BY-PRODUCT
In the conduct of life we select, or have assigned, certain measures of
activity upon which we rely for our support and the self-respect that
follows the doing of our part. This we call our business, and if we are
wise we attend to it and prosecute it with due diligence and
application. But it is not all of life, and its claim is not the only
call that is made upon us. Exclusive interest and devotion to it may end
in the sort of success that robs us of the highest value, so that,
however much substance we accumulate, we are failures as men. On the
other hand, we take risks if we slight its just demands and scatter our
powers on miscellaneous interests. Whatever its value, every man, in
addition to what he primarily produces, turns out some by-product. If it
is worth anything, he may be thankful and add the amount to total
income.
The extracts of which this chapter is composed are selections from the
editorial columns of _The Pacific Unitarian_, submitted not as exhibits
in the case of achievement, but as indicating the convictions I have
formed on the way of life.
THE BEGINNING
Thirty years ago, a fairly active Sunday-school was instigated to
publish a monthly journal, nominally for all the organizations of the
First Unitarian Society. It was not expected to be of great benefit,
except to the school. After a year and a half it was adopted by the
Conference, its modest name, _The Guidon_, being expanded to _The
Pacific Unitarian_. Its number of pages was increased to thirty-two.
Probably the most remarkable circumstance connected with it is that it
has lived. The fact that it has enjoyed the opportunity of choice
between life and death is quite surprising. Other journals have had to
die. It has never been easy to live, or absolutely necessary to die.
Anyhow, we have the thirty years of life to look back upon and take
satisfaction in. We are grateful for friends far and near, and generous
commendation has been pleasant to receive, whether it has been justified
or not.
CHRISTIANITY
We realize more and more truly that Christianity in its spirit is a very
different thing from Christianity as a theological structure formulated
by the makers of the creed. The amazing thing is that such a
misconception of the message of Jesus as has generally prevailed has
given us a civilization so creditable. The early councils were incapable
of being led by the spirit of Jesus. They were prejudiced by their
preconceptions of the character of God and the nature of religion, and
evolved a scheme of salvation to fit past conceptions instead of
accepting as real the love of God and of man that Jesus added to the
religion of his fathers. Even the Christianity they fashioned has not
been fairly tried. The Christianity that Jesus proclaimed, a call to
trust, to love, and spiritual life, has hardly been tried at all. We
seem just to be awakening to what it is, and to its application to the
art of living.
THE PRODIGAL'S FATHER
What a difference in the thought of God and in the joy of life would
have followed had the hearers of Jesus given the parable of the Prodigal
Son its full significance! They would then have found in the happy,
loving father and his full forgiveness of the son who "came to himself"
a type of the Heavenly Father. The shadow of the olden fear still
persists, chilling human life. We do not trust the love of God and bear
life's burdens with cheerful courage. From lurking fear of the jealous
king of Hebrew tradition, we are even afraid to be happy when we might.
We fail of faith in the reality of God's love. We forget the robe, the
ring, the overflowing joy of the earthly father, not earned by the
prodigal, but given from complete love. The thing best worth while is
faith in the love of God.
If it be lacking, perhaps the best way to gain it is to assume it--to
act on the basis of its existence, putting aside our doubts, and giving
whatever love we have in our own hearts a chance to strengthen.
WHITSUNTIDE
Whitsuntide is a church season that too often fails to receive due
acknowledgment or recognition. It is, in observance, a poor third.
Christmas is largely diverted to a giving of superfluous gifts, and is
popular from the wide-felt interest in the happiness of children. Easter
we can not forget, for it celebrates the rising or the risen life, and
is marked by the fresh beauty of a beautiful world. To appreciate the
pentecostal season and to care for spiritual inspiration appeals to the
few, and to those few on a higher plane. But of all that religion has to
give, it represents the highest gift, and it has to do with the world's
greatest need.
