is well directed
and assured of permanent value.

Therefore David uttered this wonderful prayer.
For he well knew that this stupendous and indis-
pensable achievement was beyond the power of
man ; though an absolute monarch like himself ;
though a king with all the gifts with which Solo-
mon himself might possibly be endowed. No
power but that of Almighty God could keep these
great ideas in the hearts of the people ; in forms
fixed and abiding and dominant. David at this
culmination of a career so distinguished and so
successful gathers up all the lessons of experience
in that prayer ; the prayer of a father ; the prayer
of a patriot; the prayer of the founder of a
great kingdom which now was to pass out of his
masterful hands. To the Almighty he turned;
in Him alone he put his trust and hope.

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 51

The language he used was a quotation from
the most ancient records of man; and it showed
the anxieties and fears of his soul. Of those
lived before the flood, he read as do we : "And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually." That re-
curred to the king's mind. And he prayed to God
that after him might not come the deluge; the
judgment of the Lord on his son, on his people
because they did not like to retain the Lord in
their thoughts. He was fearing in them the state
of mind which Paul with horror afterward saw in
the nations of his time: "Becoming vain in their
reasonings, their senseless heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God for the likeness of an image of corruptible
man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts and
creeping things." Such conditions David saw all
around him. That his family and his people
might be exempt was his supreme hope, which
found its only real utterance, not in an appeal to
them, but in an appeal for them and before them
unto Jehovah by whom the heart is searched and
by whom alone the heart is established.

VIII

THREE EPOCHS IN THE LIFE OF A
YOUNG MAN

Julius Csesar was found in tears after he had
been reading the Hfe of Alexander of Macedon,
lamenting that though an older man he had yet
done nothing to compare with the dazzling tri-
umphs of that celebrated king. That career was
indeed amazing in its rapid and early successes,
and yet its stages of development were normal.
At the age of fifteen, the prince was put in the
care of Aristotle, the famous philosopher, and the
mind is stirred at the thought of a pupil so gifted
coming under the guidance of a teacher so great.
At twenty Alexander became king on the death of
his father, and at the age of twenty-six he con-
quered Persia and was the Master of Asia.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen we enter upon
the period of life called adolescence. The youth
is an object then of anxiety, and even of despair
sometimes, to parents and teachers. The mind is
astir with new interests, ambitions and desires;
one is at once wilful and weak; rapid and incon-
gruous changes and choices exhibit themselves;
authority is flouted and experience challenged;
definite principles are not established, and the
outcome of all is anxiously awaited by those who
have the welfare of a youth most at heart. Pa-

THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 53

rents and teachers often feel then that they need
all the authority and influence of an Aristotle,
the patience of Job, and the love that hopeth all
things to deal with a young person under their
charge. Through this mysterious and critical
period each one has to go as best he may.

At twenty-one we determine that a person
comes of age, as we say. We are agreed that he is
then old enough to inherit property, make con-
tracts and exercise the right of a voter. Charac-
ter has taken a certain fixedness by that time,
after the tumultuousness and uncertainty of ado-
lescence. The young king comes to the throne of
responsibility, and he begins to show what is in
him, as did Luther when he put aside the allure-
ments of ambition to become a monk, and began
to form convictions which his after career exem-
plified. Lincoln at the age of twenty-one was in
New Orleans, and witnessed there some of the in-
iquities and cruelties of slavery. We are told that
he then and there registered a vow to smite sla-
very hard if the opportunity were ever his, and
though the story may not be true, it well enough
illustrates how some of our distinctive and lasting
traits begin to manifest themselves at this age.

At about twenty-six we usually reach another
marked epoch. Then the physical frame attains
maturity; then the previous generation affords
opportunity for us to assert ourselves, and take
up the work of the world in a more personal and
responsible way. New home ties are commonly

64 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

formed by this time, or arranged. The profes-
sional man at this age has as a rule completed
his education and is ready for his special work.
How often makers of wills delay the distribution
of their property till their heirs reach their
twenty-fifth year. The United States Constitu-
tion prescribes that one may be elected to mem-
bership in the House of Representatives when he
reaches the age of twenty-five, and Russia makes
this to be the period when one comes of age.

Cicero was twenty-six when he began his career
as a lawyer and a public man, and the same was
true of Lincoln and Gladstone. At this age Na-
poleon commanded the troops which crushed revo-
lution in Paris, and thus came prominently into
notice, while Wellington was twenty-six when he
first held independent military command. At this
age William the Silent formed his resolve at Vin-
cennes to save his imperilled people, and Wash-
ington had reached this time of life when elected
to the Virginia Legislature and so entered upon
public life. Milton was twenty-six when he wrote
"Comus" and became noted as an author, and at
this age Calvin wrote the Institutes which have
given him fame, while Mendelssohn, Handel,
Hayden, and Beethoven were about twenty-six
when they came into prominence as musicians.

Practically it is found that in each person's ex-
perience these three epochs at about this period
are marked, and when we read biographies the
same fact challenges our attention almost unvary-

THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 55

ingly. In our own development we are to watch
ourselves at these critical epochs with keenness
that we make the most of new aptitudes and op-
portunities which then are manifested, while in
our attempts to help others we are to be watchful
of the right use of influence at these critical
points in their career.

The Bible has one biography which brings out
the self-same fact, showing how religion makes
its appeal to the human heart at these epochs in
life. Josiah, the King of Judah, is the only per-
son named in Scripture, where the critical mo-
ments in his career are thus chronologically
marked, and the record is worthy of our close at-
tention.

He was sixteen, "while he was yet young, when
he began to seek the Lord." In this period of
adolescence the mind and heart are susceptible pe-
culiarly to religious impressions, as to others.
Then the appeal of religion may be made with
most confidence and most success. The soul is
awaking with the other powers of the nature, and
it is wonderfully receptive. The vast majority of
persons date their serious interest in religion to
this period in their lives, and with all prayers for
wisdom and grace parents and teachers are to
endeavor to lead youth at this time "to seek the
Lord." All that has been said and done before
this is preparatory. Then may we hope to see re-
ligion assert and enthrone itself in the heart.

