orators of the day have used the question form of argument. Its strength
depends upon the completeness with which the speaker includes all of the
essentials involved in summing up the situation. The greatest question
ever presented as an argument was that in which Christ concentrated
attention upon the value of the soul. No one will ever place a higher
estimate upon the soul than Christ did when He asked, "What shall it
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
No greater question was ever asked, or can be asked. (See Lecture, "The
Value of the Soul.")
Courage is the last attribute to which I shall invite your attention.
The speaker must possess moral courage, and to possess it he must have
faith.
Faith exerts a controlling influence over our lives. If it is argued
that works are more important than faith, I reply that faith comes
first, works afterward. Until one believes, he does not act, and in
accordance with his faith, so will be his deeds.
Abraham, called of God, went forth in faith to establish a race and a
religion. It was faith that led Columbus to discover America, and faith
again that conducted the early settlers to Jamestown, the Dutch to New
York and the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Faith has led the pioneer across
deserts and through trackless forests, and faith has brought others in
his footsteps to lay in our land the foundations of a civilization the
highest that the world has known.
I might draw an illustration from the life of each one of you. You have
faith in education, and that faith is behind your study; you have faith
in this institution, and that faith brought you here; your parents
and friends have had faith in you and have helped you to your present
position. And back of all these manifestations of faith is your faith in
God, in His Word and in His Son. We are told that without faith it
is impossible to please God, and I may add that without faith it is
impossible to meet the expectations of those who are most interested in
you. Let me present this subject under four heads:
First--You must have faith in yourselves. Not that you should carry
confidence in yourselves to the point of displaying egotism, and yet,
egotism is not the worst possible fault. My father was wont to say that
if a man had the big head, you could whittle it down, but that if he had
the little head, there was no hope for him. If you have the big head
others will help you to reduce it, but if you have the little head, they
cannot help you. You must believe that you can do things or you will
not undertake them. Those who lack faith attempt nothing and therefore
cannot possibly succeed; those with great faith attempt the seemingly
impossible and by attempting prove what man can do.
But you cannot have faith in yourselves unless you are conscious that
you are prepared for your work. If one is feeble in body, he cannot have
the confidence in his physical strength that the athlete has, and, as
physical strength is necessary, one is justified in devoting to exercise
and to the strengthening of the body such time as may be necessary.
Intellectual training is also necessary, and more necessary than it used
to be. When but few had the advantages of a college education, the
lack of such advantages was not so apparent. Now when so many of the
ministers, lawyers, physicians, journalists, and even business men, are
college graduates, one cannot afford to be without the best possible
intellectual preparation. When one comes into competition with his
fellows, he soon recognizes his own intellectual superiority, equality
or inferiority as compared with others. In China they have a very
interesting bird contest. The singing lark is the most popular bird
there, and as you go along the streets of a Chinese city you see
Chinamen out airing their birds. These singing larks are entered in
contests, and the contests are decided by the birds themselves. If, for
instance, a dozen are entered, they all begin to sing lustily, but as
they sing, one after another recognizes that it is outclassed and gets
down off its perch, puts its head under its wing and will not sing any
more. At last there is just one bird left singing, and it sings with
enthusiasm as if it recognized its victory.
So it is in all intellectual contests. Put twenty men in a room and let
them discuss any important question. At first all will take part in the
discussion, but as the discussion proceeds, one after another drops out
until finally two are left in debate, one on one side and one on the
other. The rest are content to have their ideas presented by those who
can present them best. If you are going to have faith, therefore, in
yourselves, you must be prepared to meet your competitors upon an equal
plane; if you are prepared, they will be conscious of it as well as you.
A high purpose is also a necessary part of your preparation. You cannot
afford to put a low purpose in competition with a high one. If you go
out to work from a purely selfish standpoint, you will be ashamed
to stand in the presence of those who have higher aims and nobler
ambitions. Have faith in yourselves, but to have faith you must
be prepared for your work, and this preparation must be moral and
intellectual as well as physical. The preacher should be the boldest of
men because of the unselfish character of his work.
Second: Have faith in mankind. The great fault of our scholarship is
that it is not sufficiently sympathetic. It holds itself aloof from the
struggling masses. It is too often cold and cynical. It is better to
trust your fellowmen and be occasionally deceived than to be distrustful
and live alone. Mankind deserves to be trusted. There is something good
in every one, and that good responds to sympathy. If you speak to the
multitude and they do not respond, do not despise them, but rather
examine what you have said. If you speak from your heart, you will
speak to their hearts, and they can tell very quickly whether you are
interested in them or simply in yourself. The heart of mankind is sound;
the sense of justice is universal. Trust it, appeal to it, do not
violate it. People differ in race characteristics, in national
traditions, in language, in ideas of government, and in forms of
religion, but at the heart they are very much alike. I fear the
plutocracy of wealth; I respect the aristocracy of learning; but I thank
God for the democracy of the heart. You must love if you would be loved.
"They loved him because he first loved them"--this is the verdict
pronounced where men have unselfishly laboured for the welfare of the
whole people. Link yourselves in sympathy with your fellowmen; mingle
with them; know them and you will trust them and they will trust you.
