{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_45795/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_45795","id":"gutenberg_45795","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45795","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christmas -- Devotional literature","Devotional literature"],"text":"A CHRISTMAS GIFT\n\n    TO THE AMERICAN HOME\n    AND THE YOUTH OF AMERICA\n\n    BY\n\n    N. P. GRAVENGAARD\n\n    _Former President Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of\n    America. Author of \"Eternal Life and Everlasting\n    Joy\" and \"Lectures.\"_\n\n    TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH BY\n    G. S. STRANDVOLD\n\n[Illustration: ARTI et VERITATI]\n\n    BOSTON\n    RICHARD G. BADGER\n    THE GORHAM PRESS\n\n\n\n\n    COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY RICHARD G. BADGER\n\n    All Rights Reserved\n\n\n    Made in the United States of America\n\n    The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nTHE present volume is a translation from the Danish language of one of\nRev. Mr. Gravengaard's books which in its original form has attained\na success among Danes in the United States and Americans of Danish\ndescent which is quite unprecedented in the annals of Danish immigrant\nliterature, secular and religious. The book has passed through two\nlarge editions and has even found wide reading in far-off Denmark.\n\nThe work of rendering this volume into English has been a source of\nunlimited joy because of the clarity of the author's message; the form\nin which he has clothed his thoughts, and the immediate humanistic\ntouch evident from beginning to end. It is the hope of the translator\nthat an equal measure of satisfaction and delight may accrue to the\npublic who now for the first time may enjoy the opportunity of becoming\nfamiliar with Mr. Gravengaard's writings in the language of the United\nStates.\n\n                                                    THE TRANSLATOR\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                      PAGE\n    CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS                                   9\n        1. The Christmas Angels: Dost Thou Remember?     9\n        2. Room for Jesus                               10\n        3. Well-Springs of Joy                          13\n        4. To Join in the Song                          15\n        5. The Joy of Understanding                     18\n        6. The Faith of a Little Child                  21\n    THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR                           24\n        1. To See Like the Angels                       24\n        2. The Hidden Life                              28\n    THE WORTH OF YOUR SOUL                              32\n    THAT WHICH IS HIDDEN SHALL BE REVEALED              36\n    NOT IN WORD, NEITHER IN TONGUE                      39\n    SEEST THOU THIS WOMAN?                              42\n    WHAT ABOUT THE DEVIL?                               45\n    TWO EPISODES OF THE CIVIL WAR                       49\n        1. Looting Those Who Fell                       49\n        2. Removed Because of Mischief                  51\n    YOUR WORDS                                          55\n    BEHIND THE SHIELD                                   59\n    LOVE ME--AND TELL ME SO!                            66\n    TO BEAR BURDENS                                     71\n    BE STEADFAST IN PRAYER                              74\n        1. A Gain and a Protection                      74\n        2. What Mother Taught Me                        75\n        3. The Evening-Prayer: A Protection             77\n        4. The Morning-Prayer: A Gain                   80\n    ZACCH\u00c6US                                            84\n        1. To Be Home By Oneself                        84\n        2. All Forgiven--Nothing in Vain                87\n        3. During the Following Days                    89\n    THE MARCH OF EVENTS                                 92\n    THE LITTLE WHILE                                    97\n    THE MIRACLE IN OUR AGE                             105\n        1. The Miracle and Nature                      106\n        2. The Miracle and the Church of the Lord      111\n    AMERICA--YOU ARE THE HOPE OF THE WORLD TO-DAY      119\n\n\n\n\nRELIGIOUS THOUGHTS FOR EVERYBODY\n\n\n\n\nA CHRISTMAS GIFT\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTMAS THOUGHTS\n\n\n1. _The Christmas Angel's: Dost thou remember?_\n\nI WAS sitting in my study. Darkness was gathering, and it was Christmas\nEve. Then it was as though a kind and soothing voice whispered into my\near: Dost thou remember Christmas Eve at home?\n\nDo I?--Indeed, I remember it as it were but yesterday. I remember so\nplainly how we, all finely dressed, gathered at the long table. There\nfather was sitting at one end reading aloud from the old hymn book\nwhile we all listened, our hands folded.\n\nAt the other end of the table grandmother was sitting, and I next to\nher, for I was \"Grandma's boy.\" The old brass spectacles were sitting\nastride the very tip of her nose so that I could not quite grasp\nwhether she peered through them or merely glanced above them.\n\nWhen father had finished reading, grandmother spoke up--she wanted us\nto sing now this Christmas carol, now that; she had sung on Christmas\nEve for so many, many years that she could lead us in singing them. Her\nvoice--well, it was old, for she was past eighty, but if you say it\nwasn't fine, then you surely are no good as a judge of grandmother's\nvoice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMother--do I remember her? Indeed, I never forget her. Gentle and quiet\nshe sat at the table, slightly pale, her cheeks somewhat haggard. Her\nmother-eye wandered from one to the other, resting on each of us with\na wealth of love. It was a strange look that came from those eyes\nsurrounded by dark edges--it was so filled with love and wistfulness.\n\nThen came that Christmas when her chair stood vacant. O, yes, I\nremember her so plainly. It was quite near Christmas when she closed\nher eyes, and her last words to us were: \"_Follow Jesus!_\"\n\nYes, I remember it all, but--O, wait just a little--it was only\nthat--if tonight you visit those dear ones at home, tell them then that\nI remember it all. And tell them that we also--despite the struggle\nfor money and the increasing lack of veneration for ancient Christian\nfestivals--tell them that we also celebrate Christmas both in our home\nand in the church.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus I sent my Christmas greetings carried on the wings of the angel.\n\n\n2. _Room for Jesus_\n\n(LUC. 2, 7)\n\n\"There was no room in the inn.\"\n\nNo, neither was there room in the golden regal halls in Jerusalem nor\nin the palace of the high priest. Therefore the angels--those heavenly\nmessengers--came to neither the inn nor Jerusalem. It is not with the\nangels as with the invader's hordes in Belgium--they do not intrude\nupon foreign soil, sword in hand. They are the messengers of peace, and\nvisit only those who have room for Jesus.\n\nAnd here we behold first of all the shepherds on the field near\nBethlehem. In their hearts there was _room_ for Jesus; the sweet music\nfrom Heaven above found the _way open_ to these men.\n\nThey had been sitting out there watching how old and young flocked to\nthe City of David to register on the tax list. It must have been a sore\ntrial for them to think how God's people had come under a foreign yoke:\nWasn't, then, all hope dead? Were not the living conditions of Israel\nso desperate; the people themselves so harassed that it must needs be\nimpossible for God to fulfill His promises from the ancient days of\nyore? They bent their heads, sighing heavily.\n\nBut the sigh soared upward.\n\nThus they sat in the stillness of the night, bent under the sufferings\nof the age, as in former days Israel sat at the rivers of Babylon:\nNobody dared play the harp! Nay--who would really be able to let the\nharp chords burst out in a song of joy--under _such conditions_? That\nwould have been almost levity.\n\nBut the sigh had ascended up high, and the Angel stood before them\nsaying: I can! I can make the harp play a song of joy. I come from the\nmansions of Heaven with a cheering message: \"Fear not, for behold, I\nbring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For\nunto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Saviour, which is\nChrist the Lord----\"\n\nAnd then the first of all jubilant Christmas hymns was borne upon the\npure lips of angels and carried all over the earth. That was the sweet\n_music from Heaven_ which shall never die.\n\nIt shall sound for all those who sit in misery, or who sigh because of\ntheir poverty--for those who think that their life has become so turned\nupside down that nothing can ever be righted again--for those who sigh:\nNo, under such circumstances we cannot sing the cheery songs. To all\nthese it shall be said: _It is not impossible, at all!_ It doesn't\nmatter so much how your living conditions are, difficult or easy, dark\nor bright, nor how disrupted your life may be. What does matter, is\nwhether or not you have room for Jesus.\n\nYou say: Alas--if He only would, but----\n\nRemember, my dear, that at one time He was satisfied with a _manger_\nand with a _cross_. While on the cross He said to a miserable\nmalefactor: \"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.\" And on another\noccasion He said to a woman taken in adultery: \"Neither do I condemn\nthee: go, and sin no more!\"\n\n_Fear not!_\n\nThat was the first tone in the music from Heaven, and it was meant\nfor _you_, also. Indeed, He will abide with you, too, when you will\ngive Him room in your heart. Also you He will save into His heavenly\nrealm. But, then tell me: Isn't there, even considering your wants and\ncircumstances, every reason why you should sing a Christmas hymn with\njoy in your heart?\n\nIt was not levity that made the angels sing jubilantly that Christmas\nEve: _They had beheld that which had been prepared for mankind through\nthe love of God our Father_. Therefore, they could sing the jubilant\nsongs.\n\nSo, try then to look beyond all the _despair_ down here. Try to raise\nyour eyes to the bright Heavens--to that which has been prepared\nfor you through the love of God our Father. If it does happen,\nnevertheless, that once in a while you bend your head _downward_, then\nlet the sigh soar _upward_--for it may thus happen that angels will\nvisit you.\n\nTherefore it shall be proclaimed loudly by the church of Jesus\nChrist--from the city on the mountain throughout all the lands of the\nearth--to all those who have room for Jesus: _Fear not! It is never\nso dark in your life that there is no room for the joyful songs of\nChristmas!_\n\n\n3. _Well-Springs of Joy_\n\nWell-springs of joy!\n\nIt does sound a bit strange that _a babe on the knee of a virgin_ might\nbe the well-spring of joy. Ordinarily, it is a well-spring of worry and\ntears when a virgin sits with her babe on her knee--worry and tears for\nherself and for those who are related to her. But here we behold a\nvirgin who herself has sung the joyful hymn of praise because she had\nbeen found deserving of such grace.\n\nWell-springs of joy it was to Mary and to the aged Elizabeth from the\nvery beginning--and now the Christmas Angel announces that it is \"for\nall the people.\"\n\nBut, someone may say to us: Yes, we know that the _shepherds_ were\nhappy and that joy reigned in the _inn_, and we also realize that you\nspeak of Christmas joy, etc., but when you say that this story about\nthe Child in the Manger is a well-spring of joy--then, really, you go\na little bit too far, and such exaggerations hurt your own cause. It\nisn't sensible to make it out quite as strong as that. Behold that\nhighly praised Child Jesus nailed to the cross as a condemned criminal,\nHis mother standing at the foot of the cross--and then tell us: Isn't\nit true that this Child, like so many, many others, made joy change\ninto sorrow? Wouldn't any mother's heart break when she had to witness\nher son die the death of a condemned criminal? Even though no sin was\nfound in Him, then you must admit that in this position he was a well\nof sorrow and weeping rather than of joy.\n\nWe answer: We know very well that His mother and His disciples\nmourned and wept--they could not do otherwise in that hour. But the\n_well-spring_ of this sorrow and weeping was not in the crucified\nChrist. Even in this hour He is the well-spring of joy, for then He\nnailed our debt of sin to the cross. Then He redeemed us from the power\nof sin and death and the devil. It was for our sake that He allowed\nHimself to be nailed fast onto the cross. It was thus magnificently\nrevealed here that the Child praised while sitting on the virgin's\nknee, had proved to be our faithful friend in life and death, when\nHe became a man. Therefore, He is, also, in this the darkest hour of\nHis earthly life, a well-spring of joy, and if we are to weep when we\ngather about the Christmas Child as the Crucified One in the church of\nthe Lord--then it shall be out of the joy of our hearts.\n\nThe Christmas Child is the only one, born of woman, of whom it can\nbe said that He has been a well-spring of joy. And that He has been\nthroughout the life of mankind--from that very moment when in the\nGarden of Eden He was spoken of as the conqueror of the serpent. But He\nis also the only one who\n\n    \"makes all earth feel joyful.\"\n\n\n4. _To Join in the Song_\n\n\"The angels join the singing.\"\n\nWell, it is easy enough for them to sing when we give the tone, for\nit is never too high for them. It is different when we are to join\nwhen they lead the singing. Sometimes it is a little bit hard for us\nchildren of dust--but we must learn it.\n\nThey sang that Christmas Eve: \"Glory to God in the highest, and on\nearth peace, good will toward men!\"\n\nThe first part of it is easy for you to sing, for \"the glory of\nChristmas is God's above the highest sky.\" That's quite simple.\n\nBut when the angels then sing: \"On earth peace, good will toward men!\"\nyou stop short; you cannot sing that. The tone is too high for you.\nWhen you look at your own life, it seems to be burdened much more with\nstrife and worry and trouble than lightened by peace. And what do the\nheavenly hosts mean when they sing about good will toward yourself--O,\nwell, it isn't much!\n\nThen if you look beyond the narrow confines of your own life and behold\nthe church of the Lord, where peace should be far more firmly rooted,\nthen--what then? \"The eye sees strife and only strife,\" and the people\n_speak_ about peace and tremble in the thunder of cannon. They _bleed_\nand _scream pitifully_ on the battlefield because of their wounds--and\nat home under the pressure of military budgets.\n\nNo, you cannot join in the singing!\n\nBut how, then, could the angels sing as they did that Christmas night?\nWas not the world filled with war and disturbances in those days, too?\nWas not the world full of souls in quest of lost peace? Yes, even so!\nAnd the angels saw it. But _they saw something more_.\n\nAmidst all the restlessness of a disturbed world they saw a little\nChild on His mother's knee. In this child's eyes the sacred peace of\nHeaven was reflected. So that was at least one human soul in all the\nmillions of mankind where perfect peace reigned on earth.\n\nToward this, the only one, the angels looked.\n\nWhen, then, you seek peace on earth, look not in the direction of the\nworld, of the struggling masses, but look toward Jesus--not as He was\nthat night on His mother's knee in the inn near Bethlehem--for He is\nthere no more, but as He is in His church, in His word, and in His\ninstitutions. His church on earth is that mother's knee upon which you\nshall find Him, and where you, in a world filled with war and strife,\nshall find peace and repose for your own soul.\n\nThe angels made no attempt whatever to penetrate into the strife of\nthe world or to unravel its troubles. Neither shall you so do. On the\nother hand, they tried to look into the eye of the Saviour, and there\nthey beheld Peace--a heavenly Peace which they had not seen on earth\nsince that evening hour when Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden\nof Eden, and when one of their own kind was placed on guard with a\nflaming sword at the portals of Paradise. Then night fell upon earth.\nBut Christmas Eve the new day began to arise from out of the darkness.\nThen they saw again a human being in the depth of whose soul reigned\nthe Peace of Heaven, and therefore they bore their good will.\n\n_The peace and the good will, then, was in this one man_, and through\nHim born into the millions of mankind. The angels had seen this one,\nand therefore they could sing as they did.\n\nPerhaps you say: Well, I can understand plainly enough why God the\nFather and the holy angels should bear Him good will. But were I to\njoin in the singing, I must needs be convinced that the Father would\nalso bear me good will. That is what I need to be convinced about.\nBut here I stand telling myself: The best acts in my life, the purest\nthoughts in my soul, are darkened by sin. What then?\n\nYes, that is true.\n\nBut, then, tell me: Have you not at times felt the nearness of Jesus?\nWas not He your soul's refuge in the darkness? Was not He like a\nluminous star in your life? Was He not yours--conceived within you in\nthe sacred moment of baptism, born into the world with pangs within\nyour soul--perhaps in the darkness of night? But then the Father in\nHeaven does bear you good will. He does not look at the darkness of sin\nwithin you--that, He knows, will be vanquished by the light of His son,\nbut He looks at His only begotten Son who is the luminous star of your\nlife--the only one, but splendid and bright.\n\nThen you own in Him the Peace of Heaven and the good will of God our\nFather--and then you can _join in the singing_.\n\n\n5. _The Joy of Understanding_\n\n(JOHN 1, 1-14)\n\nWho among us does not remember Christmas at home?--In my own childhood\nhome there was no Christmas tree, but a remarkably impressive solemnity\nreigned above and upon all during Christmas. Sometimes I still wish\nthat I might become a child once more and celebrate Christmas at home\nagain, with father and mother, grandmother and all those dear ones.\nThat cannot be done, however, for all these beloved ones are having\nChristmas in the mansions of Heaven--and I am no longer a child. But\nabout these Christmas memories, I want to say: \"God, let me never,\nnever forget them!\"\n\nThat was the joy without clearly conscious reasons. One was glad just\nbecause it was Christmas, but was unable to go into any further details\nabout the reasons.\n\nBut now I am a child no more!--Are we as \"grown-ups\" to be satisfied\nwith the memory of our childhood Christmas, and by witnessing the\npleasure of the children--share a little of that Christmas sentiment\nwhich envelops all?\n\nUndoubtedly, many people will answer: Yes, that is all. Christmas\nreally is meant only for the children. Since we became experienced men\nand women who have become acquainted with the vexations and worries of\nlife, we cannot thoroughly enjoy Christmas. To us, the law of life has\nbeen proclaimed in the words: \"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat\nbread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken.\"\n\nIn the hard, wearying, suffering and struggling life of the world,\nthe unconscious joy, that is, the joy that knows of no reason, is not\nenough. There is a craving for a joy that knows and understands the\nspirit of Christmas if one is to be completely glad--that is true!\n\nBut what does the Gospel say:\n\n\"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His\nglory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace\nand truth.\"\n\nThat means, that the only begotten Son of God, who was with God and\nwho was Himself God, has descended and taken up his abode among\nus---not only among the children! No, indeed, also among grown-up and\nexperienced men and women who must shoulder the burdens and heat of the\nday.\n\nThe Christmas message is the message that tells us that _Jesus Christ,\nwith Heavenly power and with Heavenly love_, has taken up his abode\namong all working, struggling and suffering people upon earth--not like\na haughty, indifferent onlooker at your work, your exertions, your\nstruggle as we might imagine the son of the big manufacturer going\ninto the shop looking at the toiling, perspiring workers with haughty,\nindifferent scorn and with a shrug of the shoulder.\n\nNo, _Jesus Christ entered the life of mankind as a benevolent and\npowerful participant in it_, so that you, when you look at your work\nand wonder whether you will be able to finish it--at your suffering and\nwonder whether you can keep on suffering--never shall reckon with your\nown strength alone, but must include Jesus therein. He has gone into\nyour suffering, has taken up your fight and your work for the purpose\nof suffering, fighting and working with you and becoming your Saviour.\n\nTherefore, He says: \"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy\nladen, and I will give you rest.\" That means: _All you men and women\nwho labor and are heavy laden_.\n\nBut when I can grasp a little of this, then I enjoy Christmas--not\nbecause of the memory of vanished days, but because of the\nunderstanding of the fact that Christmas is meant just for me who have\nexperienced how much there is _to labor for, to fight against, and to\nbe saved from_, and how sorely I stand in need of a heavenly support of\nstrength and love, in my daily work and in my daily struggles.\n\nTherefore, I now say: Christmas is meant for all us grown-up men and\nwomen who take life seriously and who know what are its conditions. We\ncannot dispense with Christmas, at all. We offer God our praise and our\ngratitude for Christmas, and we do so _with the joy of understanding_.\n\n\n6. _The Faith of a Little Child_\n\nOn the west front lay a 17-year-old boy a few days before Christmas,\n1915. He had voluntarily enlisted under the flag of Great Britain, and\nwas yearning to storm forward in the ranks of his comrades--forward to\nvictory. And he _had_ been in the front rank. Now he lay wounded and\nbleeding on the battlefield.\n\nThe battle was over; the stars shone, and he was thinking: Wonder, if I\nshall lie here and die!