Josiah was twenty-one when a new stage in his

56 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

career was marked, and is noted in this remark-
able biography. Then "he began to purge Judah
and Jerusalem from the high places, and the
Asherim and the graven images, and the molten
images." The result of his seeking the Lord is
now shown in the resolute, and courageous work
of a reformer. Errors and evils were clearly seen
and kingliness of spirit was shown in the de-
termination to do away with them. This is the
age when the new generation begins to show its
impatience with evils which the preceding genera-
tion had become tolerant of, or felt unable to
grapple with and do away. To young people at
this time reform in all its aspects appeals with
great power, and they are ready to unite and un-
dertake crusades. The rubbish of the ages they
would clear away. What ought not to be, they
are prepared to say shall not be. How much the
world owes to this splendid enthusiasm and pur-
pose of the king, when he comes of age.

At twenty-six, when Josiah "had purged the
land, and the house," he sent the great officials of
the city and realm "to repair the house of the
Lord his God." Now he enters upon the construc-
tive period of his life. The rubbish of idolatry
he had, during those years, resolutely removed.
Now he devoted his royal energies to the repair
and renovation of the Temple, and to building
up the true religion among his people. The royal
reformer now becomes a royal builder and this is
the normal development of the religious life.

THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 57

Young men and young women at this period
ought to be found actively engaged in building
up the cause and kingdom of the Lord ; throwing
into this work all the enthusiasm and energies of
their nature, eagerly utilizing opportunities open
to them, and guided by a wisdom which is the
fruit of experience and meditation in their ma-
turing years.

The historians of the world dwell upon the
story of Alexander of Macedon, and they pay lit-
tle heed to the short record of this Jewish King.
But judged aright Josiah is a more human reality
to us ; nearer to each one of us in the deep experi-
ences of life. Alexander we may admire, but this
man, monarch though he was, is as one of us in
the privileges of a common career. His search for
truth ; his abhorrence of error ; his devotion to the
right, these are within the reach of all of us, the
best characteristics of each of us, and these alone
give meaning, dignity and coherence to any life.
The Bible makes no mention of the Macedonian
conqueror, but the story of this King of Judah
it preserves, and his name and fame shall be
known among men wherever the Scriptures go.
"The Word of the Lord endureth forever," and
those who seek and serve the Lord shall be held
in lasting remembrance.

IX
THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE.

In the ancient city of Ephesus there was an
official who may perhaps be well enough desig-
nated by the title of town clerk. He seems to
have been a personage of much influence and dig-
nity whose functions would often bring him into
public notice. Certain Jews on one occasion had
come to the city and after a time a maddened
mob gathered, and finally rushed to the great
amphitheatre as the only place where a public as-
semblage of such size could be held, and there
passionately demanded the severe punishment of
these men who were charged with acts and words
derogatory to the honor of Diana, the city's pat-
ron goddess.

After the clamor ceased this Ephesian official
appeared before the people, and when silence en-
sued he made a remarkable speech which had note-
worthy effect. In the first place he pointed out
that the accused men were not robbers of temples.
Now the Temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of
the most splendid buildings in the world. It was
not only enriched by magnificent and costly ap-
pointments and decorations, but by reason of its
peculiar sanctity it was made a place of safe de-
posit for money and valuables. Great tempta-
tions to robbery, therefore, were presented, and an

58

THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 59

inscribed marble found among the ruins of Ephe-
sus shows the peculiar detestation of such a crime
in the view of the people. Paul and his associ-
ates could not be charged with such sacrilege.

Furthermore he declared that no one could
charge them with blasphemy of their goddess.
They had never said or done anything to cast
ridicule or bring contempt upon the great Diana
of the Ephesians. And not a man in that excited
throng could utter one word in challenge of the
assertions thus publicly made by this calm, judi-
cious and authoritative official.

From such a man and under such circumstances
that opinion respecting those Christians is most
illuminating. He respected them for zeal with-
out fanaticism; for earnestness and enthusiasm
united to saving common sense. And that fact is
somewhat remarkable.

For Paul was an intelligent man and an earn-
est Jew, and we know full well how he felt about
Diana and her sanctuary ; that splendid structure
enshrining a rude, misshapen wooden image. All
that the prophets had said ridiculing and de-
nouncing such idolatry he well knew and heartily
sympathized with. The folly and debasement of
it all he deeply felt. Yet no one had ever known
him to show this by any word or act. He was
guiltless of sacrilege all must allow.

Moreover, Paul was not an ordinary traveller,
who had come to Ephesus to see the people and
edifices of that famous city. He came there with

60 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

a great and consuming purpose : of which he never
lost sight, and which he had prosecuted night and
day for months. But his zeal had never outrun
discretion; he had never awakened prejudices nor
aroused the passions of men.

So it was in Athens. When he visited it he
found a city wholly given over to idolatry, and
as the narrative says his spirit was provoked
within him. But the stirring of his soul was
never shown by unwise and unmeasured words or
acts. We are told that he reasoned daily with any
one and every one he met in places of public re-
sort, but it was done with courtesy, dignity and
self-restraint. Attention was excited but antag-
onism was not aroused. And finally with great
courtesy he was invited publicly to address the
Athenians whose respect he had won by his cul-
tivated, courteous bearing, and though that ad-
dress was delivered close to the great Temple and
statue of Minerva he said not a word assailing the
beliefs of those whom he addressed.

