prayers of passive acquiescence and resignation. We are apt to pray
"Thy will be done," as though we were saying: "Let it be done in spite
of us and even against our wills, and we will try to bear it." But
that is not the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. "Thy will be done;"--by
whom? By the man that thus prays! He prays to have his part in the
accomplishment of God's will, even as Jesus prays in the Garden: "Thy
will be done," and then rises and {212} proceeds to do that will. The
prayer recognizes the solemn and fundamental truth that the will, even
of God Himself, works, in its human relations, through the service of
man. Here, for instance, is a social abuse. What is God's will toward
it? His will is that man should remove it. Here is a threat of
cholera, and people pray that God's will be done. But what is God's
will? His will is that the town shall be cleansed. And who are to do
His will? Why, the citizens. Typhoid fever and bad drainage are not
the will of God. The will of God is that they should be abolished.
Social wrongs are not to be endured with resignation. They simply
indicate to man what is God's will. And who is to do God's will in
these things? We are. The man who enters into his closet and says:
"Thy will be done," is asking no mere help to bear the unavoidable; he
is asking help to be a participator in the purposes of God, a laborer
together with Him, first a discerner and then a doer of his will. "Our
Father," he says, "accomplish Thine ends not over me, or in spite of
me, but through me,--Thou the power and I the instrument,--Thine to
will and mine to do."
{213}
LXXXVI
THE LORD'S PRAYER, VII
DAILY BREAD
The Lord's Prayer begins with the desire for the great things, the
universal needs; a holy world, a kingdom of righteousness, the will of
God fulfilled. Then, in the light of these great things it goes on to
one's personal needs, and prays, first of all, for the present, then
for the past, then for the future. The prayer for the present is this:
"Give us our daily bread,"--our bread, that is to say, sufficient for
to-day, enough to live on and to work by, just for today. The prayer
is limitative. It puts restraint on my desire and limit on my
ambition. It does not demand the future. It looks only to this
present unexplored and unknown day. "Give us in this day what is
necessary for us, fit to sustain us,--strength to do thy will, patience
to bring in thy kingdom, grace to hallow thy name."
Into the midst of the restless anticipations of modern life, its living
of to-morrow's life in {214} to-day's anxiety, its social disease which
has been described as "Americanitis," and which, if it is not arrested,
will have to be operated on some day at the risk of the nation's life,
there enters every morning in your daily prayer the desire for quiet
acceptance of the day's blessings, the dismissal of the care for the
morrow, the sense of sufficiency in the bread of to-day:--
"Lord, for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray,
Keep me from stain of sin, just for to-day.
Let me both diligently work, and duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed, just for to-day.
Let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say,
Set thou a seal upon my lips, just for to-day.
Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey,
Help me to sacrifice myself, just for to-day.
So for to-morrow and its needs, I do not pray,
But help me, keep me, hold me, Lord, just for to-day."
{215}
LXXXVII
THE LORD'S PRAYER, VIII
FORGIVENESS
_Luke_ xii. 1-3.
We come to the petition in the Lord's Prayer which is the easiest to
understand and the hardest to pray,--the prayer that we may be forgiven
as we forgive. This prayer does not, of course, ask God to measure His
goodness by our virtues. We should not dare to ask that God would deal
with us just as we have dealt with others. It is the spirit of
forgiveness for which we pray. "Give us forgiveness," we ask, "because
we come in the spirit of forgiveness." The spirit of forgiveness, that
is to say, is the condition and prerequisite of the prayer for
forgiveness. If you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how
can you truly pray to God whom you have not seen? If a man comes to
his prayer with hate in his heart, he makes it impossible for God to
forgive him. He is shutting the door which opens into the spirit {216}
of prayer. Right-mindedness to man is the first condition of right
prayer to God.
The traveler in Egypt sometimes looks out in the early morning and sees
an Arab preparing to say his prayers. The man goes down to the
river-bank and spreads his little carpet so that he shall look toward
Mecca; but before he kneels he crouches on the bank, and cleanses his
lips, his tongue, his hands, even his feet, so that he shall bring to
his prayer no unclean word or deed. It is as if he first said with the
Psalmist: "Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity; purge me of my sin; make
me a clean heart; renew in me a right spirit;" and then with a right
spirit in him, he bends and rises and bows again in his prayer. The
petition for a forgiving spirit prepares one in the same way to say his
morning prayer. It cleanses the tongue; it washes the motives; it
purifies the thoughts of their uncharitableness; and then, in this
spirit of forgiveness even toward those who have wronged him, the
Christian is clean enough to ask for the forgiveness of his own sin.
{217}
LXXXVIII
THE LORD'S PRAYER, IX
TEMPTATIONS
_James_ i. 12-17.
This passage from the Epistle of James is a commentary on the last
petition of the Lord's Prayer. When we pray: "Lead us not into
temptation," it is, as James says, not God who tempts, for God tempteth
no man. The temptation comes through our misuse of the circumstances
which God offers us as our opportunity. We turn these circumstances
into temptations.
