Chapter LXV: The Finished Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 (5)

_Luke_ xii. 1-3.

We come to the petition in the Lord's Prayer which is the easiest to understand and the hardest to pray,--the prayer that we may be forgiven as we forgive. This prayer does not, of course, ask God to measure His goodness by our virtues. We should not dare to ask that God would deal with us just as we have dealt with others. It is the spirit of forgiveness for which we pray. "Give us forgiveness," we ask, "because we come in the spirit of forgiveness." The spirit of forgiveness, that is to say, is the condition and prerequisite of the prayer for forgiveness. If you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how can you truly pray to God whom you have not seen? If a man comes to his prayer with hate in his heart, he makes it impossible for God to forgive him. He is shutting the door which opens into the spirit {216} of prayer. Right-mindedness to man is the first condition of right prayer to God.

The traveler in Egypt sometimes looks out in the early morning and sees an Arab preparing to say his prayers. The man goes down to the river-bank and spreads his little carpet so that he shall look toward Mecca; but before he kneels he crouches on the bank, and cleanses his lips, his tongue, his hands, even his feet, so that he shall bring to his prayer no unclean word or deed. It is as if he first said with the Psalmist: "Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity; purge me of my sin; make me a clean heart; renew in me a right spirit;" and then with a right spirit in him, he bends and rises and bows again in his prayer. The petition for a forgiving spirit prepares one in the same way to say his morning prayer. It cleanses the tongue; it washes the motives; it purifies the thoughts of their uncharitableness; and then, in this spirit of forgiveness even toward those who have wronged him, the Christian is clean enough to ask for the forgiveness of his own sin.

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LXXXVIII

THE LORD'S PRAYER, IX

TEMPTATIONS

_James_ i. 12-17.

This passage from the Epistle of James is a commentary on the last petition of the Lord's Prayer. When we pray: "Lead us not into temptation," it is, as James says, not God who tempts, for God tempteth no man. The temptation comes through our misuse of the circumstances which God offers us as our opportunity. We turn these circumstances into temptations.

Every condition of life has these two aspects. It is on the one hand an opportunity, and it is on the other hand a temptation. God gives it as an opportunity and we misuse the opportunity and it becomes our temptation. The rich have their special and great opportunity of generous service for the common good, and yet through that very opportunity comes their special temptation. The poor are saved by their lot from many temptations of self-centred and frivolous luxury, but are much tempted {218} by their poverty itself. The healthy have a great gift of God, but they are tempted by that very gift to recklessness, inconsiderateness and self-injury. The sick receive peculiar blessings of patience and resignation, but are much tempted to selfishness and discontent. The business man is tempted by his very knowledge of the world to the hardness of materialism; the minister is tempted by his very indifference to the world to unsophisticated imprudence. Wherever on earth a man may be he must scrutinize his future, and calculate his powers, and face his problems, and pray: "My God, prevent my vocation from becoming my temptation. Let me not put myself where I shall be tried over much. Save me from the peculiar temptation of my special lot. Deliver me from its evils and lead me not round its temptations, but through them into its opportunity and joy."

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LXXXIX

SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST

2 _Corinthians_ xi. 3.

In listening, as we have done, from day to day to Bishop Vincent, there has repeatedly come to my mind this phrase: The simplicity that is in Christ; or, as the Revised Version more accurately translates it, the simplicity that is toward Christ,--the power which is often so much greater than eloquence, of an obviously genuine, sincere, simple Christian life.

But when one inquires into the nature of this Christian simplicity, which is one of the fairest blooms of character, it turns out to be, so to speak, not so simple a trait as it at first appeared. Of course, there is a kind of simplicity which is a survival of childhood, a guileless, childish ignorance; but when a man is simple in a childish way, he is only what we call a simpleton. Christian simplicity is not a survival but an achievement, wrought out of the struggles and problems of maturer life. It is not an infantile but a masculine trait.

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What then is simplicity? The Latin word means singleness, unmixedness, straightforwardness. It is sometimes used of wood which is straight-grained. What simplifies life is to have a single, specific direction in which to grow, a straight-grained, definite intention, the possibility of a straightforward life. The scattered, divergent, wavering life,--what is this but what we call the dissipating career? It abandons self-concentration and steadiness; it dissipates its energy. It does not mean to begin wrong, but because it has no fixity of direction it becomes, as we say, dissipated. And what is it, once more, which gives direction, unity, simplicity, to life? That is made plain in this same passage. It is the simplicity, says the New Version, which is toward Christ. What gives straightforwardness is not the condition in which we are, but the ideal toward which we are heading. What simplifies life is to say something like this: "I do not pretend to know all about religion, or duty, or Christ, but I do propose to live along the line of life which I will call toward Christ. I propose to think less of what I may live by, and more of what I may live toward." When a man makes this decision he has not indeed {221} solved all the problems of life, but he has amazingly simplified them. Many things which had been perplexing, disturbing, confusing, now fall into line behind that one comprehensive loyalty. He has, as it were, come out of the woods, and found a high road. It is not all level, or easy; there is many a sharp ascent in it, and many a shadowy valley. But at least the way is clear, and he knows whither it leads, and he has found his bearings, and he trudges along with a quiet mind, even though with a weary step, for he has emerged from the bewildering underbrush of life into the simplicity which is toward Christ.

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XC

OPEN OUR EYES

2 _Kings_ vi. 17.

(END OF COLLEGE TERM)

This young man did not see things as they really were, because, as we say in smaller matters, he did not have his eyes open. He saw the horses and chariots of Syria round about him, and the enemy seemed too strong for him, and then Elisha prayed: "Lord, open his eyes," and the young man saw that over against his enemies there was a host of spiritual allies, so that "They that be with us are more than they that be with them."

