Straight sermons to young men and other human beings, preached before the universities of Yale, Harvard and Princeton

Front matter

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THE POETRY OF TENNYSON. Third Edition. $2.00.

Preface

Xlll

Their real aim is nothing else than to help

people to be good, which is the hardest and

the finest thing in the world. Their gospel is

simply this : that the sure way to be good

is to trust and follow Jesus Christ, the Son

of God.

Minister's Room, Harvard College, January, 1893.

Contents

I. A Man 1

II. Faith ....

III. Courage

II FAITH : SSEtt&out fait?) it is impossible to please jpim."

Hebrews xi. 6.

" SSRit&ottt fattf) it is impossible to please |)tm ."

This is a short statement of a large truth. The plain language lends force and dignity to the thought. It needs no embroidered words, no jewelry of speech, to set it off. For truth, like beauty, shows best with least adornment.

In trying to unfold the meaning of this text I would fain keep to that simplicity and clearness of which it gives us such a good model. There is no reason why religion should be made dark and difficult by talking about it in long, unfamiliar, antiquated words which cause people to wish for a dictionary ; nor is there any excuse for seeking to win the wonder and astonishment of men by obscure sayings and curious comparisons, — mountains of eloquence which labour long and violently to produce a little mouse of practical sense. In ancient times the teach-

30 jFaitf)

ers of the people were told to read in tlie book of the Law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and cause the people to understand the meaning. To reach that result no pains are too great, no effort is too costly. I would rather spend five days in trying to make a text clear and level to the mind, to open the door of it so that any one could walk in, than five minutes in trying to make it strange and mysterious, to cover it with all kinds of ornaments and arabesques so that nobody should be able to find the keyhole and unlock the door.

Religion is full of mysteries. The object of the Bible is not to increase them, but to remove them. If a certain amount of mystery still remains, it lies in the subject, and not in the way in which it is treated. For the most part, the teachings and rules of the Scriptures are so clear and direct that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein ; they shed light and not darkness ; they disperse the clouds to reveal the sun.

Take the declaration of the text : " Without faith it is impossible to please God." How easy it is to see just why the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews inserted that sen-

Jattj) 31

tence where it stands ! He is writing about the heroes of faith, — the men and women who, from the very beginning of the world, have been bound together into one company by this great principle of all true and noble life. Among them he counts the patriarch Enoch. But as we look back to the brief record of Enoch's life in the Book of Genesis we find that not a word is said there about his faith. By what right, then, is he included in the list ? Why is he counted among the faithful ? "I will tell you why," says the writer of the Epistle : " it is because he obtained this testimony, that he pleased God. This is proof positive that he must have had faith. Where you find a flower, you know there must have been a seed. Where you find a river, you know there must be a spring. Where you see a flame, you know there must be a fire. Where you find a man beloved and blessed of God, you know there must be faith. Whether it is recorded or not, whether you can see it or not, it must be there, germ of his virtue, fountain-head of his goodness, living source of warmth and light ; for without faith it is impossible to please God."

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How simple and how beautiful is that phrase, — to please God. What a sense of nearness to the Divine Being it gives us. How it discloses God's nature and character. What a noble statement of the true aim of life.

God can be pleased, then. He is not a cold abstraction, an immovable substance, a dull, unimpassioned, silent, joyless, mightyforce. He is a person, capable of affections and emotions. He is a heart that feels. Delight is no stranger to Him. His love is no vague, blind impulse, flowing dumbly towards all things alike. It is a seeking, choosing love ; and when it finds the object of its search, a thrill of gladness passes through it, larger, purer than we can understand, and yet like that which comes to us when we see the fairest and the best. He approves and blesses. His Spirit is filled with the music of pleasure.

To waken that music, to win that approval, to please God, — surely that is the highest and holiest object for a human life.

To please men is a natural impulse. There is no one who does not desire in some degree to obtain the liking and favour of

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his fellow-creatures. But presently, as we come to know by experience how shallow and how fickle are the fashions of the world, how false and often how impure are the motives by which the liking of the crowd is influenced, how easily it is gained by accident and lost by chance, we begin to see that this kind of surface favour is deceitful, and to look for something better.

