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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1899)
the history of Yale, in which perhaps he plays a more intimate part than I do in regard to details, although I am equally enthusiastic. Your football pictures, we call them on our side your list of benches, are, through the kindness of your football secretary, sent to. me, and I am- able to learn from various sources when you come out on top, or when, through cir- cumstances over which you have no control—(laughter). It is always my wish, as a distant and attached member oi the University, that not only in foot- ball, but in everything else, that is where you should come out. I am very glad that my intimate friend, Prof. George Adam Smith, is coming to the University, and I wish to say that if you do not know him al- ready, though he visited this University in some capacity in the past—if you do not know him, there is not a more brilliant scholar in the Scottish church, and I also want to add that there is not a better-hearted man. He is an alto- gether delightful man, whose age I fancy cannot be much below my own by mere mechanical reckoning, but whose age otherwise is about eighteen. You will be delighted with him and he, of course, will be delighted with yon. And while his lectures will be of ines~ timable service to those preparing for the holy ministry, he himself will be be- yond all his lectures and will be of service to you all. It is perfectly true, as Dr. Fisher said, that Dr. Smith is a special illustration of that most happy tendency in the Scottish church, namely, the reconcilia- tion, not only of scholarship, but the reconciliation of criticism with evan- gelical faith, There have been some people, and I quite understand the posi- tion, who feel that if any one shoulda consider that it was not quite in the nature of things that Moses should write the account of his own death, that that person must be on the high road to agnosticism and certainly could not be trusted to hold the great doc- trines of the Christian faith. Well, it has now been, I think, very fairly established by the critical evan- gelical school, that the whole question of the criticism of Holy Scripture is a literary and historical question, and that entirely separated from that is the consideration of the spiritual contents of this blessed volume. Whoever may have written a particular book, or how- ever that book may have afterwards been edited; however the books may differ in their value (and no sane per- son would put the same spiritual value to the book of Ecclesiastes, however great a value that book has in its own place,—no sane person would, I say, put the same spiritual value to the book of Ecclesiastes that they would to Isaiah or to St. John’s Gospel); however the books may differ in value, there is con- tained within this united, harmonious, progressive, immortal and perfect litera- ture, a certain message which is a mes- sage from the Eternal to the human soul. It has been stated in different terms, according to the age, and it ul- timately culminates in the words and in the life and in the person of Jesus Christ. AN IMMENSE GAIN. Well, now, gentlemen, this is an im- mense gain; that a man now shall not, in order to be a believer, be obliged to accept any particular theory about the authorship or dates of the books of the Bible, but that every man is a be- liever who accepts the voice that speaks through Scriptures to the soul, and especially if that voice clarifies, if I may so say, and crystalizes itself, in the message given by Jesus Christ. When a man accepts Jesus Christ as his Mas- ter, then he is a believing Christian, and he is at liberty to hold any theory about the date or authorship of the whole Scriptures. This was the work that was done by Prof. Robinson Smith in history of the criticism of Theology. And it again illustrates, gentlemen, that every great advance is won by blood. The freedom where with the Scotch church is free—a freedom to know; combined with a freedom to believe,—was won by one whom she virtually cast out, and who died virtually of a broken heart. Fie was removed from his chair, though not from the communion of his church. He went to the University of Cam- bridge and obtained a high position there. But he never recovered from the YALE ALUMNI blow and he was cut oft too soon from scholarship. He was a man of marvel- ous attainments, not only in Semitic scholarship, but in Philosophy, Physics and many other departments of learn~ ing—a great and magnificent scholar. He was cut off too soon and he died, but he did not die in vain. Professor George Adam Smith has perfect free- dom and what is better than freedom (for freedom is in itself a poor thing), he is able now to prove, and the people are able to understand, the lengths and ‘the depths and the breadths and the fullness of the Christian faith. FAITH AND WORKS. Gentlemen, you are members of a Christian Association and there are two sides to your religion; one of them a side of faith to which I am alluding, and the other a side of works, which I would earnestly beseech you diligently to cultivate. Be sure of. this, that in any university there are men who do not believe and who are curious to know what is the kind of life on the part of a man who does believe; and it is no ordinary thing for one of us, without ostentation and yet quite distinctly, to stand up as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It lays an enormous responsibility upon a man, and