{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24067/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24067","id":"gutenberg_24067","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24067","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Jacqueline Jeremy, Ian Deane, and the\nProject Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team\n(http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nThe William Penn Lectures\n\nHIDDEN FROM THE PRUDENT\n\n[Illustration: Paul Jones' signature.]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1921\nWalter H. Jenkins, Printer\nPhiladelphia\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\n\nThis is the seventh of the series of lectures known as the _William\nPenn Lectures_. They are supported by the Young Friends' Movement of\nPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting, which was organized on Fifth month 13th,\n1916, at Race Street Meeting House, in Philadelphia, for the purpose of\ncloser fellowship; for the strengthening of such association and the\ninterchange of experience, of loyalty to the ideals of the Society of\nFriends; and for the preparation by such common ideals for more\neffective work through the Society of Friends for the growth of the\nKingdom of God on earth.\n\nThe name of William Penn has been chosen because he was a great\nAdventurer, who in fellowship with his friends started in his youth on\nthe holy experiment of endeavoring \"to live out the laws of Christ in\nevery thought and word and deed,\" that these might become the laws and\nhabits of the State.\n\nPaul Jones, Secretary of The Fellowship of Reconciliation, delivered\nthis seventh lecture on \"Hidden from the Prudent\" at Race Street Meeting\nHouse, on Fifth month 8th, 1921.\n\nPhiladelphia, 1921.\n\n\n\n\nHidden From the Prudent\n\n\nIn the latter part of January, 1915, I visited for the first time the\nUte Indian Reservation in the northeastern part of Utah and drove with\nthe missionary to Ouray, where the older Indians were gathered for the\nmonthly issue of rations by the Government. That evening in the log\nstore, with some fifty or sixty Indians gathered around the stove on\nboxes or seated on the counters under the flickering light of the\nlanterns hanging from the roof, we spoke of God's love for men.\n\nThe next morning we found one of our church families in a log hut,\ngathered about a letter which they had just received from their boy who\nwas at a Government School in California. When we had read the letter,\nthe father of the family, Albert Cesspouch, a man of about forty-five,\nblind from trachoma, which affects so many of the Indians, stood up and\ndrawing his blanket around him held up his hand to signify that he was\ngoing to speak.\n\nWith the natural dignity of the Indian, he commenced to talk in the Ute\ntongue, his daughter Rosita interpreting for him. First he thanked us\nfor the words we had spoken the night before and then went on to speak\nof something which had been on his mind since the previous summer. It\nseems that there had been a flag-raising at the agency headquarters, and\nmoving pictures had been taken of the Indians as they reverenced the\nflag. He had been thinking about it during those months. \"It means,\" he\nsaid, \"that they want to take our young men away to fight. It is not\nright. The young men should not fight.\" Then putting his hand in his\npocket he drew out a little silver cross that had been given him some\nyears before when he had been confirmed, and holding it up as if his\nsightless eyes could see it he said, \"That's good. That means that men\nshould not fight, but live as brothers.\"\n\nWe explained to him that he had misunderstood the significance of the\nflag-raising, but who shall say that that Indian, uncultured, poverty\nstricken, diseased and ignorant by all our civilized standards, had not\ncome nearer to an understanding of the heart of the Christian gospel\nthan the majority of his sophisticated white brothers?\n\nPerhaps, after all, Christ's message is a simpler thing than we have\nsupposed. One can go into a theological library today and find stacks\nand stacks of volumes on religion, ethics, theology, casuistry,\nexegesis, philosophy, the Bible, ecclesiastical history, mysticism,\napologetics, metaphysics and a dozen other subjects, all designed to\nilluminate, define and expound the realities that Jesus taught; but\nsomehow they seem worthless when we note the clear grasp of the inner\ntruth that the simple Indian had achieved without their help. We have\ntended to conceive of truth as something to be studied and apprehended\nintellectually rather than something to be lived. We need the reminder\nof that old prayer which begins, \"Almighty God, who showest to them that\nare in error the light of thy truth to the intent that they may return\ninto the way of righteousness.