The Problem of Doubt

At one time I used to meet frequently, for a short while, at a hotel dining-room table, a bright young college man who was well informed and attractive. One day he introduced the subject of religion. He doubted the divinity of Jesus, or rather he said he did not believe that He was divine. Again, he as openly said that he did not believe the Bible. I said to him as gently as I could, so as not to seem to be arguing, that I presumed he had examined rather carefully into these questions on which he expressed himself so positively. To my surprise he calmly admitted that he had not. He had not given the Bible one careful reading through, neither had he examined the facts about Jesus. When I mildly expressed some surprise at his willingness to give such a positive opinion regarding matters that he had not examined he did not seem concerned, but rather to enjoy restating his opinions.

When the conversation turned on other subjects, especially those connected with his profession, he seemed quite cautious about expressing an opinion except where he had fully informed himself. As we talked, there would come creeping into my thoughts unbidden a certain subtle feeling that he thought as he did because he wanted to. It suited his purpose, or his way of living, or for some reason he preferred to think as he did, and so he did think that way. It was an extremely handy way of fixing up one’s opinions to suit one’s wishes.

This man was not a doubter. That word implies perplexity, questions, a desire to know what is true. This man did not seem perplexed, had no question to ask, and was not seeking for anything. He plunged at once to the conclusion that seemed to suit his purpose or desire, and there he calmly stuck. I seem to have met quite a number of his clan. This talk about doubt, let me say frankly at once, is not meant for such as he. It is meant for those who are, as I was, perplexed about the reason for the great verities of life and faith, and being perplexed seek to learn at first hand for themselves the reason for things.

In contrast with that incident, many a time a young man or a young woman in college has sought an interview, and with eager face has told of the sore perplexity that has come in study, regarding some of the old sacred truths learned first at a mother’s knee. And as I listened I seemed to read between the lines the story of a mental awakening, a brain bristling with interrogation points as to “the reason why,” the earlier habit of thought shocked to find such questions arising about such sacred things, but the questions insistent; withal an earnestness of purpose to find the truth that was to me fascinating. Then would follow the quiet talk together, sifting between essentials and non-essentials, bringing in fuller information sometimes, getting facts into clearer, broader perspective, and getting hold of the keynote of all such research, then a bit of soft, quiet prayer together, and then the pleasure of seeing the steadier step, the returning peace of spirit as the fellow went back to his study, and back to a life controlled by truth.

These latter were the true doubters; they were wavering in their thoughts; they questioned old opinions in the face of facts new to them; they were earnestly and actively seeking for information; they watched for every opportunity to get new light; they were not content to rest in their doubts but were bent on -finding the truth. It is with such, and for such, that this present simple talk is intended. It is not meant for those who want to doubt. There comes a time in the life of every one who weakens up mentally, when that awakened mind asks that the great truths of life come up to the bar of his reason, and prove their right to be accepted.

To think is to doubt; that is, to be perplexed, to question, and sift into the reason for things. To think more is to doubt less. To think clearly through is to find the truth. Enough truth can always be found to rest upon while more is coming. The great truths that are used to shape and control the life, and bring peace to the spirit, are few and simple. One never finds all of the truth. It is one of the delights of living to be always finding more of truth. This, too, will be one of the great delights of the upper after-life. There will always be the zest of finding new treasures.

Some people never doubt because they never think. Of course, I mean, think for themselves into the reason of things. Some people never doubt, for they live in that sweet, peaceful atmosphere, made by their elders or others who have doubted, and thought, and thought through, and now rest upon the rock of found truth. Some people never doubt because they have doubted, have searched and sifted, and found enough truth to rest upon, and to control their lives. These latter are the real leaders of thought here. They are still learning, studying, questioning, but the element of perplexity has gone. They rest in what they have found, as they eagerly search for more.

Taking away a Cripple’s Crutches.

There are two sorts of doubters; those that are not doubters at all but like to be so called, and then the doubters that really are doubters. To mark these real doubters off clearly the word honest should be used — honest doubters. That’s a bit hard on the others, but still it seems to be the word to use because of its honesty. A true man does love to be honest. It’s one of the touchstones of manhood.

The first sort is not really entitled to that good, wholesome word “doubter,” but they insist upon using it, so let that go. The more accurate word to use for them is quibblers. When they search it is simply for something that will bolster up the opinion they hold. They find fault with Christianity. They pick out the flaws and faults of Christian people — and there are surely enough to pick out — and seem to take pleasure in pointing them out. They gather up the arguments and statements of others, and freely pass them out without finding if they are really trustworthy. They seem to listen to the other side only to study how to answer it.