Every condition of life has these two aspects. It is on the one hand
an opportunity, and it is on the other hand a temptation. God gives it
as an opportunity and we misuse the opportunity and it becomes our
temptation. The rich have their special and great opportunity of
generous service for the common good, and yet through that very
opportunity comes their special temptation. The poor are saved by
their lot from many temptations of self-centred and frivolous luxury,
but are much tempted {218} by their poverty itself. The healthy have a
great gift of God, but they are tempted by that very gift to
recklessness, inconsiderateness and self-injury. The sick receive
peculiar blessings of patience and resignation, but are much tempted to
selfishness and discontent. The business man is tempted by his very
knowledge of the world to the hardness of materialism; the minister is
tempted by his very indifference to the world to unsophisticated
imprudence. Wherever on earth a man may be he must scrutinize his
future, and calculate his powers, and face his problems, and pray: "My
God, prevent my vocation from becoming my temptation. Let me not put
myself where I shall be tried over much. Save me from the peculiar
temptation of my special lot. Deliver me from its evils and lead me
not round its temptations, but through them into its opportunity and
joy."
{219}
LXXXIX
SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST
2 _Corinthians_ xi. 3.
In listening, as we have done, from day to day to Bishop Vincent, there
has repeatedly come to my mind this phrase: The simplicity that is in
Christ; or, as the Revised Version more accurately translates it, the
simplicity that is toward Christ,--the power which is often so much
greater than eloquence, of an obviously genuine, sincere, simple
Christian life.
But when one inquires into the nature of this Christian simplicity,
which is one of the fairest blooms of character, it turns out to be, so
to speak, not so simple a trait as it at first appeared. Of course,
there is a kind of simplicity which is a survival of childhood, a
guileless, childish ignorance; but when a man is simple in a childish
way, he is only what we call a simpleton. Christian simplicity is not
a survival but an achievement, wrought out of the struggles and
problems of maturer life. It is not an infantile but a masculine trait.
{220}
What then is simplicity? The Latin word means singleness, unmixedness,
straightforwardness. It is sometimes used of wood which is
straight-grained. What simplifies life is to have a single, specific
direction in which to grow, a straight-grained, definite intention, the
possibility of a straightforward life. The scattered, divergent,
wavering life,--what is this but what we call the dissipating career?
It abandons self-concentration and steadiness; it dissipates its
energy. It does not mean to begin wrong, but because it has no fixity
of direction it becomes, as we say, dissipated. And what is it, once
more, which gives direction, unity, simplicity, to life? That is made
plain in this same passage. It is the simplicity, says the New
Version, which is toward Christ. What gives straightforwardness is not
the condition in which we are, but the ideal toward which we are
heading. What simplifies life is to say something like this: "I do not
pretend to know all about religion, or duty, or Christ, but I do
propose to live along the line of life which I will call toward Christ.
I propose to think less of what I may live by, and more of what I may
live toward." When a man makes this decision he has not indeed {221}
solved all the problems of life, but he has amazingly simplified them.
Many things which had been perplexing, disturbing, confusing, now fall
into line behind that one comprehensive loyalty. He has, as it were,
come out of the woods, and found a high road. It is not all level, or
easy; there is many a sharp ascent in it, and many a shadowy valley.
But at least the way is clear, and he knows whither it leads, and he
has found his bearings, and he trudges along with a quiet mind, even
though with a weary step, for he has emerged from the bewildering
underbrush of life into the simplicity which is toward Christ.
{222}
XC
OPEN OUR EYES
2 _Kings_ vi. 17.
(END OF COLLEGE TERM)
This young man did not see things as they really were, because, as we
say in smaller matters, he did not have his eyes open. He saw the
horses and chariots of Syria round about him, and the enemy seemed too
strong for him, and then Elisha prayed: "Lord, open his eyes," and the
young man saw that over against his enemies there was a host of
spiritual allies, so that "They that be with us are more than they that
be with them."
As we look back over this closing college year with all its problems
and duties, its conflicts and fears, it is with something of this same
sense that we have not half known the powers which were on our side.
Sometimes we have thought the enemy too strong for us, and it looked as
if cares and fears, troubles and misunderstandings were likely to
defeat us, and the battle of life might be lost. The {223} problems of
the world about us have seemed very grievous, and the perplexities of
the life within very perilous. And now God comes to us at last and
opens our eyes, and we look back and say: "What a good year, after all,
it has been." There never has been so good a year for the college as
this. There never has been so good a year for the world. With all the
social problems and agitations that seem so threatening about us, this
is, after all, the best year that God has ever made. And in our
personal conflicts, how plain it is that the forces of heaven have been
behind us. No man has thought a true thought, or done an unselfish
deed this year without a backing which now discloses itself as very
real. Behind our doubts and fears have been the horses and chariots of
fire. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see these spiritual allies and
enlist ourselves in the ranks of their omnipotence.