Paul was a radical, in thorough sympathy with
the procedure announced by John the Baptist,
"the axe is laid at the root of the trees." But
how wise he was. He saw that the worship of
Diana at Ephesus was a religion of a kind; not
the true religion at all, but it really witnessed to
the religious instincts and nature of men. So far
it was his standing ground. If there were no re-
ligion of any kind at Ephesus Paul might despair
of finding anything in the heart of the people to

THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 61

which he could appeal. He took them as he found
them and then patiently, wisely, lovingly sought
to lead them to see the truth in its fulness and
beauty. He did not abuse Diana worship ; he used
it. He appealed to the deep instincts and needs
of the soul, and when these were roused he knew
that men would turn to the broad, deep, real
truth of the Gospel.

The words then of this Ephesian official are the
world's stamp of approval on a sane religion
which is all aglow with quenchless zeal, but which
observes the proprieties of time and place; raises
no barriers by the very fierceness of its energy;
exhibits ever the love that endureth all things,
hopeth all things, and never faileth; and which
wins the favor not only of kindred minds "but of
these that are without," as Paul once said. Thus
he becomes the pattern for every religious
teacher, whatever his sphere and station. He is
the pattern, as well, of every really effective and
useful reformer, whether moral, social or political.
Paul stood like a rock when forced openly to take
a stand. If there had to be a fight he was in the
forefront and he never left the field. But he
never forced a fight. He was a man of peace
who never knew fear. He was a man of flaming
zeal, but not a fire-brand.

In the Life of Henry M. Stanley, we are told
of his hope and indeed expectation that his body
should be laid in Westminster Abbey beside that
of David Livingstone whom he had sought and

62 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

found in Africa. The funeral was held in that
historic building, but interment there was denied.
Men instinctively feel that the restless, energetic,
fiery Stanley was of distinctly lower grade of
spirit, than Livingstone, of whom he reverently
and lovingly wrote:

" He preached no sermon, by word of mouth while
I was in company with him; but each day of my
companionship with him witnessed a sermon acted.
The Divine instructions, given of old on the Sacred
Mount, were closely followed, day by day, whether
we rested in the jungle-camp, or bided in the trad-
er's town, or savage hamlet. Lowly of spirit, meek
in speech, merciful of heart, pure in mind, and
peaceful in act, suspected by the Arabs to be an in-
former, and therefore calumniated, often offended at
evils committed by his own servants, but ever for-
giving, often robbed and thwarted, yet bearing no
ill-will, cursed by the marauders, yet physicking
their infirmities, most despitefully used, yet pray-
ing daily for all manner and condition of men!
Narrow, indeed, was the way of eternal life that he
elected to follow, and few are those who choose it."^

Livingstone, as Stanley knew him and por-
trayed him, was an embodiment and illustration of
the spirit Paul showed in Athens and Ephesus,
and which won the respect and esteem of the hea-
then themselves, whom he sought to convert and
Christianize. That is the spirit and the method
of all who would transform and uplift men, and
whose work abides.

In his account of John Hampden, Macaulay

THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 63

quotes the account of this great English states^
man, as given by his strong opponent, Lord Clarr
endon :

" He was of that rare affabihty and temper in de~
bate, and of that seeming humihty and submission of
judgment^ as if he brought no opinion of his own
with him, but a desire of information and instruc-
tion. Yet he had so subtle a way of interrogating,
and, under cover of doubts, insinuating his objec-
tions, that he infused his own opinions into those
from whom he pretended to learn and receive them."

And the essayist ends by saying how "England
missed that sobriety, that self-command, that per-
fect soundness of judgment, that perfect recti-
tude of intention, to which the history of revolu-
tions furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a paral-
lel in Washington alone."

Macaulay would not have ended the paragraph
were he writing now, without placing a garland
upon the brow of another great American, whose
true stature we are at last coming as a nation to
realize. Lincoln loathed the evils of slavery as
much as the most fiery Abolitionist; he loved the
Union with a passionate fervor ; and placed at the
nation's head when every energy must be shown
in a struggle to save that Union, he displayed a
tenacity and dauntlessness of purpose rivalling
the bravest of soldiers. We marvel now at the
eloquence which roused and nerved men's souls ;
at the wisdom which restrained the over-zealous
and unwise; at the love which held out the olive

64 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

branch to the very close of his days, toward the
misguided ones who wildly sought to tear to tat-
ters the nation's flag, and whom he resisted with
every force at his command.

These men exhibited statesmanship of the high-
est order; leadership sane and successful; quali-
ties of character of the rarest and finest type ; the
very traits which the Ephesian official recognized
and emphasized in the words and work of Paul
and his associates in Ephesus, and to which, hea-
then as he was, he bore publicly his testimony.

THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA

The colonists on the Mayflower just before
they landed at Plymouth, drew up and signed the
famous compact "covenanting and combining
themselves into civic body politic," which should
enact such measures as should be for "the general
good of the colony." A hundred and fifty years
afterward the descendants of these colonists and
their associates banded themselves into a confed-
eration for the preservation and protection of
their rights and mutual interests. Four score
years thereafter, as Lincoln said, the citizens of
this great nation engaged in a struggle, the aim
and outcome of which was to preserve the Union,
and government by the people for the general
good. So that the great idea in the minds of the
Pilgrims has been dominant in the minds of our
people in all the great epochs of their national
history.

The famous "general welfare" provision in the
constitution of the United States is relied upon as
giving authority to the general government to en-
act and execute laws which shall promote the best
interests of all the people. And our courts in de-
ciding questions that come before them emphasize
"public policy" as a principle of justice which
must be invoked to establish justice as between in-

65

66 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

dividuals, corporations and classes of our citizens.
This at basis is the commonwealth idea.

Among the throngs who attended upon the
ministry of John the Baptist were some Roman
soldiers, stern, mail-clad men, the representatives
of those warriors who had won and retained im-
perial power among men for Rome. These were
roused to ask the great preacher what their duty
was, and he answered: "Do violence to no man,
neither exact anything wrongfully ; and be con-
tent with your wages." These men were tempted
to use their power for their personal advantage.
John reminded them that they were to maintain
government; that they were to be just themselves
toward all with whom they had to do.

