The life worth living

Preface

This book, born in fear and trembling and brought forth with much travail of spirit, is now sent out into the world. My one aim and one desire has been to know the " Mind of the Master " and to exhibit the Religion of Jesus as he taught it.

" As much as in me lieth " I have sought to free myself from all theological bias and all trend of training, that I might see " Jesus only " and that I might hear the teachings which he taught.

While in this book it is " I who speak and not the Lord," yet I say humbly, though confidently, that " I think also that I have the Spirit of God."

My chief hope is, that those into whose hands this book may come, and those who may peruse its pages, seeking for an answer to that question which confronts every thoughtful, serious man, " What is the life worth living? " and desiring to know what was the " Religion that Jesus Taught " may find in this exposition of his own words something that shall help them in their quest.

May he who reads experience the joy and comfort of spirit, which he who wrote received, at 3

4 PREFACE

every moment, from the first contemplation of the plan to its present imperfect completion.

While I, like every man, am greatly indebted to helps many and to teachers many, whose names cannot be here expressly acknowledged, I wish to recognize my particular indebtedness to the Rev. Henry W. Maier of New Britain, Conn., who has colabored with me, in forming the general outline of most of the chapters of this book, and to whom I am largely obligated for many valuable suggestions.

Foreword

How well the artist understands the value of the view-point! None better than he knows its importance in the painting and interpreting of pictures. If he can lead the observer to that place, point or motive, from which he looks out upon that subject he seeks to portray, he has done much to quicken the sympathy, assist the understanding, and aid the mind to the right use of the picture.

This value of the view-point has suggested to me, that a brief word, explanatory of how I was led to the study of the subject myself, and introductory to the chapters which follow, may be of practical use to the reader.

If I can get you clearly to understand the motive, the purpose, the quest, which spurred and inspired me in my study of this subject, I shall, in thought, have brought you to my view-point, and thus will you be enabled better to sympathize with, appreciate, and understand what I have attempted to accomplish in these pages.

While it is often difficult to state the origin of an idea, I believe I can safely say that two influences cooperated to give birth to this book. 5

6 FOREWORD

The first was those passages in the Gospel biographies of our Lord, which speak of his preaching, and of his teaching the disciples and the people, where no mention whatever is made of what he said. These passages are not a few.

Among the many recorded, we read such as the following: " And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee," " And he sat down and taught the multitudes out of a boat," " And he spake to them of the kingdom of God," " And he was teaching daily in the temple " ; and concerning his disciples, it is recorded: " And he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick." The question arose in my mind, What did he preach? What did he teach? What was his system, if he had any?

For a long time these queries had lain latent in my mind, until, in my course of reading, this quotation from Lessing, " The Christian Religion has been tried for eighteen centuries and the Religion of Christ remains to be tried," again brought the question squarely before my view, and again I asked, Where is the Religion of Christ found? Where any clear setting forth of what he was wont to preach, of what he taught his disciples to teach? Where in best and briefest form is his exhibition of those principles of the Kingdom of God and of heaven, which he

FOREWORD 7

would have promulgated and prevail upon the earth? and that question I sought to answer.

It was plain to me that the religious system of Christ was not given in the miracles, nor in the parables, nor in the incidents of his interesting life; these are merely illustrations and expressions of principles and beliefs already established and are themselves without coordination or systematic relation. Then the thought came to me that there was one place and only one in the Gospel record, where a complete sermon, an entire discourse, a systematic and related body of teaching was given; to wit, in the Sermon on the Mount.

The more I studied the matter the more I became convinced that this was the truth, that the Sermon on the Mount is the heart and soul of the Gospel, is the Gospel, and that miracle, parable and occasional saying, in short, the life, are but expressive and illustrative of what is taught in that greatest, briefest system of religion the world has ever known.

I dare not be so bold as to say that all that Jesus taught concerning the Kingdom of God is contained in this great sermon, but all that he taught is hinted at, suggested in principle, foreshadowed in these marvelous words, even as every commandment and every law of God is contained in the great law of Love. With little doubt this

8 FOREWORD

Mountain Sermon is the fruit of those long years of patient waiting, keen observation, divine meditation, and heavenly communion, before our Lord entered upon his public ministry.