\n\nMemories stormed upon him. His mother had said: \"God be always with\nyou, my lad!\" and the old minister had said: \"Remember there is always\na window open upward!\"\n\nUpward--upward to God! Was it not as though the twinkling stars were\nsmiling at him--calling him, as it were?\n\nYes, they summoned him upward.\n\nO, how that wound pained him! Wonder if the ambulance isn't coming\nsoon? He could hear the cries of the other wounded; perhaps that was\nwhen they were lifted up from the ground. Would no one find him? He\ncould not stir, could not call--could only gaze at the distant stars.\n\nWas there room for him up there? Yes, for he was sure death was\napproaching. \"Mother,\" he whispered, \"mother--O God--take my soul--now,\njust before Christmas--for the sake of Jesus Christ!\"\n\nThe angels came, and they carried him to heaven. His prayer had been\nheard up there. His child's soul was carried upward to God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen the famous French preacher, Adolphe Monod, was asked what had been\nthe cause of his greatest gratitude, he said: \"_I thank God that He\nhath given me the faith of a little child._\"\n\nThe main thing for him was not that God had given him a great task as\na preacher and a theologian, but that He had given him the faith of\na little child. That means: The faith that accepts the grace of God\n_without making objections_!--\n\nO, thou great and rich and powerful people: Lay aside all thy bustle,\nall thy doubts, and all thy suspicion toward God--lay it aside, all\nof it, and accept the joyful tidings of Christmas with the faith of a\nlittle child--without making objections. Then thou wilt be glad.\n\nThe well known French writer, Larradan, whose pen formerly had written\nnothing but scorn against faith, during the war implored his people to\nreturn to the Christian faith as the only firm and saving foothold. He\nwrites:\n\n\"I laughed at faith and thought myself cocksure. Now I no longer\nrejoice at my scornful laughter, for I see France bleeding and weeping.\nI stood at the wayside and saw the soldiers. They went out to meet\ndeath--rejoicing. I asked: What makes you so calm? And they began\npraying to God saying: 'We believe in God!' I counted the sacrifices\nof our people, and noticed that they bore them praying. Then it became\nclear to me that there was something comforting and sustaining in\nrecognizing an eternal home-country, when that of the earth is glowing\nin the fire of hatred. This feeling is science--the science of the\nchild.... A nation must despair if it does not believe that the torment\nof the earth can be exchanged for the joy of Heaven.... France was\ngreat in the days of yore. But that was a France which had faith.\nHow about France in our own age? It is torn to pieces with want and\nsuffering. It is a France that believes no longer. Will her future\nbrighten? At the hand of God--only at the hand of God.--France, O,\nFrance, revert to the faith, to thy most beauteous days! To go away\nfrom God is to perish!...\"\n\n_I thank God that He hath given me the faith of a little child!\n\n\n\n\n\nTHOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR\n\n\n1. _To See Like the Angels_\n\nTHE striking feature of the way in which angels see does not consist in\ntheir seeing everything, both good and evil, in this world, in a rosy\nhue, in heavenly glory so that they really do not see the evil as it\nis--but in this that they see particularly what is good and seek that\nby preference--let their eye dwell upon, rest thereon, with pleasure.\nTherefore we can sing:\n\n    To us He also smiles\n    With Heaven's light in His eyes.\n\nIt is otherwise with that human being who is depraved by nature. His\neye seeks, with a certain predilection, whatever is wrong in his\nfellow-beings, dwells upon it with mischievous joy. It is an innate\nfault which makes it difficult for us humans to embrace one another, to\nsmile at one another, in the manner of angels.\n\nSuppose that we in the new year make a serious attempt to look at each\nother as the angels look--seeking what is good in our fellow-beings.\nWith an earnest will we can accomplish much, especially when we are\nsustained by prayer.\n\nLet us begin at home!\n\nPerhaps it is long since you, man, have embraced your wife and\ngiven her a real _smile_. When she was your bride--in the years of\nyouth--that was your greatest joy, but as the years went by you found\nthis fault and that with her, and then--why, then you ceased embracing\nher and smiling at her. It wasn't quite as bright in your home as\nbefore. She became more and more reticent; her rippling laughter--like\nthat of a child--was heard no more. Her cheerful songs were silent. She\nbecame rather morose and querulous. A woman cannot thrive where home is\nwithout smiles and love. You accepted the slow changes as it behooves\na man of staid dignity--life teaches so much, also compromise with\nideals, and the realization that the bright expectations of youth come\nto naught.\n\nBut, now suppose that it wasn't Life, but you _yourself_ that were\nto blame? Suppose the change arose from the fact that you had been\ninconsiderate to your wife. Your eye had detected her faults and\nshortcomings rather than her good points? Try, man, during the new\nyear to look at her as the angels look at us! Let your eye, diligently\nand willingly, seek what is good in her, dwell upon it, be jealous of\nit--give her all the appreciation she deserves for making the home\ncosy and comfortable. Try it with an earnest effort and a sincere\nprayer--then you will once more feel like embracing her and smiling at\nher as you did when she was the bride of your youth. It might happen\nthat you would reap a _hundredfold_ before the year ebbs out. It will\nbe brighter and more snug in your house--and it will feel so good to be\nat home.\n\nOr you, wife and mother, beginning to bend down and \"feel old\"\nalthough you are just beyond thirty. Perhaps you tell yourself: O,\nhad I only thought then that he was as he is--but I did not know. And\nthe children, yes--God knows, they are like him--naughty and hard to\nmanage. Instead of staying at home to help a little with the children\nin the evening--he just simply skips out.----\n\nHush--wait a while!\n\nIn what way did you tell him this when you asked him last to stay at\nhome? Did you throw your arms around his neck--did you _smile_ at him,\nsaying: My dear, stay home with us tonight?\n\nIt's no use, you say--but \"it's no use\" is, absolutely, a term which\ncannot be found in the vocabulary of Christians nor in the life of\nChristians--nor in yours if you are a Christian woman. It helps very\nmuch to do what is good while praying--perhaps not _when you_ want it,\nperhaps not the way you want it. But it will surely help if during the\nnew year you look for just that in your husband which you loved when\nyou were young--if you let your eye dwell upon it, cling firmly to it\nin your thoughts, carry it into your prayer--embrace him and smile at\nhim as in the bygone days of youth.\n\nWhere love has been sown, the harvest is as dependable as is that of\nthe wheat in the field--it is only in some cases that it proves a\nfailure. And even though yours might seem to be just such a case where\nyour love did not sustain him--then the love which you have sown will\nsustain you and your little ones--and in the course of the year your\nhome will reap at least thirtyfold.\n\nWe always gain by sowing love--also in cases where we must needs\nacknowledge that our love, like the seed that fell by the wayside,\nbears no fruit in those upon whom it descended. But in the large\nmajority of homes the seeds of love will fall into fertile ground, and\nbring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred.\n\nWhen only we have learned how to embrace the dear ones at home and\nto smile as the angels smile, then we will also be able to smile at\nothers--but first at home.\n\nAnd a year in which we have tried with earnest diligence to learn the\nart of seeing what is good in life, to dwell upon it and to smile at\nour fellow-beings--as the angels smile--is a good year, rich in the\ngrace and blessings from above.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI had just officiated at the funeral of a woman, the mother of many\nchildren, when a man said to me, \"Well, now she's got a velvet-lined\ncoffin, but while she lived she was hardly able to get a calico dress.\"\nAnd that was not because of poverty.\n\nWhat if her husband had given her a velvet dress while she was living!\nThen she would have taken pleasure in it, and he would have received\nher gratitude. The beautiful casket she could not enjoy--and could give\nhim no thanks for it.\n\nBut _you_ don't behave like that, do you?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn another occasion I heard the widow ask one of the pall-bearers when\nwe turned away from the grave: \"How did you like that sermon?\" The\nfollowing day I met her son-in-law and was told that she had not liked\nit at all. Among other things he remarked: \"She simply wanted you to\nput some feathers in her crown, but there wasn't any room for them.\"\nAnd I agreed with him.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn both instances man and wife lived together until parted by death.\nBut love had died--happiness vanished.\n\nSpeak to each other the kindly words--scatter flowers on each other's\nway throughout the year, then Love groweth, and happiness in the home\nincreases in intensity. Then you can truly sing:\n\n    Home, home, sweet, sweet home,\n    There's no place like home--\n    O, there's no place like home.\n\n\n2. _The Hidden Life_\n\n(MAT. 6, 5-7)\n\nThe inscription on the tombstone erected on the grave of the great\nFrench philosopher, Descartes (died 1650), reads: \"_He has lived well\nwho was hidden well_,\" or, \"_He is happy whose life is hidden_.\"\n\nIn this lies the thought that happiness depends upon the hidden\nlife--that this is something good which affords one a refuge.\n\nNowadays, the prevailing impression is that happiness is contingent\nupon _life in public view_; that happiness consists in the ability\nto attain a prominent position, in being admired, gaining wealth and\nwinning fame. This is an absolute delusion.\n\nAndrew Carnegie, the late multi-millionaire, said: \"I have tried to\nmake money by leading an incessantly busy life--but it did not make me\nhappy. Now I have tried to give money away to public institutions--and\nstill I found no happiness in that\"; this is an impressive testimony\nfrom a prominent and honest man, showing that happiness has nothing to\ndo with life in the public view.\n\nIt is this Jesus says to the Pharisees: You stake all upon _leading\nyour life in public view_, in the synagogues and in the streets, to\ngain the admiration of men. For this reason you have forgotten to seek\nthe good refuge with God, to lead a hidden life with God, full of\nprayer. Therefore, your public life is devoid of blessing to the people\nand without joy to yourselves. _You have no reward, and no happiness._\n\n\"Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy\nFather which is in secret.\" You shall seek the hidden corners of your\nown heart and there speak with your Father about that life which stirs\nin there, unseen by the world. Then you will soon realize the necessity\nof hiding with God the Father and of living your life with Him hidden\naway from the world. That is the condition for your becoming a happy\nman or a happy woman, and it will contribute to the bliss of that part\nof your life which must be lived before the public.\n\nTherefore, this shall be my New Year's wish for you, that you _during\nthe coming year may find the happiness which lies in the hidden life of\nprayer, with God_.\n\nMany married people seem to think that their matrimonial happiness\ndepends on swell homes and association with those more prosperous\nfamilies known as \"society\"--\"Keeping up with the Joneses.\" This is\nwrong. Attempts of that kind often lead to the utter destruction\nof happiness. It is true that a nice home and a pleasing circle of\nacquaintances are worth much, but marital happiness does not depend\nupon them. It springs from that life which man and wife live together\nunseen by the eyes of the world.\n\nThe happiest moments in the life of a wife are not those in which her\nhusband stands upon the stage of the world, the object of praise and\nadmiration--as the man _to whom the laurel wreath is given_; nor, in\nthe life of the man, when his wife is considered _a celebrated grand\nlady_. No, the sublimest happiness in married life is due to those\nhours when man and wife sit cheerfully at home, hand in hand, talking\nabout the grace of God and about their mutual love.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMany young people think that happiness and joy depend upon the number\nof dances they are able to attend, or upon exterior circumstances. It\nis not their fault that they are neither happy nor glad. It is due to\nthe environment, living conditions, to those with whom they associate.\nAnd while all this may be of importance it is, profoundly seen, a\ndelusion, nevertheless. It is true, also, in the case of the young\nman and the young woman that their happiness essentially depends upon\ntheir hidden life. If that is a life of impure thoughts, of sinful\ncravings--then happiness will be meagre, no matter how favorable the\nenvironment may be. There will be no calm and deep-seated joy, no real\nhappiness. If, on the other hand, that hidden life means a life of pure\nthoughts and noble ambition, a life in God, then it will mean happiness\neven though the environment may be unfavorable.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is a law in the life of mankind that happiness depends upon the\nmanner in which the hidden life is lived. By creating this law, God has\ngiven rich and poor an equal chance of happiness, and has shown Himself\nas the friend of the poor.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKing Charles IX of France once asked the Italian poet, Tasso: \"Who,\nthink you, is the happiest?\"\n\nWithout a moment of hesitation, the poet answered:\n\n\"God.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, very well,\" the king said, \"but then next to God?\"\n\n\"The one who resembles Him most,\" was the answer.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORTH OF YOUR SOUL\n\n\n\"FOR what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose\nhis own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?\" (Mat.\n16, 26.)\n\nThe first thought is that of _the infinite worth of the soul_.\n\nIn one scale of the balance Jesus places all the world with its gold\nand gems, its art and science, its limitless values of woods and\nprairie soil--and in the other, a human soul. And then He says: Behold\nall this splendor! Look at it all, thou yearning child of man! It is\nnot equal to the worth of your soul.\n\nEverything great and beautiful in life originates in the human soul.\nThrough that, all noble thoughts and great ideas have come into being.\nEvery work of art was formed in a human soul before it was painted upon\nthe canvas, chiseled in marble, or written in a book. It is the stamp\nof the human soul that lends value to the work.\n\nRevere that _mark of the soul_ wherever you recognize it! But have\nreverence, above all, for the _soul_ itself. That has the worth of\ninfinity. To \"lose your soul\" is to suffer everlasting damage which\ncannot be repaired or substituted by values of the world.\n\nThe other thought is that about _exchange for your soul_.\n\nWherever that precious soul is demanded of you, you can give nothing\nelse in _exchange_. There is nothing in the whole, wide world that has\nvalue enough as exchange for a human soul. Neither is there anything\nwhose value can equal that of the mark of your soul upon your work.\n\nIf you owe your neighbor ten bushels of wheat, you may pay him back\nby giving him twenty bushels of corn or cash in exchange, and he will\nrealize that he is paid in full. But this cannot be done where rests\nupon you the giving of your soul.\n\nThis first of all you must consider in your relation to God who gave\nyou your soul. He will demand it from you when your earthly life has\nended. If your soul then is seen to have suffered corruption, it is\nnot fit to enter into eternal life, and you have nothing else to give\nGod in its place. It avails you nothing that you say: \"O, Lord, I know\nthat I have been so occupied with worldly things that I have not taken\ncare of my soul, as I should have done. But, in this way I have made\n$10,000 which I now donate to missionary work.\"--My dear, that cannot\ncompensate for the wrong that has been inflicted upon your soul.\n\nDavid understood this. Therefore he said to God: \"For thou desirest\nnot sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt\noffering.\" But God delights in a prayer like this: \"Have mercy upon me,\nO God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of\nthy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from\nmine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!\" There is a human soul in\nthis prayer--it is true that it is a suffering soul--but it is there.\n\nThus God demands that your soul be in your _prayer_, your _praise_, and\nyour _worship_, and there is nothing else that can take its place.\n\nThe worship of the Pharisee was perfect, from the point of form.\nEverything was done according to rules and regulations. But it was\n_soulless_. Therefore, Jesus condemns it. But where He hears the prayer\nor sees the tears of repentant sinners, He stands still. There he\nstoops, and in their wailing and stammering worship He beholds a human\nsoul that has suffered wrongs--one, perhaps, which is deeply tainted.\nBut the soul is there, and it has worth to Him. He can heal all the\nwounds of the soul. And where the wounds of the soul are being healed,\nworship takes place. But, then, the human soul must take part.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis is true, also, in worldly things. Where your soul is demanded of\nyou, you can give nothing else in barter for it.\n\nYou may give your wife food and shelter, dresses and footwear, but\nthat is not enough. She has a right to your soul. Golden rings and\nsplendid dresses cannot take its place. But if you do give her your\nsoul--in smiling joy or in a burst of weeping--she will cling unto you\nwith everlasting rejoicing in her heart. In this devotion she will\nrecognize infinite worth.\n\nOr your children! You may give them a good education, may even leave\nthem a substantial legacy. But what God above all else demands of you,\nis that you give them your soul--a father's soul and a mother's soul,\nwhich they can learn to honor and to love. To give them a substantial\nlegacy as an equivalent to this spiritual partnership is to give them\nstones where bread is wanted.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRemember, then, your soul's infinite worth--remember that wherever\nit be demanded of you, in your relations to God or men: You can give\nnothing in its place.\n\nThere is nothing in this world which is valuable enough to take the\nplace of the human soul.\n\n\n\n\nTHAT WHICH IS HIDDEN SHALL BE REVEALED\n\n(MAT. 10, 26)\n\n\n\"FOR there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid,\nthat shall not be known.\"\n\nNo one sees it, thinks the burglar when in the hours of the night he\nbreaks into a house. It is hidden by darkness.\n\nNo one sees it, think the adulterer and the adulteress when they\nsatisfy their sinful lust. It is hidden to others. It is their secret.\n\nNo one sees it, and no one will know about it, the young man thinks\nwhen, covered by darkness, he sneaks into the saloon.\n\n_Yes, God sees it!_--Yes, God! But, to be sure, He doesn't tell the\nneighbors about it the next morning. No, to be sure! But, nevertheless,\nit will be brought forward in the light of the day--all these secrets\nof darkness.\n\nIf that consciousness could but be vivid and strong within us--how many\ncriminals would then keep away from the paths of evil!\n\nAnd how many secrets of darkness would be revealed to God through\nrepentant confessions--and be _forgiven_ instead of _concealed_ in the\ninnermost chambers of the heart like a guilty secret--a guilty secret\nonly to be covered by a new transgression.\n\n\"The Lord discovereth deep things out of the darkness, and bringeth out\nto light the shadow of death,\" says Job (12, 22).\n\nWhen Judas had agreed to betray Jesus, he concealed that evil secret\nin the innermost chamber of his heart. But Jesus saw it in there. He\nsaw that this secret of darkness would push Judas into the darkness\nwithout--down to despair--to perdition.\n\nTherefore Jesus made an attempt to bring out that secret from the\ndarkness when they sat together at the Easter meal. That is my\nunderstanding of Jesus' pointing out Judas as the traitor. It is as\nthough he would say to him: O, listen, Judas, let us bring that dark\nsecret out into the light so that it may be forgiven! But Judas arose\nand went away. He wanted to keep the evil secret to himself.\n\nHappy he or she who asks Jesus to bring forth the evil secrets from the\nheart so that they may be repented and forgiven--so that their power\nmay be crushed! Then, on the great day they shall be revealed as having\nbeen _repented of_ and _forgiven_--to the glory of the Lord who has\nreleased us from the fetters of the evil secrets.\n\nBut it is not only the evil secrets that are to be revealed in the\nlight of the day. _All_ secrets are to be revealed.\n\nDoes man possess other secrets than those of the darkness? Will there\nnot be very little to bring forth in the way of good secrets from the\nrecesses of the heart?\n\nNo, thank God, there will be thousands of them.\n\nAll those loving thoughts which you conceived in secret, and which you\nnever found a chance to express--they shall be revealed on that great\nday.\n\nAll the heavy sighs and all the burning prayers which have issued\nforth from the depths of the heart in secret, shall be made known in\nthe light. And they are countless. Generation after generation has\nwitnessed parents praying for their children--O, could we but realize\na small part of all that which has been fought for and prayed for in\nsecret! Then we would be surprised to know that someone had _thought so\nlovingly, had prayed so fervently, and struggled so earnestly for our\nsake--in secret_.\n\nAll these good and pure secrets shall be revealed on the great day.