Half-hour studies of life

Preface

If the brief chapters of this little volume may be called ''Studies of Life," it is in the sense, not of abstruse speculations, but of simple surveys of real facts, proceeding in the natural order from the less to the greater, and intent only on a better understanding of the true art of living. If they seem, here and there, to be without close or formal connection, let it be remembered that, with most people, the great study of life is necessarily resolved into many separate parts, as one question after another comes up for consideration in occasional half-hours of leisure.

Selecting a few of these questions, which are of special personal and practical interest, the author endeavors to open the way for clear and

4 PREFACE.

comprehensive views of the truth, and hopes thus to help his readers to the best ordering and happiest issue of earthly life and labor.

E. A. J.

Contents

CHAPTER.

I. The Great School, .

II. First Questions,

II. First Questions

IN the industries of the world, machinery plays an unquestionably important part. Judiciously employed, it economizes resources, diminishes toil, increases production, and secures many valuable results otherwise quite impossible. Thus it comes to the front rank among the practical questions of the age, and engages a large share of attention. In what respects is it susceptible of improvement ? To what new purposes can it be applied? How shall its benefits be made yet more widely available? By all means, let its range of usefulness be enlarged to the utmost possible extent. In the world's great work we can not afford to lose the services of such an auxiliary.

But, after all, it is nothing more than an auxiliary, and holds a place of only secondary importance. Of what advantage is the very best machinery in the hands of fools, drunkards, scoundrels, or savages? Manifestly, the first and great question to be considered in seeking to

FIRST QUESTIONS. 1 7

promote industrial prosperity relates not to machinery, but to the men by whom it may be used, to their principles and abilities and real character. Invention follows education, business enterprise keeps pace with human development, and the decline of industry attends inevitably upon the decay of manhood. "The lost arts," of which only the slightest traces are now found by antiquarians, were lost with the civilization of which they were the product. It is therefore ruinously preposterous to neglect the man while seeking to perfect his implements, or to overlook the cultivation of character in absorbing devotion to the details of economy. Even material interests require that first questions shall be first.

The form of civil government is generally regarded as a matter of chief concern in the welfare of nations. It certainly has much to do with the development of the resources of a country, and with the progress and happiness of its people. One form rests upon the hereditary claims of a dynasty and is either an absolute or a limited monarchy. In the one case it is administered by a single will, with no other than self-imposed restraints; in the other, power is divided between the sovereign and certain bodies more or less representative, the measure of popular liberty being determined by the provisions of a constitution. Quite another form is founded upon the inherent rights of the people, and is administered in all its branches by their chosen representatives. This lodges the power of governing in the hands of the governed, and is supposed to be in the highest degree favorable to their interests.

But what is the actual value of the most perfect form of government the world has ever seen, when it has been committed to a majority of atheists and madmen? History and philosophy both furnish a most decisive answer. Free institutions are soon perverted, and become utterly impracticable, except when established upon the broad basis of popular intelligence and virtue. The art of individual self-government must first be acquired under the teachings and discipline of Christianity; and, until this is accomplished in some good degree by a majority of the people, they can not safely be trusted with the administration of civil affairs. It is therefore altogether idle to attempt the universal enfranchisement of a nation by giving attention to matters of mere organization, to the neglect of the first and fundamental questions of intellectual and moral culture. For the greatest benefits of civil government, as well as of indus-

FIRST QUESTIONS. 1 9

trial pursuits, the natural order of precedence must be strictly observed, and first questions must ever remain first in popular regard and practical consideration.

In purely personal affairs, the body seems to have the first claim to attention. At any rate, it presents and urges its claim first, and most clamorously. "What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" is a question representing primary physical necessities. Little can be done by or for the higher nature until these imperative wants of the body are duly supplied. But this apparent precedence of the physical and material in human nature is confined entirely to the order of development and the relations of dependence upon external conditions. The body is first to declare itself, because, unlike the soul, it requires immediate and continual supplies for its very existence, as well as for the growth and vigor by which it becomes able to fulfill its purpose. But, after all, it is only the instrument or servant of the soul, and derives all its value from this relation. That is to say, while the body is first in dependence, and therefore in its asserted demands, it is really secondary in its legitimate rank, functions, and claims. Indeed, the very fact of its ceaseless dependence upon the bread that perishes is proof of its inferiority ; and its claims occupy the same level with its necessities.