Spiritual life is the most precious of possessions, the highest
attainment of humanity. Happy are we if our better spirit be quickened,
if our hearts be lifted up, and our wills be strengthened, that worthy
life may bring peace and joy!
WHY THE CHURCH?
We cannot deny the truth that the things of the spirit are of first
importance; but when it comes to living we seem to belie our
convictions. We live as though we thought the spirit a doubtful matter.
There are those who take pride in calling themselves materialists, but
they are hardly as hopeless as those who are so indifferent that they
have no opinion whatever. The man who thinks and cares is quite apt to
come out right, but the mindless animal who only enjoys develops no
recognizable soul. The seeking first is not in derogation of any true
manhood. It is the full life, the whole life, that we are to
compass--but life subordinated and controlled by the spirit, the spirit
that recognizes the distinction between right and wrong. Those who
choose the right and bend all else to it, are of the Kingdom. That is
all that righteousness means.
The church has no monopoly of righteousness, but it is of immense
importance in cultivating the religious spirit, and cannot safely be
dispensed with. And so it must be strongly supported and made efficient.
To those who know true values this is an investment that cannot safely
be ignored. To it we should give generously of our money, but equally
generously we should give ourselves--our presence, our co-operation, our
loyal support of our leaders, our constant effort to hold it to high
ideals. If it is to give life, it must have life, and whatever life it
has is the aggregation of our collected and consecrated lives.
The church called Christian cannot win by holding its old trenches. It
must advance to the line that stretches from our little fortress where
the flag of Reason and Religion defiantly floats. Shall we retreat? No;
it is for us to hold the fort at all costs, not for our sake alone, but
for the army of humanity.
We believe in God and we believe in man. As President Eliot lately put
it, "We believe in the principles of a simple, practical, and democratic
religion. We are meeting ignorance, not with contempt, but with
knowledge. We are meeting dogmatism and superstition, not with
impatience, but with truth. We are meeting sin and injustice, not with
abuse, but with good-will and high idealism. We have the right message
for our time." To the church that seems to us to most nearly realize
these ideals, it is our bounden duty, and should be our glad privilege,
to present ourselves a reasonable sacrifice, that we may do our part in
bringing in God's Kingdom.
THE CHURCH AND PROGRESS
Reforms depend upon reformed men. Perhaps the greater need is _formed_
men. As we survey the majority of men around us, they seem largely
unconscious of what they really are and of the privileges and
responsibilities that appertain to manhood. It must be that men are
better, and more, than they seem. Visit a baseball game or a movie. The
crowds seem wholly irresponsible, and, except in the pleasure or
excitement sought, utterly uninterested--apparently without principle or
purpose. And yet, when called upon to serve their country, men will go
to the ends of the world, and place no limit on the sacrifice freely
made for the general good. They are better than they seem, and in ways
we know not of possess a sense of justice and a love of right which they
found we know not where.
This is encouraging, but must not relieve us from doing our utmost to
inform more fully every son of man of his great opportunity and
responsibility, and also of inspiring him to use his life to his and our
best advantage.
It is so evident that world-welfare rests upon individual well-being
that we cannot escape the conviction that the best thing any one of us
can do is to help to make our fellow-men better and happier. And the
part of wisdom is to organize for the power we gain.
It would seem that the church should be the most effective agency for
promoting individual worth and consequent happiness. Is it?--and if not,
why not? We are apt to say we live in a new age, forgetting how little
change of form matters. Human nature, with its instincts and desires,
love of self, and the general enjoyment of, and through, possessions, is
so little changed that differences in condition and circumstance have
only a modifying influence. It is man, the man within, that counts--not
his clothing.