\n\nHow radiantly they will testify that the human heart has not been\nmerely the battlefield of the secrets of darkness, as some seem to\nbelieve.\n\nAnd together with all the evil secrets, repented of and forgiven, they\nshall glorify our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who endowed us with\nthe gift of _wanting to_ think lovingly, pray fervently, and struggle\nearnestly in secret.\n\n\n\n\nNOT IN WORD, NEITHER IN TONGUE\n\n\n\"MY little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in\ndeed and in truth\" (I. John 3, 18).\n\nFive little girls stood in a garden telling each other how dearly each\none of them loved her mother. The words became more and more emphatic\nuntil finally Bertha--the eldest of them--poking her nose upward, said\ndecisively: \"I love my mamma so much that I could die for her sake.\"\nAnd thus everyone was brought to silence.\n\nBut on a bench a little farther away in the garden Bertha's aunt sat\nsewing; she overheard it all, and then said: \"It is strange that a\nlittle girl who loves her mother so much that she would be willing to\ndie for her, does not love her enough to wash dishes for her. I heard\nthis noon, Bertha, that you didn't want to do the dishes for your\nmamma!\"\n\nIt is strange, indeed!\n\n\"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in\ndeed and in truth.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe young man says to his bride: \"I love you, darling, so much that\nI could carry you on my hands all through life!\"--A year after the\nwedding it may happen that he cannot carry up a bucket of coal from the\nbasement for her.\n\nThat's strange, too.\n\nThe young woman says to her fianc\u00e9: \"I love you so much that I could\ndie for you!\"--But if it is a question of that new Easter bonnet, she\ncannot save a dollar out of regard for her husband's pocketbook: She\ndoesn't love him that much.\n\nYou do not love each other enough to _sacrifice_ for each other's\nsake--or to be a bit _patient_ with each other--or to _cut down a\nlittle_ your own personal demands out of regard for each other.\nTherefore we have so many divorces.\n\n\"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in\ndeed and in truth.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCharles Dickens tells in one of his books of two sisters who are\ndiscussing how intently they wish to do something really great and\ngood. Under the petty circumstances at home they couldn't get the\nchance. But if they might be sent out as missionaries among the\nheathens--O, how they would toil just to help those poor people! It\ndidn't matter that perhaps they would have to suffer the pangs of\nhunger and persecution--if they only could show people their love.\n\nJust then their old grandmother who was sick abed in the next room,\nsaid: \"O, girls, won't one of you come and scratch my back?\"\n\n\"You can do that,\" the one said. \"No, you'd better do it,\" said the\nother. \"It's always up to me--you might do it once in a while!\"\n\nThat was the end of the glory--and of the love. On distant shores;\nunder other circumstances they would do deeds of love. But in that\neveryday life where God had placed them, it wasn't quite as easy as all\nthat to show their love.\n\nWe can all catch ourselves in similar shortcomings. We would like to\nbe charitable on a grand scale if we were _elsewhere_ or _differently\nsituated_; but in everyday life--it is so prosaic just to help an old\nmother, or a grandfather, or some sick and poor person. And yet it is\nthat which submits us to the crucial test.\n\n\"My little children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue, but in\ndeed and in truth.\"\n\n\n\n\nSEEST THOU THIS WOMAN?\n\n(LU. 7, 44)\n\n\nSIMEON is a benevolent Pharisee, deferential toward Jesus, but icy and\ndignified.\n\nThe woman is a sinner, a former prostitute with whom Simeon is\ndisgusted; yes, he sees her, all right! He knows her!\n\nIt is as when I ask someone: Do you know the ocean? and he then\nanswers: I should say so! I have been standing in the downs watching\nthe waves; I have seen them soaring to the height of houses while the\nwind whipped their foam into my eyes. Yes, I have seen the ocean--I\nknow it, all right!\n\nThen I answer: Pardon me, my dear--but if that is all you have seen,\nyou do not know the ocean. You have not _seen_ it while it lay calm\nand glittering and smooth like a mirror in the sunshine, nor have you\n_noticed_ it when its surface was all alive with ripples, and when it\nroared with that hollow sound that betrays the presence of violent\nundertows far beneath the surface.\n\nThus with Simeon. That which he had seen and heard of this woman, had\nbeen brought to him, like the wind-swept foam of the sea, in the storm\nof evil tongues, and then he says: I should think I know her, indeed! I\nknow to what kind she belongs. I see her--a low-down, vulgar and lewd\nwoman!\n\nBut the undertow in the depth of her soul he had not seen; the heaving\nsighs from within he had not heard. He did not know how often she had\nbeen tossing restlessly upon her couch in moaning and anguish, nor how\nfirmly she had been clutched by the wound-inflicting bonds of vice, nor\nhow strongly she had tugged at them in order that she might set herself\nfree.\n\nAnd that was not the only thing Simeon did not see. The wind-swept foam\nhad veiled his eye so he could not see what was really good in her at\nthat moment despite her appearance stamped with sin. _There were bitter\ntears of repentance. There was warmth of heart. There was love for\nJesus._\n\nSeest thou this woman? Seest thou this man?\n\nHow do you look at the people among whom you live? Do you notice only\nthe uncouth exterior? Do you listen only to that which is carried to\nyou by the wind of the evil tongues? Or do you listen to the undertow\nin the depths of the heart, to the heaving sighs, the hollow roaring\nfrom within?\n\nThe famous Italian sculptor, Michelangelo, once stood before a large\ncoarsely chiseled slab of stone which he surveyed carefully, and with\nincreasing pleasure, from all angles. \"There is nothing extraordinary\nabout this stone,\" a friend remarked, \"what peculiarity do you notice?\"\n\n\"What do I notice?\" Michelangelo answered, \"I see an angel within this\nstone, and I must release it.\"\n\nIt may be that our Lord Jesus did not exactly see an angel within this\nwoman--nor does He see one in you and in me--but beneath the rough\nsurface He saw a human soul created in the image of His Heavenly Father\nand after His likeness, and He said: I will release it!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_By looking at the undertow in the depths of the soul and by listening\nto the heaving sighs from within, you will be enabled to look at your\nfellow-beings with ever-increasing interest and--delight!\n\n\n\n\n\nWHAT ABOUT THE DEVIL?\n\n\nWHAT about the devil?--That is an exceedingly difficult problem to the\nwiseacres of this world.\n\nRecently a learned professor proclaimed from his speaker's chair that\nno single individual, no organization of any kind, could rid the world\nof the devil, but Time would--Time would most certainly get him away.\nAnd the assemblage applauded enthusiastically from out the joy of\ntheir hearts. Most likely they did not stop to think at that moment\nthat Time would undo them long before it could ever undo the devil.\nThat may, however, be excused, for learned people often are somewhat\nthoughtless--and all these were scholars.\n\nOr was the charity of the auditors so far-seeing that it rejoiced in\nbehalf of generations yet unborn? Well, who knows--for that kind of\npeople also possess a heart.\n\nBe that as it may.\n\nBut, concerning the devil--whether a devil actually exists or merely\nis a creature of imagination; whether he is a really dangerous foe or\nsimply a phantom from the days of yore--I must try to make clear to\nmyself, and you must do likewise.\n\nIt doesn't appear to be so difficult, after all, when the matter is\napproached without any frills and furbelows. I look at it this way:\nI have been baptized to renounce the devil, all his works and all\nhis ways. That was told me at the moment of my baptism. I affirmed\nit in order to be incorporated into the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ\ndemands of me that I renounce the devil if I am to be His disciple. If,\nthen, no devil existed, He who is Himself the Truth and the Lord of\nthe Kingdom of Truth, at the outset must expect of me that I affirm a\nlie--He whose own lips never knew untruth and deceit, would ask that I\nin order to become a part of His Kingdom, renounce a devil who does not\nexist: That would not only be senseless: It is impossible! When my Lord\nand Saviour tells me to renounce the devil, then I do believe a devil\nexists, and that my own welfare now and hereafter makes it necessary\nthat I keep away from him.\n\n_In this matter, the word of my Lord sufficeth for me!_\n\nIt is my faith in this which relieves me of many of those speculative\ndifficulties which entangle so many others. I must choose between the\nword of my Lord and the speculative mind of man. To me the choice\noffers no difficulties at all. I choose the word of my Lord--no matter\nwhether or not the scornful laughter sounds derisively from the other\nside. And let me say it once more: The word of my Lord sufficeth.\n\nWhen, then, I meet some of those people who claim there is no devil;\nthat all talk about the devil is a relic of ancient superstition, I\nsimply say: You must excuse me, but in this matter I abide by the\nword of the Lord. I cannot ignore His word and accept yours, and,\nfurthermore, I have _no reason whatever_ for doing so; I have never\nyet found that I could not depend upon His word.\n\nAnd if I then consider the ways of the world, as they are--then I\nmost certainly am not tempted to abandon the covenant of my baptism.\nThe works of the devil are apparent to all: Murder, adultery, theft,\nrobbery, fraud, deceit, drunkenness, etc. Many may say that these are\nthe doings of evil people, but if we look a little closer at these evil\npeople we will find that back of it all is one whose thralls these poor\ncreatures are.\n\nIf I try to look into the spiritual anguish of these pitiful\nindividuals, I am not tempted to give up my belief in the devil. To\nbe sure, I do not behold him physically, but I see his works. To me\nit seems to be as when I see a building is being erected. I ask: Who\nis building this place? I am told: It is Mr. Smith who builds this\nplace, and we are his laborers. I do not see Mr. Smith himself, but\nI notice that his work goes on, and I do not doubt that he exists. I\nsee his laborers working, some sing and joke while others are sullen\nand indifferent just because it happens that they have entered into an\nagreement which for the time being makes them realize their obligations\nto Mr. Smith. If the latter could only find a way to wriggle out of\nthat relationship, they would feel unspeakably relieved to do so.\n\nThus I see the works of the devil in the life of man, and by seeing\nthem I find no reason to doubt his existence. The evil people are\nhis laborers. They work in order to complete his job--some singing\nand joking, others under compulsion. It is clear that especially the\nlatter are the slaves of the devil. By looking into the spiritual life\nof these miserable ones I find confirmation of the word of my Lord\nthat there is a devil that must needs be renounced if we are to live\ncontentedly. It is from him our generation needs relief, and not from\nall that ancient gossip about him.\n\nI said a little while ago that the word of the Lord sufficeth for me in\nthis matter, and that is true. It does not correspond with the theories\nof the wiseacres, but with Life itself. From the learned infidels the\ncry is sounded: It isn't true. But from the depths of real human life\nwe hear the sigh: _We are sorely troubled by the devil!\n\n\n\n\n\nTWO EPISODES OF THE CIVIL WAR\n\n1. _Looting Those Who Fell_\n\n\nTHE battle was over. Darkness expanded its misty veil over the\nbattle-field. Victory had been won by neither army, but there were left\na large number of dead and wounded.\n\nThe ambulances were sent out with help for those who fell in the fight.\nWhere moans were heard, they went, raised the wounded limb a trifle,\nasked sympathetic questions and bandaged the wound as well as could be\ndone in a hurry; then the wounded were taken to the field hospital.\n\nBut if one looked more carefully, other figures were discernible; half\nhidden by the darkness they sneaked about among the wounded and dead.\n\nWho were they?\n\nIt didn't look as though they heeded the moans of the dying, nor did\nthey raise them to carry them off to the field hospital. What were they\ndoing, then?\n\n_They were plundering those who fell_, taking from them their little\narticles of value: A hideous thing, truly a deed of darkness! Who would\nhave believed that anyone could have the heart to plunder the dying.\n\nYou and I would not do such a thing. We become intensely indignant and\ndisgusted when told of such heartlessness. \"God, I thank thee, that I\nam not as the other men are, extortioners----\"\n\nNo, on that battlefield where the wounded lie, having been hit by\nshells and maimed by swords, we do not go in order to plunder and loot.\nThat is true enough.\n\nBut--alas, there is a \"but\" about it.\n\nThe world is a huge battlefield. Right and left we see about us the\n_wounded_ who are moaning and suffering from pain; they are sighing for\njust a little aid, a kind word, a gentle smile. They need succor--they\nneed being taken to the hospital. They still have a remnant of the\nsense of honor left. There is a possibility that they may right\nthemselves; that they may be able to qualify as good fighters in the\nnext skirmish--perhaps to conquer where now they have suffered defeat.\n_But_ instead of the gentle smile, the kind word, and the little\naid--we took away from them whatever was left and let them lie where\nthey were. We deprived them of the last remnant of honor, extinguished\nthe last faint glimmer of hope. The bruised reed was broken. The\nsmoking flax was quenched.\n\nOn Life's vast battlefield you and I may, after all, have taken part\nin the plundering of the wounded; or we may have gone by just like the\npriest and the Levite. At least we have not always done as did the\nSamaritan: Bound up their wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and brought\nthem to an inn!\n\nOld Dr. Bengel says: \"I am kept constantly busy by reading proof upon\nmyself.\"\n\nLet us do likewise. Then we will be better and better enabled to heed\nthe moans of the wounded on the vast battlefield of Life, and to bring\nthem to the inn, to the church of the Lord where there is healing for\nall wounds. This is our task toward the wounded, and it was that which\nwas in the mind of Jesus when He said:\n\n\"Go, and do thou likewise!\"\n\n\n2. _Removed Because of Mischief_\n\nDuring the Civil War it became necessary to remove one of the officers\nserving under General Sherman; \"Removed because of mischief\" was the\nway it was entered upon the record.\n\nGeneral O. O. Howard succeeded him in command and continued to have\ncharge of the unit until the end of the war.\n\nThen the army arrived at Washington, where a parade was to be held\nfollowed by disbanding.\n\nThe day before the parade General Sherman said to Howard:\n\n\"The political leaders demand of me that the officer whose place you\ntook, resume his charge tomorrow and ride at the head of his unit in\nthe parade, and I wish you would help me out of this predicament.\"\n\n\"But it is my unit now, General,\" Howard said, \"and it is but fair that\nI ride at its head tomorrow.\"\n\n\"Yes, of course,\" General Sherman answered, \"but--are you a Christian,\nHoward?\"\n\n\"What do you mean by that?\" Howard asked astonished.\n\n\"I mean that you can bear that disappointment and let him have the\nhonor. You are a Christian,\" Sherman added; \"well--what do you say?\"\n\nLike a brave officer, jealous of his honor, Howard had anticipated this\nday with delight, but, after hesitating a moment, he said:\n\n\"Yes, looked at from that point of view, only one answer is possible:\nLet him ride at the head of his old unit tomorrow!\"\n\n\"All right then,\" said Sherman, \"but you will report at headquarters\ntomorrow morning at 9 o'clock.\"\n\nThe next morning at the appointed hour Howard reported that everything\nwas arranged. The officer who had been removed because of mischief had\nresumed his old post.\n\n\"Very well,\" Sherman answered, \"then you ride by my side today.\"\n\n\"I have no right to do that,\" Howard replied.\n\n\"It is an order,\" Sherman answered smilingly.\n\nThus O. O. Howard rode beside General Sherman at the head of the entire\narmy in the parade at Washington--he who had renounced glory and right\nfor the benefit of one who had forfeited both, so that the latter might\n_be honored_.\n\n\"Removed because of mischief.\" That might have been written upon the\nbrow of Adam when the portals of Paradise were closed behind him.\nRemoved from the living God because of mischief--that _was_ the legend\nabove the whole story of mankind until the fullness of time.\n\nRemoved because of mischief--from one another, from the respect of\nfellow-beings, from honor and enviable positions among men: That was\nthe legend above the lives of so many--of him who had stolen money from\nhis master's till; of him who had suffered a moral lapse, etc.\n\nBut into the life of him who has been removed from God because of\nmischief one came and said: It is my will that you resume your old\nplace of the child in the arms of his Father. It is my will that you\ntake part in the ride into the new Jerusalem. I will share my rights\nwith you and give you my glory. Yes, thus speaks the Son of the King of\nHeaven in His church upon earth.\n\nThis I have done for thee, Jesus says. But then, when you go among\nthose people who have been removed because of mischief from good\npositions or from the respect of their fellow-beings: How much of your\nglory and rights can you give to them?\n\n_You are a Christian._\n\nWe ask, almost as surprised as O. O. Howard: What do you mean by that,\nLord? Too often, we ourselves think too little of it. But Jesus sayeth:\nRemember that you are a Christian when you associate with those who\nhave lost the respect of their fellow-beings. As a Christian you must\nbe able to sacrifice a little of your honor and your rights for their\nsake.\n\nTo be a Christian is not merely to be a child and to rest upon the arm\nof the Father. _It is to make real the love of the Father, in the steps\nof Jesus Christ, among those who have fallen by the wayside._\n\n_You are a Christian._\n\n_Are you?_\n\nAnd one thing more. Howard did not lose anything by relinquishing his\nglory and rights like a Christian. Far from it! He gained by it. He was\nplaced beside the supreme commander at the head of the entire army.\nThus with us.\n\nWhen Jesus demands of us that we as _Christians_ shall bring\nsacrifices, then it is not for the purpose of causing us any _loss_,\nor to make us _advance_ something for which we will not be reimbursed,\nbut simply to enable us to receive more from Him. Such advances He\nchanges into an income for us. We will receive a hundredfold. We will\nbe qualified to be at the front, and by His side we approach the goal.\n\n\n\n\nYOUR WORDS\n\n(MAT. 12, 37)\n\n\n\"FOR by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt\nbe condemned.\"\n\nIsn't this a strange way of speaking?\n\nIf Jesus had said: \"By thy works thou shalt be justified, and by thy\nworks thou shalt be condemned\", then I would have immediately conceded\nthat this was good common sense. Actions are something tangible,\nsomething you can get the actual \"feel\" of, but words--why, they often\nare nothing but hot air.\n\nStill Jesus says: \"By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy\nwords thou shalt be condemned\"--so, I must accept that.\n\nWhen, then, I think of the words I have spoken, at home, in the church,\nin the midst of the congregation, I cannot conceal _to_ myself the fact\nthat there were many empty words among them. Not only that--there were\nalso some mean words, and when they are to be measured by Him who never\nsinned, and whose lips never knew deceit, then I must tell myself:\nThere is enough right here to condemn you! And I am possessed with\n_fear_ and worry because of my own words.\n\nIf I revert to the good words I may have spoken, it isn't much better.\nAnd still, I cannot say but that I doubtless have spoken some good\nwords, and that they may have been of benefit to some. I am quite\ncertain that I often have spoken good words at sick-beds, in the homes\nand in the church--words that were willingly listened to just because\nthey were good words, that really did comfort those who were sick and\nhad sorrowful souls--words that were something more than sounding brass\nor a tinkling cymbal--words that were inspired and filled with the\nwarmth of my heart--words in which I myself rejoiced sincerely, and for\nwhich I could never sufficiently thank God that He gave me the grace to\nutter them.\n\nBut, yet--in spite of all this--it does seem to me that when my words\nare to be judged by Him who always spake the pure, the powerful, the\npungent, and the perfect word--then mine will be found wanting. In\nother words: I _doubt_ that those words of mine were so faultless\nthat He who is Himself faultless, would consider me justified by my\nwords. No, to the contrary--I must tell myself: Thou art weighed in the\nbalance and found wanting!\n\nThus I find myself placed between _fear_ and _doubt_--fear because of\nmy evil words, and doubt about the faultlessness of my good words.\n\nWhat shall I do, then? Shall I timidly withdraw from the words of the\nLord: \"By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou\nshalt be condemned\"?--Shall I attempt to forget them, imagine that they\nwere not meant for me, have no bearing upon me--or shall I try to avoid\nthem as some fearfully avoid cemeteries at the midnight hour?\n\nNo, I cannot do that!\n\nI must have these strange words clear in my mind. I must work them\nthrough. To stand between fear and doubt, timidly withdrawing from\nthe words of my Lord! No, that cannot be possible. Where shall I seek\nrefuge? Where shall I seek that explanation which reconciles me with\nthe word of the Lord, and which brings peace into my soul?