If, then, the servant is not greater than his master, nor the house superior to its occupant, the soul is first in the order of importance, and may insist upon its right to chief attention. This right it vindicates as the active agent in human affairs, by carrying the blessing of culture, or the curse of neglect, through the whole course of its influence. The welfare of the body and all other temporal interests — to say nothing of a future state — are involved in those of the soul by the operation of natural law, and according to the proclamation of Him who said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." This is the divinelv constituted order of human life; and its first questions are first by irreversible decree.

With the righteous man it may be supposed that this order has been duly observed, and is never forgotten. As the Church is composed of such men, and avowedly conducts its operations under the same law, we may expect to find here the persistent concentration of interest and effort upon first questions. Here, at last, is a grand illustration and commanding example of

FIRST QUESTIONS. 21

the proper methods of dealing with all human interests. Surely, the Church of Christ will not forget the spiritual in the material; nor prefer the " anise and cummin" to the weightier matters of the law ; nor neglect the cultivation of its own piety, and the work of winning souls, by giving chief attention to questions of ecclesiastical polity and temporal economy. Not that such questions are unimportant; for, like mechanical contrivances in the useful arts, or the political institutions of a State, or the physical implements of the soul, the constitutional forms and prudential regulations of a Church have no small influence upon its efficiency and success; but they also have only a secondary place and claim.

What is the machinery without the man, or the State without principle, or the body without the soul, or the Church without life? In the last, even more than in any of the others, effective power comes from spiritual life. With such life, the most defective forms spring into vast achievements; without it, the most perfect become wholly impracticable, or fail of any substantial results. The most glorious triumphs of the infant Church were won at Jerusalem before it had taken scarcely the semblance of an outward organization. The first in order then was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in answer to fervent prayer and as the power of effective work; and the precedent was established for all the ages.

Thus it appears that, every-where, ways and means and forms are at the most of only secondary importance. By the natural order of things, and the express appointment of God, questions relating to the spirit and character of the man have a rightful priority of interest and claim. In the established curriculum of life's great school, these are always first questions.

OUT OF ORDER. 23

III. Out of Order

IF the clock strikes six when it should strike two, or becomes irregular in movement, and now and then stops altogether, it is said to be ''out of order;" an explanation not very specific, but sufficiently significant. Such a clock evidently needs repairing; it has suffered some injury or disarrangement of its parts, which may perhaps be corrected, but in consequence of which it now fails to serve the purpose for which it was made. "Out of order" indicates the general nature of the difficulty, and the action necessary to be taken.

This being out of order may seem the merest trifle in itself, but it has a way of growing into troublesome consequence. For instance, the owner of the disordered clock starts from his slumbers at the stroke of six, and becomes fully aroused and ready for the day a little after midnight — a striking mistake. Or, he has an important engagement to meet at a place miles away on the railroad, and hurries early to the depot, only to find the train going and gone — that clock again. But the liabilities may be far more serious. By a slight irregularity of the conductor's watch a crowded railway train barely escapes a fearful collision — only the space of a minute between actual safety and averted destruction. The ship's chronometer has varied only a few seconds since leaving port; but in consequence the reckoning is at fault, and the ship is lost among the breakers, with all on board.

If a trifle of disorder breeds such trouble by a time-piece, what may be expected when greater things are out of order? Is it any wonder that the world is so full of trouble, when something is wrong, not merely with its instruments, but with a great number of its principal actors?

In comparison with human beings, the time-piece is indeed a trifle. The clock or watch which fails of its purpose may be cast aside at the beginning, with only the loss of itself; but not so the self-acting man, who goes forth in the midst of his fellows with the human power to mislead and destroy. Out of order in himself, he becomes the very fountain of disorder and consequent disaster in the world. But even if he were to inflict no injury upon others, to be cast away himself, as a hopeless wreck in body

OUT OF ORDER. 25

and soul, is a calamity sufficiently appalling. Only "out of order," it is true; but that, in human nature, may have an extent of meaning no words can reach.

What, then, shall be done? For the time-piece, or any mere machine — let it be repaired. By whom? By its maker, if possible — at least by some one competent to the task. Such course of action seems only the dictate of common prudence, and would probably be adopted at once by any person interested. But how much more is it required for disordered human nature, with an organism infinitely more delicate and complex! Can any man safely presume upon his ability, without aid, to set every thing right in his own mysterious being? Having the good sense to take his chronometer to the one by whom it was made, will he commit the folly of reserving to himself a task so much more difficult?

