CHAPTER V

Self-Denial

DAILY READINGS

Our study during the last week centered about the Master's principle that in the expenditure of life lies the saving of it. There are times, however, when this truth is anything but obvious. A mountain's summit may glisten in the sunlight, while its lower altitudes are all beclouded. So this ideal of finding life through losing it may shine in its loftiest exhibitions, as in the character of Christ, while, on our common levels, it is obscure and difficult of access. Self-denial at times seems not to be glorious and life-giving at all. We shall try, this week, to deal with the meaning of such selfdenial. Let us in our daily readings deal with the fact of it.

Fifth Week, First Day

And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell.—Matt. 5:29, 30.

One elemental form of self-denial, demanded by a life of Christian service, is the resolute rejection of positive evils that mar character and therefore hurt usefulness. "There never was a bad man," said Edmund Burke, "that had ability for good service." How much this kind of self-denial costs, anyone who has ever seriously tried it knows. We must continually resist the down-drag of popular habits, to the practice of which the majority of folk consent. For the majority, however we must commit to it the arbitrament of political affairs, is almost sure to be wrong about any matter that requires fine discrimination. Put to popular vote the preference between ragtime and Chopin's nocturnes, the cinema and Shakespeare, cheap love-stories and the English classics, and

is there any question what the majority would decide? So to be a good Christian is an achievement, won only by resistance to the pull of popular tastes and common practices. It costs to be among those whose characters lift up against the gravitation of commonly accepted evil. “The world is upheld," said Emerson, "by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome."

My Father, may the world not mould me today, but may I be so strong as to help to mould the world! Amen.-John Henry Jowett.

Fifth Week, Second Day

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls: and having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.-Matt. 13:44-46.

Christian service plainly demands this second form of selfdenial: the abandonment of scattered loyalty for a life of dominant interest in the Kingdom of God on earth. To be a Christian is not negative absence of outbreaking sin, as some seem to suppose. "I have known men," said Henry Ward Beecher, "who thought the object of conversion was to clean them, as a garment is cleaned, and that when they were converted they were to be hung up in the Lord's wardrobe, the door of which was to be shut so that no dust could get at them. A coat that is not used the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted-the moths eat him; and they have poor food at that." Rather, a Christian life is one of positive, single-hearted devotion to the welfare of man, to the service of the lowliest and lost, to the support of all good causes, to the hope of the Kingdom. But a life so centrally dedicated costs its price. Sometimes a man, as Jesus said, must give up for it all that he has. Under any circumstances, a life that cares, suffers. So when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, a great New Englander wrote: "There is infamy in the air. have a new experience. I wake in the morning with a painful sensation, which I carry about all day, and which, when traced home, is the odious remembrance of the

ignominy which has fallen on Massachusetts, which robs the landscape of beauty and takes the sunshine out of every hour." Do you care for any good cause as much as that?

O Lord, fill us with the simplicity of a divine purpose, that we may be inwardly at one with Thy holy will, and lifted above vain wishes of our own. Set free from every detaining desire or reluctance, may we heartily surrender all our powers to the work which Thou hast given us to do; rejoicing in any toil, and fainting under no hardness that may befall us, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and counting it as our crown of blessing, if we may join the company of the faithful who have kept Thy Name, and witnessed to Thy kingdom in every age. Amen.-James Martineau.

Fifth Week, Third Day

And he looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all: for all these did of their superfluity cast in unto the gifts; but she of her want did cast in all the living that she had.-Luke 21: 1-4.

Christian service plainly demands self-denial in money. Extravagant expenditure while millions of people are in want, needless luxury, while good causes fail for funds-there is no use in claiming the Christian name if one indulges in such obviously unchristian conduct. Some have said that even luxurious expenditure is useful because it furnishes work for the laborer, but what it really does is to call both work and money away from necessary tasks to unproductive and needless investments. How justly does this satire fall on Dives! "Now Dives daily feasted

And was gorgeously arrayed;
Not at all because he liked it,
But because 'twas good for trade.

That the poor might have more calico,

He clothed himself with silk;

And surfeited himself on cream

That they might have more milk.
And e'en to show his sympathy
For the deserving poor

He did no useful work himself
That they might do the more."

Compare such a character with the woman of the parable. She was taking her religion in earnest; and she gave good proof of it in her use of money. For the use of money can be made a touchstone of sincerity. If a nan say that he loves his family, but, being able, makes no provision for their financial security, spending his income rather in his present pleasures, something is seriously the matter with his love. If a man say that he loves God and his fellows, but does not give till it hurts for their service, his professed love is not likely to be more than a theatrical gesture.

O Lord, who though Thou wast rich, yet for our sakes didst become poor, and hast promised in Thy Gospel that whatsoever is done unto the least of Thy brethren, Thou wilt receive as done unto Thee; give us grace, we humbly beseech Thee, to be ever willing and ready to minister, as Thou enablest us, to the necessities of our fellow-creatures, and to extend the blessings of Thy kingdom over all the world, to Thy praise and glory, who art God over all, blessed for ever. Amen.-St. Augustine (354-430).

Fifth Week, Fourth Day

And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, To-day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.-Luke 19:8-10.

Christian service demands not only self-denial in giving money, but self-denial in making it. Zaccheus had pressed the opportunities of his position to the limit; he had charged all that the traffic would bear; he had narrowly looked at all chances for gain-honest, half-honest, or dishonest-and had squeezed them as dry as he could. The invasion of his life by Jesus meant an economic revolution. He was forced to review the sources of his income and to plan a radical change. One of the acutest self-denials demanded by Christianity and too often disregarded, is such a renunciation of profits. Needlessly high prices, needlessly low wages, needlessly unwholesome conditions of labor make dividends poisonous. No true Christian can ever knowingly coin the suffering and

degradation of his fellows into cash for his own pocket. The problem presented by this fact, under conditions of modern industry, is enormously difficult for the individual to handle. As Professor Rauschenbusch wrote: "Stockholders are scattered absentee owners. A corporation might be composed of retired missionaries, peace advocates, and dear old ladies, but their philanthropy would cause no vibrations in the business end of the concern." The solution of the problem can come only with general alterations in public ideals of business and with economic changes to give such better ideals expression; but this does not excuse any man from an earnest, sacrificial endeavor to purge the sources of his income from unchristian elements.

Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all kinds of stealing, extortion, fraud in trade and contracts; from all making haste to be rich, and from taking advantage of the ignorance or necessity of the persons we deal with. Bishop Ken.

Fifth Week, Fifth Day

And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left all, and followed him. . . . And after these things he went forth, and beheld a publican, named Levi, sitting at the place of toll, and said unto him, Follow me. And he forsook all, and rose up and followed him.-Luke 5: 10, 11, 27, 28.

Not everybody was thus called on to leave the ordinary business of life. Sometimes Jesus called men to stay where they were. So to the healed Gadarene demoniac, who wanted to join the traveling company of the apostles, the Master said, "Go to thy house and unto thy friends" (Mark 5:19). But some men and women are called out for special work. The comfort and security of home life and a settled business are denied them. They are missionaries; they toil in the slums of the cities; they undertake ventures in philanthropy; they pioneer fresh fields of truth and bear the brunt of the attacks that always fall on unaccustomed enterprises; they are the unusual folk, the martyrs in whom the sacrifice of Jesus is fulfilled, "He saved others, himself he cannot save" (Mark 15:31). Christian character involves the willingness to an