Certainties and hopes and oher sermons...Boston

Preface

Charles Baker Rice, D.D., was born in the hills of Franklin County, in the beautiful town of Conway, Massachusetts. His father was Colonel Austin Rice, a man widely known in his county. Colonel Austin Rice was a man devoted to the fear of God. He was a Puritan, genuine in his relations toward men, of large influence in his town and county. He was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees in Mt. Holyoke Seminary.

In 1905 Dr. Rice wrote a memorial volume in honor of his father, Colonel Rice, and his mother, Charlotte Baker Rice. The little book so thoroughly revealed the beauty and piety and culture of a typical New England home in the Connecticut valley that the Editor of the Springfield Republican asked and received permission to publish it, in large part, in that paper. In this Christian home and community Charles Baker Rice grew up to manhood. It was a liberty-loving community, and early in life he became deeply imbued with free-soil principles. In 1856, in the first campaign of the Republican party, he stumped Pennsylvania for Fremont and Dayton.

He was the intimate friend of the elder Samuel Bowles. Both men were lovers of liberty and devoted members of the Republican party. All his life Dr. Rice continued an earnest member of this party. He appreciated its defects and limitations, but he never forgot the great debt which our country owes to the party of liberty.

Dr. Rice graduated from Bangor Theological Seminary. His first parish was in Saco, Me. From Saco he came to Danvers, Mass., where he was pastor for thirty-one years.

The two counties of Massachusetts he loved above all others were Franklin and Essex. His eyes would fill with tears whenever he spoke to the writer of Franklin County. The hill towns of that county grew increasingly dear to him as the years went by. He loved Essex County not only because of the personal associations of his long and happy pastorate, but also because of the large place which it

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has had in the great struggle for liberty and equality. Essex County was the home of John G. Whittier, his own honored and loved friend. These two men were intimate. Charles Rice was a Puritan and Congregationalist ; John G. Whittier, a Friend ; but the two men were alike in their intense loyalty to the ideals of Jesus Christ, and their love for a true, free democracy.

Charles B. Rice represented his town and county in the Legislature as Representative and as Senator. He also served the State on the Board of Education, and for many years he was a member of the School Committee of Danvers.

He was a man of large heartedness. There wasn't in him a bit of narrowness. If all New Englanders had had the spirit of Charles B. Rice in his attitude toward the incoming stranger, Massachusetts and the Nation would be different. He was a democrat in the truest sense of the word. There was no aristocracy about him. He loved Massachusetts ideals. How often have I heard him quote the words of Article 30 of Part 1st of the Constitution

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of Massachusetts, "A government of laws and not of men." The interests of his mind and heart were world-wide. He had what President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia has called an "international mind." I recall his deep interest in the struggle between Russia and Japan.

What a lover of good literature he was! How he loved Milton and the classic literature of our English language! He kept in living touch with the best writers of the English language. Yearly he read Euripides, ^schylus and Sophocles. Only a few days before he finally left his work, he was talking with a friend and spoke with enthusiasm of the beauty of these Greek writers ; and then looking up in his animated way, he said, "But the best things of the Greeks would seem commonplace in comparison with the beauties of the prophetic Word."

In 1894 he gave up his work as pastor of the ancient church of Danvers. How he loved that church! Among the gracious memories of his last days is a prayer which he offered in the family circle for that church. How he

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loved the beautiful manse with its fields and fruit trees! How he loved nature itself! He never forgot the training of the life of the farm on the top of the hill in old Conway. Like Henry Ward Beecher, he had a great love for precious stones. He always carried some in his vest pocket. It was a joy to see him hold them in the palm of his hand. His love for precious stones made him enjoy the imagery of the book of Revelation.