To break or mar is easy enough ; to mend or restore is quite another thing, and may even be impossible to man. For the restoration most needed — that of the masterpiece of creation — ■ little or nothing seems to have been accomplished by ages of tinkering, with all the aid of science and philosophy and accumulated experience. Man has brought much of his own artistic

26 HAI.F-HOUR STUDIES OF LIFE.

work to a marvelous degree of perfection, but has been utterly unable to restore in his own soul the lost excellence of God's work. Indeed, the very nature of the case is such as to admit of help only from God, who made and can make anew.

This making anew, this readjustment and perfectly right adjustment of all the higher faculties and functions of human beings, is the very work in which God is now most gloriously revealed to the world. Though generally called by another name, it is essentially a work of repairing, of putting again in order according to the wise and beneficent plan of our original constitution. A work which only God can do, and which he does in amazing mercy, is it not also eminently worth doing, and worthy even of God? The fact is, however low man may rate himself, and until he has completely effected his own destruction, he is placed in the divine estimate as worth the cost of repairing. So we have the Gospel, with all its gracious provisions and supernatural agencies, God himself dwelling among men, and every-where accessible through Jesus Christ.

Well may heaven rejoice and the earth be glad. Amid the wreck and ruin there still is hope. Though grievously out of order both by evil inheritance and by self-degradation, man is

OUT OF ORDER.

not utterly worthless, for he is not yet cast away, and God appears for his reconstruction. Not one of all the race need suffer the failure of existence or the loss of himself; for creative power coming to renew is equal to the most desperate case. The same hand which guides the motions of the spheres, and keeps the universe in order, is now outstretched for higher work, and offers relief to all mankind. Commit to that hand the impaired spiritual mechanism, and who that believes in God can doubt the result? With him all things are possible, even the complete restoration of the fallen soul.

Now, shall this repairing be done, this effectual work of the master hand?

To be secured, it must of course be sought; but seeking implies something more than mere asking. In the matter of the clock or watch, the request must be accompanied by actual delivery, or the work can never be done. Even so, prayer avails nothing without actual personal surrender to God, or really putting ourselves into his hands. It is equally certain that this surrender of ourselves must be made just as we are, however bad our condition may be; and also that it must be a surrender, unconditional and absolute, of will and heart and life, of all we have and are. Such terms, so far from being

HALF-HOUR STUDIES OF LI?

arbitrary, are imposed by the nature of the

case, and could not by any possibility require

than they do. Thorough repairing nece rily implies entire practical possession and control. But however inflexible the terms, they are

pie enough and universally available. To every soul access is freely granted and acceptance fully assured. "Him that cometh unto me I ill in no wise cast out."

But he who comes must also remain; for the power required to restore is equally necessary ; preserve. In very fact, no man is right, or e can be right, while alienated from his Maker. His only true and orderly place is that of humble alliance with God, receiving all needed help, and rendering all possible r just this

place human nature was constituted; here it is fitted to flourish; and nowhere else does either :>n or revelation afford the slightest hope of relief for a soul, or a world, out of order.

IV. An Important Discovery

IT may seem paradoxical, but it is a fact, that some truths which are readily acknowledged are really unknown and need to be discovered. Expressed in words easily understood, they receive unhesitating assent, become familiar perhaps by frequent declaration as matters of belief, and so remain, without the slightest suspicion of any lack of comprehension, until in some mental awakening they suddenly flash upon the mind like a new discovery, and for the first time are really seen for. what they are. Numerous illustrations might be adduced, but one will suffice for the present purpose; it is the great fundamental truth of Christianity, thus expressed : God loves man.

Only three short words — God loves man — which may be understood by a child; and yet they contain a truth which is grasped slowly, and only with the greatest difficult}' — perhaps by many persons never at all. It may, indeed, be accepted as truth, and yet be to all intents and purposes as if it were not.