To please good men, — that is a nobler ambition. To win the confidence and honour of those who are honest and earnest and upright ; to speak some word, to do some deed, to exercise some virtue, of which those who think deep thoughts, and lead pure lives, and perform noble actions, shall say, " That was right, that was true, that was kind, that was brave," — this is a motive which has always been potent in the most generous breasts, restraining them from evil, nerving them to heroic efforts, stimulating them to dare and to do.

But there is a motive deeper and more intense than even this : it is the desire to please that one among our fellow-creatures whom we have chosen, it may be, as the most loyal heart and true ; to pluck some flower from

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the lofty crags of duty : to win some honourable trophy in the world's great battlefield, — yes, even though that trophy be but the scar received in warring for the right, the banner which has been torn and stained in an unequal conflict, but never dishonoured : to do something, to endure something, which shall really please the one who is to us the best and dearest on earth, — how many a soul has been quickened, and uplifted, and strengthened to face danger, disgrace, and death by that profound desire !

But to please God, the perfect, radiant Being, the most wise, the most holy, the most beautiful, the most loving of all Spirits ; to perform some task, achieve some victory, bring some offering that shall be acceptable to Him, and in which He shall delight ; simply to live our life, whatever it may be. so that He, the good and glorious God, shall approve and bless it, and say of it, M ^Vell done," and welcome it into the sense of His own joy, — that is a divine ambition.

u "VThat vaster dream could hit the mood Of loTe on earth ? "

It has sustained martyrs at the stake, and comforted prisoners in the dungeon, and jFatt& 35

cheered warriors in the heat of perilous conflict, and inspired labourers in every noble cause, and made thousands of obscure and nameless heroes in every hidden place of earth. It is the pillar of light which shines before the journeying host. It is the secret watchword of the army, given not to the leaders alone, but flashing like fire through all the ranks. When that thought descends upon us, it kindles our hearts and makes them live. What though we miss the applause of men; what though friends misunderstand, and foes defame, and the great world pass us by ? There is One that seeth in secret, and followeth the soul in its toils and struggles, — the great King, whose approval is honour, whose love is happiness ; to please Him is success, and victory, and peace.

There are a million ways of pleasing Him, as many as the characters of men, as many as the hues and shades of virtue, as many as the conflicts between good and evil, as many as the calls to honest labour, as many as the opportunities of doing right and being good. That is the broad meaning of this eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, with its long roll of different achievements, with its list of

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men and women of every age, of every quality and condition, slaves and freemen, leaders and followers, warriors and statesmen, saints and sinners, and silent martyrs, and nameless conquerors ; there are a million ways of pleasing God, but not one without faith. Numberless forms of energy, but none without heat. Myriad colors of beauty, but none without light. All is cold and black until the sun shines. A universe of possibilities of goodness spreads before you, but not one of them can be realized unless you have faith. For without faith it is impossible to please God.

But why should this be so ? Is it an arbitrary requirement which the Divine Being makes of his creatures, or is there a deep reason for it in the nature of men and the conditions of human life ? I do not believe that God is ever arbitrary. He is indeed omnipotent, and He has the power to demand of us whatsoever He will. But there is always a wise and holy reason in his demands. Sometimes we cannot understand it ; it lies too deep for us. But sometimes w r e can understand it ; it lies within our reach. And in the present case I think we can easily see

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just why faith is necessary to the success of every effort to please Him.

Faith is not a strange and far-away thing which can only be explained to us by a revelation. It is a principle of common life. We exercise it every day. It is simply the confidence in something which is invisible ; as the Apostle says, " it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Every time you receive the testimony of your fellow-men, every time you trust in the qualities of their character which are beyond the reach of your vision, every time you rely upon a law of logic in an argument, upon a law of nature in your action, upon a law of morality in your conduct, you exercise faith. It is the condition of reason, of activity, of human society. " All polities and societies," says a wise observer, " have come into existence through the trust of men in each other," and, we may add, through their trust in unseen principles of equity, and in future results of prudence, and in One higher than themselves whom they could neither see nor name. Take away confidence in the invisible, and the whole fabric decays, crumbles, and falls in ruin.

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Thus, even from the human point of view, faith is necessary. But from the Divine point of view, it must appear infinitely more essential.

Man is made to know as much as possible, to do as much as possible, and to be as good as possible. In the sphere of knowledge, in the sphere of action, in the sphere of character, faith is the one element that gives life and power to please God.