As we look back over this closing college year with all its problems and duties, its conflicts and fears, it is with something of this same sense that we have not half known the powers which were on our side. Sometimes we have thought the enemy too strong for us, and it looked as if cares and fears, troubles and misunderstandings were likely to defeat us, and the battle of life might be lost. The {223} problems of the world about us have seemed very grievous, and the perplexities of the life within very perilous. And now God comes to us at last and opens our eyes, and we look back and say: "What a good year, after all, it has been." There never has been so good a year for the college as this. There never has been so good a year for the world. With all the social problems and agitations that seem so threatening about us, this is, after all, the best year that God has ever made. And in our personal conflicts, how plain it is that the forces of heaven have been behind us. No man has thought a true thought, or done an unselfish deed this year without a backing which now discloses itself as very real. Behind our doubts and fears have been the horses and chariots of fire. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see these spiritual allies and enlist ourselves in the ranks of their omnipotence.

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XCI

THE WORD MADE FLESH

_John_ i. 1-14.

(END OF COLLEGE TERM)

I do not enter into the deeper philosophical significance of this great chapter, but any one can see on the very surface of it the general truth on which Christianity rests its claim. God's government of the world is here described as operating through His word. God simply speaks, and things are done. God says: "Let there be light," and there is light. The universe is God's language. History is God's voice. By His word was everything made that is made. Then, when the fullness of time has come this language of God is made life. What God has been trying to make men hear through his word, He now lets them see through his life. His word becomes flesh. The life becomes the light of men. That is the most elementary statement of the doctrine of the incarnation. It is the transformation of language into life.

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Let us take this great truth into our own little lives as we part on this last day of common worship. God has been speaking to us His word in many ways through our worship here; in our silence and in our song, in Bible and in prayer, in the voice of different preachers, and in the voice of our own consciences and hearts. And now what is our last prayer but this, that this word may be made flesh, that this worship may be transformed into life, that these messages of courage, of hope, of composure, of self-control, may be incarnated in this life of youth; that out of the many words here spoken in the name of God, here and there one may become flesh and walk out of this chapel and out of these college grounds in the interior life of a consecrated young man. The life is the light of men. May it be so with us here. May the spirit of him in whose life is our light, enlighten the lives which have gathered here, and lead them through all the obscurities of life, and brighten more and more before them into a perfect day.

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LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES

Address. Page.

Genesis iv, 9 LXX 176
Exodus xx, 1-7 LXXXIII 207
Deut. xxxiii, 27 XXXIII 83
I Ks. xix, 1-13 LXXV 187
II Kings vi, 17 XC 212
Mat. ii, 1-11 XXIX 74
iv, 1-11 XLVIII 171
v, 3 XXII 58
v, 4 XXIII 60
v, 5 XXIV 62
v, 6 XXV 64
v, 7 XXVI 67
v, 8 XXVII 69
v, 16 IV 9
v, 17 XV 41
v, 21-25 LXXXI 203
vi, 1-15 LXXX 201
vii, 1 XII 32
viii, 5-11 V 12
xii, 38-45 LVI 138
xiii, 1-9 XLV 113
xiii, 1-9 XLVI 116
xiii, 1-9 XLVII 118
xiii, 1-9 XLVIII 120
xiii, 1-9 XLIX 122
xiv, 23 VII 18
xxi, 17-23 LX 148
xxii, 11-14 LXXIV 185
xxiii, 24 LXXVI 189
xxv, 14-30 L 124
xxv, 14-30 LI 127
xxv, 14-30 LII 129
xxv, 22 LIII 131
xxv, 24 LIV 133
xxv, 29 LV 136
Mark iv, 27 XVIII 49
iv, 27 XLIX 122
viii, 34 XXI 56
x, 35-45 II 4
Mark xii, 30 LXIX 174
xiii, 1-9 LXXIX 198
Luke ii, 8-10 XXIX 74
ii, 8-14 XXX 76
ii, 30-35 XXXI 78
iii, 16 XXVIII 71
xii, 1-5 LXXXVII 215
xv, 17 LIX 146
xvi, 1-10 LVIII 143
xvi, 1-12 LVII 140
xvii, 5-15 LXXXIV 209
xvii, 7-10 XIII 35
xvii, 21 XIX 52
xix, 37-43 LX 148
xx, 19-38 LXI 151
xxii, 39-46 LXXXV 211
xxii, 39-48 LXIII 156
xxiii, 20-26 LXVII 168
John i, 1-14 XCI 224
iv, 10 LXXIII 182
vi, 35 XI 29
viii, 32 LXXVIII 195
xiv, 6 XXXVI 89
xiv, 14, 16 XXXIV 85
xvi, 32 LXXII 180
xvii, 22 III 7
xviii, 28-38 LXIV 159
xix, 30 LXV 163
xx, 8 VIII 21
xxi, 22 IX 25
Acts xxvi, 19 X 27
Romans xii, 1 XIV 38
I Cor. xii, 31 LXXI 178
II Cor. iv, 10 XX 54
xi, 3 LXXXIX 219
Galatians iii, 26 LXXXII 205
iv, 6 LXXXII 205
iv, 9 LXXVII 192
Ephes. iv, 13 XVII 48

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Address. Page.

Ephes. iv, 14-17 XXXV 87
Phil. iii, 11 LXVI 166
II Tim. ii, 3 XVI 44
iv, 8 VI 15
Hebrews xii, 1 I 1
James i, 12-17 LXXXVIII 217
Rev. ii, 1-7 XXXVII 96
ii, 8-10 XXXVIII 93
Rev. ii, 12-17 XXXIX 90
ii, 18-28 XL 99
iii, 1 XLI 102
iii, 8 XLII 105
iii, 20 XLIII 107
xxi, 7 XLIV 110
xxii, 17 XI 29