In 1894 he was chosen to be the first Secretary of the newly constituted Congregational Board of Pastoral Supply. He entered upon an untried work. To it he brought his large, wide knowledge of men. He knew their limitations, but he knew their best. He took men at their best. For nineteen years he faithfully served the pastors of Massachusetts and of New England. He was faithful to the churches as well as to the pastors. The more one knew him, the more one appreciated his charitable judgment of men and churches; and here is his own judgment of the work which he did, in a series of "Suggestions or Hints relative to the Office

JixJ of the Board of Pastoral Supply — for whatever they may be worth — by Charles B. Rice, May 10, 1913;" "For the Occupants of the Office." He closes with Hint 20,

"The work and life of the office should be enjoyed. It is a useful work, animating in its usefulness. It has much variety. It has its difficulties; but they are not greater than it is wholesome for one to meet. It may have disagreeable features or incidents. But its disagreeable features vanish away or are greatly lightened, as is the case in all life, when they are met with a clear and constant and strong purpose to do one's duty as exactly and graciously as possible."

He was a Congregationalist to the core ; he loved the independency of the Congregational Church. He was glad in every good word and work in the denomination. He was a man of devout Christian character. He did not carry his heart on his sleeve ; he was not given to emotional expression of his faith and experience. But he had a deep reverence for God. The beautiful expression in the 119th Psalm may be used of him; he was a man "de-

PREFACE

voted to the fear of God." He was an impartial man; he was not a self-seeker, either for himself or for his family.

What a royal friend he was! Those of us who had a place in the inner sanctuary of his heart know how devotedly he loved. What a large fund of humanity he had ! How he loved the children whom he met near the school as he came up from the North Station to his office! How he brought in his bag apples and gave out to the youngsters and rejoiced in their brightening faces as they took them! How he appreciated the kindly offices of the policeman at the crossing ! How the boy with his evening paper always met him graciously! How the people loved to look at him as he passed along the street, the grand old man whose face was filled with the light of the glory of God!

It does not become me to speak of his home life. That was a sanctuary to him; and those of us who knew him best knew the warmth of afPection for his home, for wife and children. Now and again he would open his heart and mind and talk with the writer upon the deeper things of Hfe, upon the certainties and the

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hopes of the Christian. It was good to know a man hke Charles Baker Rice. It is good to know that we have the hope and the assurance of knowing him as he was, and as he has been transfigured into the image of the Master whom he has loved and so long faithfully served.

Frederick E. Emrich.

Boston, July 12, 1915.

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Contents

Preface v

I. Certainties and Hopes of Human Life 3

II. The Twenty-Third Psalm ... 23

II II

It is our work in life to be quickly gathering goodness and strength from God within ourselves. As we read the Psalms, it belongs to us to be fashioning our souls under the light and grace that thus pass before us.

This Psalm is a picture of the behever's life. With its few touches, strong and beautiful, it sets forth the way of faith on earth.

The picture is first of all, one of cheerfulness and hope. It opens brightly; — "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." It ends brightly; — "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And in the space between, wherever any shadows he, there is still no fear of evil. The whole view is trustful, restful, hopeful. The believing man is to be cared for as a sheep by its shepherd. He is to be guided, fed, and guarded. He is to suffer no want and be affrighted by no danger. Goodness from above is to follow him and be about him all his life. Mercy is to go along with that goodness, so that he may not be forsaken in any trouble, and so that he need not be left hopeless even if he sins. The life that is thus before us is cheerful and hopeful, it is prosperous and safe.

But the view of life here given us includes the things that are in themselves dark and sorrowful. The shadings are in it. It would not be a true view of life if they were not. Here are enemies by the way. Here is the valley of the shadow of death to be passed through. If we had only the sketch of a life light and gay, with no darkness at all upon it, there would be no more of comfort for us in it than there would be of truth. We should have different experiences ourselves, which the story of the Psalm would not fit, and which the promise of the Psalm would not help us to bear. But the dark things are to be seen here ; and we know that the safety and cheerfulness and peace of the Psalm include them and shine over them.

Our enemies here spoken of stand for all oppositions and hindrances. The valley of the shadow of death stands for all fears and darkness. It may be our sickness, or the sickness of our friends when we or they seem to be near to death, or it may be when we or they are indeed soon to die; or when they are dead and are gone from us ; or it may be when, for whatever cause, some urgent and dreadful heaviness and darkness are upon us. The valley of the shadow of death is not an unknown spot to any of the wayfarers of the earth, unless it be to those who pass through it so early or so quickly that they do not see it as they pass.