I. Look first at the sphere of knowledge, the understanding of the world and of life. We stand in a strange and mysterious universe, with certain faculties to help us to a comprehension of it. First, we have the senses, and they tell us how things look, and taste, and sound, and feel. Then we have the reasoning powers, and they enable us to discover how things are related to each other, how causes are followed by effects, how great laws control their action and reaction. But is there not something beyond this, a depth below the deep and a height beyond the height ? Every instinct of our nature assures us that there must be. The lesson of modern thought is the limitation of science and philosophy. But outside of this narrow jFaitj) 39

circle lie the truths that we most desire and need to know. In that unexplored world dwells God. Why should we hesitate to confess that we must have another and a higher faculty of knowledge ? The astronomer has keen eyes, but he knows their limitation, and he does no discredit to them when he uses the telescope to bring near the unseen stars. The entomologist has quick sight, but he does not disparage it when he turns to the microscope to search a drop of water for its strange, numberless forms of life. Reason is excellent and forceful, but beyond its boundaries there is a realm which can only be discerned by faith. Where science ends, where philosophy pauses, faith begins.

" By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear."

Mark the words : By faith we understand. It is a principle of comprehension, then, not of confusion ; something which clarifies and enlarges the vision. It discloses not only the origin but also the purpose and the meaning of things. It is not the contradiction. but the crown and complement of reason. How can God be pleased with any knowledge from which this element is left out ?

Suppose that you had written a book, and some one should take it up and measure it, and say : " This curious object is composed of cloth, paper, ink, glue, and thread. It is seven inches long, five inches wide, and two inches thick : it contains rive hundred pages and a hundred thousand words, and I wonder where it came from and what it is for." Would that please you ?

Suppose that you had carved a statue, and some one should find it and say : *• This remarkable stone is composed of carbonate of lime ; it is very smooth and white, and it weighs about six hundred pounds, and I think I have explained it perfectly.'' Would that satisfy you ? Would you not be better pleased with the chilcL or the ignorant j ant. who stood and looked at your statue and felt its beauty, and recognized that it had been made by some one to represent a great, a noble, a lovely idea ?

The world was made for its meaning, to show forth the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. If we do not see that, we see nothing.

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We may be able to tell how many stars are in the Milky Way ; we may be able to count the petals of every flower, and number the bones of every bird; but unless faith leads us to a deeper understanding, a more reverent comprehension of the significance of the universe, God can no more be pleased with our knowledge than the painter is pleased with the fly which touches his picture with its feelers, and sips the varnish from the surface, and dies without dreaming of the meaning, thought, feeling, embodied in the colours. But on the simplest soul that feels the wonder and the hidden glory of the universe, on the child to whom the stars are little windows into heaven, or the poet to whom

' ' the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,' '

God looks down with pleasure and approval. For in such a soul He sees the beginning of faith, which is able to pass behind the appearance to the reality, and make its possessor wise unto everlasting life.

II. Turn now to the sphere of action. Here faith is no less necessary. There are some who would persuade us that believing

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is appropriate only to infancy and old age ; that it is a kind of dreaming, an infirmity of the weak and visionary. But the truth is otherwise. Carlyle says : " Belief is great, life-giving. The history of a nation becomes fruitful, soul-elevating, great, so soon as it believes. A man lives by believing something, not by debating and arguing about many things." Faith is power. It makes men strong, ardent, persistent, heroic. Nothing truly great has ever been done in any department of the world's work without faith. Think of the faith of our explorers and discoverers, — Columbus, who found the New World ; the Pilgrim Fathers, who planted it with life ; Livingstone, who opened a new continent to civilization. Think of the faith of our men of science, — Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Faraday, Henry. Think of the faith of the reformers, — "Wyclif , Luther, Knox. Think of the faith of the martyrs, — Polycarp, Huss, Savonarola, the Covenanters of Scotland, the Huguenots of France. Faith is a force, and those who grasp it lay hold of something which is able to make them mightier than themselves.

Let a man fasten himself to some great jFaitf) 43

idea, some large truth, some noble cause, even in the affairs of this world, and it will send him forward with energy, with steadfastness, with confidence. This is what Emerson meant when he said, " Hitch your wagon to a star." These are the potent, the commanding, the enduring, the inspiring men, — in our own history, men like Washington and Lincoln. They may fall, they may be defeated, they may perish ; but onward moves the cause, and their souls go marching on with it, for they are part of it, they have believed in it.