\n\nI will seek refuge in the pledge of my baptism--as so many others have\ndone in the hour of worry and distress. I let it pass upon my lips,\nand the word is: \"I _renounce_ the devil and all his works and all his\nways.\" But to renounce means that I break off from, separate myself\nfrom, and become a foe of, the evil one and all that is evil--also my\nown words. But can He, the fair judge, condemn me for that which I\ndisavow and separate myself from, what I personally oppose?\n\nNo, it is impossible! That cannot be!\n\nThis gives me surcease. The fear of my evil words must vanish, and,\nthus unburdened, I go on.\n\n\"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.... I\nbelieve in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by\nthe Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate,\nwas crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; the third day\nHe arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on\nthe right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come\nto judge the quick and the dead.... I believe in the Holy Ghost; the\nholy Christian church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of\nsins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.\"\n\nThe word of the Apostles' Creed is the word of faith. And what did I\nsay? I _believe_! It may be feebly, alas, but nevertheless--with all\nits frailty the heart embraces the word of faith, and doubt vanishes\nbefore this word.\n\nAlmost astonished I ask myself: Is it possible? Is it possible that I\nwho found myself placed between fear and doubt, conquer both by the\nword of faith?\n\nThat word of faith has thus passed upon my lips, not like a sounding\nbrass or a tinkling cymbal, but as a _truth of the heart_. It was not\na hollow saying, it was not a faulty word, and yet it was my own. It\nwas given to me in the early morn of my life as a gift from God in\nmy baptism. Now it asserts itself in spite of all the evil, empty\nand faulty words I have spoken--reaches to the Lord Himself as an\nexpression of the innermost life of my heart, and the answer of the\nLord to this word is: By thy words shalt thou be justified!\n\nThus, through the words of the Lord I gained peace in my soul, and my\nheart bursts out its \"Praised be God!\"\n\n\n\n\nBEHIND THE SHIELD\n\n(EPH. 6, 16)\n\n\nPAUL is imprisoned at Rome and is writing to \"the saints which are\nat Ephesus.\" He beholds Christian life as one immense struggle--not\nagainst flesh and blood, that is, against the depraved elements in the\nlife of mankind and the evil tendencies in man; no, back of flesh and\nblood are principalities and powers, a host of spirits trained in the\nwiles and the cunning of the devil, and exercising a tremendous power\nin the world, through evil persons.\n\nAgainst these gigantic powers we must needs fight, and we must vanquish\nthem. But we cannot do so by our own power. We must be \"girt about with\ntruth,\" must be clothed in \"the whole armour of God.\" This is not an\narmour that can be forged from the steel within ourselves--although we\nsay that with all due deference to bravery, shrewdness and wisdom; but\nin the great struggle against the powers of darkness we must be girt\nwith something stronger. Fortified with _our own_, we sustain wounds,\nbut win no victory. The armour of God gives victory, but protects\nagainst wounds if we know how to use it rightly.\n\nBut when Paul describes the whole armour of God, he strongly emphasizes\na particular part of it, for he says: \"Above all, taking the shield[A]\nof faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of\nthe wicked.\" Thus it is a question of making proper use of the shield\nrather than of the sword. The church of the Lord has hitherto laid\nstress on the use of the sword, and therefore the result of the fight\nhas often been a number of wounded souls, for the sword wounds, while\nthe shield protects.\n\nIt is said of our heathen forefathers that they knew how to _fight_\nas well as how to _rest_ behind the shield. They knew how to grasp\nall the hostile arrows in their shield while they fought; when they\nhad fought themselves weary or spent all their arrows, while the foe\nstill had plenty of deadly arrows to hurl against them, they knew the\nart of taking a rest behind their shield in the midst of the shower of\narrows. Covered by the shield they gathered strength for the purpose\nof resuming the fight with axes and spears while the enemy uselessly\nwasted his supply of arrows.\n\nI wish sincerely that we possessed somewhat more of this ability of our\nforefathers to use the shield, to _fight and to rest behind the shield\nof faith, spiritually speaking_. That would make it possible for us to\ngive battle the thunder of which would resound in the remotest corners\nof the earth, as in days of yore the song and the hammer strokes of\nour forefathers were heard in distant countries. Then we would not use\nour fighting ability to plunder foreign shores, but to lead the fight\nagainst the spiritual powers of evil--to be in the front ranks during\nthe fight that shall be fought from the sea to the ends of the earth,\nin which thousands must bleed because they have not learned how to use\nthe shield of faith.\n\n_We shall make a stand against the wiles of the devil!_\n\nIf I am not very much mistaken by the signs of the age, the attacks on\nthe church of the Lord will during the present century become still\nmore marked by diabolical cunning and cleverness than ever before.\n_The arrows_ will be sharpened with all the shrewdness of science,\ndirected against us with cunning, glowing with a devilish hatred\nagainst everything that is of heavenly birth, and aims at heavenly\ngoals. Indecent jokes, cutting scorn and cleverly formulated inquiries\nwill constitute a cloud of arrows which will darken the sun to many.\nThey will be hurled against us through the means of literature and\nscience, with violent haughtiness, with fierce hatred. And we--we have\nnot that unconquerable courage which enables us to say with the hero of\nThermopylae: \"So much the better--then we fight in the shade!\"\n\nHow shall we approach the struggle of the twentieth century?\n\nSomeone may say: We shall sharpen our arrows, make them pointed, and\nsend them forth with shrewdness and wisdom. We shall use our common\nsense, meet the opponents on the battlefield of thought and cleverness,\nshow them what is unenduring in the chimera of the atheists and what\nis depraved in the life without God. In the church of the Lord we have\nmen who are not inferior to our opponents in respect to cleverness and\nwisdom--indeed, we have, praised be God!\n\nBut it does seem to me that many a valiant fighter will succumb in this\nkind of a struggle, and many plain-thinking Christians may flee, as\ndid the Philistines in ancient days when their giant had fallen. All\nhonor to those who defend and promote the Kingdom of God by thought, by\nreasoning and by wisdom! But along that way we do not accomplish much\nmore than to humbly admit that\n\n    \"Stood we alone in our own might,\n     Our striving would be losing.\"\n\nMore and more the shibboleth must be: \"Above all, taking the shield\nof faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of\nthe wicked.\" Learn how to fight, covered by the shield! That means:\nAll your struggle must be based upon the words of faith, all your\narguments must take these as their point of departure instead of using\nhuman sagacity and the tricks of interpretation; then you will be\nunconquerable. And if it does happen that you become weary in the fight\nagainst the wiles of the devil, or that your arrows are all spent while\nthe foe has plenty, then do as our fathers did: Take a rest behind the\nshield! Cover yourself completely with the words of faith, then no\nhostile dart will reach you, far less wound you. On the contrary--you\nrest and gather strength while the foe exhausts himself uselessly, and\n\"all the fiery darts of the wicked are quenched.\"\n\nThis method of fighting is especially adapted to the people, and it\nis _the age of the people_, also in the church of our Lord. The future\ndoes not require a great chieftain with a host of good-for-nothings\nbehind him, but an army whose every individual is trained in the use of\nthe shield of faith.\n\nWhen Mr. Moeller-Anderson, a Dane with a warm and faithful heart, a\nDane whose quiet ways his compatriots abroad do not forget--in the\nsummer of 1888 made regular sailing trips from Copenhagen to Sweden\nfor the sake of his health, it happened one day aboard the vessel\nthat some scoffers wished to have fun with him. They may have thought\nthat it would be an easy matter to subdue him. They, therefore,\nstarted a conversation with him, but soon their speech changed to\nscoffing and witty questions, daring attacks upon Christianity. Then\nMr. Moeller-Anderson replied: \"I don't know how that all may be, and\nI cannot answer you, but if you wish to know what my faith is, then\nI will confess my faith through the Apostles' Creed before you right\nhere!\"\n\n_The scoffers had nothing more to say!_\n\nWhat had Mr. Moeller-Anderson done which made them silent? Had he told\nthem a striking joke which could not be commented upon, or had he\nstated a cleverly formulated truth which they could not resist? No,\nhe rested behind the shield and the scoffers realized that _he was\nprotected_.\n\nYou Christian man and woman from the everyday walks of life--when you\nmeet the scoffers, then don't try to find clever thoughts with which\nto defend Christianity, as though that were your way to victory. In\nthat case it would merely become a question as to which side was\nsupported by the greatest wisdom, the most cleverly pointed shrewdness.\nThe great struggle of the world is the _struggle of faith_, and it\nmust by no means be changed into a chaos of personal trickery and\nclever stratagems. Above all, grasp the shield of faith instead of\nresorting to your own wisdom and cleverness. Say your creed plainly\nand simply, you mother of a child, you master of the home, you young\nman and woman among your chums, when you meet the devil and his wiles\nin the form of clever questions formulated so as to entangle you in\nself-contradictions--catch you in the net of words as formerly the\nPharisees and the Herodians tried to catch Jesus asking: Is it lawful\nto give tribute unto C\u00e6sar?\n\nYou often hear it said: You claim that God loveth mankind: But why,\nthen, does _He_ let some suffer in all eternity? Or, you claim that\nyou have a good Father in Heaven who can do everything: How is it,\nthen, that He lets His children suffer distress on earth? etc.--Say it\nplainly and simply: Well, I can't answer questions like these, for I do\nnot see through all these things, but if you want to know what my faith\nis regarding salvation, then I will confess my creed right here before\nyou! That's to rest behind the shield, and you will feel how blissful\nthat is compared with the fight by wisdom and reasoning in which there\nis the fear of being wounded and vanquished, and of rendering harm unto\nChristianity by attempting an unsuccessful defence.\n\n_Behind the shield of faith: there is victory both when you fight and\nwhen you rest!_\n\nPaul was not afraid of fighting. Neither must we be. But that fight\nwhich gives victory without wounds, without one painful sensation to\nlimit the joy of victory, must be directed from a _covered position_.\nAnd the agility necessary to enable one to seek cover behind the\nshield of faith is obtained only by _daily training_. Therefore, train\nyourself every morning to protect yourself by the words of faith before\ngoing to your work and fight your fight; and in the evening when you\nlie down to rest, you must train yourself so that in fight as well as\nduring the lull, you can be covered by the shield of faith; then you\nwill conquer the wiles of the devil, and his fiery darts will not wound\nyou.\n\nThus I consider it essential for the church of the Lord in the\ntwentieth century that it learns how to use the shield rightly whether\nin fight or at rest. The _struggle_ of the church will then result in a\ngreater victory and in fewer wounds than during the last century, and\nits _rest_ will become increasingly beneficent and strengthening while\nits restlessness will become less nervous and less strength-consuming.\n\nWonder if the time has not come when the church, driven by inner\nfriction and by enemies from without, will listen readily to the\napostolic warning: \"Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye\nshall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.\"\n\nI look forward to the day when the Apostles' Creed becomes the\n_universal slogan_ for all Christian organizations. Then the church of\nthe Lord will march forward to victory.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[A] The Apostles' Creed.\n\n\n\n\nLOVE ME--AND TELL ME SO\n\n\nAN English bishop was traveling in India to inspect the mission work,\nand when his journey was completed, a farewell gathering was held\nin his honor. On this occasion the bishop spoke on the words: \"Love\nme--and tell me so!\"\n\nHe had often asked himself whether his congregation at home really\nloved him. He thought it did; but sometimes he couldn't help wishing:\nIf they only would say so! Now he wished to say, by way of a parting\ngreeting, to the Christians: Love your ministers, and let them know\nthat you do! They need your love, and they need to be told that you\nactually do love them.\n\nThis little speech reached England before the bishop arrived there.\nWhen, upon reaching home, his congregation received him with a banquet.\nOn the wall of the hall, just opposite the main entrance door, was an\ninscription in large letters ornamented by leaves and flowers: \"We love\nyou, and we are saying so.\" That was the first thing the bishop saw,\nand he rejoiced.\n\nLove me, and tell me so! That's the cry from thousands of souls\nyearning for love, and where the cry finds an answer the heart\nrejoices. Where no answer comes, life will be utterly miserable.\n\nOnce upon a time a wealthy woman met a poor orphan who looked\nimploringly at her. \"What do you want me to give you?\" she asked. \"O,\njust like me a little bit!\" the orphan answered.\n\nO, just love me just a little bit!\n\nI have seen that prayer where one should least expect it--I have read\nit in the eyes of a mother when they rested upon her grown-up daughter.\nShe had indeed grown, was taller even than her mother. And then she\nhad received an _education_--mother surely could be proud of such a\nbig and fine girl who had learned so much! But a mother's heart finds\nno sustenance in mere pride. It required delight in the daughter--and\nthere is delight only in love. But the girl went about so _fine_ and\n_big_ and _cold_ while the mother, even as the poor orphan, implored,\nO, love me just a little bit!\n\nAll you nice and big children: Remember that mother and father need\nyour love! Love them--and tell them that you do! You can tell them in a\nnumber of ways, and it will be rewarded, for in love there is a world\nof joy.\n\nLove me--and tell me so! O, love me just a little bit!\n\nI have read that prayer in the eyes of a wife: Her husband was a man\nin whom she surely could take delight. He was efficient; everybody\nadmired him, women especially, and he seemed to like everybody. Indeed,\nshe could be proud of such a husband! There were plenty of women who\nenvied her and wished themselves in her place. And--how beautifully he\ncould speak of domestic love--women were deeply touched, and their eyes\nmoistened when he did so. O, if they only had such a husband--but such\na one had not fallen to their lot!\n\nHe had plenty of smiles and kind words and love for everybody\nelse--only not for his wife who sat at home. Hard-hearted, frigid and\nhaughty he passed her by when she sat with the baby on her knee, with\ndespair penetrating all her features, and the one prayer was flaming in\nher eye: O, love me just a little bit--just a little bit, O, please do!\n\nLove me--and tell me so! O, love me just a little bit! That has\nbeen written in the eye of ever so many poor and forlorn human\nbeings--especially among those who seemed to have become sadly\nsuperfluous in the busy life of the world. Now and then I have heard\njust such people say, with a strange mingling of wistfulness and joy\nvibrating in their voice: To think that the minister would call upon\nme! Nobody else ever comes here. Nobody cares about me any more!\n\nThus many a man or woman has been placed in that miserable kind of\nsolitude in the midst of throbbing life. Nobody cares about me. Love\nme--and tell me so! O, love me just a little bit, please! That's the\ncry from the depth of their hearts, but it is uttered as though in some\nlimitless desert: No answering sound is heard--there is no sign that\nanyone cares for them. This is heartrending.\n\nYes, that is true. But if these lines of mine might reach some such\npoor soul, then I would say: It isn't quite as bad as this. Let your\nyearning for love soar upward to that God who listens to the sighs of\nthe heart of dust, and then you will hear the response: I love you--and\nI tell you that I do. I have told you so through my only begotten Son:\n\"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.\"\n\n_This has been said to mankind plainly enough._ And these plain words\nare not merely written in the leaves of the Book of Books. They are\ninscribed in the very life of mankind with the blood of the only\nbegotten Son.\n\nSuch words are not merely for the happy world surrounding you. It means\n_you_--just exactly you who are yearning for love: For your sake these\nwords have been spoken.\n\nBut we who are more fortunately situated--we who enjoy the love of\nGod and of our fellow-beings, and who, in return, love those in our\nhomes, in our circle of acquaintances and in the church--let us tell\none another about it in a good and nice way. So much joy of love is\nlost--just because it finds no expression. For this reason so many\ngradually come to doubt that they really are being loved.\n\nThe congregation wrote it on the wall of the festival hall, ornamented\nwith leaves and flowers. It went out of its way to say it in just such\na way as to make its old bishop feel deeply delighted.\n\nIt pays to exert yourself in this way.\n\nLet it be written with large letters between minister and congregation,\nbetween man and wife, between parents and children--yes, let it be\nwritten with large letters--and wind about them the leaves of the\nforest, the flowers of the field--everywhere: We love you, and we tell\nyou so! Then our lives will become rich with the joy of love.\n\n\n\n\nTO BEAR BURDENS\n\n(GAL. 6, 2)\n\n\n\"BEAR ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,\" Paul\nsays.\n\n\"No, thank you!\" you say, \"I have quite enough in taking care of my own\nburdens. If I am to be troubled with those of others in addition, life\nwill be intolerable.\"\n\nNevertheless--do you think Paul speaks aimlessly? Or isn't it rather\nthe case that there is something of _relief_ in bearing burdens for\nothers--something of a _gain_?\n\nThink of a wheat field: One straw stands close beside the other.\nThe wind-storm sweeps the field. The wheat bends down in billowy\nundulations under the heavy pressure of the wind, but rights itself\nstronger than ever before. The close-standing straws bore the pressure\ntogether. Then the wheat is harvested. A few straws are left standing.\nThe wind again sweeps across the field, the lonely straws bend down to\nthe soil--and lie there. They are broken. Singly, they could not resist\nthe pressure of the storm.\n\nThus in the life of mankind. Great burdens can be shouldered with ease\nwhen shouldered in common while the smaller burdens may crush and\ndestroy those who stand all alone.\n\nThere is relief in bearing burdens for others.\n\nBut you ask: Dare I, a single individual, try to shoulder the burdens\nin my home, in the church? Suppose that in one or more instances I were\nthe only one to do so. The others left it all to me, although they had\nthe same obligations that I have--what then? Will I accomplish anything\nbut being crushed under the weight of the burdens?\n\nHow about Jesus Christ when He, _all alone_, bore the sin of mankind?\nHe was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our\niniquities, as the prophet had foreseen.\n\nBut when He who was so strong, was wounded and crushed under the\nweight of the burdens--what will happen to me, then, when I shoulder\nthe burdens of others? I cannot do so cheerfully and courageously and\nexpect a satisfactory result. Rather I must flee timidly away from the\nburdens by recalling what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nYes, if that was all that may be said about Jesus that He was \"wounded\nand bruised\" when He, out of the depths of His love, shouldered our\nburdens, then no doubt you are right. Then there is no prospect that\nyou will do better.\n\nBut that isn't all.\n\nAfter having been wounded and bruised under the weight of the burdens,\nbent to the ground, indeed, bent in death, He arose with the mark of\nvictory upon His brow, and with _peace_ and _healing_ for us.\n\nYea, _peace and healing_!\n\nThat was the last, the ultimate result. And it is the law in His church\nthat wherever we shoulder one another's burdens, we shall find peace\nand healing.\n\nWe may be wounded, indeed crushed, under the heavy pressure of those\nburdens. We may be bent down into the dust, but that is not the last,\nthe ultimate result.\n\nIt is peace and healing.\n\nThus it is not only a _relief_ to bear one another's burdens; it is\nthe highway to peace and healing. We can extract this blessed fruit\nfrom out of the burdens. How splendid to be able to bear the burdens of\neveryday life with and for one another and to gain peace and healing\nfor those who are timid and bruised. _This is the last and final result\nof bearing one another's burden in the name of Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n\nBE STEADFAST IN PRAYER!\n\n\n1. _A Gain and a Protection_\n\nO PRAY for me!\n\nThat is one of the cries that frequently come to us from the sick and\nthe dying--sometimes because they have not themselves learned how to\npray in the days that passed, but always with the consciousness that\nprayer is _needed_.\n\n_Pray!_ sayeth our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is _helpful_ to pray. And\non the background of nearly two thousand years of actual experience His\nchurch responds: Indeed, it is helpful to pray!