This, we believe, will be the final conclusion of the deep and thoughtful student of this remarkable discourse.

It is characterized by those elements of excellence which a sensitive and appreciative student will recognize and must admire in written or spoken discourse, and which come only as the result of years of painstaking labor.

There is in this sermon that sweet simplicity, that lucidity, plainness, and beauty of utterance which bespeak care.

The one who will follow this discourse faithfully will discover that Christ here gives an articulated body of principles and not merely disjecta membra of precept and saying. This is a body of truth, a system of thought, a coordinated setting forth of the true religion; part is related to part, teaching to teaching, with logical coherence and rational sequence; and the whole bears to the one end — the Kingdom of God.

But, above all, the reader is impressed with its practical character. It deals with life — every theme is a theme of life; and every principle is applicable to man as long as man is man.

FOREWORD 9

In short, I believe in this marvelous teaching he who seeks will find the desideratum of the heart, mind and spirit of every man — a sound Philosophy for life, a spiritual Ethic and a practical Religion.

Contents

I The Character Worth Having . . 15

II Live a Useful Life 33

III Live a Progressive Life . ... 48

CHAPTER I THE CHARACTER WORTH HAVING Matt, v, 1-12

THAT part of the Gospel, containing the address which Jesus delivered in the Mount, before the multitudes and his disciples, and recorded in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew, has commonly been called the " Sermon on the Mount." While this title has the advantage of being convenient, attractive and familiar, it is by no means adequate, as a definition or classification of that remarkable discourse. Says Austin Phelps, 1 " The generic idea of a sermon is that of an oral address to the popular mind on religious truth contained in the Scriptures, and elaborately treated with a view to persuasion." Now while this discourse of Christ may be made to tally with this definition almost in detail, and we have our suspicion that the definition was made from a study of this very passage, yet this is the

1 " The Theory of Preaching." A Phelps, p. 28. 15 definition of a scholar, the product of an analytic mind, and by no means tallies with the popular idea of a sermon.

The popular conception of a sermon, we apprehend, is more nearly contained in the definition which the Standard Dictionary gives. " A discourse by a clergyman upon some religious topic based on a passage or text of the Bible, and delivered as part of a church service." We believe that this expresses the average idea of a sermon, and it is a term far too small to comprehend the bounds of this exhaustive discourse. I know, for myself, that the conception of this product of the Divine Teacher, as a sermon, has limited its idea in my mind, and has lessened its place and purpose, in the Gospel record. And this is the very result we would seek to avoid. Viewed from the standpoint of God's government of a world of moral and spiritual beings, it should more properly be denominated the setting forth of the Constitution and Statutes of that moral and spiritual system which Jesus so often referred to as " The Kingdom of God " or " the Kingdom of Heaven." Viewed from the standpoint of man as a religious being, dependent upon and guided by a revelation of the Divine, it is an analytic and systematic setting forth of the Gospel which Jesus preached, a related exhibition of the Religion of Christ. It contains the foundation stones upon which the life shall be built, the mountain principles to which the spirit of man shall aspire! It is the center and soul of the Mind of the Master — it is the creed of the Christ; to it all preaching of prophets of the earlier time, all the laws of the Jewish nation, all the experiences of Israel's history, converge ; and from it radiate all incidents and events written in the Gospel story, all epistles, preaching and Acts of the apostles. Therefore it seems to me that we must have an absolutely larger conception, of this " Great Discourse " of the Christ in our minds, that it may assume its proper place in our system of thinking, and have its proper influence in our way of life. And we believe that a proper study of its content and meaning must result in a larger conception of the discourse itself.

When Jesus declared himself as a prophet and teacher sent from God, when he came upon the heels of John's proclamation, " behold the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and declared himself to be the exponent and head of this kingdom, men asked questions as they are asking them to-day.

He came as a Teacher of religious truth, and men asked, Wherein does the authority of this teacher differ from others, and wherein is his teaching parallel to or diverse from theirs?

The answers to these questions are given to those who will diligently study even as much of his teaching as is contained in this discourse.

He came as a Leader of the lives of men, and asked that those who heard him, follow in his way of life, and men naturally ask, What does he require of those who follow him, and what does he promise and offer in return for such following? The answers to these questions are found in that Way of Life, with its obligations and rewards, as set forth in this discourse.