\" Truth for the sake of right living, not\ntruth for the truth's sake or truth for God's sake, is the divine\nvaluation. The wisdom and patient study of the ages have gone into the\nsearch for the knowledge of God and His will, but to what purpose is\nit, when today as ever the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the\nhearts of the child-like?\n\nDo not misunderstand me. Ignorance is no more a virtue than is wisdom.\nWe must not forget the speaker at a church conference who began a tirade\nagainst the universities and education, expressing thankfulness that he\nhad never been corrupted by contact with a college. After he had\nproceeded a few minutes, the chairman interrupted with the question:\n\n\"Do I understand that the speaker is thankful for his ignorance?\"\n\n\"Well, yes,\" was the answer, \"you may put it that way.\"\n\n\"Well, all I have to say,\" said the chairman, in gentle tones--\"all I\nhave to say is that he has much to be thankful for.\" Both ignorance and\nwisdom may be bars to the understanding of God's will. It is a question\nof the heart.\n\nSuppose we put the problem to ourselves in the form of questions which\nwill bring out some of the current conceptions of religion. Is religion\na form of belief? Is it a form of experience? Is it the corporate life\nin an institution? Is it a relationship to God? They all lead us to\nspeculation and to abstractions. Or if we ask similarly does religion\ndepend on knowledge, on emotion, on sacramental connection with God, or\non mystical detachment from the world, again we are led to try to find\nreligion off by itself, where it may be weighed and measured and\nnurtured as if in a vacuum. They are interesting questions, but the only\nanswer I have for them is that they suggest in no way the gracious words\nthat came from the lips of Jesus, speaking to the hearts of babes.\n\nHis words were not of theological abstractions, however true or\nilluminating. He declared not the \"must\" of arbitrary authority nor the\n\"ought\" of impersonal law; but rather revealed in simple story or\nexpression the things which were true to the world of men in which He\nlived, the harmonies which unite, the relationships which grow, the\ntruths which were self-convincing.\n\nJohn Drinkwater's Trojan soldier says it to his comrade:\n\n    \"Capys, it is so little that is needed\n    For righteousness; we are so truly made,\n    If only to our making we were true.\"\n\nIn the days before we began to question the generally accepted\nstandards, a judge always stood for the epitome of wisdom, and it is\nworth noting that the recognized function of a judge is to consider all\nquestions in the light of the precedents of the past. That fact\nsufficiently explains the difference in receptivity to a new and\nliberating truth on the part of the wise and prudent as compared with\nbabes unhampered by a judicial attitude or a collection of time-honored\nshibboleths.\n\nIs it possible for us sufficiently to divest ourselves of our inherited\nand acquired prejudices, our theology, our thought-forms and the\naccepted standards of conduct, to enter into an appreciation of the\nexperience of those to whom the words and presence of Jesus came as a\nnew experience? It is doubtful whether we can very thoroughly, and yet I\nwould ask you to make that attempt, that we may together examine anew\nthe revealing simplicity of the message which Jesus brought to His\ngeneration nineteen hundred years ago, a message which is still valid in\nspite of all the checks and distortions which we have placed upon it.\n\nWhat were the salient features of Jesus' message and ministry which\nfound such a welcome acceptance in the hearts of plain, ordinary men and\nwomen? What were those truths so simple that the ignorant and uncultured\ncould understand them, yet so potent that once they began to ferment\ntheir possessors became known as men who had turned the world upside\ndown? I think we can put them down under two heads which will include\nthe heart of the matter.\n\nThe first is simply that this is God's world in which we are living.\nThat sounds like the barest sort of platitude, but have patience. There\nis more in it than appears at first glance.