\n\n\"Ask, and it shall be given you ... for everyone that asketh\nreceiveth.... Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread,\nwill he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a\nserpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your\nchildren, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good\nthings to them that ask him?\" (Mat. 7, 7, etc.)\n\nThe prayer is a _gain_ to us since we have such a generous Father who\nwill not refuse us anything good, and who has it in His power to give\nus all.\n\nBut the prayer also is a _protection_. \"Watch and pray, that ye enter\nnot into temptation\" (Mat. 26, 41). The ability to be absorbed in\nprayer is a protection against temptations, and in the prayer strength\nand fortitude are secured with which to resist the temptations.\n\nIn complete realization of this the Apostles continuously implore us to\npray.\n\nMake the prayer a regular and constant feature of your daily life.\nDon't let it be a matter of chance whether you offer a prayer or not.\nDon't let every insignificant hindrance prevent you from saying your\nprayer. Many of the ancient leaders in the church of the Lord set aside\nseveral hours a day, parts of their most propitious working time, for\npraying--and considered that a gain. Thus Luther often devoted three or\nfour hours a day to constant prayer. You may not accomplish anything\nlike that, but you are able, nevertheless, to give the prayer a fixed\nand constant place on your schedule for every day, and then you will\nexperience that it is a gain and a protection; for \"prayer brings down\nfrom Heaven the peace of God; it brings down the strength to love and\nrevere Him; it brings down from Above relief in the hour of distress,\nand it brings infinite comfort at the moment of death.\"\n\n\n2. _What Mother Taught Me_\n\nA chaplain at one of our insane asylums related the following:\n\nOne day when he had been preaching a sermon to these poor, insane\npeople among whom only a few were able to make out what he said, one\nof them came to him and announced: \"I, too, can pray!\" The chaplain\nstopped surprised, because the man was completely an idiot. He had\nforgotten everything--his name, his age, his home; about these things\nhe could give no information whatever. Somewhat doubtfully, the\nchaplain asked him: \"What can you pray?\"\n\nThe poor fellow righted himself a little and answered: \"What mother\ntaught me\"; he then folded his hands and spoke the following verse with\nperfect ease, and without mistakes:\n\n    Lord Jesus, who dost love me,\n    O, spread thy wings above me,\n    And shield me from alarm.\n\nEverything was forgotten. Not one event in his life was he able to\nrecall in his memory. Everything had been left out of his soul, out of\nhis memory--only not that one prayer his mother had taught him.\n\nI have myself had a somewhat similar experience. It was a Dane who\nwas not wholly demented--rather what is known in the vernacular as\n\"crazy\"--and a little more. He never did any harm, and for that reason\nhe was sent to the poor-house instead of to an insane asylum. Whenever\nhe found an opportunity, he made his escape, and once in a while he\ncame to my home--once at eventide and he was then allowed to stay\novernight. In the evening he sat plucking at his clothes just like\na child, and he then said: \"I'm clean enough, all right.\" A little\nlater he said: \"I ain't forgotten how to pray--want to hear me?\" Then\nhe folded his hands and spoke two little verses of the kind a mother\nteaches her very young child. These he could remember. It was the same\nthing over again: What mother taught me.\n\nRemember this, you Christian mothers!\n\n\n3. _The Evening Prayer: A Protection_\n\nAbove all, it is important to give the evening prayer a fixed and\npermanent place in the daily schedule of our life. When we intend to\npray for something, the time at which it is done may be relatively\nimmaterial, but if we think of the prayer as a _protection_, the\nevening prayer goes before anything else.\n\nAnd why?\n\nBecause it requires the peaceful quiet of eventide--and the same thing\nis true about all kinds of silly fun and of evil. In point of time,\nthe evening prayer meets with the tempting voices of wickedness that\nsound with the greatest irresistance in the darkness. A decisive battle\nthus takes place between the tempting voices of wickedness and the\nevening prayer--a battle about time; it is a Whether--Or, for to divide\nthe time in twain in this matter is impossible. It is not possible to\ndevote one evening hour to wickedness, and the other to prayer. Then,\nif the evening prayer is given a regular place in one's everyday life,\nit is a protection against the temptations.\n\nTherefore the evening prayer should be a part of the child's life even\n'way back in the days of the cradle. And therefore we praise the fact\nthat the evening prayer is just that prayer which it is easiest for a\nmother to make a part of the everyday life of the child; this is not\na mere accident, but is due to that grace of God which descends upon\nChristian mothers. Say the evening prayer with your child, and for your\nchild, every evening when you tuck him or her into bed--do it even\nbefore the babbling voice of the child is able to say the words after\nyou--and do never miss an evening!\n\nThe evening prayer which has thus been implanted in the heart of the\nchild because of the privilege and the intense love granted to the\nmother-heart, and which is to be protected by that same love throughout\nthe years to come, will prove to be a real protection to the child\nduring its earliest youth, which is just the very time when it stands\nmost in need of _protection_ because the tempting voices of wickedness\nresound with the greatest power in its own breast. For that reason the\ntime of youth is that period of our life when we stand most in need of\nthe evening prayer.\n\nLoving parents often are somewhat worried when they discuss the day\nthat the children must go _out into the world_. Now and then a tear\ndrops from the mother's eye when she thinks that her half-grown boy\nor girl soon must leave home. It is not because of worry for their\nfuture, economically speaking, nor always because of the thought of\nseparation--but it is the fear; How will they come out? Will they\nlisten to the voices of wickedness, find evil associates, forget both\nGod and their parents so that they rather seek the _saloon and the\ndance hall_ than the home of their childhood? Of course, you may say:\nIt won't be as bad as that! And, praised be God--these things do not\nhappen in a great many instances. But the danger is there, and the\ntemptations are ever present--and many a young man and woman who during\nchildhood were the very joy and pride of their parents, succumb to the\ntemptations and suffer during their youth such defeat that recovery is\npossible only much later in life or--never:\n\n     You suffer for that through many years which only was\n     briefest delight----\n\nBut to comfort such parents let me say: Let the evening prayer find a\nfixed and permanent place in the life of the child from the very days\nof the cradle--then you have built a fortification about it which will\nguard and protect it at all times because it has become an essential\npart of itself. The evening prayer of its mother is the last thing the\nchild ever forgets--that which it is most difficult to part with. It\ndoes not yield to a little push or two, but will powerfully assert its\nright to occupy the seat of honor in the heart, and it will insist that\nthe quiet hours of eventide belong to it by right. And even though the\nchild throw its mother's evening prayer overboard in order better to\nheed the tempting voices of wickedness, he or she will be conscious\nof restlessness and uneasiness in the depths of the heart, until that\ndemand is met which the evening prayer makes. Yes, even though the\nchild may time and again scoff haughtily at the evening prayer and thus\napparently get far enough to push it away with all the silly \"nerve\"\nof the age of adolescence and to conquer it--that time will come, is\nsure to come, when the memory of it and the memory of mother awakens in\nthe child's heart and revives in loving remembrance so that the evening\nprayer resumes its permanent place in the life of the child. The memory\nof mother will be a treasure to the child who only then realizes that\nthe evening prayer proved a protection against the plentifulness of\ntemptations. She will receive the gratitude shown her with child-like\nreverence, because she implanted the evening prayer in the heart of\nthe child. That was one of the mother's deeds of love that became the\ngreatest blessing throughout the storm-tossed time of youth. When\neverything else sinks into forgetfulness, it will still be remembered\n\"what mother taught me\"!\n\n\n4. _The Morning Prayer: A Gain_\n\nIt is a little more difficult to give the morning prayer a fixed place\nin our life than the evening prayer, because in the morning we feel\nstrengthened by sleep and are in a hurry to get to our work. But if we\nthus seem to think that we cannot find time to say a morning prayer,\nlet us remember the old proverb: \"In prayer is no delay,\" and if there\nare other reasons--petty things that have hindered us--then let us\nsummon our will and say to ourselves: _I want to!_ The morning prayer\nis henceforth to have a fixed place in my everyday life and in my home,\nand I think everything will go well: In prayer is no delay.\n\nJust as the evening prayer because of the significance of time is\nparticularly adapted as a _protection_ against temptation, so the\nmorning prayer for a corresponding reason is especially fit to prove a\n_gain_ to us.\n\nWhen we arise in the morning, the day is facing us, and it is of\nimportance that we approach our work with willingness and high\nhopes--whether the work be that of the intellectual or the manual\nlaborer. But, how often is it not the case that we approach our work\nslovenly and sourly--with the consequence that we feel it a burden and\na difficulty. We do not discover that rest and that joy in the work\nwhich God bestowed upon it. The work becomes nothing but unwillingly\ndone toil, and the day seems long and weary.\n\nBy way of suggesting a preventive I know of nothing better than to\nstart the day with a morning prayer. It stimulates the willingness to\nwork, to begin the day by thanking God for the night that has vanished,\nand to pray for blessing upon the work of the coming day. It imparts\njoy of living. It makes it easier to discover the rest and the delight\nin work, no matter how exerting that may be.\n\nHow often is it not the case that the man who is ready to go to his\nwork, gets up silently and grouchingly, washes himself and sits down\nat the table: Breakfast is not yet ready, and his wife gets for this\nreason some nagging reproaches. At last the meal is served. Silently\nthe man partakes of his breakfast, takes his hat and his dinnerpail,\nremarks sulkily that now he is going--and goes. Such a start promises a\ncheerless day for both man and wife. He goes to his shop or field with\nhead bent low and his mind heavy while his wife takes up her duties at\nhome--without cheer.\n\nHow different would not the _day_ and the _work_ be for the man and\nwife if they could unite in a little morning prayer and part with the\nwords of the poet upon their lips:\n\n    Then gladly we go\n    Each to his work\n    Relying upon God's grace.\n    Thus gaining strength\n    To be of use, as God wills\n    In the very best way we know.\n\nAnd that applies to all of us.\n\nWe all need to be told that we should go to our work with more\ngladness, rely more upon the grace of God, get more and more strength\nand joy wherewith to do our work so as to please God. To this end, the\nmorning prayer is an incentive, and that is why I consider it a _gain_.\n\nJust as the time of youth is the period when we stand most in need of\nthe evening prayer because the temptations then are the strongest and\nmeet with least resistance on our part, so we need the morning prayer\nthe most at the time of maturity because it then is of particular\nimportance that we\n\n    ----gain strength\n    To be of use, as God wills,\n    In the very best way we know.\n\nThis does not mean that there is any time in our lives that we do not\nneed the evening prayer as well as the morning prayer. Indeed, we\nneed both throughout our entire life, for we are always in want of\nprotection against temptations, always in need of gaining increasing\njoy of living and happiness. Therefore, let us give both a fixed and\npermanent place in our everyday life and thus try to become \"steadfast\nin prayer.\"\n\nAnd in that steadfast prayer _the Apostles' Creed_ and _the Lord's\nPrayer_ must be absorbed as an inseparable part.\n\n\n\n\nZACCH\u00c6US\n\n\n1. _To Be Home By Oneself_\n\n\"AND, behold, there was a man named Zacch\u00e6us, which was the chief among\nthe publicans, and he was rich.\"\n\nConsequently he must have been a happy man, many would think, for\nthe conditions of happiness are riches and prominent positions. But\nZacch\u00e6us was no happy man.\n\nHe may, of course, have experienced a certain degree of delight or\nhappiness while he was so busily occupied in making money and in\nforging ahead until he reached the very top of the publicans' ladder;\nnow, however, when he had accomplished all that--he was not happy, at\nall.\n\nHow could that be?\n\nI believe at that time perhaps he _had lived his life outside himself,\nas it were, and been wholly absorbed by his official duties_. But now\nthat he found time to be home by himself, and to be occupied with the\ninner world of his soul, he heard in there an accusing voice which told\nhim: _You are a sinful man, Zacch\u00e6us!_ And the man who is sinful, is\nnot happy.\n\nWhat should he do?\n\nHe might devote himself once more to the _mania for gathering wealth_,\nmight thrust himself energetically back into the work. Or he might\ndevote himself to the merry _life of society_--seek pleasures, the\nremedy which the world offers to those who are afflicted with wounded\nsouls. But in both cases he would once more be forced to live his life\noutside himself. He did not like that. It would be too much like taking\nflight from oneself.\n\nBut there was a third way--_that of the repenting sinner_. He chose\nthat. People referred to him by calling him a _sinful man_, and\nsighingly he had to admit that the people were right. He understood\nthat now since he was home by himself--O, could but his sin be stricken\nout!\n\nNow there was this Man, Jesus of Nazareth! Wasn't He the same one whom\nJohn the Baptist had spoken of as the Lamb of God, which taketh away\nthe sin of the world? And was not He the same one who had said to a\npoor fellow sick of the palsy: \"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be\nforgiven thee!\" If he might only see Him!\n\nSuddenly streets resounded with the cry: Jesus of Nazareth is coming!\nZacch\u00e6us got busy, ran on ahead and climbed unto a tree. Hidden by the\ndense leafage there, he would have a chance of seeing Jesus--why, He\nis coming right there--He actually stops at the tree, looks up, sees\nhim, and says: \"Zacch\u00e6us, make haste, and come down; for today I must\nabide by thy house!\" And he made haste, and came down, and received Him\njoyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that He was\ngone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. But Zacch\u00e6us stood, and\nsaid unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the\npoor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I\nrestore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him: This day is salvation\ncome to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the\nSon of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.\n\nHe was son of Abraham!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs Abraham had learned how to be home by himself and to say, \"I am\nbut dust and ashes\"--thus Zacch\u00e6us had come home to himself when he\nrealized that he was a sinner. And as Abraham was willing to sacrifice\nhis son, his heart's treasure, thus Zacch\u00e6us had come to the point\nwhere he was willing to sacrifice half of what was his--that dear, dear\nproperty which his heart had loved so fervently and to which it had\nbeen attached for many years. That had been the most precious treasure\nof his heart.\n\n_To be home by oneself humbles._ _To live outside oneself makes\nhaughty_, and God is displeased with those who are haughty while He\nbestows His grace on those who are humble.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"For today I must abide by thy house,\" Jesus says.\n\nWhy? Because Zacch\u00e6us could be found at home. Jesus always knocks on\nthe doors of those hearts where He knows He finds someone at home. He\nmust abide there.\n\nTo the men of our own age the danger of living outside themselves\nin their work and business, is great. Our age suffers from a tension\nwhich was not known in bygone days. If a man is to surge ahead, he\nmust let his business absorb his entire strength. Therefore, it is so\ndifficult for Jesus to find men at home when He knocks at the door of\ntheir heart, and therefore so few men are to be found in the church on\nthe Lord's day. Women are not in the same measure tempted to live their\nlives outside themselves.\n\nBut Zacch\u00e6us stands like one who admonishes the man of our age: _Try\nto be at home by yourself, in your own soul. That is the road you must\nwander if you are to find happiness._\n\n\n2. _All Forgiven--Nothing In Vain_\n\n\"This day is salvation come to this house.\" To Zacch\u00e6us this means:\n_Your sin has been forgiven--all has been stricken out_.\n\nRev. Mr. Funcke relates how he on a certain occasion called upon Dr.\nK\u00f6gel in Berlin--a man who was paralyzed and unable to move. He pitied\nDr. K\u00f6gel--regretted that this man, formerly so stately and erect,\nshould sit thus crouching, but Dr. K\u00f6gel said: \"Rejoice with me--God\nhath forgiven all my sins!\"\n\nIn a cemetery in Southern Germany there are two tombstones with strange\ninscriptions; one reads: _Forgiven!_ and the other, _In Vain!_\n\nBeneath the former rests the dust of a woman who through her\nextraordinary beauty fascinated a number of admirers. They seduced\nher, made her run away from her husband and children, and when once she\nhad entered the life of immorality, she went swiftly down the grade.\nShe developed into a criminal and was imprisoned. In the penitentiary\nshe came home by herself, and here Jesus found her. When she left the\ninstitution, she went back to her husband and children and proved a\nblessing to her home; as a humble, Christian woman she did not spare\nherself for the sake of those whom she loved. But when death drew near,\nshe asked them to inscribe upon her tombstone that one word, Forgiven!\nThis word was a world to her, was everything. Her sin forgiven by God,\nforgiven by mankind.\n\nYes, when _everything is forgiven_ we can rejoice at being home by\nourselves. But we need still one thing more before our joy is perfect.\nWe want to be told _that we have not lived in vain_.\n\nZacch\u00e6us knows how to appreciate salvation. In proof of his gratitude\nhe gives half of his goods to the poor. It is more blessed to give than\nto receive. Formerly he had felt a certain joy whenever he could add a\nsum of a hundred to his fortune--but how paltry that joy was compared\nto the joy of giving! That could not possibly have been done in vain.\n\nJesus said to His disciples: And whosoever shall give to drink unto\none of these little ones a cup of cold water only, verily I say unto\nyou, he shall in no wise lose his reward. No offering of thanks for\nsalvation is in vain. It brings bliss. It will get its reward--from\nthe greatest offer of thanks which we can afford to give, down to the\nsmallest--a kind word, a friendly clasping of hands, a cup of cold\nwater. Nothing of all this shall be in vain. But he who lives outside\nhimself, absorbed by the cravings for ever more riches, lives in vain\neven though he may become a millionaire.\n\nAre you not in need of having written above all of your life and all\nyour doings that one great word, _Forgiven!_ And are you not in need\nof being assured that you have not _lived in vain_? You may not have\nbeen able to bring the magnificent sacrifices which the world lauds\nin the newspaper columns, and you may easily be led into the belief\nthat you have lived in vain; but then you shall know that the Lord who\nis the King of Kings and the Judge of all and everything, will reward\nalso that which looks insignificant and small in the eyes of the world.\nNothing of that which you do as His disciple, is done in vain.\n\nAbove the life of the children of the world one might place the\ninscription: _Nothing forgiven--everything in vain!_ Above the lives of\nChristians: _Everything forgiven--nothing in vain_.\n\nIsn't that so, then: Christians have glorious days!\n\n_What terms do you choose?_\n\n\n3. _During the Following Days_\n\nIt was a day of joy to Zacch\u00e6us when Jesus entered his house. But how\nwere the following days?\n\nUndoubtedly there were days when the old greediness tempted him again.\nWhen the people of Israel in a miraculous way had been helped across\nthe Red Sea, they were saved from the armed hosts of the Egyptians,\nbut not from their plagues. The Egyptian soldiers had been drowned in\nthe waves of the Red Sea, but the Egyptian temptations accompanied\nIsrael across the sea and made the wanderings in the desert beset\nwith hardships and difficulties. Indeed, they often, in their worldly\nhearts, reverted to the thought: _Would it not, after all, have been\nbetter to return and to partake of the plentiful provisions of Egypt\nthan to fight their way laboriously onward to the promised land?_\n\nLikewise the tempter undoubtedly has often whispered to Zacch\u00e6us:\nAfter all, wouldn't it have been wiser to _gather money than to give\nit away_ as an offering in return for salvation? But then Zacch\u00e6us in\nhis mind reverted to that great day when Jesus for the first time was a\nguest in his house, and his thoughts have lived that day over and over\nagain--No, never was I as happy as on the day when I gave half of my\ngoods to the poor, and never have I been able to make as many people\nhappy as on that day. The offering had not been given in vain. So the\nold greediness had to yield to the benevolent impulse.