When you enlist

Dedication

To the Youth who for love of the Great Commander have pledged themselves to his cause, joined the noble army of his church and stand ready to obey orders without thought of self or safety — to go forth to battle for righteousness, justice, peace and good will, until hate shall be banished from the earth and love shall rule. — The Author.

" Hope will help the world, faith will give it strength, but love will save it."

Contents

Chapter I THE NOBLE ARMY The Son of God goes forth to war

A kingly crown to gain; His blood-red banner streams afar;

Who follows in his train?

A noble army, men and boys, The matron and the maid,

They climbed the steep ascent of heaven

Through peril, toil and pain : God, to us may grace be given

To follow in their train.

Amen.

CHAPTER I The Noble Army

The chimes in the church tower are ringing. The seats, save a group directly in front of the pulpit, are already filled. The air is fragrant with the perfume of lovely flowers. There are palms on either side of the great organ. The bells seem to be singing the very words of the last lines of the hymn, " God, to us may grace be given to follow in their train. " The great organ joins a glorious and triumphant Amen — then plays softly while two doors open and men and women, boys and girls enter and quietly take the vacant seats. Today, amidst the beauty of the flowers, the sweetness of the music, the friendliness of all the people, they will unite with the church, they will join the noble army of those who through the ages have " climbed the steep ascent of heaven through peril, toil and pain." While the organ sounds a challenge or plays a hymn of gratitude and hope, all over America the church will welcome with joy those who have come to help in its great battle with selfishness — with sin.

Some of the groups are small — six people, ten people — in one place only two, in another over a hundred, but all coming to enlist in the army. Some of the churches where they sit are very small — one is a tiny, white church away up on a hilltop, in a little country town; one is a lonely church where two roads cross the wide prairie; one has a high, slender steeple reaching away up above the blackened houses of a coal-mining town; another has a square tower that can be seen for miles across the white sands on the very edge of the desert. But others are large, like the one whose chimes were ringing — hundreds of people can find seats in them; they have several towers standing out clear against the blue sky; they are like great cathedrals in brownstone or marble or soft red brick that is very old; the carpets upon the aisles are heavy, silencing every footstep; the windows are beautiful pictures where one sees old stories told in tiny, delicate bits of glass, rich in color. But whether the churches be large or small, in noisy city, verdant country, lonely prairie or desert, through them the people sitting there close to the palms and the lilies are to join the noble army of which every church is itself a part.

Most of those who are to join are young and that is what rejoices the hearts of the people who have, for many years, been in the army them-

The Noble Army 5

selves. They know how much an army that has a noble past and a great future needs youth and the strength and courage that only youth can give.

A few moments and the simple service which will make these young people and their friends members of the great host of men and boys, women and girls, all over the world, that have chosen Jesus Christ for their leader and the cross for their banner, will be over. They will enter the army in many different ways; many different creeds will be said; many different questions beginning, " Do you believe? " will be answered according to the teaching of the church, and the answers will differ greatly, but every one, regardless of the name of the special division he is to join, will pledge his allegiance to Jesus Christ and promise to share his purpose and help to carry out his program for saving the world from its selfishness, its hate, its sin.

It is an easy thing to join the noble army today; especially easy in America, although it is not easy to keep faithful and never fail it, or play the coward in it, or misunderstand its orders, or shirk its duties, or desert it, or dishonor it, in thought or word or deed; that is hard, as hard as it ever was. But there was a time when the noble army was small and just beginning its march against evil, when joining it took unbounded courage.

A while ago I stood in a spot in old Rome that made me remember those early days when the young men and women, the boys and girls, as well as those who were old, were obliged to live down under the earth for safety, hidden away in diirk trenches dug in the solid rock — because they were Christians. I was standing that day in the Coliseum. The grass was green, there were tiny, fragrant flowers half hidden in it. I looked at the seats of solid rock as you have seen them rising tier upon tier in the famous pictures. They were empty now, but in that day of which I was thinking they were crowded with the rich and great of Rome and their friends from all the provinces. I looked at the doors on either side of the great wall of stone, low, close to the ground. Here in that other day when the noble army was beginning, hidden behind the door on one side, was a Christian. Often it was a young and very beautiful girl, sometimes it was a tall, strong boy, pale but unafraid, again it was a group of people, old and young. Behind the other door, there was hidden the Hon, fierce, hungry, lashing his tail wildly, eager to kill. The door opened and girl or boy came out onto the green grass and faced the scornful, shouting crowd crying " death."