\n\nCertainly it is the basis of Jesus' message. From His references to the\nlilies on the Galilean hillsides and the sparrows on the housetops to\nHis discussion of the whole range of human affairs, Jesus was at pains\nto point out that there was no detail which was outside of God's care\nand concern. The assurance of St. Paul that all things work together for\ngood to them that love God is the emphasis on such a characterization of\nthe world as finds its culmination in Jesus' confident assertion, \"Ye\ntherefore shall be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.\" It is a\nworld in which men can live up to their best.\n\nDid you ever think what a terrible irony it would have been if Jesus had\nsaid that just to encourage us, knowing that it could never be true? We\nare tolerant of the unconscious cruelty of the small boy who teases a\ndog by holding a bone just out of his reach, encouraging him to jump for\nit, because we know that he will finally give it to him. It is\nunthinkable that Jesus could have used words of such deep significance\nin such a cruelly careless way. It is God's universe in which moral\npurpose has a definite standing and a more than ordinary strength.\n\nProfessor Rauschenbusch has said it in these words: \"If love is the\nfundamental quality of God, it must be part of the constitution of\nhumanity.\" The simple-hearted have in all ages sensed the import of this\ntruth, for it has to them opened up great vistas of the possibilities of\nlife, possibilities contemptuously discredited by the wise men of their\ntime who base their calculations on human weakness rather than on human\npotentiality.\n\nYour realist prides himself upon keeping his feet upon the ground. He\nwill go no farther than he can see, and he sees truly enough the evil\nand imperfection in the world. He notes the weakness and failures of the\nbest intentioned, takes cognizance of the low motives that so often\ndominate, and bases his conclusions on them. He spurns the idealistic\ntwaddle of those who, he says, are guided by their hopes rather than by\nordinary good sense, and fancies himself a practical man. He expects\nlittle and gets that.\n\nThe Christian realist, however, sees the possibilities in the evil and\nweak of mankind. He recognizes elements of virtue and courage and honor\nthat are waiting to be called out, sets himself to elicit them and bases\nhis conclusions on those very real facts. He is just as practical as the\nother, but with this difference--he expects more and gets it.\n\nWhen Jesus called the impulsive, eager Simon a rock, the hard-headed\nmust have smiled and later remarked, \"I told you so,\" when Peter broke\nunder his first test; but Jesus' judgment was the truer after all. So\nwith Mary Magdalene and Zacheus, Jesus saw in them what they might be\nand demonstrated that this is a world where the best has a chance. \"Ah,\nbut a man's reach should exceed his grasp,\" is Browning's rebuke to the\nmerely prudent.\n\nHave you noted how Jesus drove home His point that the possibilities for\ngood in the world and in men and women were of supreme importance? He\nwas not content to leave it as a general proposition. By parable and\nprecept again and again He made it clear, not merely that the\npossibilities were here, but that they were God's major interest. By\nthem we are judged.\n\nThe practical men who knew that the temple bills had to be paid knew\nthat money was money, but Jesus rated the widow's tiny offering above\nthem all. The one wandering sheep was more precious than the\nninety-nine. The perfect young man who had kept all the commandments, no\ndoubt the joy of his mother and the pride of his community, and also the\nsubstantial pillar of the church who had done everything that was\nrequired, were not to be compared with the social outcast who had failed\nbut had the grace to admit it. There was hope for him.\n\nTaking the will for the deed, the sincere intention for the achievement,\nor the yearning of the heart for the practical accomplishment, is\nsubversive of all our standards of conduct. No business could be run on\nthe basis of paying men in accordance with their readiness to work,\nirrespective of the service rendered, as is the case in the parable of\nthe laborers in the vineyard. But God seems to be able to run the\nuniverse on that basis. No wonder the common people heard Jesus gladly.\n\nOf course the corollary, or rather the premise, of that is that God has\nfaith in us and loves and forgives. That is why He can use such an\nextraordinary way of estimating worth. He believes in us, believes that\nwe are better than we know ourselves to be, for our knowledge seldom\ngoes to the roots of our being. He can be patient while we are still\nstumbling through the shallows of existence. Ye know not what spirit ye\nare of, was Christ's word to those who had not yet caught God's vision\nof the world.