And if the cause be divine, if the idea come from above, if the action be impelled by faith in God and a resolve to do his will, then how dauntless and impregnable does it make the heart in which it dwells ! Paul standing alone against the mocking, sneering world to testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, " I believe and therefore speak : " Luther riding into the city of Worms, though every housetop were thronged with devils, and appearing alone before the imperial council, " Here stand I, I cannot do otherwise, God help me : " Morrison, the first missionary to China, standing alone on the deck of the ship that bears him to a strange and hostile world : " Do you think," says the captain, " that you will make an impression upon 400,000,000 Chinese ? " " No, sir," is the reply, " but I believe that God will : " — that is faith, — everywhere and always the victory that overcometh the world.

I will make a personal confession to you. Very often it seems to me as if there were one, and only one, great and essential difference among the multitudes of people who inhabit this earth. Moving about among them, coming into contact with them, I find that some men and women seem unreal, hollow, visionary, masks without faces, costumes without character. They run in the grooves of custom, they drift to and fro on the currents of fashion, they are blown up and down by the winds of popular opinion ; even when they seem to lead, it is only as the lightest leaf is carried along foremost by the gale. They are only animated shadows, without principle or probity, wdthout conviction or consistency, wdthout faith or fidelity. But other men and women seem real, and true, and genuine. There is something behind their looks, their words, their jFatt!) 45

actions. They have power to touch, and move, and satisfy the heart, because they believe. Have you never felt the difference ? Do you think that God does not feel it ? Can a mask, a shadow, however fair or orderly, please Him ? Will He withhold his approval and blessing from any real, honest, struggling, believing soul?

But perhaps some may be thinking just now : " This is the old story that the preacher is telling us ; he is singing the same old song about faith, — and still faith, — and always the necessity of faith ! Why not lay more emphasis on works ? Surely they are more important. He has just told us that there are many ways of pleasing God. There are many courses of good conduct open to us all. If we follow any one of them, that is enough. So long as a man's actions are right it makes no difference what lies behind them, it makes no difference whether he believes or not." Do you really think so? Is there no difference between a body without a spirit and a body with a spirit ? Does not the thought, the motive, the purpose count for something ?

Here are a multitude of people giving their

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money to support the Temple. And many rich men, standing beside the treasury, cast in their gifts ; from habit, from a desire to appear well before the world, from a hope of reward. A poor widow comes with her two mites; she knows her gift will be despised, she fears it may be laughed at, but she believes that God wants her to do what she can, and that He will not refuse her offering. So her coppers fall in among the gold and the silver, and the Lord of the treasury blesses her, and says, M She hath given more than they all."

Here are two women going down to work among the sick and the poor. One goes because there is a fashion of it, because she would fain have the credit which belongs to the lady bountiful. She moves among them like an iceberg, and they hate her. She brings a chill with her which all her coals and blankets can never warm away. The other goes because she believes in it, believes that God wants her to do it, believes that the sorrowful and the distressed are Christ's brethren, and that she is bound to them, and that they have immortal souls which she may win for Him. She moves among them like

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a sister of Jesus and a friend of God ; and of her the Master says, " Inasmuch as she hath done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, she hath done it unto me."

Here are two men praying. One stands upon the corner of the street, correct, punctilious; at the appointed time he lifts his hands, he raises his voice that he may be heard of men. The other kneels in the dust, ignorant, stammering, feeble ; he lifts his face to Christ and says, " Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." And that broken, stammering cry of honest faith pleases God, and brings the blessing which would never come to the Pharisee though he stood on the street corner till the crack of doom.

Let us never be so foolish as to think that it makes no difference whether we believe or not. Faith is the soul of conduct ; faith is the bloom, the breath, the vital power of religion ; without it, virtue is the alabaster box, empty ; faith is the precious ointment whose fragrance fills the house. Therefore without faith it is impossible to please God.

III. Finally, faith is necessary because it is the only possible way of contact between God and man, the only way in which He

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can draw near to us, and save and bless us. And that, if you will believe it, is the one thing that He most desires to do. There is no compulsion laid upon Him. He does not act as one who is performing an indifferent task. He is so good that He longs to deliver us from sin and death, to bring us to himself, to give us a place in his happy kingdom. This is his glory and his delight : to rescue the perishing, to raise the fallen, to forgive the sinful, to give life to the dying. He loves this work so much that He sent his own dear Son into the world to accomplish it. And nothing that you can do will please Him so much as simply to let Him save you, and help you to be good.