If this statement is doubted, let the question be considered, How far does the acknowledged truth of God's love to man enter as a controlling force into ordinary human life? Whatever is seen and felt as real exerts from that moment, and of necessity, a constant and positive influence according to the measure of its practical importance. Thus the value of money in human affairs becomes one of the most potential facts in life, chiefly because it is seen as an ever-present, prominent, and impressive reality. If the higher truth of God's love were in like manner brought from the realm of dead abstractions, and placed in the very front of human perceptions, it would at once sway the scepter of a prince; but, because it has no such dominating influence over life, the conclusion seems inevitable that it remains only a dimly conceived and half-believed article of creed.

Why this supreme and vital truth should find such difficulty in gaining possession of the mind and life is a question for the curious. Perhaps it is because the senses furnish the chief subjects of thought, and so divert or withhold attention from truths lying below the surface of things. It may be on account of a perverse disinclination to entertain any thoughts whatever concerning God, and an utter abandonment of all human interests above the material and sensual. But these reasons, though widely applicable, are not a sufficient explanation of all cases.

The difficulty occurs with many persons who are accustomed to think upon life's deeper problems, and who would gladly arrive at the knowledge of the truth and the possession of every excellence of character. With such it is possible that the view of the truth in question is partly obstructed by the nearer and intervening fact of personal unworthiness and demerit; or this fact may fill the whole range of vision, and so control both thought and feeling as to render a clear conception of God's love, for the time being, quite impossible. False interpretations of Scripture may also interpose like clouds to increase obscurity, and confirm the natural shrinking and incredulity of conscious unlovableness. Why should and how can God, the infinitely holy and perfect Being, love a creature so poor and insignificant, so defective in every way and sinful? And then, though he may love the race as such, or the best of the race, is it not the height of presumption to believe that one person of countless millions is distinctively the object of his love, and that one perhaps the least of all? So the self-reasoning proceeds directly against the truth, and all the while with a desire to believe the truth. Such love — if it only were true; but no, it is too good to be true, too great and wonderful to be believed. To this questioning the only sufficient answer is the fact — the absolute fact.

With an entirely different class of persons there seems to be no difficulty whatever in receiving the truth in question. They appear not only to accept it, but to make it the only article of their religious creed, and then endeavor to draw from it conclusions favoring the widest latitude of sinful indulgence, and justifying composure or indifference in the direst perils of the soul. Because of God's love, God's will may be violated with almost entire impunity. But a little closer examination will probably discover in these persons only a vague belief, or effort to believe, combined with gross misapprehensions of the character of God and of the nature of his love. The difficulty is evidently as great here as in other cases, though of a different kind; and the real truth still remains to be discovered.

But whatever these difficulties may be, it is very certain that they arise from something in man himself, and not from any defects in the methods of revelation. Indeed, they seem to have been anticipated here, and met at every point, and by every means possible.

Thus the Word of God carefully distinguishes between man and his sin, and reveals that love for man which seeks his highest good by deliverance from sin, his greatest evil. It also endeavors to arrest attention and awaken interest by many varied forms of appeal, and replies to every self-accusing fear with some specific promise. As if an explicit declaration of the truth were not sufficient, it is perpetually reiterated in the strongest terms, and adapted to ordinary comprehension by the most familiar anjd forcible illustrations. In order to give the full assurance needed, language seems to be wrought up to its very highest power of expression.

But, after all, words either written or spoken are only arbitrary signs without life; therefore, the great Word was made flesh, and divine love lives in human form, Jesus of Nazareth, full of grace and truth. His wonderful life speaks in facts louder and clearer than any verbal utterance, and from first to last is a concrete and perfect demonstration of the truth. Thus God's love to man, which is the great fact to be grasped, is so compressed into limited and visible forms that it may be grasped. By the very nature of things, nothing more is possible in the revelation of the divine love as an absolute reality.

Now, if this truth is ever to gain possession of the mind, it certainly must be looked at with the best eyes one may have, and with any needed help to vision. It must be looked at, not as a mental abstraction, but as a living, present, incontrovertible fact. It must be looked at, not carelessly, or once in a life-time, but with closest scrutiny, frequently and habitually. Let it thus be kept before the mind, and treated as a reality of some presumable significance, and it will soon hold its place and begin to assert its power among other acknowledged realities — but never otherwise.

Such intellectual possession, however, is only a part of the process of discovery. The truth which has been properly looked at may now be easily looked into, and all its hidden riches will be gradually disclosed.