\n\nThe one who gets that thought in all its bearings, that this is God's\nworld from the beginning to the end, in all its implications, knows\nthat no effort is ever lost, whatever the apparent outcome. He knows\nthat a real brotherhood is possible, however broken present\nrelationships may be. He knows that God's will cannot permanently be\nthwarted, however man's futility may interfere. He knows that God and\nnature, religion and science, truth and experience must eventually meet\nin one common focus, however separated they may appear. He will echo\nMaud Royden's fine words: \"I am convinced that what I can see others can\nsee--and nothing will persuade me that the world is not ready for an\nideal for which I am ready.\"\n\nThere is one further bearing of this central thought, and that is that\nthe divine is everywhere about us--that we are never far from God. If we\ncan serve Him in our fellows, we can meet Him in our fellows. Richard\nSwain tells of going home one afternoon and finding his children,\nPhilip, eight years old, and Esther, two years younger, playing\ntogether. The latter was standing under the electric light, with both\narms raised as high as she could stretch them over her head. Seeing her\ndramatic position, and the unusual look on her face, he remained silent,\nknowing that something was coming. With intense feeling she said:\n\n\"Oh, Philip! of course we could kiss God!\" To which Philip replied:\n\n\"Oh, you couldn't kiss God. He is a spirit. Why, God is in you--and in\nme.\"\n\nStill standing in her dramatic position, with the light shining full on\nher face, she began lowering her arms slowly, and as her expression of\ncomprehension deepened she said:\n\n\"Oh, well, then, Philip, if God is in you and in me, if we were to kiss\neach other we would kiss God.\"\n\n\"Yes, that is right, you would,\" was his response. Then she said:\n\n\"Let us kiss God.\" He arose promptly, and the children, throwing their\narms tightly around each other, kissed God. They had grasped a\nfundamental idea and interpreted it in their own sweet way.\n\nWhen we can see the divine all about us in our fellows and live in a\nconstant sense of it, many of the difficulties which people raise\nagainst the full participation in the Christian way will quickly fade.\nOne will more readily see the necessity of relinquishing the way of\nwarfare and following methods which will call forth the response of that\ndivine element. The industrial problem will be taken from the realm of\nconflicting economic elements and be approached as a family affair, in\nwhich no group will be willing to tolerate a system which works\nhardships on other members of the family.\n\nIt is little wonder that the plain people of Galilee and Judea received\nthe various angles of that message with a ready gladness. That this was\nGod's world about which He cared and in which men were His children and\ncould live as such, was immediately a liberating idea. It freed them\nfrom the tyranny of the current ecclesiastical establishment; it\neliminated the significance of the Roman yoke. What mattered it what the\nemperor or governor did? They stood or fell by God's judgment. It killed\nthe envy of the rich or privileged, for did not they have just as much\nworth before their common Father? And they found not just a nation but a\nworld of brothers.\n\nMy second point is, I suppose, in a sense, but a development of the\nfirst one; but it has such significance that it deserves separate\nemphasis. It is that this is man's world, as well as God's, or we might\nsay, because it is God's. Because it is God's world, it is the scene of\ngreat possibilities for the individual man and for the whole social\ngroup. The best is possible at any moment and for every person, and God\nsees us in the light of what we may be. The bargain idea of religion as\nexpressed by Jacob--if you will look after me and keep me then you can\nbe my God and I will give my worship--is forever swept aside in the\nconception that God has made this a world where man can come to his\nbest, and that when man responds to that vision and tries to live in the\nlight of it, he is rendering the only service God cares about.\n\nThe additional thought which brings the first one to completion is that\nthis world of those great possibilities is put in man's keeping: it is\nfor him to create the realities which potentially exist. It is man's\nworld, for, as St. Paul says, we are God's fellow-workers.\n\nIt is unnecessary to detail the expressions Jesus used to bring home to\nHis hearers the understanding that it was for them to make real what was\nonly potential. The thought is expressed in the large in the conception\nof the kingdom which was to be progressively realized. He announced it\nas at hand, outlined its characteristics as a new brotherly set of\nrelationships and then told them how to bring it about.