{224}
XCI
THE WORD MADE FLESH
_John_ i. 1-14.
(END OF COLLEGE TERM)
I do not enter into the deeper philosophical significance of this great
chapter, but any one can see on the very surface of it the general
truth on which Christianity rests its claim. God's government of the
world is here described as operating through His word. God simply
speaks, and things are done. God says: "Let there be light," and there
is light. The universe is God's language. History is God's voice. By
His word was everything made that is made. Then, when the fullness of
time has come this language of God is made life. What God has been
trying to make men hear through his word, He now lets them see through
his life. His word becomes flesh. The life becomes the light of men.
That is the most elementary statement of the doctrine of the
incarnation. It is the transformation of language into life.
{225}
Let us take this great truth into our own little lives as we part on
this last day of common worship. God has been speaking to us His word
in many ways through our worship here; in our silence and in our song,
in Bible and in prayer, in the voice of different preachers, and in the
voice of our own consciences and hearts. And now what is our last
prayer but this, that this word may be made flesh, that this worship
may be transformed into life, that these messages of courage, of hope,
of composure, of self-control, may be incarnated in this life of youth;
that out of the many words here spoken in the name of God, here and
there one may become flesh and walk out of this chapel and out of these
college grounds in the interior life of a consecrated young man. The
life is the light of men. May it be so with us here. May the spirit
of him in whose life is our light, enlighten the lives which have
gathered here, and lead them through all the obscurities of life, and
brighten more and more before them into a perfect day.
{227}
LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES
Address. Page.
Genesis iv, 9 LXX 176
Exodus xx, 1-7 LXXXIII 207
Deut. xxxiii, 27 XXXIII 83
I Ks. xix, 1-13 LXXV 187
II Kings vi, 17 XC 212
Mat. ii, 1-11 XXIX 74
iv, 1-11 XLVIII 171
v, 3 XXII 58
v, 4 XXIII 60
v, 5 XXIV 62
v, 6 XXV 64
v, 7 XXVI 67
v, 8 XXVII 69
v, 16 IV 9
v, 17 XV 41
v, 21-25 LXXXI 203
vi, 1-15 LXXX 201
vii, 1 XII 32
viii, 5-11 V 12
xii, 38-45 LVI 138
xiii, 1-9 XLV 113
xiii, 1-9 XLVI 116
xiii, 1-9 XLVII 118
xiii, 1-9 XLVIII 120
xiii, 1-9 XLIX 122
xiv, 23 VII 18
xxi, 17-23 LX 148
xxii, 11-14 LXXIV 185
xxiii, 24 LXXVI 189
xxv, 14-30 L 124
xxv, 14-30 LI 127
xxv, 14-30 LII 129
xxv, 22 LIII 131
xxv, 24 LIV 133
xxv, 29 LV 136
Mark iv, 27 XVIII 49
iv, 27 XLIX 122
viii, 34 XXI 56
x, 35-45 II 4
Mark xii, 30 LXIX 174
xiii, 1-9 LXXIX 198
Luke ii, 8-10 XXIX 74
ii, 8-14 XXX 76
ii, 30-35 XXXI 78
iii, 16 XXVIII 71
xii, 1-5 LXXXVII 215
xv, 17 LIX 146
xvi, 1-10 LVIII 143
xvi, 1-12 LVII 140
xvii, 5-15 LXXXIV 209
xvii, 7-10 XIII 35
xvii, 21 XIX 52
xix, 37-43 LX 148
xx, 19-38 LXI 151
xxii, 39-46 LXXXV 211
xxii, 39-48 LXIII 156
xxiii, 20-26 LXVII 168
John i, 1-14 XCI 224
iv, 10 LXXIII 182
vi, 35 XI 29
viii, 32 LXXVIII 195
xiv, 6 XXXVI 89
xiv, 14, 16 XXXIV 85
xvi, 32 LXXII 180
xvii, 22 III 7
xviii, 28-38 LXIV 159
xix, 30 LXV 163
xx, 8 VIII 21
xxi, 22 IX 25
Acts xxvi, 19 X 27
Romans xii, 1 XIV 38
I Cor. xii, 31 LXXI 178
II Cor. iv, 10 XX 54
xi, 3 LXXXIX 219
Galatians iii, 26 LXXXII 205
iv, 6 LXXXII 205
iv, 9 LXXVII 192
Ephes. iv, 13 XVII 48
{228}
Address. Page.
Ephes. iv, 14-17 XXXV 87
Phil. iii, 11 LXVI 166
II Tim. ii, 3 XVI 44
iv, 8 VI 15
Hebrews xii, 1 I 1
James i, 12-17 LXXXVIII 217
Rev. ii, 1-7 XXXVII 96
ii, 8-10 XXXVIII 93
Rev. ii, 12-17 XXXIX 90
ii, 18-28 XL 99
iii, 1 XLI 102
iii, 8 XLII 105
iii, 20 XLIII 107
xxi, 7 XLIV 110
xxii, 17 XI 29