He came as the Lawgiver, the Enunciator of new spiritual principles of living, the Founder of a new kingdom, and men asked, What are the laws and principles of this new kingdom, and how is one to become a citizen of this new realm? These questions likewise receive their answers in his present discourse, and answering the last question first he at once turns the thoughts of his hearers to the subject of the Citizens of the kingdom of Heaven, and sets before them the Character Worth Having.

It strikes the student of this Constitution of the Kingdom of God, the learner of what the Religion of Christ is, as strange, that the Master should have sounded so high a note at the very beginning of his discourse. It seems as though he had begun at the very climax of his teaching — and that the very perfection of attainment required of the disciples of this Teacher is such as, at the outset, would discourage all following. But Jesus puts character, such a character as he here outlines, first in his system of teaching, because it is to be first in the lives of his followers, and it is concerning life — real life — true life, abundant life, lasting life, satisfying life — that he is speaking throughout. Here is one point wherein his teaching differs from all those who have gone before and all those who shall come after.

The Teacher puts character first, in this discourse, that he may make it prominent by contrast. It is not knowledge, nor attainment, nor utterance, nor action that must have the prominent place in the Religion of Christ, but character. He puts character first because of its indispensableness to the system which he taught. Given the character, the elements of which are enumerated in these opening words, and the man is a citizen of the kingdom ; but those who have all else — all outward semblance and conformity to the ideal law, yet lack the inner character — cannot be counted as citizens of the kingdom. He puts this ideal character first because the inner man and the spiritual life is of the very essence of the Religion of Christ, all else is subservient to this, and designed for the production of such a manhood. He puts it first because upon this is built the Government of God, and the religion of the spiritual life.

Now if one should run over the opening words of Christ's discourse, and inquire what is the prominent feature, what is that mark which appears in every verse of the twelve and characterizes and distinguishes the whole, surely the least observant cannot remain long in doubt. As when some skilled player takes a simple theme, some sweet melody, and with the technique and touch of the artist weaves it into the warp and woof of his beautiful harmony, so that the theme now appears clear and true and again is lost in the very richness of its setting, yet under all and through all it is present, giving character and meaning to the entire composition, so does the Divine musician in this instance. His opening words sound that theme of " Blessed," which threads its golden way to the very end of the passage — concluding with that burst of music, " Rejoice and be exceeding glad."

The motif of this part of the discourse is plainly " blessedness," joy and gladness. This note of joy, this song of heavenly happiness, reminds us of the guiding song of the woodland bird in Wagner's Siegfried, leading the brave soul, on and up, " o'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent until the night is gone " — and his quest is attained.

How helpful and how appropriate that our Divine Leader should have begun his Gospel with this note of encouragement, this song of blessed attainment for his timid human followers ! How the giving of this second law, the law of love, contrasts with the giving of the first law, " the fiery law," when the mountain smoked and men dared not draw nigh! How beautiful in its simplicity was the giving of this new law of life, " And when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him! "

Yea truly, " the Blessed Life " is the theme of these verses, and that those who have the qualities of character here enumerated shall be blessed, is the opening thought. Lyman Abbott in an article in The Outlook, has given such a true definition and such an apposite illustration of blessedness, that we cannot refrain from here quoting his words. " There are three kinds of happiness : pleasure, joy, blessedness. Pleasure is the happiness of the animal nature; joy, of the social nature; blessedness of the spiritual nature. Pleasure we share with the animals, joy with one another, blessedness with God."

A boy comes home at Christmas from college. At the close of the Christmas dinner he says,

" Mother, I haven't had as good a dinner as this since I was home at Thanksgiving." That is pleasure.

Friends come in; there are games, dancing, quiet talks in nooks and corners; in brief, a good time. That is joy.

By and by the friends depart, the children go to their rooms, the father closes the house, the mother sits meditatively by the dying embers of the fire, living over the birth, the childhood, the early youth of her boy, and looking forward with a mother's hope to his future, and as her husband comes to remind her that it is time to retire, she draws a sigh of quiet joy, and says, as she reaches out to take his hand, " John, we are certainly blest in our children!" That is blessedness. Such a blessedness, deep, sweet, spiritual, eternal, is held out in the opening words of Christ's discourse to those who will dare to walk after him, and to attain to that heavenly character which he here portrays.