\n\nHe was not one to open before them a fool's paradise. He recognized the\nevil, weakness and brutality in the world summed up in the fact that men\ngenerally were living on quite a different basis from that which He set\nforth. His was not the advice to shut their eyes to the actual situation\nand pretend that it was what they would like to have it. Many have\nthought that that was His message; but to give such a word is no more\nlike Him than the supposition that He meant to encourage them to attempt\nwhat was impossible.\n\nNo, He admitted the evil that was present, that tended to obscure the\npossibilities which were also there, and told them how they could\novercome and transform that evil and make real the good which had been\noverlain. Forgiveness and love were the transforming powers which were\nto accomplish it. He put a creative instrument in their hands, the full\npossibilities of which we have not yet discovered.\n\nMalcolm Sparkes has said: \"Love treats every man as if he were the\nfriend he ought to be.\" That is not a gospel of pretense, for there is a\ncompelling power in love that brings reactions often quite unsuspected.\nMost people, in their reasoning, ignore the fact that this human nature\nthat we speak of has its two sides; that which responds to base motives\nand impulses and that which responds to the higher, and that it is for\nus to choose which we shall appeal to. It has been said that there is no\naverage human nature any more than there is average organ music. What\ncomes from the pipes of the organ depends upon the hand which touches\nthe keys, whether it is a series of divine harmonies or just a jumble of\ndiscords.\n\nThe opposite conception has been put in these clear-cut words by\nHerbert Adams Gibbons in a recent magazine, in speaking of the wisdom of\nAmericans adopting a policy of disarmament:\n\n\"Their country cannot afford to change from a wolf into a sheep unless a\nsimultaneous change takes place in the others of the pack. Probably the\nchange will never come, for the simple reason that none will consent to\nrisk being eaten by being a little ahead of the other wolves.\"\n\nSuch a point of view entirely ignores the reality of human reactions.\nThe Golden Rule is much more than an arbitrary obligation: it is an\nexpression of the fundamental truth that men react to the stimulus that\nis applied. It may be true that a hungry pack of wolves will not\ndiscriminate between a loving Christian and an angry heathen who is at\ntheir mercy; but the case is entirely different when a group of\nevil-minded men encounter a person radiating a spirit of love and good\nwill as contrasted with one who shows hatred, antagonism or fear. Their\nreactions will be quite different to those two persons, even though no\nabsolute guarantee of immunity goes with the former.\n\nA few years ago a certain clothing manufacturer, when invited to make an\naddress on \"What Is Wrong With Christianity?\" sat down to consider the\nmatter. Before he got through he decided that he had no right to\ncriticize until he had tried it out and that it was up to him to make\nthe attempt. Examining his business in that light he found that he was\npaying some women as low as four dollars a week. He immediately tripled\ntheir wages and the others in proportion, announcing that he was going\nto run his business on the basis of the Golden Rule. He expected, as he\nsaid, to go bankrupt in two or three months; but felt that it was better\nto go out of business that way than to continue and prosper on an\nun-Christian basis. But when the three months was up, he found that\ninstead of being bankrupt the firm had made larger profits than ever\nbefore, for the people had responded in similar vein, and working with a\nvery different spirit, had produced a much larger output.\n\nIt wouldn't do, on the basis of his principle, to take the larger\nprofits that had come from the increased efforts of his workers, so he\narranged to divide the profits among them in accordance with what they\nwere receiving. Again the reaction came, this time in the form of a\npetition from the highest-paid workers saying that it was not fair for\nthem to receive so large a proportion of the profits, in addition to\ntheir wages, and asking that the profits be divided equally among all\nwho had worked the same length of time. They, too, reacted to the spirit\nin which they were approached, and so the thing has gone on with many\nsubsequent developments and a complete change of spirit in the relations\ninside the factory and with the public.