The Noble Army 7

Then the other door opened, there wiis a terrible roar and the lion sprang forth to kill his helpless victim while the crowd applauded. That is what it meant to be an acknowledged member of the band of Christians, one of the noble army, in that early day. But if they of that army had failed, had run away, had gone back to worship the images in the pagan temple and be safe, had sung the hymns no more, had tried to forget Christ, had disobeyed his command to love God and their neighbors, it would not have been possible for you to stand quietly amidst the beauty of the flowers and the thrilling music and join the church to help it in its battle against the enemies of today. But they were good soldiers, they lived splendidly and they died gloriously without fear; that is why they have the right, from the pages of history, from the pictures and poems and stories of that long-ago day, to challenge you to be worthy of the great company you join when your minister takes your hand and tells you that, having been baptized and in the presence of all the people pledged your honor to the church, you are now a member of the noble army — grown so great through all the centuries that no one can number it. Their courage and faith and the wisdom and bravery of those who followed after them all through the years, have made the army strong, just as your courage, honesty and love of right will make it an even greater army for those who follow you.

Each century the noble army th^t formed itself into the church had a different battle to fight. Sometimes its warfare was against evil and injustice in governments; sometimes it must fight against kings; sometimes its fight was against ignorance, so it must teach; sometimes it was against envy and jealousy in its own ranks, and it must pray, repent and conquer itself; sometimes it was against the cruel selfishness of the rich and powerful, and it must speak bravely and call upon those who thought themselves great, to be just and kind. Although this meant prison and death, they did not hesitate. They made many blunders, but always in the ranks there were some who were wise and unafraid. Again and again the army divided because there was disagreement over what they thought the Bible meant and taught, but always there were souls courageous enough to follow the light of new knowledge and find out more about God. Sometimes one division was forced to leave its comrades behind while it crossed mountains, rivers, went through dangerous forests, or over great, unknown seas in search of truth.

There came periods in the history of the noble

The Noble Army 9

army when whole divisions of it forgot their Commander, forgot his two great commands, forgot that he said that his kingdom was founded on love; bitter hatred grew, there were desertions, petty quarrels, terrible persecutions; the world with its sickness, poverty and great need was forgotten and it seemed as though the army that had fought its enemies so bravely, might destroy itself. When the days were darkest, new leaders came to call old warriors back to service and to gain new, young, strong recruits; so the army went on. When you go to college or when you grow older and want to really know for yourself about the history of religion and the church, you will read the entire story of the Christian faith and be thrilled by those great days in the long-ago; some days which, when you read about them, will make you blush for the blindness and sins of the church, and other days that will make you unspeakably proud and happy that you can belong to so great a company.

You will find pages in the story of the church as interesting as any book you have ever read; the days after the Bible was printed in the language spoken by the people in the various countries instead of in the Latin and the Greek which only the priests and the scholars could read. What preachers there were in the days that followed, when men could read the Bible for themselves! There were preachers with audiences so great that no building could hold them and they must preach in the fields, preachers so eloquent that people followed them about from place to place, often with nowhere to sleep and with little food, forgetting everything except their great desire to hear more.

You will read of the days after the church began to think again about other lands and other people not Christian and will see a new division of the noble army, strong men and beautiful women, young, full of joy and eager to help the world, leaving their homes and going to the far-away countries of the world about which men knew so little; going in sailing vessels because a boat driven by steam had never even been dreamed of; sailing away to the ends of the earth when there was no telegraph and mail took months and even years to reach them. They went to Africa, they went to India, to China, they went to the cannibal islands. In the face of danger, they were unafraid. Surrounded by people not one word of whose speech they understood, they patiently learned the difficult language and dialect; though food was so different and some of it, like the raw fish, so disagreeable, yet they learned to eat it. They lived in scorching jungles surrounded by head-

The Noble Army 11

hunting savages; they lived in desolate lands covered with ice and snow. No place was so hot, so bitterly cold, so ignorant, so lonely, so surrounded by danger from famine and fever, from serpents and savages, that they said, " This is too hard; I will go back." They did not come back until they had told the story they went to tell and translated it into strange, difficult tongues that the people might read it for themselves. No modern novel has in it the excitement, the thrills, the narrow escapes, the romance that you can find in the lives of some of these young men and women who, in the early days, joined the army and went out on the great missionary adventures.