\n\nBut that very same thought may come to you and me: Wouldn't it, after\nall, be wiser to get a lot of money together than to give it away in\nthe name of the Lord to mission work, to churches and schools, to the\npoor, the sick and the suffering?\n\nNo! And once again: No! For that person in whose heart greediness has\ntriumphed, has lived in vain even though he may have gathered thousands\nof dollars. He has contributed to the increase of the _lifeless capital\nof mankind, but not to its joy of living, to its happiness_. But he\nor she who brings offerings in the name of Jesus, increases the joy\nof living and happiness of mankind by just that much. Perhaps he has\nstruggled along laboriously to reach the promised land of joy and\nhappiness. His life has attained a meaning both to himself and to\nothers--and he has not lived in vain.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MARCH OF EVENTS\n\n(LU. 24, 29)\n\n\n\"ABIDE with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.\"\n\nThus the two disciples spoke to Jesus in the afternoon of Easter Sunday\nwhen they were at the village called Emmaus. The march of events on\nGood Friday had excited them greatly: Should really the powers of\nevil vanquish even Him of whom they had expected that He would redeem\nIsrael? This thought was so utterly distressing. And what would happen\nto themselves? For also within their hearts evil had a firm hold, and\nthey were not able to conquer it.\n\nThinking along these lines the two disciples walked toward Emmaus.\nIt was as though the heart would be crushed under the weight of the\nevents, but then Jesus came, and He told them that the march of events\nwas not a series of sad and distressing _chances_. It behooved Christ\nto suffer and then to assume His glory. This was felt as a relief.\n\nWas this, too, _planned_ by the God of Israel?\n\nThey were not quite able to comprehend it. Neither did they know who\nwas speaking to them; but when they were at Emmaus and He made as if to\ngo on, they implored Him: \"Abide with us; for it is toward evening,\nand the day is far spent!\" It was such a comfort to listen to His\nwords. In them was that healing power which crushed hearts needed--O,\nwould He but tarry with them!\n\nSo He went inside with them, and when He broke the bread, their eyes\nwere opened, and they saw it was Jesus Himself--that very same Jesus\nwhom they had believed perished under the burden of the events of Good\nFriday.\n\nThen they did rejoice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nYes, Lord, abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far\nspent!\n\nLet us first of all think of our own _life-day_. None of us knows how\nnigh is the evening. We may be near the final hour, both you and I,\neven though our hair as yet has no silver tinge. And if we, with this\npossibility in view, review the march of events in our own lives, we\nsee much which we would like to change--if we but could. How often have\nnot the powers of evil been victorious in our lives, as they were on\nthat Good Friday! That thought grips the heart wistfully. And a little\nway ahead: That dark power death--\"the difficult death\" as a modern\nwriter has said. O, how intensely we wish that so many things could be\nthought over and lived over once more!\n\nBut when we thus review the march of events in our own life, we sigh:\n\"Hearest thou also us, thou Son of Grace!\" For the only one who can\nrelieve our suffering is Jesus Christ; His abiding by us as the _Son\nof Grace_ is the great surcease, for He comes from Heaven with grace\nenough with which to cover all our shortcomings, all our sins, and with\nhealing for all those wounds which have been inflicted upon us in the\ncourse of the march of events. It is, indeed, a blessing to know that\njust what we are yearning for from the very depth of our soul is what\nHe rejoices most in giving us. We shall not pray in vain.\n\nBut it was not only what we had thought and what we had done. There was\nso much in the march of events which was sad and incomprehensible. Was\nthat an evil power which from without, by chance, disrupted our life?\nWas it a series of happenings without aim, without meaning? In that\ncase we stand in need of listening to the words of Jesus: It behooves\nyou to suffer this, and then to enter into My glory. The saddest events\nin our earthly life are like dark viaducts which lead us forward to\nglory. They, too, lead us to salvation. It is relieving when this\nbecomes quite clear to us. We feel like the disciples when listening\nto the words of the Lord: There is comfort and healing in them. And\nthen we can rejoice even though it is toward evening. We have no fear,\nwe shudder not, at the thought that _the end of the day_ is drawing\nnigh--for that draws us closer to the glory, and death will be the last\ndark passage through which we must wend our way.\n\nBut if we look round about us it seems to me that it is toward evening\nfor _this world_. The end of the long day of the life of the world is\ndrawing nigh, and by the words of the Lord we know that the march of\nevents in the last days will not be cheerful for the Christians. The\npowers of evil shall arise against the Lord and His church, just as\nthey did during that Easter week, and they will unite in one final\noutburst of desperate strength for the purpose of conquering. Then\nit will be seen decisively once more that the church is fighting\nprincipalities and powers, the masters of the world, and the spiritual\nhosts under the sky. The bow will be bent for this final struggle--and\nthe world already now is singing a hymn of victory.\n\nWhat shall we do?\n\nWe can change the march of events as little as could those early\ndisciples. We may try a struggle as did Peter at Gethsemane--may\nperhaps even inflict a small wound on someone, but in our use of the\nsword there is no prospect of victory. We must have Him with us who\non that Shrove Thursday spoke to the henchmen of wickedness with such\nmight that they fell to the ground at the very sound of His words.\nTherefore, we are in need of praying, Abide with us, Lord, not only as\nthe Son of Grace, but as the _Lord of Strength_--indeed, as the Lord of\nStrength we need Him when we survey the march of events in the world.\n\nAs little as at that time is He now powerless. But as it behooved Him\nto suffer these things and then enter into glory, so it also behooves\nHis church during the last ages to bear those sufferings which the\nmarch of events carries in its wake, and then enter into glory; but,\nthe Lord of Strength will shorten those last days (Mat. 24, 22). Here\nit is once more true that these events are not so many sad accidents\nand painful happenings of chance without aim or meaning. No, they, too,\nmust be made to serve the reign of the Lord, and to help the church\non its road to glory. _But only the Lord of Strength is able to make\nthe events work together in unison, under all circumstances, for the\npurpose of our sanctification._ Only He can make dusk of the evening\nchange into dawn for His church.\n\nTherefore, we pray: \"Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the\nday is far spent.\" Yea, abidest thou with us as the _Son of Grace_ and\nas _the Lord of Strength_ during the march of events, and assurest thou\nus more and more that no one is able to tear us away from thy hand!\nAssurest us that even the very darkest, the most distressing events,\nwhether they affect the individual or the church in general, are merely\ndark passages which, through thy strength and grace, shall lead us\nforward to peace and joy, to eternal life and everlasting blessedness.\nThen we shall rejoice during the march of events.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE WHILE\n\n_Its Significance to the Life of Christians_\n\n\nIT was during Easter week that Jesus spoke the word about the little\nwhile in which the disciples were not to see Him, and in which they\nwould be brought to the very brink of despair while the world enjoyed\nitself in a fleeting exuberance of victory. The little while with its\ndeep, its hopeless sorrow lasted for the disciples from Good Friday\nuntil Easter Sunday, and, forsooth, their weeping was heartrending,\ntheir plaints most gripping. Jesus had been taken away from them, and\nthey did not understand that it behooved Him to suffer this and then to\nenter into glory; nor did they realize that they would themselves, in\na little while, be mature, so as to win the world for the Lord who now\nhad been nailed onto a cross.\n\nDarkness enveloped the earth for three hours so the rays of the sun\nwere unable to penetrate it; but still denser was the spiritual\ndarkness which had gathered about the disciples: There was no glimpse\nof light, no hope! For He who, as they had hoped, was to have redeemed\nIsrael, had breathed His last on the cross. The words of the Lord were\nliterally fulfilled upon them; they wept and lamented. At this moment\nthey were unable to cling to the promise of the Lord: \"I will see you\nagain, and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from\nyou.\"\n\nBut were we able at this moment to see the apostles before us and to\nask them: What do you think of the brief hours of despair in your\nlives--and especially of that which was the most sorrowful of all? I am\ncertain they would answer: It was, indeed, a most significant \"little\nwhile,\" and all the brief moments of despair throughout life have been\nso valuable that we could not have done without them. But if this were\nso, as far as the apostles were concerned, then it must be the same for\nus, and with this in view we will ask:\n\n_What, then, is the meaning of the distressful \"little whiles\" to the\nlife of Christians?_ Those dark and burdensome hours when the tears\nmoisten our eyes; and darkness gathers about our souls; those hours\nwhich we would rather be without but which we can so ill afford to\ndispense with. I might answer quite briefly thus: _It is during those\nmoments that we are moulded by the hands of the Father as the children\nof light!_ I know for a certainty that it was during just such moments\nthat I became a servant of the Lord wishing from out of the depth of\nmy soul to find the way from the evil world of deceit and darkness\nhomeward to the eternal abodes of light. Therefore I thank the Lord\nalso for those dark hours which came into my life, and therefore I by\nno means praise that man or woman happy who has known no such moments,\nbut I do think he or she who has struggled through them to peace and\nrejoicing is happy.\n\nIn order to understand fully the meaning of the sad moments in the\nlife of mankind, we will recall a few of the great men of God.\n\nDavid was named the man according to the heart of God. But was he made\nthat when he reached the highest pinnacle of his power and glory and\nwhen he with regal strength ruled the subdued neighboring nations?\n\nI hardly think so.\n\nIt was rather during those bitter hours when he, weeping and bare-foot,\nwas forced to flee before his own son, or when he with his heart\nwrithing in anguish prayed: \"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and\nrenew a right spirit within me!\" It was during such moments when he\ncrouched in humiliation that he became disgusted with deceit and\nfalsity, with the doings of darkness and the evil lust of the flesh.\nIt was in such moments that he learned how to yearn from the depths\nof his heart for life itself: \"Where thoughts are pure and deeds are\nunblemished.\"\n\nWhen Peter had denied his Lord and Saviour thrice in the courtyard of\nthe high priest and was standing without, bitter and heavy tears rolled\ndown his cheeks; never in his life had Peter detested that denial\nas he did just then. How hideous it looked to him--to have denied\nJesus! Undoubtedly he was thinking by himself: O, could I but find an\nopportunity of proclaiming Him once more--then I should do it with all\nthe strength and sincerity of my heart.\n\nOr Thomas! We know that after hearing the testimony of the resurrection\nof Jesus he said: \"Except I shall see in His hands the print of the\nnails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my\nhand into His side, I will not believe.\" Then, when he sees Jesus again\nand hears His gently reproachful, \"Blessed are they that have not seen,\nand yet have believed\"--how Thomas must have been disgusted with his\ninfidelity, and how he must have reproached himself because he had\ninvited the evil power of doubt and unbelief into his soul. That was to\nhappen nevermore!\n\nThese heavy hours were changed into rejoicing for such men. And it\nis the testimony of all men and women who have been blessed by the\nspecial grace of God that such \"little whiles\" have meant much to\nthe development of their lives by giving it _direction, depth and\nsincerity_.\n\nBut how about you? Have you had similar experiences?\n\nMany of you probably will say: We know the hours of distress--we also\nknow how deeply depressing they may be. Even though we may not have\nwept and lamented, like the first disciples, because of the scorn\nand ridicule by the world, we often have shed tears that betrayed\nthe presence of a wounded heart. But we did not go farther in our\nunderstanding of the meaning of the sorrowful moments. We have felt\ntheir pressure, but we have lost sight of their blessedness; we have\nbeen unable to discover the gain which they mean to our lives.\n\nLook to the depths of your own soul and then tell me: Do you not feel\nthe hidden connection between the sin, as it had attained power in\nyour soul, and the pressure of the brief, sorrow-laden moments? Have\nyou not also in such moments felt a truer, a more sincere and deeper\ndisgust with the evil character of sin, than otherwise? Did not that\nwish soar upward from the very bottom of your soul: Would I were\nrelieved of all that is evil so that I might live with \"all my thoughts\npure, and all my deeds unblemished\"?\n\nBut if you have felt this, then you already are somewhat conscious of\nthe blessedness of the moments of distress, for that is what is asked\nof us first of all. Without disgust with the evil being of sin we\ncannot renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways.\n\nBut is that all to which the brief, sorrow-laden moments can guide and\nhelp us? No--the faith of the disciples was strengthened during the\nlittle while. It is true that their faith wavered in that while, and\nthat it looked as though it would collapse, but _this was not the agony\nof death, but the pangs of birth_.\n\nHitherto they had been accustomed to seeing Jesus and then believing\nin Him. Now _that_ faith was to be born which would cling to him\nthrough His word without seeing Him. During the little while it looked\nas though Jesus had suffered defeat and the world had conquered. But\nafter the resurrection the disciples saw the meaning of it all: Jesus\nhad taken death upon Himself not because He was vanquished but because\nthe Father, in His unfathomable wisdom and His eternal love, had thus\ndecided it for the purpose of salvation.\n\nThey knew now that no matter how discouraging the outlook might be, no\nmatter how loudly the world might proclaim its victory--His word was\nto be depended upon. And firm in this faith they went out to conquer\nthe world for Jesus Christ after having received the spirit from\nAbove. Often it looked to them as it did on Good Friday, but instead\nof weeping and lamenting they sang hymns of praise to the Lord fully\nconvinced that He was the strongest. Their faith had been strengthened\nso as to bear the resistance of the world, and rejoicing had taken up\nits everlasting abode in their hearts. _The little while had been the\nhour of birth of the faith which was to conquer all the world, and gain\nthe eternal state of blessedness._\n\nThus the little dark moments have a meaning in the lives of Christians,\naside from filling us with detestation of the evil ways of sin. They\nmust be hours of birth through which our faith shall emerge renewed and\ninvigorated until it appears as that firm faith which wins the great\nvictory over the world.\n\nAnd if there is anything of which we stand in need, in addition to\nbeing filled with horror at the phantoms of deceit, the evil ways of\ndarkness--it is the firm faith and the eternal joy of blessedness\nwhich give us strength to become more and more the children of God,\nimmaculate before His face, and by which we can be easily recognized as\nchildren of light in a world darkened by sin.\n\nThe world still rejoices and still--after a struggle of almost two\nthousand years--thinks it shall conquer the church of the Lord. Now\nand then we are told that in another hundred years Christianity will\nbe something entirely different, adjusted to the trend of thought--or\nthat it will have lost all its strength. When we face this haughty\nscorn of the world, we need the firm belief that although the world\nthinks it will triumph, it will still collapse. For the Lord is\nAlmighty: The great powerful world will never be able to remain longer,\nor to progress farther, than He permits.\n\nThen there is the joy which no one can take away from us. It is the\njoy of blessedness in which all the sorrows of life vanish, just as\nthe pangs of birth are lost in the exuberant joy of the thought that\na new human being has been brought into the world. It is with the joy\nof blessedness as with maternal love: It is made through travail and\nsuffering, and no one can take it away from us!\n\nAh, how it irritated and angered Jews and heathen when they were unable\nto deprive the ancient Christians of this joy even in the moment of\ndeath! When Stephen appeared before the council, and his face was like\nthe face of an angel because the joy of Heaven reposed within his\nsoul--they cut to the heart and they gnashed with their teeth, cast him\nout of the city, and stoned him. But his joy they could not take away\nfrom him: Would that this might abide among us in greater fullness, for\nit is that very joy which gives us the touch of gentleness, mildness\nand loveliness!\n\nThe Christian may say about the \"little whiles\" that are full of\nvexation, what Joseph said to his brethren: \"God made everything right\nin order to do what He now hath done, and to preserve life.\" The\n\"little whiles\" may be heavy with trouble and sorrow, but it is an\nirremovable truth in the church of the Lord that He changes them into\ngood purposes in order to preserve our lives.\n\nIt must have been difficult for the disciples to understand the Lord's\nword about the \"little while\"--and it is difficult for us amidst\nour adversity to absorb thoroughly the fact that God will turn our\nsorrow into joy--that, forsooth, sorrow itself is pregnant with joy,\nshall become joy, and that these \"little whiles\" are necessary to\nthe development and the ripening of the Christian life. It was only\nwhen the disciples had lived through the little while and seen the\nLord once more that they understood His words. So also with us. The\ndark \"little whiles\" in our life are to be read--like the Hebraic\nscriptures--backward. Only when we have lived through these dark\nmoments and when joy has found anew the way to our hearts, are we\nbeginning to realize their meaning.\n\n_They were hours of redemption and hours of birth._ Through them we\nbecame disgusted with the evil ways of sin to such an extent that the\nSon of man found it possible to set us _actually free_. They were the\nhours of birth for the world-conquering faith and for the everlasting\njoy of blessedness.\n\n_We have seen the Lord again when the hours of sorrow had passed, and\nwe have felt His presence among us._\n\nGod made everything right in order to preserve our life eternal.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MIRACLE IN OUR AGE\n\n(ACTS 26, 8)\n\n\nTHE miracle!\n\nWell, who believes in it nowadays? If it had been five hundred years\nago, it might have been different, but in our educated age--no, we know\nbetter now! Science has spoken with the assurance of an expert and\nsaid: No miracles happen! Everything adheres to certain stringent laws;\nour researches have proved this, and the miracle has never existed\nexcept in the brains of undeveloped ignorant individuals.\n\nNevertheless we maintain in the church of the Lord that the miracle\nis a fact--as concrete a reality as was--the French revolution. The\nmiracle does not thrive on the recognition of science, nor does it\ncollapse before the shots which science fires against it. But when we\nmaintain this, some people pityingly shrug their shoulders or smile\nhaughtily while they sneer: How backward you people are! You certainly\nare not well posted in regard to the development and the intelligence\nof the age.\n\nLet us see if speech of this kind cannot be effectively met so that\nwe as Christians may retain our faith and still be developed and\nintelligent people.\n\n\n1. _The Miracle and Nature_\n\nIf we ask infidel science how everything originated, it answers:\n_Through evolution!_ The world has developed during millions of years.\nBut if we ask further: Whence and from what? You yourselves claim\nthat _nothing originates in nothing_, then this world must, according\nto your own postulates, have originated in something, for your own\nfundamental claim is that it cannot have risen out of nothingness.\n\nTo this the general answer is that perhaps there was a small beginning,\na protoplasm from which all things grew. But if there has been such\na protoplasm, it certainly is an unprecedented miracle. Never at\nany later time has anyone beheld such a protoplasm through which an\nentire world arose, and in that case _all existence is based upon a\nmiracle_. This has only been assigned to as remote a time as possible,\nand even though one had not freed himself of the miracle, it was not\nirritatingly present as a constant probability in the evolution of the\nworld. For, to admit that an Almighty God created everything from the\nvery beginning is synonymous with admitting the fact of the miracle\nas a constant probability. It is impossible for us to conceive that\nthe Almighty at the time of the Creation should have so exhausted His\npowers that He now faces His creations as one who is utterly powerless.\nIf His omnipotence made all things, then He must still be able, through\nthat very omnipotence, to interfere, to mend and to increase, because\nin His wisdom He realizes that it so serves the promotion of his\neternal plans.\n\nYes, but the _miracle is contrary to nature_, it is said.