If you are stronger than others, bear heavier loads; if you are more
capable than others, show it by your willingness to perform a larger
service.
Third: If you are going to accomplish anything in this country, you must
have faith in your form of government, and there is every reason why
you should have faith in it. It is the best form of government ever
conceived by the mind of man, and it is spreading throughout the world.
It is best, not because it is perfect, but because it can be made as
perfect as the people deserve to have. It is a people's government, and
it reflects the virtue and intelligence of the people. As the people
make progress in virtue and intelligence, the government ought to
approach more and more nearly to perfection. It will never, of course,
be entirely free from faults, because it must be administered by human
beings, and imperfection is to be expected in the work of human hands.
Jefferson said a century ago that there were naturally two parties in
every country, one which drew to itself those who trusted the people,
the other which as naturally drew to itself those who distrusted the
people. That was true when Jefferson said it, and it is true to-day.
In every country there are those who are seeking to enlarge the
participation of the people in government, and that group is growing. In
every country there are those who are endeavouring to obstruct each
step toward popular government, and that group is diminishing. In this
country the tendency is constantly toward more popular government, and
every effort which has for its object the bringing of the government
into closer touch with the people is sure of ultimate triumph.
Our form of government is good. Call it a democracy if you are a
democrat, or a republic if you are a republican, but help to make it a
government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A democracy
is wiser than an aristocracy because a democracy can draw from the
wisdom of the people, and all of the people know more than any part of
the people. A democracy is stronger than a monarchy, because, as the
historian, Bancroft, has said: "It dares to discard the implements of
terror and build its citadel in the hearts of men." And a democracy is
the most just form of government because it is built upon the doctrine
that men are created equal, that governments are instituted to protect
the inalienable rights of the people and that governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed.
We know that a grain of wheat planted in the ground will, under the
influence of the sunshine and rain, send forth a blade, and then a
stalk, and then the full head, because there is behind the grain of
wheat a force irresistible and constantly at work. There is behind moral
and political truth a force equally irresistible and always operating,
and just as we may expect the harvest in due season, we may be sure of
the triumph of these eternal forces that make for man's uplifting. Have
faith in your form of government, for it rests upon a growing idea, and
if you will but attach yourself to that idea, you will grow with it.
Fourth, the subject presents itself in another aspect. You must not only
have faith in yourselves, in humanity and in the form of government
under which we live, but if you would do a great work, you must have
faith in God. I am not a preacher; I am but a layman; yet, I am
not willing that the minister shall monopolize the blessings of
Christianity, and I do not know of any moral precept binding upon the
preacher behind the pulpit that is not binding upon the Christian and
whose acceptance would not be helpful to every one. I am not speaking
from the minister's standpoint but from the observation of every-day life
when I say that there is a wide difference between the desire to live
so that men will applaud you and the desire to live so that God will be
satisfied with you. Man needs the inner strength that comes from faith
in God and belief in His constant presence.
Man needs faith in God, therefore, to strengthen him in his hours of
trial, and he needs it to give him courage to do the work of life. How
can one fight for a principle unless he believes in the triumph of
right? How can he believe in the triumph of the right if he does not
believe that God stands back of the truth and that God is able to bring
victory to His side? He knows not whether he is to live for the truth or
to die for it, but if he has the faith he ought to have, he is as ready
to die for it as to live for it.
Faith will not only give you strength when you fight for righteousness,
but your faith will bring dismay to your enemies. There is power in the
presence of an honest man who does right because it is right and dares
to do the right in the face of all opposition. That is true to-day, and
has been true through all history.
If your preparation is complete so that you are conscious of your
ability to do great things; if you have faith in your fellowmen and
become a colabourer with them in the raising of the general level of
society; if you have faith in our form of government and seek to purge
it of its imperfections so as to make it more and more acceptable to our
own people and to the oppressed of other nations; and if, in addition,
you have faith in God and in the triumph of the right, no one can set
limits to your achievements. This is the greatest of all ages in which
to live. The railroads and the telegraph wires have brought the corners
of the earth close together, and it is easier to-day for one to be
helpful to the whole world than it was a few centuries ago to be
helpful to the inhabitants of a single valley. This is the age of great
opportunity and of great responsibility. Let your faith be large, and
let this large faith inspire you to perform a large service.
Because the preacher has consecrated himself to God's service and seeks
divine guidance from the Bible and through prayer, he is able to speak
with absolute confidence. His trust is the measure of his strength;
because he _knows_ what Christ has done for him he knows what Christ can
do for others. His own experience is the foundation of his trust in the
Gospel that he preaches. Because a miracle was wrought in his own life
he knows that the day of miracles is not past; because one heart has
been regenerated he knows that all hearts can be, and that Christ,
through His power to transform the life of each individual, can
transform a world.
I beg you to prepare yourselves to proclaim the Word of God by voice
as well as with pen. You have a mighty message for a waiting world--a
message worthy of all your powers of heart and mind and tongue.
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