ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me
not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee
an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.
No one should waste time in waiting for some great opportunity for
service; there are opportunities everywhere. It is impossible for man to
render any service to Jehovah Himself. There is nothing that we can do
for Him except to love Him with heart and mind and soul and strength. It
is _to the neighbour_ that we pay the debt that we owe to the Heavenly
Father; it is _through the neighbour_ that we publish to the world our
real selves. This is, like music, an universal language that all can
understand.
Nietzsche, the atheistic philosopher, gave to one of his books the title
"Joyful Wisdom"--an absurd misnomer. That which he mistook for joy was
the delirium of an unbalanced mind. The philosophy of _Christ_ might
with propriety be called Joyful Wisdom; it leads one into the path of
happiness that is real and permanent.
Carl Hilty, a Swiss writer, has published a book entitled "Happiness,"
in which he points out that, as those have the poorest health who spend
their time travelling from one health resort to another looking for
it, so those are least happy who do nothing but hunt for pleasure. He
insists that to be happy one must have employment for the hands, the
head and the heart. The hands must be busy, the mind must be occupied,
and the heart must be satisfied.
Christ leads His followers into happiness through this route. No one
who partakes of His spirit can be an idler. The world is full of work
awaiting labourers; the harvest is ripe. Those who try to imitate Christ
will be planning for the extension of His Kingdom and for the comfort
of God's creatures. The heart of the Christian--the center of life and
love--will find satisfaction in being in sympathetic touch with all that
is good and noble.
I have dwelt upon this point because the worldly are in the habit of
picturing the Christian life as gloomy and forbidding. It is a libel; a
long-faced Christian is a poor Christian, if a Christian at all. "Be of
good cheer," is a Christian salutation; Christ used it repeatedly. In
Matthew 9:2 He said to the man sick of the palsy, "Son, be of good
cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
In Matthew 14:27 He quieted the fears of His disciples, "Be of good
cheer; it is I; be not afraid." In John 16:33 He inspired the Apostles,
"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Here we have three of the greatest sources of happiness--Forgiveness of
sins: the presence of the Saviour and triumph over the world.
In Acts we find Him using the same words in addressing Paul and later
Paul uses them in encouraging his companions.
Religion--real, heartfelt religion--transforms its possessor. It moulds
the disposition and disposition determines expression. No beauty doctor
can make a face as winsome as the face of one whose heart overflows with
loving kindness; just as no face specialist can impose from without such
lines of strength and intelligence as can be written upon it by the
thoughts that pass through the brain.
The Christian life is the simple life. Charles Wagner sounded a note
that echoed around the world when, some two decades ago, he issued his
eloquent protest against the burdensome complexities of modern life. He
made a plea for the natural life in which each individual will be his
own master instead of being the servant of his possessions. Wagner's
book, though first published in Paris, had a larger circulation in the
United States than in any other nation--not because our people have
wandered farther than others into artificial social forms, but because
they are sensitive to high ideals and free to reject harmful customs.
Social intercourse should be an expression of friendship, and friendship
is both embarrassed and obscured by vulgar display. The home should be a
place of rest, where congenial spirits can gather for communion. There
is nothing edifying or satisfying in the mere comparing of apparel.
The aim of entertainment should be to refresh the guest and stimulate
friendship; the end is defeated by a rivalry in extravagance that
awakens concern as to one's ability to return courtesies extended. The
increasing costliness of social functions not only robs entertainment
of the enjoyment that it is intended to bring, but it leads many
young couples to ruin themselves financially in an effort to keep up
appearances and pay their social debts. It is impossible to calculate
the benefit which would be brought to the social world if Christ's
spirit could pervade it and infuse into it a wholesome sincerity and
frankness. Christ put the accent on the things that are worthy and
banished the shallow pretenses upon which so much time is wasted and so
much money squandered.
Christ gave the world a balm for that worry that is more wearing than
work. He condemned the petty vanities and irritating anxieties. He
taught a perfect trust that leads one to do his best and then leave the
result with the Heavenly Father who is ever near and always ready to
give good gifts to His children.
In Matthew 6, we find this soothing rebuke:
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye
shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye
shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking
thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought
for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they
toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is,
and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith?