\n\nLet us see! When Jesus at the marriage at Cana in Galilee turned water\ninto wine, a miracle happened, and many believed in Him.\n\n_Water into wine!_ Is that really contrary to nature? Is it not the\nvery same thing that happens in nature every summer when the water\nof the soil is absorbed into the tender roots of the vine and passes\nthrough its branches, finally becoming wine in the grapes? The turning\nof water into wine is no change which rests upon violation of the laws\nof nature. In nature this happens in accordance with those plans which\nare the guiding laws of the powers of nature. At Cana in Galilee it\nhappened in another way, but the same thing was accomplished: Water\nbecame wine! There is unity in the achievement. Is there not also an\ninner harmony between the powers working according to plans and laws\nin nature, and those which work untrammeled through the miracle? I\nthink that we here are facing a unity in those powers--a relationship\nas intimate as between the Father and His only begotten Son who rests\nin His arms. And when we witness other miracles in which this unity\nbecomes invisible to us, I certainly do not think it is because the\nunity is absent, but just because we are too shortsighted to perceive\nit. But then the miracle is, after all, not contrary to nature when\nlooked at profoundly.\n\nBut the miracle is in conflict with the _immutable laws_ of nature, it\nis said.\n\nLet us mention an instance. I fetch a silver dollar and throw it up in\nthe air. According to the law of gravity, which is one of the immutable\nlaws of nature, it falls toward the ground, but by a firm resolve and\nby the strength in my arm I may catch it and hold it in the air.\n\nWhat happens then? Is the law of nature violated, or is it rendered\nineffective? By no means! But another unit of power appears which in\nthis case is strong enough to hold the dollar in the air in spite of\nthe fact that the law of nature acts upon it with its power in order to\nlead it earthwards. By my firm resolve and by the strength in my arm\nsomething else happens than if I had not interfered.\n\nYes, you say, such an insignificant thing as a coin anyone may keep in\nthe air. It is different when we speak about the immense system of the\nuniverse. But--do you know whether or not the entire universe with its\ncountless astral bodies weigh more in the hands of the Almighty than a\nsilver dollar in mine? I do not believe it. Then, what you and I may\ndo on a small scale, God Almighty may do on the larger scale without\nannihilating the laws of nature. They act as usual, each according to\nits own plan, but God Almighty may interfere and cause that something\nelse will happen than would otherwise have happened, in spite of the\nfact that the laws of nature retain their entire power.\n\nFinally it is said that miracle is contrary to _our experience_.\n\nLet us imagine an old sailor a couple of hundred years ago. Through\nmore than a generation he had steered his vessel sometimes aided by\nwind and currents, sometimes against them. If he were told that a ship\nmight be steered straight against the wind and the currents without\nsails, without cruising, without oar strokes, he would have uttered a\nfierce sailors' oath that such a story was a lie--wild imagination!\nNo, he knew by _experience_ what was the power of the wind and the\ncurrents, and he had been struggling ever so gallantly against those\nvery powers of the sea--no, no--don't tell me stories like that! You\nmay be able to find some unexperienced people who will believe tales of\nthat kind, but I know better.\n\nMeanwhile we all know nowadays that the proud vessels sail steadily\nagainst wind and currents without canvas sails, without cruising\nmanoeuvres and without oar strokes. What is the reason for this? Are\nwind and currents adhering to other laws in our days, or has their\neffect been changed? No, not at all! But the old salt thought that his\nexperience was exhaustive in this special field. It all required a\npower which he did not know, and in whose existence he did not believe.\n\nThe attitude of the unbelieving science in our age toward the miracle\nis exactly like this. It has emitted many a droll sailor's oath to\naffirm that the miracle is contrary to its experience--and with the\nvery same justification as did the sailor. We all need being reminded\nthat human experience is very, very limited. It embraces such a small\nfraction of the universe, and it is not inclined to concede its\nlimitations. The handicap of science is that of the sailor. In order\nto steer his ship right against wind and currents a power was required\nwhich he did not know and in whose existence he would not believe. In\norder to let the miracle happen, a power is required of which science,\nas such, does not know and in whose existence it refuses to believe.\n\nHow many unbelieving physicians have not sworn as drastically as\ndid the sailor, that they could not share the Christian faith in\nresurrection? The physician says like the sailor: I know better--don't\ntell me stories! I have seen too often how that pumping machinery\nin the human body which is called heart, comes to a stop, and when\nthe heart ceases beating, the eye is extinguished, and the body\napproaches the process of dissolution. Don't tell me anything about the\nresurrection of the dead. It is contrary to my experience.--And yet,\nall that is required in order to make this possible, is a power which\nhe does not know, and in whose existence he will not believe.\n\nHe who was powerful enough to turn dust into man from the beginning,\ncertainly is powerful enough to revivify that dust.\n\nThe existence of this power is recognized, and has been experienced,\nin the church of the Lord. But, here we stop by asserting that _that\nmiracle in nature means that God works in other ways than those\ndetermined by the plans and laws of nature_. It is the very same power\nof God that works through the miracle as through nature restrained by\nlaws.\n\n\n2. _The Miracle and the Church of the Lord_\n\nIf, then, we leave the sphere of nature for that of the church to seek\nan expression of the power which is working here, we find one formed by\nPaul the apostle: _The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ_.\n\nBut as God's power in nature chiefly acts according to certain laws\nand plans, unheeding them only now and then--so does the power of His\nSon in the church. It acts regularly, determined by laws and order,\nand unrestrained only now and then. In this there is, in both cases, a\nvery great blessedness to be found. We have been created to abide by\nconditions which are determined by well-defined plans and laws, and we\nwould be seriously troubled by being the objects of merely arbitrary\nand unrestrained powers.\n\nWhen Jesus made bread for the hungry multitude in the desert, it\nhappened through the free interference of powers--not in accordance\nwith accepted laws and plans. But now suppose that the farmer were\nto expect bread in this manner--that certainly would lead him into\na painful state of doubt: He had not sown his seed in the spring,\nfor he was sure a miracle would be wrought so that the crop would be\nready by harvest time. Summer elapsed and he looked anxiously for the\nmiracle which was to bring him the crop. According to the ways of\nhuman thinking it lasted too long before the miracle happened! What\npainful restlessness and uncertainty! No, there is greater surety and\nsatisfaction in the order predicated upon laws, that seedtime and\nharvest shall not cease, and that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall\nhe reap.\n\nBut as God thus has endowed nature with His power so as to make it\nadopt certain laws with the end in view that man's worldly existence\nshall be based thereon, so Christ has endowed His church with the power\nof resurrection which works through His institutions according to laws,\nand _upon this action, regulated and determined by laws, rests the\nexistence of Christians_. By doing so He has not, however, exhausted\nHimself or confined Himself so as to make it impossible for Him to work\nthrough other methods, but we are restrained even as are those means\nthrough which the power of His resurrection comes to us.\n\nIt would be wrong on the part of the farmer to demand that bread should\nbe made in any other way than that which God has designed for its\nproduction from the soil--and it would be just as wrong on the part of\nChristians to demand miracles. We must abide by the church _in which\nthe power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ acts, regulated and\nlaw-restrained, at the baptismal font and communion, upon all those who\nwill choose the right attitude toward them_.\n\nBut has not the miracle, this unrestrained action of the powers,\ndisappeared from the church? Miracles do not happen nowadays as in the\ntime of the apostles.\n\nPeople are often heard to speak like this, and here we must first of\nall call attention to the fact that one period in the history of the\nchurch may be profuse in miracles while the other is devoid of them.\nIt does not go according to our desires and thoughts, but according\nto what the Lord in His wisdom deems well for the fulfillment of His\neternal thoughts. Furthermore, our age is not in a very receptive mood\nfor the \"miracle\"--it might face _the strange things_ gapingly instead\nof believingly accepting the \"miracle\" as a \"miracle\" and give God the\nglory therefor. Yet I am convinced that the unrestrained interference\nof powers has not ceased in our age, but it takes place only according\nto the counsel of the Lord, and where receptivity is present. Nowadays,\nthis applies especially in heathen lands and in secret where the\nfaithful pray and receive unseen by the eyes of the world.\n\nBut, in this connection, I would call attention to the following:\nThe greatest miracle is not that some sick person may be restored to\nhealth, or freed of some bodily weakness, but that _I, the sinner that\nI am, may be resurrected in spirit, soul and body, in accordance with\nthe eternal thoughts of glory of God_. This miracle is a thousand times\ngreater than that which took place at the door of the temple when Peter\nsaid to him who was lame from his mother's womb: \"Rise up and walk!\"\nFor this does not apply to a certain part of the body nor to certain\nbodily weaknesses, but to _the entire being with all its weaknesses_.\nThis is the greatest miracle of all, and it takes place until the very\nend of time within the church of the Lord.\n\nHere we truly have reason for saying: Praise be to God that we are\nnot expected to look for the unrestrained interference of the powers\nfor the sake of the restitution of our entire being, but that we can\nadhere to the regulated, law-restrained acts of the powers, fully\nconvinced that the good work which is thus begun shall be completed in\nthis manner, in spite of the devil and in spite of death.\n\nThe power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ does not work here in\nthe same way as in the case of the resurrection of Lazarus; for there\nit acted unrestrainedly and visibly, even to the unbelieving Jewish\npeople. Here it works invisibly, but none the less tangibly, and a far\ngreater goal is to be attained. I am not to be resurrected like Lazarus\nto once more live under conditions of sin, and to once more face death.\nI am to be resurrected from death and from the conditions of sin wholly\nprepared to be at home in the halls of Heaven. In order to achieve this\nI am not to look for _sensations_ and _movements_ in bluish dimness,\nbut to adhere faithfully to the regulated, law-restrained acts of the\npowers within the church of the Lord.\n\nIt is in the faith in this action of the powers that we are, with Paul\nthe apostle, to look forward to the resurrection of all things. I do\nnot think that through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ\nall things are to be restored to the extent, as some have thought, that\neven the devil himself is to enter into the kingdom of God and become\na leader of angels as he had been before; nor do I think that the\ngodless and the infidels will be placed among the Godfearing and the\nfaithful in the Kingdom of Heaven without repentance and faith. But I\ndo believe for a certainty that all things are to be restored according\nto the eternal design of God in which the power of the resurrection of\nJesus Christ is allowed to act. And for that we are yearning within the\nchurch.\n\nBut nature also yearns; that, too, is subject to corruption. That, too,\nshall be freed of the thraldom of corruption into the glorious freedom\nof the children of God. When the power of the resurrection of Jesus\nChrist has penetrated nature, then it will appear as the new earth in\nwhich justice abideth. But just as man must pass through death, through\nperdition, humanly seen, so the ancient earth must pass through death\nand perdition, and the scripture testifies with equal firmness in the\ncase of both, that man must die and the earth must perish.\n\nThen the great miracle has happened that everywhere in the life of man\nand in nature where the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is\nworking, the restoration of all things has taken place, and the rest\nhas been completely segregated from us so that it no longer may tempt\nor ensnare us. All bonds have broken. The miracle has been accomplished\nin its entire extent in accordance with the counsel of the wisdom of\nGod--that miracle which was begun when the only begotten Son of God was\nconceived by a woman--that miracle which, as far as you are concerned,\ntook place when He was conceived within you at the sacred moment of\nbaptism.\n\nIt is said about the miracle of Jesus at Cana that it was a _token_,\nand that may be said about all the miracles of the Lord. But, of what\nare they tokens? Of the fact that His power can conquer everywhere,\n_in nature, in the life of mankind, and in the spiritual world_.\n\nTokens of His mastery of nature were witnessed at the marriage at\nCana where He turned water into wine; when He stilled the storm on\nGennesaret lake; and when He filled the nets of the fishermen: In the\nlife of mankind when blind became seeing; deaf became hearing; the lame\nwalked and the dead arose: In the spiritual world when Jesus drove the\nevil spirits away from those who had become obsessed by them--indeed,\neven the prince of the evil spirits, the devil, was forced to yield\ndefeated. All these are tokens that the power of Jesus Christ can do\neverything, can master anything from the deep of the sea to the highest\narch of the sky, and that it is capable of attaining victory in the\nstruggle with principalities and powers, with the spiritual hosts of\nevil beneath the sky.\n\nBut these tokens, furthermore, are _small beginnings of the\nrestoration_ and when they have been perfected, everywhere and\nall-inclusive, then that new Heaven and that new earth where justice\ndwelleth, has become a fact.\n\nGod is the God of order. Therefore we find plans, system and laws in\nnature as well as in the church. It has been given especially to our\nown age to realize this so that an expression like \"the law of nature\nin the spiritual world\" has been recognized. Science has perceived this\nregulated, law-restrained order of things in nature as keenly as never\nbefore, but, alas, it became dizzy thereat. Otherwise it would have\nexclaimed even as Paul did: O, world of wisdom and power! Who would\nhave known how to plan thus? Who would have the strength to subdue and\nmaster the giant powers?\n\nIn the church of the Lord we respond: _God the Almighty Father, the\ncreator of Heaven and earth!_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAn atheist was lecturing at a village in England and ended by\nself-confidently inviting the audience to take part in a discussion.\n\nThen an old woman, her back bent with the weariness of life and years,\narose, saying:\n\n\"Sir, I have a question to ask you?\"\n\n\"All right, my good woman,\" the atheist answered, \"what is it then?\"\n\n\"Ten years ago I was left a widow with eight unsupported children.\nI had nothing but a Bible, but by following its directions and by\nbelieving in God I have been enabled to support my dear ones and\nmyself. I am now approaching the grave, but I am perfectly happy, for I\nam looking forward to an eternally blessed life with Jesus. _My faith\nhas done this for me: What has your way of thinking done for you?_\"\n\n\"Well, well, my good woman,\" the atheist said, \"please, understand me\nright--I have no desire to disrupt your happiness, but----\"\n\n\"O, that wasn't the question at all,\" the old woman interrupted--\"don't\nbeat about the bush, but tell us: _What has your atheism done for you?_\"\n\nOnce more the atheist tried to evade the question, but the audience\napplauded the old woman so vigorously that he felt it necessary to\nwithdraw, defeated by a woman who, during a life of hardships, had\nexperienced the power and the blessedness of Christianity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe late Dr. Ahlfeld in Leipsic once said in his final address to a\nclass of children about to be confirmed:\n\n\"Infidels will shake their heads at your faith. They will speak of\ntheir unbelief as progress. They will tell you that progress has been\nmade in everything, and they will ask you why you then should abide by\nthe ancient faith. Then you shall answer: The ancient sun has shone\nfor thousands of years, and no one can give us one that is better. We\nmake no progress by rejecting it but by learning how to make better use\nof its rays. Thus, also, with Christ. He shines through all ages as\nthe Sun of mankind. He is the very same today and tomorrow and in all\ninfinity, and it is not progress to reject Him. We must learn how to\nmake increasingly better use of the rays of His grace. That, children,\n_is our progress_!\"\n\n\n\n\nAMERICA--YOU ARE THE HOPE OF THE WORLD TODAY----!\n\nMay, 1919\n\n    JOHN 8, 36: If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye\n    shall be free indeed.\n\n    ACTS 22, 28: But I was free born.\n\n\nWHEN Paul had been imprisoned at Jerusalem the chief captain ordered\nthat he is to be scourged in an effort to make him tell the truth. Paul\nthen asks: \"Is it lawful to scourge a man that is a Roman?\" The chief\ncaptain asks whether he is a Roman, and Paul says that he is. The chief\ncaptain goes on to say: \"With a great sum obtained I this freedom,\" but\nPaul answers: \"I was free born.\" It is a question of the right of free\nmen in ancient Rome.\n\nUnder the ancient Porcian law which was later restored by the\nSempronic, no Roman citizen might be scourged, and anyone who violated\nthe Roman civil laws, was liable to a punishment which involved the\nloss of property and life. Of this, we realize how deeply treasured\ncivil liberty and rights were in ancient Rome. The right of free men\nmight not be assailed.\n\nIt is about this right that the chief captain says: \"With a great sum\nobtained I this freedom!\" But Paul answers frankly and proudly: \"I was\nfree born!\" _It is an heritage from my fathers._\n\nThus the young generation in America may say: _We were born into\ncivil liberty_. It is an heritage from the fathers. We have obtained\nit at no expense of our own. But the fathers of '76 bought it with\ntheir blood. When they fought under the command of George Washington,\nthey endangered their very lives in order to win this liberty. Many\nsacrificed their lives. Indeed, it was dearly bought! When the\nDeclaration of Independence was signed, Franklin exclaimed: \"Now we all\nwill have to hang together, otherwise we will hang separately.\"\n\nBut in 1860 the Star Spangled Banner waved above the heads of more\nslaves than there were inhabitants in the country at the time of the\nsigning of the Declaration of Independence. So, for the second time\nAmerica was plunged into a struggle for liberty for the purpose of\nmaking the Star Spangled Banner the true flag of the free. The spirit\nof '76 could not acquiesce in slavery. And through Abraham Lincoln\nit entered into a covenant with _the great, all-embracing and deeply\nsympathetic heart_--a heart so great that it could enfold the North and\nthe South--so sympathetic that it was able to embrace white and colored\npeople alike, friend as well as foe. This was the great heart that led\nAmerica through the days of the Civil War--fortunately for this country.\n\nIt was this heart that beat in the breast of Lincoln when he as a\n22-year old man down in New Orleans saw how human beings were sold in\nthe same way as we nowadays sell cattle. Man and wife were sold to\nseparate buyers and parted never to meet again--parted while they wept\nas though the heart should burst. Then young Lincoln raised his hand\ntoward heaven vowing: \"By the eternal God, if ever I get a chance to\nhit that thing, I will strike it and strike it hard.\" This was the\nLincoln who led in the Civil War. The man with the great heart was\nequipped as no one else to win the victory, to _maintain the union of\nNorth and South and to gain freedom for the Negroes_. It was he who\nsaid, when victory was an accomplished fact, that he would continue the\nfight for the rights of man without hesitation, \"with malice toward\nnone, with charity to all.\"\n\nBut since the days of the Civil War America has gained a wealth which\nno other country has ever possessed. You young people are born to claim\nthat, too.\n\n_Our youth was born to wealth and to inherit the forefathers of '76 as\nwell as Lincoln, the man with the great heart._\n\nIt is, indeed, great to be born to all these things. But it is not\neasy. It requires a strong and alert youth to make the right use of\nsuch treasures.\n\nAdded to this it must be remembered that America after the Civil War\nwas reckoned with as one of the Great Powers. When problems of world\nsignificance were to be settled, the question was asked: What does\nAmerica say about it?\n\nCame then the great world war. America stayed out as long as possible.\nThe world began to reckon less with us than before. Germany even\nthought she could sneer at us with impunity.\n\nHow was that? Was it a matter of distance only? No, in Germany the\nbelief prevailed _that the spirit of '76, and the heart of Lincoln's\nday had died within the bosom of young America_. At all events, it\nwas not inclusive enough to span the great ocean and to sympathize\nwith those who were suppressed and suffering yonder. It was with young\nAmerica as with the wild animals caught and put into a cage: They\nare led into a life of ease and indolence; they lose their strength,\ntheir elasticity and their power of propagation. In brief: _Ease and\nindolence kill them!