History has proven that the power of the “All Highest” War Lord is
as weak as a baby’s arm compared with the power of the humblest
individual who has entered into and taken possession of some great
truth. A thousand lords and ladies were gathered within the Babylonian
palace which was ablaze with light and filled with music. All hail to
King Belshazzar! His praises were upon every lip. All honor to the
royal family that had lifted the hanging gardens above the low-lying
plains, who had swung gates of bronze and planned the mightiest city
in the world. Every lip praised and every heart feared the power of
the daring king. But when the finger of God wrote a message of fire
upon the palace walls it was no longer Belshazzar who was ruler. The
fate of king and lord and ladies was in the hand of Daniel. He alone
of that great throng had seen and entered into the truth of temperance
and self-control. Such was the sustaining power of that possessed
truth that when the man-made king trembled, and a nation crumbled into
oblivion, he alone stood unmoved and triumphant amid the wreck and
chaos.
Before the throne of ecclesiastical autocracy the rulers of the nations
bowed in weakness and everlasting shame. The autocracy of superstition
is the most merciless and deadly known, but when the power of Rome was
at the zenith of her unscrupulous reign, Martin Luther, a common man
with uncommon sense, discovered and entered into the great truth that
“the just shall live by faith.” Entering into that truth, he found a
power before which the claims of the Pope became insignificant, and by
his boldness, brought religious liberty to the people, thus gaining
universal love and immortality.
Mary was Queen of England, and with that overzeal of religious bigotry,
was ruling with unquestioned power and severity. Hugh Latimer was only
a humble preacher, one of the least of the queen’s subjects, living
among the poor, but beside him, Queen Mary sinks into everlasting
contempt. The robes of fire wrapped his body in their golden folds,
hiding him forever from the sight of man, but the world has not
forgotten him. His dust knows no burial place, but because he lived in
the sheltering tabernacle of a great truth he will live forever in the
hearts of those who love religious tolerance, while the dust of Mary
crumbles in the gruesome vault at Westminster Abbey, with no lip to
sing her praises to the passing generations. Royal or ecclesiastical
power is nothing compared with the enduring authority of a common man
who has found, and entered into, and wholly and completely lives a
great eternal truth of God.
Truth incarnate in human life is almighty, but truth in the abstract is
as helpless as is the dust of the Egyptian highways, which witnessed
the world’s mightiest pageants, but which are unable to tell the
story of mighty armies, royal cavalcades, and kingly processions that
once tramped upon them. Truth has always existed. However conceited
a religious leader may be, no one ever dared to presume himself
the creator of a truth. Long before the world had settled upon its
foundations, and the constellations of stars, like chandeliers, swayed
and swung their pendants of light, all truth beat and throbbed within
the heart of the Almighty. Throughout the beauty of verdant slope,
crested wave, and starlit sky, these words of encouragement have ever
rung: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The
truths of civilization have been in existence since creation, yet in
every century heathenism has flourished. The truth about human freedom
has always been, yet Rameses sat upon a throne and drove the Hebrews
to their task, beating their backs with knotted thongs and murdering
their children; the barons lived in palatial palaces fed in luxury,
while serfs toiled for harvests which they could never gather, and
starving, dared not plead for a morsel of the food their toil provided;
the Sultan of Turkey reveled in orgies, flagrant and disgusting, while
humble Armenians were torn asunder, their bleeding bodies fed to swine,
their wives and children tortured beyond belief, while no civilized
nation dared lift its hand in protest. Truth, in itself, is not
omnipotent. To be of value, truth must be entered into and possessed.
Every truth has a door. To ignorance the door is barred and bolted.
To thoughtlessness, the door remains unseen. Only to the eye trained
with prayer, faith in God, and love for man, is given the vision of
these bright portals, and the possession of the key by which he can
unlock the door and enter into and enjoy the truth, which the world
has long known by heart, but which had never enveloped, sheltered,
and controlled their lives. If he has the courage to use the key and
open the door and enter in, he shall not only feel the saving power of
God, but he shall leave an open way through which all men may pass to
greater power. If he refuses to unlock the door, and, like the learned
ones of whom Christ spoke, carries away the key, entering not in
themselves and hindering those who would enter, he becomes an exile,
without home through time and eternity.
That we may more clearly comprehend this truth let us consider a
chapter of American history. Hayne had finished his classic and
convincing speech. With gracious charm he had proclaimed the doctrine
of union without liberty, a nation of free people, half slave. The rapt
attention and tribute of silent applause from the audience told how
critical the situation had become. Opposed to him was Daniel Webster,
America’s favorite child of genius, whose face was as classic as a
Greek god’s, and whose commanding bearing won battles like a general.
He was a scholar of the strong New England type, searching for the
key to unlock the truth that the nation needed, and make it of easy
access to the people. He saw that there could be no union without
universal freedom. Hour after hour he proclaimed the truth, making the
mightiest speech the nation had ever heard, swaying his audience back
to the realm of clear thinking. Finally, with one sentence, “Union
and liberty, now and forever, one and inseparable,” he revealed to an
awakened nation that he had found the key that would unlock the door of
truth that the hour needed. But in his hour of triumph, dazzled by the
possibility of becoming President, he refused to use the key. To gain
the solid South he uttered his fateful speech for compromise. The North
held its breath in expectancy while New England sobbed like one bereft
of his favorite child. He who had the key refused to enter in himself
and hindered those who would have entered.
But New England had another son of genius who, on the eventful night
that Webster, with trembling fingers, tried, and failed, to pick up the
key that he had thrown away, left Faneuil Hall with blazing, burning
thoughts. He too had found the way, but was unknown and untried. Again
he was in Faneuil Hall sitting beside James Russell Lowell, listening
to the mad mouthings of men, who, for the money involved, were
endeavoring to rechristen Wrong and call it Right. He had waited weary
weeks, but now he was unable to keep back his flaming indignation.
Rising, he began to speak. On the very platform where Webster had
fallen he began to plead the right of human liberty. New England was
thrilled with hope. Here at last was a man who not only saw the truth
but was determined to enter into it. With the confidence of a prophet
he used the key, unlocked the door and showed a nation the way it ought
to go.
Truth must become incarnate in man and man must be incarnate in truth.
Every Christian man will testify to this. In childhood you committed
scripture which had little meaning to your childish mind. It was not
until in the after years when sorrow came, and grief blinded the eye,
and pain wounded the heart, that the clear, sweet voice of memory began
to repeat these verses, and what had been meaningless in childhood
became great, wholesome, sheltering, protecting truths, in which you
found all the consolations of God.
It is a wonderful hour when the soul enters into and takes possession
of God’s great truth, becomes the master of all its stored up power,
and begins to use it in the service of love. It is a wonderful
experience and need never be delayed, for the door is easy to find.
Years ago earth was blessed by the coming of One who worked hard at
the carpenter trade, and in the school of toil and prayer, found the
way that scholars had overlooked. Standing before kings and earthly
potentates he said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” His spirit
is the way for men to live, the door through which they pass into all
truth, the life of fullest spiritual development. Christ is the open
way to every truth. Through him men attain the proper point of view,
and, learning to obey the Father as did he, begin to live the life
triumphant.