These quibbling friends are fond of argument; that is, they are fond of that sort of argument which is a sharp crossing of swords to see which can outdo the other; the keen, sharp passage of words and measuring of statements to see which can come out ahead. Such duelling, it can be positively said, though very common, never helps and always hurts. The men who indulge in it are usually seeking to defend their own position, which often means to defend their own intellectual keenness. No earnest man in the thick of life has time for such discussion. It does but react, however unconsciously, upon a man’s beliefs, and, worse yet, upon his ability to see a fact colorlessly, to weigh what comes without prejudice, and so to get the help of knowing the truth.

There is a story told of Henry Ward Beecher and a certain gentleman who was very widely known for his eloquence and for his scepticism. It was at a social gathering of a group of brilliant, intellectual men. The sceptical man had, as was his wont, taken occasion to make ugly flings at the Christian religion in his usual keen, eloquent way. Beecher listened with the others. After a pause he broke in abruptly by telling of a scene he said he had witnessed that day on one of the streets of New York.

It was a rainy day, with the streets in bad shape. A badly crippled man was hobbling painfully along on his crutches, picking his way over the crossing of one of the busiest thoroughfares, when a strong, burly man came roughly along, and rudely ran into the cripple; the poor fellow’s crutches slipped this way and that, and he fell a-sprawling in the soft slime of the street. But the strong man, instead of apologizing and helping him up, laughed coarsely at the poor fellow’s plight, and kept on his way.

As Beecher told the story in his own inimitably vivid way the company present expressed their disgust with such conduct, the sceptical man heartily condemning it. Beecher looked him full in the face and said slowly, ‘’Thou art the man: we are all crippled by sin; Christianity is helping us find our way along the road of life, even then a painful, hobbling way; you come along ruthlessly and knock out the only help we have to hold us up and steady our steps, and offer nothing better, but leave us sprawling hopelessly in the mire.” With his great keenness Beecher had characterized the whole class of sceptics, unbelievers, whose whole pleasure seems to be in telling what they do not believe, and in disturbing those who do honestly believe something.

It is not pleasant to say so, but it is very much to be feared that much so-called doubt is merely a sort of cloak for something else, and that something else a thing far worse and meaner than the doubt. The word doubt has quite an intellectual flavor. It seems to suggest mental strength. It makes a fine cloak. Its ample folds and soft gray color can cover up very much within. It is quite apt to be an intellectual covering for some very unintellectual, very common, and very coarse habits. Scratch some self-styled doubters and you will find ugly, selfish sinners. Let such friends remember and not forget that there is no necessary connection between selfishness and doubt, between sin, just common, plain sin, and intellectual diffculties.

Some Marks oj Honest Doubt.

Then there is the real doubter. He is not absorbed in what he does not believe. No true doubter ever is. He is concerned about finding out what should be believed. He is digging for facts. He carries a sifter and attempts to separate the mere husks from the wheat-hearts. There is the throwing aside of much that comes of course. But this is merely incidental with the honest searcher. His eye and thought are on the kernel of fact. No serious, thoughtful man allows himself to give his strength to declaring what he does not believe, except incidentally for an immediate purpose. He centres thought and strength on what is plainly true, on what must be believed. And as that is held sharply up to view the other falls away. The best way to get rid of error is to hold up the truth. Darkness goes when the sun rises.

The honest doubter is a wholesome man to meet. He is not trying to trip somebody up, but to get a sure footing for himself. He never attacks. He inquires. He is always seeking for light. He goes about with his eyes and ears more open than his mouth. It is opened chiefly to ask questions, real questions that seek information. He welcomes truth from any quarter, and contributions to one’s stock of truth sometimes come from most unlikely quarters.

There is another sure mark of this wholesome man; he will admit himself wrong when new light shows that he is. That is always a hard thing to do, nothing is much harder. It makes a severe mental wrench many a time. It wounds one’s intellectual pride very sorely. Many a man’s growth is stunted and stopped at this point. For refusal to admit the light that comes has a peculiarly stupefying effect upon the mind. The honest doubter honestly admits to himself that he was wrong in his former conclusions, and then he will admit it to others. Such admission reveals the really great man. He is not half so much concerned about whether his views have been right, as he is to get right now. And he knows that nothing clogs up the road to truth like misconceptions of truth, or positive wrong — untruths.

And then the final test of the real, true doubter is this, that as light comes he will allow it to govern his habits, his life. Here is the test that drops many a man out of the ranks. The sharp tug-of-war comes at this point. For it is an essential of finding truth that the spirit and habit of life be made to fit what is found. That may mean very radical changes. It may cost friendships, and income, and standing. But that will not deter the jtrue man, for he is honest first of all. For mark you keenly, the great truths are the moral truths. They concern the life we are living now, and to live always. The great test of truth is its effect upon the life. Truth itself affects life. It pushes away the artificial, the false, the wrong, and, breathing as a soft warm south wind upon life, brings out its strength and fragrance.

