man has his own calling, and is set in by his own circumstances, but
Jesus has told us how to carry ourselves in the things we have to do,
and He has put the heart in us to live becomingly, not by pedantic
rules, but by an instinct of nobility. Jesus is the supreme teacher of
the Bible and He came not to forbid or to command, but to place the
Kingdom of God as a living force, and perpetual inspiration within the
soul of man, and then, to leave him in freedom and in grace to fulfil
himself."[G]
We no longer admit that Christ is present and at work only when a
minister is expounding the gospel or some theological precept or
conducting some ordained observance in the pulpit; or that religion is
only when it is labelled as such and is within the walls of a church.
That belonged to the chapter in Christianity that is now rapidly
closing, a chapter of good works and results--but so pitiably below its
possibilities. So pitiably below because men had been taught and without
sufficient thought accepted the teaching that to be a Christian was to
hold certain beliefs about the Christ that had been formulated by early
groups of men and that had come down through the centuries.
The chapter that is now opening upon the world is the one that puts
Christ's own teachings in the simple, frank, and direct manner in which
he gave them, to the front. It makes life, character, conduct, human
concern and human service of greater importance than mere matters of
opinion. It makes eager and unremitting work for the establishing of the
Kingdom of God, the kingdom of right relations between men, here on this
earth, the essential thing. It insists that the telling test as to
whether a man is a Christian is how much of the Christ spirit is in
evidence in his life--and in every phase of his life. Gripped by this
idea which for a long time the forward-looking and therefore the big men
in them have been striving for, our churches in the main are moving
forward with a new, a dauntless, and a powerful appeal.
Differences that have sometimes separated them on account of differences
of opinion, whether in thought or interpretation,[H] are now found to be
so insignificant when compared to the actual simple fundamentals that
the Master taught, and when compared to the work to be done, that a
great Interallied Church Movement is now taking concrete and strong
working form, that is equipping the church for a mighty and far-reaching
Christian work. A new and great future lies immediately ahead. The good
it is equipping itself to accomplish is beyond calculation--a work in
which minister and layman will have equal voice and equal share.
It will receive also great inspiration and it will eagerly strike hands
with all allied movements that are following the same leader, but along
different roads.
Britain's apostle of brotherhood and leader of the Brotherhood Movement
there, Rev. Tom Sykes, who has caught so clearly the Master's own basis
of Christianity--love for and union with God, love for and union with
the brother--has recently put so much stimulating truth into a single
paragraph that I reproduce it here:
"The emergence of the feeling of kinship with the Unseen is the most
arresting and revealing fact of human history. * * * _The union
with God_ is not through the display of ritual, but the affiliation and
conjunction of life. We do not believe we are in a universe that has
screens and folds, where the spiritual commerce of man has to be
conducted on the principle of secret diplomacy. The universe is frank
and open, and God is straightforward and honourable. _In making the
spirit and practice of brotherliness_ the test of religious value, we
are at one with Him who said: 'Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the
least--ye do it unto me.' _We touch the Father when we help His child._
Jesus taught us not to come to God asking, art Thou this or that? but to
call Him Father and live upon it. Do not admit that many of our
Brotherhood meetings are in 'neutral' or 'secular' halls and buildings!
'Where two or three gather in My name, there am I.' Where He is, there
is hallowed ground."
We need a stock-taking and a mobilisation of our spiritual forces. But
what, after all, does this mean? Search as we may we are brought back
_every time_ to this same Man of Nazareth, the God-man--Son of Man and
Son of God. And gathering it into a few brief sentences it is this:
Jesus' great revelation was this consciousness of God in the individual
life, and to this he witnessed in a supreme and masterly way, because
this he supremely realised and lived. Faith in him and following him
does not mean acquiring some particular notion of God or some particular
belief about him himself. It is the living in one's own life of this
same consciousness of God as one's source and Father, and a living in
these same filial relations with him of love and guidance and care that
Jesus entered into and continuously lived.
When this is done there is no problem and no condition in the individual
life that it will not clarify, mould, and therefore take care of; for
"[Greek transliteration: me merimnate te psyche hymon]"--do not worry about your
life--was the Master's clear-cut command. Are we ready for this high
type of spiritual adventure? Not only are we assured of this great and
mighty truth that the Master revealed and going ahead of us lived, that
under this supreme guidance we need not worry about the things of the
life, but that under this Divine guidance we need not think _even of the
life itself_, if for any reason it becomes our duty or our privilege to
lay it down. Witnessing for truth and standing for truth he again
preceded us in this.
But this, this love for God or rather this state that becomes the
natural and the normal life when we seek the Kingdom, and the Divine
rule becomes dominant and operative in mind and heart, leads us directly
back to his other fundamental: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
For if God is my Father and if he cares for me in this way--and every
other man in the world is my brother and He cares for him in exactly the
same way--then by the sanction of God his Father I haven't anything on
my brother; and by the love of God my Father my brother hasn't anything
on me. It is but the most rudimentary commonsense then, that we be
considerate one of another, that we be square and decent one with
another. We will do well as children of the same Father to sit down and
talk matters over; and arise with the conclusion that the advice of
Jesus, our elder brother, is sound: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
He gave it no label, but it has subsequently become known as the Golden
Rule. There is no higher rule and no greater developer of the highest
there is in the individual human life, and no greater adjuster and
beautifier of the problems of our common human life. And when it becomes
sufficiently strong in its action in this, the world awaits its
projection into its international life. This is the truth that he
revealed--the twofold truth of love to God and love for the neighbour,
that shall make men free. The truth of the Man of Nazareth still holds
and shall hold, and we must realise this adequately before we ask or can
expect any other revelation.