Reasoning unanswerable. He argues from the less to the greater and with
incomparable beauty woos man away from the distracting thoughts that
dissipate his strength without yielding him any advantage. The Creator
who cares for the birds will not forget man made in His image; He
who clothes the fields in the beauty of the flower and gives to the
trembling blade of grass the nourishment that it needs for its fleeting
day, will not desert man, His supreme handiwork.
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," is a rebuke aimed at
those who borrow trouble. Let not the past distress you--it has gone
beyond recall; let not the morrow intrude upon you--it will bring its
cargo of cares when it comes. Man lives in the present and can claim
only the moment as it passes, but Christ teaches him how to so use each
hour as to make the days that are gone an echoing delight and the days
that are yet to come a radiant hope.
Christ has been called a sentimentalist. Let it be admitted; it is no
reproach. He is the inexhaustible source of sentiment, and sentiment
rules the world. "The dreamer lives forever; the toiler dies in a day."
A striking illustration of the emphasis that Christ placed upon
sentiment is found in Matthew 26:7-13:
There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious
ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his
disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is
this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and
given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why
trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For
ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in
that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my
burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be
preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman
hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
Eight verses devoted to an alabaster box of ointment! This is more space
than was given to many incidents seemingly more important, and at the
very crisis of His career, too. But who will estimate the value of this
narrative?
Judas complained that it was an inexcusable waste of money--Judas, the
thief, as Mark calls him, pretended concern about the poor. The poor
have received immeasurably more from the use made of this ointment than
they would have received had it been sold and the proceeds distributed
then. It was an expression of love, and love is the treasury box from
which the poor can always draw. That box of ointment has spread its
fragrance over nineteen hundred years. Give a man bread and he hungers
again; give him clothing and his clothing will wear out; but give him
an ideal--something to look up to through life--and it will be with him
through every waking hour lifting him to a higher plane and filling his
life with the beauty and the bounty of service. The money spent for a
loaf of bread may stay the pangs of hunger for a few brief hours,
but the same amount invested in the "bread of life" will give one an
inexhaustible feast. A drink of water refreshes for the moment; the
same amount invested in the "water of life" may make of one a spring
overflowing with blessings.
A Bible costs a few cents and yet upon it may be built a life that is
worth millions to the human race. It was a Bible that made William Ewart
Gladstone for a generation the world's greatest Christian statesman;
it was a Bible that made José Rodrigues for a quarter of a century the
greatest moral force in Brazil. The Bible has given us great leaders in
the United States. It is the Bible that has sent missionaries throughout
the world to plant in little communities everywhere the teachings of the
greatest of sentimentalists--and, at the same time, the most practical
of philosophers. Christ has taught us the true value of those things
which touch the heart and, through the heart, move the world.
"Suffer little children to come unto me;" Christ used the child to
admonish those older grown. The Church is following in His footsteps
when it makes the child the subject of constant thought and solicitude.
It is when we deal with the child that we get the clearest conception of
the superiority of faith over reason. The foundations of character are
laid in faith and not in reason; they are laid before the reason can be
accepted as a guide. No one who exalts reason above faith can lead a
child to God, but a child can understand the love of the Saviour and the
tender care of the Heavenly Father. For this reason the Sunday school
increases in importance. Its lessons build character; its songs echo
throughout our lives.
The law arbitrarily fixes the age of twenty-one as the age of legal
maturity. No matter how precocious a young man be, the presumption of
law is against his intelligence until he is twenty-one. He cannot vote;
he cannot make a valid deed to a piece of land. Why? His reason is not
mature, and yet the moral principles that control his life are implanted
before he reaches that age. His ideals come into his life long before
the reason can be regarded as a safe guide. Before the reason is mature
he believes in God or has rejected God. If he lives in a Christian
community he has accepted the Bible as the Word of God or rejected it
as the work of man; if he is acquainted with Christ he has accepted or
rejected Him. A child's heart cannot remain a vacuum. It is filled with
reverence or irreverence. Those who think that the mind can remain
unbiassed until one becomes of age and then be able to render impartial
decisions, know little of human experience. Love comes first, reason
afterward; the child obeys and later learns why it should obey. Morality
rests upon religion and religion, taking hold upon the heart, exercises
a control far greater than any logic can exercise over the mind.
Look back over your lives and see how much of real moral principle you
have added since you became of age. You can better explain your faith;
your will is more firm, your determination more deeply rooted, but what
new seed of morality has been sown since you reached the age when the
reason is presumed to be mature?