Jesus spoke a word about this that states a great law quite apart from His immediate use of it: “He that is willing to do... shall know.” It is a characteristic of the great truths that they attack what is contrary to themselves, what is wrong. Truth is aggressive. It points out with unflinching finger the wrong, the untrue, the false, the sin. It insists upon a man’s life measuring up to its requirements. Its voice is distinct and sharp, although most quiet. It insists on being heard. The only way to get rid of that voice is to shut up the ears. And then the poor fool of a man hasn’t changed the voice nor stopped it. He has only cut himself off from hearing it; but not cut himself off from the result it is announcing to him. Truth is always asking a man to do something. To him who obeys it becomes an open book in big, plain type. He that is willing to do shall know. Obedience leads to a university degree in the highest knowledge. Knowledge of truth lies only along the path of obedience, with most at the farther end.

Christianity owes much to honest doubt. There was a doubter in the original group of twelve men who stood closest to Jesus. And there is pretty sure to be found one who has doubted, or who doubts, wherever twelve thoughtful men gather.

Jesus’ attitude towards the first doubter is wonderfully cheering and helpful. He didn’t chide nor find fault. He welcomed personal investigation. In earnest tones He said, ‘’Reach hither thy hand; find out for yourself; know by the feel that it is I myself who was dead and now am risen.”

Thomas accepted that invitation. He revealed his sincerity and earnestness. He came where he was likely to get light. He was a true doubter, honest in his perplexity, looking for light, and when it came frankly admitting that he had been wrong. To every thoughtful, honest doubter comes that same warm, eager invitation from

Jesus’ lips, “Reach hither thy hand; find out for yourself.” A true doubter never settles down in his doubts. He asks questions. But he asks them to get information; not to puzzle somebody else, and never for the sake of arguing, and never to prove himself right.

Much scepticism is an extreme mental protest against the extreme statements of religious teachers. One extreme always draws out an opposite extreme. Both men are extreme and therefore both in part wrong. The angle of vision is not the correct one for clear seeing. But let not the man at the sceptical extreme think to excuse his position, nor to rest in it because the other man is extreme too. A man should seek for truth, and not be held back by somebody’s extreme statement of it. The earnest man does seek for truth, not that he may combat the other man in his wrong view of it, but for the sweet peace of knowing truth, and the yet sweeter peace of living his lije in its clear light. No man is justified in staying at one extreme because somebody else is at the other. He is hindering the truth itself, and, worse, is hindering some other man who is hiding behind him.

The Best Book on Christian Evidences.

All men are controlled in their thinking either by prejudice or by conviction. Prejudice is prejudgment. It is reaching a conclusion before getting all the information there is to be gotten. Conviction is matured judgment formed after getting and weighing carefully all available information. All men are influenced to some extent by prejudice. I suppose a really unprejudiced, unbiassed man cannot be found. There is always that in his training that influences him for or against, quite apart from his reasoning powers. There is nothing harder to overcome than prejudice, especially early prejudice, that coloring that has come through home surroundings, circumstances, schooling, companionships, and friendships. It can be overcome. Yet no task is more difficult.

I was a guest once in the home of an old family of New England stock, and from my host got this story. He was a civil engineer, a man of mature judgment, and like the old, typical New Englander gave a large place to facts, without much play to imagination. As a boy he had a boy friend who later became a lawyer, an orator, and one of the best known lecturers on infidel subjects. The father of this boy friend was pastor of one of the churches in the village. He belonged to a certain old type of ministers whose preaching was of a stern, logical, unsympathetic sort, and his home life was sadly in keeping with it. A hard, hot temper, a domineering spirit, rank selfishness, did not make a very lovable sort of man in the home. For months before this boy was born into that home his mother was in bitterness of soul. Her daily experiences led to much bitterness, rebellion, doubts of God’s love, and grave doubt about the Christian faith. And in such an atmosphere her son was conceived and born.

That was a terrible birthright for any one to overcome. Yet mark you keenly, it could have been overcome, even though its tinge might remain over all the life. Where there is the earnest, seeking spirit, any bent of early prejudice can be practically overcome, even though its fingermarks may remain.

Let it be understood at once that Christianity has counterfeits. That fact helps greatly in believing it. Could it have a greater compliment than a counterfeit? The counterfeit emphasizes the value of the real. Nobody ever tried to counterfeit a piece of common brown wrapping-paper. It is the finely engraved government bill or bank bill that is counterfeited. And let the other fact, the sad fact, be put down too, that Christianity must not be judged by some of its followers, indeed by many of its followers. It must indeed be judged by its influence upon men’s lives. And from that test it has no reason to shrink, for the most enlightened nations, the strongest nations, are those that have been under Christian influence.