Today we are confronted with the clashing be-
tween capital and labor. This meets us at every
turn. The wage payer and the wage earner are
in a state of unrest and frequent discord, and an
adjustment of these relations is seen to be impera-
tively necessary for the peace and welfare of so-
ciety. Those words of John may well be pon-
dered, and the right application of them sought
by the people of today. The abuse of power by
men of wealth, shrewd, strong and combined cap-
tains of industry and magnates in the business
world, amounts to the same wrongful exaction of
which those Roman soldiers were often guilty. It
is perfectly plain that the representatives of the
people in legislature and congress are determined
to find a way to end all this, and that the way will

THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA 67

be found. On the other hand the failure of em-
ployees to take due care of the interests of their
employer; the imperative and sometimes unrea-
sonable demands they make; their tyrannical
treatment of worthy associates who may not join
their unions ; their discontent with wages prompt-
ing demands unseasonably urged; all these
amount to wrongful exactions for which a remedy
must be found if the relations of labor and capital
are to be mutually satisfactory and helpful.

What was really involved then in these words
of John has been elaborately stated by the late
Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner
of Labor, and his language needs frequently to be
recalled, since this obviously expresses the mature
convictions of one who had broadly and deeply
studied the subject.

After saying that the making of character by
statutory enactment ; the benefit of improved sani-
tary conditions ; the lessening of the hours of la-
bor; action by arbitration boards had all proved
beneficial but had failed to touch the root of the
matter, he concludes that "in religion we find the
highest form of solution yet off*ered."

Religion sets up a court of arbitration in a
man's own heart. It bids him to remember the
general good of the community in which he Hves ;
to fit himself to render to that community some
real service ; thoroughly to equip himself therefor,
and patiently, faithfully to engage therein ; never
content with his workmanship, but ever striving

68 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

to make it more perfect; considering himself as
one of the indispensable factors in the social state
and striving to fulfill his functions with all dili-
gence, fidelity and honor. Whenever you find
a man of that spirit you find a good citizen, for
whom society has a place, and in the degree that
such a spirit characterizes a people will there be
a true commonwealth.

Bismarck said that the characteristic of modern
civilization is the assertion of the race spirit. He
saw that particularly in the union of the Ger-
manic peoples into one German Empire, and his
life work was the development of that idea among
his own people. So too we now have a united
Italian nation, the cordiality between the Anglo-
Saxon peoples, while we watch with deepest in-
terest the national advance of Japan, and the
arousement of the Slavic race, the Chinese and
the people of India.

It is becoming plain that the commonwealth
idea is to take possession of men not only in local
and national but also in international relations,
and the mind is staggered at the many and com-
plex problems this presents, and awed as it looks
forward to the amazing results that will surely
follow as men slowly and steadily work out these
problems in the centuries to come.

Today the English people are dealing with the
question how far the hereditary principle shall be
allowed to have influence in the government of
Great Britain. Of course with the history of the

THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA 69

English people in mind we know how that ques-
tion will ultimately be decided. The people will
rule. The day of the privileged classes is hasten-
ing to its close.

We remember the struggles that have taken
place on British soil between Britons and Romans,
Britons and Danes, Britons and Normans ; be-
tween Englishmen and Irishmen, Welshmen,
Scotchmen ; between Englishmen themselves, and
we see how slowly there has come as the result of
these centuries of conflict, in which our fore-
fathers engaged, a government of the people, by
the people and for the people, and in the re-
sults of these we also share. And that history
is typical of what has been and is going on within
nations and between nations. The commonwealth
idea is the key to human history and the inter-
pretation of the future of the race.

A year after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
another company of Colonists came, among whom
was Robert Cushman, a clergyman, and he
preached there a sermon which was the first ser-
mon ever printed in New England. That fact
may show the honor in which the speaker was held
and the importance recognized in the views he
presented. His text was: "Let no man seek his
own, but every man another's wealth." This
scholarly and intelligent man saw that the idea to
which Paul thus gave expression, must be su-
preme in the minds of the people if this new
community should have prosperity and perma-

70 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

nence. With all his energy he sought to impress
that upon every one.

To us the sermon was prophetic. The truth it
set forth had been embodied in the compact the
Pilgrims signed, and it has been the real and vital
principle in every great epoch in the history of
the nation then begun; it must be kept in full
view in every appeal made to our people when the
rights of individuals and classes are to be ad-
justed ; and it will be found to be the last word in
the Parliament of the World when the rights and
interests of nations are to be determined.

This is not a counsel of perfection, the dream
of a philosopher, or the Utopian fancy of an en-
thusiast. Christianity, which finds its utterance
in Paul's word, has power to transform men; to
make the sense of justice supreme in his soul; to
conquer his passions, his selfishness, his preju-
dices and his pride; and to make him see and
know, that as in the human body efficiency and
welfare depend upon the healthful activity of
each member thereof, so in the body politic the
commonwealth idea must take possession of each
individual and in the resultant general good the
personal welfare is secured. The Gospel is the
only power known among men which can take up
this tremendous problem which confronts the mod-
ern world and solve it with ease and finality,
making real man's highest ideal in the social
state.

XI
VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES

Certain characters fascinate us. Uncon-
sciously, perhaps, but instinctively, we watch
them, treasure what they say and do, and talk
about them. Such a character was David, King
of Israel, and we do not wonder that three proph-
ets, Samuel, Nathan and Gad felt moved to write
the story of his life and times.