But it is true that human institutions do undergo great changes, and
nothing intimate and important has suffered greater changes than the
church. Religion itself, vastly more important than the church, has
changed and is changing. Martineau's illuminating classification helps
us to realize this. The first expression, the pagan, was based on fear
and the idea of winning favor by purchase, giving something to God--it
might be burnt-offerings--for his good-will. Then came the Jewish, the
ethical, the thought of doing, rather than giving. Righteousness earns
God's favor. The higher conception blossomed into Christianity with its
trust in the love of God and of serving him and fellow-man,
self-sacrifice being the highest expression of harmony with him.
Following this general advance from giving and doing to being, we have
the altar, the temple, and the church.
THE GENUINE UNITARIAN
Unitarians owe first allegiance to the Kingdom of God on earth. It is of
little consequence through which door it is entered. If any other is
nearer or broader or more attractive, use it. We offer ours for those
who prefer it or who find others not to be entered without a password
they cannot pronounce.
A Unitarian who merely says he is one thereby gives no satisfactory
evidence that he is. There are individuals who seem to think they are
Unitarians because they are nothing else. They regard Unitarianism as
the next to nothing in its requirement of belief, losing all sight of
the fact that even one real belief exceeds, and may be more difficult
than, many half-beliefs and hundreds of make-beliefs, and that a
Unitarian church made up of those who have discarded all they thought
they believed and became Unitarian for its bald negations is to be
pitied and must be patiently nurtured.
As regards our responsibility for the growth of Unitarianism, we surely
cannot fail to recognize it, but it should be clearly qualified by our
recognition of the object in view. To regard Unitarianism as an end to
be pursued for its own sake does not seem compatible with its own true
spirit. The church itself is an instrument, and we are in right relation
when we give the Unitarian church our preference, as, to us, the best
instrument, while we hold first allegiance to the idealism for which it
stands and to the goodness it seeks to unfold in the heart of man.
Nor would we seek growth at any sacrifice of high quality or purpose. We
do not expect large numbers and great popular applause. Unitarians are
pioneers, and too independent and discriminating to stir the feverish
pulse of the multitude. We seek the heights, and it is our concern to
reach them and hold them for the few that struggle up. Loaves and fishes
we have not to offer, nor can we promise wealth and health as an
attractive by-product of righteousness.
There is no better service that anyone can render than to implant
higher ideals in the breast of another. In the matter of religious
education as sought through the ordinary Sunday-school, no one who has
had any practical experience has ever found it easy, or kept free from
doubt as to its being sufficiently efficacious to make it worth while.
But the problem is to recognize the difficulty, face all doubts, and
stand by. Perfect teachers are impossible, satisfactory ones are not
always to be had. If they are not dissatisfied with themselves, they are
almost always unfit. But as between doing the best you can and doing
nothing at all, it would seem that self-respect and a sense of deep
responsibility would leave no recourse. There is no place for a shirker
or a quitter in a real Unitarian church.
HAVE WE DONE OUR WORK?
Now and then some indifferent Unitarian expresses doubt as to the future
value of our particular church. There are those who say, "Why should we
keep it up? Have we not done our work?" We have seen our original
protests largely effective, and rejoice that more liberal and generous,
and, we believe, more just and true, religious convictions prevail; but
have we been constructive and strengthening? And until we have made our
own churches fully free and fruitful in spiritual life are we absolved
from the call to service?
Have we earned our discharge from the army of life? Shall we be
deserters or slackers! We ask no man to fight with us if his loyalty to
any other corps is stronger, but to fight _somewhere_--to do his part
for God and his fellow-men wherever he can do the most effective
service.
We are not Unitarians first. We are not even Christians first. We are
human first, seeking the best in humanity, in our appointed place in a
civilization that finds its greatest inspiration in the leadership of
Jesus of Nazareth, we are next Christians, and we are finally Unitarians
because for us their point of view embodies most truly the spirit that
animated his teachings and his life.
And so we appeal to those who really, not nominally, are of our
household of faith to feel that it is best worth while to stand by the
nearest church and to support it generously, that it may do its part in
soul service and world welfare, and also to encourage it and give it
more abundant life through attendance and participation in its
activities.