And there are countless instances close at hand everywhere of individual lives wholly and beautifully transformed under the influence of the Gospel of Christ; indeed miraculously transformed, so sharp is the change from old to new, with no explanation other than that of the power of God. One single instance of that sort is quite enough to prove the living power of God. One Jerry McAuley or one Samuel Hadley is the best volume on Christian evidences to be found.

That there may be found many selfish, worldly Christians does but indicate how many unanchored people there are that are swept along by the tide of their times. Christianity is the popular religion of the western world. Entrance to much society is through the church door. And many who have been and are true in their attachment to it have not the strength of character to rise above the prevalent type of Christianity by which they are surrounded. Christianity has been severely wounded many times in the house of its friends. All this should make the honest doubter the more eager to get to the fountainhead of the stream. Jesus stands the test of any examination. To Him one should go who would know.

The Spirit 0y Search.

The searcher for the truth should mark keenly that the result of his thinking and study will depend wholly upon two things: the way he goes at it, and the reason he has for going at it at all. The way he goes at his study will very largely decide what he will get. He needs to have a candid, open spirit. He should try to be unbiassed as far as possible, neither for nor against. Indeed he must go a bit further than this; there should in fairness be a spirit of sympathy with that which he is investigating or judging.

This is the true critical spirit. The expert in sculpture in examining a bit of work seeks to discern the purpose of the chiselling artist. He tries to put himself at one in spirit with the workman, so as to see the thing from his standpoint and judge accordingly as to the success and skill shown. He may find faults and lack of skill and finish, crudeness of conception and of workmanship, but he approaches his criticism from the artist’s standpoint.

The same is true of all proper criticism, whether of a painting, of a book, or of a piece of art needlework. The critic approaches not to quibble nor find fault but to get in touch with the artist’s conceptioi and ideal and then judge of his work. This must be the spirit here. One should be not disposed favorably nor unfavorably, but seeking to put himself in warm, sympathetic touch with the subject and its ideals to judge accordingly. Now I do not suppose that anyone ever filled out fully such requirements, but if he faithfully, honestly tries to he will get just that much nearer to the truth.

Then the reason why a man goes at such study will determine largely what he will get. And there is just the one great purpose worth while, and that is to have the life made true and strong and beautiful. Life is too serious for one to be satisfied with less than this, or to spend time for a less high ambition. There is satisfaction in getting to understand truth and the reason of things, a mental satisfaction, but this is incidental. The great, throbbing passion of a true man is to have his life true and pure, strong and fragrant. To know more than we weave into the daily fibre of life is to add to our own self-reproach in the coming days. It does but brew a bitterer drink for the later years’ drinking.

But if a man ring true here, if there be the simple strong purpose to put every truth to the test of living, and to test the life mercilessly by whatever truth comes, and hold it up to that standard, then — let me say it very deliberately — that man may throw away all his old teachings, his mother’s Bible and all that goes with it, if he can trust himself to hold steady to this purpose as he examines what comes up.

Our searching friend can go a step further yet. Let him begin by believing nothing. But let him suppose there is a God. And all the innermost, deepest yearnings of his soul within and all the marvels of the universe without make that a very easy and natural supposition. The simplest philosophy would argue that there is no power apart from personality. Power may be plainly seen and felt without the personaHty behind it being seen. But in all the world of research, so far as men have been able to sift through to the very bottom, there never yet has been found power of any sort without a person being behind it somewhere. And all around us in life, in nature, is tremendous, immeasurable, incalculable power being seen. So that from the inner yearnings, the swing of the worlds, the workings of nature, it is easy and natural and philosophical to suppose a marvellous being back of all that we see and feel.

Suppose then there be a God. What sort of a God would we prefer Him to be? Well, at least five things can be said of the God we would prefer to have: He would be pure, and powerful; He would be just, and loving; He would have a plan for His creation and for my life. How would such a God feel towards the men He had made? He would surely want to communicate with them, and tell His plan, and take great pleasure in their affairs, and in their realizing in their lives His plan for them.

Well, here is a Book that is distinct from all other books, that from end to end claims to contain just such a communication. And here is a Man, the central figure of this Book, before whom all men have instinctively bowed in reverence, who said that He came from God for the one purpose of letting men know about God. This clears the ground for the man who wants to know for himself. He will set himself to examining this Book, and this Man.

As he takes up the Book how shall he feel towards such a God as there may be? What should his attitude be towards Him? It would surely be one of reverence, loving reverence, of intense desire to be like Him, and to have His plan of one’s life made fully real. And more, there would be an intense longing that He would reveal things personally. In such search I would naturally want to communicate with Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to me, and help me to come into such contact with Him that I could receive His revelation of Himself.