The fears and sadness of life are in this Psalm. But the Shepherd and Keeper of our souls walks beside us with His rod and staff. Thus the hope we have as believers in God is not because we suppose that He will remove out of the way before us every trouble or sorrow; it is because we know that He Himself will uphold and guide us, and will enable us to pass through every trouble and sorrow in safety, and with growing strength.

The assured continuous and final prosperity of the believer's life appears in this also, that he not only passes through every trial without loss, but that he gains often much of light and strength and grace in the trial and by the trial, as he goes through with it. While his foes are looking on, a table is prepared before him. It is in the presence of his enemies, not seldom, that he grows most fixedly courageous and steadfast and gracious.

In the sorrows of life we all may learn what things are most secure and valuable, and what Friend may be most certainly and happily relied on. The great things of life are not perpetual lightness and gladness of mind, if these were possible. The great things are a devout and steady hope and peace and rest in faith. These things will never be taken from us. The Psalm describes the trustful life as exposed to griefs and perils, but still as securely safe and prosperous.

Farther, this hfe of which the Psalmist speaks, is a hfe of which God is peculiarly the Guide and Keeper. It is a life divinely led, protected and blessed. The account of it bjegins thus; — "The Lord is my Shepherd."

This is why it is secure and prosperous. When this can be certainly known of any Hfe, all the other things that are spoken of in the Psalm may also be known as sure to follow. It is an unusual assurance. The sheep of a common flock may not be sure always of protection and pasturage at the shepherd's hands. The shepherd may not be always watchful, or he may not be strong enough to keep off all attacks, or the streams and pastures where he would lead them may dry up and fail. But nothing like this can ever befall those whom the Lord has undertaken to provide for and guard. This is the chief thing with the safe and hopeful life here pictured, that the Lord has the care of it, and that it rests in His power and love. Thus it is always hopeful, and thus its hopefulness covers the naturally dark parts of the way, as well as the parts that would of themselves be light. It is a life everywhere under the hand of God.

And now it may be seen that this life is thus in the care of God according to the believing man's own choice. The protection of this kindly and powerful Providence is not thrust upon him, as something outside his own wishes or efforts. He desires and chooses it for himself. This is impHed in the whole language and temper of the Psalm. When one speaks thus gratefully and trustfully, — "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and when he says, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever," the consent and choice of the heart are in it. He wishes and means to have it so. The confidence, too, which is here expressed is in the nature of it a sentiment exercised and cherished by the man himself. If we trust in God, the trust is ours, and must be. If the Shepherd leads the sheep, and they follow safely after him, the following at least is theirs. It is the sheep that follow. This part is therefore for us. We must be ready to follow; and we must be following.

It would not do therefore for anyone to be thinking only of the power and goodness of the Shepherd, and of the safety and joy of a hfe watched over in aU its parts by him, if he did no more than think of it ; if he did not trustfully and thankfully place his own life under this great and gracious guidance. This it is for us to do. If you see to-day, any of you, something of what it might be to have the Lord for your Shepherd, and to be cared for in all your life by Him, and if you have not placed yourself by your own full and hearty choice under His care and guidance, do not let this indispensable condition of the good that you see and desire be any longer delayed or neglected. Take up these words of faith as your own. Say now for yourself, with clear acceptance and purpose of heart, — "The Lord is my Shepherd."

Now it is to be observed that this safe and cheerful life of chosen trust in God is a life in the ways of righteousness. The Psalmist says ; "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." The "name of God" is rightly interpreted in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, as signifying in a connection like this, all that by which God makes Himself known. God's name is that by which He discloses Himself or causes Himself to be distinguished or recognized as God. God's concern for His name signifies the carefulness He has that the things spoken or done as by

Him shall truly represent the essential rectitude of His own character and being. Thus it is becoming to Himself that He should lead in ways of holiness those that trust in Him. To lead them in other ways would be to distort and reverse the unchangeable verity of His own eternal life. So deeply are fixed the rules of righteousness for man.