there must be a number of very curious and searching eyes upon one. Therefore, if a man believes, he must have works. Now about works and faith, One man will say: “Well, you know we can’t be very certain about anything, and there is really no use in vexing one’s soul about great religious questions. Let a man live squarely and honestly and kindly, and I don’t see it can go wrong with him in this world or in the world which is to come.” Another says: “Well, I think a man is bound to think about these things, and they are the greatest things a man ever has thought about. They are very difficult and deep, and as peo- ple have been thinking about them for a long time, and as that great historical organization, the Christain church, has gone into these things and has de- clared her mind about them, I don’t see how a man can_do better than to accept her conclusions. -I therefore think that, if a man is to do well, he must believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice of the Lord and other doctrines. As regards works, that will doubtless follow.” If we feel like any one of these men at different times, there are times too when we are so sick of speculation that we say: “Well, I am going this morn- ing to do my duty; I will bother my reason about nothing, I will find my work to do and will do it, and will lie down to rest with a quiet conscience.” | Other times we begin to think and be- gin to want to know, and then we say: “Well, on the whole, let me get a firm hold on the Nicene creed. The saints made it; the saints believed it: it has been a green pasture to many, and the best have walked in it, and let me get hold of it and believe it too.” WHAT FAITH MEANS. Gentlemen, the creeds would not be so serious for us, if we were more careful to understand what we meant by creeds and what we meant by works. What does a man mean by creed, espe-~ cially in a believing sense, the sense in which you say you believe? Faith sim- ply means to accept the doctrines which have been formulated by theological science, the greatest of all sciences? Then, I admit at once that I do not see how believing in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity can have the slightest effect on the human life, and that it is of no particular importance, except from a scientific point of view, whether a man believes that doctrine or any other. In that sense, it is simply an intellectual Proposition that you accept, one wrought out by processes of reason just aS you accept a proposition of Euclid. When you state that a man is a be- liever, you do not mean simply that he has accepted some proposition which he has wrought out with his intellect. Consider that our Master, who preceded all the church councils and preceded the whole theological science, used to insistently make the demand of faith. What did he mean by this demand. of this great enterprise. WEEKLY faith? What did he mean when he said to John and Thomas—those men who rallied around him, and started that Christian band of young men about the age of thirty—what did he mean when he said to them: “Will you believe in me?” Why, did he not mean personal trust and personal loyalty, and confidence? Of course he did. If you helieve in me and in my cause, commit yourself to me and throw your whole being into You believe in me John? and everything. And so said the other apostles. They gave up everything ana filled with loyalty, they said: “We will go with you anywhere and everywhere, sink or swim with Jesus. Christ.’ Jesus said: “Now I can do something with them, I will make men of them.” . And he made new men of them and with them a new world. Gentlemen, do not confound the acceptance of an intellec- tual creed—the acceptance of an intel- lectual proposition—with this magnifi- cent spiritual and ethical act charged with emotion into which the whole pas- sion of a man’s being goes. You might as well say that it is the same thing to believe in the battle of Waterloo and believe in your own mother. FAITH THE SOURCE OF POWER. You can believe a thing intellectually and it is not without its value to so be- lieve, but it is simply an intellectual act, and it may not make the slightest change in your life. It is this spiritual devotion, this spiritual faith, belief and loyalty in Jesus Christ, that changes a man’s whole life. And when people talk lightly of faith, do they know any- thing about history and about human nature? What has been done by a man as a personal factor, and what has been accomplished by a man who has not placed his faith in some one or some thing? As a matter of fact, if you go back to strength, you must go back. to faith, and if you seek dynamics you must go back to faith. There has been no great movement in history that has not had its foundation in faith. Colum- bus discovered the new world through his faith; your Puritan forefathers came over and founded this country in faith, and there has never been a movement that did not have its origin in faith. To accomplish anything, a man must believe it, as Carlyle would say, with the marrow of his bones. A man who believes a thing in his very soul, will inspire ten, twenty, a hundred, a thou- sand other men, with the same faith; and they become irresistible. If that is true in temporal matters, what effect do you think it must have upon a man who believes in Christ? If a man’s whole intellect (for mark you, intellect acts here), if a man’s whole heart is surrendered to Jesus Christ, as the revelation of God and Saviour of the world; surrendered