Something of this story of the noble army, men and boys, women and girls, who, through the centuries since Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, have been making up the Christian church, will be told in the chapters that follow in this book. As you read it, you will admire and love the great heroes about whom it will tell you, and you will think of all the millions of others who helped them to do their great work. You will see thati whenever the noble army met defeat, it wa because of selfishness, it was because it forgot t love and learned to hate, it did not obey its Commander. You will see that no army can be greater than the men who make up all the vsfrious officers and the countless privates that form its ranks. You will see that if individuals are jealous and selfish, if they love gold more than God and themselves better than their needy fellow men, then the army grows weak. It cannot meet the enemy and win — and so the dark pages in history had to be written. And you will see too that if the individuals, both officers and privates, were generous and true-hearted, if they loved God and their fellow men, if they were willing to sacrifice, if they were afraid of nothing on earth but their own sin, then the army grew strong, fought valiantly for right and brought happiness to the earth.

When you understand that the whole great, noble army can be only what the individual private and officer helps make it, then you will know with what great hope the church turns to you. You have united with it. Under the towers large or small, in city or country, amidst music and flowers, you, a girl in her teens, a boy not yet twenty, you have joined the noble army. You must make it great. It has hard battles to fight for God and man. You must make it strong. It needs new truth; you must find it. It needs love. It needs love enough to overcome the hate that is robbing the world of peace and good will.

You are the new church. You are the noble army of today. You must not fail the world.

Chapter II THE FIRST RECRUITS CHAPTER II

When one decides to enlist in the noble army, become a member of the church, and help build the kingdom of God on the earth, he ought to know something about the great organization of which he will be a part. The reason why most people know so little ^ibout it, is because there is so much to know. It is a very long but wonderful story and every one may know a few important parts of it and as he grows older may add more, until he begins to understand how truly great the army is and what, despite its blunders, it has done for the world.

When one attends a college banquet, he loves the honor which is given to the oldest class, the few that are left who graduated fifty, sixty years ago, who have stood by the college all through the years and have made its name honored and respected.

One loves to read of the pioneers who settled on the great prairies and in the mountains in early days when life was full of ganger and hardship, and one might be called upon at any moment to battle with savages and wild beasts from the forests. One enjoys reading of the men who put up the first telegraph, the first telephone; of the men who had the faith and courage to lay the first cable; the men who first left the earth to fly about in the air. Some months ago, I sjlw an audience of physicians welcome an old man. The physicians were young and they had all served in the World War. The old man was also a physician. When he was young he had left his college and gone to war. All during that long, terrible Civil War, he served in the army. The young physicians listened with deepest respect while he told them of the difficulties of those early days without the Red Cross, without ether, with few medicines, with no well equipped field hospitals and no motor ambulances, of the desperate struggle of the physicians to help their wounded comrades live. He told them something of the work of women nurses and when he mentioned Clara Barton's name, they rose and cheered.

" Beginnings " are always interesting to earnest, intelligent young people who so often wonder how the things they see about them, came to be. You already know something about the story of the very beginnings of the Christian church when the noble army was being formed and taught and trained. You remember the little we know about the boyhood days of Jesus Christ and how he called the first recruits to follow him and told them his plans for building the kingdom of God in the world. Just a few months ago, I stood in Palestine beside the Jordan River where Jesus asked John, the great preacher and prophet, to baptize him. I walked through the hills and over the plains where Jesus met the men, young like himself, whom he asked to come with him and help him as he went about talking of his kingdom and healing, encouraging and teaching men. As he traveled about from place to place, great crowds gathered to hear what he would say and to watch him as he made the lame walk and the blind see. They were so stirred by his words that they followed from village to village and could not bear to miss anything that he said. Travelers told each other about him and crowds gathered along the roadside or at the lake where it was rumored he would be. It was very easy to imagine them sitting on the sloping hillside where we sat, while he told them the stories that made his teaching plain. The months passed so quickly. Then a year and another. He talked a great deal about his kingdom. The people of Palestine, ruled over by the conquering Romans whom they hated, felt sure that he meant that some day he was going to furnish them with swords and spears and lead them out to battle against their oppressors, that they should win and then the Jews would live themselves in the great palaces in Jerusalem and rule over their own people once more. But when the days and weeks passed and nothing was done and the Roman rulers passed proudly up the hill to the city, the people were disappointed. Even the twelve young men who traveled about with Jesus grew restless and asked again and again when he was going to establish his kingdom. When at last he made them see that it was not a kingdom that soon, from the hilltops of Jerusalem, should rule the people of Palestine and keep them safe from their enemies while once more they grew rich and great, they were keenly disappointed. They had hoped to be high officers in that kingdom, great and powerful. They found it very hard to be interested in this other kingdom about which he talked even more earnestly — a kingdom of the mind and heart, a kingdom not made with hands, he said, a spiritual kingdom of great power that would one day rule the whole world, a kingdom that it would take long, long centuries to establish. The things that he said about this kingdom and its power, to the vast crowds that still followed him, displeased the Jewish rulers. He taught such strange things that they thought very dangerous