\n\nThe task of creating the realities of the divine order which is\nentrusted to men rests constantly upon the primary fact that this is\nGod's world, where possibilities of brotherhood and co-operation exist.\nThe recognition of that world is an act of faith from which the creative\nprocess starts.\n\nAnother employer, instead of complaining about his shiftless workers who\ndo not know how to spend intelligently the wages they receive, carried\non a campaign of education for a period before a large division of\nprofits was to be made to them, and on checking up the disposition they\nmade of their share, accounted for practically one hundred per cent in\nsavings, stock investments, property and improvements.\n\nYou hear about the ignorant foreigners who are working at our trades.\nRecently I tested out a large group in regard to their ability to speak\nlanguages and found a great many who could speak three or four and a\nconsiderable number who could speak five, six and seven. With my one\nlanguage and no productive trade I concluded that I was in no position\nto use that contemptuous epithet.\n\nThere is also much loose talk about the subnormal brutes in our\npenitentiaries. Thomas Mott Osborne, believing in the possibilities even\nin such men, proceeded to call forth those possibilities by trusting\nthe men and making an appeal to their manhood. Dangerous, foolish,\nimmoral were the comments which were made upon the enterprise; but it\nworked, and he has in the process fitted those men to return to a decent\ncommon life with their fellows.\n\nHerbert Gray has said: \"I remember the time when I supposed that Jesus\nloved all men simply because He believed it to be His duty, and whether\nor no He found in them anything to be loved. The idea was, of course,\ngrotesquely foolish. God himself could not love what is essentially\nunlovable. No! Jesus loved men and women because He could always find in\nthem something worthy to be loved--some possibility, at the worst, which\nwas a fit object even for divine love. He could detect in each instance\nthat which justified the declaration that man was made in the image of\nGod.\"\n\nThere is very little use in arguing questions of the elimination of\nwar, the reorganization of industrial relations, new methods of dealing\nwith criminals, school technique, or the foundations of political\ngovernment with those who are unable to detect in men elements of worth\nwhich can be counted upon. The basis on which such people take their\nstand is so far removed from that of those who see this world of human\nrelationships as a field for the operation of the creative spirit that\nonly misunderstanding is apt to result from such discussions.\n\nWhen one has not that understanding of human relationships, then\ndomination, coercion, suppression, restraint are the logical methods\nwhich must be employed in all those fields when men and women do not\nevince a desire to co-operate in the common life. The protection of the\ninterests of the right-minded must take precedence over the indulgence\nin sentimentality. When we are strong enough we'll talk disarmament.\nKnock the brute down first and argue with him afterward. Without\ndiscipline you can't have education. No government can allow its\ncitizens to talk against it. These are sentiments which we hear again\nand again. They proceed quite reasonably from a different but false\nconception of human nature.\n\nIt is useless to try to meet such reasoning and prove it false, as long\nas we leave unchallenged the basis from which it proceeds. There is\nwhere the work has to be done. There is where there is a call for a new\nevangel today, to reveal to men that same simple message that Jesus\nproclaimed so long ago, that this is God's world and that we can bring\nto development the good that lies everywhere about us in men. When we\nhave done that we can discuss these problems in terms of understanding.\nUntil we have done it, we are merely beating the air.\n\nWe in the modern world need, above many things, a new understanding of\nforgiveness. In spite of much that has been written by our really great\nChristian thinkers who have been blessed with the child-like heart, and\nin spite of the experience of the many who have tried it out,\nforgiveness is still regarded by the great multitude as a somewhat\ndifficult Christian duty. It is the response which we have to make when\none who has wronged us comes repentant. Instead of exacting our rights,\nwe must generously call the debt off, although as we have heard lately,\nthese are some things which it would really be un-Christian to forgive.