But how can I communicate with Him? Well, how do I communicate with others? In two ways: by words telling what is in my mind, and without words. I look in the face of my familiar friend, with whose spirit I am in full sympathy, and I know very often the thoughts of his mind before he utters them. I can glance at my wife in a group of friends and let her know without speaking a word what I am thinking and get her answer. We are all constantly communicating with each other without using words. We are revealing our inner thoughts to others in words, and without words.

Then we are getting accustomed to distant communication without any material thing, even such as a wire, to connect the two talking. There is a certain sympathetic contact expressed through mechanical contrivances that are in touch. Persons completely out of sight of each other, with miles between separating them, can intelligently communicate and exchange their thoughts with each other without any material connection between them. So we have grown accustomed to communicate with those we cannot see, and to receive replies.

With such a God and such men desiring to know Him, it would be quite natural for them to speak to Him in words, and to speak when no words can express the thoughts; and, more, to be conscious of His sympathetic response. The common word for this sort of thing is prayer. With this to be said, that very many who pray have not become skilled in receiving the sympathetic responses.

It would be natural therefore in beginning the examination of this Book, and this Man, to bow in reverence, and ask such a God as there may be to reveal Himself and His truth, and all the study and thinking would naturally be done in this reverential, prayerful spirit.

A word of caution should be put in here. There is a very common tendency with all of us to get to a conclusion too quickly. We are all apt to form judgments before all the facts attainable are in. The common fever of life affects us here as elsewhere. We are quite apt to make up our opinions too quickly, without a broad enough outlook on the facts, and without weighing each fact duly. Facts are like men, their true worth cannot be told by counting; they must be weighed. And weighing always takes more time. It is easy to keep tab on the statements that come along; but to sift them thoroughly so that the non-essentials fall away, and leave the essential element standing alone, takes more time; indeed more time than many seem disposed to give. And then to put the essential element, this real nut -heart of truth, into the scale and hold steady and quiet enough, so the scale can balance accurately — that takes time and steadiness of temper.

And it takes isolation too. There is so much jarring of trains overhead, and electric cars on the level, and tunneUing beneath the surface, that a man has to get insulated and isolated so as to get quiet enough to keep the balances within himself steady. Yet all this is itself an immense advantage, for it tends to increase the inner quiet, which is man’s true spirit.

The Booh.

In such a spirit, and for such a purpose, let a man begin reading this Book through. Let him read it just as he would any other book so far as his mental processes are concerned, thoughtfully and clear through, reserving his conclusion, as of course he will, until he is through. He may find much that does not seem clear. He may find what seem to be inconsistencies or inaccuracies. Let him note these mentally, but hold them strictly in abeyance, for he is aiming to get the spirit and swing of the Book clear through. Repeated readings have been found to clear up many matters that seemed puzzling at first, and some never are cleared up. But those, it is to be noted, never affect the main purpose of the Book.

There are certain things to be noted about the Book. It has had a strange history. Indeed, in the strangeness of its history it is apart from all other books of any nation or people. It has been printed in greater numbers by far than any other book, and in many more languages. More scholarly men of acute mind have given their time and lives to its study and explanation than to any other. It has been and still is the most studied, the most read, the best loved, and the Voorst hated of any book. It has been a veritable storm centre, and also, in sharp contrast with that phrase, a veritable haven of rest. Thousands of men have stormed over its contents, and hundreds of thousands have found in its pages that which spoke sweetest peace to their spirits, and held them steady in life’s roughest storms.

It has had a strange vitality, outlildng all sorts of enmity. Men used to burn it up in their efforts to get rid of it. Of late years they have taken to cutting it, up with keen fingers and sharp-edged knives. But it seems to survive either process about equally well, and is to-day being printed in larger numbers than ever, scattered more widely, studied more thoroughly and keenly, and apparently loved more devoutly. No intelligent man can afford to be ignorant of a book with such a record.

The Book itself is found to contain as many as sixty-six distinct books, written by many writers, at least as many as forty. These men writing it are from all classes of society. Some have had the best learning and culture of their times and of the world; others seem to have had practically no such advantages. They wrote in many different places, as far apart in extremes as Rome in Europe and Babylon in Asia. The period of writing runs through as much as sixteen hundred years. So that it is not like most books, in being written by one man. It is a collection of books by many men, of different sorts, written under all sorts of conditions and circumstances, in many different countries, running through a very long period of time.

Now please note what is the most noteworthy thing of all this Book, its subject. It is about religion. There is no one subject on which men have talked so much and about which they have differed so radically and so violently as the subject of religion. The greatest hatreds of the race have been about religion. The worst cruelties have been practised in religion’s name and for its sake. Wherever men gather in groups large or small they will sooner or later get to talking about two subjects, and differ with each other on each. It may be in the logging- camp, or about the miner’s common fire, on the upper deck or in the steerage of a steamer, in social circles or university circles, in the commercial club or in the slums. Let men talk freely together and two subjects crop out, religion and politics; the relation of man to God and his relation to his fellow. And invariably they differ, politely, gently, intensely, abruptly, stormily, according to the sort of men, but always differ.