OF FIRST IMPORTANCE
It is well for each soul, in the multiplicity of questions besetting
him, to deliberately face them and determine what is of first
importance. Aspects are so diverse and bewildering that if we do not
reduce them to some order, giving them rank, we are in danger of
becoming purposeless drifters on the sea of life.
What is the most important thing in life? What shall be our aim and
purpose, as we look about us, observing our fellows--what they have
accomplished and what they are--what commends itself to us as best worth
while? And what course can we pursue to get the most and the best out of
it?
We find a world of infinite diversity in conditions, in aims, and in
results. One of the most striking differences is in regard to what we
call success. We are prone to conclude that he who is prosperous in the
matter of having is the successful man. Possessing is the proof of
efficiency, and he who possesses little has measurably failed in the
main object of life. This conclusion has a measure of truth, but is not
wholly true. We see not a few instances of utter poverty of life
concurrent with great possessions, and are forced to conclude that the
real value of possessions is dependent on what they bring us. Merely to
have is of no advantage. Indeed it may be a burden or a curse. Happiness
is at least desirable, but it has no necessary connection with property
accumulations. They may make it possible, but they never insure it.
Possession may be an incident, but seldom is a cause.
If we follow this thought further we shall find that in the accepted
methods of accumulation arise many of the causes of current misery and
unhappiness. Generally he who is said to succeed pays a price, and a
large one, for the prosperity he achieves. To be conspicuously
successful commonly involves a degree of selfishness that is almost
surely damaging. Often injustice and unfairness are added to the train
of factors, and dishonesty and absence of decency give the finishing
touch. Every dollar tinged with doubt is a moral liability. If it has
been wrested from its rightful owner through fraud or force of
opportunity, it would better be at the bottom of the sea.
THE BEST IN LIFE
The power and practical irresponsibility of money have ruined many a
man, and the misuse of wealth has left unused immense opportunity for
good. It has coined a word that has become abhorrent, and "Capitalism"
has, in the minds of the suspicious, become the all-sufficient cause of
everything deplorable in human conditions. No true-hearted observer can
conclude that the first consideration of life should be wealth. On the
other hand, no right-minded person will ignore the desirability and the
duty of judiciously providing the means for a reasonable degree of
comfort and self-respect, with a surplus for the furtherance of human
welfare in general, and the relief of misfortune and suffering. Thrift
is a virtue; greed is a vice. Reasonable possession is a commendable and
necessary object. The unrestrained avarice that today is making cowards
of us all is an unmeasured curse, a world-wide disgrace that threatens
civilization.
In considering ends of life we cannot ignore those who consider
happiness as adequate. Perhaps there are few who formulate this, but
there are many who seem to give it practical assent. They apparently
conform their lives to this butterfly estimate, and, in the absence of
any other purpose, rest satisfied. Happiness is indeed a desirable
condition, and in the highest sense, where it borders on blessedness,
may be fairly termed "the end and aim of being." But on the lower
stretches of the senses, where it becomes mere enjoyment or pleasure,
largely concerned with amusement and self-indulgence of various sorts,
it becomes parasitic, robbing life of its strength and flavor and
preventing its development and full growth. It is insidious in its
deterioration and omnivorous in its appetite. It tends to habits that
undermine and to the appropriation of a preponderating share of the
valueless things of life. The danger is in the unrestrained appetite, in
intemperance that becomes habit. Pleasure is exhausting of both purse
and mind. We naturally crave pleasant experiences, and we need a certain
amount of relaxation. The danger is in overindulgence and indigestion
resulting in spiritual invalidism. Let us take life sanely, accepting
pleasures gratefully but moderately.
But what _is_ best in life? Why, life itself. Life is opportunity. Here
it is, around us, offered to us. We are free to take what we can or what
we like. We have the great privilege of choice, and life's ministry to
us depends on what we take and what we leave.