Observe that these are the many qualities of one character, and not the separate qualities of many characters. He is not describing the classes of the kingdom, but the perfect harmony and balance of each citizen of the kingdom. Patience, lowliness, spiritual aspiration, kindliness, purity, peaceableness, a willingness to serve and to suffer in that service, are to dwell together as happy brethren in the one house of character. These are the heights of the soul — the mountain peaks to be attained. There is not one quality here enumerated that is not hard to learn, difficult to attain. He who climbs to these altitudes must have purpose and resolve. Such a purpose and resolve as can only be maintained while he hears that voice of Blessedness singing him on his upward way.

Who but the most impracticable, ignorant and unobservant of men could ever think that these were to be attained at a bound? Meekness, patience, kindliness, suffering — do they not speak of years for their completion? Do they not drop with the sweat of the labor of attainment? These are the octave of the heavenly scale of music; he who can sound these notes in right relation shall go through the world making the harmonies of heaven.

These are the colors, which form the spectrum of the heavenly light; combined in their due proportion they make that pure light which Jesus bids us to let shine. All the beauty of holiness is from the right and skillful use of these divine colors.

We see again, that the striking mark which differentiates and characterizes the citizens of

Christ's Kingdom, is determined not by the extraneous and the adventitious, not by the chance or fortune of birth — but by what you may, under the divine help, attain for yourself.

In the kingdoms of this world, in the nations of the earth, citizenship is determined largely by birth.

In the XIV Amendment to our Constitution it is written, " All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Other countries have statutes which are substantially the same; — but in the kingdom of heaven citizenship is not determined by where you are, but by what you are. All nations, tribes, colors, and races of men are eligible to this citizenship. It is the universal Kingdom. Jesus was a Jew, but he was free from that narrowness of nationalism which circumscribed the ancient Israelites.

Nor is this citizenship determined by " who you are." Whole nations have held to the tradition that a man's place in the world, his work and privileges, his life, in short, is settled by his origin or the chance circumstances of his environment. In India, a man's caste, carrying with it privileges, opportunities, obligations and promises, is determined by custom and condition wholly without the choice of the man himself. In the kingdom of heaven this is not so — the conditions of this citizenship are within the power of the individual's own choice — and its blessings are open to all. The " what you are," the character of the man, is the one sole and unchangeable condition of citizenship. The emphasis of Christ's teaching is, ever is, throughout this entire discourse laid on character. " Being " is its great theme; " to become " its great endeavor. And is not the Master, philosophically and practically, wise in giving character the place he does in life? As man is the highest creature in God's creation, so character is the highest level in man. Character is the man. The thing to be supremely sought in life is not knowledge, for the man of knowledge who lacks character is a more dangerous citizen in any community because of his knowledge. Here ignorance is preferable to knowledge. Nor is power or place the thing to be supremely desired; for the man of power who lacks character is a greater menace to civilization by the very possession of power.

The man of wealth and of talent does not by the possession of these enrich the community in which he lives, if, while owning these, he still lacks that character which makes the possession of these safe and helpful. The city, town or

State is not the richer but the poorer for having him within her midst. But given a character, such as is here pictured in Christ's words, and power, knowledge, talent and possession is safe in his keeping and a real enrichment of life.

Here we find the root thought from which grows that wise, beautiful rule Christ later gives — " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness," — then the world itself is safe in your keeping. Christ ever viewed life in its broadest aspect, ever regarded and spoke of man at his highest level. How this teaching contrasts with the wisdom of men and the aims of humanity! The true man is the spiritual man; the rich man is the spiritual man; the strong man is the spiritual man; the citizen of the heavenly kingdom is the man of the heavenly character.

Again, do we not find markedly emphasized in this Character to which Christ draws our attention, what are commonly called the passive elements? Lowliness, meekness, patience, kindness, peaceableness, suffering, these are all passive, rather than active, qualities. The man of the Kingdom seems to be determined not so much by what he is able to do as by what he is able to bear.