Now this Book, or collection of small books, from so many different men, so different in every way, is about this stormy, divisive subject of religion. Yet there is here an essential agreement. There is a practical unity of thought and ideal and purpose throughout from end to end. This is one of the first things that strikes one most forcibly in examining this book. And finding it intensifies one’s interest greatly and sets his appetite on edge as he goes at it farther.

There is a second thing to note. This Book is a sort of mother of books. It has given birth to great numbers of books, on all phases of life on which books are written. It seems to have had a peculiar power of stimulating thought. There is here a vitality that has been felt in every department of writing and research. And more, all the lines of study to which men have devoted their strength seem to run their roots down into this Book, and to draw a certain element of life from it. Here in the Book is the oldest history, hoary with age; and here in the scholarly world are books written by strong men who have spent money and time and talent in digging up the old records out of the earth, and verifying these simple statements of the old Book. Here in the Book is a system of political economy, or at least the principles of that science; and here in the college libraries and halls are hundreds of books on that subject which work out and ampHfy the principles found here. Students of the perplexing land question will find a simple solution proposed here; though it is not a solution that ambitious men with selfish desires are very likely to adopt for their own holdings.

The laws of Moses have come to be the fountain of all modern as well as earlier jurisprudence.

Behind Blackstone and Coke and other great legal authorities is Moses. They build upon his foundations. The strongest nations of to-dayhave the primary principles of the Mosaic code interwoven inextricably into their common law, and so into their life.

A former United States Senator from one of the northwestern States, noted for his strength as a legal advocate, has told the story of his early ambition to be a lawyer. As a youth he had gone tremblingly to a famous lawyer and made application to read law in his ofhce. To his utter astonishment the lawyer said brusquely, ‘’Can you recite the Bible through, sir?” The young man managed to stammer out his astonished “No.” “Well,” the old judge said shortly, “go and memorize the Bible and then you may come and read law here.” And out the youth went in an utter daze, wondering what the Bible had to do with reading law. But the coveted permission depended upon that, so he set to work and did commit great portions of the Book. He became famous as a lawyer both within and beyond the bounds of his own State, and frequently said he realized in the after-years what a foundation for his legal knowledge and practice was laid in that early bibhcal study.

The best books on moral philosophy, on sanitation and personal health, on shrewd business ethics, draw their inspiration from the principles first found here. Its language and imagery honeycomb the finest literature of the EngHsh tongue. If one were to cut out of Shakespeare and Tennyson and the other great English poets all allusions taken from this Book, scarcely a page of their writings would escape the scissors.

When Benjamin Franklin was ambassador at the French court he was one of a circle of scholarly men who met frequently to discuss literary matters. It was their custom to bring to the gatherings choice, rare bits of literature to be read and discussed. It was a time when scepticism was rampant and the Bible a hated hook. One day Franklin said: “Gentlemen, I have found a rare gem of literary beauty, which I have brought to read to you.” They listened keenly as he read through the little book of Ruth, making slight changes that its Biblical identity might not be suspected. As he finished they were all enthusiastic in praise of its simple beauty, and inquired eagerly where he had found such a choice gem. He dryly said he had found it in a book called the Bible.

There is one feature of this Book that is most peculiar, and that is its scientific accuracy. It is not written, of course, in any part from a scientific standpoint. Its language is never scientific, but is just the simple language of the common people. But it always -fits in with wellattested scientific facts. There is no jarring, no slips, no glaring breaks, no language ever used that does not fit in with the matured statements of science. When we recall the statement commonly made that any technical book as much as ten years old must be thrown aside as worthless, because of the constant change in the state of knowledge, one begins to realize and appreciate what a tremendous peculiarity this is.

But the main thing that gets hold of a man reading thoughtfully here, and then grips him hard and holds him in its tight grip, is the ideals of the Book, wonderful high moral ideals such as he finds nowhere else. Its conception of God, of the worth and nobiUty of man, its insistent ideals of right, and of love as the standard in life, are such as can be found nowhere else. They are such as to swing the earnest man, eager for a pure, strong life, clear off his feet.

And these ideals are held to strenuously in the midst of the world’s worst sin. Its exposure of sin, of insincerity, and selfishness in all phases and forms is terrific, and its hatred of them more intensely terrific still. Its heroes are praised, but always with the plainest unvarnished dealings with their faults and weaknesses.

The Man.