So it is that those green pastures and still waters of refreshment and rest are not in the lands of sin, and cannot be. The safety and joy of the life here spoken of consist in their very nature chiefly in this, that such a life is kept by a holy God in ways of holiness. Therefore it is hopeful, therefore it is bright, secure and prosperous, because it is not outside the shining bounds of duty and love, and because it is held forever by the hand of God and by choice of its own in the paths of righteousness. It belongs to us to walk in these ways with carefulness and with thankfulness, both together.

And now we find that this trustful, hopeful, safe and holy life, guided of God and with man's own choice and effort in it, is a life that comes at length to a perpetual home in the house of the Lord. It reaches its conclusion, or the place of its endless continuance in some special and blissful nearness to God. It is a divine life through all the way, and it is everywhere in the presence of God, but it comes at last in some peculiar manner to be with Him as if in His own house and home. We are not forbidden to think that there may be, even for the most high God who inhabits His creation, such a home — the central abode of warmth and glory, or many such — into which are gathered for long continuance the faithful men who inherit the promises.

It may be that the writer of the Psalm did not have distinctly in mind when he used these words any such dwelling-place of God and of faithful men with Him, — as if in Heaven. But he surely meant to speak of a strong desire and hope he had concerning his dwelling forever where the most might be seen and known of God. It may be that there was at first in his mind the house of God, or the place of His special worship at Jerusalem, or wherever it may then have been. But it has always been easy for the believing man to pass in his thought from the earthly place and state of worship to the heavenly. Thus by the "house of God" we ourselves might mean either the one or the other. They are not far unlike. What is here foretold is that as the believer's life goes on and grows to its fulness it reaches at last a state in which it is peculiarly near to God in love and trust and worship and in likeness of spirit, and a state in which it enjoys peculiarly the manifestations of the being and character of God.

Our present acts of worship as we come here to this house of God, help us forward to such a stage of life, and our coming finally to it may fitly be called a dwelling in His house forever.

Thus every trusting man, though he may be much cast down by trials, and hindered and put back by oppositions and by sins, will come at length to a state in which he will rejoice altogether in the love, holiness and blessing of God, and in the hearty service which he is permitted to render forever to Him.

So we have in this Psalm a kind of summary of the Christian believer's life. God leads him, with comfort and safety and rest, in ways of righteousness, to His own presence, and to the full knowledge of Himself, and the full joy of endless life with Him. The believing life begins as this Psalm does with the saying — "The Lord is my Shepherd;" it ends as this Psalm does with an entrance upon a perpetual dwelling in the house of the Lord. Thus ever may the paths of earth draw nigh to the doors of Heaven. Thus does this Psalm abide along the shifting earthly generations of believing men — ^known by heart — a psalm of distant memories and far-coming hopes. Thus it may still be borne in remembrance by those who have passed to the lands of immortality. They may still sing or repeat with united voices the familiar strains, changing alone the words that mark the passing time. So to-day they say, — "Yea, though I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, yet have I feared no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Surely goodness and mercy do follow me all the days of my life, and I am dwelling in the house of the Lord forever." Thus may we gather within ourselves the everlasting harmonies, whose notes we faintly hear, and in this very hour may we all begin or renew this Psalm, this song of faith, hope, and love and of endless life.

Perhaps you may think that a life of such steadfast rest and hope is above you and beyond your reach. Then it should be said that this is a picture of the life you should aim at and toward which you should direct your desires and thoughts. It is not meant that the view should discourage you, even though you see it far above you. It is meant to give you hope and strength while you look upon it. Take to yourself the faith, the hope, the strength. You will not fail to reach and to renew and repeat within yourself all that the Psalm contains. Our walking along the paths of life is with slow steps, and it may be with much stumbling. The songs of life rise into the air above us, and they go smoothly. But it is best to hear the songs.