God loves man! What does it mean? Perhaps he will help the feeble comprehension. But the question itself can never be exhausted. God's love — has it any meaning concerning human character, the heart, the motives, the conduct? Stop, and look, and see. Is not the truth now unfolding to the gaze? Further, has it any practical bearing upon the affairs of life and of death, giving aught of light or comfort or strength ?

So let the questioning proceed every day of life, with open heart and mind intent, and God's light shall come with God's love to complete the great discovery.

J

V. The Indispensable Requisite

IN every work there is a certain chief part or staple, without which all the rest amounts to nothing. Thus a ship, in order to be a ship proper, must float in the water. If built upon stocks from which it can not be launched, or if cast high and dry upon the beach whence it can not be removed, or if so constructed that when once in the water it will sink to the bottom, it may have the form and appointments of a ship, but can never serve its purpose. The merchant must have a market for his goods, or he is a merchant onlv in name. Agriculture is a failure where production is impossible. The starving man is not relieved from danger until he partakes of suitable food. The patient derives no benefit from the skill of the physician unless his case is reported for treatment.

In these and thousands of other instances in every-day life, it is the province of common sense to discern what is really essential, the main condition of success, and to keep it steadily in

THE INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE. 37

view. Because of such useful service, this kind of sense — whether common or uncommon — is justly held in high repute; and the man who would dispense with its aid is sure to come to grief. So it is in ordinary affairs, at least.

But is the case changed the moment we pass to the higher affairs of the soul? Surely, where the greatest possible interests are involved, the knowledge of necessary conditions rises to supreme importance. Failure here is failure complete and eternal. But while the exercise of common sense is demanded in religion far more than elsewhere, it has the infallible direction of divine truth, and need never mistake the incidental and subordinate for the chief and indispensable.

Unquestionably, the main requisite is direct personal communication with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to every soul of man what the water is to the ship, or the market to the merchandise, or production to agriculture, or food to the famishing, or medical aid to the sick. That is to say, such communication is absolutely necessary to spiritual interests, and without it all else is wholly ineffectual. From the very nature of things, and by the formal appointment of God for all humanity, it is the indispensable condition — sine qua 11011.

Thus the soul is brought into those intimate relations to God, for which it was expressly constituted, and in which alone it finds true life and fruitfulness, the supply of its wants, and the remedy for its disease. Christ is all and has all that we need for the accomplishment of the great end of our existence. As responsible human beings passing on to a future state, we succeed with him, and fail without him.

His various offices and manifold relations, language is burdened to express. He is at once the sacrifice and the Priest; the humble servant and the mighty Conqueror ; the confidential friend and the sovereign Lord ; the door into the fold and the Shepherd of the sheep ; the way to be followed, the truth to be learned, and the life to be lived; the great Physician, Teacher, Counselor, Advocate, Lawgiver, and Judge; the Son of man and the Son of God, — having all power, and present alike in earth and heaven. But all expression fails ; mere words can never convey the mighty meaning of "God manifest in the flesh." What he is, and what he can do for every one who comes to him, must be learned by coming and abiding for evermore.

Of course, this coming and abiding is strictly and necessarily personal ; it can not be done by one for another. It may receive aid from others

THE INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE. 39

in the form of invitation, persuasion, counsel, and encouragement, but must be performed by each one for himself, as being entirely his own action, originated and sustained from within.

This independent and voluntary self-action can not be too strongly insisted upon. The solution of the problem requires the actual contact and intercommunication of two living and acting persons, the man to be healed and Christ, the only Healer. The body might be brought; the soul must come. It must come of its own choice, in the use of its own powers, and thus remain. The necessity of such individual action is sufficiently obvious, though it is often overlooked and practically disregarded, under one pretext and another.

But the right thus to come is also strictly personal; and, like the so-called natural rights, it is inalienable. While it must be exercised in order to any personal benefit, it can never be transferred to another. Happily, there is no lack. Every human being, as a separate and distinct individual — one as much as another — may claim the right by virtue of divine gift, and in like manner receive all its benefits. In this respect all are equal; "for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him ;

for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

If communication with Christ is to be personal as a matter of necessity and right, it is to be so in the fullest sense; that is, direct, in one's own proper person, without interference of any kind whatsoever. As the privilege of such approach and intercourse is the greatest and most sacred of human rights, it should be most jealously guarded and maintained. Like all other rights, it is exposed to human encroachments, whether made of set purpose or wholly undesigned.