While Christianity builds upon the affirmations of the New Testament and
the positive virtues taught by the Saviour it is loyal, as Christ was,
to the Commandments which God gave to the people through Moses. Most of
these commandments--those relative to man's duty to man--are written
unto the statutes of state and nation; they form the basis of our laws.
Those which relate to man's duty to God and which are not, therefore,
legally binding are binding on the conscience of Christians.
The Christian Church from its earliest beginnings has enforced respect
for parents. Parental authority is not only essential to the child's
welfare during youth but it is necessary as a foundation upon which to
build respect for government and for laws. The Christian home is the
nursery of the State as well as of the Church. Loyalty to God and
loyalty to government are easily learned by those who from infancy are
taught obedience to those who have the right to instruct and direct.
The Christian Church stands also for Sabbath observance. The right
to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience is an
inalienable right and any attempt to interfere with the full and free
exercise of this right would and should arouse universal protest. Those
who do not worship at all have no fear of molestation, but freedom of
conscience is not interfered with by laws that provide opportunity for
rest and guarantee leisure for worship.
Man's body needs relaxation from toil and man's mind needs leisure as
well. These needs are so obvious that they are universally admitted.
The spiritual nature requires refreshment also and this need is as
imperative as the needs of body and brain. As the spiritual man is the
dominant force in life and the measure of the individual's usefulness,
the nation cannot be less concerned about the people's spiritual growth
and welfare than about their health and intellectual strength.
It is both natural and proper that the day which is observed religiously
by the general public should be selected as the day of rest also,
respect being shown to those who conscientiously observe another day.
Differences of opinion may exist in different localities as to what
should be permitted on the Sabbath day, but experience has supported two
propositions: first, that every citizen should be guaranteed _time_
for rest and for worship, and, second, that every citizen should be
guaranteed the _peace_ and _quiet_ necessary for both rest and worship.
Here, as in nearly every other issue that concerns human welfare, the
controversy is not between those who differ in opinions as to what
is right and proper but between those, on the one side, who have a
pecuniary interest in the promotion of things which are objectionable,
and those, on the other, who seek to promote the common good. In
other words, it is the old conflict between money and morals: between
selfishness and the public weal.
While Christ was all love and all compassion and all tenderness He never
hesitated to draw the line and draw it rigidly against folly as well as
against sin. The parable of the Ten Virgins is a case in point. Five
were wise and five were foolish, the evidence of the difference being
found in the fact that five were prudent enough to supply themselves
with oil sufficient for an emergency. The other five, lacking wisdom,
took only the oil that they could carry in their lamps. When the need
came the foolish turned to the wise and said, "Give us of your oil," but
the wise refused lest they should not have enough for themselves and
the others. Were they censured? No. The parable teaches one of the most
important lessons to be learned in life, namely, that the foolish cannot
be saved from punishment. It is punishment that converts folly into
wisdom and saves the world from a race of fools.
The parable has wide-spread application. The foolish parent cannot be
saved from the sorrow inflicted by a spoiled child; the idle cannot be
saved from hunger and want; the lazy cannot be given the rewards of the
diligent. The success that attends effort and rewards character cannot
be awarded to the undeserving without paralyzing all the incentives to
virtue and industry. Christ came not to destroy the law--either that
revealed in the Word of God or that which was written on nature--He came
to fulfill. In the brief years that He taught His disciples and the
multitude He quoted the law and illustrated it. He did not come to
relieve men of responsibility--He came to light the way--"That they
might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."
Christ's doctrines are not limited in time or to numbers. They apply to
everybody and last for all time. Paul, in Romans 12: 20, interprets the
Master's teachings and applies them. "Therefore, if thine enemy hunger,
feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head." How different this way of dealing from the
way the carnal man acts, and yet who can question the wisdom of the
Saviour's plan? Hatred begets hatred; retaliation invites retaliation
and the feud grows. The mountains of Kentucky have furnished numerous
illustrations of the futility of revenge. Families were arrayed against
families and sons took up inherited hatreds and died violent deaths
bequeathing the spirit of revenge to their descendants.
We see the same false philosophy at work among nations. One war lays the
foundation for another; generation after generation is sworn to avenge
the crimes of preceding generations; and much of it is done in the name
of patriotism and glorified as if it were service to the country.