The most precious things of human life are born of such faith and hope as this Psalm records. In our times the close relation between the life of man and the life of all the animal tribes about us is much in our thoughts. Misgivings may sometimes come upon us lest there should seem to be nothing to distinguish our destiny from theirs. In many things the life of man is indeed of the earth, and is earthy. It is linked in origin and nurture with all the life of the surrounding world, and it may seem likely to be appointed to share the general frailness and to fall beneath the universal mortality. But in the soul of man and even in the bosom of nature, there are kindlings of powers that will grow imperishable. These psalms, all the long reviving records of faith and hope are the signs with man of discernments and destinies beyond the present time. They reveal his fellowship with the everlasting Righteousness and his kinship with the eternal Life.

In all scientific or natural induction and forecast concerning the endurance and destiny of human life these facts, — these psalms of life, are to be included and reckoned on. It is not reasonable that they should be left out. Man is not only an animal that is born and eats and grows and works and rests and dies. Man is an animal singing songs of rational and endless hope. He is likely to reach to an answering destiny. It may agree no more with the steadfast counsel of nature that the dust of an earthly body should return to its kindred dust than that a soul, singing songs of everlasting consolation and gracious hope should ascend to its dwelling with the Father of spirits. These psalms, all the recorded holy confidences of man help to sustain the inmost hopes of man. They uphold the trust which they express. The vein of imperishable hope they bear is itself a rational ground of hope. Thus these sacred histories of human life, these psalms, of themselves cast a light along the paths of the earth, and across the valley of the shadow of death. Thus with reason, faith nourishes faith.

So our faith is strengthened with reason as we walk with faithful men. So too our own faith may uphold with reason the faith of other men that walk with us. Thus too as we walk with faith in the paths of righteousness we strengthen within ourselves the present powers of immortality, and we obey the solenrn and lofty word which bids us lay hold upon an eternal life. If you would have your soul to live, learn the songs of hope.

You may consider too, that in these psalms, and in much besides of all these sacred records, God speaks to you out of the hearts and lives of men. You have not only His own word of promise and welcome, but you have besides these lofty and grateful sayings of your companions in life who have made trial of His guidance and love. You have them both together. This Psalm is the word of God, but it is the word of man. It is the word of God entering into the life of man, and becoming the word of man. So these psalms are songs concerning God in the speech of men. We hear together in them the voice of God and the voices of those who have loved and trusted Him. The sweetness and hope of life are in this alliance of life with God.

These things are for you. Take to yourself this promise, this security, this gladness, this righteousness, this continuing and eternal nearness to God. Try it for yourself. Learn for yourself these songs of trust and hope. Learn to make them. You should do more than to repeat with your lips the songs that other men have made. You should learn to sing songs in your life. It is better that your life should sing than that it should be only heavy and dumb. Your life should sing of faith and hope so that others will hear the songs and learn them of you. Your life should be a life of psalms.

Begin the psalm by saying now for yourself — "The Lord is my Shepherd." Then you may go on continually to say — "I shall not want; goodness and mercy shall follow me, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Thus may "He who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

Ill

Ill

Matthew 7 : 7. Ask and it shall be given you. Matthew 6:10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will he done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Bible is to be used with the best use of our human reason. The sayings of the Bible concerning prayer need to be considered in their connection, and in relation to their particular purpose. They need often to be compared, one with another. The sayings of the Lord Jesus have need also to be compared with His own recorded prayers, and with His own conduct in relation to prayer.

The first of these two texts might make us think that we might pray for anything that we desired, and expect to have it. The second text would lead us to conclude that the thing first to be prayed for is that the will of God Himself might be recognized as supreme throughout the whole earth. Holding these things in mind, I purpose to make some remarks upon the Reasonable Use of Prayer.

I. I remark first — it is desirable that human affairs should be ordered of God : that is, that the will of God should be done in the earth. God reigns in the earth not altogether by His own inherent and unalterable supremacy, but in part, also, by the free choice of men upon whom He has bestowed the powers of choice. Looking thus in our freedom upon it, we see that it is best altogether that He should reign in the earth. God can direct in human affairs better than any man could do it. He knows the world better. He knows men better. He is more wise, more just, more gracious. He has a steadier and better purpose.