\n\nBut as Dr. Nash reminds us: \"If man sinned against, draws back into his\ninnocence and waits until the offender comes to himself, he abandons\nhis little world to the devil. * * * Forgiveness alone makes a full\nrepentance possible.\" And Herbert Gray carries the thought still farther\nwhen he says: \"The secret of Christ's demand is in the fact that\nforgiveness is the only ultimately successful way of overcoming evil.\n* * * It ends evil because it wins the evildoer. It gets at the root\nof evil and undermines the spirit which produces strife. It saves the\nsinner because it makes its appeal to the good that is in him and calls\nit into life.\"\n\nThose who say that we must forgive our enemies, but that of course it\nwould be immoral to do so while they are still unrepentant, are as far\nfrom understanding Christ's principle as a certain churchman, whom I\nonce heard say that he had no hope of our ever achieving Christian\nunity, but that he was still praying for it. So far from being the\ndutiful response to an attitude of repentance, it is rather the creative\npower which brings out the latent possibilities which have been obscured\nby sin and evil.\n\nIt is the basis of what might be called the divine process of getting\neven. A group of boys were playing ball one time, and one of the number\nin a spirit of exasperation threw the ball into a swamp, where it was\nlost. The owner of the ball came in to his uncle fuming and declaring\nthat he was going to get even. \"What are you going to do about it?\"\nasked his uncle. \"How are you going to get even?\"\n\n\"Oh, I'll fix him. We won't let him play on the team,\" said the boy.\n\n\"It was a rather dirty trick, wasn't it? Sort of a low-down thing to\ndo?\" continued the uncle.\n\n\"It certainly was, but I'll get even.\"\n\n\"You might say, then,\" said the uncle, \"that he was like the swampy mire\nthat he threw the ball into, compared with the firm, high ground where\nyou were playing?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well, if you are going to get even,\" concluded the uncle, \"you'll\neither have to go down into the mire with him or get him up on to the\nclean, hard ground with you. Think it over.\"\n\nThe next day, when his uncle asked him how he had made out, the boy\nreplied: \"You know I thought about what you said, about getting even, so\nI told him we wanted him to pitch for us; and he not only played a dandy\ngame, but he said he would get me a new ball.\" The boy had found the\ndivine way of getting even.\n\nI am not concerned to apply this principle to the many corporate and\nsocial evils of our time; for if only I can succeed in making clear how\ntrue and how vital it is as a key to human relationships, and how\ncentral it was in Jesus' teaching, its wider application can safely be\nleft to you. Creative love is the healing spirit most needed in the\nworld today.\n\nIf, in presenting those aspects of Jesus' message which reached the\nhearts of the simple with a vitalizing power, giving them a new grip on\nlife and a sense of at-homeness in God's world, I have conveyed the\nimpression that here is a safe and easy way out of life's difficulties,\nI have failed in my task. Because a view of the world is true and\nbecause a method of approach is the only ultimately successful one, it\nby no means follows that it is always a safe method for the individual.\nIndeed Jesus abundantly reminded His followers that they need not\nexpect less of opposition, antagonism and persecution than He Himself\nhad received. The following of the way of love would make for division\nand strife even in that place where it would be hardest to see it\narise--in one's own home. It could not be expected that evil corporately\nand socially entrenched would always give way before the power of\nredemptive love glowing in the life of one individual. It might mean\nthat the lives and labors of many would have to be spent to the utmost\nbefore love would achieve its victory.\n\nIt is indeed in the light of such a possibility that the social\ncharacter of the gospel is doubly emphasized. The kingdom has a meaning\nonly when we realize that far beyond the individual triumphs for love\nthat may be achieved, there is a field that can be won only by the\ncorporate faithfulness to the ideal of the group. The individual may\nlose by all the worldly standards, and his life may seem an ineffectual\nprotest or gesture, but it is the type of losing in which the soul is\nfound and which sooner or later wins out for the group over the\nentrenched evil of ages.