We are providentially assigned our place, whatever it is, but in no
fixed sense of its being final and unalterable. The only obligation
implied is that of acceptance until it can be bettered.
Our moral responsibility is limited to our opportunity, and the vital
question is the use we make of it. The great fact of life is that we are
spiritual beings. Religion has to do with soul existence and is the
field of its development. It is concerned primarily with being and
secondly with doing. It is righteousness inspired by love. It is
recognition of our responsibilities to do God's will.
Hence the best life is that which accepts life as opportunity, and
faithfully, happily seeks to make the most of it. It seeks to follow the
right, and to do the best it can, in any circumstances. It accepts all
that life offers, enjoying in moderation its varied gifts, but in
restraint of self-indulgence, and with kindly consideration of others.
It subordinates its impulses to the apprehended will of God, bears
trials with fortitude, and trusts eternal good.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
One of the most impressive sights in the natural world is the
difficulties resisted and overcome by a tree in its struggle for life.
On the very summit of the Sentinel Dome, over eight thousand feet above
sea-level, there is rooted in the apparently solid granite a lone pine
two feet in diameter. It is not tall, for its struggle with the wind and
snow has checked its aspirations, but it is sturdy and vigorous, while
the wonder is that it ever established and maintained life at all. Where
it gains its nourishment is not apparent. Disintegrated granite seems a
hard diet, but it suffices, for the determined tree makes the best of
the opportunities offered. Like examples abound wherever a crevice holds
any soil whatever. In a niche of El Capitan, more than a thousand feet
from the valley's floor, grows a tree a hundred feet high. A strong
glass shows a single tree on the crest of Half Dome. Such persistence is
significant, and it enforces a lesson we very much need.
Reason should not be behind instinct in making the most of life. While
man is less rigidly conditioned and may modify his environment, he, too,
may nourish his life by using to the full whatever nutriment is offered.
Lincoln has been characterized as a man who made the most of his life.
Perhaps his greatness consisted mostly in that.
We are inclined to blame conditions and circumstances for failures that
result from our lack of effort. We lack in persistence, we resent
disparity in the distribution of talents, we blink at responsibility,
and are slothful and trifling. Our life is a failure from lack of will.
Who are we that we should complain that life is hard, or conclude that
it is not better so? Why do we covet other opportunities instead of
doing the best with those we have? What is the glory of life but to
accept it with such satisfaction as we can command, to enjoy what we
have a right to, and to use all it offers for its upbuilding and
fulfillment?
BEING RIGHT
How evident it is that much more than good intentions is needed in one
who would either maintain self-respect or be of any use in his daily
life! It is not easy to be good, but it is often less easy to be right.
It involves an understanding that presupposes both ability and effort.
Intelligence, thinking, often studious consideration, are necessary to
give a working hypothesis of what is best. It is seldom that anything is
so simple that without careful thought we can be sure that one course is
right and another wrong. Perhaps, after we have weighed all that is
ponderable, we can only determine which seems the better course of
action. Being good may help our judgment. Doing right is the will of
God.
PATRIOTISM
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to
the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." Abraham Lincoln had a
marvelous aptitude for condensed statement, and in this compact
sentence from his Cooper Union address expresses the very essence of the
appeal that is made to us today. We can find no more fundamental slogan
and no nobler one.
Whatever the circumstances presented and whatever the immediate result
will be, we are to dare to do our duty as we understand it. And we are
so to dare and so to do in complete faith that right makes might and in
utter disregard of fear that might may triumph. The only basis of true
courage is faith, and our trust must be in right, in good, in God.
We live in a republic that sustains itself through the acceptance by all
of the will of the majority, and to talk of despotism whenever the
authority necessary for efficiency is exercised, and that with
practically unanimous concurrence, is wholly unreasonable. A man who
cannot yield allegiance to the country in which he lives should either
be silent and inactive or go to some country where his sympathy
corresponds with his loyalty.