well's men said, "It was a great instruction that the best courages are but beams of the Almighty." Granted such a faith, the self-denying servant of his fellows is sustained, as a sentry is, who knows that around his humble and often monotonous obedience are the encompassing movement of a great army and the supporting plan of a wise commander. A real Christian is not endeavoring somehow to save a world fundamentally unsavable. He is endeavoring to make his love an open channel down which the Love that is eternal may flow into human life. Grant us, we beseech Thee, Almighty and most Merciful God, fervently to desire, wisely to search out, and perfectly to fulfil, all that is well-pleasing unto Thee this day. Order Thou our worldly condition to the glory of Thy Name; and, of all that Thou requirest us to do, grant us the knowledge, the desire, and the ability, that we may so fulfil it as we ought; and may our path to Thee, we pray, be safe, straightforward, and perfect to the end. Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know Thee, diligence to seek Thee, wisdom to find Thee, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Twelfth Week, Fourth Day And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked him; and the demon went out of him: and the boy' was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.Matt. 17: 17-20. Faith in God is not simply, as we have said, a high philosophy of life, a savior from the hopelessness of unbelief, and a sustaining motive for patient service. It is also a source of power for positive achievement. How often does the anxious servant of human weal face mountains that must be removed! Especially in mature years, when with unveiled eyes we long have looked on human life, its sin, its waywardness, its dull unwillingness even to wish a better day, its resurgent evils that ruinously flame up like dead volcanoes come to life again, it is not easy to believe in great possibilities for the race. But with faith in God this conviction always is involved: what ought to be done, can be done. If one believe really in God—not in a theoretical analysis of deity but in a basic Fact which makes the universe moral through and through-then he may be sure that ought and can are twins. To say that what ought to be done cannot be done is a brief but complete confession of atheism; a man who says that does not believe in God. O Lord, in these difficult times, when there is a seeming opposition of knowledge and faith, and an accumulation of facts beyond the power of the human mind to conceive; and good men of all religions, more and more, meet in Thee; and the strife between classes in society, and between good and evil in our own souls, is not less than of old; and the love of pleasure and the desires of the flesh are always coming in between us and Thee; and we cannot rise above these things to see the light of Heaven, but are tossed upon a sea of troubles-we pray Thee be our guide and strength and light, that, looking up to Thee always, we may behold the rock on which we stand, and be confident in the word which Thou hast spoken. Amen.-Benjamin Jowett. Twelfth Week, Fifth Day Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. For, He put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him. And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all.-I Cor. 15:24-28. The need for a vital faith in God is further seen in such an expression of hope in final victory as Paul here presents. On the naturalistic basis alone there is neither hope nor possibility of any crowning triumph of righteousness. On the naturalistic basis alone generation after generation will pour out toil and sacrifice, until at last the sun will grow cold, and the vitality of the physical universe-which to the naturalist philosopher is the only universe there is-will fail. Like an ice-floe from the northern seas, drifting south and melting as it drifts, our habitable earth will shrink. And like polar bears upon that melting floe, hopelessly watching the wasting of their home, humanity will see its inevitable end approach, until it is finally engulfed and lost. That is the only expectation which naturalism can suggest or ever has suggested. But faith in God involves confidence in ultimate victory, in this world or in another or in both. What inspiration to service this means! Any sacrifice is worth while. "He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." (II Tim. 1:12). O Eternal God, the Father of all mankind, in whom we live and move and have our being: Have mercy on the whole human race. Pity their ignorance, their foolishness, their weakness, their sin. Set up an ensign for the nations, O Lord, and bring them to Thy glorious rest. Let the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Hasten Thy Kingdom, O Lord, and bring in everlasting righteousness, for the honor of Thy Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Amen.-"Prayers for the City of God." sea. Twelfth Week, Sixth Day For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another.-Gal. 5: 13. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another.-Rom. 12:9, 10. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you.-I Thess. 3: 12. But concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.-I Thess. 4:9. Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently.-I Peter 1:22. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him.—I John 2: 10. Consider how continuous is the emphasis on serviceable love in the New Testament! But no one can tear such verses loose from their entanglement with faith in God and immortality. These folk who love one another in that first century Church are all intent on strengthening one another's faith and deepening one another's spiritual experience. One reason for this indivisible relationship of love and faith is that to the writers of the New Testament the supreme service which love could render to another was the quickening and deepening of faith. People need bread, health, homes; a multitude of practical ministries the New Testament is concerned about; but above all else people need God, and to make him real, to illumine the path to him by godly living, to win to Christian trust and spiritual victory an unbelieving man-that, in the eyes of the New Testament, is the supreme service. The Master ministered to men by every avenue of need he could discover; but his supreme ministry lies in his revelation of God, for in that he met the deepest need of man. Men are hungry for this bestowal of faith and confidence upon their spiritual lives. Said Tennyson on his eightieth birthday: “I do not know what I have done that so many people should feel grateful to me, except that I have always kept my faith in immortality." To keep Christian faith, to be assured of its truth, to make it in life convincing and challenging, and to win people to see it and accept it-that is service at its climax. O Thou God of infinite mercy and compassion, in whose hands are all the hearts of the sons of men, look, we beseech Thee, graciously upon the darkened souls of the multitudes who know not Thee. Enlighten them with the saving knowledge of the truth. Let the beams of Thy Gospel break forth upon them, and bring them to a sound belief in Thee, God manifested in flesh. Bring in the fulness of the Gentiles; gather together the outcasts of Israel, and make Thy Name known over all the earth. Grant this, through Jesus Christ. Amen.-Bishop Hall (1574-1656). Twelfth Week, Seventh Day What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.-Rom. 8:31-39. What a triumphant personality Paul was! And what a source of triumphant personality have thousands like Paul found in the faith and fellowship of him who said: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." When one asks what religion has to do with service, this answer is plainthe most useful gift which anyone can bring to the world is a triumphant life, and the sources of that lie deep in a spiritual experience of God. The fundamental failure of mankind is spiritual; the basic need of man is inward life, abundant, undiscourageable, victorious. "It takes a soul To move a body: it takes a high-souled man, To give people things may leave them much as they were before; but to have personality to bestow, radiant, triumphant, contagious-that not only changes circumstances, it changes men. |