\n\nIn a decade in which, following a more imperfect, yes, even a sadly\nfutile ideal, millions of men have been content to give their lives, we\nhave no cause to feel that men will not be ready to pay the price. They\nare even too ready to sell themselves for that which is worthless. If\nthey but knew, to adapt our Lord's words, if they but knew the things\nthat belong unto their peace, but now they are hid from their eyes!\n\nBut why is it, we are sometimes tempted to ask, that the way of love\nstirs up strife and bitterness? Does not that outcome of some of our\nendeavors argue a failure on our part to express the healing spirit? It\nmay be that, of course; but is it not generally because that method is\nessentially an appeal to conscience, and a conscience stirred, but not\ncompletely won, drives its possessor to an extreme of reaction? It was\nno accident that some of our leading Christian ministers were the most\nbitter detractors of conscientious objectors during the war. The very\nexistence of the latter was a continual challenge to the consciences of\nthose ministers. They had to maintain their different attitude the more\nvehemently. As some of our friends remind us, love is not a mushy thing,\nand it sometimes has to inflict pain.\n\nThe world is growing old in its sophistication. The developments in\nscientific research, during the last century especially, have led many\nto feel that in the ever-growing complexity of the life of the universe\nand in the ever-widening reaches of our knowledge there is, each decade,\nless and less place for God in the world and less and less occasion to\npay attention to the words of a half-mythical Syrian teacher. But out of\nthat very sophistication has come the reaction that is leading many to\nquestion the whole interlocking system of philosophy, science, industry\nand politics that sums up the universe in terms of material things. It\nis time, they say, that we began to cut loose from the machine and get\ndown to the human heart that is the one vital thing in the world:\n\n    \"Not kings and lords, but nations!\n    Not crowns and thrones, but men!\"\n\nTo such comes with new and convincing power that which has been hidden\nfrom the wise and prudent, the vision that this is still God's world,\nin which, for all the learned data we have collected, there are still\nthe almost untapped reservoirs of human possibilities awaiting not the\ntest tubes of the scientist or formulas of the mathematician to bring\nthem out, but merely the spirit of redemptive love as we have learned it\nin Jesus.\n\nRichard Roberts has said it rather finely:\n\n\"The story of Jesus is 'the instance of love without a limit,' the love\nthat will not let me go or give me up, that flings down party-walls and\noverleaps frontiers, flings wide the gate of friendship to the enemy,\nthe impulse and the energy that creates the sovereign loveliness, the\nloveliness of a living society of men, purged of enmities and discords\nand hatreds, living out its manifold and abundant life in the unbroken\nharmony of unreserving fellowship.\"\n\nIf we can have the humility to see that there lies the heart and glory\nof the world, we can be content to let the wise ones erect their houses\nof cards as they may, while within the tottering structure we build the\neternal Kingdom of God. We can then greet the new day with Alfred Noyes:\n\n    \"It is the Dawn! The Dawn! The nations\n    From East to West now hear a cry,--\n    Though all earth's blood-red generations\n    By hate and slaughter climbed thus high,\n    Here--on this height--still to aspire,\n    One only path remains untrod,\n    One path of love and peace climbs higher.\n    Make straight that highway for our God.\"\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n    THE CHRISTIAN LIFE\n    by\n    Elbert Russell\n\n\n    THE QUAKER OF THE FUTURE TIME\n    by\n    George A. Walton\n\n\n    THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT\n    by\n    Norman H. Thomas\n\n\n    THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND FOR\n    SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION\n    by\n    Harry F. Ward\n\n\n    RELIGION AS REALITY, LIFE AND POWER\n    by\n    Rufus M. Jones\n\n\n    HEROES IN PEACE\n    by\n    John Haynes Holmes\n\n\n    HIDDEN FROM THE PRUDENT\n    by\n    Paul Jones\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    William Penn Lectures are published by the\n    Young Friends' Movement. Copies may be\n    obtained from the Headquarters, 154 N. 15th\n    Street, or from Walter H. Jenkins, 140 N. 15th\n    Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Paper-bound copies\n    at -- cents; in cloth, -- cents.","title":"Hidden from the Prudent: The 7th William Penn Lecture, May 8, 1921","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":6424}