But the great fact of the Book is a personality that looms up large through all of its pages. From beginning to end there is one striking personality dominant. All through the older portion He is coming. Men fail, the best men with the best training fail, the kingdoms fall, the kingdom and people about whom the Book is woven fail most miserably, but there is some One coming who will fill out the highest expectations. In the Gospels He has come; in the later books all thought is utterly absorbed in Him; in the last book, the climax, His coming glory floods the pages. He is the heart of the Book.

Let me gather up a few facts about this Man. I will pack them into small compass that they may be grasped together He was born in obscurity and in poverty, cradled in a stable, brought up in a country village whose good moral character was seriously questioned, had no contact with the schools of His time, being home trained, never travelled outside of a bit of territory about seventy by one hundred miles, was born of a people peculiarly exclusive and intense, had access to no literature except the very limited literature 6f His peculiarly seclusive people. Yet He developed a character singularly perfect.

There was in Him the utter absence of evil, and the presence of all known good. He was sterner than the sternest man in denouncing wrong, and tenderer than the tenderest woman in ministering to others. He never uttered an apology. In that He stands alone of all men of whom we have any record. He said He was without sin, and by consent of His enemies, including the man who betrayed Him and the man who condemned Him, as well as those who knew Him most intimately. He was without fault. His life for those few years of pubUc work was literally spent out in glad, tireless service of the most practical sort for those around. He gave Himself to the needs of needy men with an utter self-forgetting abandon. Night and day, ceaselessly, tirelessly, He ministered to men, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, relieving the distressed and demonized, and even raising the dead; wMle He had at times no time so much as to eat, no home to call His own, and no funds upon which to draw, being ministered to in personal needs by friends.

His teachings are marked by an originality, a sweep of conception, and a freshness never approached before nor since, and wholly at variance with His human origin and His surroundings. They have become and are to-day the accepted standard for purity of conception, high ideals of life, boldness of originality, stupendousness of sweep, and simplicity of expression.

And then will you please mark keenly His method of influencing men? The world’s greatest leaders and conquerors have been soldiers. Alexander, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon ruled by force, their great personality and power finding expression at the sword’s point. Others have swayed men by the books they wrote. Jesus influenced men by the power of His teaching, of His thought, but far more by the strangely simple power of His life, by the touch of His personality alone.

The extent of his influence is startling even to this day, though so familiar. He lived for only thirty-three years. His public career was but for a tenth as long a time, only about three years and a bit more. He was put to death ignominiously and cruelly, and laid away in a tomb. He left no book behind, and formed no organization, only a little handful of eleven unschooled peasants whom He had associated closely with Himself in His life and work. Yet within three centuries He had changed the Roman calendar, which was practically the world’s calendar. To-day the world’s calendars with small exception swing about the pivot of His birth. All events of history are located by their relation to Him, their occurrence “before Christ” or in a given “year of our Lord.” The nations that call themselves by His name are the dominant nations of the earth. The life of the whole world has known a new life dating from His coming. His conception of life, personal life and social life, is regarded throughout the world a§ the highest. To-day more than ever He is dominant in the life of the earth. Of Him the old German, Jean Paul Frederick Richter, said in words that have grown very familiar, quoting freely, that “He, being the mightiest among the holy, and the holiest among the mighty, lifted mth His pierced hands the gates of empires off their hinges, turned the streams of centuries out of their channels, and to-day rules the world.”

Now please mark with keenest thought what this man Jesus said about Himself. This is the most critical part of all to study regarding Him. He claimed to be the Son of God in a sense that nobody else was; before His earthly life He had been with God in closest intimacy, known only by Himself; He had come down to the earth to tell men about God; when His errand to the earth was done He would go back again to be with His Father, as He had been from before the beginning of time. Let the thoughtful man note very sharply that this is the claim Jesus made, and insistently made for Himself in the face of bitterest opposition.

Such a claim clearly stamps its maker as one of three sorts of men. Either He was a fanatic, self -deluded with regard to Himself; or else He was not a good man, but purposely said what He knew to be not so; or else — He was what He claimed to be. The purity of His life, unapproached by any other man, together with His constant, tireless, self-sacrificing service on behalf of others, clearly rules out the supposition that He was not good. And all men have agreed in His goodness.

That He was a fanatic, self -deceived with regard to Himself, swept off His mental balance by the high fervor of His spirit and hot rush of His enthusiasm, would seem the much likelier supposition of these two. Yet the wisdom of His teachings, equalled by none other, recognized and acknowledged freely by all; His rare mental calmness and poise under all circumstances, including the most trying; and the remarkable clearness and sanity of His judgment effectually dispose of this supposition.

It has been freely said, of late especially, that these followers of His, whose accounts make up the Gospel records, in their enthusiastic loyalty to Him, claim more for Him in their writing than He actually claimed for Himself. Yet be it keenly marked there, that it was this claim of His that led to the bitterness of the enmity against Him, and to its final ending in His being put to death. And further, these records are our only source of original information about Jesus and the stupendousness of His character. The unrivalled place He occupies in history and in all the race of men agrees fully with the claim put forth for Him in these four small books.