It was an extraordinary career. The shepherd
lad summoned from the field to meet the venerated
Prophet, Samuel, was anointed as God's chosen
one to wear the crown. Shortly afterward David
reappears as the champion of Israel when defied
and dismayed by the Philistine giant, and his vic-
tory made him the darling of the court and na-
tion. The shepherd lad of Bethlehem became the
bosom friend of the Crown Prince; the King's
son-in-law, a popular officer in the royal army.
Almost in an instant the scene changes, and David
was an outlaw, with a price set on his head by the
embittered king. Ere long he returns to Israel,
first as king in Hebron, then in Jerusalem, the
monarch whom a proud and powerful nation
recognize as their wise and great sovereign. From
the pinnacle of prosperity and power David sud-
denly fell into crime of deepest dye, and as a
sequel the aged monarch fled from his capital in

71

72 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

shame and tears, hunted by the servants of his
own pampered son. The story ends with the pic-
ture of a sovereign restored to his throne, to which
he welcomes his son and successor of whose char-
acter and abiUties the aged man was justly proud.

No wonder these eminent men of David's na-
tion were deeply interested in this character and
this career, and felt that the worthy account of
it was a theme worthy of their highest powers.
Homer devoted his great gifts to the story of the
life of Ulysses, keenly realizing with the insight
of a trained literary mind and his profound
knowledge of human nature that such a story
would have broad and lasting interest. The
great historians and story tellers of the world
have the self -same gift of insight and expression.
The art of the novelist consists in inventing
characters and then leading them through im-
aginary vicissitudes of experience, bringing out
their character under such varying conditions.

Longfellow speaks of the old clock on the stair,
and makes it the witness and the chronicle of
vicissitudes in the home where it has so long stood.
Merriment and mourning; joy and disappoint-
ment; success and failure; bridals and funerals,
all these in succession that old time-piece has
known. That poem appeals straight to the hearts
of men, for experience brings out its deep truth.
The palace and the humblest home alike know
such visitations. And we note how aptly the
flight of time in the poem is associated with such

VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 73

changes, realizing how this thought has taken
possession of men's minds. Thus in the record of
David's hfe all was summed up in the very last
line with the expression: "the times that went
over him."

We recall the striking words of the Psalmist:
"all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me,"
and that psalm was written in a time of sore dis-
tress and trouble, when the heart was over-
whelmed. As the heading of many chapters in
the record of each life those words might fitly
stand. Even more pertinently perhaps might we
remember another familiar utterance: "And I
said, oh that I had wings like a dove ! then would
I fly away and be at rest." In the one case we
have the picture of a person submerged by the
oncoming waves of trouble. In the other we
think of him held fast and powerless to get away
from his trial.

And this latter idea has peculiar significance.
We speak sometimes of our ties in life; our re-
sponsibilities of home and service ; the necessity of
abiding in some locality where loved ones are as-
sociated with us and where our vocation is. To
that spot, to that home, to that circle we are tied.
No doubt great happiness and advantages come
to us as a consequence. We never can do our
best nor get our best unless fixed somewhere, so
that we can employ our faculties steadily, make
our influence continually felt, and enjoy uninter-
ruptedly the blessings of companionship with
those who are tried and true.

74 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

But this very fixedness has another aspect.
Our ties tie us down. The times come when, as
the Psalmist says, we long to fly away from it
all; from the irritations, the anxieties, the bur-
dens, the battling of our daily experience. And
this perhaps leads us to understand the deeper
meaning of that remarkable phrase: "the times
that went over him."

For it brings out grandly the heroic quality of
the man, who could not get away from life's
harassings and battles ; who was forced to stay,
and who turned his troubles into triumphs of faith
and patience, and transformed defeats as they
seemed into real victories. In our earlier days we
revel in the sense of power, and unto power we
give the tribute of our heartiest praise. Longer
and richer experience attests the need of endur-
ance, patience, and we come to see that the victory
of patience is as great as any ever won by man.
Our eyes are at last opened to discern the ripened
fruit of character in those who calmly, patiently
endure life, where it holds them, making the
most of all they have, serenely refusing to be cast
down or embittered by denial, disappointment and
grief.

That was David the King, as the Seers of
Israel discerned the grandeur of his soul. Such
too was Alfred the Great, King of England, that
truly royal man, of feeble frame, amid a people
uncultured and rude, in a time when the heathen
hordes swept the land with fire and pitiless sword,

VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 75

but who stood like a mighty oak defying the
blasts that smote it.

And this kingliness is apparent in humble lives
as well. Years ago an English lad, twelve years
old, was assisting his father who was a bricklayer.
While stepping from a ladder to a high roof the
boy missed his footing and fell heavily on the
paved court below. They picked him up, limp and
lifeless as it seemed, but he revived and in time
was strong again, but the accident left him en-
tirely deaf. After a time he was apprenticed to
a shoemaker, and at the bench the boy worked
from six in the morning till ten at night. But
the lad found time to read every book he could
lay hands on. A benevolent man helped him to an
education and in the end he became a person of
great learning and abilities. That Enghsh lad
in his humble way was as noble as Alfred, the
English King.

Bunyan tells us in "Pilgrim's Progress" of the
conflict with Apollyon. He describes the strug-
gle and tells of the Christian finally flung to the
ground, and losing his sword as he fell. The ad-
versary rejoiced at assured victory and was just
raising his hand to strike the fatal blow, when
the man of faith suddenly seized his weapon again
and cried out in the words of Scripture: "When
I fall, I shall arise." And from defeat the be-
liever snatched a decisive victory.

Sometimes we speak of "the ups and downs of
life." These words in that order are not true of

76 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

the Christian life, for respecting it we properly
say, "the downs and ups of life." The Holy
Scriptures are full of that. At the opening of
the Bible we may read of Paradise Lost, but at
the end we read of Paradise Regained. Most im-
pressive is it to note how the books of the Bible
always end with the word of hope, assurance,
consolation. The Book of Job is typical.
Through long chapters it tells us of human mis-
ery and sorrow, but at the end we behold the
faithful soul crowned with joy and blessing.