Paul gives us the remedy and it is based upon the injunction that Jesus
gave, namely, Love your enemies. Feeding an enemy is more effective than
threats of punishment. It is a manifestation of love, and love is the
weapon for which there is no shield. The philosophy that Paul applies
to the individual is just as effective when applied to larger groups.
Nations that have been at war cannot be reconciled by the methods of
war. They can be suppressed by force but unless won by friendship there
can be no reunion.
Paul concludes this chapter with a command "Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good." There never was a time in the world's history
when this kind of doctrine was more imperatively needed for the healing
of the wounds of the unprecedented conflict through which the world has
passed. Christ has a remedy: Let the wrongs of the past be forgiven
and forgotten; let the world be invited to build on friendship and
cooperation. Let the rivalry be in the showing of magnanimity. Who dares
to say that the plan will fail? The alternative policy has failed and
failed miserably. Why not employ the only untried remedy for the ills
which afflict civilization?
And the gifts of the Man of Galilee are permanent; they survive the
tomb. As one nears the end of life he becomes conscious of an inner
longing to attach himself to institutions that will outlive him. His
affections having gone out to his fellows, and his heart having entwined
itself with the causes that embrace all humankind, he does not like to
drop out and be forgotten. His sympathies expand and sympathy is the
real blood of the heart, forced by the pulsations of that major organ
through all the arteries of society. Have you thought how few of each
generation are remembered after death by any one outside of a small
circle of friends? We have an hundred millions of people living in the
largest republic in history--one of the greatest nations the world has
ever known--and yet how many names will survive for a century after
those who bore the names are buried? The vanity of man is rebuked by a
visit to any old, neglected cemetery. As Bryant puts it
"The world will laugh when thou art gone
And solemn brood of care plod on
And each one as before will chase his favourite
phantom."
It is partly to escape this dread oblivion that men and women, blessed
with means, endow hospitals and colleges and charitable institutions.
They yearn for an immortality on earth as well as in the world beyond,
and nothing but the spiritual has promise of the life everlasting.
If we examine our expense accounts we will be ashamed to note how large
a proportion of our money we spend on the _body_. We buy it the food
that it most enjoys, and the raiment that most adorns it; we give it
habitations of comfort and beauty, and yet the body is responsible for
most of our easily besetting sins and its aches and pains fill life with
much of its misery. We spend the first twenty years of life in an effort
to develop the body, the second twenty years of life in an effort to
keep it in a state of health and twenty more trying to preserve it from
decline, and then the threescore years have passed. And, no matter how
successful we may be in lifting the body toward physical perfection, we
have no assurance that any physical perfection can be made use of in the
world above. I believe in the resurrection of but I have not spent much
time during the later years in worrying about what particular body I
shall have over there. According to the scientists the body changes
every seven years. If that be true, I have done little more than
exchange an old body for a new one during the more than sixty years that
I have lived. I had a baby body and a boy's body, then the body of a
young man, and so on until I am now well along with my ninth body. I do
not know which one of these will be best for me in the next world, but
I know that the God who made this world and gave me an existence in
it will give me, in the land beyond, the body that will best serve me
there.
Neither have we any assurance that the perfections of the mind survive
the day of death. We spend a great deal of time on the mind, for this is
an age of intellectual enthusiasm. My experience has not been different
from the experience of others. My mother taught me at home until I was
ten; then my parents sent me to the public school until I was fifteen;
then I spent two years in an academy preparing for college; then four
years in college and then two years in a law school. After nearly twenty
years of schooling I took part in my last "Commencement," and then I
began to learn, and have been learning ever since. I have accumulated
something of history, something of science, a bit of poetry and
philosophy, and I have read speeches without number. I have accumulated
a large amount of information on politics and politicians that I know I
shall not need in Heaven, if Heaven is half as good a place as I
expect it to be. How much of the intellectual wealth that we have so
laboriously acquired can we carry with us? We do not know.
But we know that that which is spiritual does not die--that the heart
virtues will accompany us when we enter the future life. In the parable
of the Tares, Christ explains that, just as the tares and the wheat grow
together until the harvest, so the righteous and the unrighteous live
together in this world, but that on the day of judgment they shall be
separated. Then shall the righteous "shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father." We have no promise that the body will shine
even as a star, or that the mind will shine even as one of the planets,
but the sun in its splendour is used to illustrate the brightness with
which those will shine who are counted righteous in that day.