— and they were dangerous to pride, to greed, to selfishness, to insincerity, to hate. He said that God was not only the Father of the Jewish people, as they had been taught, but also of all people everywhere. That they could not believe. He said that the synagogues and the temple at Jerusalem were not the only places where one could worship God. This seemed a wicked and terrible saying to the priests who, whenever they heard it, thought quickly that if the people were to believe it, there would be fewer worshipers in the synagogue, fewer pilgrims to the temple, fewer offerings, much less money, much less power for them. They were afraid of his teaching.

He told stories such as they had never heard before. He told them of the Prodigal Son and his father. He said that God was like that father waiting for all his prodigal children to come home to him. He said God loved them. He told stories of shepherds searching through hills and valleys, through the brambles of the wilderness for lost sheep until they found them. He said God was like that — he loved them. He spoke always with great sorrow and indignation of the hypocrites, of the false-hearted who did not try to be honest and pure and unselfish, but tried very hard to make people think they were. When the priests and the leaders heard him say these things, they felt his disapproval of them, they felt that he knew their souls, and instead of being ashamed and repenting to the God of love about whom he told them, for the wrongs that they had done, they hated him and planned his death.

The last days came. The great feast days came. Jesus ate the Passover supper with the twelve young men whom he had taught and who, with one exception, although disappointed that he did not let the people make him king, loved him, honored him and could not leave him. At the supper, he reminded them of all he had taught them, he prayed for them and he asked that whenever they should drink the fresh, red wine and eat the bread, they would remember him. That was their last supper together. It is the supper the church celebrates at the communion service because Jesus asked that it be done in memory of him. Men have disagreed as to its meaning. They have persecuted one another because of their disagreement, but we like to forget their disputes and differences and think, as we take the bread and wine, that we are doing the very simple thing he asked his followers to do, remembering him. The communion has been made a very sacred service by all the prayers of nineteen hundred years and more — prayers for forgiveness, prayers of confession, prayers of gratitude and joy, prayers for courage, prayers that promised more loyalty and greater devotion. When you share in the communion service according to the way you have been taught by your church, do not be troubled or puzzled by the mystical meaning, do not be confused by the unfamiliar words and phrases, but remember Jesus, how bravely he went from the supper to the garden of Gethsemane, remember that, after his triumph over himself in the garden where God helped him to be strong, the most glorious soul the world has ever seen, who called himself the Son of God and the Son of man, asked all those who loved him to remember him in this way. Do not forget that you belong to a noble army who, century after century, have remembered his purity, his kindness, his understanding sympathy — not one soul ever came to him whom he misunderstood; his splendid courage — he did not know the meaning of fear. Remember his teaching — that God, the Father of all the world, will forgive your sin, will help you fight it until you win. Remember how he cared for the sick, the poor, the little children ; remember that he said that the greatest in his kingdom are those who serve. Think of all these things while the organ plays softly great hymns written in moments of gratitude and loyalty, by those who in the past have joined the noble army — " Just as I Am," " In the Cross of Christ I Glory," " Lord and Master of Us All," and scores of others that try to express the love and devotion of those who, with you, are members of the church.