The Book of Ecclesiastes reflects the operations
of the mind of man perplexed by the sorrows, un-
certainties, disappointments of life. The mind is
seen oscillating between doubt and hope, pessi-
mism and optimism, but at the end comes the clear
and confident word. Certainty is attained ; a con-
clusion is reached, a philosophy of existence is
found, and this doubting, questioning one is
standing, not on shifting sands of mood and opin-
ion, but on the eternal rock.

David was "the man after God's own heart" we
are explicitly told. We study that wonderful
career, and we see that in his strength and his
weakness ; in his successes and his failures ; in his
coronations and his degradations; with fingers
that could bend the bow and anon sweep the harp
string masterfully ; this man essentially was as
one of us. The times that went over him were
like the times that go over us also. And we gaze
upon the sunset hour of that strenuous life, and

VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 77

behold how the deepest desires of his heart were
graciously fulfilled.

Tennyson speaks of rising "on stepping stones
of our dead selves to higher things." His
thought was based perhaps on Goethe's words:
*'from changes unto higher changes." The same
underlying idea is voiced in the summons for the
soul "to build statelier mansions for itself," and
much of the noblest literature is but an expression
of this aspiration and an arousing to its realiza-
tion.

XII
THE SOUL'S SILENCE UNTO GOD

We declare our belief, in repeating the Apos-
tles' Creed, that Jesus has ascended into heaven,
and now sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father Almighty. The language recalls the
words recorded by the Psalmist-Seer, when, after
his gaze into the throne-room of eternity, he says
he heard the Lord say to his Lord: "Sit thou at
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool." The Psalm confessedly refers to the
Messiah, and we have here the sublime picture of
His quiet waiting, while Christianity goes on
conquering and to conquer until the glories of the
consummation assured.

So Isaiah chronicles a message which came to
him. "The Lord said unto me, I will be still, and
I will behold in my dwelling place ; like clear heat
in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of har-
vest." The prophet realized what he would have
us also realize betimes, God's quiet, assured wait-
ing, while the agencies he had set in operation,
and which were the manifestation of Himself,
calmly wrought out the vast and gracious results
which He had determined.

The prophet Zephaniah has a splendid passage
in which he promises: "The Lord thy God is in
the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save ; he

78

THE SOUL'S SILENCE 79

will rejoice over thee, he will be silent in his love,
he will joy over thee with singing." We pause
over that unique expression : "he will be silent in
his love." It reveals a depth in God's love for
us in a marvellous way. For love at its deepest is
beyond expression by word or deed even. Be-
yond all we say there is more we cannot say. Be-
yond all we can do there is an affection which
cannot find manifestation. And what we know of
ourselves, this man of God with a bold and won-
derful allusion, declares of the Father Himself.
Even He cannot tell us, cannot show us, how dear
we are to Him.

In similar way our deepest devotion unto God
is beyond words or acts of expression. The Psalm-
ist brings this out when he says: "My soul is si-
lent unto God." There is no appeal that goes so
direct to our hearts, that so haunts us, that so
surely gives us no rest till we have acted with
promptitude and effect, as the appeal from pa-
tient, trusting, wistful eyes. Importunate re-
quests we may delay dealing with. Such an ap-
peal as that moves us profoundly. Thus this man
of faith was sure it was with God. The soul's si-
lence as one looks to Him and patiently awaits
His help and blessing is represented as prayer in
its most touching manifestation. It means per-
fect trust in Him ; not only in His power and wis-
dom and compassion, but in his full understand-
ing and interest. He has not forgotten, and will
not forget. We are silent in the knowledge of

80 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

this, and we have but to quietly watch the way in
which relief and blessing shall come. We do not
like to be importuned or reminded frequently, as
though we had forgotten or were likely to for-
get. Neither does God. Never do we honor Him
more than in the silent trust that He knows and
will act at the right time and in the right way.

Charles Wesley composed a hymn based on
Jacob's wrestling with God in prayer, and this
has been called "the most celebrated lyric that he
ever wrote." The transition from Jacob "the sup-
planter;" the shrewd, pushing, dexterous man of
the world, unto Israel, "the Prince of God," is
marked by the lines:

" My prayer hath power with God ; the grace
Unspeakable I now receive;
Through faith I see thee face to face —
I see thee face to face and live.
In vain I have nor wept and strove;
Thy nature and thy name is Love."

The elevated and serene spirit of the patriarch,
who so impressed the Egyptian King and his
court ; who was reverenced so profoundly by those
strong men his sons ; and to whom was granted
such marvellous visions of the future of his de-
scendants ; that was the ripe faith which in its im-
mature manifestations we perceive in its struggle
at Bethel, in the far East where he sojourned, and
in the midnight wrestling in prayer at the
Jabbok.

THE SOUL'S SILENCE 81

Tennyson in one famous line has sketched
Mary of Bethany when he wrote: "her eyes are
homes of silent prayer." That reveals to us the
depth and beauty of this woman's nature, who sat
at Jesus' feet, eagerly gazing into his face, drink-
ing in his teachings,, only to rise and swiftly,
surely, silently do the essential and the great
thing, at which men could only marvel, in its
genius and its completeness. She is the type of
those silent souls, the mainspring and the main-
stay of homes, and communities ; who silently
ponder and resolve, promptly and steadfastly act,
with zeal afire but not aflame.

The Psalmist wrote this word in troublous
times. In silent trust he thought of God as "his
rock and his salvation." Twice he declares this in
the short psalm quoted, and we think of him in
that calm assurance of faith, facing difficulties
and dangers which might appal. The serenity of
strength is impressive, as those old Egyptian
architects and sculptors have shown it marvel-
lously, in the stately calm of the Pyramids, in
which man has most closely imitated in his works
the grand quiet of the everlasting hills, and in
the majestic repose of their statues, which repre-
sent the King, with hands resting on his knees,
and gazing out upon a world which owns his un-
questioned sovereignty. Thus this silent trust of
the Lord in its majestic strength, as the Psalmist
depicts it, becomes a power with the timid and the
terrified, to whom the calm believer alone can say :
"Trust in the Lord at all times."