Now if these two suppositions be shut out there is left only this, the most stupendous of the three that Jesus actually was what He claimed to be. And the severest criticism that can be made of our scholarly sceptical friends comes in just here. They agree about His life, its pure, positive goodness; Hi teachings, their unapproached and unapproachable wisdom; the rare sanity of His judgment, and the sublimity of His conceptions. The sceptics of sceptical France, the rationalists of rationalistic Germany, the worldly men of all the world, all practically agree here. Yet they have not accepted what He Himself believed about Himself. Surely if what they do believe about Him is true, it is altogether logical to go on, and believe what He Himself believed about Himself.

The Call 0y the Christ.

Now please note very keenly what it was upon which Jesus laid the chief emphasis regarding Himself — it was upon His death. From His own point of view the climax of His life was His death. That last year He continually referred to it, and to its meaning for men. As the shadows of death darkened down about Him, and its chill waters deepened in their nearness, He asked that all who loved Him would remember His death. The Church has never forgotten that request of the last night. However at times the emphasis of her teachers may have swung away from it, the simple memorial meal from the Master’s own hands has brought out constantly into boldest relief His great death. Every week untold thousands of many creeds and tongues and shadings of belief reverently bow in the presence of the simple bread and wine, and remember that Jesus died.

The chief personality of this Book, and of all history, is this Man. The chief event of this Man’s life, in His own thought of it, was His death. He declared that for a specific purpose He deliberately yielded to death. The whole presumption is in favor of our believing that if He had not yielded Himself voluntarily up to His enemies He would never have died. He would never even have known any of the common weakness of increasing years; only a full maturing of His powers. For the element of sin which works weakness and death was lacking in Him.

This puts sharper emphasis yet upon the significance of His purpose in consenting to death. No fact stands out more plainly in the Gospel stories than this, that He yielded to death of His own accord for a great purpose. The time of His death, the fact of it, the manner of it, were controlled by the way in which He repeatedly avoided His enemies until He chose to yield to their will.

What was the purpose of His death? His point of view in yielding to it may be put simply in this way: all men have sinned; the natural, logical result of sin is death; it grieved the Father much that man had gotten into such a bad fix; out of love the Father sent Him down, and He came down to die that so man might be saved from dying. Any man and every man who is willing may accept Jesus’ death as his own, and instead of his own. Whoever does can so be free from sin’s power to work death in him.

But there is more than this in Jesus’ understanding of the matter. He did more than die. He lived -a pure, sinless life before His death, and He lived a new kind of life after His death. He said He would send down the Holy Spirit to live in each man who was willing. That Spirit would bum out the bad, make a man hate sin, and give power to resist sin. He would work out within a man the pure life of Jesus, and more, the new kind of life that Jesus lived after His death — a life lived on the earth but not subject to its power, controlled from above. This new life would be lived in part only, for there was no promise of bodily death being removed; but in a coming day it also was to be gone and that new kind of life lived fully. This was Jesus’ point of view, and His purpose in yielding to death.

There is a response to this in human experience that is remarkable. There is that within a man’s need that answers to this plan of Jesus. It is very common to-day, in some quarters, to find great emphasis laid upon the example of Jesus, and little or none upon His death. Let our friend who exploits the example of Jesus as the chief thing in His wonderful life, ignoring the sacrificial element in His death, let him try honestly to follow that great example fully, with no apologies for his own weakness. And if he is frank and honest he will be compelled to admit that it takes more than example to change a man. There needs to be a very positive power put into a man by some One else. It must be a power with the force of moral dynamite, if some things such as impurity and selfishness are to be put out, and kept out, and certain other things such as purity and strength and sweet, strong unselfishness to be put in.

Jesus asked that He might be accepted as man’s Saviour, a Saviour from the result of sin, and from its great power. This was His earnest appeal to men when down here among us. It is the thrilling appeal of these four simple Gospels to every man. It is to-day the eager cry of Jesus’ heart to each of us. A man in earnest can easily beHeve enough to respond with his whole life to that cry. It means a new life, with new motives, and, infinitely more, new power. And as a man quietly, resolutely steps into this path, new light begins to break in from the east, and then more, and yet more, until some day, it is promised, there will be the full shining of the sun.

THE PROBLEM OF AMBITION,

OR

WHAT IS BEST WORTH WHILE

The World’s Under-Master.

God Needs Men.

The Brooding Need.

“Forgetting, I Press Forward.”

A Double Trinity.

A High Aim.

A Strange Coat-of-arms.

A Higher Aim

The Man Waiting to Go Along.