_\n\nSimilarly, it was thought _prosperity_ had killed the spirit of '76 and\nthe all-embracing heart of Lincoln in the youth of America, and under\nthose circumstances there could be no danger that American youth would\nenter the great world war where prosperity and all kinds of comfort and\nease were to be sacrificed and life itself be risked.\n\nMiss Grace C. Bostwick writes in _The Pagan_:\n\n    _O America!_\n    They said you were young and crude and extravagant,\n    And that your women were too free and open;\n    That your children had no respect for age;\n    And that you gave no thought to the past.\n    They said you had no artistic sense\n    And accused you of setting up an altar\n    To the almighty Dollar----\n    O America!\n    And they smiled when your name was mentioned.\n    But yesterday\n    There marched an army down the street,\n    An army of brave-eyed men with boyish mouths,\n    Straight-backed and proud in their new-found mission--\n    The saving of the world!\n    And yesterday ... somewhere ... at sea\n    A white face floated\n    With empty eyes upturned to an unseeing sky.\n    And yesterday ... in a barren field ... a mere boy fell\n          from his perilous work on high--\n    While great ships heavy with sustenance\n    Plow stolidly through the deep ...\n    O America!\n    You are the Hope of the World today.\n\nGermany had made a miscalculation; the spirit of '76 was not dead in\nyoung America, neither was the great heart of Lincoln. Prosperity had\nnot been able to kill them. When the suppressed really needed America,\nour youth heeded the summons. With firm footsteps, with eyes afire,\nthey went away into the great fight. I do not know whether they vowed\nas did the young Lincoln, but I do know that when they arrived at the\nbattlefield, they struck, and struck hard--so hard, indeed, that the\ntyrant succumbed. And well may we say about that right of free men\nwhich was won by American participation: _It was dearly bought by\nyou--who never came back_.\n\nIt is said that the French government in July, 1918, had decided to\norder the evacuation of Paris, but when General Pershing heard this,\nhe telegraphed a request to postpone the carrying out of the order\nuntil his soldiers had entered into active fighting. Then came the\nturning point. Our soldiers brought it about, and victory was won.\n\nBut a new element has entered into the history of the war--into the\nrelations among nations. It is the word of Jesus: \"Therefore all\nthings whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to\nthem.\" Never before has this maxim been accepted as the _Golden Rule_\ngoverning international relations. President Wilson has repeated it\ntime and again, and it characterized our participation in the war, even\nto the extent that our country has paid for the damages made to French\nsoil when our soldiers dug their trenches. And this was but right.\nAmerica did not enter the war with the intention of conquering or\ndestroying one hair-breadth of ground. So we are justified in saying to\nGermany: You must pay for what you have destroyed, to the best of your\nability.\n\n\"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to\nthem!\" By this we have arrived at something new. Our participation in\nthe war constituted a great sacrifice of lives and money without any\nexpectation of indemnity of any kind. But in this we find something of\nthe redemption from the _thraldom of greediness_--something of that\nfreedom to which Jesus will guide mankind. But that freedom is won\nonly by the aid of the spirit of the Lord. And it seems to me that the\nspirit of '76 and the heart of Lincoln have entered into a covenant\nwith, and have shown a willingness to be guided by, the spirit of the\nLord.\n\n_Where the youth of America marches forward to fight in accordance with\nthe spirit of '76 and with the great heart of Lincoln, guided by the\nspirit of the Lord, it is an unconquerable army and will always carry\nhome the victory._\n\nWith Lincoln we can say: Victory is won, but the fight is to be\ncontinued without hesitation, with malice toward none, with charity to\nall.\n\nI believe that America is destined to lead the nations of the world in\nthe future, but if this is to succeed rightly, then our youth must make\nit clear to itself that it faces the choice between _the altar of the\nliving God and the altar of the almighty Dollar._ _For which of these\nwill you young people spend your strength? At which of these altars\nwill you pray and praise?_ The eyes of everyone look toward America as\nnever before: \"O, America! You are the Hope of the World today!\" Is\nthis truth to remain? It depends on you, young men and women--depends\non your choice of altars.\n\nOnce upon a time there was a man who was permitted to wish whatever\nhe wanted, and his wish would be granted. But he was to wish only\nonce. Finally he made up his mind to wish that everything he touched\nwould turn to gold. First he touched the door post. It turned to gold.\nHe rubbed his hands delightedly: What a nice big piece of gold! It\ncertainly was fine that his wish was as sensible as this! Then he\nstarted to wash himself, but the water turned to gold. That wasn't\nquite as delightful, but he let that pass. After that he sat down to\neat, but the food turned to gold. He then realized that the fulfillment\nof his highest wish would lead him into certain death.\n\nLikewise there are people in America who wish that everything they\ntouch turn to gold. The result of everything they do is to be converted\ninto gold: We name them profiteers. They kneel before the shrine of\nthe almighty Dollar. But this means certain death to the spirit of '76\nand to the deeply sympathetic heart of Lincoln, and the spirit of the\nLord expires through this worship of gold. They think of themselves\nonly. They are enslaved by the fetters of greediness. They refuse to\ndo to others what they wish others should do to them. Are they to get\nthe upper hand? It is for you, young people, to answer! The future of\nAmerica lies in your hands. What is your choice?\n\nProfessor Georg Fr. Nicolai of the University of Berlin during the war\ngave expression to thoughts of such a nature that he was forced to flee\nfrom Germany to Denmark. It was there that he in October, 1918, wrote\nas follows:\n\n\"There are times in the history of mankind when we dare not put new\nwine into old bottles (Mar. 2, 22). We require new wine, new bottles,\nnew thoughts and new men. In order to give the peoples of the earth\nfaith, an inner awakening is required. The Bible speaks of it as\nrepentance.... Less pathetically we moderns refer to it as the new\nadjustment. But no matter what name we bestow upon it, it stands to\nreason that without an awakening no new life can be produced.... The\nprocess of dissolution is so far advanced that today the Biblical word\nhas become true: Only he who giveth his life, shall keep it.... A new\nspirit must be inculcated in the peoples.\"\n\n_A new spirit must be inculcated in the peoples!_ That is the decisive\nfactor for the happiness and the health of the nations in the future.\nPolitical spirit of liberty is not enough. Inspired by that you may\nfight and conquer and--set your foot upon the neck of the foe. No,\na new spirit is needed. It is that spirit which, redeeming, speaks\nthrough the words of the Lord: \"Whatsoever ye would that men should\ndo to you, do ye even so to them!\" That's the task that confronts you\nyoung people. It may not possess the tension and the excitement of\nthe battlefield--it may not, perhaps, let you directly feel that you\nare taking part in the solution of the great problems of the world's\nhistory--it is, nevertheless, THE very greatest task of the world. Here\nwe must be impelled by the spirit of God.\n\nIt is related about Samson how \"the spirit of the Lord came mightily\nupon him.\" But while the beginning was good, the end was sad, for at\nlast he was driven only by lust. Therefore he was of little blessing.\nHe ended by representing mere brute force and no more.\n\nI have seen the glow of the spirit in the eyes of the young when they\nwent to war. In the beginning they were moved by the spirit of the\nLord. Now the task is to continue in that spirit and thus continuously\nto remain \"the Hope of the World\"--not to end in materialism and as\nrepresenting no more than brute force.\n\nAmerica is wealthy enough, strong enough, to attain a leading position\nin the ranks of the nations--to enjoy an age of greatness as did\nGermany. But in that case the collapse is sure. It is but a short\ndistance ahead. We will have to face it--as Germany now has faced\ndefeat.\n\nGermany had been saturated with Darwinism. Looked at from one point of\nview, it is an emphasis placed upon brute force and upon the survival\nof the fittest. Added to this came the materialism which laid stress\nupon the values of what was materialistic and mechanical at the cost\nof the soul. The nation grew great and strong. But man became petty\nand insignificant. No nation has ever possessed such a wonderful and\nperfect mechanical development as that which Germany had reached when\nthe war broke out. On the strength of that, the dominion of the world\nwas to be won. But here, too, the words of the Lord apply: \"For what\nis a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own\nsoul?\" (Mat. 16, 26). What profited it Germany that she possessed\nher soul-less mechanical attainments, even though they were ever so\nwonderful and marvelous? What would it have profited Germany to have\ngained the whole world when she would lose her soul thereby? No, then\nthe great defeat certainly was to be preferred. Through that Germany\nmay recover her lost soul. If ever any new adjustment was needed, it is\nthere. A new spirit must be inculcated in the people.\n\nBut what would it profit America if she won the rank of a leader among\nnations through her strength and wealth? Nothing at all. The great\ncollapse would be only a short distance ahead. Before or later we\nwould succumb to it.\n\nStill I believe that America possesses the qualifications for\nleadership as no other nation in history does--the leadership of that\nnew adjustment which the world must needs experience if life shall ever\nagain become sufferable upon this old earth of ours.\n\nWhy is it that America has superior qualifications? Has not England\nthe very same qualifications? Are not the English the great commercial\nnation which embraces the earth with its countless ships? Or\nFrance--that liberty-loving nation with its technically wonderfully\ndeveloped language? Now when everything settles down again, will not\nthese nations be able to assume the leading position in the history of\nthe world just as well as America?\n\nNo.--And I will attempt to explain why they cannot.\n\nAmerica has been created through a mingling of all the peoples of\nthe world, as it were. It is true that some claim all the rogues\nand scoundrels of the Old World came over here--and some of them\nundoubtedly did. But it is not they who have built up America and made\nher great and strong. Nor is it those people of whom it requires twelve\nto make a dozen--for that species generally dies where it was born.\n\nNo, they who built America were men and women who possessed the great\n_daring_ and that _strength of the will_ which were necessary in order\nto carry them across great stretches of water and land, to make them\nfell the vast forests and break the prairie soil, and to build their\nhomes in the woods and upon the prairies. These are the people who\nbuilt America--who made the country great and strong and wealthy.\n\nMany have feared that the daring and the strength of will of the\nfathers had died. The younger generation had too markedly become a\n_candy, kid-glove, silkstockinged youth_. But yonder on the great\nbattlefield it found an opportunity to show that it still possessed the\ndaring and the strength of will of the fathers. Once General Pershing\nhad to retire his troops one mile. It was reported to headquarters, and\nthe reply came back: \"Push your men a little farther back and let them\nrest!\" But by that time General Pershing already was preparing to storm\nforward again. And so unexpectedly swift and vigorous was the attack\nthat not only was the lost mile regained, but one in addition. It was\nthe daring of the American soldiers that won in this instance. And,\nspeaking generally, it must have been the _daring_ and the _strength\nof will_ of the American soldier that conquered the _mechanism_ of the\nGerman army.\n\nThe daring and the strength of will of the fathers still live on in\nthe young generation: It is a contribution from all the peoples of the\nearth which no other individual nation can boast--and it is one of\nthese very qualifications which make it possible for America to lead\nupon the great stage of history.\n\nBut, in this respect it is of still greater importance that America\nby receiving this contribution from all the peoples of the earth has\ndeveloped a _deep-seated and sincere feeling of community_ with all\nnations. Through the Irishmen here, America is in close contact with\nIreland, through the Poles with Poland, through the Bohemians with\nBohemia, through the Danes with Denmark, and so on. This adds to the\nqualifications which fit America for assuming the part of the leader\nin the progress of the world, and is in itself a qualification which\nno other country at any time has ever had, and which no other country\nmost likely will ever have at any time in the future. There is no\nnation in the world which has such a _vivid and natural consciousness\nof community_ with as many peoples as has America. And this is of\nunprecedented importance. For that nation which is to lead the world\nduring the period of _readjustment_ which the world so sorely needs,\nmust do so, not through power and wealth, but through a deep-seated\nsympathy and a readiness and ability, born of that sympathy, to lead\nthe many nations forward to something better--to a higher and nobler\nnational life so that they will strive to live according to the words\nof the Lord: \"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even\nso to them.\"\n\nBut America loses this unique qualification for leadership among the\nnations, on the day when the multitudinous languages spoken here die.\nTherefore, the great question is whether or not progress in this\nrespect is to lead into that narrowmindedness which kills the many\ntongues. Or, will the development favor a retention of the native\nlanguages of the various nationalities here together with English?\n_English is the great common language of America--the principal\nlanguage which must be learned by the immigrants._ This is so obviously\na matter of fact that it really should be unnecessary to allude to it.\nBut, in addition, every nationality should be allowed to retain its\nnative language in order to ensure for America the preservation of that\ndeep-seated natural sympathy with the many peoples created by God--\"of\none blood all nations of men.\" The American nation is related to all\nother nations. It therefore has the qualification for _understanding\nthem_ and _for encouraging the feeling of brotherhood_ among them which\nno other nation ever has had, and which any other individual nation\nmost likely never will have.\n\nThe history of the world is like one great and magnificent epic. Each\nnation constitutes a song in the poem. England has its own song--France\nhas its own, and so forth. America has its own great hymn, but, in\naddition a large number of little songs, each has its own particular\nrhythm derived from the manifold living languages spoken here, and they\nadd _richness_ and _volume_ to the mighty chorus.\n\nLet me use another simile: We all know the Mississippi River. It runs\nfrom a point 'way up in the remote northwest, winds its way east and\nsouth until finally it releases its immense masses of water into the\ngreat sea. How does the river get these immense masses of water? The\nanswer is that on its way it absorbs one little rivulet after another.\nHumming and rippling from cheerful little wells here and there they\ncome, and every little rivulet, no matter how pitifully small and\ninsignificant it may look, helps the Mississippi to become the great\nriver which carries its tremendous volume of water to the sea.\n\nLikewise, the American language is the great river which receives its\ncheerful additions from the many smaller living languages. Each springs\nfrom its own particular source, singing its own particular tune, and\neach language makes its own little contribution in order to make the\nAmerican language powerful and great and to give it that wonderful\nvolume which enables it to run into the great sea of the life of\nnations carrying with it a blessing of wealth like no other language.\nAnd the many individual peoples will, when they hear the English\nlanguage spoken from America, feel that it comprises such a strange\nrichness and volume as they are unable to find elsewhere. Indeed, it is\nalmost as though they would hear the American people address them in\ntheir own respective language--that \"wherein they were born\" (Acts 2,\n9).\n\n_Ah, you young generation!_ Behold this--and understand it! You are\nborn not merely into the wealth of your land and to take up the\nheritage of your fathers. But you are destined for _a glorious future_,\nfor a future achievement so great and magnificent that no young\ngeneration in any other country has ever seen the like.\n\n_You, young man, and you, young woman--you have been chosen to draw the\nstrength and vitality of life from a multitude of small wells within\nyour own field and to derive such sustenance from them that you can\nform your lives beautifully and harmoniously. And you have been chosen,\nin the spirit of brotherhood, to lead such a current of pure thoughts\nand elevated ideals to all the peoples of the earth in such a manner as\nto cause them to wonderingly ask: How is all this? We hear them speak\nthe American tongue, and yet it is as though we hear them speak to us\nin our own language--in that \"wherein we were born.\"_ It sounds just\nas home-like and peculiarly attractive as our own--because it has been\nenriched by many tongues. And the vital richness and fulness which it\ncarries to them has gained from the fact that we here have had such a\nmultitude of wells to draw from.\n\nTherefore we, who are older, bend our knees and pray as did David (Ps.\n144, 12): \"That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth: that\nour daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of\na palace!\"\n\nWhat we want--is this: Strong erect young men, sons of America, who\nperceive, with the clearness of the spirit, the problems of the future\nand who, with the red blood of youth coursing in their veins and the\nglow of enthusiasm lingering in their eyes, will take up the task of\nsolving them.\n\nAnd, moreover: Pure and noble women: David had been looking at the\ncorner stones that were to support that temple which was to be the\ntangible expression of Israel's ideal life, that of community with holy\nand just God: How beautiful they would be when they were polished--and\nhow strong! Indeed, they were able to support that wonderful temple\nwhich was to be built to the glory of God. And then he has been\nthinking: O, Lord, give us women like these corner stones! Pure, noble,\nand strong women who can be the very foundation of the home-life of\nour country--and carry it into the community with God!\n\nPaul the apostle writes in his epistle to the Philippians, 2, 5-11:\n\n\"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in\nthe form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made\nHimself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and\nwas made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man,\nHe humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of\nthe cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name\nwhich is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should\nbow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the\nearth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,\nto the glory of God the Father.\"\n\nJesus Christ won the name which is above every name because He served\nmankind as no one else had done, and gave His life for its sake.\nThereby He became the Saviour of men--their great leader who can guide\nthem into eternal life and blessedness. Thereby He also became _the\nLord_ to the glory of God the Father.\n\nDuring the war America gave herself to the service of mankind as\ndid no other nation. Therefore the suppressed looked to America\nquietly imploring for aid, and therefore it might be said truthfully,\nespecially in 1918: \"O, America, you are the Hope of the World today!\"\n\nNow the question remains: Will America continue to be the great,\nunselfish servant among the nations, above all others, leading them\ninto the riddance of the thraldom of greediness, guided by the spirit\nof the Lord? Then--if she does--she will win a name above the names\nof all other nations, because she will be the great servant who shows\nthe way to the highest ideals--to the pure, charitable and peaceful\nthoughts among nations in that national and human brotherhood for which\nGod created them: Of one blood all nations of men.\n\nThis I wish with all my heart. But it devolves upon you, young people,\nto answer. It devolves upon you to determine whether this will continue\nto be true:\n\n\"_America! You are the Hope of the World today!_\"\n\n_God bless you, America!--God bless you with all your homes and with\nall your youth!_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPage 20, \"heavey\" changed to \"heavy\" (heavy laden, and I will)\n\nPage 34, \"wordly\" changed to \"worldly\" (in worldly things)\n\nPage 54, \"thnig\" changed to \"thing\" (And one thing more)\n\nPage 106, \"mircle\" changed to \"miracle\" (fact of the miracle as)\n\nPage 116, \"couquer\" changed to \"conquer\" (power can conquer)\n\nPage 116, \"spirtis\" changed to \"spirits\" (of the evil spirits)\n\nPage 116, \"principalties\" changed to \"principalities\" (struggle with\nprincipalities)\n\nPage 122, \"to\" changed to \"b\n\n (be sacrificed and life)","title":"A Christmas Gift to the American Home and the Youth of America","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":32004}