Think for a moment : what can you do for any one who does not trust you, who does not believe in you ? Nothing. That barrier of mistrust stands like a wall of ice between you and the soul that you desire to help. Is there anything that wounds you more than to be doubted and denied, and thrust away in suspicion or indifference ? Truly that is the deepest and most bitter pain. Is there anything that pleases you more than to be trusted, — to have even a little child look up jFaitf) 49

into your face, and put out its hand to meet yours, and come to you confidingly ? By so mucli as God is better than you are, by so much more does He love to be trusted.

Yes, I know you are trying to be good, — fitfully, imperfectly, yet still trying. But there is something else that God would have you do first. He would have you believe that He wants you to be good, that He is willing to help you to be good, that He has sent his Son to make you good.

There is a hand stretched out to you, — a hand with a wound in the palm of it. Reach out the hand of your faith to clasp it, and cling to it, for without faith it is impossible to please God.

Ill

" SSSait on t&e iorlr : be of 500U courage, anU &e afcall strengthen t&tne Jeart"

Psalm xxvii. 14.

" SSRatt on t&e Lot* : be of ffootr cottraje, an* jje g&all dtrentjtjjen tl)tne fccart"

This is a sermon about courage, one of the simplest and most straightforward of the virtues; necessary, and therefore possible, for every true and noble human life.

It is a quality that we admire by instinct. We need no teacher to tell us that it is a fine thing to be brave. The lack of courage is universally recognized as a grave defect in character. If in our own hearts we feel the want of it, if we cannot find enough of it to enable us to face the dangers and meet the responsibilities and fight the battles of life, we are not only sorry, but secretly ashamed. The absence of courage is a fault that few are willing to confess. We naturally conceal it, and cover it up, and try to keep it secret even from ourselves. We invent favourable names for it, which are only unconscious excuses. We call it

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prudence, or respectability, or conservatism, or economy, or worldly wisdom, or the instinct of self-preservation. For in truth there is nothing that we are more reluctant to admit than cowardice ; and there is no virtue which we would more gladly possess and prove than courage.

In the first place, it is an honourable virtue. Men have always loved and praised it. It lends a glory and a splendour to the life in which it dwells, — lifts it up and ennobles it, and crowns it with light. The world delights in heroism, even in its rudest forms and lowest manifestations. Among the animals we create a sort of aristocracy on the basis of courage, and recognize, in the fearlessness of the game beasts and birds and fishes, a claim to rank above the timorous, furtive, spiritless members of creation.

And in man bravery is always fine. We salute it in our enemies. A daring foe is respected, and though we must fight against him we can still honour his courage, and almost forget the conflict in our admiration for his noble bearing. That is what Dr. Johnson meant by saying, " I love a good hater." The enemy who slinks and plots and conceals — makes traps and ambuscades, seeks to lead his opponent into dangers which he himself would never dare to face — is despicable, serpentine, and contemptible. But he who stands up boldly against his antagonist in any conflict, physical, social, or spiritual, and deals fair blows, and uses honest arguments, and faces the issues of warfare, is a man to love even across the chasm of strife. An outspoken infidel is far nobler than a disguised skeptic. A brave, frank, manly foe is infinitely better than a false, weak, timorous friend.

The literature of courage has always been immensely popular, and the history of the brave is written in letters of gold. It is this that men have loved to read in the strange, confused annals of war, — deeds of self -forgetful daring which leap from the smoke and clamour of battle, and shine in the sudden making of splendid names. It is the quality which levels youth with age, gives to woman the force of manhood, equalizes the peasant with the noble, and consumes all outward distinctions in the flame of glory. The boy Casabianca keeping the solitary deck of the burning vessel rather than disobey his father's commands ; the brave Lady Douglas thrusting her tender arm through the staple of the door to defend her king from the assassin ; Leonidas at Thermopylae, and Horatius at the bridge, and the Six Hundred at Balaklava ; old Cranmer bathing his hands in fire at the martyr's stake, and young Stephen praying fearlessly for his murderers ; Florence Nightingale facing fever in Crimean hospitals ; Father Damien braving leprosy in the Islands of the Sea ; young men and maidens, old men and matrons, fighting, suffering, achieving, resisting, enduring, daring, living, and dying — it is the spark of heroism that kindles their names into the blaze of light, for everywhere and always courage is an honourable virtue.