We are in a time of great changes. The discovery of new laws and
therefore of new truth necessitates changes and necessitates advances.
But whatever changes or advances may come, the Divine reality still
survives, independent of Jesus it is true, but as the world knows him
still better, it will give to him its supreme gratitude and praise, in
that he was the most perfect revealer of God to man, of God in man, and
the most concrete in that he embodied and lived this truth in his own
matchless human-divine life; and stands as the God-man to which the
world is gradually approaching. For as Goethe has said--"We can never
get beyond the spirit of Jesus."
Love it is, he taught, that brings order out of chaos, that becomes the
solvent of the riddle of life, and however cynical, skeptical, or
practical we may think at times we may be, a little quiet clear-cut
thought will bring us each time back to the truth that it is the
essential force that leads away from the tooth and the claw of the
jungle, that lifts life up from and above the clod. Love is the world's
balance-wheel; and as the warming and ennobling element of sympathy,
care and consideration radiates from it, increasing one's sense of
mutuality, which in turn leads to fellowship, cooperation, brotherhood,
a holy and diviner conception and purpose of life is born, that makes
human life more as it should be, as it must be--as it will be.
I love to feel that when one makes glad the heart of any man, woman,
child, or animal, he makes glad the heart of God--and I somehow feel
that it is true.
As our household fires radiate their genial warmth, and make more joyous
and more livable the lot of all within the household walls, so life in
its larger scope and in all its human relations, becomes more genial and
more livable and reveals more abundantly the deeper riches of its
diviner nature, as it is made more open and more obedient to the higher
powers of mind and spirit.
Do you know that incident in connection with the little Scottish girl?
She was trudging along, carrying as best she could a boy younger, but it
seemed almost as big as she herself, when one remarked to her how heavy
he must be for her to carry, when instantly came the reply: "He's na
heavy. He's mi brither." Simple is the incident; but there is in it a
truth so fundamental that pondering upon it, it is enough to make many a
man, to whom dogma or creed make no appeal, a Christian--and a mighty
engine for good in the world. And more--there is in it a truth so
fundamental and so fraught with potency and with power, that its wider
recognition and projection into all human relations would reconstruct a
world.
_I saw the mountains stand
Silent, wonderful, and grand,
Looking out across the land
When the golden light was falling
On distant dome and spire;
And I heard a low voice calling,
"Come up higher, come up higher,
From the lowland and the mire,
From the mist of earth desire,
From the vain pursuit of pelf.
From the attitude of self:
Come up higher, come up higher."_
_James G. Clark_
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: The Emmanuel Movement in Boston in connection with Emmanuel
Church, inaugurated some time ago under the leadership and direction of
two well-known ministers, Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb, and a well-known
physician, Dr. Coriat, and similar movements in other cities is an
attestation of this.
That most valuable book under the joint authorship of these three men:
"Religion and Medicine," Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, will be
found of absorbing interest and of great practical value by many. The
amount of valuable as well as interesting and reliable material that it
contains is indeed remarkable.]
[Footnote B: "War and Laughter," by James Oppenheim--The Century
Company, New York.]
[Footnote C: Henry Holt in "Cosmic Relations."]
[Footnote D: From a notable article in the New York "Times Magazine,"
Sunday, April 1, 1917, by George W. Perkins, chairman Mayor's Food
Supply Commission.]
[Footnote E: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of
James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are his sisters not here
with us?--Mark 6:3.]
[Footnote F: From that strong, splendid poem "Buttadeus," by William
Samuel Johnson.]
[Footnote G: "God's Message to the Human Soul"--_Revell_.]
[Footnote H: The thought of the layman in practically all of our
churches is much the same as that of Mr. Lloyd George when he said: "The
Church to which I belong is torn with a fierce dispute; one part says it
is baptism _into_ the name of the Father, and the other that it is
baptism _in_ the name of the Father. I belong to one of these parties. I
feel most strongly about this. I would die for it, but I forget which it
is."]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Made minor punctuation, spelling, and hyphenation changes for
consistency.
Corrected the following typos:
Page 81: Changed Pharasaic to Pharisaic.
(come into being a Pharisaic legalism)
Page 140: Changed subconsious to subconscious.
(the slumbering subconsious mind)
Page 193: Changed independant to independent.
(guided by their own independant judgment)
Page 217: Changed terriffic to terrific.
(What a terriffic price to pay to learn the lesson)
Page 221: Changed symathy to sympathy.
(He had, as we have seen, infinite symathy for and forbearance)
Page 232: Changed accompaniament to accompaniment.
(Misunderstanding is not infrequently its accompaniament.)
Page 237: Changed viligant to vigilant.
(And unless viligant and determined)
Page 245: Changed tyrany to tyranny.
(ungoverned by the law of mutuality, becomes tyrany.)
Page 245: Changed malignent to malignant.
(the use of force to restrain malignent evil,)
Page 253: Changed inaliable to inalienable.
(the inaliable right that every child has)
Page 258: Changed impertinances to impertinences.
("sectarian peculiarities are obsolete impertinances.")
Page 259: Changed Chrisitianity to Christianity.
(Chrisitianity of the Christ)
Page 260: Changed heirarchy to hierarchy.
(The real Church of Christ is not an heirarchy,)
Page 262: Changed that to than.
(human service of greater importance that mere matters of opinion.)