If you can remember these things, Jesus, who called the first recruits of the noble army together and asked them to follow him in his war against sin, will not be just a wonderful person who lived long, dark centuries ago, in a little land called Palestine, but a great Person of Power who lives today, who, though unseen, is present in the universe now and is calling on you and all others in the army to lift up your heads, take courage into your hearts and go out to win the two great battles that still wait to be won. First, the battle over your own sins, the little cheatings, the petty lies and deceits, the thoughtless words, the things that only you yourself know; and, second, the battle with evil in the world, with fear, hate and selfishness that cause the pain, sorrow and suffering of men, that cause war, poverty and disease, that leave people in ignorance without education or training, that condemn little children to work in the years when they should play — all the wrong that robs God's world of happiness and joy. If you think of these things, you will go from the communion service of your church, certain that

God will help you to win both battles, no matter how long and hard they may be. You will go with courage and confidence and joy.

All recruits are alike in the beginning ; they have to be taught and trained before they can become a strong, reliable group upon which the commander can depend. The recruits whom Jesus had called to share in his warfare, learned very slowly at first. In the moment of his great danger, they ran away. Fear overcame them. Even Peter, who boasted of his loyalty, denied that he belonged to the company. John, who truly loved him, did nothing to help him. Yet only one of the company really failed him altogether. The temptation was great and it was so easy to run away, but when the unfair trial was over, the agony of the crucifixion past and the joy of the amazing fact that their Master was not dead but still could teach, lead and command, was made known to them, the little company, ashamed of its weakness and cowardice, began to train itself. It was determined, in spite of first failures, to win, to carry out the orders of its Commander. Though they could no longer see him, they knew he was waiting for the obedience and loyalty they had promised.

As the days passed, Peter gained courage, the very courage of Christ — he feared nothing;

and John gained love — it was a love like that of Christ; and James gained wisdom — the patient, generous wisdom of Christ; and Thomas, who found it so hard to believe, went out with a great faith to help men to battle against doubt and fear. So the little group of recruits became the first division of the noble army that was to dare all things.

Let these things give you courage if, after you have joined the church, you fail to stand bravely in the presence of your comrades for those things which it expects of you. If you lose your temper, if you run away from duty, if you laugh at something unworthy of the joyous laughter of a Christian boy or girl, if you think the mean thought, do the selfish thing, yield to temptation because you are afraid, then do what they did, the first recruits — remember Christ; remember the great thing with which he has trusted you, the saving and serving of the world — you cannot fail ; remember his sacred promise to help, and pray to be made strong. On your young shoulders rests the task of making the church equal to the great battles just ahead which she must win if she is to lift the world from its unbearable burden of poverty, greed and hate. You, the latest recruits Of the noble army, will not let the church fail ! jgniilioii B3i,89l 9ii — (tahif J to 9§,biijo3 ^^«

Chapter III THE EARLY CONFLICT CHAPTER III

After each of the great wars that have brought devastation and death to the world, all the people sorrowing over the terrible waste of life, over the thousands maimed, crippled and blinded, over all the misunderstanding and bitterness that war leaves in its track, have said to one another that there must never be another war. Yet as you study history you will see that they do not remove from men's minds and hearts the causes of war. War is always made first in men's minds. Ideas make war. When the dominating ideas in men's minds are wholly selfish, they will oppose all who interfere with the carrying out of those ideas. It does not take very long for that opposition to become hate and where there is hate, sooner or later, there will be persecution and war. Men can hold absolutely different ideas without hate, if those ideas are not selfish, if they do not mean that the one who holds them is determined to get what he wants for himself, regardless of what effect it may have upon the one who disagrees with him. It is because man has thought his own particular, personal ideas always right and has not been willing to talk them over with his fellow men or to listen to their ideas, that practically every generation has seen a great war. The ideas that Jesus left with his disciples were those of peace, good will, sacrifice, service and love. These ideas were all new and men did not want them. They did not want to serve their fellow men; they wanted service from them. Jesus said give; they wanted to get When the disciples began to preach their gospel of giving and sharing, there were bound to be multitudes who disagreed with that gospel. When they saw that such a doctrine, if accepted, would demand a great change in their way of living, they hated the new idea. It is only a step from hating an idea to hating those who believe it and teach it. That is exactly what happened to the first recruits as they went out in obedience to the command of Jesus that they teach and preach this gospel. Men hated them.