Says F. W. Robertson, " Before Christ came, the heathen had counted for divine the legislative wisdom of man — manly strength, manly truth, manly justice, manly courage. The life and the Cross of Christ shed a splendor from heaven upon a new and until then unheard-of order of heroism — that which may be called the feminine order." The next great principle of living which this opening passage seems rightly to contain is this : Those who follow the way of life, laid down in this discourse shall have this character. Character is not attained at a bound, it does not leap forth from the life of the man, full grown, as did Athene from the head of Zeus. This condition of character cannot be too much emphasized. There have been dreamers, enthusiasts, idealists, in every age, who have thought that the man can be made or remade in a moment. As the earth was at the beginning without form and void and yet in that elemental substance there were the possibilities of form, order, beauty and perfection, to be called out and developed in the course of the ages, so a truer study of man teaches us that while within the primitive man, considered individually or collectively, there is the possibility of moral and spiritual order, power and perfection, yet these qualities are developed and called out only after long courses of training and contact with the things of life. He who thinks otherwise has not rightly interpreted God's way in the earth, nor His way in the world of men. " One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," and the element of time is necessary in the development of such a perfection of character as is revealed in these words of the Christ. Adam did not begin a man of character — nor does a boy begin with a character, but each of them begins his career with the capabilities of a character.

In the presence of these words of Christ, we stand before the Alplike altitudes of manhood — and it means a climb for their attainment; in these words a course is set before us, and it bespeaks a training; here is pictured a character, a heavenly character, and it means living.

Alas, for that one who dreams that mere resolve, or that a single act of will, gives such a character.

Moreover, it seems to me that even a little thought upon this curriculum which Christ here sets down for those who are to be learners at his feet will teach us that this character is to be attained through doing, living, Action. How does the child learn anything, in this present scheme of things which we have called the world? How does he learn walking, talking, the use of his powers material and immaterial? Is it not by doing? How does the artist attain to his accuracy of eye and skill of hand? Is it not by practice? How does the musician become the interpreter of the soul through the media of sound? Is it not by practice? And does it not tell of years of trying, of doing? And a manhood such as this here depicted speaks to us of years and tears and failures and successes and life. Sleeping on a dictionary will not give a man the knowledge of the words it contains. Reading the Bible and living on your knees will never make " a man of Christ." The religion of the Master is eminently practical, and the one who learns this way, must be up and doing.

Moreover, there is a universal law underlying the terms and conditions which the Master here prescribes for his pupils. The result of action, good or bad, is reaction. The result of living, is being. This is to interpret life from its inner side. The modern psychology has strengthened and illustrated this truth of Christ. The physical world acts upon the man within; the psychical world reacts at the touch of this stimulus; and through this action and reaction there comes the change in the nerve, the brain, the soul itself, the man is built up or the man is broken down, made or destroyed according to this law. A wrong method of life gives a wrong character — a right method of living gives a resultant Tightness of being. Not that this is the whole of the truth, but this is one important phase of the truth — the one upon which our minds are resting at this present moment. While it is true that environment makes the man, it is likewise true that man makes the environment, but it is to this first limb of the twofold principle that our thought is here directed.

Therefore and always, religion must have law, principle, precept and command — and rightly is a true religion denominated " a way of Life." The great end of " the living," " the doing," is not for the deeds in themselves, but for the sake of the being and of the character of the man which is thus developed. How far man has gone astray in this very region! Prayer is not for prayer's sake — nor sacrifices for sacrifices' sake — nor form for form's sake, but all for man's sake, and through him for God's sake — and what God most desires is the right development of His children. The purpose of Christ's teaching is to make men; men like those having the manhood portrayed in this picture. Men who in their relations to God are dependent, humble, submissive and receptive; men who in their relation to their fellows are patient, kind and serviceful, for even in these qualities of character the Master gives us a foreshadowing of the bifurcated law of love, to which he later calls explicit attention. Men who realize, through living the life, the " Blessedness " which comes alone from being.

To return to our point of starting — these texts tell us that those who attain this character have that character which is worth possessing. This is true because of the fruits borne of such a character; these are denominated collectively as " Blessedness." A man cannot be a man like this and not be blessed. In spite of the vain speculations of the philosophers, in spite of the learned disquisitions of the men of Ethic — our Teacher says here, most plainly, that goodness and gladness cannot be separated; righteousness and blessedness cannot be divorced, God hath married them at the beginning, and what He hath joined together no man can put asunder.