82 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

The telescope, through which we clearly behold
and trace the stars, must not sway nor tremble.
It must rest upon a foundation firm and secure.
The great visions of truth come to us only in the
silence of the soul. Not to Moses "mighty in
words and deeds" in his hasty purpose to rescue
his brethren; nor to him as the Shepherd and
Lawgiver of Israel overburdened with the care of
a turbulent and rebellious people ; but to the man
of God in the sublime and final serenity of faith
came the visions of Jehovah when there was re-
vealed before his calm gaze the panorama of
Israel's future, including shadows of sins, idola-
tries, awful reverses and punishments at which
his pious and patriotic spirit would once have been
troubled and in agony, but which he now saw in
the wide scope of God's eternal purpose and
glory. By a natural transition we turn to the
next picture given of him serene and wide-visioned
as a dweller with God, when now with Elijah,
like-spirited, though once so tumultuous in en-
ergy and prostrated in despair he was with the
Son of Man on the Mount of Transfiguration,
considering that atoning death near at hand in
Jerusalem, by faith in which the true Israel of
God should be rescued from the servitude of sin
and enter upon the inheritance of the saints in
light.

XIII
THE CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS

Ecbatana was the capital of ancient Persia,
and the city was circled by seven walls. The bat-
tlement of the outermost was white, of the sec-
ond black, of the third purple, of the next blue,
of the succeeding orange, while the sixth battle-
ment was silver, and the seventh golden. And
within this girdling wall on an eminence stood the
royal palace. This peculiar characteristic of this
city has led one to suggest that it may give us
some idea of the Celestial City of which the Bible
speaks, seeing in "the foundations" mentioned,
terraces like the successive stages of the hill on
which Ecbatana stood, and in the progressively
elevated walls of precious stones, splendors like
those which confronted the traveller as he ap-
proached the Persian Capital.

We read these closing chapters of God's Reve-
lation seeking to know where and what is the place
to which the righteous go, and in which the re-
unions of eternity occur. As we read we are per-
plexed. Surely this is no description of heaven
like that which might be given of an earthly city.
We cannot form any clear and connected idea of
it. We come to feel that this language is sugges-
tive, not descriptive ; poetry and not prose. That
there is an eternal abiding place of the redeemed

83

84 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

we may be sure ; and that it will be a Paradise we
may be certain. The details are not made plain.
And one of the expressions used to describe it
renders that certain. "The length and the
breadth and the height thereof are equal," we are
told. "That the city lieth foursquare and the
length is as large as the breadth," we can under-
stand. An earthly city might be thus laid out.
But no imaginable city ever had three equal di-
mensions.

This however like the other expressions met in
this description, we take as illustrating a feature
of the perfection which even John found it impos-
sible to portray, or even picture to himself. But
under forms of materials and measurement he
thinks of Heaven as the perfect City of the Great
King. Further, even he cannot go.

The Book of Revelation utilizes, combines and
illustrates the sj'^mbolisms and the statements of
the Bible. We must study its references if we
would feel the power of John's gathering up in
one grand picture the marv^els of previous record
with which his mind was saturated. And that is
specially illustrated in this sentence of descrip-
tion by dimensions.

To Moses in the Mount, God gave the pattern
of the Tabernacle and its equipments for worship.
The innermost apartment was to be known as the
Most Holy Place, and it was to be ten cubits wide,
ten cubits long, and ten cubits high. In dimen-
sions therefore it was to be a perfect cube. In

CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 85

the Temple of Solomon these proportions were
simply doubled, but still the length and breadth
and height of the Most Holy Place were to be
equal. Now John tells us that heaven, the Most
Holy Place of the Universe is likewise to have
three equal dimensions. In this innermost sanc-
tuary of Israel Jehovah was thought to abide
among his people, as in the Heavenly City he was
portrayed as enthroned. By the perfection of di-
mensions in either case the perfection of the in-
dwelling God was indicated.

Nearly a thousand years ago Archbishop Ans-
elm of Canterbury sought to prove the existence
of God because in the mind of man there is the
idea of one, than whom no greater can be con-
ceived. Since we have this idea of a perfect Be-
ing, He must really exist, this philosopher ar-
gued. Theologians of course have taken this up
and discussed it, and whatever we may think of
the force of his argument for the existence of
God, the fact on which it rests can hardly be dis-
puted. We have an idea of one who to us is a
Perfect Being ; though that idea may be very im-
perfect indeed. It prepares us for the revelation
of the Infinite God, in the glories of his perfec-
tion, and this language of John fits in with the
deepest thoughts and convictions of the mind of
man.

The writings of this Apostle have been con-
sidered to ajfford perhaps as many proofs of the
doctrine of the Trinity as any other writer of

86 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

Scripture. Men have felt that he declared clearly
the existence, not only of the Father, but of Jesus,
as distinct from the Father, yet equal to the
Father in power and glory, a Being to whom not
only honor but actual worship is due. And in his
writings we read of the Holy Spirit, whom he re-
fers to as it would seem as a Person ; distinct from
the Father and the Son, and rightfully to be wor-
shipped as are they. Concededly no writer of the
Bible has more profound spiritual insight than
John. He seems to have been peculiarly near the
Master not only in spirit but in comprehension of
the deepest truth, and these threefold references
to the Divine Nature to be found abundantly in
his writings have led to the conviction of his be-
Eef in a Triune God, whom we know and adore as
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That
sublime and ceaseless chorus of praise which John
says he heard in heaven : "Holy, holy, holy Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,"
is echoed in our own prized hymn:

" Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ;
God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity."

Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity is the most
profound and mysterious doctrine confronted by
the intellect of man. Certainly the mind feels its
finiteness speedily when it tries to grasp, and hold
at once these stupendous conceptions of Deity.
Yet in this very mystery those who do accept it
realize their deepest and most sublime thought of

CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 87

the Infinite. Paul seems to recognize a three-fold
nature in man when he speaks of the body, soul
and spirit, making this the three- fold division of
a perfect human being. John and other writers
as well, seems to recognize a three-fold nature in
God, finding here the evidence and manifestation
of perfect Deity. And with this appropriately
we think of the three-fold dimensions of the
Heaven in which the Triune God dwells.

Jehovah made his nature known to Moses in the
words, which constitute the fundamental, oft- re-
ferred to, and oft-quoted revelation of Himself
in Scripture. "And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed. The Lord, a God full of
compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plen-
teous in mercy ; keeping mercy for thousands, for-
giving iniquity and transgression and sin; that
will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the in-
iquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon
the children's children, unto the third and to the
fourth generation." Here the perfection of the
divine nature is by the Lord Himself declared, in
the revelation of Himself as a God of law and of
mercy.

In that Most Holy Place, which apparently
John had in mind when he described here the Ce-
lestial City, stood the Ark of the Covenant which
was the visible emblem of Jehovah's presence
among his people, and enshrined at the very cen-
ter of the Sanctuary.

In that Ark, divinely ordained and patterned

88 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

reposed by divine direction the two tables of stone
on which the law was engraved. Beside these was
the golden pot of manna, that witnessed how
God's goodness would come in earthly blessings
to those who kept his law; and also the rod of
Aaron that budded as authenticating the priest-
hood whose function it was to keep that law
clearly before the mind of the people. And when
that law was promulgated by Jehovah, it is
stated, that God spake these words "and added
no more." There was nothing for even God to
add. Duty to God, and duty to man was summed
up in those statutes.

A sceptical lawyer once took up the Decalogue
and began to read it. As he read he became more
interested, and his study of it became more pro-
longed and profound. As the outcome he con-
fessed his belief in God, for he declared that that
code of conduct, unlike every other known, was
absolutely perfect. This conclusion is reached by
all who study that law and realize the fullness of
its revelation of duty. We remember the Psalm-
ist's words: "Thy law is perfect, converting the
soul." The incident forcibly illustrates, what
careful consideration of the ten commandments
shows, the perfect nature of God as shown in His
law.

On that ark was "the mercy seat." But one
man, the High Priest, was permitted to approach
the unvailed Ark of the Covenant, and he could
come but on one day in the year, the Day of

CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 89

Atonement, and even he could draw near only to
sprinkle upon the mercy seat the blood of the sac-
rificial victim slain in connection with the solemn
services of that great day. In this service the
Mercy of God toward penitent and believing sin-
ners was made known ; that compassion to which
he had given such varied, emphatic and reiterated
expression in the opening words of his revelation
on Sinai to Moses.

Thus, then, we see how the Most Holy Place
was divinely constituted for the revelation of the
infinite perfections of the Divine Nature with
which all men are practically concerned, the God
of law, and the God who can forgive those who
break that law. That is the revelation of God
which comes to us on Calvary, as we then discern
the perfect and balanced truth which satisfies the
reason and the heart; the Justice and the Mercy
of the Almighty, made known in and by His Son,
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The mind demands a Sovereign of the Universe
whose will is law ; final and authoritative. As hu-
man government rests upon law, so must the Di-
vine Government. Science tells us of the laws of
the human body, and of the human mind and of
the material universe as well. In a realm of law
man lives, moves and has his being. His happi-
ness and success and very life depend upon his
due observance of law as experience and wide
scientific knowledge alike attest. A Gospel then
which grasps this full situation ; lays hold on the

o<;/rf.i4

90 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS

intellect of man, and speaks with true authority,
declares this reign of law, and proclaims happi-
ness or misery to man according as he obeys or
disobeys the Being who is the Author and the
Personification and the Upholder of law.

Equally does the heart cherish the hope that the
God of law is a God of mercy, who can and will
find a way, by which the disobedient and sinful,
being penitent, can escape the full and final pen-
alty of their wrong doing. When Jonathan Ed-
wards was preaching on the text: "Their foot
shall slide in due time;" and basing upon it his
terrific presentation of the remorseless certainty
of punishment for sin, one of his hearers in an
agony as he felt the links of that argument clos-
ing around him, arose and exclaimed: "Oh Mr.
Edwards, is not God a God of mercy.?" There
the cry of the human heart was heard. A Perfect
Being, such as we conceive God to be, must be
gracious as well as just. These are the two at-
tributes which must exist together in perfect har-
mony in his nature, and thus He is made known
to us in the Revelation of Himself which is auth-
oritative, because uttered in His own words to
Moses, and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This celestial city of three equal dimensions,
which is pictured to us then as the abode of a Per-
fect Being, whom we worship and adore is made
known by the Apostle as the Heaven unto which
God's children shall go. Language is burdened
to express the blessedness which they shall there

CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 91

enjoy. The Apostle uses a succession of symbol-
isms because a literal description could not be
given by him nor to him. All the satisfactions
and occupations and splendors we can think of
are but mere suggestions of the reality which
awaits the ransomed soul. The joys of God's re-
deemed ones, as inspired writers before him had
described them, in glowing words with which he
was familiar, the Apostle gathers up and unites
in one splendid composition, and he shows us a
mystery. God's own, having "attained unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,"
are to be with Him, in that Most Holy Place of
the universe where the Perfect One abides glorious
f orevermore ; in that City whose conformation
means perfection. Its length and breadth and
height are equal.

** The golden evening heightens in the west ;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
But lo ! there breaks a yet more glorious day ;
The Saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on this way,
From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest

coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless

host.
Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia ! "

1 1913

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