absolutely to him in love and confidence as his leader, com- mander and redeemer, what is there Christ cannot do with that man, and what is there that that man cannot do through Jesus Christ? There are no works that are not possible for him. Here is the seat of work, the spring from which all work sprung. Instead of faith being a contrast to works, faith is really the source, the spirit, the spring, the vital sap of all works. Of course, a person can say, I know a man who does not believe in Christ at all, although he admires him, and he lives a very decent life. God forbid that we should say that men have not lived decent lives who do not believe in Christ. I wish more of us lived as good a life as Marcus Aurelius, as some agnostics I know, live. But you do not touch the root of the question. Faith in Christ will create a particular charac- -ter and a particular kind of work, that cannot be created except through the spirit of Jesus Christ. If you will read the sermon on the Mount, you will dis- cover a certain kind of spiritual char- acter. That character was never known before Christ came, and never realized except in communion with Jesus Christ. I do not say a man will not pay his debts who is not a Christian; I do not say that a man who is not a Christian will- beat his wife; I do not say that a man who is not a Christian will not give at Christmas time some money to the poor. I do, Pi leave my boats | 185 THE MOST SQUALID MINIMUM. Why, gentlemen, that is the most squalid minimum of living. Christ did not need to come into the world to teach us those things, and we do not need to believe in Christ to keep out of the bankruptcy court. Christ came to raise life to its very highest, and life at its very highest is as far lifted from this commonplace plane, this dusty road of ordinary, petty moralities, as the orbs are raised above the valley beneath. The heroisms, the tendernesses, the patiences, and all the other qualities that grace the spiritual life and raise a man above the earthly plane, come through a belief in Christ and are never seen apart from Christ. Then, coming to ordinary morality. By the way, I am not so sure that ordinary morality, except witn a number of pure and austere souls and in a Christian land, would, without the support of Jesus Christ, endure for three genera- tions. Do you know what I think is a very mean thing? I think the meanest thing and the smallest thing is for a man to point to this thing or that thing, which is good and beautiful in life, and then say that it could go on and it would go on without Christ. He cre- ated all this purity of family, all this public charity, all this devotion to the highest and better things. Was it not Lowell that said, that whenever you can discover a few square miles anywhere in the world, where a man can live with his wife and family in decency and com- fort, have a just reward for his labor and can have a good and pure environ- ment, and Jesus Christ had not been there first, then he would listen to at- tacks on. Christianity? Christ comes first and it is Christ that raised us to the great heights. “ONE WORK AS GOOD AS ANOTHER.” When you come to works it is all un- necessary to say that one work is as well as another. Take the common- place giving of money. Is there no dif- ference between two kinds of works there—what we call in the Bible a dead work and a living work? Suppose, to take an old-fashioned illustration, a man goes to a street and he sounds his trumpet, and then, when the crowd col- lects, he dispenses his money to the poor, not in order to be noticed, but it happens it is noticed. He regrets to see that a number are looking on, but they will go. That’s charity; he gives his money to the poor. But it is not charity according to the teachings of Christ, and he used to speak in very uncomplimentary terms of the gentle- men who distributed their charity by these methods. But there is no differ- ence in the work, it is charity. .So much money is distributed. And another case. A woman goes into the temple, waits till all the rich people are past, and then creeps up, supposing no one saw. No one did see, except the Master, who has the knack of seeing those things. She puts in all her living. Is that the same? Not so much money. No. The same kind of work—charity. Is there any method of calculation by which you can reduce these two works to the same level? One is morality; one is Chris- tianity, the spirit of God and the spirit of Jesus Christ. Then take another case. Go back to boyhood. I hope when you were young—you are not very old yet—I hope when you were young, that you began, as soon as you could manage, to give a present to your father and mother on their birthdays. It is a great thing to take one home from the University. I declare to you now, as a middle-aged man beginning to forget things and getting a little dull—I declare to you, that one looks back with peculiar pleasure and quickness of memory on the savings that one made during the college days in order that when going home at Christmas time, one might take home a nice gift to one’s father and mother. Sometimes it was a diff- cult matter to save the money, and it was a serious qtiestion of calculation, when we reached the station, whether we had money enough to get the presents and travel to our destination. Still, if we had enough to get home, and had the present, we were satisfied. TWO GIFTS. Supposing we had but little anyway, a penny a week pocket money. Ours is a poor country, you know. Well,
